Slip Angle

Here goes nothing...

2012-01-02T18:50:00.004-07:00

Winter break has been fantastic even though I didn't get to do everything I wanted. I packed all my bags for Zion but had to bail last minute. I'm tentatively rescheduled to try again in another couple weeks. Our plumbing backed up and the guy took forever to show up and things just didn't feel right to go on the trip. Then JJ got sick and I was glad I was home to help. A sniffley baby doesn't sleep well and while Marni is a great mom, it's hard to care for a sick baby alone and tired.

Tomorrow Marni and I go back to work and that means back to my program full time. This will be the real test of sticking to my workouts. At least break catapulted me off to a good start. I ran two days in a row for the first time since either broken ankle and today Marni and I took JJ to the gym. Climbing with a toddler is difficult but he actually did really well. We both bouldered for about an hour and a half, trading off watching JJ and working problems. I managed to flash my hardest indoor boulder problem yet, who knew? I'm even planning to ride home from work on Wednesday and Friday so anyone still reading, feel free to poke me on this blog or Facebook and hold me to it. Hopefully I can start riding at least one direction (20 miles) 3 days a week plus keep up my running and climbing. It's going to be a challenge for sure but at least now it's January and I've got less than 6 months to go to finish my program.

Alright now time to organize my stuff for another semester while Marni is at yoga!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T12:59:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was too busy for a blog post but I'll try to keep up the every other day thing at least. JJ loved his new kitchen and Marni and I had a great time opening our budget presents to each other :) Marni's parents surprised me with a few DMM offset nuts at dinner too which is pretty rad!

Hope everyone out there had a fantastic Christmas, Marni and I sure did. We found out JJ was coming 2 years ago on Christmas morning so it's a little extra special now. Tomorrow my sister and her boyfriend roll into town and we're very excited to have them come stay with us. She's a third year law student so she is busier with studying than me and doing fantastically at it. One more week off work for me but I've got some homework to do. Lots of training and climbing going down too. It feels really good to be getting regular workouts in and I'm slowly starting to sleep better.

This morning I took a friend from my teaching program out for her first ever ice climbing. She was psyched to go out and it was fun to pay it forward in teaching a new climber. So many people have taken me out climbing and taught me key skills I like to return the favor for new climbers. Now JJ and Marni and napping, then more fun of some kind.

Day 7: Rest

Day 8: Ice 420 ft

Weight 164lbs (too much holiday candy!) I think I need a run or a ski later today...

Day 6

2011-12-24T09:16:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I got out to TR solo some ice and mixed in Boulder Canyon (2 laps mixed, 3 ice). To be honest, the ice there is pretty lame this year and the top out is sketch since everyone has blasted all the ice away. Clear Creek isn't in at all yet which means it's an hour drive at least for any decent ice and 2 hours to fun stuff. Bah. I was going to play on the hard mixed lines anyway but the bolts were buried under 14 inches of powder and I already had to clear a bunch of snow off the first mixed lines I did. I should have put my crappy picks on before I left home too, oops. Lesson learned, I'll be filing today.

I debated going to Vail this morning with Chad and Erik but with lots of Christmas stuff to finalize and a dinner to cook I nixed it. Instead I'll do some 4x4's at the BRC and a quick run. Probably a better workout than I could have gotten in a short trip anyway. Now to finish cleaning and wrapping Marni's presents while she and JJ are at the kiddo museum. Marni and I are a budget so tomorrow will be really fun to see what she came up with this year. Luckily we've got JJ and he's the best present ever :)

Day 5 - 250ft ice/mixed

Weight: 163lbs

Day 6 - Run ~35min, Gym Climb 4x4's (routes)

Weight: 163 lbs

Day 4

2011-12-22T22:00:00.004-07:00

Yesterday was a rest day which is always difficult for me unless I've done a lot of big workouts recently. Nevertheless it was planned and needed and I managed to stick to the plan. Today I skipped my run and instead went xc skiing for an hour with Turbo since it snowed a foot overnight. Between that and shoveling I was tired by the time I hit the gym this evening but I still had a pretty good bouldering session. Working on power is not my favorite (meaning I suck and have no power) but at least I get to cruise my favorite type of terrain during the warmup. If I'm ever going to climb the Flatirons 13a I have in mind then I need plenty of V6 power before I get to the fun vertical crimping part.

Day 4:

~1:00 XC ski

~1:30 steep bouldering

1:00 Ikea assembly (haha)

Weight 162lbs

Tomorrow I'm planning to swing some tools locally and maybe take a walk to check on Flatirons ice conditions after this big storm. Hopefully this new snow will settle out and I can get on a few big routes during my holiday off of work and school.

Day 2

2011-12-20T19:13:00.002-07:00

Quick post, trying to get in the habit.

Ski and climb today, mostly working on technique and getting comfortable on ice again. Felt pretty good by the end of the day and home in time to put JJ in bed. It appears I fixed the oil leak in the Civic too. Marni had burritos ready for dinner, yum. She's still the best.

1:30 xc ski

~750 ft ice/mixed climbing (WI3/4 and M5)

Weight 162.5lbs

Day 1

2011-12-19T14:25:00.004-07:00

I feel fat, out of shape, lazy. It's been over a year since I last blogged. No time or rather, time spent somewhere more important. So much has changed since I last wrote regularly, almost all good except for a pair of broken ankles. My cycling is non-existent, replaced with climbing and my new career in teaching. I love to teach but my program is extremely taxing. Luckily for me it's only 13 months long, leaving me exceptionally prepared and with a job and master's degree to boot. I'm halfway done now, finishing at the end of June 2012. 7 months in and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things. JJ is getting so big and he's a joy to raise. Watching him learn new things every day is so cool and I love being a father. Hopefully he'll grace these blog pages as he gets older with stories of his own adventures or if I'm really lucky, our adventures together.

I'm posting now in order to try and document a new adventure the same way I did before. June 2013 I wish to head off to Alaska again, this time without a bike. Undoubtedly I'm shooting high but I was when I decided to do Leadville with no training and ended up racing the Tour Divide on a singlespeed. Go big, fail big, succeed big. I'm giving myself plenty of time to learn along the way and get back to a high level of fitness.

I have a lot of stories to tell. Maybe some will make it here. Maybe they won't. Either way, it's hard to imagine what life was like before I believed I could do anything. 6 more months of school and an 18 month countdown.

Weight 163 lbs

Run 4 miles 34:41

Climbed ice/mixed yesterday in Vail (Day 0?)

More pictures

2010-09-18T14:23:00.005-06:00

I don't have a clever title for this one but I've got more pictures. Selma and I have been hitting up all the local trails lately and running laps.Jersey, shorts and a water bottle is all you need to rage for a couple hours.
At home JJ and I are practicing being similar.
And he's found some short track socks like Looney and Cyn.
He likes to chill on his blankets sometimes.
And get baths.
Turbo approves.
Warm and squishy baby.
Momma love.
Sleepy.
Pacifier and pants, quite a big day.
I like to go in the car, not so much getting strapped in.
Dueling bottles!
That's all for now!

Three weeks in

2010-09-16T18:41:00.002-06:00

They say you don't get a lot of sleep as a new parent but I don't necessarily agree. Maybe I just have a good baby and a rockstar wife. Sure you don't get to crash out for 8 straight hours but we've been generally getting to bed at a reasonable hour and JJ will sleep until at least 7am. Subtract a little time for feeding and diaper changes and you still get a decent amount of rest. Plus it's easy to justify naps though I usually dedicate those to Momma as I don't have to feed JJ every night and get extra breaks. Of course I could have just jinxed the whole thing and it will all go south tonight...

In other news JJ likes his bath time. We've been giving him a little bath every other night now and he seems pretty pleased about it. Mom is the washer and I'm the holder. Little babies are slippery but no incidents yet ;)
Turbo is once again very interested in what's going on at bath time despite the fact that he doesn't like baths.
We're slowly learning which things are nice to have lots of and which aren't as critical. Laundry is a necessity every other day so certain items you only need a few while others it's nice to have a stash. Little onesies, even just the plain white ones, are one of the things I'm glad we have a lot of.
JJ likes to sleep in funny positions :) We generally just swaddle his body and legs now but he'll break out of that if he wants to.
I love getting to spend time with him. I had some training for the new job today and it was strange to be away from Marni and JJ all day. I'll be working at least part time after we get back from an upcoming trip to St.Louis to see more family and slowly getting towards working most days. The flexibility of subbing will really help on those days when JJ isn't feeling well and when Marni is sick I can probably even cover her classroom now!
I don't think JJ is smiling on purpose yet but the accidental ones are pretty cute!
He also likes to see if he can eat Turbo's fur. Good thing since it will be all over him for a long time to come.
Training is still going well. Monday I got in a good ride on the Selma for a while in the afternoon that was mostly dirt and some good rolling climbs. Tuesday I got into the BRC for a good session and last night I got out to the flatirons for the first time since JJ's arrival. I took a new climber for his first multipitch trad route and he seemed pretty psyched to get out. I ran into Stefan soloing the face, or he caught us rather and it was fun to catch up about each other's newborns for the first time. Tonight I cranked out about 75 minutes of good mountain biking on the Selma again with a small set of technical intervals in the middle and a bunch of 30 second hill sprints. Almost every ride I'm getting more psyched about 2011 and plenty of ideas are running through my head about training events as well as the yet to be unveiled "big ride". I've got about another week to ramp up the training in September before taking it easier while on our road trip. Perhaps while I'm gone I'll start putting together a bit of a plan for October. The desert is starting to beckon and fatty wants to see White Rim...

I grow!

2010-09-12T13:26:00.004-06:00

I kept thinking that I updated the blog but today I realized I only updated the Facebook pictures. A lot happens in a few days of baby time! Little guy likes his mini baths and today we'll give him a real one for the first time.
Turbo makes sure to keep a close eye on him.
He's been a lot more awake now that he's growing. A few days of a little less sleep during his growth spurt but the last two nights he's back to doing pretty well. Plus he's sleeping in his crib for some of his day time naps.
He makes lot of cute faces.
And Turbo is getting more used to him. He still checks on all crying activity.
Marni is doing great and starting to feel better. She's taken Turbo and JJ for a couple walks when I've been out of the house.
On Thursday JJ had his first doctor's appointment. Mostly he liked it except for the whole getting naked and weighed part. Burrr!
He's growing great though, from his low point of 7lbs 2oz to 8lbs 9.5oz in a week! Other than his height he's a pretty average sized baby at this point. The doc said he looked perfect and there were no concerns. He doesn't have to go back until his 8 week appointment where he definitely won't like getting a bunch of shots.
Lucky for me he likes to nap a lot.
And since he's doing so well growing I'm going to get to start feeding him a bottle once a day, that way mom can be a little more free. He ate 3.5 oz today no problem and got the hang of the low flow bottle pretty fast.
He really checks you out while you feed him.
He's quickly out growing his smallest outfits and he got upgraded to the next size diaper pretty fast. Soon we'll start to transition him to his cloth diaper system so we can stop throwing away so many diapers every day.
We're slowly learning how to get him back to sleep at night as quickly as possible after eating and when he likes to nap during the day. Right now the naps are great for Marni to get her grad school homework done (yay online classes) and I'm usually trying to get the latest pictures posted. I'll be substitute teaching for Marni's school district this year so very soon I'll be gone at least some of the week days. We're darn lucky to have had all this wonderful time together to transition from pregnancy to birth to having the little guy be part of our daily lives without too much else to worry about. We're even planning a road trip to St.Louis in a couple weeks to attend a friend's wedding and show off JJ to his Aunt Jessie, great grandparents and other family. At the very least driving to St.Louis with a newborn will be interesting. ;)

The reintroduction to regular training for me is going well. I'm taking September as a month to build consistency and not worry much about anything else. I've been riding almost every day and even had to take an easy recovery ride day yesterday. Thursday night I hit up Buff Creek with Brett and a friend of his and it was awesome night riding on the Selma. I have a feeling that will become quite a bit more common now. Friday I spent my first longer day away from Marni and JJ and went to Vedauwoo with Chad. We came home in the early afternoon but not before getting spanked by some sweet offwidths (Right Parallel Space, Handjacker and Lower Progressive were the highlights) and also getting to meet Scarpelli himself. Things are going well, more to come I"m sure.

The swing

2010-09-06T18:56:00.003-06:00

A week or so at home now and we're getting into a routine. Little JJ is a pretty good sleeper for a newborn and most nights we get at least one ~4 hr stretch. Of course he always wakes up when I try to get pictures of him in his bassinet. He says he does his best thinking in there. Once he's sleeping a little longer we'll move him into his crib.
During the day we've enjoyed hanging out. JJ likes to practice his baby shark imitation.
I've been getting back into riding more regularly with Marni's help. My summer 2011 project is slowly becoming a reality and I want to be in top form when the time comes. Being a dad does help with motivation for sure. I love being out on the bike or out climbing but it's been a little more focused time wise so I can get back to my little boy.
Today I spent a couple hours out on the Selma working on the hills and pushing in the wind. From the high points you could see the fire that is just to the west of Boulder. It's pretty massive and I hope they can get it under control soon.
The Selma is such a sweet bike. I have to say it's the nicest mountain bike I've ever owned. Mine weighs in right around ~20lbs at the moment and with my impending return to work, maybe I can lighten it up this year. I'm positive 16lbs is doable though I'll probably be shooting more for 18.5 lbs with a completely bomber endurance build.
I'm starting to hear rumblings about Fall and it's got to be true. The shadows are coming earlier now and the light is beginning to find that late day warmth. Something about the angle of the sun makes for such pretty light in fall and winter.
Happy to be out pedaling and starting to feel stronger. I've got a way to go to get my volume in the right place but the speed is there lurking just below the surface.
I'm lucky to have such an exceptional training ground near my house. I've got several dirt and road loops right out my front door with rolling hills and great scenery that aren't too effected by the weather. And with a little more time there are multiple 3k+ foot climbs just a few more miles away. I'll be that much more grateful to get my workouts done and get home to JJ this year.
It feels good to get back into a routine and back to blogging too. Lots more exciting stuff to come.

