dead ringer

US Grand Prix of Cyclocross Louisville edition

2008-10-30T10:01:00.003-06:00

flew home for the second edition of the USGP in Louisville. i had some really strong efforts in both races, but starting from 53rd position put me at a real disadvantage. i stayed around on Sunday afternoon to watch the pros go at it. talk about smooth!

thoughts on Shimano's tubeless road wheelset...

2008-10-08T15:32:00.004-06:00

I try to keep the blog light, but this time I’m going to get a little technical with talk about wheels – bike wheels, specifically. For the last two years of racing cyclocross, I rode on a traditional clincher wheelset. Rough courses were made rougher by the high pressures I was forced to run (50+ psi) and on more than one occasion I had to drop out of a race due to flats (usually goathead induced). On the plus side, I could quickly and easily swap tires for nearly any condition (I have a stack of “barely-used” clinchers on my porch).

Before this season started I decided to make the switch to the Shimano Dura-Ace WH-7850 SL tubeless wheelset. Only two tires were offered, Hutchinson’s Piranha and Bulldog, but I’d spent all of last year running the Piranha with great success so I wasn’t concerned. I was a late adopter to tubeless in the mountain biking world, but once I changed over I became a convert. The potential benefits of tubeless in cyclocross were intriguing – resistance to thorns/goatheads and pinch flats and the ability to run lower pressures.

So far, I’ve run the Shimano WH-7850 SL wheelset in four races and I’m disappointed. Setup was easy enough: add a scoop of Stan’s sealant and pump the tire up until the bead “pops” into place. From there, you can adjust your tire pressure as you desire. In my initial tests with the tubeless setup I started with tire pressures in the mid-30 psi range. Now, I’m no lightweight svelte racer – I weigh in at about 175 pounds – but I’m not really a heavyweight either. After starting my first cyclocross race with those mid-30 psi tire pressures I nearly finished the race on a flat rear tire. At several locations on course I “burped” the tire and lost tire pressure. At subsequent races I tried gradually increasing the pressures until burping stopped. At my weight, I found that tire pressures around 50 psi yielded good results, namely no burping. Unfortunately, with a tire pressure that high, it negates one of the primary reasons to run tubeless in the first place: I couldn’t run lower pressures!

At one race, on the hardscrabble dirt roads and paths in Watkins, Colorado, I did find that the tubeless setup provided one advantage over the clincher setups – resistance to goatheads. After my warmup laps I pulled five goatheads out of the front tire and the Stan’s expertly closed up the punctures with no noticeable pressure loss.

This past weekend, I planned on running the tubeless setup on the Frisco cyclocross courses. Unfortunately, on the way to the starting line at Saturday’s I felt my rear tire intermittently rubbing on the brake pads and discovered the wheel WAY out of true. I swapped over to my backup wheel setup (clincher) and ran the race on those, but after the race I closely inspected the Dura-Ace wheel. It turns out that the end of one spoke close to the hub broke, apparently during my easy warm-up laps. Word from the bike shop is that Shimano is out of spokes for this wheel, so I’m off of this wheel for at least one week.

As I mentioned above, I’m pretty disappointed in this tubeless option for cyclocross. Yes, I gain the advantage of thorn protection, but I’m still forced to run the same pressures I ran with clinchers. And now, it seems that the durability of the wheel is in question.

While the wheel is getting repaired, I’m setting up the Stan’s tubeless system on my Easton Circuit wheelset. I’ll document how that goes and how it performs.

my face in Velonews?

2008-10-06T15:27:00.003-06:00

I'm not the centerpiece, but you can make out my black jersey and blue helmet behind the "major players"

war wounds

2008-09-29T16:08:00.002-06:00

I got a little lazy near the end of my race yesterday and i'm looking a little worse for wear as a result. 3 years of racing cross and it's my first time to trip over a barrier...

those wooden barriers are unforgiving. at least i didn't bloody my argyles. but that's gonna leave a scar (to match the one on my right shin from getting spiked in Little League baseball)

my handlebars "punched" me in the face (or did my face run into the handlebars?)

odd double-decker bike

2008-09-29T15:59:00.000-06:00

i never saw anyone try to get on or off it...

batter blaster

2008-09-29T15:55:00.002-06:00

for the truly lazy, I present BATTER BLASTER! pancakes in a CAN!

What? you couldn't mix up some Bisquick or pop some Eggos in the toaster?

DNC comes to the Mile High City!

2008-08-29T15:18:00.002-06:00

After feeling like there's a party going on in my own house and I'm not invited, I decided to head downtown to see what I was missing.

Gorgeous day on the South Platte.

MSNBC was filming just outside Union Station.

Obama gear everywhere.

The Obama train derailed.

Political party mascots on Segways.

The 16th Street Mall was bustling with more activity then usual.

Not sure what this had to do with the DNC, but I guess they felt it was a good place to throw down a yoga mat.

Not fans of Bush.

Again, no idea what robot man had to do with the convention.

Well, at least I've got that going for me...

Buffalo Creek

2008-08-29T15:16:00.002-06:00

Last weekend Rick, Matt, Brenda, and I hit up Buffalo Creek for mellow 22 mile ride.

Little Belgium - The 2007 New England Cyclocross Season

2008-08-14T21:57:00.001-06:00

great 40 minute video with some great cyclocross footage

the season is less than a month away...

Little Belgium - The 2007 New England Cyclocross Season from Andy Frothingham on Vimeo.

Two Eagle Scouts and Unidentified Boy Get Lost in THEIR OWN Campsite!

2008-08-12T18:25:00.014-06:00

I was wide awake when the wake up call came. 4 AM. I’d been that way most of the night. Was it excitement? No, probably not - this wasn’t my first climb of Longs Peak. Maybe I was just uncomfortable? I never seem to sleep well my first night of camping out.

Regardless, it was time to get up, make breakfast, and get moving. The temperatures never dropped below 45 degrees F all night so there wasn’t the shock of cold air when I wiggled out of the sleeping bag – it was quite comfortable, even in shorts. Dustin forgot his fuel canister so his stove was useless. That left me as the only one with an operating stove, so I was the cook for the morning. Dustin and I were gathering water from the creek when ShelbyForest. arrived in Goblin’s Her morning started even earlier than ours when she left Denver at 2 AM to make the drive up to the Longs Peak Trailhead. Hmmm…maybe she had the right idea? At least she got some sleep.

I boiled water for Dustin and Doug’s Mountain House meals and then set about making oatmeal for Brenda and me. Of course, breakfast wasn’t without its own excitement. When I walked away from the stove to get a second batch of water to boil, the flame died on the stove. That didn’t stop fuel from spewing all over the ground, and we created our own “unofficial” campfire by burning off the spilled fuel. Then the stove wouldn’t relight. Well, it wouldn’t relight until Dustin applied his own flame WHILE MY FACE WAS OVER THE STOVE! Thanks for that. I’m lucky to have walked away with my eyebrows.

By the time the breakfast shenanigans were over, it was 5:30 and light was just beginning to permeate the sky. Brenda and Shelby got a headstart on the hike while Doug, Dustin, and I hung the bear bag. I guess that the three of us hadn’t paid enough attention to how we found our campsite in Goblin’s Forest the night before, because we couldn’t find our way out. It was like playing Keystone Cops in there – we’d meander down a path thinking we found our way back to the main trail only to come up on a tent in somebody else’s campsite. We’d turn around, pick a different path, and repeat the same scenario over again. After doing this a few times, we eventually chose the right path and got going in the right direction. We joked about the headlines the next day: “Two Eagle Scouts Lost in Their Own Campsite.”

Signing in at the register of Longs Peak trailhead.

A little over one mile into the trail and we turned off to set up camp.

Our own version of Burning Man in RMNP.

The first hour of the hike was pretty gentle as we meandered through the forest and crossed a number of streams. Eventually, we broke out of the trees and Longs Peak came into view. We knew that summertime in the Rockies always brings with it the likelihood of thundershowers later in the day, but the summit was already enshrouded in cloudcover, even if it was the innocent, whispy kind. Our fears were confirmed when we met up with some forest rangers at the Chasm Lake junction and they told us that the latest forecast called for a seventy percent chance of thundershowers. Would we beat the storms to the summit?

Just above treeline, sunrise to the east.

The first time Longs Peak comes into view.

Dustin and Doug in the "biggest meathead" contest.

Chasm Lake trail junction.

All five of us were keeping a pretty impressive pace. Doug would generally take the lead, surge ahead, and then wait for us at a trail junction or good napping spot. We passed a number of groups and even a few folks who turned around and called it a day much too early. Our fast pace carried through to the Boulderfields where everyone confidently leaped their way from rock to rock. The climb up to the Keyhole was easier than I remembered. Maybe I was a little more surefooted after spending time in crampons on Mount Rainier?

In the Boulderfields, looking up at the Keyhole.

The Keyhole.

From the Keyhole I got a perspective on where we came from and where we had to go. Skies to the west were scattered with clouds, high and not very menacing. I knew that the rain would come eventually, but not from these clouds. I looked ahead to the Ledges and saw a long string of multicolored shirts and jackets ahead of us. With Doug and Dustin leading the charge, we picked our way up and down rocks on the Ledges, following the red and yellow bulls eyes the entire way. Again, we passed a number of other climbers and reached the Trough with plenty of energy. Dustin tackled the Trough like his prom date at an all-you-can-eat buffet; he was out of sight and on the summit in no time. The rest of us chose a more moderate pace, avoided the loose scree, and climbed the larger, more secure boulders. In a couple of places the ladies had to receive a boost to climb Volkwagen-sized rocks; even a stranger managed to cop a feel of Shelby’s derriere at one point.

Brenda just into the Keyhole, with a long string of climbers ahead of us.

We crossed the Ledges and came to the Trough.

Even though I built up the Narrows to be more of a tightrope act then a Sunday stroll down a wide path, no one showed any fear and cruised to the Homestretch. Brenda, Shelby, and I followed Doug’s route up the Homestretch confidently climbing hand over foot on the steep slope. In this section I was happy with my choice of trail running shoes over leather hiking boots as I managed to just walk straight up a vast majority of the pitch.

The Narrows. Not nearly as imposing from this view.

Shelby and Brenda taking a breather on the Homestretch.

Best view on the mountain.

At 10 AM, we crested the Homestretch and celebrated on the summit. There wasn’t much of view due to the clouds, but victory was sweet nonetheless.

We made it!

Heading back down the Homestretch probably took nearly as long as it did to climb. Not so much because of the difficulty of the pitch, but because we had to dodge all of the climbers heading uphill.

Heading back down. Can we beat the rain?

My last view on the summit.

Doug, Dustin, and I took turns taking pictures of ourselves standing as close to the ledges as possible on the Narrows.

Doug on the Ledges.

Dustin on the Ledges.

Traffic jam on the Trough.

Nearly back to the Keyhole. Creepy guy following the girls. Me following the creepy guy.

View from the Keyhole into the Boulderfields.

We cruised down the Trough, back across the Ledges and through the Keyhole. At the base of the Keyhole we all regrouped and geared up just as the rain began to fall. For the next two hours we hiked back to camp in the pouring rain. Even wearing proper gear, I felt a chill, but I knew that everyone that summited behind us had to be feeling it more. We made it back to camp and eventually to the cars around 2 PM with little excitement, elated to have summited, and a little soaked and sore.

According to the Longmont Times, some others weren't so lucky:

Afternoon sleet and snow caught a number of hikers on Longs Peak by surprise this weekend. The peak attracts an inordinate number of novices, despite the fact that it is a long and exposed hike. So anyway, a bunch of them holed up in the Agnes Vaille Shelter (above) at 13,150 feet in the afternoon.

According to the Longmont Times Call, one decided, since it was cold and stormy, the only thing to do was call call park rangers on his cell phone for help for himself and 14 others. “They basically refused to leave the shelter,” ,RMNP spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said said. “They said there had been awful snow, wind and sleet.”

With some of the hikers experiencing symptoms of hypothermia and lacking recommended hiking equipment, the caller initially requested a helicopter to fly them out, an impossibility given the weather conditions, Patterson said.

Instead 22 park workers that were int he area brought rain gear, warm clothing and hot liquids for the wet and cold hikers. By 6 p.m., all the park staffers and hikers had left the shelter. However, the last group didn’t get to the trailhead until midnight.

All in all, a great climb for all four of us. That's probably my last 14er for the year, but six Colorado 14er climbs and one in Washington is great for a guy who previously only averaged one climb a year. Next up, more mountain bike racing and 'cross season!

Mount Rainier - Seattle to Portland

2008-07-16T16:11:00.020-06:00

Friday and most of Saturday were spent in downtown Seattle.

The Pike Place market.

Bears love salmon, even at the market.

An automated doughnut machine. We tried some - straight out of the fryer.

My fish taco and salad from the waterfront.

A brat with spinach, sauerkraut, and onions from Uli's.

Jimi Hendrix

After walking along the waterfront, around Pike Place market and Pioneer Square, I headed down to Portland to meet up with Jeremy. I was driving Kevin's hybrid Ford Escape, a pretty nice ride, I must say. Kevin was riding in the STP, the Seattle to Portland bike ride; a total of 202.25 miles of bike riding in one day. I was shuttling his vehicle down to Portland for him.

Kevin at the end of his ride.

