Rest day finally, then onto the bike?!!

Finally took a rest day on Friday.  My knee was very unhappy about getting slammed straight onto a rock without any save attempt.  It was one of the most painful knee schwaps I've ever taken.....and that's something to say seeing as I got 6 stitches across it in December.  I worked on Warren's knee ironically- he's slated for meniscus surgery in a couple weeks.  He let me borrow a car while Lily's finishing up the WFR course in Santa Cruz.  Word is that the van is back in operation after having the distributor ($500) replaced and a flat tire fixed.  I got invited to go to UT and CO w/ Kevin, Charlie, Rob, and Bozak but am going to hold off and hopefully take a E. Side trip to the Sierra's w/ the birthday girl (Lily's 27 on Tues).  Daron and Lindsey just took off for a week long trip to Bishop, Mammoth, Bridgeport, etc.  With climbing, big tours, and hot springs w/ camping abound it sounds like the economy special.  After 4 months without work I have to take money into account a little more these days!!  I got some really nice shots of Donner Lake; it really is an amazing place to live.  I have to soak it in seeing as the end is starting to approach the horizon (1 month).  Yesterday (Sat. the 28th) I rode XC w/ Nate Dawg down in the Reno area.  We rode up to the snow line on some buffy buff singletrack.  It was pretty busy being a Saturday, not to mention we were riding the loop backwards since he thought the older more beat down trail would be better to descend....and he was right!!  The DH was fast and flowy.....but also loose in sections.  Every time I tried to catch a little air there would  be a funky rock in the landing or a tight corner.  I still had a blast.....especially since Daron just freshened up the ol' Enduro- new XTR front der, Easton EA50 bar, Truvativ stem (shorter w/ more rise), and all new housing and cables.  It looked brand new.  Too bad it's only worth a G and I have around 3g's into it.  Probably a keeper!!  I ate the rare fast food and my belly suffered for a while!!  I had to go to the health food store and stock up after that!!  There were some good BB games on (march madness), and we watched it between Dawg's house and Blue Coyote where we ran into Daron and Lindsey.  I ended up renting some movies and vegging at the house after that.  Today I've tried to get packed for a big backcountry adventure which is imminent and get ahold of Lily who's supposed to be back today (?).  Mich State is leading Louisville at the half and I'm sipping a latte writing this blog.  Time to upload some pics......... Descriptions:  1,2,4,5- Donner Lake- I live in the middle of the panoramic pic (2nd one down).  Pic 3- my leg modeling career is clearly over!!

Rest day......tomorrow!!

As I was going to bed last night Daron came home w/ Greg Long so I knew I wasn't going to get any rest today.  We went to the Bowl...no shocker there.  Daron had grabbed a split board for Greg and he was stoked to get a crack at riding one.  Except it was really windy and still rather cold out when we got there after a luxurious morning of sipping strong coffee and eating a huge scramble and banana/blueberry pancakes.  We rode some groomers off Disney- Marketstreet and some East face of Lincoln.  Then we went for a trial Patrol Run to see if the snow had softened.  It had and we dropped in, except Greg didn't see where we went and went back in bounds so as not to get lost.  Daron and I waited for a bit on the side of the slope poking around calling his name.  As we were hiking out I had the most unfortunate experience of schwapping my knee REALLY freakin hard on a rock.  I took a step and sunk unexpectedly up to my groin very quick and forcefully while my R knee bent and slammed straight on into a very pointy rock.  I almost got sick it hurt so bad.  WAY worse than when I got the 6 stitches not to long ago.  It hurt a 9 3/4 out of 10 for a solid 60-90 sec.  It felt like eternity.  I gingerly make my way to my feet and test it out.  It's throbbing but I can tell my body has kicked in the pain relievers.  I take 800mg of Ibuprofen to combat the inflammation.  We finished the hike and rallied down to meet up with Greg.  Instead of calling it a day I do a FULL PR lap w/ Daron and Greg.  But it was worth it.  We got good snow and Daron and I took a totally different line riders R of the usual run. It looked really good and it was.  There was a good cliff band that we had to negotiate, but it worked out fine.  Good exciting aesthetic line.  We skinned back up to Cornice bowl/W Palisades.  Greg entertained us with first time skinning antics which involved trying to RUN down a small slope like he was still on snowshoes.  He ended up doing a home plate slide right in front of me.  His hands collapsed and were under his chest when he landed.  I laughed myself silly.  He was a good sport and did a great job as a rookie slit boarder.  We rocked out of the bowl and checked out some march madness at the Blue Coyote.  I got to meed Daniel, Greg's son who I hadn't seen since the day he took off the training wheels on his bike.  We watched Pitt, Villanova, UConn and Missouri win exciting games.  I'm taking a rest day tomorrow, no questions asked.  My knee scrape/gouge needs some TLC and so does the rest of my poor aching body!!  