First Outings and Grandma Judy

2010-09-05T08:16:00.005-06:00

JJ says..."I was thinking on Friday that I should do something exciting today."
I thought about it while I made Mom put on my awesome shirt.
Dad told me it was a good idea.
So we got in the car and went to go pick up Grandma Judy from the airport. Then we went to Starbucks. I like second hand whipped cream!
When we got home Grandma Judy was real nice and good at holding me.
Mom liked to show me off.
So did Dad.
Even Turbo was very happy.
I got tired so I had to rest for a while after my great idea.
Then later we went to Proto's and I was a great boy again. I decided to sleep while everyone ate pizza. Really I knew this would lead to second hand pizza. I like second hand pizza!
Everyone always has those flashy things out. Dad calls them a camera. Here are my little fingers.
And also my little Rhino feet.
I like when people hold me, it makes me sleepy. Speaking of which, I'm getting pretty sleepy right n...

The big D

2010-09-04T08:14:00.006-06:00

The Diamond. Cool enough to have a Mountain Profile in Alpinist and the most badass big wall that I can see from many of my bike rides. Marni and I scoped it out from Chasm View last year when we climbed the north face of Long's Peak and it looked big bad and intimidating. And you know what? It still is big bad and intimidating, though also now infinitely cooler and I can't wait to go back.

Aaron and I had wanted to climb the Casual Route on the Diamond all summer. We did a couple grade III walls and the harder but shorter Good Evans on the Black Wall of Mt.Evans. We felt like we were ready, the weather was improving after the monsoon cycle and all signs pointed to go. But by this point it was late August and JJ's arrival was getting close. Marni and I waited until a doctor's appointment to make the final call. It was nerve wracking but we didn't *think* JJ was going to come on that Friday so Aaron and I packed two small daypacks with as light of gear as we dared to take and left my house at midnight for the Long's Peak trailhead. We figured that busting the route out in a day was the best plan. The night before I talked to Stefan and he agreed to be on standby should Marni go into labor. He would run up to Chasm View and yell across to us so that we could hopefully rap and make it back to town in time.

We left the trailhead at 1:50am, the first group on the register heading to the Diamond, but no guarantee we were really first since many parties bivy at the base, on Broadway or at Chasm View. On the hike up another party caught us and briefly passed us having started just behind. One of them knew my name from Mountain Project and they seemed friendly enough. We caught them again at the Chasm cutoff and we all left the last privy site together. Aaron and I quickly pulled ahead until contouring around the lake where we all ended up helping each other find the best path in the dark. From there Aaron and I powered ahead and found the base of the North Chimney, pairs of headlamps stretching back far below us from other groups. It took us exactly 3 hours to get there despite a couple short stops. The only problem was that it was now still almost an hour until the sun came up and we weren't 100% sure we were in the right spot. However since we were first to the base it would work to our advantage all day long.

While we gave the sun a bit of time to rise we donned our puffy coats and geared up. By the time the next party's headlamps made their way to the North Chimney we were ready to rock. Luckily that party was headed for D7 and they had climbed the Diamond before. We followed them up to Broadway in 3 rough pitches with some simul-ing. We could have easily simuled the whole thing if they hadn't been in front of us but it was best to give them space in the loose areas. I barely kept one giant rock from plummeting downwards after hardly touching it. One party headed for the Casual passed us soloing up the chimney but they had done it before and we assumed they'd move quickly and know the way.
Before long we were standing in the sun on Broadway at the base of the Casual Route, roped up, ready to go and just waiting for the experienced party's second to make it to the belay. I had led the North Chimney and blasted up the easy first pitch of the Casual, trying not to waste any time, running it out between pieces and generally ignoring the fact that we were launching head first up the biggest rock climb of my life. When I got to the end of the first pitch the party ahead of us still had both climbers there so I set up an alternate belay wherever I could find below them. It wasn't my favorite belay ever but I had a good stance and the climbing was easy and I knew Aaron would blaze up it.
And blaze he did. He arrived in no time and we swapped the rest of the gear. Neither of us are sling wearers but we've been practicing belay transitions all year. With the exception of a snafu on the lower part of the Culp-Bossier we've been making good time climbing all our routes lately. He led off on the 5.9 finger crack and right into the 5.7 traverse. I laughed when I watched him wave the rope at me near the end of the traverse, a mandatory big runout section that I was going to have to deal with too. Luckily I trust that he knows my climbing and if he ran it out there then I knew that I could to. He stopped when he ran into the prior party again and started to belay me across.
I cruised the finger crack which Aaron and I both felt soft for 5.9. We sort of hoped that trend continued on the later pitches. I even bootied a nice nut with no problem at all. I fired into the traverse and made it across with only minor hesitations.
The exposure was already really cool and while the wall is probably the steepest we've done yet, it's not 100% vertical so all the climbing felt nice and controlled with minimal ticking of the pump clock, at least so far.
The great thing about the Diamond is that other than the traverses, all the climbing follows major crack systems. This means generally good jams (secure) and awesome protection. We swapped the rack again and I led off into the first of the 5.8 pitches. The climbing went great except for the short squeeze section. While I was secure deep in the chimney, progress was difficult wearing the pack and it was a good fight to mantel out of the slot onto a small ledge to rest. I must have stopped there to breathe for a good couple minutes and I knew we faced another offwidth section above us. Thank goodness for my offwidth training this year. I finished the pitch to an obvious sloping ledge and the next corner loomed above me. I brought Aaron up and realized that I lost my hydration tube nozzle during the fight with the chimney. Luckily, haha, I was almost out of water already so it didn't much matter.
We were making good time but the sun leaves the Diamond early in the morning and now that we were in a large right facing corner it was as good as gone to us anyway. From here on out the belay jackets would make occasional appearances. We decided to split the next 200 foot pitch in half to give Aaron a rest before the crux pitch. We figured he would be a stronger and faster leader on the crux and in return I tried to lead more pitches overall. He climbed solidly to the ~100 foot mark and went off belay. I followed cleanly on the steep corner. Several times I thought about hanging on the rope but I always fought onward to a good natural rest stance.
I got to his belay and slowly grabbed the gear. Starting to get tired I offered my lead to Aaron but knowing he had the crux pitch shortly I sacked up and led off to finish the 5.8 corner. The climbing was utterly fantastic and I tried to place good gear as I got tired working hard at nearly 14,000 feet. We brought double cams from BD 0.5 to 2 and that was awesome, always leaving at least singles for any given pitch and nuts placed really well too.

Soon I popped onto a little ledge, made a powerful move onto another one and one last step brought me to the Yellow Wall Bivy ledge. I laughed. This dirt and grass ledge is all of eighteen inches wide though long enough for two climbers to sleep lengthwise. It's home to a solidish flake and one less solid looking bolt. I'm not sure how sleeping there would really feel. Regardless I put Aaron on belay and brought him up while inspecting the crux pitch above.

We swapped the rack again, ate and drank a bit and Aaron got psyched up for the battle ahead. My stomach had been bothering me all day and I still wasn't able to eat much but I drank a bit more and I was happy enough. I put Aaron on belay and he fired off. The thin crack went quickly enough and he was soon in the infamous squeeze. He left his pack clipped to a slung chockstone and battled his way up and out of the chimney. It was tiring work and he made it to the top of the pitch with a couple short hangs.

Now it was my turn to follow and figure out how to get the packs up. This is the only thing I would change next time. Climbing the crux pitch pulling one pack and pushing another up the chimney was not that fun. It would have been easier to bust out the tag line and haul for one short pitch. The thin crack was good climbing but definitely more difficult than the earlier 5.9 section. Lots of hip and shoulder scumming helped keep me in balance. I got to the squeeze and relaxed a bit, feeling more at home despite having to deal with the packs. Exiting the squeeze I got one of the packs stuck and finally gave up and hung to fix it. I pulled out the bulge and took another short hang at the crux before pulling the moves cleanly with a little beta from Aaron. Hanging on the rope on this pitch was the only points of aid I'd use all day and something I'm looking forward to cleaning up next time. Thanks to the splitter weather all day, we didn't have to hurry a bit and one last traverse would lead us to easy ground.
The last belay location wasn't very comfortable (but bomber gear) so once Aaron grabbed my pack off the sling at my feet, I took some gear and headed right into the exit traverse. The people who rap the route definitely have an advantage here as there is much less climbing to get down to the rap anchors as opposed to our intended destination of the summit.
The traverse, while extremely exposed with 2000 feet of air at your heels, is not that poorly protected. I found gear frequently and played follow the pins to find my way across. The first move is pretty intimidating but a high piece keeps you on top rope and it eases up slightly after that. I did royally screw myself with rope drag for the only time all day here and ended up bring Aaron across at a couple of bolts before finishing leading the exit onto Kiener's route.
On Kiener's I pointed out the way ahead to Aaron and let him start off up mostly 3rd class terrain on the edge of the Diamond while I cleaned up the gear and belay. I told him to stop if he wanted more than a running belay and I followed him up when the rope came tight. I belayed him at one spot before the summit and then scrambled up behind him. We topped out tired and happy around 4pm. Since we had the summit to ourselves we took a couple pictures, ate a little bit and cleaned up the gear. We put on our hiking shoes again and stowed most of the rack. Finally we rousted ourselves off the summit, if only because we still had no cell service and I was eager to check on Marni. A bit tired, I led us the wrong way toward the north face raps and luckily Aaron wondered aloud why we could see Glacier Gorge. Ooops. I righted our path and soon we were scrambling down to the raps. "If it doesn't look like easy 3rd class, it's not right". I found the main cairn quickly and we rapped as far as humanly possible down towards the boulder field. Other than a quick stop at Chasm View to admire the wall we just climbed we headed down to the usual stares of the boulder field campers.
All that remained was the death march. Somewhere in there we found cell service and we knew that Marni was doing okay and the girls were going to a movie. They now knew we were okay and would undoubtedly see the SPOT moving back to the car. Out of water and with my stomach still upset we death marched through Granite Pass, down Jim Grove and out the Longs Peak trail. I thought we might pull off not having to extract our headlamps but we didn't quite make it. Perhaps 40 minutes of slogging in the dark with a couple sit down breaks led us back to the car some 19+ hours after we left. Our first grade IV climb and a successful Diamond day.

Gear notes:
60m 9.2mm Sterling Nano dry rope
6mm Mammut ProCord tag line (for bail rappels, never needed) thanks to Erik
BD C4 0.3 to 3, doubles .5 to 2
BD C3 00 to 2
Assorted nuts large and small
~12 trad draws/slings
Only daypacks each, tag line in my pack and lead rope on my back. Rack in Aaron's pack. Personal tech/rescue gear, food, water, rain jacket and light belay parka in each pack. I climbed in lightweight long underwear with softshell pants (Pati Trav) and jacket (Pati Ascen).

EDIT: I forgot to include this link. Fabulous picture of the Diamond and parties on many routes. The Casual is easy to pick out of you can find the major features (first broken pillar and long right facing corner). There are at least 2 parties on it in the photo. Click here.

More firsts!

2010-09-02T15:48:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we took JJ on his first walk in the stroller. Of course we went at the hottest time of day so it was was a short one but we all still had lots of fun.
Turbo was especially pleased.
The little wheels did fine on the gravel path though eventually the big wheeled BOB or something will probably be better. JJ seemed to like it a lot.
Now that all systems are functioning well, JJ has increased his outfit per day quota. That's good because we have a lot of cute ones to get through while he's still small.
Mostly JJ has settled into a routine that centers around eating and sleeping. Throw in riding and he's ready for a blog and can join the enduronut crew.
This morning he was chilling on his monkey blanket with Turbo while Marni fixed some pancakes, it is Thursday after all. I was busy getting ready for an interview. It seemed to go well so crossing my fingers again and hopefully I hear soon. Last night I met the Wednesday night ride crew at Red Rocks and got in some riding on the Fatback. I have to say that it rides technical trails much better than the Pugsley and I cleaned almost everything I normally clean despite the 100mm rims (aka tanks). It will be in the regular riding rotation a lot more now to get my knees totally happy with the 100mm bottom bracket.
Tonight we get to see Leslie and Derrick and tomorrow Grandma Judy arrives from St. Louis!

