Author: admin

Off the couch…

March 1. 60+ degrees. Stu out getting dumb.

Holy smokes, you need booze! ~ Dr. Nick Riviera

I think I overdid it a wee bit yesterday.

I decided at some point that I wanted to go for a run. Other than that, my options were fairly wide open seeing how it was about 60 degrees up here. Well, not so wide open but at least not excruciatingly cold or anything. Plan A (ride the motorcycle to Boulder, run Mesa) didn’t go so well as my battery was dead so I opted for Plan B: Run a half marathon, at altitude, probably in snow off the couch. Note to self: have someone else make up the plans from now on.

I actually felt pretty great to start. Took it fairly easy (though my heart thought otherwise) at a leisurely 12 minute pace. I ran pretty much everything on the way up to Panorama Point via Gap Road (and a sojurn through Meadow Lake) and was just cruising. Once I made it up to the Racoon Trail cutoff, it was decision time and being a dork, I chose to do the loop.

After post-holling for a bit the trail finally packed up and was runnable down to the low-point. Actually a lot of fun just humming along downhill through the snowy woods. Once I reached the bottom, the fun began and I had to alternate run/walk cycles due to the steepness of the trail and the sloppy conditions. No biggie, I’ve been there before. I quickly made it up to the top then began the slippery, mushy descent back to the cutoff.

Once I made it back to Gap, I decided I only had to log a few more miles to get the half marathon. This is where I started to question my judgement as I had to walk on several occasions because stuff was starting to hurt. I made it back to my road feeling okay but then realized I needed to tack on another mile and a half or so to get the full distance. My options were: 1) head uphill now and get a nice downhill finish or 2) run downhill past my house and then back up for the bonus miles. I opted for number 1 and suffered up the hill. Not my best performance and really horrible on the scale of what constitutes a good 1/2 marathon time but whatchagonna do?

Today, I was pretty sore despite having stretched a bunch last night. We cleaned bunny cages at the COHRS and then I headed home. Turns out the high today was about 30 up here and we got about a foot of snow. I considered going to the Rock for a few turns but decided that I had work to accomplish and that my legs needed some rest. Tomorrow, though…

Here are a couple of shots from last week’s adventure. Hope to get out more and not ski like a total Fred.

Luke ripping it up. | Me trying to make it look mean. Shots courtesy of Jonny Copp.

That’s about it for now. I did see Persipolis last week, which was good. And watched Big Fish yesterday while stretching. I also checked out Into Great Silence and Frank Zappa: Baby Snakes. Extras is also quite amusing if you haven’t checked it out. Quite the mish-mash if I do say so myself.

Take your vitamin I.

~stubert.

Quickie – Day 44…

Oh-man-I’m-really-wired. This-was-a-bad-idea. ~ Homer Simpson

Just a quick update…

Wednesday, I headed up to Eldora early to get some turns in with Luke and Jonny Copp and to shoot some stills. Jonny, in addition to being a world-class climber, is a great photographer. We have been wanting to hook up to get some shots for a long time and finally made it happen.

We went out the gate at the top of Corona to hit the chutes above Lost Lake and ended up skiing Right Chute. I was skiing like a chump so am not sure what Jonny was able to salvage out of the deal but Luke was skiing, as usual, like a champ. Shooting is tough… you get out to something pretty steep and have to perform on your first turns. Tough to get a groove going for sure when you haven’t even given yourself any time to warm up. Oh well. I did ski the last pitch really well which made up for my turdy skiing up top. Well, maybe not completely…

Yesterday was spent in meetings and working and whacking down more coffee in a single sitting than in the past 6 years combined. So that was interesting. Good meeting though. And I did manage to get some work done.

I also buried our bunny, Yoda, who died last week. What a great little guy. He will be missed but I found him a great spot up the hill near his buddies, Rockshot and Schmoodini. R.I.P. Yoda-butt.

Today is going to be an action-packed day of work and play. Luke and I are heading up to the Basin to get some Enduro training in. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Wear your helmet.

~stubert.

Day 43…

Luke tearing it up in the Cages. View full album. More shots from Luke.

You’re wrong if you don’t question your government. ~ NOFX

Today we did a big backcountry assault on the Rabbit Cages to the South of Brainard Lake. So much fun. Luke, Pete and I headed out around 9 and lapped the Cages three times doing Chutes 1-3 (proposed names from right to left: Flemish Giant, Rockshot, Carpet Shark). Good snow and a lot of fun. I made good turns in 1 and 3 (Giant and Shark) but wobbled a bit in Rockshot and had to point it. Still pretty cool to just straight-run the thing.

The Brainard Lake road is actually really clear for this time of year but there is still lots of snow up there. We skinned in, then made a full-frontal assault on the Cages (unlike last year when we meandered around the woods for an hour or so). I’d say we were at the top of the Giant in a couple of hours but none of us had a watch. Go figure. We dug a pit at the start of the major skin up to check the conditions (solid) and dropped the goods without any problems.

Rockshot was a little hard to find from the top but we finally managed to get in the right spot and blasted down that cool little feature. Then back up for round three in the Shark. This was a more mellow, wide open pitch that was just begging to be worked. Pete went first and tore it up. Great stuff.

