The Beautiful Wasatch

Over the past week, I've had the pleasure of spending a few days out and about and have been delighted by what I've found.  Forget those grumpy guys and gals who say it's not good out there.  It's always good!

Here's the proof...

Josh looks like a gift from heaven... not really.  The gift was the approaching storm. 

Normally Jason and I match but he looks pretty synced up with Teague.  Didn't see another soul in White Pine this day. 

With high avy danger, we went somewhere that didn't have enough snow to slide. 

Of all the people I know, two ski more than the rest.  Meet Teague Holmes.

Lars is so happy because he moved to Salt Lake City from Colorado!

Jason and some evening alpenglow

Salt Lake, alpenglow, and clean air

Tom Goth

Little brother

Big Lars throwing down a Mountain Dew while taking in the view with skinny Teague.  I named my kids after these characters?

We thought about going over there...

I mostly 'backseat wiggle' as Adam calls it but sometimes it's fun to go a little faster.  photo by big Teague

Big Teague ripping on little skis

With every rime event comes a LOT of pictures.  Teague skinning behind the feathers.

Of all the people I know, there are two that ski more than the rest.  This is Adam Fabrikant.  

Scrambling feathery granite

Photo by big Teague

I asked Adam to throw a heel hook and he obliged. 

The summit feathers were the biggest

Adam searching for some snow to ski amongst the talus

Fabby and the Pheiff

Pretty psyched on the day with tracks visible down the center of the photo.

Also, I'm pretty psyched on the skiing in the Wasatch right now.  I know it's not the same as in years past but if anyone tells you it's not good, they're lying!

A Weekend at Home

Everyone was racing their hearts out over the weekend but due to poor training, poor health, a poor work schedule, and a very healthy and happy desire to be home with my wife and two awesome kids over the weekend, I stayed home.  

I didn't need to travel to find out that my regular training partners (Tom and Jason) would have left me in their cold powder dust.  

This is what I did instead (scroll down to skip to the skiing pics)...

Jessie is a superwoman but every now and then she needs a break and I get to wrestle both of em at the same time

He might as well left a "Lars was here" sign.  He  likes to find gum and eat it ALL.  He doesn't grasp the concept of chewing it. 

A nice evening hike with cotton sock mittens started out well...

...but became a sad affair once his hands got too cold.  Thanks for all the suggestions on Facebook etc. 

He still had a good time though (Big Lars in the background)

Almost big enough to really put him to work

Still managed a beautiful tour with Jake, who didn't let all that heavy crap on his feet slow him down...too much. 

Photo by Jake of me hiking the long winding ridge up to Red Stack

Even nature makes corduroy

Photo by Jake, AF Twins in the background

Mountain poser posing

The last little bit

Stunning light, stunning day

This pretty well captures this guy.  It was freezing and we had every scrap of clothing on.  The wind was trying to knock us off our little perch and Jake smiles on.  He's been a good but all too infrequent partner in the mountains for years...ever since I used to be a climber of sorts.

At first the skiing didn't look too encouraging with more rocks than snow.

But it turned out to be fantastic!

Red Baldy

Yesterday big Teague, Layne, and Josh decided to break away from the monotony of resort walking for a proper day in the mountains.  With the terrible snowpack...er, low coverage and weak structure, we've been mostly just hiking in bounds so as to not wreck our skis or our knees (Teague reprimanded us yesterday for complaining, saying that if we are in the mountains and there's snow to ski then we should take it as a blessing).

With low expectations, I figured we might not ski much but I just wanted to stand on top of a mountain.  Here are a few pictures of a nice day we were just able to sneak in before this nice little storm.

Clear up high while the PM2.5 was pushing the red zone at 144 down low.  Yuck.

The boys falling in line.

Teague is pretty psyched on his new gear.  Aliens and Magicos!

Getting a little boney

Dang.  Out of snow.

Looking to stand on top of something.

Summit!

They guys are psyched!

Any skiing is good skiing!

Josh dropping in for home

Also of note, the Utah ski mountaineering racing scene is exploding.  Our last Citizens Race was Tuesday evening at Brighton and again, we had nearly 100 people in attendance.  Layne Caldwell took his turn to set up the course and bring pies for the winners.  His nice write up and pictures can be found here.  

The next race is January 7th at 7:00 PM.  Come enjoy a night chasing friends and train for your bigger goals in the mountains.  Hope to see you all there.  