What a difference

2010-09-01T13:01:00.005-06:00

...the milk makes. I'm not going to lie. Life got a whole lot easier when Marni's milk started to come in on Monday. First we started to hear swallows, then the diaper timing started going in the right direction. JJ gained 5 oz between Monday morning and Tuesday morning making the nurses very happy and Monday night we finally got some real sleep. The picture below is our "yay we slept for several hours at a time" faces.
The little guy has just been 10x more content now that he has a full belly all the time.
I can only do so much to help but I can cook and change diapers. Deluxe omelet (bell pepper, chicken, cheese, avocado, tomato) and donut for breakfast with a sleeping baby on the side.
Since the nurse was slightly worried about JJ's weight on Monday, we got to pump a little extra milk and feed him once from a bottle to supplement the breastfeeding before a recheck on Tuesday. I wasn't expecting to get to feed him for a few more weeks so while not part of the plan, it was welcome surprise. Huge, giant thanks for Marni's parents for showing up with the pump on Sunday as we needed it unexpectedly on Monday and all I had to do was unbox it and sterilize it to have it ready to go.
Happy daddy with JJ's first small bottle (~20mL).
JJ likes his swing now too. Turbo likes to check on him every time he cries. Plus he peeks his head into JJ's bassinet every morning to sniff him.
JJ is also loving his tummy time now. He keeps picking his head up really well and has even somehow turned over twice. We thought we were imagining it but he did it again yesterday. I'm sure it requires the right surface or something but still really funny.
I love getting to spend so much time with him and Momma. I'm a lucky guy.
Now that JJ is feeling better and sleeping soundly, I even snuck out to the BRC yesterday afternoon for a quick session. It was just an hour but it was fun to climb and other than my skin paying the price for a week and a half of time off I felt great. I think being a new daddy is cheating as I jumped right back on and onsighted a new easy 12. Must be the extra daddy happiness.
Today we've had a brilliant morning following stretches of 3 hours of sleep at a time last night and JJ is going to go on his first stroller ride!
It's nice to be back to blogging too. I guess the secret is to have a cute baby and tons of pictures to share. Haha.

The first days

2010-08-30T15:53:00.007-06:00

I tried to parse down the more than 100 pictures we've already filed into the save folder into just one blog. So this is my best shot at the early greatest hits. For those dying for more, there is a larger set on Marni or my facebook page.

Marni and I on the way to the hospital. There is a matching picture with smiles but this second one we took as the "how do you really feel?" picture.
Marni walking into labor and delivery on a beautiful early Colorado morning. Good thing we stopped at Starbucks on the way in. I wouldn't really eat or drink anything for the next 13 hours or so besides water and a few crackers.
Marni chilling in the delivery room with a Popsicle, waiting for that last centimeter.
Almost there.
John James arrives and we were happy to hear his cries.
Momma and baby meet for the first time.
Daddy gets to hold JJ for the first time.
JJ meets some of his cousins and his aunt.
Peaceful sleeping. We haven't got too much of this since night one though it's getting better.
Look at those long legs!
Momma almost ready to go home.
Comfy and cozy back at home in bed.
Sleeping peacefully for the moment.
JJ loves Grandma and Grandpa Berry.
A few little zzzz's.
Monkey!
Resting with Momma.
Testing those lungs. It's been chilly in the house with the AC on :)
Giving Momma some nap time.
Turbo came home last night and he's really interested in his new brother.
And I leave you with this. Cliche for new parents but Hootie has it right. I even reminded Marni of it last night during some extended crying. It all changes so fast already.

Welcome my son

2010-08-27T13:11:00.003-06:00

What an amazing last week. Yesterday at 7:37pm, Marni and I welcomed John James Plesko into the world. He is doing wonderfully and so is Momma who is a rockstar. Us bike racers have nothing to brag about, labor is incredibly hard and I feel humbled by comparison. At 8lbs 0.2oz and 22" he is a big boy for a little Marni but she did spectacularly. The birth story is hers so I won't steal it but 5 days of contractions led up to a sleepless night complete with full moon midnight walk (Turbo's favorite) and more than 12 hours at the hospital until birth. She's a bit sore today but otherwise upbeat and doing fantastic. JJ had a great night is feeding and sleeping well already. Plus he's a poop machine and I'm proud to say that I've changed every diaper save one where I was gone getting his car seat inspected. We're overjoyed to have so many family and friends come to see him already and it's great to know we'll get to see more tonight and this weekend as we settle in at home. Grandma Judy gets to come visit very soon as well which we cannot wait for.

Like all good things in life, this one did not come easy from start to finish. From fertility treatments and miscarriage to yesterday's birth, JJ gave us one heck of a ride. About the pregnancy we cannot complain much. Well I can complain none since I wasn't toting JJ around for 39 weeks. But as pregnancies go we were lucky. Other than some minor scares and an extra meeting with a geneticist, we enjoyed it as much as we could. While it's not all roses growing a human, Marni was all smiles and we both tried to experience all we could about an only couple times in a lifetime experience. Now that he's here of course we're thrilled. Lucky again to have decent insurance, I sit here writing this watching small storms roll across the foothills of the Front Range while wifey and baby sleep in our quiet private room. Nurses and doctors have been poking their heads in all day offering checkups and assistance where needed but generally it's been happily quiet. And tomorrow we should get to go home where we can bond and recover in peace, introduce Turbo to his new brother and even have JJ's first pediatric checkup in a few days. Life is grand.

I'm sure JJ's photos will grace the pages of my blog many more times from now on. After 4+ years of waiting I cannot stop taking pictures of him. And little by little he'll grow into his own man, where I can teach him to be a good and kind person and show him the wonders of this world. Surprisingly I haven't cried yet but my eyes have welled with tears dozens of times in the past 24 hours. There is nothing in life like labor, working so hard to take care of the two people you love most in this world at the same time, in a situation where total success is not guaranteed. Racing bikes nor alpine climbing can even come close.

Someone asked me yesterday if I was scared or overwhelmed and I said no. I've wanted a baby for as long as I can remember and being able to share this with my wonderful wife of 6 years is incredible. As hard as it has been to get here, I wouldn't trade a second of that time for anything. Sleep deprived nights and poopy diapers are cheap payment for the experiences to come. From his first bottle I get to feed him (hopefully in a month) to his first bike, his first race car bed and maybe someday his first Tour Divide I cannot wait to see what happens.

Better than any television, I have to get back to watching my son sleep.

Waiting game

2010-08-24T08:00:00.002-06:00

The time is near. After years of trying and disappointment, followed by a wonderful pregnancy, our little boy's arrival is imminent. Marni is back at work, somehow finding energy to teach 24 little Kindergarteners at 38.5 weeks pregnant. It's difficult but every extra day she spends there before means an extra day bonding with our new little bundle of joy after. Our family and friends have been amazing. Our home is filled with everything we need and then some. JJ has a closet full of clothes, way more than his father, and the nursery turned out even better than I imagined it thanks to Marni's parents and her aunt Jackie.

Yesterday I spent the day with Marni at school to be an extra pair of hands and eyes but today she left me at home to catch up on rest of my own. It's hard not to be there today but I do need to be full on sleep myself I suppose since soon my support will be crucial and the timing of such support very much unknown. On Friday I snuck off to RMNP one last time before JJ's appearance and climbed the Diamond on Long's Peak with Aaron. It was a fantastic, hard and rewarding 19 hour day. While it was no Tour Divide type effort, it was the crowning athletic achievement of my summer because when I woke up at midnight to head out, I didn't know if I could actually do it. But we summited safely and survived the crux drive home and now I'm (happily) tethered to activities with cell phone reception.

And now the house has been cleaned again. The nursery is arranged just so. The clothes and blankets and toys are all washed and put away. Baby monitors are setup and our hospital bags have been packed. Marni's been having regular contractions since Friday but they keep stopping. While this could go on for a while longer, it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. Hopefully the next blog post here will be the one that everyone is waiting for. Until then my son is going to teach me just a bit more patience.

2010-07-31T14:56:00.002-06:00

It's really so hard to blog lately with no concrete big goals in sight. Sure I've been getting out but it hardly feels like I'm breaking new ground. I have ideas all lined out but I can't go through with anything yet. My ankle has started to get worse lately rather than better (like it was for a while) so Monday I'll be making an appointment and heading back to the doc. I don't really think I will like what they say but hopefully it will move things in a positive direction. At least I can hangboard and top rope if I end up back in a boot or cast. I better figure out how to crush my 12+ plastic project sooner rather than later...

Regardless of the ankle effing up my plans I'm psyched for JJ's arrival. His room gets more perfect every day and we get to hear his heartbeat again on Tuesday. Marni is 35 weeks and doing great. Turbo is busily inspecting all the new furniture in the room that's had the door closed for years and is probably wondering what the car seat is doing in his spot in the E. I know our world will change drastically in ways we can't even imagine when he gets here but we still can't wait. Two more weeks of cooking in the belly and then he'll be on any day arrival alert.

This weekend the CTR crew is in town and I'll be at the start on Monday cheering them on and definitely wishing my ankle could tolerate CTR level hike-a-bike. So you all should find their blogs and check them out instead of mine :)

Where's Waldo?

2010-07-07T06:58:00.005-06:00

Or should I make that Where's Goldbug? So much for consistency! At least in blogging that is. My how time flies lately. Summer always goes too fast for me, no matter what is going on and this year getting ready for baby JJ it seems to be going even faster. I can't say that I'm not eagerly awaiting his arrival but he's got a couple more months of growing to do so we're stuck in nervous and excited anticipation.

Working on his nursery was wonderful. I love that he has his own special room all ready for him now and I think it looks great. Once again a huge thanks to Marni's parents for helping with prepping, painting and buying the beautiful dresser/changing table. We would have never been able to do such a beautiful job without their help. And also thanks to my Mom for getting him his wonderful crib so soon he can have all his turtle bedding decorating it. Marni has little JJ's blog all started up so if you want to see way too many cute pictures of him and his things, add Little Pivvay to your blog reader.
Since Marni and I have been planning his arrival for years we had the name, John James Plesko, and room design mostly all picked out before we even knew we were pregnant. Getting to finally make it all a reality has been incredibly fun. It may have been a long road to get here but we're trying to enjoy every minute of it. I chuckle in birthing class at the notion that some men feel like they are giving things up getting ready for a child's birth (oh noes Baby's R Us is scurrry!) but I can't imagine not being a part of it. The Tour Divide or any other sporting event is an option almost every year but you only get to experience pregnancy a very limited number of times in your life.
From the initial shot in the butt...
to week 30, oh wait, just kidding...

to the real week 31. Marni has been doing a fantastic job and while it's hard to physically carry a baby sometimes it's also a joy to know he's doing great and now to get to feel him move and kick every day. We even get an "extra" ultrasound next week for a more or less routine checkup.
And as for sports? Can you tell it's playing 2nd fiddle to something else? Well that's going alright too. I've got a loose training cycle underway for climbing and it's making a difference. I'm far from a good climber but it's fun getting to improve at the more rapid rate involved in any new sport. Last year I couldn't even conceive of pulling onto a 12. Now I'm pulling onto (soft gym) 13's and beginning to figure out and link moves. My goal for the winter since I'll be tied closer to the house is to compete in the local gym comp series and also lead my first gym 13. It's ambitious but I know you all wouldn't expect any less of me now would you? The guys and gals at the BRC are really friendly and laid back and have a great setup for those days when you need to train alone (9 auto belays!).

As for biking I have my good friend Brett to keep me honest. He's been riding and training hard and I've got to be on my A game to stay ahead of him up the climbs and now the descents too on his spiffy new Lenz! I've mostly been riding the Selma lately and it's an awesome machine. In fact just the other day I managed to blitz it up one of my local hill climb test pieces only a few seconds behind my personal best time which I set on my road bike. I'm definitely still lacking endurance rides at the moment but those are so fun that I know I'll get there when the time requires.

So there you have a little update from the Plesko's. Wifey is sleeping upstairs, no doubt basking in the fact that the high today is in the 60's not the 90's. Turbo is hoping the light rain stops so I can take him on a walk now that I've finished blogging and breakfast number one. And I guess I'll go make another cup of tea and get some work done myself.

Follow the thin red line

2010-06-01T08:34:00.002-06:00

Aaron was on call but we still wanted to get in a big day outside. Luckily the Flatirons get great cell reception and we spent almost 9 hours blasting up and down some big formations. We clicked off the most popular route (direct east face on the first flatiron) by 8:30am while the Boulder Boulder was getting going and spent much of the rest of the day dodging the crowds on less traveled routes (2 more on the first, 1 on the second and 1 on the Spy linking into the first). We simulclimbed every route, often linking 1200 or 1400 foot faces in just a couple of pitches.

Aaron somewhere up there at the end of the skinny rope.
Cool parasailer flew right by the face on our first trip up. Close enough that we exchanged hellos!
Following Aaron up the cool fin feature known as the Spy before linking into the North Arete on the First Flatiron.
Lots of pretty lichen and plenty of flakey stuff once you get off the Flatirons trade routes.
5600 feet of climbing according to Aaron's Suunto, not a bad day. Hopefully we can translate this practice and speed to some rock routes in the Park soon. The Petit is calling my name.