Sunday, Jeremy and I hit up a few microbreweries in Portland and then met up with Carol to see the Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Mount Rainier - The Climb

2008-07-16T16:11:00.019-06:00

Climbing Day 1 - Monday, July 7th

Early Monday morning we all piled into a van at RMI's basecamp and headed up to Paradise. Unlike the previous few days, Monday was perfectly clear and I got my first glimpse at the mountain.

View of Mount Rainier from Paradise (5,420 feet)

Our climb followed the Kautz route to the summit. The typical Mount Rainier climb takes place on the Disappointment Cleaver route. However, we chose to take the Kautz as it is far less traveled and more physically and technically demanding than the DC route. The usual approach begins at the Paradise upper parking lot (5,420 feet) and follows the Skyline trail for 1 mile to Glacier Vista (6,336 feet). From the vista, we overlooked the Nisqually Glacier, where we descended 400 feet to cross the lateral moraine and get onto the glacier.

Once on the Nisqually glacier, we roped up, Jeremy and I on Casey's rope team. The Nisqually had numerous hidden holes, none much larger than "leg-breakers", so we had to keep a look out for those. We continued northwest across the glacier and headed up a prominent snow chute that provided access to the west side (left side) of the Wilson Glacier and to the upper Wapowety Cleaver. A large rock buttress marks the right side of this chute, known as the Fan.

This chute is notorious for rockfall and avalanches, and usually has a large cornice directly above. We ascended the 25- to 35-degree slope for an elevation gain of 800 feet, to where the grade relaxes and we stopped to take a break. This area provided great views of the Nisqually Glacier, Paradise, and the Muir Snowfield.

Route across the Nisqually glacier and up the snow chute.

Rope team being led by rookie guide Pete makes their way to the top of the chute.

Looking up toward the summit from the top of the chute.

The rest of the day we continued to head north, hugging the ridgeline and sticking mostly to open snow fields. With no cloud cover, the sun beat down relentlessly. All day I climbed in just my baselayer, side zips on pants partially unzipped, just to keep cool.

Taking another rest break to grab a snack and slather on more sunscreen.

Just below our stopping point for the first day, looking back toward Paradise (shrouded by cloud cover).

About five hours after leaving Paradise, we arrived at our lower camp. Jeremy and I were amazed at how slow and steady the pace had been. Nobody from the group was left behind, and plenty of breaks were taken. We set up camp in a rocky area between some snowfields.

Lower camp.

Before dinner, Casey went through setting up anchors in the snow. He explained how to properly use pickets, redundant anchors, bollards, and deadman anchors. We all build deadman anchors of our own and tested them out.

Learning to use pickets and build deadman anchors in the snow.

Climbing Day 2 - Tuesday, July 8th

Tuesday started pretty much where Monday left off. We continued north and uphill; the grade increased to 40 degrees as it climbed around another rock buttress to reach the crest of Wapowety Cleaver. We traveled along the broad, snowy crest of the cleaver, heading north toward the mountain.

Rest stop on day two.

The view for most of the day - steep snowy climbs. This snowfield is the Turtle.

We only climbed for about two hours on Tuesday before reaching high camp. We pitched our tents in the highest safe campsites on the cleaver. There was one more camp above us, Camp Hazard (11,300 feet), but it lies directly below the massive Kautz ice cliff, which occasionally dumps truck-size blocks of ice and debris into the camp. We stayed in the protected bivies on the western edge of the Turtle.

Kautz ice cliffs above high camp.

View from the tent.

Looking down at lower camps below us. Another guided group decided to camp on the snow in the Turtle.

Upper camp.

We found water flowing at upper camp. All it took was a picket to redirect the water into a nice stream.

By noon on Tuesday we were stretched out and relaxing in our tents at high camp. While we relaxed, some of the guides went on ahead and fixed ropes and anchors for the climb the next day.

Dinner came early, at 5, and Casey wanted us in bed by 6. We weren't given a time to wake up for the summit climb the next day, as the guides didn't want us staring at our watches all night, too anxious to sleep. I figured we would get a wake up call about 2 or 3 in the morning - that seemed about right to me. Of course, trying to get to sleep that early is not easy to do when the sun doesn't go down until 9:30, so i just laid there...

Climbing Day 3 - Late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, July 7-8th

"Good morning guys, time to get up!" bellowed Casey.

That was my wake up call at 11:30 PM Tuesday night. And I hadn't slept a wink.

Sebastian bundled up for the early start.

I couldn't stop eating, even at 1 in the morning.

Even after the 11:30 wake up call, we didn' t leave camp until about 1 AM. From high camp, we were lowered about 40 feet down a rock face to the base of the Kautz Ice cliff (11,300 feet). This put us at the start of the most challenging part of the entire trip, the ascent up the Kautz ice chute. The chute was walled off on the right by the ice cliff and on the left by steep, rocky cliffs.

There were two pitches of 50- to 60- degree frozen snow and hard glacial ice, separated by about 100 yards of gentler glacier. The first pitch was frozen snow and initially I had a really hard time trusting my crampons to hold. Until I gained confidence, I was hugging the chute as closely as possible. Once at the top of the first pitch, we tied in to climb the gentler snow section. The snow was hard on this short pitch, but didn't have many flat surfaces on which to stand. The guides kicked steps into the entire length of the pitch. The last pitch was the steepest and most fun of them all! Again we roped in and put our ice climbing practice to good use. The entire pitch was covered in a sheet of ice. Fortunately, I had great confidence in the front picks of my crampons and the pick of the ice ax and we quickly ascended the ice. Soon we were above the ice cliffs and out of the steepest part of the climb.

The angle relaxed at the top of the second steep pitch, and glacier travel resumed to the apex of Wapowety Cleaver (13,300 feet). The sun was just coming up at this point so I grabbed a few pictures. The pace slowed so people could catch their breath but I was feeling great at this point. We continued along the upper Kautz and Nisqually Glaciers to the south side of the summit crater rim.

Crossing a snow-covered crevasse.

Coming up to the south summit.

The entire climb we had seen no other groups on our route. From lower camp we could see people on the Disappointment Cleaver route, but they disappeared from our view when we ascended to high camp. As we came over the south summit, we looked down into the crater and saw a bunch of people! Everybody else had summited from the DC route, or Emmons, or Liberty Ridge.

It was like a party in the crater!

The south summit isn't really the high point of the mountain, so some of our group hightailed it across the crater to Columbia Crest, the true summit of Mount Rainier.

On Columbia Crest, looking toward the south summit side.

Puffy down jacket summit pose!

After about 45 minutes on the summit, we made our way back down the route we ascended. We were doing well on time, so we had a few opportunities to grab photos of crevasses.

Crevasses

View of the Kautz ice chute.

Looking down on the ice climb in the Kautz ice chute.

Climbing up what we rappelled down at 1 in the morning.

From high camp to the summit it took about five hours and forty-five minutes. We made it back to high camp at about 11 AM and had a couple of hours to rest. Then we packed up camp and mostly glissaded down to our lower camp from the day before.

Casey told us that it was tradition on his trips with nice weather that we spend the last night outside of the tents - he promised a great view of the night sky. I can't tell you what the night sky looked like, as I was too busy covering my head and face from the flying gravel. Of course, on the one night that we would chose to sleep outside, the winds would gust up the 50 mph and beat us senselessly in our sleeping bags. I grabbed a little bit of sleep, but most of the night it felt like somebody was punching me in my sleeping bag

Our outdoor bivy. The calm before the (wind)storm.

Climbing Day 4 - Thursday, July 10th

The last day of descending was pretty mellow. The snow was too firm to glissade down, so we ended up walking down the entire way. We passed through some clouds and maneuvered around some previously unseen crevasses.

Second rope team descending through the clouds.

We got back down to the bottom of the mountain with plenty of time to spare, so Casey instructed us on how to set ice anchors and how to build a v-thread. Then, we found a cornice and got to practice crevasse rescue techniques. These were probably the most useful rope techniques learned in the entire week.

At the conclusion of the day we all met back at basecamp for food and a presentation of our summit completion certificates. Jeremy and I stuck around for a while, but eventually we said goodbyes and headed up to Seattle.

On the way out of town we got our best view of Mount Rainier yet. I'm certain I'll come back to climb Rainier again, most certainly by the DC route, maybe even Kautz again. I think Jeremy and I both agree that we were never really physically tested on the climb - the pace was too slow for us to really be working hard. I figure we could knock off the Kautz route pretty easily in just two days with nice weather. In the end, I learned an immense amount about mountaineering and it has whet my appetite to climb other mountains. Who knows, maybe someday Mount McKinley, K2, or Everest?

Mount Rainier - The Prologue

2008-07-16T16:08:00.009-06:00

As we approached Portland airspace, I looked out the round window and saw nothing but miles of white, fluffy clouds. For a brief moment, there was a gap in the clouds and I caught a glance at snowy Mount Hood, an 11k foot peak in upper Oregon with upper flanks seemingly reaching out to touch us. That wasn't the mountain that I was here for, but seeing my first Pacific northwest peak had me scratching my head to remember where the idea for this trip originated.

I don’t think that I even knew what a 14k feet mountain looked like until I visited Colorado for the first time. 14k, 15k, or 25k feet – I didn’t know how tall the mountains were in Colorado, I just knew that they had lots of them. So when I found out that there were 54 fourteen thousand peaks in Colorado, I thought somebody had to be nuts to want to climb all of them. I mean, that would take a lifetime, right? Since moving here I’ve climbed several, nine to be exact. Not impressive by the standards of a Colorado outdoorsman, but pretty good if your trips to high altitude usually are assisted by a ski lift. I didn’t find the first few 14ers all that difficult to climb – they were usually just long, rocky hikes that culminated way up in the thin air of the troposphere.

I think it was Dave that first brought up the idea of climbing a more difficult peak. Not any higher, just more “involved.” Mount Rainier is only 14,410 feet high, not even the highest in the United States or even Colorado, but it’s surface is covered by 26 glaciers. The snowy/icy surface is constantly shifting, there is no easily marked route, and tourists in tennis shoes don’t often make it to the top. I think it’s safe to say that climbing Mount Rainier could actually be classified as “mountaineering.” When I think of mountaineering, climbing Colorado’s relatively mundane 14ers doesn’t come to mind. Pictures of crampons, ice axes, blowing snow, slippery ice, rope teams, and steep slopes fill my mind when the word “mountaineering” is passed around.

So here I was, flying into Portland several years after the idea originated, unfortunately not with Dave (he’s home enjoying his new role as a father), to climb Mount Rainier. I managed to talk Jeremy into coming to Rainier with me. Actually, it didn’t take any talking into at all; he was as amped as I was, even more so, maybe.

After landing in Portland, we picked up our rental car and cruised the Portland scene. Unfortunately, except for Niketown and REI, the downtown area was a ghost town. There wasn’t much going on, even on a Friday, as it was the 4^th of July. We spent a couple of hours across the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA, celebrating Independence Day with friends from Jeremy’s hometown and then made our way a few more hours north to Mount Rainier. I’d never been to the northwest before, so I’d never actually experienced the cloudy gloom that reportedly persists for months up there. Well, I got a taste of it that day, as clouds shrouded my view of Rainier. Little did I know that I wouldn’t even see the mountain I was about to climb for two more days.

Saturday and Sunday were the first two days of our time with Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (RMI). RMI was our hired gun to train us and guide us to the top. We selected one of their Expedition Seminars - the guided experience that was more focused on learning about the equipment and proper techniques and skills for mountaineering than simply shuttling us to the top of the mountain. We met our lead guide, Casey, and his assistant, Tyler. Other than Jeremy and I, there were six other clients ranging in age from early twenties to mid-fifties, and everyone appeared fit.

The majority of Saturday was spent at Paradise, the base of the mountain and the starting point for our climb on Monday. There we got accustomed to walking on snow and ice in crampons, how to use the ice axe to self-arrest and team-arrest, and how a rope team works. Even though we were at 5400 feet in Paradise, the mountain was still shrouded in a cloud layer hovering at about 8000 feet.

The next day we convened at base camp to learn even more. We spent the good part of the morning thoroughly going through our gear for the climb, weeding out unnecessary weight. Then Casey and Tyler quickly went through about a dozen knots we had to know. We spent lunch watching a slide show of Casey's last visit to the top of Rainier as well as his expedition last year to Everest. Just by observing the captivated faces of the other climbers in our group during the slideshow made me realize how unnecessary RMI's advertisements for the BIGGER, BETTER! guided climbs around the world were. Aconcogua. Kiliminjaro. McKinley. Everest. RMI didn't need large posterboards to sell their trips, they just needed their guides to spin the stories. That was advertisement enough.

The day culminated in some practice on the artifical rock and ice walls. The rock wall was of little difficulty, but the "ice" wall (actually high-density sheets of styrofoam) required a whole new set of skills. Not difficult skills or even strength, for that matter, but proper technique. At the moment, I thought it was odd that we'd practice climbing vertical rock and ice. We wouldn't see that on the route, I thought. Little did I know...

Practice makes perfect - setting up our mountaineering tents for the first time.

Jeremy on the "ice" wall.

Crested Butte picture dump

2008-07-14T14:21:00.002-06:00

I just got back from Mount Rainier late last night; haven't even uploaded the pictures, yet.

In the meantime, enjoy some images from the Crested Butte weekend...

An Angel who lost her wings - Mt. Shavano and Mt. Tabeguache

2008-06-23T14:41:00.021-06:00

Sunday morning came waaaay too early. I had planned on an alpine start – that’s where you get up and on the trail early enough so that any snow is still firm underfoot – but my body told me it needed to sleep until 7 or so.