More Diamond Ridge Pics

you can see my diving board drop up and L in the pic below

Diamond Ridge Tour w/ Tommy and Charlie

Today I was awoke by the sound of the phone ringing.  I had called a few people the night before trying to hook something up so I knew this was my chance.  It was Charlie....I thought it was going to be Rob trying to find a partner for his great ski hunt (lost the day before on the Lake Run).  He wanted to go back out to the Cat Skiing zone/Diamond Ridge (where they had been the day before while we were tagging Andersen Ridge).  I said "yes" immediately and he came and picked me up.  Tommy called while Charlie was on his way and joined the team.  We headed out Andersen Ridge which was very firm and shaped by the wind.  We scoped a number of lines as we skinned past General Principle and up over the next point on the ridge.  From there we got great views of Andersen Peak and the tracks down it looked very nice.  I have to get out to the Sierra Club hut at the base of the peak.  There is some PRIME terrain right out the back door!!  We dropped the first line of the day which was short but had great POW!!  I made some deep turns then rode a spine and had a sweet air off a diving board (~12') into some more milky turns.  Tommy did some slalom turns through the rocks and Charlie rode a steep spine to a sweet air off a snow pyramid.  We skinned right back up their skin track from the day before which was steep and below some convex rollovers.  Tommy almost hit me with a huge "cinnamon bun" that developed from some snow he kicked off inadvertently (the snow was already getting sticky).  We kept skinning out the ridge to the furthest hight point just below Andersen Peak and dropped a few different lines again.  I had another great run with some nice turns and a good sized air off the left of the main cliff band.  I stopped 3/4 of the way down and got pics of Tommy slashing the wall and a GREAT pic of him doing a grab off a rock drop.  We rode as far as we could and then skinned the rest of the way to the top of Diamond Ridge.  We got into radio contact w/ Brian Bozak, the 2 Noah's, and Emily who were doing some snowmobile recon in the area.  We dropped in on some amazing terrain which unfortunately was a little past its prime.  We set off lots of wet slides and sent roller balls flying all over the slope.  It was fun but kind of sloppy/sketchy too.  We skinned out past a few ponds, some small lakes, and right along a creek for a bit (no fall zone!!).  The sleds caught up with us and Tommy got pulled out by Bozak.  Charlie and I decided to skate out (since he made it seem like we were close to it all being downhill).  Well, it was far from being over.  It took a solid 30+ min of skating, mostly with only one skin on my L ski so I could kick off w/ the L and glide on the R ski.  We were pretty worked over by the time Tommy showed back up w/ his truck (and some beers).  We cruised back up to Sugarbowl to retrieve our other vehicles and share some laughs over a nice cold beer.  Life is grand!!  One of these days I'm going to take a rest day........ but maybe not tomorrow.  Tommy wants to go to Auburn and ride some XC.  Daron just pimped out my bike w/ some new bars, stem, front deraileur, and all new cables/housing w/ my used/new XT shifters.  The snow is pretty heavy and there's only sun on the forecast.  I guess spring is here.......