Summer: Here and Now

2010-05-28T08:55:00.003-06:00

I think when there are 90's in the forecast, I can officially declare summer to be here. Plus Marni finishes up her teaching year today which is great. She's ready to enjoy her last few months of pregnancy without the stress of teaching the little ones every day. I know she loves her job but it's also great to have a bit of time away every year to decompress and get ready for another class full of wonderful kids who need lots of love and attention. Her dad and I picked up another couch last night while she was at her grad class and hopefully this weekend we'll get the paint color picked out for the nursery. Bit by bit I feel like we're getting ready for little JJ's arrival. Know how fast summer always flies by, it won't be long until he's here.
In other news I didn't get the job I interviewed for. It was great to hear back yes or no but a bummer to hear back no. More applications and interviews await and I'll probably find something closer to home anyway but it's always a little depressing not to be chosen. I had a nice time mentoring a new trad climber yesterday on the first flatiron to think about things and hopefully will get away for a little solo adventure to the Indian Peaks Wilderness this weekend to reflect some more. Getting up into the high mountains is such a paradox. The places I love to go have a limited time window when I can safely be there so I move quickly and all too fast I'm back home looking up at the big mountains, longing to return to where I just was. This time I've got a plan to spend a few extra hours up there if everything works out.
Well time to take Turbo for his walk before it gets too hot for the furrysaurus. Golden Retrievers aren't a big fan of 90 degree weather :)

Wham Couloir

2010-05-25T16:02:00.005-06:00

Forecasts predicted a good long freeze so Chad and I rolled the dice again at RMNP's tables. Knowing full well that reality or the new snow wild card might leave us just taking the tools for a walk, we rolled out of Westminster at 4am. Twilight comes early these days and 5:30am trail head departures no long need a headlamp. Good thing too, I hadn't been to Loch Vale in a while and was hoping not to get us lost on the short cut trails that exist in winter. I even spotted Kevin's car in the parking lot though our two groups were the only cars to be seen.We followed Kevin and his partners tracks, at least we thought, until somewhere just beyond the Loch but we never saw them. Hope they were out getting after something good.
The short cut trails are melting fast now. Don't fall into the creeks which most of them follow!
Here, just past the Loch, we broke right towards the South Face of Mt.Otis. The well featured face has at least 10 couloirs running up it. We headed towards the prominent pair in the center/right of the photo.
A short bushwhack without too many mistakes found us following Kevin and Ryan's few day old tracks towards a route called C.O.U.S aka Chockstones of Unusual Size. This hard m6-7 route was put up last year and occasionally features a WI4 pillar bypassing the crux first pitch which Kevin had climbed a couple days ago. I liked the look of the pillar and a chance to snag an awesome line but very shortly I realized it was not our day for C.O.U.S. When sun hit the walls above the couloir ice chunks began raining down. Safely tucked between our two options we watched both gully's shed ice as the sun came up. After gearing up it was obvious that the large chunks were all coming out of C.O.U.S and that today Wham was looking much better.
Not a bad place to sit down and gear up for a climb. Sky pond and company pictured below.
I racked up and got ready to tackle the first pitch. This is the water ice start to the Wham Couloir but there wasn't much good ice today. The climbing wasn't bad but it was hard to protect and thus slow for me. I moved carefully and climbed on the far left as much as possible to be sheltered from any ice fall. Finally I peeked around the corner at the top of the ice, saw a good opening, found some decent tool placements and jumped around the corner. Here I was able to move to the right side of the gully away from the fall line and also finally get in a decent piece of pro. I ran out the easy snow climbing on good neve for almost the full rope length. Debating between forcing Chad to simulclimb a little and setting up an unsheltered belay I went with the former option. I found a great #2 camalot placement, pulled a physical move on snice over a chockstone to the left (after finding the right corner completely filled with rotten ice) and made it up 20 more feet of easy snow to a sheltered crack system. I put Chad on belay as quick as possible and before long he joined me at the ledge. I'm sure he was happy to be climbing as it was a bit of a slow lead on a long pitch one.
Knowing that the crux was likely over based on the route description, Chad set off with all the gear and when it continued to be easy climbing I dismantled the belay and we simulclimbed further.
Somewhere up there is Chad. We placed protection between us so that if either of us fell, we would eventually stop, but not as quickly as with a standard belay. The advantage to this when climbing is easy is that falls are still protected but you can move much more quickly. Moving quickly is key in the alpine environment and it also lets you switch back to a standard belay much faster than when soloing since the rope is already out.
Looking back down from a few pitches up.
A nice short ice and mixed section in the middle of the couloir.
Chad bringing me up. When Chad ran out of gear there was only easy ground to the top so we stowed the rope and rack and finished up unroped.
An over the shoulder view from near the top of the couloir.
Chad finishing up some easy mixed ground.
Sunrise starting to warm the upper couloir.
Looking back down on Zowie and Wham towers. They look like fantastic rock climbs for this summer.
Looking down the route from the top.
Once we topped out we had to find our way down. Luckily the snow was not too soft yet and we down climbed through the obvious notch in the center/left of the photo.
Then we got some wet glissades down back towards the Loch. A little bit of switchbacking to find an easy line, some postholing and a few more glissades and we found ourselves sneaking around a fast melting Loch to the trail.
Looking back at the Loch. If anyone is just looking for a beautiful hike in the summer, it's about ~3 miles to Loch Vale and there is a good trail up Andrews Creek as well (goes past what we climbed). Until the next good weather day...

Freeform

2010-05-24T09:37:00.002-06:00

Breaking your ankle apparently has long lasting effects but perhaps this year was well suited for the change after 4 seasons of training and charging hard on the bike. The recovery is coming along, more slowly now that I'm closer to normal but that's a post for another day. I haven't been doing much training this year but I've been plenty active as my ankle increases in strength. With little JJ's due date growing closer and closer, I'm pretty sure the trend will continue through the year.

On Saturday night, Marni and I joined friends and much of Boulder's cycling community at the Boulder Theater for the local premier of Ride the Divide. Mike Dion and the filmmakers did an excellent job capturing the event, something that's none too easy following spread out cyclists over 2800 miles of backroads. After the movie I got up on stage with Kurt and Felix and we got to answer a few questions from the crowd which was a fun experience. Brett and I had to hustle to Boulder just to make the movie, barely getting there on time after riding a couple Left Hand Canyon laps (110 miles/9k vert) earlier in the day. See I do still ride my bike :p
Yesterday Marni and I had a lazy breakfast up in Boulder before contributing to the economy via another new couch purchase. I've been slowly working on the house projects, trying to get the rooms all ready for the little one's arrival and resulting company coming to visit. The living room is being freshened up and finally outfitted with it's own furniture and should look really good soon! In the afternoon we found a shady wall up above Golden and Aaron and I worked on a couple of our rock climbing projects. I sent my 5.10b project (apparently ripping the butt out of my pants in the process, haha) and Aaron was oh soooo close to sending his 5.11- route. The girls came with us and relaxed on the rocks before we all grabbed some dinner. Cookies and The Office awaited Marni and I at home before bed.
Marni is looking beautiful and feeling pretty good at 25 weeks now. Little JJ is kicking regularly and goes wild after she eats sweet things. It's so fun to feel him move and kick and he only has to stay in there a few more months before we get to meet him. We've gotten so many cute little outfits from our friends and family and we're starting to work on the nursery which I'm super psyched about. Marni is done with school at the end of this week and she'll be done with her grad school maymester class on June 4th. It's a tough way to end the school year but I'm really proud of her for getting another grad class finished before the baby comes. She's getting really close to finishing her Master's degree and that's awesome! Of course then I guess it will be my turn to finish up my Master's, haha.
This morning we snuck out for a quick breakfast together before work and have some great after work plans too. It's finally warm and sunny (though still windy) here in the front range and it's wonderful to sleep with the windows open in the house, my favorite time of year. Turbo is sunning himself regularly hence his newest nickname, Solar Powered Puppy.
My cycling has been taking all sorts of different forms these days. MTB rides, big road rides with the century crew and often just random commuting. Riding up to Boulder to go climb and riding home is a great workout and I'm finally feeling reasonably fit for the first time post avalanche.
I had an interview last week for a fall teaching job. It went well and I'm definitely hoping I get an offer. Getting to visit the school and see where I would be working was awesome and I'm excited. I just have to cross my fingers now and hope that they're willing to take a chance on me. I'm definitely up for the challenge and have even figured out some bike and bus commuting options that I'd be able to use some of the days. Until I get a new job lined up I'm going to continue to enjoy my time off and the ability to literally stop and smell the roses. It's been quite an amazing experience to be able to take this time off of work and enjoy a slower pace for a bit. I'm quite thankful for the support of my wife and this opportunity. I like to be able to be there for Marni during her hard days of work and classes and I've really learned a lot about myself being able to participate in all the awesome bike events. Going back to work is going to be great too. I think teaching will be very rewarding and I'm ready to get started.
Turbo certainly likes having me home so that he gets extra walks and his boney belly doesn't get too out of control :) I think he's gained a few pregnancy pounds too.
He sure doesn't seem to mind though. There are few things in life quite as happy as a dog running free.

Warm!

2010-05-21T16:13:00.002-06:00

I think it took a long time to hit 80 degrees or more this year in the front range. Today was nice and hot though and I helped Kevin out with a quick run up the first flatiron this morning.
We pitched out the bottom part while he got used to climbing again and then soloed the easier upper part.
Last time I climbed up here it was a strange foggy day and I missed out on the views. Today was awesome with RMNP and the IPW on full display.
I think this makes 10 times up the direct route for me with some other summits by other routes. I have a long way to go to reach 100 like Stefan did last year.
When Marni and I first climbed it we took over 7 hours car to car. My best so far is just over an hour. Today was just under 3 or so at a pretty relaxed pace.
Tomorrow the century crew has a good ride planned and then we're watching the Ride the Divide movie at 7pm at the Boulder Theater. Tickets still available as far as I know if anyone wants to come.

Dawn Patrol

2010-05-20T07:37:00.002-06:00

Call it new baby training if you wish. Waking up when everyone else is sleeping sure seems to pay off in the beauty department. I've always enjoyed sunrises.
Luckily Chad must too otherwise I think he'd tell me to go pound sand when I suggest getting up early *again* to squeeze another trip to the park in before *another* spring storm.
Besides the sun is coming up so early these days you can almost leave the headlamp at home.
Longs Peak from the west.
The hike to Emerald Lake is a quick one and quite handy that so many moderate alpine routes are available from there.
Chad and I were headed to the Dragonstooth aka Dead Elk couloir, adjacent to one we'd climbed a couple weeks prior.
Our route is the left most steep snow strip on the right half of the screen where the sun is almost reaching.
On the way in I checked out the Squid, a WI5 climb I've been curious about getting on. It came in recently due to our strange weather but two prior days of sunshine did a number on it. I'll have to wait longer as it's not climbable by me in it's current condition.
Clouds rolled in as we booted up the lower section of the couloir. That was fine with me as it kept temperatures cool and that meant our pace could be relaxed up the climb. Spring and summer the primary danger from avalanches (outside of new storm situations) is from wet slides. Clear nights and/or cloudy days keep the snow from warming and keep it safe. Early starts are also key.
Climbing conditions weren't as nice as our Dragonstail outing where we found more than half the couloir nicely iced up but I kicked steps and did some alpine crawling and up we went anyway.
The route gradually steepens as it climbs and there are a couple fun mixed bands to play in. Mostly however it consists of easy to moderate snow climbing for 1600 feet.
Chad makes his way through an optional mixed section on the right side of the couloir.
Oh so difficult. Just kidding. It is fun though and makes for a nice ropeless outing.
Chad following up the main mixed band. There was a few bits of ice in here to play with.Looking up the couloir.
After the rock step, more steep snow leads to the top with a few different exits possible. I headed more or less straight up to the top. Looking down from near the top.
The snow at the top firmed up a bit and treated us to a nice topout. We chatted with a couple groups of skiers, looking to head the opposite direction and made our way down to the car. Breakfast awaited us in Estes before heading home to free the doggies and do some chores. Now to get my skis mounted while the next storm rolls through and settles out.

Sometimes you just go for a walk

2010-05-19T11:34:00.005-06:00

2 am alarm and another bleary eyed drive past Estes Park to a quiet and empty parking lot, save for my partners car. We stow puffies and hide car keys. I take one of the ropes and a stash of cams and shove them into my pack. It's always much heavier once the rope has to come along. A few minutes of hiking along the dark trail and the snow becomes continuous thanks to a fresh dump of another couple feet a few days before. Kevin dons skis and skins and begins to shush up the trail. The winter short cut trails are still firm and we follow a creek up the valley. It doesn't take long to reach our first lake and here my eyes grow green. Skis leave almost no trace of their passage while I immediately start to sink in the untracked snow. I boot straight across the lake until I reach the outlet of the following lake and punch through. Looking in the hole I see water. Damn. Then the other foot goes in. Crap. I jump out and find some firmer ground. Luckily I was wearing the gaiters today and my feet are mostly dry. I dig out the slowshoes and strap them on. We have a long way to go and I was foolish hoping not to need them.

With no trail we begin to follow the winter route towards Black Lake. A minor wrong turn and soon we're once again following the creek. Kevin leads the way and before long headlamps grow unnecessary. Sadly we must break away from the easy route and soon begin our climb up to Solitude Lake. A monster hill looms above us as we wind our way through the trees and small cliffs towards our destination. After too many self created switchbacks we reach the bench below the lake. While the hours long approach was brutal, the reward is access to a place very few people probably venture in these conditions.
I find Kevin sitting under a boulder, eating and starring at our objective; the north face of Arrowhead and a route called Sister Sweetly. Rarely climbed but supposedly reasonable for our skills. Kevin was just here climbing a route to the left, the Hourglass Couloir. They found difficult conditions but his pictures and the previous week's weather had left us optimistic. Reality found us feeling differently. We pieced together a line up the face but even if we were generous on what we thought might be ice, we couldn't make the top section go. Apparently the whole route ices up sometimes but not this day.