Wasatch Skimo Citizen's Race #1: Skin the Turkey

Well, maybe it's the crappy snow pack or maybe people are buying into the "light is right" movement cause we just had nearly 100 racers show up for the first Citizen's race.  Thanksgiving morning was a huge success not only because of the massive participation but it was well supported by Skimo.co, the Sport Loft, Kate's Tram Bars, BCA, and my closet which keeps spitting out some hand me downs at these events.   Thanks to Jason Dorais, Chad and Emily B, and Tom Goth for setting the course!  This year, eight individuals are in charge on one race each so we'll get some different perspectives on what makes a great race.  Also, we are nearly half way to our goal of $2500 of donations to fund the series and pay for insurance for the whole lot of you!

Here are a couple pics and an awesome video made by Kyle Walcott:

Wasatch Citizen Series from Kyle Walcott on Vimeo.

Waiting around for me to draw a crooked start line and yell, "GO!"

90 people streaming up the icy skin track, earning their turkey!

The insanely fast Gemma Arro Ribot!

Jason and Tom putting the hurt on each other

The next race is Tuesday, Dec 3rd at 7PM.  Park by the church.  Please visit utahskimo.org to register and make a token donation and fill out waivers before hand.

Also, Brighton has been incredibly generous to allow unrestricted uphill traffic but we are in danger of losing this privilege as some folks have been wandering too close to avalanche control operations on snow days.  The new rule passed down by the Ski Patrol is that if it has snowed at all, please check in with either a patroller or anyone in the parking lot with a radio to find out where it is safe to travel.  So rational.  So generous.  So easy.  Do it.

Utah Ski Mountaineering

Given the success of our little Tuesday night races, we felt it was time to get organized and make the Wasatch Ski Mountaineering Citizen Series a real entity.  A few of us that have put a good deal of time into setting the races, obtaining prizes, and getting the word out have banded together to form an LLC that we are calling Utah Ski Mountaineering or Skimo or something equally dorky sounding.


The goal is to provide some protection and organization to make the series sustainable.  One of the major concerns has been the question of insurance as we typically have 50-75 people careening through the night with dinky headlamps as their only guide.  Another concern was the lack of "voice" amongst the Wasatch "Skimo" crowd and the lack of accepted uphill traffic at most of Utah's resorts.  Our hope is that this organization will solve both issues as well as open doors for further opportunities.  Here's how:

First, we will be asking for a small donation/race entry this year.  This is really nominal at $30 for ALL EIGHT RACES!  For those who have been in the past, your chances of winning something worth $30 is pretty significant...not to mention the value of racing your friends until you taste blood, laughing it off at Molly Green's, and then trying to crawl into bed and sleep without waking family and loved ones...it's a great midweek rush.

Alternatively, for those only able to come to a race or two, we think $5 per event is reasonable.  We will be set up to accept payments by paypal, and card, cash, or check at the event.  Of course if you don't have the means, come race anyway.  I would hate to turn people away as the whole point of these shenanigans was to create a community of folks interested in getting faster with ALL people being welcome regardless of gear, skill, etc.

But, we need to create some funding to cover insurance which has been quoted at $2500 for the entire series and will cover anyone who shows up. 

Also, we are still awaiting non profit status and if granted, any and all tax deductible donations will be gladly and thankfully accepted. 

Just to highlight all the great benefits beyond just the racing, this year we anticipate ongoing great support from many of the big players in the ski industry as well as from some more local companies.

The Sport Loft will take a prominent role with great prizes weekly.  Skimo.co, Gear 30, Kirkham's, and other local companies have had a generous presence giving a number of quality prizes in the past and we hope for their ongoing support.  Bigger companies like Scarpa/Ski Trab, La Sportiva, Outdoor Research, Powerbar, and others are also lined up to make this little race series a great well supported tradition.

So, head to the Citizen Series website to check out the dates for the year and then to utahskimo.org for more info on our organizing body and to sign up for the series/make a donation.   Our first race is Thanksgiving morning at Brighton at 8:00 AM.  Be there and earn your turkey!

Maybe you'll win a pie for your Thanksgiving feast!

In the same vein of trying to move fast, this coming Friday (Nov 22nd) at 6:30 PM, Jason and I will be giving a brief interactive talk at the Sport Loft, mainly talking about how to speed up in the backcountry be it by gear, training, or other time saving tricks.  For many people speeding up is counter to their reasons for being out, there but others might find being able to ski more powder in a given amount of time a good thing.  We hope to see some of you there besides our mom.