Ted and Brenda were going to explore some more mountain bike trails in the area while Dustin, Doug, and I set out on our 14er climbs. The plan was to climb Mt. Shavano (14,229 feet) and Mt. Tabeguache (14,155 feet) - both Native American names from the Ute nation. Dustin and Doug opted for quick and easy meals to start their day while I spent much, much too long whipping up hot muesli and cocoa. Needless to say, my dilly-dallying didn’t help things along.

Our campsite was set in amongst the aspens.

Dustin, Doug, and I finally broke camp and bid farewell to Ted and Brenda. At 9:30 AM, we left the Blank Gulch trailhead and started our climb.

Dustin and I at the trailhead, 9800 feet.

Early on, the trail pitched up more than most for a 14er. We followed a pretty well-worn and steep trail up through a drainage. Eventually the drainage gave way to a couple of creek crossings and a well-defined trail.

At 11:00 AM, we encountered our first snowfield quite a way below treeline. There were probably only five or six snowfields along the entire route, and none took more than one minute to cross.

Just before we ascended above treeline, the Angel of Shavano started to come into view.

This time of the year, the angel's wings rapidly begin to melt off. As Roach's guide to the 14ers predicted, the angel's left wing disappeared long before it's right.

View from the top of the angel, looking toward Mt. Shavano's peak.

While the wind had been calm below, at the top of the angel it was fiercely howling. Here I am trying to layer up, fighting the wind for my shirt sleeves the entire time.

The climb to the peak is an easy Class 2 hike. The trail was broken in most places, and you pieced together a path by hopping from boulder to boulder.

View looking northwest toward Mt. Tabeguache from just below the summit.

At 12:45 PM, Dustin, Doug, and I summited Mt. Shavano.

View looking northwest toward Mt. Tabeguache from the summit.

View looking north. Mt. Antero is the most prominent 14er in view.

After spending just 17 minutes on Mt. Shavano's summit, we pushed off and headed northwest down another Class 2 hike 0.75 miles to the saddle at 13,700 feet between the peaks. We reached the saddle at 1:35 PM.

Looking up toward the peak of Mt. Tabeguache from the saddle.

We skirted the snow as much as possible by staying to the western side and scrambled our way up the talus. Here Dustin greets me at the top. The summit of Mt. Shavano lies just over my right shoulder.

2:00 PM - With no one around to take our picture, I set the timer and snapped this photo of us celebrating two peaks in one day!

Even though nasty weather was stirring up all around us, we still found some time to sample some of the dehydrated (of course, here it's been rehydrated) hummus on top of Mt. Tabeguache. yeah, Doug likes it.

Looking southwest from Mt. Tabeguache's summit. Monarch Crest ski area barely visible.

Prior to the descent of Mt. Tabeguache, we discussed taking an alternate route on the return trip. Instead of retracing our steps and reascending and then descending Mt. Shavano, Doug and I proposed that we simply skirt around the base of Shavano and save ourselves the effort involved in the elevation gain/loss. Dustin disagreed, but we outnumbered him two to one, so we set off on the lower rock scramble. Now, had we read Roach's book more carefully, we would have read the part where he discourages skirting the peak. Unfortunately, none of us read that, and none of us knew what a pain in the ass we were about to endure.

Taking the lower route proved more difficult than we imagined. The rocks were no different in size than those leading to/from the peak, but they were certainly more precariously perched. It seemed that you had to more carefully watch each and every bound from rock to rock. Adding to the frustration was the fact that the path was just simply longer. We rounded the bend shown to the left in the photo below only to discover that we were only halfway back to the trail below Mt. Shavano's summit. It was discouraging.

In the photo below, it's 3:50 PM and we finally made it back to the saddle just above the Angel of Shavano. The wind is whipping up again and dark clouds are moving in our direction. Time to bust a move and get out of there!

Ominous clouds coming in our direction!

Descending the trail just adjacent to the Angel of Shavano. A rain/snow mix is blowing at our backs, but fortunately the clouds didn't produce any lightning.

Once below treeline, the weather backed off, and the rest of the hike was pleasant save for our aching legs and feet. The snowfields were a little bit softer, but post-holing was kept to a minimum. At 5:40 PM, we made it back to the trailhead.

An hour later, we claimed our reward - pizza at Amicas!

Dustin

Robby

Doug

All in all, a great day! About 11.7 miles of trail was hiked and nearly 5410 feet of mountain was climbed.

more than we expected

2008-06-23T14:41:00.011-06:00

Ted, Brenda, and I met up at the Park n’ Ride just outside Morrison on a steamy Saturday afternoon. The purpose was twofold: one, to carpool down to Salida to explore some buff singletrack; and two, to meet up with some other guys to climb two 14ers on Sunday morning.

The ride down to Salida was uneventful. We briefly discussed scrapping the ride in Salida in exchange for a tasty Colorado Trail excursion from Kenosha Pass to Breckenridge. Brenda volunteered to drive the shuttle vehicle. However, after speaking to other cyclists at the trailhead, we reconsidered when we couldn’t get details on whether Georgia Pass was free of snow or not (it wasn’t).

We stopped at Johnson Village, just 15 minutes north of Salida, at a nondescript coffee joint. This place promised tasty Dazbog coffee, smoothies, and other treats that draw in the rafters and adventure seekers passing through the area. I couldn’t even tell you the name of the place; all I remember is the yellow race car body perched on top of the roof. While the place was unimpressive from the outside, the inside was packed floor to walls with baked goods, a multitude of coffee drinks, and any other beverage or snack you could think of. This was just the beginning of getting more than we expected. Ted walked away with an invigorating coffee and I sucked down a delectable mango smoothie before we even left the parking lot.

The Arkansas river running high thru the center of Salida.

We made our way to Salida in no time, eager to get some beta on the local trails. All signs for trail advice pointed toward Absolute Cycles - inside we found some of the most helpful folks I’ve ever met. Everyone had their opinion on the best trails in the area. In the end we decided to hit up a section of the Colorado Trail starting at the Mt. Princeton trailhead and ending at the Cottonwood hot springs.

With an elevation topping out over 10,000 feet this 11.1 mile long section of the Colorado Trail hugged the mountainside and it whipped us up and down through seemingly changing ecosystems. We saw a little bit of everything – thick aspen forests, open meadows, raging creeks, and scenic vistas. It was obvious that this section of trail hadn’t been ridden that much – it’s hard to put together a reasonable loop – but that just leaves the trail in even better shape for the rest of us. I’ll save you the details, but Brenda turned back about halfway and Ted and I didn’t complete the ride all the way to Cottonwood. The sun quickly ducked behind the adjacent mountains and darkness came fast. We hightailed it back and still finished with a little over 13 miles of riding. We all concurred that the trail was one of the best ones we’ve seen and a return trip was necessary someday.

Ted and Brenda on the long climb to start the Colorado Trail.

Just one of the open hillside meadows.

Turn a corner and you're smacked in the face with this view of Mt. Yale.

From the Mt. Princeton trailhead we drove nearly 45 minutes to our predetermined meeting place to camp out for the night. The camping site was to be near or at the Blanks Cabin trailhead, the start of the trail to climb Mt. Shavano and Mt. Tabaguache. By the time we arrived, Dustin and Doug wrapped up dinner and were ready to write us off. But we finally made it! With no time to explore the campsite, tents were set up, dinner was made, and sleeping bags were unfurled. By 11:30, we were all tucked in and ready for Sunday’s adventure.

Grays and Torreys - first 14ers of the year!

2008-06-15T20:10:00.009-06:00

As a tuneup for the upcoming Mount Rainier trip, I was looking for an easy 14er to warm up the legs. I’d never climbed Mount Grays and Torreys, and as they were close by and online trip reports confirmed numerous summits already this season, I thought that those would be excellent 14ers to find my legs. On a warm, sunny Sunday morning Dustin, Jeremy, Nathan, and I arrived at the Stevens Gulch trailhead to begin our late Spring/early Summer attempt on Grays and Torreys. We got a late start at 10 AM, but with clear skies in the area, the weather worried us very little. Reports from climbers already down from the mountain recommended that we leave the snowshoes. So, we did, and lightened our loads a bit.

The hike to the base of the mountains was uneventful. We could see a snake of climbers ahead of us – some ascending, some already descending. Everyone was high in spirits, as the views of Grays and Torrey looming overhead were phenomenal. Here we could see far off in the distance some skiers descending the Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys. (we went up the kinder, gentler East snow slopes)

view of the trail leading up to Grays

not far from the top of Grays now! the view looking across toward Torreys

Further up the ascent we encountered a mountain goat. This brave goat came closer and closer to us, finally stopping about 30 feet away.

By 12:35 PM we’d summitted Grays. The summit really came earlier and easier than I expected. After signing the log book, taking pictures, and chatting with several other groups up there, we took off at 1:00 PM for Torreys.

Dustin, Nathan, Robby, Jeremy

It took us only 25 minutes to manage the sometimes snowy, sometimes rocky descent to the saddle.

In the saddle, looking up toward the summit of Torreys

Another 25 minutes and we completed climbing up the dry south slopes of Torreys. Again, we signed the log book and spoke with a guy from Boulder who had just climbed up the Dead Dog Couloir. He was looking forward to a 5 minute glissade to the base. Ours took just a bit longer.

We left the peak of Torreys at 2:05 PM and made it down to the saddle by 2:20 PM.

Nathan, Robby, Dustin

The view from the top of Torreys back toward Grays

Nathan and I chose to run down the snow slopes back to the trail, while Dustin and Jeremy chose the more traditional switchbacking trail. Many people had chosen to slide on their butts down the slopes, but keeping on our feet by running in the snow was much more appealing (especially since we were sporting shorts!).

it's really longer and steeper than it appears (this looks more like a neighborhood sledding hill!)

Nathan and I rejoined with Dustin and Jeremy at the base of the mountains and began the trek back to the vehicle. Although the short snowfields covering the trail in sections had softened a bit since morning, they didn’t slow us down at all and we returned to the trailhead at 3:52 PM.

a day on some Front Range 14ers wouldn't be complete without a trip to Beau Jo's for a pie

All in all, a good day. Around 3,600 ft. ascended and 9.0 miles of trail covered in a comfortable 5.5 hours.

Mount Grays 14,270 ft.

Mount Torreys 14,267 ft.

Next weekend, Mount Shavano (14,229 ft.) and Mount Tabeguache (14,155 ft.)

Cinci-nasty!

2008-06-07T10:01:00.004-06:00

With everyone at work and me on vacation, I decided to drive on up to Cincinnati yesterday and see what the "city built on the hill" (not the official name, but my name for it, nonetheless) had to offer.

Apparently, traffic...

Actually, the closest Trader Joes is in Cincinnati. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to stock up on trail mix, nuts, candies, and stuff.

Another Ohio fav is United Dairy Farmers. there's just something about those shakes. look! it even comes in a low-fat version (that tastes just as good). seeing that orange, brown, and red UDF sign from the highway just makes my mouth water...

here's some pics from my bro and i riding at Waverly park earlier in the week. i let him ride my bike for a while and this is the view i got.

overly dramatic riding pose

my last night in Louisville and i went the Riverbat baseball game with my brother and his gf. usually, baseball games require beer and hot dogs, but in Louisville, the best deal is the COOKIE! The Kizito cookie woman certainly has cornered the cookie racket there at the ballpark.

it didn't stop me from indulging, however.

who says Indiana is flat?

2008-06-06T07:40:00.004-06:00

i'm in Kentucky this week, basically for a wedding for my friends Keith and Jamie (no good pictures from that), but i couldn't resist bringing the bike along to ride some familiar and unfamiliar singletrack. the weather here is a far cry from what i left behind in Denver - temps in the high 80s and 90s, humidity through the roof. it's been a long time since i've totally emptied a hydration pack or soaked completely through my cycling clothes, but oddly it's a good, familiar feeling :)

last sunday morning i drove about an hour-and-a-half up to Brown County, IN for a race in the DINO (that's for "Do Indiana Outdoors") mountain bike series. i'd read really good things about the extensive trail system up there, so i thought i would give it a shot. we took off at high noon, and the course was everything and more that i had read about. the buttery smooth singletrack wove through the dense forest, and despite temps in the 90s, things were much, much cooler under the tree canopy. maybe it was the food sickness from the day before or maybe i'm just not in great shape this time of year, but Brown County ended up laying the smackdown on me. after feeling pretty good for the first third of the race, the second two thirds hurt. i can ride at a steady pace for long periods this time of year, but can't lay the power down, yet.

still a fun race and fun course. i think i'm going back there this Saturday to ride the trails again...

Chile Challenge

2008-05-27T13:07:00.005-06:00

With school behind me for the Spring, it’s time to race! The first race of the year was this past weekend in Angel Fire, NM.

I rode down on Friday morning with Kozos teammate Matt and his wife Sarah and we were greeted by a cold snow/rain mix. Instead of pre-riding the course, the nasty weather left us relegated to Scrubs reruns on Comedy Central.

Saturday the skies cleared enough that we could see the top of the mountain. My race wasn’t until Sunday so I did an early morning workout on the surrounding mountain roads. Later in the day I took the chairlift to the top of the mountain and pre-rode the downhill section of the XC course. It was set up just like last year, so I knew it was going to be a good time. That evening the expert and pro Mountain Cross finals took place so I stuck around to cheer some teammates on.

Matt and I walked the lower section of the downhill course on Friday afternoon. Snow all around at 9000 feet.

View from the chairlift Saturday afternoon.