Our next surprise came during our silent contemplation of what to do next. Tink tink tink. Though it was early and still cool, the sound of rock and ice fall was unmistakable and continuous. Some careful scanning of the wall nailed the location right near our 2nd option couloir. Great. In fact the sounds of the face cleaning itself would continue non-stop the entire time we were in the cirque.
I think both of us had the wind taken out of our sails a bit but we rallied up a new plan, to go quickly solo our intended descent route and at least summit Arrowhead. On our hike over we spied another gully that looked shorter but nicely inset and shaded. A quick walk back to grab some protection and we soloed up the approach slope, set a belay, flaked the rope and...
almost immediately got shut down again. The powder cone from all the sloughs was so deep it was almost unclimbable and certainly not very fun. After a valiant swimming effort we decided today was not our day.
Time to coil the rope and go home.
It wasn't a total waste of time of course, views like this are worth all the effort and we spied lines all over worth of future exploration.
We post holed back to our boulder and cache of stuff, ate a bit more food and prepared to head back to town.
Skis and snowshoes were waiting for the descent and I got a head start knowing that Kevin would catch me quickly while he glided and I slogged.
Longs and the Trough were looking nice. The wind was light and we both realized that we had just chosen wrong this morning. We should have been up climbing keyhole ridge (a primarily rock route). Lesson learned for future trips.
Goodbye Solitude Lake, I'll be back.
The walk out went quickly but I was still jealous of the skis. Luckily thanks to a friend I will have my own pair of approach skis very soon. At least the views continued to be excellent while postholeing to my waist in snowshoes.
Once across the fast melting lake we began to run into the hiking crowds again.
This meant packed trails and a good bye to my snowshoes.
We clicked off the remaining miles to the car and headed into Estes for some lunch and a beer to drown our sorrows. Conversation already included talk of a return trip.

Window

2010-05-12T09:45:00.003-06:00

With an impending spring storm looming, Chad and I rolled out of Denver before the sun came up. A nice 30 minute hike up the hill and Mt.Lincoln's Scottish Gully was all ours. Chad racked up for his first ever ice lead.
Time to go get em.
Lincoln was still fat. Might have to go June ice climbing just for the heck of it.
Putting in a screw.
Topping out the bulge on pitch one.
I followed up to the anchor and led up the headwall to the top for pitch 2. A quick walk down and Chad led another line bringing us back to the top.
We walked down again and ran another lap up the main gully, this time on a steeper line. I led it all as one pitch with Chad simul-climbing the last 10m or so. The start was easy goofing around on the dead tree rest.
3 near vertical sections kept it interesting but I managed never to get pumped or cold hands all day. Got to keep practicing that technique. As one pitch it's not a bad 70m of climbing.
The sun even came out for us off and on. By 11am we'd had enough laps and headed out to beat the storm and make it back in time for Marni, baby and my doctor's appointment. Everything is going well and little JJ is growing nicely. Only a few more months until we get to meet him!
Someday I can't wait to bring him up here to meet Mr.Goat and friends.

Deep Blue Something

2010-05-10T17:23:00.004-06:00

There is a reason for 3 am alarm clocks and bleary eyed drives, for bouncing a 4wd up a rutted and snow packed road in the dark.
For hiking through the snow towards the rising sun.
To be awed looking back at your footprints.
To climb up into the sky, where the color blue gets deeper and deeper.
To share such moments with friends.
Admiring them together.
Putting in the work.
Plotting another trip.
Watching the earth drop away.
Sharing the load into a deeper and deeper blue.
Until there is no higher to go.
But even more beautiful views await.
And then it's time to go down, back to reality.
And say goodbye until another early morning.
Which you know will come, because you couldn't possibly stay away.

Martha

2010-05-06T11:57:00.006-06:00

I'm having a hard time finding my words but I miss regular blogging so I guess I better suck it up and find a way to write some stuff anyway. At least I have some pictures. This is from a few weeks ago when Chad, my avalanche buddy, and I hiked our butts up to the Chasm Lake cirque to climb a couloir called Martha. I climbed it last year when I was really quite a new climber and it was great to come back a year later and see the difference.

The approach is maybe 5 miles but well worth it. After a minor false start following snowshoer tracks we popped out above the trees.Sun is coming up earlier and earlier these days. That means the alarm goes off darn early for alpine starts.
To the right of my head you can see the couloir Chad and I were avalanched down. It's the 2nd wide snow band from the bottom right of the picture. If you zoom in you can see where it begins to narrow significantly. We went from ~50 feet below the narrow part all the way down the wide part more or less. Note to everyone, don't do that.
The Diamond looks mighty impressive from down here.
We were at the well frozen lake in no time and hiked across much to Marni's excitement on the SPOT. "You looked like you were in the middle of the lake so I thought the SPOT was wrong." Time to gear up. I donned my harness and the rack and began to drag the rope up the hill.
I headed for the shady gully climbing bomber snow and a nice easy ice/mixed band. Somewhere above I found my first piece of gear while Chad was already simul-climbing.
The wide part of the couloir was easy but still filled with some deep powder snow. I put in the stairs and was happy to find occasional rock pro in the couloir walls as the angled kicked towards 50 degrees, just in case.
Still happy simul-climbing, Chad was somewhere below at the end of the rope. I hugged the left edge of the couloir until it finally narrowed back up and the loose snow depth decreased.
After running the rope up to just below the crux sections I was out of gear due to our small rack. I brought Chad up, collected the gear from him and headed up again.
I tried an interesting left line but it turned out more difficult than I thought so I down climbed and headed right instead.
Chad following the route.
Nice and narrow now.
The crux ice section was thin but I got a stubby screw in and fired it easily. Quite a big difference from a year ago when I was nervous just following Juan's lead with much fatter ice!
I built a quick belay so that Chad would have one climbing the cruxes and brought him up. The view certainly was nice and we were topped out before the sun hit the main couloir which was perfect.
Chad finishing up some great ice, snow and mixed climbing.
Heh, cold hands aka the hot aches or screaming barfies. Don't overgrip your tools kids.
The route beyond this point is easy so I sent Chad up to the safety of the rocks above while I broke down the belay. The snow was bomber up here too, just starting to warm in the sun.
Up in those rocks we stripped our crampons and harnesses and put the rope and rack away. A short 3rd class scramble brought us to the summit of Mt. Lady Washington. After a quick lunch we hiked and glissaded back to the car. Round trip was ~7:45 which was sure better than the 7 hour descent alone time it took us to get down with our matching broken ankles!
There are about a half a dozen routes pictured in the photo below that I hope to do this year alone including my first trip up the huge face (The Diamond) in the left center of the photo. The route Marni and I climbed last July is the right edge of the Diamond down to the lower right snowfields. Hard to believe why Longs Peak is so popular :)

True Love

2010-04-26T16:37:00.001-06:00

Omens

2010-02-24T18:38:00.004-07:00

I've never been one to put much stock in omens or other such things but the past two trips have just had enough of "something like that" to keep the idea in my head. On the drive to the Arrowhead I left Denver and merged onto I-76 in a fog. The first license plate I saw that wasn't Colorado belonged to none other than...Minnesota. I chuckled to myself and grinned as I headed east, happy to be going on an adventure and hoping to learn something new.

This morning after dropping Marni at work and going about running those million last minute errands I heard this song on the radio.

It seemed fitting for the trip and goes along with wifey's goodbye. There are things which I want to see and do and life is too short to miss out on them. It's a paradox to want to be home surrounded by those who love you and also be out there where time is so fleeting and unending all at once. I suppose my goal is to enjoy each part to it's fullest and maintain that balance which allows me freedom *and* a home to return to.

With that I'm off tomorrow morning on another adventure. This will be my first trip to Alaska and my only goals are to be safe and have a wonderful time. Keep tabs on the race and me here and leave comments here on the blog, on Marni's blog, on Facebook or at the Ultrasport message board if you like.

I've used this one before but it's particularly appropriate. From one of the race directors and participants, Bill Merchant
We go into the Alaskan backcountry to look for cracks in ourselves. We go back a year later to see if we have done anything about them.

We thought...

2010-02-21T14:55:00.000-07:00

When Marni and I bought our Civic we both thought we would bring our first baby home in the backseat someday. Marni was a little disappointed when we drove off the lot in our new black Element a couple years later but we figured this time we'd be right. When the black Element died a premature death in Arizona we figured we'd have to be right with the blue Element. Fingers crossed that the third time is the charm because we're finally pregnant after a long, long road of trying and disappointments.

Baby Plesko is due September 4, 2010 and we couldn't be more excited to let everyone in on our secret! More to come but all three(!) ultrasounds so far have been perfect and the heartbeat is strong. Super excited!!!

Twenty eight years

2010-02-19T08:15:00.003-07:00

Today I turn 28 years old, thanks Mom and Dad. A big free coffee from Starbucks and a "special" day make a good time for some thinking before I shovel the driveway. I haven't been posting much on the blog because to be honest, I've been struggling some with injury and recovery and it's subsequent effects on my lifestyle. Perceived effects some might say but there is a difference right now between what I want to do and what my body will let me do that I haven't had to deal with in a very long time. I don't like complaining so instead I say nothing, dealing internally and venting to wifey when I swing too low. She is my Saint Marni and I can't believe we're coming up on 9 years together.

But things are not bad here and I'm not writing to complain, in fact things are not even just different, things are good! When I think back to the 28 years I've been lucky enough to have and especially the past four, I have no regrets. I have dedicated my life for four years to being a better mountain biker and the journey has taken me places beyond my wildest dreams. I no longer have any idea where my limits are so I've gone looking in new places. I mean hell, the Arrowhead 135 is often rightfully billed as a hardcore winter ultra (I mean zero disrespect when I say the following) and I treated it like a 27 hour fun run complete with a below zero nap by the fire and an excuse to eat chocolate and bacon. I will be back sometime by the way but next time on foot or skis to really ~~suffer~~ enjoy it.

Even better than all the rides however are the people and my trip to Minnesota drove that point home hard. Everywhere I went I had a free place to stay, food to eat, wonderful conversation and I'd have to force myself upstairs to bed. To Doug and Paul specifically, a huge thanks. To Dave, Charlie F, Rick and the rest of the hotel crew, another thank you. I can't even begin to thank all the people I should and that's just from the Arrowhead! Beyond that Scotty who instigated all of this (and who is my ankle injury partner) and the rest of the CO bike crew you are all amazing friends. Plus the enduro riders and bikepacking.net junkies who are all now addicted Facebook'ers (even JP!), I treasure the memory of every ride done together. So how could I rightfully complain, I've had a fantastic 28 years and could only hope to have the rest of my life filled similarly.

So what have I been doing? I've been biking but subject to the whims of other body parts that are not so happy I hurt my ankle. I've been running a little, as much as my ankle will tolerate. And I've been climbing, mostly with my new partner and friend Aaron. We've been pulling plastic at the BRC where I finally made my way up a 5.12 and am onsighting some 5.11's. It's nice to see definable progress even if it is fake rock. We've been climbing ice where you can't help but laugh and smile climbing frozen waterfalls by arming yourself with metal spikes. And we've been trying to get into the alpine whenever we can to climb ice, snow, dirt, rock and whatever else stands between us and the summit. Alpinism combines the self support and long efforts aspect of enduro biking with the technical challenge of climbing (which I still suck at). That and it's just darn pretty up in the mountains so I like it a lot. Oh and I guess there isn't really a clock to race, just the sun to the horizon.
The older I get, the less I seem to care about a lot of material stuff I used to think was important. I'd take a king size bed one of these days over a fancy HD TV or new computer so wifey, doggie and I can all fit comfortably. And I haven't bought new clothes in years if they aren't outdoor related and even many of those are starting to show a little age. Socks especially, man I love Smartwool but I wear out the entire sole of the sock! I used to frown when I ripped my jacket or pants or sleeping bag, now I realize that patches are signs of use and signs of love. I suppose it's just trading one type of materialism for another but the "things" that let me experience the outdoors seem to hold more value to me.

So with a healthy dose of respect and a touring perspective, my birthday present (and Christmas and Valentines day and...) is my big trip to Alaska for the Ultrasport. Even if I can't race my fastest, I'm looking forward to some beautiful sunrises and sunsets from the seat of a bike, the soles of my boots or the comfort of my sleeping bag. And how could anyone complain about that?

East Side Epic 2010

2010-01-24T19:20:00.006-07:00

Yesterday we had a rocking time at the first Leadville snow race of the winter. Marni came up and took pictures and Brett, Bill, Ben and I raced with 42 other racers! It was a killer field for the first race (2nd biggest ever?) and there were quite a few Pugs/fat bikes out there. I had to test out the wheelie capabilities of the Fatback on 100's and I report back with success! Haha.
The new bike did really really well in the soft stuff (as it should) and I could ride uphill where no one else could even without airing the tires way down yet. The SS gear of 30x22 was a little easy for a "race" but I think it will be just about right for the long rides with a load.
Very very pretty too. Wow I feel lucky to have one.
The race went pretty well. I went into it super chill and let the leaders go right off the bat up the hill. The snow covered road was easy riding and the Fatback was way overkill. I spun my way up, was pretty spun out on the way down and hit the Mineral Belt trail (thank god) in ~12th place. From there I put those big wheels to good use and turned on the gas. I reeled in everyone but one guy from Vail who kicked some serious butt finishing on foot with a flat(!) and held me off by 2 minutes. Final result was just over 40 minutes of riding, first place SS and 2nd overall.