Pic descriptions:  1. Tommy charging Diamond Ridge (notice the manky snow)  2-3. Tommy airing it out!!  4. Charlie airing out the pyramid  5. Tommy doing his slalom turns

More Trifecta Pics

Pic descriptions:  1. Tommy nailing the Sneaker Chute  2.  Tommy raging The Wart  3-4. Tommy making "the" move on The Wart  5.  Rob dropping off Mt Judah 

Trifecta w/ Rob Anthony and Tommy Beckering

This morning Rob called and had a few plans.....Maggie's, Tallac, or a Trifecta (Andersen, Judah, Trestle).  Once Tommy was in the Trifecta was served up cold and fresh.  We rolled out the Lincoln chair on some of the best groomers possible....cold and smooth as a babies butt.  We almost did another "warm up" lap on the groomers then quickly decided to go OB.  We rolled out and checked out the Burbolator shoulder before continuing on to General Principle (GP).  Tommy set up a shot and Rob dropped in.  He popped out the bottom hooting and hollering with joy.  I dropped in and got beautiful pow turns into the bottleneck of the chute then laid a sweet slash off the R wall before pointing it out the bottom.  We radioed up to Tom to do the "sneaker chute," off to the lookers R of GP.  He obliged and got arguably the sickest line in that zone.  And I got some sweet pics of it!!  We skinned right back up across the bottom on Andersen and back on top.  This time Rob dropped in on one of the faces to riders L of the Burb face.  He negotiated some less than ideal snow and a big wind lip before getting into the sweet sweet powder.  I dropped into the Burb shoulder but was quickly sliding on my butt after attempting a turn on the first rollover.  I quickly changed plans and dropped into the Burb where there was ample powder to slash up.  Nice run.  Then Tommy nailed the WART!!  I've only seen Jeremy Jones do that line this year!!  I got a nice sequence of him charging the line.  We skinned up to Roller Pass, then onto Lunch Rock and the top of Judah.  We decided to do the other Judah Bowl since the usual run got chowed up by us and some others the day before.  It was a sweet run and I got some good turns and a pointer at the bottom.  Then we boot packed over to Trestle Peak where we met up w/ Cory and his dog.  We all dropped in a little more hastily since Tommy had to work.  It was amazing up top and we all got nice turns and some airs.  We dropped all the way down and to the L where we skirted the trestle before hitting up the Boneyard.  That's where Rob's day took a turn for the worse.  He went off a drop and had his new ski eject on him.  He searched for a while to no avail.  I got his truck and brought it back down while he searched more...again to no avail.  He's ready to get back out there tomorrow and find it!!  What a few days it has been!!  My body is worked over!!  If it snows a little bit on Wed night we might hit the Violet Couloir at the Buttes on Thursday.  Stay tuned!!  

Pic descriptions:  1. Tommy on The Wart  2. Rob riding L of the Burb  3. Tommy skinning below the monster cornice!!  4&5- Tommy getting the Sneaker Chute next to General Principle (our tracks).  

Pow or bust!!