View from the chairlift Monday. Warm and clear - things improved dramatically!

Rooty, rocky section of the downhill course.

Condo-mate Broc shows a little flair in winning his Mountain Cross heat.

Later on, Broc's dad, Mike, showboats a bit himself in winning his heat.

Sunday morning there was a great turnout for the start of the xc races. I left off where I ended last year by getting gapped on the climbs. I walked more of the technical sections than I ever have before, but I still finished the race faster than last year’s time. I was pleased with that considering that my training is two months behind and my workout the day before was pretty challenging. I was not pleased with the way in endo-ed in one of the only muddy sections of the course. My front tire managed to find one of the only wheel-sized mudholes on the course and it dug in while the rest of me went ass over teakettle. Even though I was going fast, the landing didn’t hurt at all because I landed Superman-style in the slick mud. Most embarrassing was that I had just passed another competitor and he went flying by me as I collected myself. Regardless, it was a great race and I’ll try to hit up again next year whether gas is $4/gallon or not.

Monday, I relaxed and hung out around the resort while my teammates raced in the downhill events. Just like Saturday, I took the chairlift to the top of the mountain and explored the mountain’s trails.

Next race is this weekend in Indiana...we'll see how i handle the rolling hills...

future career?

2008-05-15T20:57:00.002-06:00

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2008-03-25T12:34:00.002-06:00

i feel like this blog has become a recycling bin for the "best of" the internets...

i mean, you don't really want to hear about how i fell asleep the other night while studying o chem? or how i aced my EMT practical exam? do you?

now i present, another youtube vid:

Hipster Olympics

2008-03-14T11:10:00.002-06:00

2 weeks post-LASIK

2008-02-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

i'm a little over 2 weeks post-LASIK now. no complaints thus far. the morning after i was seeing 20/15 in my right eye and 20/25 in my left. in the first week, i was instructed to sleep in some dorky goggles. unless you were sleeping directly on your back they got in the way. also in the first week, i was pumping antibiotics and steroids and moisturizing drops in my eyes, but now i'm down to just the moisturizing drops every hour or so.

so far, a positive experience. i have another post-op in two weeks. we'll see if my left eye clears up and gets to 20/20...

St. Mary's Glacier

2008-02-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

dave, jeremy, and i hit up St. Mary's Glacier on Sunday

looking across St. Mary's Lake

view looking up the glacier. dave and jeremy mounted up their skis and they're heading downhill. not your daddy's ski slopes...

dave making turns.

this weekend we're heading back up and hiking above the glacier. we'll cross the "original" frozen tundra - called Jamaica - and then climb a 13er, St. James Peak. it promises to be a frigid afternoon. but the sled ride down should be epic!

Grand Lake 2008

2008-02-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

my brother was in town last week, and while i couldn't spend a lot of time with him due to work and school, we did manage to find a day to head up to Grand Lake and meet up with some friends of mine for snowmobiling

michael on left, me on the right - but can you really tell the difference?

chicken saltimbocca with rice & roasted vegetables

2008-01-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Food designer. I think I could do that. I mean, what do you do? Arrange some food on a plate, make it look pretty? And somebody else takes the photos, so even then my poor photography skills aren’t necessary.

I whipped up some chicken saltimbocca the other night. There’s a little parmesan, a slice of prosciutto here and there, but in general, it’s a pretty healthy dish when pared with some rice and roasted vegetables. It turned out pretty well despite my lack of equipment and inability to properly read instructions. I’m still lacking the cast iron skillet to provide even heat, so I had to make due with my non-stick aluminum skillet and a plate to use as a lid, but I’ve got one on order. Then, I never could slice the chicken breasts to make proper cutlets. I always cut them too thick or too thin. Then I forgot to pound them and flatten them out. That sure would have made the cooking go by a little faster. Despite all of those mistakes, it turned out pretty well.

roasted vegetables about 15 minutes into the roasting. red and yellow peppers, red potatoes, red and yellow onions, squash, plum tomatoes, and zucchini. i was noshing on those for about four days.

cutlets cooking in the boiling chicken broth.

the finished product. sliced cutlets with rice and veggies.

6 (3-ounce) chicken cutlets, pounded to evenly flatten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 paper-thin slices prosciutto
1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 (14-ounce) can low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Place the chicken cutlets flat on the work surface. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 1 slice of prosciutto atop each chicken cutlet.

Squeeze the frozen spinach to remove the excess water. Season the spinach with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, toss the spinach with 1 tablespoon of oil to coat.

Arrange an even, thin layer of spinach atop the prosciutto slices. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over each. Beginning at the short tapered end, roll up each chicken cutlet as for a jellyroll. Secure with a toothpick.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken and cook just until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice, and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Simmer the cooking liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 2/3 cup, about 5 minutes. Season the cooking liquid with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove toothpicks from the chicken. Drizzle the reduced cooking liquid over the chicken and serve immediately.

Zodiac

2008-01-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

They don’t find the killer in the end. I hate to give the ending away like that, but I’d hate for any of my readers to waste 2.5 hours of their life watching a movie that doesn’t have an ending. All-star cast: robert downey jr., jake gyllenhal, mark ruffalo, blah, blah, blah… they all do a fine job. But the premise of the entire movie is based upon the Zodiac killer. The killer that they have never apprehended! Why make a movie about an unsolved crime? That’s like the forensic scientists in CSI turning to each other at the end of show, shrugging their shoulders, and saying “golly gee, we can’t figure this one out.” Then the credits roll. Don’t waste your time. Read about the Zodiac killer at wikipedia here.

goals

2008-01-09T11:37:00.001-07:00

i was sitting here thinking up goals for the year that has already begun and thought i would share a goal that i'm currently working on. see, when school let out in mid-December, i decided to take advantage of this one month break between classes to hit the books hard. not the school books (although i probably should have), but the fun-reading books! my goal was to read 1000 pages by the time the Spring semester started on January 22nd.

so far, here's what i've read:

read Into the Wild in two days. saw the movie, too.

i read Jon Krakauer's best known novel, Into Thin Air, many years ago and loved it. Then i bought it and read all over again. i still want to climb Everest...

read Positively False in two days, also.

i'm still not sure if i believe Floyd or not. either way, his life story was pretty interesting.

now i'm in this whole Mad Money phase. in fact, i'm trying to use "booyah" at least once everyday in a conversation.

finished Jim Cramer's Mad Money

and now i'm halfway through Jim Cramer's Real Money (from his less mad days)

currently, amazon is rushing me his newest book, Stay Mad For Life

photos a long time coming...

2007-12-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

i'm stuffed. the gyms are closed, and the bars are allowing smoking again. think i'll clean up my hard drive. oh wait! i came across long lost photos from my backpacking trip in Glacier National Park last summer. enjoy!

Day One - flight to Whitefish, Montana. crazy taxi ride from the airport directly to Waterton, Canada.
we're bright-eyed and bushytailed here. didn't know what we were getting into...
(l to r. brian, robby, alan, michael, gilley, brock)

Day Two - woke up in Waterton. Caught the ferry and took it back across the border to the southern end of Waterton lake. Entered Glacier NP at Goat Haunt. Plan for the day was to hike to Stoney Indian Lake.

everyone taking a rest while Brian pukes. apparently summer sausage and cheese don't go well with the summer heat.

just one of many gorgeous lakeside campsites - Stoney Indian lake

we woke up the next morning and hiked up above the lake. perfect picture taking opportunities at Stoney Indian Pass.

Day Three - today's hike took up to Glenn's Lake Foot. even in August, there's still some snow up there

still looking strong

awesome view of the Glenn's Foot lake. we hiked all the way to the end...

campsite for the night at Glenn's Lake Foot

Day Four - Glenn's Lake Foot to Elizabeth Lake Foot
creek crossing

waterfall along the way...

gilley and his GQ pose

alan, easiest days, but no smiles

Day Five - hmmmm...no pics. Maybe we were too tired from the hike up, up, up from the foot of Elizabeth over Red Gap Pass? From Red Gap Pass we descended down to Poia Lake.

Day Six - bodies tired. We got an early start to hit a shortcut to the main road. Hitchhiked to Many Glacier. Refueled, made necessary phonecalls, and then disappeared again into the wilderness. Brian and Alan stay behind. Brock, Gilley, Michael, and I ascend Swiftcurrent Pass in the pouring rain. We knew we brough those rain suits for some reason. Next stop: Granite Park

Those guys missed out. Best wildlife siting of the trip:

Again, more wildlife. This time a bear and cub.

Day Seven - Granite Park to Fifty Mountain

Glacier?

Day Eight - Fifty Mountain to The Loop

Sore feet. Tired backs and shoulders. Almost out of there.

When the bourbon's gone, the trip is over...

bergen park SNOW!

2007-10-21T21:12:00.002-06:00

after the gorgeous weather on saturday, i woke up to this on sunday.
and encountered this on the drive up to Bergen Park

now this is REAL 'cross weather!

On Sunday about one-third of the riders from Saturday showed up. The key to riding fast seemed to be staying on the right line. I had a good starting spot on the front row but didn’t capitalize as I started in too hard of a gear. For the first few minutes of racing I was kicking myself for not starting better. I was riding up the ass of a couple of guys right in front me. Passing them seemed like it would take a ton of effort in the snow. Finally, on a long straight stretch I got past a few of them. Once I got past those guys the rest of the first lap went well. I rode the right lines and things were looking good. Second lap everything went to hell. I couldn’t find the right line to save my life. Wrecked twice and a whole bunch of guys flew past. Every time I had to get off of the bike I had the hardest time clipping back in. After that crappy second lap, the next five laps went very well. I managed to hit the right lines every lap and while the dismounts were ugly they got the job done. Again, a good effort. like I said, I wish every race was snowy and muddy like this one.

creek crossing that some guys (me) ran across, others rode...

michael decided to run it.

so did this dude...

Luna Chick and total studdette Georgia Gould. she scored a fifth in the Cat 3 Mens race.

tough run-up.

yeah, the stairs were uh...fun?

i'd swear it got steeper and steeper each lap.
just a run through the playground

interlocken

2007-10-21T21:12:00.001-06:00

late afternoon ride on Friday at Buffalo Creek. good tune up for the weekend. probably the last time i'll get in a nice long mountain bike ride in the mountains this season. i finished just as the sun completely went down.

saturday morning i lined up with 112 other fools in the Cat 4 race at Interlocken. Unfortunately, I had a pretty bad start. I never really had a chance get out of congestion until halfway through the first lap. For the first two laps I felt really good. I was moving up, passing a few guys here and there. I was really making up time in the corners where some guys would slow down to a crawl. Then my front tire started going flat. Every turn from then on out became suspect. I could hear and feel the tire start to roll anytime I made a hard turn. By the time I finished the race, there was about 10 psi left in the tire, but the damage had been done. It was like pushing a plow through the grass. I was bummed to be riding so well and then go from passing guys to getting passed on a pretty regular basis, but I felt like I gave a really good effort. dismounts were smooth, run-ups and the run through the sand slow-as-usual.
creek crossing followed by a nice messy run-up

there was no avoiding the creek water...and boy! did it smell great!

more foolz...

otherwise a nice sunny fall day

best advice i ever got

2007-10-19T14:12:00.000-06:00

state fair time is past, but try this trick next time you're strolling the midway:

the rope ladder

The trick to climbing carnival rope ladders is to completely ignore the "rungs" and only use the outside ropes to climb on.

While applying equal pressure with your right foot and left arm, move your left foot and right arm at the same time. Then do the same thing with the opposite limbs -- shimmying yourself up the ladder.

Do not move both hands or both feet at the same time - you will lose your balance.

a slippery slope...literally

2007-10-15T12:47:00.001-06:00

After all of the rain that we had here in Denver over the last weekend, I'm hoping for this in an upcoming cyclocross race -

Cyclocross Bike Racing Traffic Jam On Muddy Run-Up - The most amazing home videos are here

Moab!

2007-10-09T10:17:00.001-06:00

Moab weekend - a time for roadies and mountain bikers to come together!

Friday morning we rode the classic Moab ride - Slickrock!

Jeremy, Rick, Ted, and Debbie were up for this one.

Less a physical challenge, but more of a technical one - Ted makes it look easy.

Debbie getting props from onlookers (one of which was a stuck motorcyclist).

All smiles!

Rick gettin' 'er done!

Ted following the lines...

A little grunt. A push. and...

relief at the top!

roadie Jason just happy that he's done fighting the desert winds on his road bike

i met Smoky the Bear's lesser known cousin - Stinky. sort of the Pigpen of wilderness cartoon characters?

we woke up to the pitter-patter of rain on our tent Saturday morning. fortunately, the skies cleared up and a few of us hit the trails. the only survivors from Friday were Ted and me. roadie Jason saddled up on his mountain bike for the first time in over a year to tackle Porcupine Rim with us. the rest of the crew went for a driving tour of Canyonlands.

Jason four miles into Porcupine at the overlook.

me (weakly) hitting jump.

Ted hitting the same jump in a bigger fashion. note the slightly turned front wheel. it didn't end well.

no pics from impact, but i would best describe what i saw as Ted slowing himself down with his chest and head. it left a nice dent in the top of his two-week-old helmet

smiling, just happy to be alive. showing a little blood.

just one of the many incredible views.

jason, ted, and i reconvened with the rest of the crew to break (garlic) bread at Pasta Jay's in town

view looking from the Sand Flats Road toward the La Sals. a little precip halted some shuttle runs from Hazard, but next year i'll be sure to come early enough to get to ride up there.

no pics from Sunday's ride on Sovereign. probably better off, as documenting the experience would be like reliving the nightmare all over again.