The crew all followed shortly and it was just nice to be out. Bill coming in.
Ben all finished up and Chad as well.
Brett hanging in there on his SS in some soft finishing snow.
There are some more pictures of the race here. Hopefully the embed features works.

Last night and today I've been working on getting this packed up for the Arrowhead 135. Bill I got a gear list almost done for you so I'll try to post that next! The Epic Designs bags are almost beyond words, adding to the pogies I got last year. I don't plug gear that often but I paid Eric for the bags and would recommend others do in a heartbeat. He's really continuing the innovation, you've got to see them up close to notice all the amazing little touches.I'm looking forward to the Arrowhead a lot. I'll be driving out starting on Friday and the race will be a big learning experience for me. Everything isn't quite as polished and dialed in as I would like due to the broken ankle and bike build delays. Luckily the adventure side of me has grown greatly over the past few years and I feel like I know enough to be safe. The rest I'll treat as a dry run for the Iditarod and hope to learn some valuable lessons. The winter riding puts a HUGE smile on my face every time I do it so frankly I feel darn lucky to be headed out on fat wheels for real this year, especially just 3 months after a broken ankle. I fully expect to get smacked around like the rookie that I am so we'll just see what happens. More tomorrow perhaps.

Headset and BB Winterizing

2010-01-21T08:23:00.006-07:00

A bit overdue on the blog front and for those waiting for this info but hopefully it's worth it. I tried to take plenty of pictures to make it very straight forward for the less mechanically inclined.

Today I'm going to show you how to take apart and winterize (regrease) the bearings in a Surly Mr.Whirly bottom bracket and the ubiquitous Chris King headset. If you have a different headset or bottom bracket, the parts may look slightly different but in general this should get you through most similar options. Alright let's dive in!

Starting with the Mr.Whirly bottom bracket, you'll need to remove both cups (aka the actual bottom bracket parts) from the bike and bring them somewhere to work. This may be a shed or garage or your kitchen table if your wife is nice and you clean up after yourself real well.
From the side your BB cup will look like this. The first thing we need to remove is a small plastic spacer sealing the bearings from the outside. I had a handy 1" wooden dowel in the garage that just barely didn't fit through so I used it as a small press. The plastic spacer isn't in there super tight so if you don't have a dowel and don't want to go buy one, improvise something else. Just for grins I was able to get one started coming out with a butter knife and my fingers. Mostly just be careful to remove the spacer somewhat evenly so it comes out without cracking. I'm sure Surly could get you another one but that will involve phone calls and shipping and nobody wants that. As you can see in the picture below the spacer is just starting to push out with the dowel...
Push a little more and pop! the spacer is out. Now remove it completely and set it aside for re-installation later. We can now see the next piece to remove.
Ah yes, the pesky plastic/rubber seal on the bearings themselves. How do we get it out of there?
I'd recommend that you steal the little tweezer/plucker things from your nice wife to use as a good tool. Alternatively you could grab a little dental pick from the hobby store if your wife will kill you for using her girly supplies for bike work. Use whichever tool you decide on to carefully grab the edges of the seal and pry it up a bit. Now you can pop it the rest of the way out and...
Off it comes! We now have access to the bearings! Once again you'll want to clean this off with a paper towel or rag and set it aside for later re-installation.
Repeat the procedure on your other cup, grab some brake cleaner or similar solvent and you'll probably now want to head outside or to the garage at least. No one but punks that huff like the smell of brake cleaner. Take each of the bearings and using the little red nozzle, spray all the stock or old grease out of the bearing. You'll want to rotate the bearings as you do this or in between sprays to make sure you really get all the old stuff out, especially if the bearings have already been used on a bike. There will probably be dirt and grit in there, wash it all out with the solvent.
When you get all the nasty stuff out and the bearings spin easily and without grittiness start to dry them off. If you have a air gun this will help to get all the solvent and any extra grease hiding in cracks and crevices out. With no air gun just dry and rotate them thoroughly so you get the solvent all evaporated.
Now we have two clean, dry and greaseless bearings. Time for reassembly.
You can see the difference between a re-greased bearing on the left and a dry one on the right.
To do this, grab your handy big syringe of Morningstar Soup or your other favorite winter grade grease. If you order from Paul at Morningstar Tools, I'd recommend getting the big grease tube and a couple extra seals with his freehub body kit all at once. By the time you pay for shipping twice it's just about as easy to get plenty the first time around plus he now can take Paypal to make it easy as pie and he's really nice to talk to. The Soup has lots of winter applications.
Okay back to the bottom bracket. Squeeze the grease in a decent sized bead all the way around the top of the bearings.
You can see there is plenty on the top. That's important because you're really going to want to work it in there inside in a moment.
Using your fingers or the dowel from earlier, spin the bearing to work that grease inside all the surfaces. You might also lightly tap the bearing square on the table to settle the grease down inside. Take a few moments here to really work it in, you want all the surfaces covered and the grease to stay inside the BB, not push out when you seal it up. You can't really put too much inside, any significant extra will just push out. Luckily the soup is a fairly light grease (for winter, duh I guess) so this all isn't too difficult.
Now you're going to reinstall the plastic/rubber seal first and then the plastic outer guard. The seal will snap down pretty easily, maybe pushing with your tweezers. Make sure it's properly seated. If you are really worried, do one bearing first so you have the other one to compare to. Then snap in the outer guard trying to install it straight down into the bearing. A flat object of any kind to push with is handy for this step.
Ta da! You now have winterized BB bearings and just reinstall them into your bike and ride. You can use the same procedure on your summer bike to clean up a crunchy bottom bracket before it complete seizes up.
Okay now that we have the bottom bracket out of the way, the headset will be a piece of cake. It's probably easiest to do this off the bike though I'm sure if you really wanted to you could figure out how to do it with the cups still in the frame. Personally not recommended as removing and reinstalling a headset is a pretty easy task with less than $10 in tools from Home Depot.

Alright let's get this one done too!
Start with just the two plain cups, set aside the other headset pieces for later re-installation. Now is a good time to clean and regrease anything else in the stem/headset area so when you put it all back together it will be fresh, clean and torqued to spec. You do use your torque wrench right?

Looking at the cups below you can see I started to remove the snap ring on the one on the left. Weasel your tool from earlier down right at the snap ring (metal) seam and carefully pry it up. You'll need to use a little force but it should start to come out pretty easily once you get it started. It's sitting under a small ledge on the outside of the bearing.
Work the snap ring out from under the ledge, clean it and set it aside for later.
Next up is a small rubber seal. This seal also will just pull right up if you grab it carefully. It may be slightly stuck in a few spots and it is fragile so be gentle, we will be reusing it.
With both pieces removed, we now have access to the bearings. Once again you'll want to take your brake cleaner or other degreaser of choice and clean all the nasty old stuff out. My headset had been on a bike for a while and it was fairly crunchy and lots of black nasty stuff came out. Get it all out of there, working the bearing around. You want it to spin free and easily when you're done. Blow it out with the air gun again or just make sure it dries if you don't have one (brake clean flashes off easily, sorry environment...).
Grab your new grease or Soup and squeeze it into the bearings, again getting plenty of coverage.
Work the grease into the bearing as we did with the bottom bracket and then grab your rubber seal. Carefully push it down under the lip of the headset making sure to keep it even all the way around and not push the inside part too deep. If you push it too deep, just grab it with the tweezers and start over.
Once it's seated all the way around wipe down any excess grease that pops up to keep things clean.
Next reinstall the snap ring by carefully working it back under the ledge. Snap it in at one point and work around in a circle until you get back to the start. Once it's mostly seated, push down firmly at the junction to make sure the ring is level where the two edges meet. You want it to look like the bearing on the right, not the left. Do this to both bearings, reinstall into the frame and you're finished. Make sure to clean up the kitchen table and the tweezers before you put them back in the bathroom!
If anyone has questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to make things more clear. Hope this helps someone out there.

Let's just do it

2010-01-08T20:06:00.002-07:00

Racing the Selma tomorrow here in Dallas, Texas sort of on a whim. I brought some minimal race gear but didn't really intend to race. Weather is unseasonably cold for Texas, in fact they're all complaining about the record lows but it's really not too bad. Booties and tights are packed and the Plesko crew will be rocking out for 6+ hours and the first race of 2010. Time to see how the ankle holds up under anger! Nicholas my little brother will be taking some pictures so hopefully we'll have some tomorrow night.

P.S. The Fatback frame has landed in Westminster and is in my wife's hands thanks to some very interested FedEX workers. Assembly starts when I get back home!

Hurray for Ouray!

2009-12-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Been planning and hoping this trip would work out ankle wise for a while. Since the snow bike isn't here yet and the ice is in, I'm road tripping with Aaron and some other climbers down to Ouray, Colorado this weekend to play around in the ice park. Should be an awesome time! I'll be back Sunday and hopefully next week the hubs will arrive. They're on the way :) Frame should be following close behind.

Cleared

2009-12-16T14:38:00.003-07:00

What a wild ten weeks it's been. From a crazy self rescue to not knowing how bad I hurt my ankle to wondering if I made the right call for healing to pushing just how far and fast I could do my PT. I always felt like I was healing and doing the right thing but never having been hurt like this before, there were a lot of question marks. I got a lot of warnings and advice from friends and even random people and I appreciate and did listen to every single thing. But in the end I had to make choices based on intuition and what my body told me and so far it seems like I've done an okay job.

Today the doc (who is meh) and PA (who is excellent) cleared me for normal activity, including biking off road and climbing, with a caveat to give high impact things like running a bit more time. The bones have healed well and I'm not having floating body pain or any pain at all beyond soreness from pushing ankle back to it's normal range of motion and strength. The PT (who is also excellent) worked on my joint mobility again today and we've got a couple more sessions scheduled already. The strength is coming back well and it is sure nice to have. The range of motion is really good except in one area where I'm still a little ways away from perfect. My limp should go away once I fix that last area. I'm certainly not at 100% and it may be months before I get all the way there, but I'm confident now that I'm going to make a full recovery and be good as new at some point in the not too distant future. That's a big, huge, gigantic, amazing relief.

And I guess I just felt like I should shave off the goatee. It was a fun experiment but it's never fully grown in (up close it's a little patchy) and it's probably more trouble than I'm willing to put up with. Back to the baby face, back to firing hard!

Thanks!

2009-12-14T12:12:00.003-07:00

Yesterday Brett and I wrapped up his year long project of a century every month of the year. Nice job Brett! He's less than 200 miles away from his other goal of 7,000 miles on the year as well.

I got my 12 in 12 last year and was on track to repeat until the injury knocked out October and November. A couple weeks ago I made a half-hearted attempted at getting November but a pretty sore tendon and knowing I missed October had me bailing at mile 80. Yesterday I had a goal to help Brett finish off his project and despite an okay forecast, we got tossed around pretty good by a stiff wind and colder than expected temperatures. Impending snow over our intended route had us turn back early leaving some route improv at the end. Just past mile 50 we hit the gas station for a bathroom break and Brett handed me a king size Butterfinger when I walked out. Those 500 calories helped strengthen my resolve and we put the Hump and the Wall behind us without any drama, added some bonus climbing and did a couple laps around the lake to finish off the century. Beer and wings were our reward and we earned it.

I'm a lot stronger than 2 weeks ago but Brett is a machine. He pulled into the wind 99% of the day and I'd have never done the full 100 without his help and that Butterfinger. Guess that's what friends are for, thanks!

Apparently

2009-12-13T08:05:00.002-07:00

Someone thinks I have a lesson to learn repeatedly out of this injury. Thursday and Friday were good days but not great. Some lingering soreness in the arch of my foot was bothering me and I was wondering if I finally would stop progressing. Nope, not the case. Saturday I felt better from some rest and after baby doc stuff in the morning and a delicious breakfast at Root Down, Marni and I came back to the house. She napped and I did my PT and finally managed the elusive one legged calf raise! It has felt so funny not to be able to do that. Then on my bike ride I made it up one of my test piece hills in a great, normal time and even finally was able to ride over small obstacles and pop my rear wheel behind me accordingly. Sweet! I might be able to ride some singletrack soon.

I know I haven't talked much about the fertility stuff on here but I've really got my fingers crossed this month more than ever. Last month my numbers were down a lot from normal and the only explanation we could come up with was the injury. I was really hoping everything would be normal again this month and instead it was almost 4x higher than my best ever and off the charts good. Everything on Marni's end looks perfect too and I just can't believe it won't work this month.

All we want for Christmas...

Chilly Backyard Campout

2009-12-09T09:22:00.002-07:00

It may seem silly to sleep outside when you're paying (a lot) to heat a nice warm house...where your wife and dog are sleeping in bed. But here in the foothills we honestly don't get that many nights where temperatures dip below zero, much less into the negative double digits. Heck that's probably happened less than 5 times since I've lived here. So while "real" camping it is not, sleeping in the yard at least is helping my body continue to develop it's cold adaptations without wasting gas driving to the mountains. Plus hopefully I'll be a little smoother with the whole system by the time my Fatback is ready. Not to mention it was a good excuse to sleep in my new pyramid tarp!
Temps were just at zero when I went out after 9pm and they dropped to a low of -11.7F by dawn. I spent much of the night not quite zipped up all the way in my -25 bag and skimpy sleeping pad but by morning I zipped'er to the hilt and snuggled down in way too many dollars worth of awesome down warmth.
Time to get up and start the day! I didn't sleep in the DAS parka but it was nice pillow. Marni stole it to wear to work this morning :) Temps are going to start warming up slowly now and I'm not sure we'll see negatives again down here in Westminster for a while but if we do I'll be sleeping outside. Got to get ready for Minnesota and Alaska!