After riding Sugarbowl on Thursday we were to drive to Santa Cruz where Lily had a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course.  Half way between Truckee and SC our van decided it wanted some attention and died after refueling.  Gave it some gas at the stop sign, it sputtered twice, made some clicking noise and stalled.  It wanted to start again, but this mysterious clicking noise kept occurring and would turn the van off like a light switch.  Brad the tow truck driver was our unexpected companion to SC in a flatbed Chevy 5500.  Rockstar and chew fueled him.   Lily had to keep an eye on him as he twice tried to take us past our exit.  We got it dropped off at the local shop around the corner from Lily's moms house.  We jumped on our bikes and rode to the mile and change to her house.  Her mom rents a nice house from her sister, and we had a nice bedroom complete with super cushy bed, large flatscreen TV, and remote control light/fan.  Lily went to class the next AM on a nice 4 hrs of sleep, and I watched March Madness and rode around SC.  The city has a nice progressive feel and lots of action downtown.  There were also an abundance of homeless people that I noticed.  I found some fun things to jib on and chatted w/ my mom for a while on the shore of a creek that ran nearby downtown.  They have a sweet climbing gym/yoga studio/workout room!!  The guy at the repair shop was quite the character.  I had to go down to the shop and show him how to get a spare key to work in the ignition (wiggle the steering wheel and key at the same time).  He must not deal w/ old hoopties like I've been around my whole life!!  We had a nice dinner w/ Lil and her mom and hung out at the house.  The next day I began to get antsy.  The weather was calling for 9-13" that night and I HAD to find a way back to Truckee.  Not that there was anything wrong w/ SC.....  I got frantic and emailed everyone on Ski Pals a local San Fran database of rideshares to the ski areas.  I got two replies...one from Ronald who wanted to skip the storm day and ride on Monday.  Dave called and was ready to hit it early.  I just had to find a way to Berkeley.....  With the wheels rolling, Kathy (Lily's mom) gives me beta on how to get there on public transport.  Two trains and a bus.  I had to leave in 30 min to make it there by 12:30.  I called a cab and rustled up my few belongings- camera, computer, and the clothes on my back.  Out the door and onto the 17 to San Jose.  The bus was a little late due to an accident (it was dumping rain).  When we get dropped off we realize we missed the train and had to wait 90 minutes.  What a trip.  Hanging out at the bus station.  With 30 minutes to go we get rudely ejected from the waiting room by a woman clearly ready to go home and take a nap.  Onto the train on track 3.  Not the comfy ride of a car that's for sure!!  I swayed back and forth like I was in a boat in rough water.  By now I'm pretty dazed and tired.  I catch the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) which loads up with more people coming and going to the various clubs and events.  I feel out of place since I haven't really been around that scene in a while.  Quite a sociologic moment.  You have to transfer to different trains a few times to get to your destination and I had to keep on my toes to make sure I didn't get lost.  Finally I get dropped off at the El Cerrito Plaza.  I made the mistake of passing on the cab which was parked outside and instead wandered around lost in the rain for a while before finding the right streets which were scribbled on a piece of paper in my pocket.  While passing a 24 hr restaurant I decided to give into the 1:30 am munchies and got another lesson in city culture.  The place was nuts.  They had a security guard.  I ate with my head down before continuing on to Dave's house on Van Fleet Dr.  I wrote down the wrong address and had to wander a bit more before calling him at 2:30.  