Smashing Pumpkins @ Red Rocks

2007-10-02T10:39:00.000-06:00

i think we should look to Billy Corgan to see what the future of fashion will be like-

pretty good view from Row 33. i've got to give credit to Billy for creating a technicolor stage show.

awesome mix of the old and the new!

2007-09-20T12:25:00.000-06:00

fall is rolling in sooner than later. days are getting oh so short. i've been riding the bike home two nights a week from school. third week now of doing that. just me and the darkness out there. i rarely see anybody else, just the eyes of the occasional fox or racoon glowing from my headlight.

the busy season has begun. wake up. work. school. ride. rest. repeat. on the weekends - study, race, rest, repeat. i gotta find more time to enjoy the fall.

Bluegrass and Brews @ Keystone

2007-08-06T16:54:00.000-06:00

ted and i woke up early on sunday to ride my "tour of summit county." we departed from Keystone, turned the cranks up Keystone Gulch, and hooked up with the CO Trail. total ride time was around four hours. the trails were tacky-fast due to recent rains and we had a BLAST burning up the trails outside Summit Cove.

after returning to Keystone we wandered inside to imbibe at the Annual Bluegrass and Blues Festival. i've never seen so many microbrews in one place. Ted and I both tapped into our inner caveman by downing some extra large turkey legs along with our frothy brews. tasty!

DFL (almost)

2007-08-06T16:32:00.000-06:00

saturday morning i took part in race 5 of the Winter Park Mountain Bike race series. it was a 24 mile point-to-point course from Fraser to the resort. excellent course - starting with a 2000 foot climb over the first 5.75 miles and then "rolling" double and singletrack until the finish.

my heavy legs from the previous weekend of climbing 14ers were still there, so i didn't have very high expectations, but i thought i would give it a go, nonetheless. i ratcheted down my intensity of the initial climb just to have fresh legs for rest of the miles. as it turns out, i probably didn't need to do that as i got a nice little rest just after cresting the peak. a babyhead sliced my rear tire. after realizing that Stan's wouldn't seal the tire, i resigned myself to actually inserting a tube. by the time that was done, a half-hour had passed and i was at the back of the field. the best part of the whole experience was as I was slowing down to change the flat, I noticed a bill on the trail. Turns out it was a $20 bill! I probably would have never seen it had I been bombing downhill full speed.

i finished the rest of the race without incident. not an impressive time, but the course was a good test for my fitness. the last Winter Park race is in three weeks and it's even further, 35 miles, i believe. ideally i'll avoid the mechanicals and finish the season on a good note.

14er fever!

2007-07-30T16:58:00.001-06:00

this weekend was the first weekend in almost three months that i didn't have a mountain bike race to attend. i was looking for a change of pace, so i planned on a "little" hike - a hike to climb two 14ers, Mt. Harvard and Mt. Columbia. trip reports that i read put the entire trip at around 12 hours, so it looked like it would be a long day...

dave was the only other person i could find who was willing to take the beating on this adventure. we mosied on over to Buena Vista on Saturday afternoon and set up camp about three-and-a-half miles up the trail, just below treeline. by the time we were done with dinner, it was nearly 9 o'clock, so we hit the sleeping bags in anticipation of a 4 AM wakeup call.

i think we both got a little shut eye, but after getting up at 12:30 to take a pee, i just couldn't fall back asleep. i could hear dave tossing and turning as well. instead of thrashing around in sleeplessness for the next few hours, we decided to get dressed, skip breakfast, and get an early start. at 2:50 AM, we left camp.

the hike to Harvard was pretty easy. even though i wore my headlamp, the trail was perfectly lit by the full moon. the trail was easily defineable through the willows, and as the ascent became steeper nearer the peak, cairns marked the way. the hike was only about 3 miles, class 2 hiking up until the final push (where it was class 3 scrambling at best), and by 5:45 AM we topped out on Harvard.

at 6:03 AM we saw this and just two minutes later @ 6:05 AM this
it was pretty cool watching the sun rise from the third highest peak in Colorado.

while the trip up to Harvard was uneventful, we knew that the traverse to Columbia would be difficult. we couldn't just follow the two-mile long ridgeline, instead we had to descend several hundred feet to more manageable terrain. long story short, we descended too soon. the trail was poorly marked (if marked at all!) and we were forced to do some class 4 climbing to ascend back to the proper elevation. bailing out wasn't an option. what should have taken 4 hours maximum ended up taking nearly twice that long.

the peak of Columbia was a welcome sight!

the descent from Columbia consisted of scree, scree, and more scree. dave and i surfed our way straight down the scree-strewn mountainside and right into camp. we tore camp down in minutes flat and hightailed it back to the parking lot. total hiking time was over 16 hours and the mileage was between 15 and 16 miles. total elevation gain 6500 feet.

whew! i'm glad to get Harvard and Columbia behind me!

weds night boulder short track

2007-07-26T14:39:00.000-06:00

Before yesterday’s short track I was thinking I would email my coach to let him know that I was going to skip out on the final short track race next week - it’s getting a little boring. After last night, however, I feel like I should go back one last time to “redeem” myself.

I had the best start ever last night. It was about a 150 yard sprint and I was the third out of about thirty guys to funnel into the singletrack. So, I got myself in really good position from the start. Needless to say, the sprint left me pretty tired and one guy went by at the first passing opportunity. Then, about a minute later, just as we passed an open passing area, I hear “WATCH OUT!” next thing I know, I’m going ass over teakettle into some dirt and rocks as some guy tries to take a line that didn’t exist and tangled his handlebars in mine. The first thing I wanted to do was get up and punch the guy that ran into me, but he was screaming “MY KNEES! MY KNEES!” I hung around for several minutes until some spectators came over to help the guy, then I hopped on the back of the train on the next lap as they came by. Before time was up, I managed to get past a few of the guys in the rear of the group, but after the wreck I was really only feeling about 90%. I walked away with scraped up and bruised forearms and back. Unfortunately, I didn’t walk away with a really great workout, only a mediocre one.

If there’s anything I can take from this, it’s that my starts for the upcoming cyclocross season should be pretty good. Now I just need to be able to hang on for the other fourty-four minutes.

new releases

2007-07-25T13:30:00.000-06:00

lately, new albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Maroon 5, and the Smashing Pumpkins have been spinning in my cd player (old school, i know!). to my surprise, Maroon 5 has been getting the most play time. it's better than their first album, i dare say.

but Zeitgeist from the pumpkins is what warrants comment today.

can you really consider the current lineup to be the Smashing Pumpkins? the only members from the original band are Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain. how are they any different from Zwan?

my contention is that, yes, they are the Smashing Pumpkins. more accurately, Billy Corgan is the Smashing Pumpkins. did Billy really need James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky (or Melissa Auf der Maur)? After all, he played the bass and guitar parts on the recording of Siamese dream, did he not? Sounds like all he needs is a drummer, and he's got that in Jimmy Chamberlain. then again, how much did Jimmy really contribute to Zeitgeist? i'm banking it's not a whole lot. maybe Billy should have just used a drum machine instead?

nonetheless, i think that Zeitgeist is a good listen. the single Tarantula is pretty good, but Starz and Doomsday Clock get the most playtime from me.

weekend events

2007-07-25T13:27:00.000-06:00

man! what a great weekend!

despite working five hours on saturday and another four on sunday i felt like i got tons accomplished!

Saturday was race #4 in Winter Park, a point-to-point cross country race. The course covered grueling terrain; fortunately, there were no long climbs, only short ones that required me to punch it at every opportunity. I probably gave my best effort ever in the race. And while it left me exhausted at the end, I was satisfied knowing that I didn’t leave much out there.

Sunday started off early with some golf up in Broomfield. I think it was only the second time that I’ve played golf in the last five years. Even though I lost about five balls over nine holes, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of my swing by the end of the round. Maybe I’ll spring for some new clubs and play a little more golf next year?

After some excellent bbq, I saddled up and went out for an easy recovery ride. My ride took me to the top of Dakota Ridge, and not coincidentally, I was in perfect position to look down upon the AMA National motorcross race. I was awestruck by the spread that the traveling motorcross circus set up at Thunder Valley. Ricky Carmichael didn’t race this year, but my favorite, Kawasaki's James Stewart pulled off a second place in the feature race to seal the overall for the weekend.

COMING ATTRACTIONS!

2007-04-25T11:37:00.000-06:00

the blog has gone on a bit of a hiatus in recent months. school, work, and life have conspired to put blogging in the backseat.

fear not! this summer brings roadtrip to all corners of colorado, angel fire, NM, missouri, kentucky, arkansas, and all points inbetween. maybe i'll even visit someplace exotic - like utah?

in the meantime, listen to Pandora radio. you enter your likes in music, and it creates channels that play similar music - it's addictive!

Janet's Hut

2007-04-11T16:14:00.000-06:00

Janet's Hut this past weekend. about a 3 mile skin/snowshoe in. gorgeous cabin, plenty of snow in the surrounding bowls. seven of us headed up early on Saturday morning. we had the place pretty much to ourselves (save for a mother/daughter) after a large group didn't arrive.

the snow fell intermittently throughout the trip. it didn't stop those tough enough (Dave and I) from skinning up some of the surrounding peaks.

even after sleeping only two hours the night before, i was all smiles when i woke up to fresh powder!

over it

2007-03-20T15:20:00.000-06:00

i'm over the dukes of hazzard. same plot every episode - bo and luke get in some mix-up 'cause boss hog is out to get them. daisy makes empty sexual advances at enos to get information out of him. car chase ensues. roscoe foiled! the general lee jumps something!

my 3.5 year old dvd player crapped out - a sony. that continues my great streak with sony products. a swift shot revived it for a movie, but after that it was puking plastic parts out it's mouth. the replacement - another sony.

i'll never learn.

duke boys

2007-03-16T16:11:00.000-06:00

just started watching season one of the Dukes of Hazzard last night. that's got to be about one of my all-time favorite tv shows. as a tribute bo and luke duke i'll continue to wear tight jeans. sliding across the hood of my truck is optional...

2007-03-13T12:01:00.000-06:00

with warm temps and more daylight comes changes. got the summer cut yesterday. might as well have just buzzed it myself, 'cause it's not too far from that. so far, two days logged on the bike in shorts. about a month earlier than i expected. coach wants me to try a road race in about three weeks. that'll be a first for me. better watch out - don't want to get tangled up. fitness now is good. some minor mechanical mishaps didn't keep me from riding this past weekend. i'll be better for it come june. i'll get around to posting the Glacier NP pics soon enough.

flame broiled somethingoranother

2007-03-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

craving charred meat right now

i need a weber

the foreman ain't doing it for me anymore

life in the fast lane

2007-03-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

waking up without an alarm clock is like freeballin' it.

too bad the boss didn't look kindly on me showing up for work at 10

:(

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

2007-02-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

got the chance to take in an Avs game from the corporate box last night. talk about KILLER!

i've never seen an NHL game in person, but i must say it may be my new favorite spectator sport. and the box seats...WOW! what a spot to take in the action on the ice.

when i arrived to the box, warm fajitas and cold coors light were waiting for us. after gorging myself full of chicken and beef, the Exec VP gave us full access to the dessert cart. BAM! club level is so sweet. chicago cheesecake, triple chocolate cheesecake, chocolate cake, cookies, brownies, carrot cake, baileys shots...

sigh...i can never watch a game from the nosebleeds again

i've got a lot of reading to do

2007-02-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

from NYT:

About 100,000 people sign up to start blogs each day, said David Sifry, founder and chief executive of Technorati, a company in San Francisco that tracks the activities of about 65 million blogs worldwide. An additional 6.5 million to 10 million blogs exist behind firewalls or passwords, he said

girl scouts are evil

2007-02-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

colorado can't decide whether it wants to be winter or spring. 60s today and tomorrow, half foot of snow in the forcast for the weekend. guess i'd better get in a long ride on friday before the white stuff comes.

still can't complain about the weather - more good days than bad. sunshine nearly everyday - too bad i've moved to an office with no windows. boo

i've got visions of samoas and thin mints dancing in my head. those girl scouts harrass you at the entrance to every king soopers in town. my new response is that "i don't eat cookies." those are damn good cookies, though. hard to turn down. what i'd really like to do i make some girl scouts day and buy every box she has left. then i'd feed them to my co-workers and watch them get fat. twisted? yeah :)

bloc "snooze-fest"

2007-02-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

got the new bloc party cd. disappointing. silent alarm was all about the upbeat tempo. if you're hoping weekend in the city picks up where silent alarm left off, you're going to be displeased. go to itunes and download Uniform; as for the rest, ignore it. good thing i only paid $7.99.

resurrected!!!

2007-02-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

sayonara baby! after exhausting all of the "recommended" solutions from apple, i resorted to slamming my ipod against my desk. guess what? it worked! the hard drive is unstuck and spinning again. we'll see how long it lasts, but at least it's working for now.

i'm considering doing some ski-mountaineering races - basically you skin up and then ski down, over and over again for a couple of hours. sounds like torture! my kind of race :)

snowmobiling pics

2007-02-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

pics from snowmobiling in Grand Lake

rip ipod

2007-02-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

my ipod is on its deathbed. in the two years i've owned it, i've had to breath life back into it several times. it's been unreliable at best. i've seen that sad face too many times. i mean, sure, it works 99% of the time, but its that other 1% that affects me the most. it's wiped itself clean two times on its own. i've had to restore it three or four other times. think about it - if your computer's hard drive wiped itself clean spontaneously, would you buy another hard drive from the company? i don't think so. what do i do? when the ipod works, it's spectacular. i don't think it can be beat for simplicity. but when i doesn't work, it' a bear.

this is what cyclocross is all about!