And in unrelated news, I'll be darned if my ankle isn't slowly, slightly getting less swollen!

Catchup

2009-12-08T12:25:00.004-07:00

Quite the cold snap we've had this December in the Front Range! PT and cycling have been indoor activities with a very specific focus lately, especially since my fat bike frame has yet to arrive. That doesn't mean that I'm confined to the house though. The last campout got postponed to tonight when it was going to be colder and the hex tent has been staked for a while now, weathering the snowfall and wind like a champ. After Saturday's killer ride with Brett more snow moved in and we took to the trails on foot instead. RMNP was our original goal but terrible roads and a bad "fun to drive" ratio found us in Boulder instead. Might as well go scouting for ice lines right?Brett had only been here once before in the summer we we climbed the 3rd Flatiron but I think he still had a good time following footsteps in the snow for a few hours.
The sun even came out at times. There is ephemeral ice in the Flatirons and if there was ever a time that it's coming in, now is it. Hoping to find a way up at least one route before it all disappears but that will take some luck.
Yesterday Aaron and I went in search of some fat ice despite our lack of screws (errrggg) and made our way up to Mt.Lincoln and the falls. The ice was blue and fat. I hobbled my way up the hill, a bit less confidently than usual, but I made it. Aaron was a good sport for going out with the cripple. We eventually got a sweet top rope setup on the upper falls and lapped the heck out of it. My first lap I had cold fingers so bad from over gripping! Luckily a bunch of laps helped me remember my technique and the climbing was far easier than the approach. Aaron topping out a harder variation (WI4).
Me coming up the main vertical section (WI3). Hard to believe it was warmer up here at almost 12k feet than at my house. Other than swapping the belay jacket we never needed any other tricks to stay warm and I was wearing a cap1 base layer and a softshell.
When I got home Marni and I hung out and admired out sweet Christmas tree...
While playing with the next size larger boots I ordered. I think these guys will work this time. I guess they're a little large since they're basically a full double boot.
Yup I can pedal in them, now time to make the inserts.
Before you go to bed you've got to lay out everything to dry. It won't be long until you get to do it all over again.

Another busy day

2009-12-05T20:50:00.003-07:00

Today Brett pulled me around for a few hours and we managed 55 miles and a couple thousand feet of climbing on ice and snow splattered bike paths and roads. Temps were in the 30's but the sun was shining and it was plenty warm, even hot at times. I felt a heck of a lot better and stronger than just a week ago and I could still walk when I finished, a nice improvement. There is still a ways to go to get to 100% but I've just got to keep progressing. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold (high 12degF @ 5400 ft and colder up higher) and snowy so some snowshoeing is on the potential agenda. Otherwise I'll hit the trainer to keep the biking muscles on task. Then tomorrow night is another camp out.

My PT appointment on Friday at Kaiser went pretty well. They taught me a couple new stretches and gave me some stronger therabands for the ones I'm already doing. I got to ask them a lot of questions which is always helpful and we talked quite a bit about the swelling I'm still seeing and will likely be seeing for a while. They massaged and stretched the ankle out a bit more than I dare on my own. Afterwords they did some electrode therapy thing on my ankle while icing it to try to help with the swelling and hopefully that makes a difference. I've got more appointments scheduled for the next two weeks plus my hopefully last set of xrays and ortho checkup on the 16th. In the meantime I'll keep doing my PT and everything else that doesn't hurt the ankle. Too bad those ice packs are going to be my friends for quite a while longer, even when the bone is healed. It's pretty funny to have very lousy fine motor skills in my left ankle while my right is perfectly normal.

In exciting news, Marni and I got our Christmas tree tonight. We didn't get one last year and it's going to be a lot of fun to have a real tree again this year. Tomorrow we'll get it all decorated with our awesome ornaments and angel!

Fatbike Friday!

2009-12-04T16:48:00.001-07:00

Just a quick Fatbike Friday post that I forgot to publish. Soooo much cool stuff coming, sadly none of it is here yet. Arrrg. Oh well. Sleeping out went well, a low of -3 deg F. No pictures because I forgot to bring out the camera. Luckily it's supposed to be cold and snowy on Sunday so I'm planning another one. This time it will be inside my new pyramid tarp (Golite shangri la 3) that I picked up at the sale for $67! Temps are once again predicted to drop below zero and maybe up to 6" of new snow will fall. If I can pick up my stove tomorrow I'll be playing with that too. I've used white gas once or twice but never owned a white gas stove myself. Should be fun and testing hot chocolate is always a good time. :)

And for on going "will it freeze" testing?

Reece's Big Cup - Awesome! Hard but thin chocolate shell and soft insides. Soooo good.
Caramello - Fail. I thought the runny caramel would work but it was way to hard for my wussy jaws. The chocolate was hard and it was not easy to chew and the squares were too big to suck on. Darn, I really like those things after the Tour Divide
Hostess Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins - Success! The chocolate chips are a little hard but they're tiny and the muffin part is delicious. Bonus for bite sized-ness. I foresee packing these into a big ziplock for ride and resupply food. Hopefully I can find a sale as they come in tiny packs.

Snow!

2009-12-03T09:43:00.003-07:00

Things have been going well with recovery but it's not all roses every day. After hitting PT and working out hard for a couple days in a row my body demands some rest. I oblige but mentally it's tough since I'm used to stacking days easily. With the Arrowhead and Iditarod plus ice climbing season coming regardless of what I do, I want to be ready! Still I can't be ready if I'm injured so I continue to listen closely to my bodies desires. It's a fine line to be sure but to be where I'm at after only 8 weeks on a very bad break I'm pleased.

Yesterday was a big breakthrough day at least. In the AM I was able to increase my reps on all my PT exercises and finally was able to stand on one foot! By the evening I could balance for over 30 seconds. Some ROM stuff is still impeding totally normal walking, especially down stairs and up hills, so I'm hoping "real" PT tomorrow will help with that. I've ditched the cane however and the calf strength is coming back more and more every day.
Yesterday afternoon, the snow was falling lightly and I headed out for a few hours of riding and systems testing (15 deg temps, light winds and clouds) My Fatback isn't here yet so I took the Selma. Nanos aren't bad snow tires as long as we're only talking a few inches and the ride was awesome. It's so easy to forget the fun of snow biking at the initial cold snap every year but 20 minutes into the ride I was grinning from ear to ear and loving the slow churn of snow biking speeds (ha!). I was even able to clean every hill with careful SS weight distribution and my increasing left leg power. The PT has really been strengthening my ankle support muscles and now my left foot isn't greasing to the outside when standing up.
The gearing was 32x20 and that was great at 6-7 mph average unloaded. I'm thinking the 30x20 or 30x22 is going to end up the sweet spot on the loaded Fatbike but we'll see when it gets here and I load it down. I'm stoked for it to arrive and then my new Epic Designs bags and maybe a Larry up front! The RU Outside boots arrived but I decided the 13's weren't quite big enough so I sent them right back to swap for the 14's. I'll post pictures when they "rearrive" next week and I get started on the clipless inserts.
Clothing is still a question mark. I know I can stay warm, the key is just doing it with a nice combination of pieces that adapt to temps from 40 F to -40 F. I've lost all my post Divide food monster weight and it will take an extra layer at times to keep my body warm now. Of course that will also get better with cold adaptation but I'm not there yet for this winter. For the first time in 10 years I'll be playing with different layers on my legs though my top layers are fairly dialed (base, R1 hoody, LS jersey, softshell, puffy) minus playing with a few styles and fabric weights. I'm curious if the goatee is worth anything in the warmth department or if I should just shave it and not worry about the ice beard factor.
I also tested food for another Fatbike Friday post and that part was awesome too! :) Today I'm filling out applications and writing from bed while my ankle ices and rests. The swelling, while not painful at all, is still pervasive and mentally disconcerting at the least so I'm trying to keep it under control.

Tonight the low is supposed to be close to a record and in the -2F range so I'll be bivying on the deck or in a secret spot to test more gear. I might have to get the walkie talkies out again so Marni can check to make sure I'm still alive all night, haha.

Early AM

2009-11-30T05:07:00.001-07:00

Four am and I'm wide awake. Try to roll over for half an hour and give up, why fight it? I'm certainly not lacking rest. My wonderful wife loves her sleep and holidays are all about catching up for her so I've been getting plenty of zzz's. It's a good thing too, sleep helps the healing. So I made a cup of tea, started a killer breakfast and sat down at the good old iBook.

Yesterday was a pretty darn good day. Lots of sleep, some great breakfast and a few hours of climbing in the gym with Marni feeling really strong and really solid on all the 5.10's. I've been doing my PT exercises with the theraband a few times a day since Friday (thanks Jenn!) and by last night I could actually do them all, at least briefly (ie stand on one leg). My walk still has a good hitch to it since I'm not yet able and strong enough to roll through the ball of my foot properly but it's improving with the exercises and I'm psyched about that. It will be good to leave the cane behind, if only so I don't have to hear "my grandpa has that same cane from the little children." The ankle itself feels really really good and once I fix the messed up bio-mechanics I feel like I might actually be closer to normal than not.

Last night I snuck in a bit over an hour on the singlespeed at dusk. Marni had lots of reading to do so I chased the dropping sun before procuring dinner and making desert muffins. The ride was really magical not to be too cheesy. Before I was even a half mile from home, doing a quick lap around the gravel path, I saw two beautiful coyotes. On several different occasions hawks watched and followed me as I made my way to the dog park, all the way to the back and around the singletrack loop for the first time. The sky was far too clear to be the day the weather men predicted and the alpenglow on the Front Range was well worth the rapidly falling temperatures. My ankle continued to show riding improvement and while it's weak still, I'm happy it just keeps getting better. As dark settled in fully I flipped on my headlamp, made a mental note to get the booties out of the closet and spun home. Just the freedom of being able to ride my bike outside again makes a huge difference.

Fatbike Friday: The great boot conundrum

2009-11-28T12:20:00.004-07:00

Sorry for the delay Brian! I managed five and half hours on the road bike yesterday thanks to Brett and Erik towing me around, followed immediately by driving up to the hospital to find my wife and wait for my new nephew Walt Berry. Congrats Betsy and Scott! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. However I think the boot problem is a good one so here is my current, excessively researched and currently in motion plan...
Winter boots for racing the Iditarod Trail Invitational (yes my name is finally on the start list!) are an easy proposition so long as you meet two conditions. Either A) you give you your clipless pedal system and switch to flats and/or B) you have feet smaller than a size 10 US.

I have solidly size 12 flippers and find clipless pedals to be a great advantage to me. Crap, now what? Over the past few years I've debated what to do about this problem, making due in Colorado down to -5F or so with extra socks and a vapor barrier system. However there was no chance in hell I was comfortable with this system much below 0 deg F making it a total non starter for going to Alaska or the Arrowhead 135.

Others have had a lot of solutions and MTBR is a wealth of information for those willing to do the digging. MikeC has posted his solution but with feet much smaller than mine, basing my solution off Lake Winter boots seems impossible. Last year I ordered a size 48 boot just to try and while they still come in a 50 wide, there was no way even that was going to be big enough for my ideal system. Others have glued on overboots, tried large SPD sandals with various liners, ordered some really neat Shimano shoes from overseas but none of those solutions hit the "right on" button for me. I've even called cobblers, sole companies and custom cycling shoe makers in a search for something that could meet the vision in my head.

So what is my ideal solution? If I could have just what I wanted, what would it be? Now take this all with a grain of salt as I haven't slogged it out yet in super cold conditions but experience so far with different events has taught me that my research goes a long way towards being prepared. My ideal boot is one that fits me foot, with a large enough toe box for good wiggle and swelling room without an exceptionally sloppy heal. It needs to have a certain amount of insulation built into the shoe, ideally with an inner boot or liner of some sort, namely an Intuition style closed cell foam or pacboot liner. I want the shoe to be functionally waterproof as much as possible. In the summer I feel the waterproofing is detrimental but in the winter I'll be using a vapor barrier foot system and with stepping into overflow at any time a real possibility, I want maximum protection without the weight and bulk of an overboot. I know the overboot system has fans but with coming across overflow or breaking through the ice a real possibility, I want protection all the time regardless of my notice. A built in or added on full time gaiter is important as it will tie into my pants system to provide a large degree of liquid water protection for short term exposure. A sturdy rubber sole for walking traction and lug blocks with enough width to support screw installation is also key. Field serviceable parts, ie shoelaces, are a nice bonus when compared to the BOA system which works well but does wear out/break. Inexpensive (custom cycling shoes run upwards of $1000/pair) and publicly available parts are a nice bonus too. And finally, I want this system to work with SPD style, two hole clipless pedals.

So how was I going to get this ideal boot to happen as it's certainly not something on the market right now? Good question. I started out by making sure I had all the pieces of the system that I knew I was going to use or a decent approximation of them. Most important was the VB insulated sock and pacboot liners mentioned previously on the blog. With these on my foot providing appropriate foot room, sizing charts measured me out somewhere near a size 52 wide cycling shoe. In a 52 there were only a couple options available, namely Sidi and Shimano. The Sidi's come in a MEGA/wide width but their sole is not conducive to walking and the plastic would take complete removal and replacement with a rubber sole to be serviceable. The Shimano shoes seemed plausible but after seeing them in person there were several aspects of the design that made them less appealing, namely the rachet buckles, the low cut and short height toe box. If you're an glue and overboot person they might work for those of you with a size 12 shoe or less (Shimano m086 ~$100).