This is where it gets funnier.  I show up drenched and he tries to get me to sleep in his minivan which is parked on a steep hillside that is drastically off camber.  After some grumbling he's like...."well, I DO have this cottage behind the house that you could PROBABLY crash in."  I was kind of shocked at how reluctant he was at letting me crash on his garage turned cottages floor.  I crashed on two couch cushions and a 5' tall sleeping bag and blanket.  CLICK.  Lights back on at 5:15.  We're off after a breakfast of cereal and smoothies he made as a "peace offering."  We got on the road by 5:30 in his 4wd Honda station wagon.  I briefly passed out then stayed awake and listened to his tales of beating colon cancer and how trippy his life has been.  He's an interesting but kind of weird dude.  We were forced to go 30-40 MPH for most of the Donner Summit area as they had their crazy chain checks w/ trucks everywhere.  I grabbed my stuff from the house, met up w/ Nate Dawg and rolled to the Bowl where they reported 13-18".  It was already tracked a bit by the time we all got tickets (first one I bought this season other that the season pass).  It was still sick as we hit Market Street and the Nose first.  I aired Bacon Bits but the landing was pretty hard and I ate it.  I kept w/ Nate and Dave for most of the morning before peeling from Dave and then Nate.  I raged it hard until 4.  Lots of airs and shredding of pow!!  I crashed out on the couch watching a movie by 8PM.  Up the next AM to ride Sugarbowl again w/ Daron.  Went right to the Lake run on Monday March 23rd w/ D and Sarah who Tellies.  We did the Mother Hen run in sick pow.  I took a good header off a nice 10' rock drop after clipping a rock right before takeoff.  It was soooo fluffy and deep that it didn't matter at all!!  We dropped in on the steeper face riders L of where we usually go to the trestle.  There were some boarders out ahead of us that were getting ready to hit an ENORMOUS booter that they built early in the AM.  We hung out in the trestle as we were the first ones there and watched a couple brave souls huck themselves 30-40' out AND down while doing tricks.  NUTS!!  We also watched Peoli, Emily, Bozak, and Tommy ride Banzai.  The Lake Run was getting hammered fast!!  We ducked around the trestle and did the Blue House run which was FULL of sweet little boulder drops and pillows.  Amazing run!!  We met up w/ Matt Delheimer and Benji at the bottom and rode back up w/ them.  We rode up Lincoln and did the Patrol Run all the way to the bottom (first time for me).  It was intense at the top w/ the wind howling and powder blowing in your face HARD.  The snow was blown out in parts and icy.  Near the bottom we got nice turns then dropped into a lower cliff zone and Benji and I snow-coned ourselves off a cornice drop.  We skinned up to Cornice Bowl and went back over to the Judah Chair.  We then did the Lake Run again.  And it was GREAT again.  We did the first door out of the trestle which was really filled in and took a commando crawl uphill to get out.  We all got great turns and sporadic airs.  Then Benji dislocated his shoulder off a drop that I watched.  He basically did a swan dive off a 15' cliff.  Daron and I tried to get it back in but no dice so he headed off to Dr. Denny at the urgent care.  We met Nate Dawg as we left and he jumped on w/ us.  We went back up and got a call that someone w/ Daron's buddy Eric took a bad tumble down the heart chute and was concussed and had a broken ankle.  Yikes!!  No intention of doing that chute anytime soon.  We rode Lincoln over to Roller Pass then skinned up Judah and dropped off the backside (Dawg's first time).  Over to the lake run for #3.  It was definitely heavier but was still fun.  Daron and I went to Burger Me for dinner, then grocery shopping before heading home and watching 21 about a card counting true story.  SNORE!! 