2006-11-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

some days you're the statue. other days you're the pigeon.

2006-11-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Devistated. Drained. Whatever you want to call it. I just got smoked. I think it was all over from the start when I tucked my head and headed into the wind on the opening straight of the course. I just don’t do well on these wide open courses – or at least I kept telling myself that. Psyching myself out. No good.

This week is relatively low stress, so I can get in some extra training. I think I’m going to do an extra long ride on thanksgiving morning. Then I’ll recover by scarfing down some grub and watching football. Plans are to hit the slopes for the first time this year on Friday and Saturday. Saturday is the tele demo at Copper so I can try all of the latest Scarpa boots and stuff. And then Sunday is another race – should be a FUN week!

cyclocross doubleheader #1

2006-11-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

this past weekend was the first of back-to-back doubleheader race weekends. i hadn't planned on racing saturday, but a last minute venue change to the Boulder Reservoir inspired me to get up and get at it on saturday morning. i raced at the reservoir two weeks prior, but i left feeling that the sandy beach got the best of me. turns out that the course was quite different than the setup two weeks ago and most of the riding was on the grassy/gravelly open fields. the only real beach riding was on the approach to the dock that had been pulled up onto the beach. i was actually very pleased as my dismounts were near perfect (even if my running was weak) onto the dock. unfortunately, my tire selection was poor that day - the nearly naked tread on my semi-slick didn't do much for me on the loose gravel. lesson learned. i had a few battles with riders on the course. one was with an Izze-sponsored guy - i'd pass him in the corners and he'd pass me again on the straights. eventually he pulled away. my second battle was with an unsponsored bearded dude. i liked to imagine he was communist or something (with his red jersey and beard and all). he too, pulled away in the closing laps. he won that battle, but i would see him again...

i woke up sunday to snow on the ground. just a sprinkling, but it was enough that i changed to the mud/snow/slime tires on the bike. this time the venue was the Red Rocks Elementary school. in the lineup before the race began, i noticed the commy bastard from the day before. he was still wearing his commy bastard red jersey - i think i even saw a hammer and sickle on there. i couldn't let him beat me two days in a row! i was slow from the start as always, but slowly gained ground and picked off rider after rider. i've heard that a good tactic for a cyclocross race is to break the race into three parts - the beginning (basically an all out sprint), the middle (where you catch your breath and establish a good rythym), and the closing laps (where you give it all you've got left). for some reason the middle part of the race is the make it or break it part for me. either i fail to catch my breath (not easy at over 5300 feet) and get caught, or i catch my breath and squeeze past a few riders. i guess i caught my breath, because i quickly put my commy friend and some of his comrades behind me. a guy named doug on a singlespeed kept knocking on my door but eventually i shook him, too. the last few laps were spent out there alone, basically trying to make up ground where i could while at the same time not giving up any ground. of course, there had to be a little drama at the finish. near the end of the course there is a transition from dirt to pavement by bunny-hopping down a curb. after bunny-hopping i shifted gears to give it all i could...and then felt nothing. the chain broke. i didn't give it a second thought as i shouldered the bike and ran the final 70 yards into the finish. i got quite a few cheers for that, so it made me happy. all in all, a good result. and the course was a good mix of dips, tough run-ups, singletrack, and pavement - so far, my favorite.

next weekend, another doubleheader. stay tuned...

usgp cx race

2006-11-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

this past weekend was a busy one. the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross was held Saturday and Sunday up boulder. apparently it was the largest cycling event in boulder since Supercup in 2000. i had planned to race both days, but work and other obligations on saturday nixed that idea.

typically my races start in the early afternoon, about 12:25 and i have time to sleep in, make a hearty breakfast, and basically just laze around until the race. not so on sunday. due to the pros being in town and the UCI rules and all sorts of other babble beyond my control, they moved my race to 9:30, so no messing around that morning.

after a warmup on the fluid trainer i headed over to registration to pick up my number. seems the field was going to be so large that they ran out of numbers earlier in the morning when i registered so they had me come by later. with just minutes to spare i grabbed the number, pinned it on my jersey, and found the starting line. turns out the field was quite large - about 140 guys in the cat 4. that's about twice what i'm used to.

the start was a bear. by about mid-lap i had passed about 1/3 of the field and i was settling nicely. then i dropped my chain on the run-up after the barriers. it took me a while to get the bike back together and by that time everyone i had passed had gone by. i was at the back of the pack again! with dave urging me on from sidelines i aimed for cyclists and passed them one by one. on the uphill grind i think i even passed five or six. the rest of the race kind of went that way. i'd set my sights on a rider and then pass them. somebody from the sidelines (i later learned his name was cole) even cheered on broken films! he was wearing the same jersey that i was - i didn't know that there would be any texans up here!

well, then things went downhill - they pulled me! yeah, pulled me from the race!? typically they do this when they feel like the leaders are closing fast and you might be in the way. but, the leaders were over 1/2 lap away! i pulled over to the sidelines a little steamed at the UCI officials. i meandered around the course a little, looking for dave. i didn't find him immediately so i decided to get back into the race. i figured i paid $30 for the thing, i might as well get more than a few laps. i finished the race w/o incident, even getting a pseudo 48th place.

it was fun racing with a ton of people, but i learned my lesson that the start is what cyclocross is all about. next time i'll get to the line a little bit earlier.

the next few hours i tooled around the course and took in the pro races. it was pretty cool to watch my heroes of cycling go at. the power that they can put out lap after lap is amazing! i guess i was so i awe of these guys/gals that i almost took one out before his race. geoff kabush and i jockeyed for space on a narrow sidewalk and i nearly pushed him off into the street. sorry geoff!

boulder cyclocross #3 at the 'Res

2006-10-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

yesterday i raced in the third race of the Boulder cyclocross series. the weather was perfect - mid 60s and sunny. the course was pretty tough - a combination of fast park roads and sandy beach. the race took place at the Boulder Reservior. fully half of the course actually took place on the beach.

the start was the usual chaotic mess of flesh with over 70 riders lined up in the Cat 4 class. right away there was a bottleneck but i put some of those off-road moves to work and went a bit off-course to get around the slowpokes. on the flats those guys got back around, so it didn't really matter. i didn't preride the course so the deep sand was a bit of a surprise. in some sections i would come to a stop and find my wheel 1/4 deep in the beach. it wasn't until i watched the pro women go at it (after my race had ended) that i learned that the fastest line was to actually ride about a foot into the water. that's information i sure would have liked to have known before the race. i'll store that away for next year.

about the third lap i got the hang of things. my dismounts smoothed out and my pace was steady. i finished strong - a bit shocked that the race was over. i actually felt like i could have done a few more laps.

thanks to dave for the feeds and motivation. some of the tough girls lined up for this race and he said that as long as i didn't let one of them finish in front of me, my manliness would be preserved. as it turns out, i ended up battling with those gals for most of the race. but, in the end they didn't have the ummph and i pulled away, manliness preserved until next weekend...

my good friend mark

2006-10-23T14:10:00.000-06:00

the other day i received this email:

From: MarkSubject: Weight
This is not meant to be an insult oranything but people are talking at work about your weight.I thought you should know. I know it would upset you if you knew but I know some friends here and outside work that have used a program that worked within weeks. I am not pushing anything on you but thought it wouldn't hurt if you looked at it.
I also think I am doing you a favor as it's always nice when people talk about how much better you look than how much you've been putting on.
I hope I am not intruding, just trying to help out. My cousin & friend Mike used this and it helped alot. Here is the site I know they got it from direct.http://www.011.lovenetcloudyshoes.com/
Again, I'm just trying to help out.Thanks for listening.
-Mark

i mean, i had no idea. okay, so i've been going to qdoba a little more than usual. and...i probably shouldn't ask for the extra cheese, but i didn't know it was showing.

a few days later, i got this:

Listen, I am not sure whether yougot my first email or not. I amsort of concerned. People are makingme feel uncomfortable and I don't like being in the middle. Some of the staff are spreading rude jokes behind yourback about your weight. I personally have no problem with you just being you. Please don'tcome back at me for informing. I just wish to help if anything. I thought about mentioning it to a boss but then to have something like this explode is silly and embarassing for everyone involved, including you being the center of attention. If you really want to make somewhat of a difference, I know my cousin and friend both used this and it worked very well for them. They grabbed it off the internet to keep a low profile & stay confidential. This was the site they got it from, if this helps any.http://www.011.privatesclick.com/
Again, I don't like people insulting others behind their backs. I am only trying to help. Which I hope I am.
Thanks for at least listening & I hope I am not out of line by writing this. I am only trying to help.
Mark

whoa! people are making rude comments about me. i'm so hurt. i can't believe it. well, i've started a regimine of binging and purging. binging-that turkey sandwich tasted good today. so did that yogurt. purging-hmmm...sundried tomato deli turkey doesn't look as appealing in the 'ol kohler commode.

i sure am glad that my good friend mark let me know. people around the office won't be making rude comments about me once i'm stick thin.

uninspired

2006-10-03T12:50:00.000-06:00

I been largely uninspired to write much lately.

maybe it's because i've been trying to get my myspace page up and running? i grew tired of having that sycophant Tom as my only "friend"

maybe it's because work and school have been monopolizing time? more time thinking about stress margins and catalase enzymes than wicked singletrack and in-your-face pow

nope, it think it's because the G-D sun is going down too early!

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DAYLIGHT?

water bottle collectin'!

2006-09-06T12:52:00.000-06:00

mountain bike racing is humbling. and this is coming from somebody who is generally not humble.

so when my fellow competitors at sunday's Keystone Climax pulled away on the first climb, i just relaxed and kept my own pace. i've seen this so many times since moving to colorado. i just don't have the climbing legs, yet.

so, i turned the race into a water bottle collecting event. every lap they have hand-ups where they hand you water and sometimes (in longer races) food. most times the water comes in cheap water bottles. you don't feel so bad when you toss those to grab another. fortunately, my $33 entry fee in this race went toward some nice water bottles. any cyclist can spot these gems from far away - the specialized big mouth water bottle - the creme de la creme of water bottles. instead of tossing my empty bottles in the feed zone, i'd stuff it in my jersey pocket and take another. i was +2 bottles by the end of the race.

oh yeah, the race. well, the downhill parts were awesome. i was passing guys left and right. it's probably not coincidence that the best part of the course was the part where i rode the best. with the great downhills and my water bottle coup, i had a ton of fun at Keystone.

next race - the Salida Banana Belt race in two weeks.

it's the ONLY way!

2006-08-18T13:03:00.000-06:00

glacier np

2006-08-14T12:18:00.000-06:00

back from glacier national park!

the trip was exhausting and my feet are shredded, but i'd do it again in a heartbeat.

trip report coming soon!

i love mango

2006-08-02T13:22:00.000-06:00

mango is my new favorite fruit.

obviously, my blogging life has gotten a little slow...

anyway, mango has replaced the banana as the fruit closest to my heart.

in other news, i saw a mountain lion last week while mountain biking waterton canyon. it was crouched, ready to pounce, only thirty feet away from me. i've never ridden so fast...

i leave friday for glacier national park. hopefully, us airways doesn't lose my bags. otherwise, it could make for a very light and hungry backpacking trip.

ciao!

long's peak

2006-07-24T13:56:00.000-06:00

as i am still sans camera (and will be for a while since sony decided that "extensive corrosion" was not covered under their warranty), these photos were provided courtesy of jeremy thompson.

this past weekend dave, jeremy and i ventured up to Rocky Mountain National Park to bag a 14er - Long's Peak.

it's only my third 14er, but dave and jeremy have eached logged numerous 14ers.

after a heavy dinner (gyro and milk shake for me) in estes park on saturday night, we headed up to the park and hiked in 1.2 miles to our campsite in goblin's forest (about 10,000 feet). typical protocal for a 14er like Long's Peak is that you get up around 3 AM and summit by noon. you don't want to be on the peak when "electrical activity" begins (as it often does in the afternoons during the summer). 3 AM seemed a little early for us, so we "slept in" until 4.
somehow time escaped us and we didn't leave the campsite until nearly 6. i think my crappy homemade cocoa mix left us all in a time warp.

the route to the peak is pretty typical of 14ers. gradual incline, rocky, with increasing difficulty as you near the peak. Then it turned into boulder fields. Two miles of it. First you start hopping from rock to rock. Then as it got steeper, you had to scramble feet and hands up the boulders. Oh, and if you make a mistake you only fall 200 feet or so. fortunately, that wasn't a problem.

view of long's peak from the chasm lake trail split.

view of the "diamond" below long's peak. we encountered many climbers camp who had camped in the boulderfield and climb up the diamond (various routes) to the peak. tuff...

view of the boulderfields.

route through the boulderfields to the keyhole

me climbing the keyhole

on the summit!

another shot on the summit

we weren't the only ones up there. there were tons of marmots foraging for food! btw, i hear that marmots taste like roast beef. mmmmm...

views from the summit

dave needham starring in Dances with Elk

the weather ended up being great! we heard thunder roar overhead and saw lightning in the distance but fortunately it all steered clear of us. after tearing our base camp down in goblin's forest we made it back the car by about 6. climbing long's made for a long day and i've got some blisters to prove it. hopefully they clear before i head to montana in two weeks...

site with great description and pics of the route

more jamaica pics!

