Category: skiing

Has anyone actually ever seen a live Cornish Game Hen? ~ Rach

Hit the Basin this morning with Pete after skiing by myself at the Rock yesterday. So that’s day 5 which gets me within hucking distance of last year’s mark. I would prefer quality over quantity but since that is an impossibility with our current temps and snowlessness, I’ll take the latter.

I feel like I am skiing pretty well overall. A few items on which to focus but I was finally able to get my carve on thanks to Larry at Larry’s Bootfitting (thanks for the tune, Larry!) which felt pretty solid. Now I just have to get through the next week and a half then hit it for real.

~stubert.

Good times, good times. ~ Jerri Blank

What better way to spend a sunny 4th of July than skiing in the Indian Peaks? Beats what most of the U.S. does (whacking down parasite dogs, drinking shitty beer and blowing stuff up). At least that’s my take on it.

Now I am never one to say that getting up at 3:00 is a good idea but that is what happened this morning. Ben, Caleb, Evelyn, Luke, Megan and I met at the Long Lake trail head at 4:30 to begin our most excellent assault on Apache Peak.

We jammed up the trail and quickly found ourselves reaching Lake Isabelle with the morning sun illuminating the Indian Peaks in the distance. Just a gorgeous morning altogether. Warm, sunny, quiet. Perfect.

The adventure started soon thereafter with Ben, Luke and I bushwhacking around the south side of the lake to access an “ice berg” that appeared to be attached to the southwest side of the lake. Once we got there, we realized that the berg was not, in fact attached, but was about 3 feet away from the bank. Some campers informed us that the previous night, it had been attached to the northwest side of the lake and had drifted overnight to its current location.

Luke went first, then Ben. When I took off from the shore, a foot-wide portion of the remaining snow and ice on broke off and another foot broke off the berg when I landed. Fortunately, I didn’t get too wet. Pretty funny, actually.

We traversed the full length of the berg (~1/8-1/4 mile long) and then Ben wiggled out to the end to get the full effect. We leaped back across (I broke off another chunk on the berg side, Luke broke off a big chunk on the shore leaving Ben with a massive jump back across) and headed back to the trail to continue our approach to Apache.

By this time, the snow fields were really softening up and we quickly caught up with Caleb, Evelyn and Megan then started our journey up the couloir. Luke and Ben led the way, bootpacking up to the top. Megan relaxed at the bottom as we made our way through the portage (100 steps at a time – thanks, Caleb!) and finally we were atop Apache. We hung out for a bit then took turns skiing great conditions back down. Tons of fun. This isn’t a terribly steep pitch and the consequences are not great if one were to fall so that made it a fairly mellow ski out. Good times.

We hooked back up with Megan, then began our trudge back out to the cars. By the time we made it back to Isabelle, the ice berg had moved east quite a bit. No way one could get there from our previous position. Luke and Ben hatched a plan to access it once more from the northeast but the rest of us headed back down the trail (assuming they would either a) figure out it wouldn’t go, b) figure out they were going to have to get really wet to make it go, c) get wet or stranded trying to get on the damned thing). Turns out they used another, smaller berg as a raft and pushed off from the edge of the lake to get on the main berg. Then their raft floated away and so they somehow got a second one broken loose and navigated back to shore. Ha!

The rest of us hung out at the cars until Luke and Ben finally showed. All in all, it was an awesome day, with a great group of friends.

Here are links to photo albums:

• Ben
• Caleb
• Evelyn
• Luke
• Stu

Then I came home and took a nap with my sweet, sweet Rach.

Who could ask for more?

~stubert.

The best of all medicines is resting and fasting. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Happy day. After three weeks of rest, I got back out there Sunday with Luke and Pete. Check out the shots: Stu’s photos, Luke’s photos, Pete’s photos.

During the past three weeks, I have tried to just give my body (and mind) a much needed rest. Not sure I accomplished that completely but I did tinker with my new motorcycle a lot, read, watched some movies, played a little golf with my pops. That kind of fun and/or games.

So I have never been the world’s most adept mechanic but really wanted to start wrenching myself on this bike. In the past, the thought of rebuilding a carburetor was daunting, to say the least. With my new bike, however, I have just jumped in there and gotten my hands dirty (both figuratively and literally).

I started out with a bone-stock 2008 DR650 and then went to town on some of the pieces that needed some improvement. I started small, essentially updating bolt-ons. Easy for sheezy. Then I moved on to more complex projects: Updating the front and rear suspension, changing tires, doing a crazy airbox mod, rejetting and modifying the carb, etc. Now it runs like a champ. And I definitely got a big feeling of satisfaction having done all the work myself. Good stuff.

So back to skiing… Pete, Luke and I met at the Brainard Lake gate at 6 yesterday morning and jumped on the bikes for to ride in as far as possible before starting the hike up Audubon. Pretty much immediately, I was attacked by my bike but my ass is fine, thanks for asking. We rode in as far as we could (just shy of the Mitchell Lake road) and then started the hike up Audubon.

It was a chilly, windy morning but that is pretty typical for this time of year and we made good time up the flank of Audubon. Much easier going than this time last year as there are still some large snowfields one can walk up and not too much trudging through sloppy willow patches. I was feeling strong all the way up and we paused to look into the Elevator Shaft on the way up. Well, Luke looked, Pete and I hung out, ate some food (chocolate covered cranberries are yummy) and relaxed in the sun at 11000+ feet.

We quickly reached our ski destination: A nice fun snowfield which we hit at the ultimate hour for perfect snow conditions. This particular field wasn’t too steep or exposed so one could pretty much ski without worrying too much about consequences. I felt pretty solid on the ski as well which, after not skiing for 3 weeks, was much appreciated.

We then moved over to the notch, booted up (thanks to Luke for leading the way, once again), monkeyed around up top trying to figure out a way to summit, then opted to just ski the Notch Line. This is a bit steeper and more confined than our first line but the snow was still quite good and it was a blast to ski. We then dropped back down to Mitchell Lake and worked our way back out to the bikes.

Pete got a flat on the way out but otherwise, it was a pretty problem-free day. I was fairly tired by the end but felt MUCH better than the last several times out and about. Not sure about the Leadville 50 (I think I have til the end of the month to decide on that) but this was encouraging, to say the least.

Today I am a little sore and fatigued but the weather is crap anyway so no real loss. I am hoping to head back up with Luke on Wednesday morning to ski the center chute on the flank or Elevator Shaft. I’ll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do first.

~stubert.