I am a bit whooped right now, having skied the last 4 days but am planning to head up to Eldora tomorrow if the conditions are good. We are supposed to get some snow tonight so if it dumps, I’ll go out for some turns. Not a lot though.

Yesterday, I skied Monarch for a few hours on my way home from Gunnison. Lots of snow but without knowing where to go, it was a little uninspired. They have some fairly easy access extreme stuff on which I spun a few laps. Good terrain. I’d like to go there sometime with someone who knows the mountain (but that is really the case pretty much anywhere you go). Otherwise, I’ll probably skip it unless I have a free day like this year.

Other than that, just getting some work done and looking to have a good week. Hope you do the same. The good week part, not necessarily the working.

Go nuts with donuts.

~stubert.

Earn ’em and burn ’em…


The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

Well, the past two days I have had the distinct pleasure of skiing Crested Butte. I grew up skiing the Butte and man… it is skiing off the hook right now. CB has been absolutely HAMMERED this year with snow. The whole mountain was open before Christmas this year courtesy of several multi-foot storms and it has just kept on dumping. Not sure what they are claiming their base is right now but it is as filled in as I have seen it in a very long time. Great stuff.

Yesterday, I hiked the peak and stood atop CB’s unique visage. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home but it was fairly cloudy so the shots wouldn’t have been too great anyway. It was a sweet view, still… looking down on the town of Crested Butte from 12000+ feet. The skiing from the summit is pretty uninspired but getting to the top was really cool.

Some sick skier. View the full album.

The Alpine Extremes are going on this week at CB so I skied down to the bottom of Headwall to check them out for a bit then headed out to spin laps on the North Face. Everything was skiing really well and I hit Third Bowl, Spellbound, Phoenix and many laps in the Glades. I wasn’t skiing super well but had a blast.

Today, I headed back up to the Butte and headed immediately out to Teocalli Bowl for some fresh tracks. They called in an inch overnight but at the top it was closer to five. I was the first person all the way out Teo and was able to drop a couple of fairly large rock bands into fresh snow. On the way up, I had a bit of an epiphany and put it to practice to strong results. I realized that standing atop something one is considering dropping and looking for long periods of time isn’t really worth it. Either you are going to drop the thing or not, so stop gawking and get on with it. Seemed to work for me today as I found numerous fun rocks to huck myself off. I stuck every landing today too which is like a quintuple bonus.

I spun down to watch the comps again today which was being run on the Third Bowl/Spellbound cliffs. Competitors were allowed to use the entire span of the two bowls and these guys were getting into the serious bidness. I watched for a bit in the morning and then went out to grab some freshies in Phoenix Steps and whatever run is to the skier’s right of Phoenix Bowl. Anyway, it was awesome. I think that today may have been the best I have ever skied. So that is a plus.

Not the slopeside office.

I just skied a bunch – pretty much the whole mountain then went back to the comps for a bit. Then I did an hour of power and called it a day. I am tempted to go back tomorrow but think I may hit Monarch on my way home instead. We’ll see. I still have three days on my pass so will probably just save those for mid-March and come back with Pete and Luke.

Yoda. Being squashed by Rockshot.

On a significantly less excellent note – our bunny, Yoda, died on Wednesday night. He was an awesome little bowling ball of a bunny who got along with everyone. He was very hard of hearing and sight so that made him a little twitchy when he could smell food. He would just lunge randomly in the direction he perceived the victuals to be! Really cute. He was quite old and had out-lived several buddies (Lea. He was always happy to take on a new friend and most recently had buddied-up with Skipper. Skips isn’t taking the loss very well (bunnies get very attached to one another) so we are going to try to find him a new friend ASAP. Also, Rach tripped and broke her toe while on the phone with me earlier today. Total bummer. Stupid pinky toes.

Do stuff.

~stubert.

What a difference…

I need to come up with a quote and I just don’t have it in me. ~ me

…six months makes. About this time six months ago, I was in the midst of a colossal melt-down somewhere between Twin Lakes and Half Moon. Not sure I really have still fully recovered. I know I still have three toenails that haven’t come completely back to normal. The Leadville 100 is the gift that keeps on giving. I am still thinking about doing the new 50-mile race this summer but really haven’t been on the right training schedule. We’ll see what happens.

Today I jammed up the hill to the Basin (day 39 – skied my age again this year) and spun no-stoppers on the Enduro circuit. Essentially started on Gauthier and worked my way East. The Spine was absolutely buffed but the rest of the front side was in less-than-stellar shape. There was no one there today (weird), but clearly the area got some traffic over the weekend. Lots-o-bumps. I rolled a lap or two down Slalom and Powder Keg and then hit ‘Zuma Bowl to check that action out. Not sure if I should be honest here or not but really, I am not that impressed. The crowds seem to love it; however, so what the hell do I know? I didn’t ski very well but had a good time and was able to turn ~12 minute laps fairly consistently without really trying. So that is encouraging.

I am planning to head over to Gunnison on Wednesday. Going to visit the parents and try to get in a couple of days at the Butte. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Movies:
The Good Sheppard
Beavis and Butthead Do America
Dog Town and Z Boys
Indulgence
Riding Giants

Ok. Rocketh on.

~stubert.