2006-07-21T11:21:00.000-06:00

at some point in the night, things went south. ettiquette lessons were given, highchair were squeezed into, and the ladies got all wet

my nude modeling career is over!

2006-07-20T15:23:00.000-06:00

there's really only one thing more embarrasing than falling during a race.

and that's falling before the race.

in your warm up.

not good.

i discovered the limits of my mountain bike tires on pavement as i rounded the corner of the Vail parking garage last night. it wouldn't have been extremely fast on a road bike, but apparently it was too fast for a mountain bike. i leaned in, and instead of smoothly cruising through the corner, i heard the "chirp! chirp! chirp!" of the knobbies on the pavement as they tried to keep their grip. in that split second i could imagine their tiny little fingers just barely hanging on. their little knuckles white as finger by finger let go because of the centripital forces on their grip. finally, the knobbies were forced to give up. chirping turned to sliding, and the next thing i knew i was finding myself sliding thigh-first across the pavement. somehow in my slide i must have turned from my left side onto my butt. probably a smart move, but the damage was done.

i popped up like nothing happened, but traffic going the opposite direction and cyclists not far behind me knew better. not that you had to SEE it happen to KNOW what happened. i lined up for the Men's Sport class with half a leg of lycra missing and a shiny, bloody red spot (neatly peppered with blacktop) in its place. people around me tried not to stare, but i could always tell when somebody noticed by the grimace on their face. no time to clean it up, i didn't need the distraction before the race.

oh, the race? yeah, cancelled five minutes in because of lightning. go figure :)

leadville silver rush 50

2006-07-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

i have this mental checklist that i go through before every ride or race. i go from head to toe.

helmet.
check.
jersey.
check.
undershirt.
check.
shorts.
check.
socks.
check.
shoes.
check.

usually it's a pretty good system.

well, this time the system failed me. as i was pulling into the city limits of leadville, i realized that i didn't grab my helmet. the most important part of my "uniform" and i had forgotten it.

not a great start to a long, long race.

nevermind that i had never ridden more than 30 miles on mountain bike before. nevermind that those 30 miles had taken place in locations like kentucky, north carolina, or texas. nevermind that those locations are all at sea level. nevermind that the largest "mountains" in those areas register no larger than a zit in the rocky mountains.

i was going to do it. i was going to finish the 50 mile Silver Rush race in Leadville if it killed me.

helmet or not.

fortunately, one of the race promoters remembered that a helmet was left behind from last year's race. long story short, i ended up getting a helmet, but that little hiccup in my plans meant that i started five minutes late. so, when the starting gun went off, i was 200 yards away busy trying to squeeze into my clothes.

running late meant that the pressure was off at the start. all alone, i trudged up the sledding hill at the start, bike slung over my shoulder. a few remaining spectators cheered me on.

things began looking up when i passed my first person less than a mile into the race. then i passed another one. and another one. i started picking people off left and right. i went up and down two killer mountain passes and i was still passing people (albeit less and less often).

things kind of went that way until i hit the turnaround point, twenty-five miles in. it was kind of a relief to hit the turnaournd. at that point i knew that i had survived everything the course could throw at me. and while i still had to climb those two mountain passes, i knew that my overall change in elevation would be negative, so...for the most part the return trip would be downhill.

for most of the return trip i biked/hiked alongside a guy named bill from minnesota. fifty-nine years old. a real stud. it was his first Silver Rush 50, he's run the Leadville 100 numerous times, and in August he would be doing his tenth Leadville 100 on the bike. we kept each other company for the first nine miles back.

then...i lost a cleat bolt. i couldn't keep up with him on the uphills anymore, i had to walk.

i wasn't too far into the race before i had to walk with the bike. maybe about mile 9. my legs just gave out and trail got too steep. i felt pretty bad about that. but this time it pretty much sucked because i could have ridden, but the missing cleat bolt kept me from clipping in properly. so this time walking was a chore. i walked for about 20 minutes before i was pretty sure that all of the uphill walking was done. then i repaired what i could on the shoe and headed downhill.

from then on, the race was both literally and figuratively downhill. i rolled across the finish line in a little over seven hours. the top finisher finished in four hours and seven minutes. quite a disparity, i know. but i've identified about a half dozen ways in which to improve and i'm looking forward to next year already.

so all total, i ascended 7652 feet. that's 4414 on the way out, and 3238 on the way back. 50 miles in the books and i can't wait till next year. the goal: less than six hours.

oh yeah, one last thing. a cool perk to finishing the race was getting a silver bracelet to commemorate the event. that's some bling i won't mind sporting :)

long time comin'

2006-07-06T15:35:00.000-06:00

[special thanks to colin simithraaratchy for use of his photos. my camera is "in the shop"]

and without further ado, the PHOTOBLOG!

this past weekend, i hopped on the jet plane and headed out of town for the wedding of two awesome kids - adam and monika

but FIRST! it was time to check out the club scene in 'ol fort worth.

here we are trying not to look gay at fort worth's "brokeback" club. of course, the man-hugging is not helping things...

between watching the bearded lumberjacks make out and facilitating the crackheads at taco cabana, there was a wedding to attend.

the bride looked lovely, as usual.

the groom ended up wearing that cake. i ended up eating it. LOTS of it. three slices, i believe.

much dancing and drinking was done. the party hats and favors were a special touch. although the wedding was very well attended, there were few single babes. that left my buddy nick and i swingin' stag.

picking up the few single ladies at the wedding didn't go as well as we hoped. the stiff drinks i kept feeding adam's mom never kicked in and nick's fun with the underaged girl ended when her father showed up.

in hopes of better luck, at the conclusion of the wedding we retreated to the local yuppie bar. here, nick (looking dapper in his white sport coat, i might add) asks one of the bar whores for her number. she's trying to look busy by playing tetris on her cell phone.

when "getting digits" didn't go so well, we turned to the bottle.

that's when things went downhill.

do you think that Tubbs ever pulled the Ferrari over so that Crockett could puke?

the reactions were priceless!

what a player - it looks like nick got his second wind!

now let's go find out where those high school girls hang out...

i'm back

2006-06-15T15:36:00.000-06:00

well, i'm back from vacation. all ten days of it.

no pictures to post right now. my camera went kapput on day two.

of course, a post-wedding run into the ocean (suit and all) does that to fragile electronics.
but we won't be telling sony about that, now will we?

later

ode to the airport bookstore

2006-06-09T08:45:00.000-06:00

oh, airport bookstores...don't be silly...

i'm not buying your magazines.

i'm not buying your books.

but i will stand there and read while i'm waiting for my flight.

i will stand there in front of the magazine racks and read the latest issue of mac addict.

i will block the view of actual paying customers while flipping through the latest gq.

i will let those annoying magazine subscription cards from road and track fall to the floor without a worry.

because, airport bookstore, you are NOT a real bookstore.

you are merely a mini-bookstore.

just tcbn'

2006-06-01T13:20:00.000-06:00

no real news to report

some camping and mountain biking over the memorial day weekend

i did find a mountain that i want to knock off

castle mountain

kinda reminds me of castle GRAYSKULL

a pic of buffalo creek

the basin

2006-05-22T12:55:00.000-06:00

skiing is still alive and kickin' in colorado!

went to the basin on saturday for some snowsliding and partying at "The Beach"

we fired up the grill and had us some vittles

boca burgers...mmmmmmmmmm...good!

it's official!

2006-05-22T12:53:00.000-06:00

i've only been here for about four months...

thought i'd go ahead and get that license plate thing taken care of

poaching trails again

2006-05-18T17:42:00.000-06:00

ktr

2006-05-16T12:25:00.000-06:00

the Kokopelli Trail Race. a 142 mile test of endurance and fortitude.

on mountain bikes. non-stop. in some of the toughest terrain that utah and colorado have to offer. it starts in moab, utah and ends in loma, colorado.

oh, and it's unsupported. that means that there's no water bottle feeds, no mechanics, no sag wagons; it's pretty much run whatchya brung.

i really respect the riders that finish, hell, even start this race. a 22-mile race is tough, a four-hour endurance race even tougher. many 50 mile and 100 mile races exist all over colorado. in fact, in July i'll be doing the Leadville Silver Rush race, a 50 miler. just 50 miles, and i'm sure i'll suffer.

but think about it, 142 miles where you have to support yourself. no cheering crowds, nobody handing out water or food. many of these riders carry a water filter and trek off of the course to filter water from available (not many in the high desert) streams or ponds. crazy!

so i salute YOU! ultra-endurance riders.

maybe someday my butt will see 12+ hours of consecutive saddle time

same 'ol, same 'ol?

2006-05-16T09:43:00.000-06:00

captain's log...

not much to report here. despite the fact that i brought the camera with me on some mountain biking jaunts this past weekend, it never actually left the cab of my truck. alot of good that does, huh? well, i have skiing planned for this weekend and a vacation in the near future. plenty of pics to come...

hmmm...maybe i'll take this time to comment on the prez's plan to beef up border patrols. i don't think that anyone would argue with me that the time is long past due for shutting the doors on mexico. but the prez's plan sounds kind of weak.

like allowing the already 11 million illegal immigrants already in the US to work towards legal status and eventual citizenship? isn't that like speeding past a cop, racing to get home, and then pulling in your garage and shutting the garage door quickly and claiming "hey, i beat the cop home, so i don't deserve a ticket."

i say round up the illegals and ship them out. they don't deserve legal status just because they snuck by.

as for beefed up border patrols by using National Guard troops, i'd say that's a fairly sound idea. i say fairly, because our National Guard is already pretty thin with the war in iraq. why don't we just get busy building a fence (or wall). in the end, that's the only economical solution.

it's about time somebody tackled these issues. i'm no bush fan, but let's hope he's taking some steps in the right direction on this. if something positive were to come of this, it would be the sliver of light in the dark hole that is his administration.

adios!

fruita

2006-05-11T16:09:00.001-06:00

i've been such a slacker in updating the blog. with the nice weather and all, my time at work has been spent planning future adventures, not reveling in old ones. oh, and working a little bit too.

hey! before i start talking about my trip to fruita, what's up with my company, hereafter known anonymously as ACME CORP. blocking myspace access at work? i was about to make the leap and create a profile when the IT geeks decided to block it. i guess i'll stick to blogger?

once a year the town of fruita puts on a mountain biking festival - the Fruita Fat Tire Festival. it's a way to kind of kick off the mountain biking season. while denver and the rest of the front range is busy thawing out, fruita is kickin' it with warm temps and dry, smooth trails.

so the trip to fruita was without incident. we left a little rain behind in denver and arrived to sunny and 70-odd degrees in fruita.

this was the view from our campsite - in Colorado Monument National Park. pretty cool, huh? no showers, so we had to raid the state park campground down the mountain, but nice view to wake up to.

on day one we hit the rides off of Mary's Loop. rocky, loose and overlooking the Colorado river.

day two, i grabbed a sweet demo bike from Titus, the Racer-X. this sweet mutha carved up the trails on 18 road beautifully. so beautiful, in fact, that the monday i got back to denver, i ordered one for myself.

my pre-ride food strategy: turkey on pita bread, smothered in honey. honey goes on anything!

my companion on this trip was julie. julie is also a recent transplant to denver, oddly enough from dallas. she proved to be as cool to hang out with off the bike as on.

julie on zippety-do-da

a much closer view of julie

rocky mountain high

2006-05-09T15:51:00.000-06:00

so there's this old ski area - Hidden Valley - in Rocky Mountain National Park. i guess it was the bee's knees back in the day. and NO, it's NOT where they make salad dressing...

this place closed in the mid-80s, i believe, so they tore all of the lifts down and removed the base lodge. but the ski runs still remain...sort of...

so dave, jeremy, and i drove as far into the park as we could. some of trail ridge road remains under snow, so we parked where the road ended and hiked the rest of the way.

in the parking lot a minivan of japanese tourist mistook is for "PO-FESSIONALS"

sure, PROFESSIONAL jackasses!

i'm showing it's SO-PRO to go to the little boy's room with all of my gear on

the trip basically devolved into one big Glamour shots opportunity. we hiked to the top, reveled in the views, and snapped photos like those japanese tourists

the only real highlight came when i crashed hard face-first into some corn snow. for the uninitiated, corn snow is basically warmed-over snow with the consistency of shards of glass. my nose didn't fare so well.

ah, well. chicks dig scars

thanks for keeping me company radiohead

2006-05-04T11:09:00.000-06:00

rainy, cold three hour ride last night

new pearl jam and "classic" radiohead kept me groovin'

radiohead actually makes me think that anyone can play guitar

an inside job

2006-05-03T15:16:00.000-06:00

pearl jam's newest album (self-titled) was released yesterday

i, of course, have given it a listen (well, twenty times or so)

so far, my favorites:
inside job
gone
life wasted
big wave
world wide suicide

no idea what to think of Marker in the Sand & Parachutes

inside job, in particular, sends chills up my spine. this album really rocks...in between some serious jams are ear-pleasing ballads. as big as Ten? not likely. pearl jam has never been one to cater to the public or music executives. but i'm certain that at least two of these songs will be on regular rotation on the radio stations this summer

that's my first impression...more later...