Even More Incredible Hulk Pics

Pic Descriptions:  1. My view from the bottom of the couloir.  My lens was packed w/ snow but I couldn't stop shooting.  2. Daron ascending the L Hulk Couloir  3. Purple rainbow on the Hulk?!!  4. Daron on the upper drainage.  The next mellow looking climb kicked my butt!!  Very firm snow and off camber!!  5. Another skier climbing up the ridge....look close....the scale is more dramatic than you think!!

More Incredible Hulk Pics

Pic Descriptions:  1. Daron soaking it in before slogging up the drainage and scraping up the steep ice headwall.  2. The Incredible Hulk is the second peak to the R of the glowing tree.  3. Daron rounding the corner and getting the view up the second drainage.  4. Wind tornado on the ridge should have been a sign of the times to come.....  5. Daron all dressed up with nowhere to go (early on in the hike).  

Trip to Bridgeport, CA

Daron decided that with four days off straight (at least) we should make the pilgrimage to the east side of the Sierras.  We settled on an itinerary that went like this:  Day one ski both couloirs on the Incredible Hulk outside of Bridgeport (w/ the Matterhorn, Ski Dreams, and other famous lines in the same area).  Unfortunately Daron got pulled over for 20 MPH over at ~6am by a local oinker, although he "only" wrote him up for 10 over (130$!).  After a lengthy delay we're back off.  We showed up around 9am after getting up EARLY (4:20).  We ran into one of Daron's friends in the parking lot right as we were taking off.  We skinned through the campground and up the valley toward our objective (which was 5 miles and 4k vertical ft away).  We had to work through an interesting zone where a creek was exposed in various spots and there was a narrow log crossing that led to the climb.  We strapped on the ski crampons and ascended the side of the mountain to the upper drainage.  After rounding that corner we were treated to a stunning view of enormous alpine granite spires.  We started up the drainage before fixing the ski crampons for an especially steep and firm section.  I struggled for more than a few minutes trying to get my crampon fixed (pin wouldn't line up!?!!) and Daron was nearly out of sight as I started up the ice ramp.  I wished I had both crampons fixed (always digging in) because it was FIRM!!  I think I made it up there on sheer upper body strength and poling alone.  Some sections had powder and made it incredibly hard to stay balanced (first time in a while I cursed the pow).  After a good struggle I make it to the bench and a well deserved slump over my poles.  Looking up to the Incredible Hulk rock formation and the top of the L couloir is a way to motivate myself to push on further.  Daron is gone and all of the tracks look the same, without evidence of fresh travel.  Since I can only see the L couloir and we had talked about doing both I start "charging" toward the bottom of the L of the formation.  Once I get onto the next bench I can see Daron still skinning up the side of the huge apron, although not too fast.  I put my head down and make up some ground (since I've stopped 50 times to take pics).  There was a nice sized rock off to the L where we changed over to boot crampons and put our boards/skis on our backs.  This is where things got interesting......it had been windy all morning but now the gusts were intensifying as if they knew we were trying to tiptoe our way up the aesthetic couloir.  With snow pelting me in the face with every gust I threw my super heavy pack on with the board sticking up like a sail.  Just as I get going I see Daron get flattened by a huge gust.  It approaches me like a tornado and I cower to the snow, digging my crampons in with all my might, poles digging in opposing directions.  If we were searching for excitement, we were sure getting it!!  5 miles back into the mountains, sandwiched between 1200' granite walls.....gripped.  After making it about 1/3 of the way up we decided to bail.  No sense in getting ourselves in an even worse scenario!!  The snow was pretty variable and tracks from previous parties were actually above the snow, like fossils.  We made some decent turns down the apron, then started traversing R along the edge of the slope to the middle bench.  We dropped that roller and made some increasingly soft turns before one more traverse to meet back up with the skintrack.  After getting below the traverse line and having to boot back up to it I was feeling pretty worked.  The last pitch actually had good soft turns but ended abruptly with another imminent changeover.  We skinned for a while, then took the skins off and had arguably some of the most exciting turns (at least for me!!).  There were lots of short fast sections through the trees mixed in with flat sections that taunted me.  Daron stopped a few times to watch the spectacle of me "skiing."  Somehow I managed to not kill myself or blow out a major joint in my body.  Back at the truck we devoured a good chunk of the pan of lasagna I had cooked the night before and a beer.  Ahhhh!!  With the forecast of increasing wind in the area we decided to head back home and wait for the conditions to improve before attempting to summit these huge peaks.  As we swung through Incline Village Daron wheeled into the In N Out Burger and I reluctantly ingested my first "double double animal style."  At the time I was surprised my the presentation and size of my task ahead.  But blind hunger prevailed and I only needed an ice cream and a couple chocolate bars to wash it down!!  Days like that are a testament to why you actually GAIN weight by physically exerting yourself for 8 hours in the cold.  The food must have put me in a coma because I slept for almost 12 hours!!  Today we took it easy in the morning (or what was left of it), cleaned, then went up to Sugarbowl and poached our way onto the chairlift.  It was trying to snow but was doing a better job of producing this wet slop that stuck to your goggles and creating the "pea soup effect" where you suffer vertigo trying to get down the slope (no depth, speed, or directional perception).  Fun times.  We last an hour then head back in time to see Ohio State lose the Big Ten championship in BB, then see the Cavs win their 27th home game of the season over the Knicks (27-1).  They're the Eastern Conference Champs this year!!  Gives me an excuse to lay on the couch and relax!!!  Go Cavs!! 

Pic descriptions:  1. The Incredible Hulk with the L couloir objective in sight!!  2-4. Me skinning up  5. The log crossing