oh, and Eddie and the gang will be on Letterman tomorrow night

dumb and dumber

2006-04-24T11:46:00.000-06:00

so on saturday, jeremy and i set out to skin to the eiseman hut. we had heard that of all of the huts in the 10th mountain division, this one was the hardest to get to. apparently, many times, folks don't actually make it all the way; they end up turning around frustrated.

starting the day out right...

we love to make you SMILE!

starting elevation: 8620 feet

hut elevation: 11180 feet

about 8 miles of road and trail to the hut

driving into the vail valley, jeremy and i began to wonder if there would even be enough snow. sure, the resort was covered, but the temps have been so warm lately that we thought we'd be hiking on dirt. we were relieved to see that there was indeed snow.

so the ascent was pretty uneventful. downright boring, actually. other than problems with my skins (tip loops kept coming off, then the tail loops started doing the same), we schussed to the hut at a pretty casual pace.

once we got to the hut, there were actually two people inside, but they had to be the most un-friendly coloradoans i've met so far. they hardly acknowledged us, so we ate our lunch outside on the deck.

man, i look like a jackhole

that's pretty much snow OVER the roof of the hut. needless to say, it snow A LOT up there!

yep! 11,180 feet

shitter's full!

view from the hut. not bad. that's vail resort in the lower left corner.

now, seeing as how we ascended over 2500 feet, we figured the trip downhill would be a snap. not so. the sunny warm weather turned all of that once snow to mush (a factor later on, stay tuned...) and the downhill leg lasted about 1.5 hours.

once we got back to jeremy's truck, all i could think about was some beau jo's pizza in idaho springs. we thought that if we hurried, we'd make it just in time before they closed. btw, beau jo's creates one of the most savory pies i've ever tasted. if you've ever tried it, consider yourself lucky.

well, the trip home didn't go well. we got about 100 feet before his tacoma got stuck. snow up to the axles STUCK! it didn't help that his tires were as bald as the ragin' cajun james carville's head. this was at 8 PM.

after unsuccessfully trying to dig the truck out, we resorted to AAA. after calling and waiting for three different tow trucks (none of which would go beyond the dirt road), jeremy called Vail Search & Rescue. this didn't happen until about midnight.

i wasn't about to spend the night spooning with jeremy in his truck. personally, i'd rather walk back to town naked. so i've got to give search & rescue credit. they were there pretty quickly and the guy knew what he was doing. sure, the search & rescue guy got his truck stuck twice himself, but he set up a pretty slick apparatus of ropes and webbing and pulleys to extract jeremy's toyota from the snow ditch. these guys work on a volunteer basis, so it was pretty sick of him to be roused from bed and come all the way from eagle to bail two dumbasses out.

oh yeah, we weren't done being pulled from the slush until about 2:30 in the morning. we didn't get back to denver until 5. a loooong adventure...

i didn't end up tasting the sweetness that is beau jo's pizza that day.

but i'm heading to the desert this weekend. maybe i'll get my chance on the way back...

adios!

show your bones anti-review

2006-04-18T12:52:00.000-06:00

picked up the yeah yeah yeahs new album show your bones this past weekend

i loved this group the first time i heard them, when they were called the strokes. i guess this is what all the hipsters are listening to. sigh. well, i'm not going to fork over another 14 bucks for fever to tell. i guess i'll have to steal that one off of the internets.

ciao

pj

2006-04-17T12:51:00.000-06:00

i stayed up to watch pearl jam on SNL. as predicted, they played world wide suicide. they also played another new one, severed hand. it was all good stuff. can't wait until the cd release on may 2nd.

now for my beef:

how much would you pay to see your favorite band?

apparently, i wouldn't pay enough. pearl jam is playing in denver on two nights in july. normally i would be ecstatic (actually, i was) - until i saw the ticket price. 200 bones.

okay, let me clarify. that's 200 bucks for fan club tix. the best in the house. last time i had fan club tickets i was on the floor in the pepsi center and had a great view. 200 bucks is also for two tix. as a fan club member you have to buy two, no option for just one.

$100/ticket is just too steep for me. i understand that they're the best seats and tom petty and the heartbreakers are opening, but wasn't pearl jam (just a few years ago) all about crusading against ticketmaster and rising ticket costs? apparently those flannel-wearing fans of yore have grown into bmw-driving yuppies and can afford seats at 100 bucks a pop...

so, my solution is to see pearl jam in cincinnati (sans tom petty, instead with some unknown opening act). i can't get fan club tix as they were already sold out, but this way it can double, no triple, as a trip home, a birthday gift to my brother, and a damn fine concert.

what? what's that you say? it will cost more to fly east and see them in cincinnati than it would to buy the overpriced tickets and see pearl jam at home in denver-

but, it's the principal of the thing...

nutella is my crack

2006-04-17T12:45:00.000-06:00

the (almost) FINAL tally:

13 days "on-mountain":

10 days at copper mountain
1 day at winter park
1 day at breckenridge

plus 1 full day "out-of-bounds"

not bad for moving here a little over two months ago...

i might still get in one day at a-basin, and i have plans this coming weekend to skin up to the Eiseman hut in Vail (about 3000 vertical feet in 6 miles of climbing) and then ski back down.

ahhhh....winter you were fun, but spring is here and it's time to mountain bike

prognosis = normal

2006-04-15T21:34:00.000-06:00

after much phone tag, got the results back on the biopsy.

all is normal.

good to hear, obviously. just a reminder that the human body is a complex thing. lots of stuff has to go right for a person to live to 70, 80, even 90 or 100. heck, for that matter, it's a wonder "most" of us come out fairly normal at birth.

'nuff said on that. i'll go back to enjoying my Dreyers Whole Fruit strawberry bar and soaking up the UV rays ;)

Pearl Jam is on SNL tonight. pretty sure they'll play "world-wide suicide" and maybe an oldie. we'll see...

hut trip

2006-04-11T09:25:00.000-06:00

boy! i left that last entry a real downer, huh?

well, no pathology results yet.

but, it's just another reason i'm so adamantly opposed to tanning beds and why i almost always sport sunscreen.

on a brighter note, last week i took a few days off of work to head up to the mountains and take part in a backcountry hut trip. see, there are a ton of "huts" back in the wilderness, typically miles from nowhere, and a non-profit organization runs these things. these aren't primitive lean-tos, they're solar-powered log cabins with wood burning stoves, propane burners, and room to sleep about 16. sure, there's no flushable toilets or heat/ac, but anyone hoofing it several miles into the middle of nowhere isn't looking for those luxuries.

so wednesday afternoon, dave, jeremy, and myself packed up our gear and snowshoed about 5 miles to hut.

five miles of "hiking" never hurt so good. i think that both my pack and jeremy's weighed a good 15 lbs more than dave's "lightweight" rig. good thing we were carrying all the food ;)

ahhh...the cozy confines of the hut.

dave and jeremy eating breakfast before hiking for turns on thursday.

damn! i make some nice pancakes! this ain't no ramen noodles cookout, baby! i'm a regular emeril in the wilderness.

thursday we awoke to fresh powder. i think about a foot of snow fell by the end of the day.

lots of wind-blowing, sideways snow...

apparently the snow stopped long enough for this photo of dave. there's no chairlifts up here, so you have to hike for all of your turns. we all sucked plenty of wind to get some vertical.

that's ski cooper way off in the distance behind us. good times...

i think all of us walked away from this hut trip eager to do more. i already have plans to skin up to at least one before this season is out. i hear it's about a six mile hike into the eiseman hut near vail. of course, that's 3000 vertical feet in just six miles.

should make for a nice workout...

biopsy

2006-04-04T15:18:00.000-06:00

"i can biopsy those for ya"

yeah, not a word i like hearing.

* biopsy *

so i noticed this spot on my left shoulder a few days ago. a speck. barely noticeable. almost freckle-like. except...that it was darker. and...didn't exactly have a defined border. more like a bunch of concentrated dots. and, i really hadn't noticed it before. let's see, years of sunburns (on the shoulders and back mainly) as a kid, easily freckles, typically light skin. yeah, i'm a prime candidate. of course, my internet diagnosis was MELANOMA.

eeek!

okay, calm down, i told myself. just get it checked out.

so i went and saw this doc (my first since moving to CO). dr chester cedars. nice old guy. handlebar moustache. definitely cool. he said it was probably nothing, but just in case, he snipped it out. well, he snipped the spot on my left shoulder and an even smaller (pinhead-sized) spot on the right shoulder. it's off to the pathologist now. a few stitches on each shoulder and i was out of there.

no tears. and i even got a sucker.

:)

why you should wash your clothes before you wear them for the first time:

2006-03-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

our admin assistant has been walking around this morning still wearing the size sticker on the leg of her new chinos

i just don't have the heart to tell her...hehe...

march MADness!

2006-03-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

i won the office pool! 65 buckaroos!

despite the fact that i pinned my hopes on the blue devils, my choice of ucla in the final four sealed the deal for me. i placed pretty well in my fort worth pool, too. fifth place i think. that put me out of the money, but boy! OH BOY! the payoff would have been three times as much as what i won in my denver office pool. no complaints...

so the cards lost last night. it was a sad showing. i thought they had the potential to win the NIT. but what do i know? they continue to disappoint. i hope they get these injuries behind them and come out strong next year.

without cable, i had to settle for watching the game on the stationary bike at 24 hour fitness. not too bad, but i prefer sitting and watching at home in my plaid jammies.

but...before i watched the game, i hit the trails near deer creek valley/elk meadows. i poached some "private" trails in the ken-caryl neighborhood. screw them! private? if they really meant to keep them private they would put them under lock and key. nuthin's stopping me!

i'm going back tonight to explore some more...

cool as ice...

2006-03-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

i met sunday morning wide-eyed and ready to roll at 5:15 AM as I had to meet Dave at the Dino lots by 6 to get to the mountains for first chair. everything went according to plan. we had a great day on the mountain and dave was even a sport and hung with me on the greens as i tried to dial in some decent turns on the tele skis. i'm tellin' ya - riding the groomers with a newbie can be a headache for somebody used to the double blacks. so i've got to give props to dave for chillin' with me and the other beginners out there. especially after a run-away spring-breaker knocked me to ground without any sort of apology.

soooo...after the day at copper, we beat the traffic and got back to denver by dinnertime. i grabbed a quick snack and jumped on the bike.

the plan: 2.5 hours of base riding.
the weather: cold and overcast, forecast of up to a foot of snow sunday night

let's just say this ride ended up being one of epic proportions. things started when i realized that my map (the third one in 1.5 months) flew out of my jersey pocket one hour into my ride. SOLDIER ON! i said. i'm not gonna let something like "knowing where i am" get in my way.

then the snow started coming down. first, in a gentle, calming sort of way. THEN, in a blowing-sideways, ice up my sunglasses (clear lenses) annoying manner.

my 2.5 hour ride ended up being 4 hours. i covered a little over 50 miles, not really a fast pace, but not bad considering my bike was caked in ice by the end. i ended up running sans light for a while because i had to conserve battery power for a known dark stretch close to home. oh, and getting lost and ending up on a dark divided highway wasn't particularly pleasant.

the helmet - nicely ice covered

the drivetrain - pretty, uh disgusting...

and the ICE BIKE, musta weighed three times more than before the ride started

will i get stuck out in the snow and ice again? yep.

book report!

2006-03-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

so i'm officially the last person on earth to read THE DA VINCI CODE

no worries, i'm not much on trends. but i do like being able to converse with the kids these days.

did it live up to the hype? naw, not really. i gotta say [WARNING: spoiler comin' right at ya], i was pretty ticked when they opened the cryptx only to find another cryptx inside. ENOUGH WITH THE CODE-BREAKING ALREADY! besides, any decent engineer could open that baby up McGuyver-style without the code.

intriguing? YES
will i read the prequel, Angels and Demons? YES
will i watch the A&E, Disco & History channel specials on "breaking the da vinci code"? YES

well, i guess i've given in to the hype...

now for a book that's no hype, all fact...

i finished the da vinci code long ago. but, honestly, i was burning through those last couple of chapters so i could get on to lance armstrong's war.

i gotta tell ya, it's a good read. whether you're a fan of lance or not, or even a follower of cycling in general, LA's War gives real insite into the peloton. and, unlike other books about lance, this one talks in depth about his competitors, teammates, and coaches. it's a book that gave me great respect for floyd landis and ivan basso, revealed a more personal side to lance's life, and showed why lance keeps his friends close, but enemies closer.

really...

2006-03-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

i have too much fun reading other people's blogs to post my own

more to come, i promise...

games adults play

2006-03-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

this past weekend some friends from fort worth were up in summit county. they had a sweet condo in frisco and i stayed with them one night. the odd thing was that a bunch of costumes were stuffed in one of the bedroom closets. the condo owners probably didn't intend for them to be worn on the slopes, but...better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, i always say...

eric (goofy), me (tigger, NOT tony the tiger), elise (grumpy), and justin (adorable pooh)

give me some of your HONEY!

tigger shredding on the mountain

hey, you got something in your ear...let me lick that out...

a little costume switcheroo (elise, cara, and stacy)

snow in my shoe

2006-03-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

i had a post for this day, but i kicked the cord on the computer and lost it ALL...

nuthin' important, really

my spinach wrap

2006-02-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

so a snowboarder, a tele skier, and a alpine skier walk into a bar...

dawn patrol again as i met dave and nina for some snow sliding up at copper mountain

while waiting for the snowcat, dave snagged this eurotrash -

sweet dude! we'll be able to track your neon ass when you eject your skis and tumble down tucker mountain!