With cycling shoes all but eliminated I was onto winter boots. I tried on several options at REI, checked out the race reports from past years and finally settled on some boots used last year by one of the Petervary crew, Tracey. Now after some good info from T-race and a quick visit to RU Outside I've now got some winter boots on the way. They look like they've got a great sole, they lace up for great control, they're waterproof with a built in gaiter and they have both internal shoe insulation plus a removable pacboot liner. Plus they had my guesstimated winter size (13) and one size up (14) in stock and on sale. Now there is one relatively giant problem with these, they're not clipless. What? Are you going flat pedals? Nope not without a big old fight.

After some emails and an offer of help from a local orthotics company and fellow cyclist, I'm going the conversion route. The internet is full of some ghetto and not so ghetto approaches to converting regular shoes to clipless duty. The key as I see it is to make a well fitting stiff insert that approximates the shoe's last to mount the cleat to. This will provide stiffness for pedaling but primarily provide a solid place to mount the cleat to with Shimano's SPD plates or t-nuts. The goals of the insert are to be as minimally conductive as possible, ie minimal metal use, to be stiff enough to reduce excessive fatigue to the mounting points, both pedaling and insertion/removal from the pedals, to be thin enough to not excessively add to the height of the sole reducing toe box room and fit the last of the winter boot closely enough that it can be solidly and permanently anchored to the boot. Doing this all in a reliable and professional manner is a tall order but I'm sure it can be done after dissecting all the cycling shoes in the house. With a bit of carbon fiber and epoxy, some expert help and careful retrofit work, I think a good and potentially universal solution can be figured out. More to come after the boots arrive this coming week and I sit down with my partner on this project.

Update

2009-11-23T14:29:00.003-07:00

Today is 7 weeks post avalanche and at least I'm getting somewhere. Tomorrow I have another doctors appointment and some more x-rays. Baring disaster I'm expecting the docs will start allowing me to do all the things I've been doing anyway the past two weeks, giving me free reign to keep turning the screws on myself. I really do value the doctor's opinion but I've got to balance their conservativeness with how well I can read my own body. I'm also hopeful they'll prescribe some PT so that I can get some help getting my range of motion and strength back in my ankle/calf. While my riding has been coming along, the ROM thing has been a major show stopper on walking correctly which means any significant walking at all. No walking means no hiking and that's a bummer. I can live with no running for a while longer but no hiking sucks big time since I can't get up into the mountains.

At least for the past two weeks I've been able to start working on my fitness. Walking in the boot, plenty of core work, some controlled rock climbing indoors and a healthy amount of the indoor trainer has actually brought me a long way in two weeks. I've done a few two hour rides and on Friday I managed a solid three hour trainer effort after walking home from Starbucks again (with the boot). Yesterday Marni and I went out for my first outdoor ride since I can finally unclip (very carefully) with my left foot. Much to both of our surprises I made it a solid two hours of pavement, bike paths, dirt and even a little snow riding in a few places. It took quite a while to warm up and my strength imbalance was more pronounced outdoors but it was still really nice to finally know I can get outside and also at least get around town to go to the post office, grocery store, bank, etc without the car.

Sorry last week's Fatbike Friday post got skipped. I was surpremely beat after my workouts and then spent most of Saturday out of the house with Marni. I'll have a good one this Friday and they should gradually keep getting better. My footwear strategy has come down to two options and I am close to making a decison. Goodies are on the way from Speedway cycles, a super sweet pair of Hadley 135/165mm hubs to be built into my 100mm rims for the Fatback. An unfortunate delay has the frame itself still awaiting my delivery but I should have all the parts here with low temp grease installed and ready to be hung on the frame as soon as it arrives. And by that time hopefully I can walk which means actual snow biking can take place.

So that's the basic rundown of how I'm doing. I've got a long way to go but at least I'm still seeing incremental gains and there has been a lot of progress in the past two weeks. Crossing my fingers for continued good news tomorrow and if so the ponies will keep getting dirty!

Flying Wonder Dog

2009-11-19T14:27:00.002-07:00

Poor Turbo, he must wonder why all the fun stopped so quickly. With me injured and Marni extra busy picking up the slack, his runs, walks and bally chasing adventures came to an abrupt halt. We've been trying to get better lately now that I'm more mobile and today I got him out for a good romp. He loves playing in the snow, pure joy. I rarely attempt to "correct" pictures from my little cheap Cannon digital camera but I liked this shot enough to give it a shot. I'm not much at photo taking or editing but if you click the bigger version I feel like it at least conveys the mood of Turbo and the waning afternoon, almost winter sunshine.
I lagged far behind the flying ball of fluff, walking and hobbling my way carefully to one of our spots. He wanted to go all around the loop to the dirt jumps but I sadly didn't have it in me yet. Instead I made it to one of the closer spots and sat there, snowballs in each hand, training any way I'm still able.

For the first time I'm walking with the cane outside in normal shoes. It's not pretty but there is only one way to get stronger. One step at a time, one day at a time. It does sure beat lying in bed.

Sincerely,
newest member of the cane patrol

Keep fighting

2009-11-18T20:28:00.002-07:00

Today was hard. I'm a bit sore and lacking motivation after my Monday and Tuesday physical beat down and a week in general of working hard at recovery. I knew the inevitable "step back" day would come and that helped me accept it but you always hope that somehow you'll just stop having them. The most exciting part of the day was getting my borrowed cane and hopefully starting to leave the crutches behind. Luckily I have Marni who encouraged me to a little active recovery spin which highlighted just how much I've gained in the ankle flexibility department in a week. Tomorrow is a self scheduled rest day with an option for easy climbing with Aaron in the evening.

Now time to get that ankle above my heart, close my eyes and let those healing hormones do their job.

(In actual bike news, my Sorrel PAC boot liners showed up today. I have a shoe they potentially fit in that's already clipless too. We'll see how that goes once I get my hands on said shoe.)

Exciting socks?

2009-11-17T15:51:00.003-07:00

Always on the lookout for a good deal, a couple pairs of RBH Designs socks popped up on Backpacking Light forums in my size for more than half off retail. They arrived yesterday, fit nicely and at least look warm since Marni wants some to wear around the house. I've played with VB footwear before using plastic bags and the GoLite silnylon VB socks but these things seem right up my alley. They're a 3 layer laminated sock which eliminates some of the "multiple sock feel" that I hate in most people's winter footwear systems. More footwear items showing up soon and hopefully I can make a nicely working system with this stuff.

Recovery is still going well. I've been sleeping a lot lately, abnormal for me. I'm not sure if it's the increase in physical activity or the fact that I hardly slept for the first month of my injury but I'll just roll with it. Sleepy time is healing time. Today was a fairly easy ride and this evening Aaron and I are going climbing again at the BRC. Amazingly, climbing with my injured ankle in my mountaineering boot was excellent for my range of motion. I keep making strides towards bending it enough to walk in regular shoes. That is going to be a great day!

Bridge

2009-11-16T18:17:00.003-07:00

Sunset over the Sawatch Range descending into Salida, Colorado - Tour Divide 2009

Pictures of me riding the trainer aren't very exciting or interesting so I'm going to pop a few Tour Divide pictures in until there is something remotely interesting to post up. Today was another excellent ride, two solid hours on the trainer with some actual hard efforts. Yesterday's workouts really kicked my butt despite keeping the ride short and easy but they seemed to gain me a bit of new flexibility today which left me turning the screws on the bike a bit more. Walking is still laughable but it's improved over yesterday. I'm grateful for the past four years of riding as it's taught me a lot about reading my body. I'm pushing fairly hard but so far able to walk the line below any significant pain and I'm taking zero pain relievers.

Icing and elevation time has been spent researching and thinking about the remainder of my necessary winter gear. Footwear is the primary concern right now as I've been gathering most of the rest of the gear for several years. I am going to go a different direction with my stove, switching to white gas instead of Esbit or a canister so that will be a new learning experience too. Reading trail stories and Don's trail notes sure is motivating. It looks so beautiful and I'm thankful to have this carrot encouraging my rehab. Another good day down, just got to keep plugging away tomorrow.

Pedal Therapy

2009-11-14T16:35:00.004-07:00

Eating a cold hot pocket dinner in an outhouse, watching another rain storm pummel the trail, Tour Divide 2009

Riding this week has been amazing, even the first session measuring barely a few songs worth of time. Each day I've cautiously cranked up the trainer time and effort, looking for a place where my body or ankle would cry uncle. Today I rode for 2 hours and I ended the ride tired, a little saddle sore and sweating but amazingly my ankle never gave up. Tomorrow morning is the true test but each day I've woken up stiff as before but no worse for wear from the riding.

Sure it's an indoor trainer with only dreams of Alaska and crappy TV for company. Standing to pedal is still hard. I cannot unclip with my left foot and spinning much over 90rpms is still out of the question. But at least I can ride! And very shortly that means I can train again, getting stronger each day instead of weaker. When you've been laying in bed for 5 weeks, nothing sounds better than that.

Fat Bike Friday: Will it freeze???

2009-11-13T21:01:00.004-07:00

Welcome to the first of my little series of Fat Bike Friday posts while I gear up for some fun winter riding and races this year. My first installment is called "Will it freeze?" and I put some tasty and random items in the freezer overnight for taste, texture and hardness testing. You've got to figure that everything on your bike, in your drop bags and sometimes even in your poggies will freeze. The big question is what's still edible and tasty? Let's see how the round one contestants did!

Contestant #1 is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. One of my Tour Divide staples and something that Jill is also fond of lending it winter food cred, Reese's did very well in the freezer test. The chocolate hardened but the center stayed less than solid, warming up and becoming chewy quickly in my mouth. Taste was good with the chocolate slightly subdued and the texture was fine. Based on this information, it's possible that Reece's Big Cups might be the best choice when frozen. Further testing to come...

Contestant #2 is Peanut M&M's. Another Tour Divide favorite, the peanut M&M's fared exceptionally, tasting pretty much like a colder version of normal. They warmed super fast in my mouth and the limited chocolate content made them tasty but not hard to chew. 500 cals/king size pack and frequently on sale. Score!

Contestant #3 is butter. Yum good old butter. Now you non-winter sports people will think I'm crazy but hey I like butter and it's super high in calories per ounce. It's not pure fat with 20% water content but it's good in hot meals, rolled in brown sugar or just eaten straight up. How did it do in the freezer? It came out hard and I was worried but I bit off a chunk and it was great. Easy to slice or eat and just as delicious as normal.

Contestant #4 is summer sausage. I had high hopes for this one after reading some reports that it worked well. It came out of the freezer pretty hard and the bite test was a little discouraging. I sliced off a round and that worked better. It started out hard but quickly warmed up in my mouth and had a good taste and texture though not quite like normal. I think this one needs to be pre-sliced or cubed but it would be a great addition to a meal for fat and protein and salt and also a good "sugar cleansing" snack to help reset the palate when it goes into sweets overload. It's easy for me to OD on summer sausage but it might be a good drop bag item.

Contestant #5 was PB crackers. These little guys were a Tour Divide revelation and have made it into my regular rotation now. They're not a high volume item but they travel surprisingly well and make a great different snack from the normal stuff. The encourage hydration but are edible with minimal water too. How'd they do in the freezer? They were great! Pretty much indistinguishable from normal.

The Bonus Contestant was butter flavored Crisco. The Crisco was firm but still able to be squished and probably cut easily. The package I used for testing was not yet open so I didn't eat any. I may try an open package next time to try it raw and also drop a bit into a dehydrated meal. I'm skeptical but I like butter so maybe Crisco will work too? It is 20% more calorie dense, haha.

What other ideas do you guys have for the next round of "Will it freeze?" I'm thinking pure peanut butter, Poptarts, praline pecans, some sort of chocolate truffle ball, string cheese, Twix, a special non frozen but extra cal hot cocoa recipe I've been wondering about and the best ideas out of your suggestions. Leave a comment and I'll try them out!
In other news, new parts keep trickling into the house and once my frame arrives I'll give the rundown of my parts choices and post some pictures of the build up. Turbo is not amused that another really large bicycle is moving into the house but I sure am excited!

Waking up is hard to do

2009-11-13T09:12:00.002-07:00

Every morning is the hardest part right now and today was no exception. The ankle is super stiff when I wake up and the normal feeling while sleeping evaporates instantly as soon as I try to put my feet on the ground.

But I'm so pumped right now. Last night I walked/hobbled very slowly and with the assistance of one crutch in bare feet for the first time. I didn't hurt which is the best part. This morning I got into the shower without resorting to kneeling on the ledge of the tub. Then I walked home a mile from Starbucks with one crutch and my boot and now I'm walking around the house in the boot doing chores without the crutch for the first time pretty comfortably. They're all tiny steps but so encouraging. On my walk home I really felt for the first time like I'm going to be okay eventually.

The Fatbike Friday post will be coming this afternoon and it's more fun but I just had to get this our there since I'm super happy right now. This roller coaster ride isn't over yet but I'll ride the highs when I can.

Just a little more

2009-11-12T17:14:00.003-07:00

Another trainer session today and still feeling really good. Hoping to hit a big milestone tomorrow but I won't jinx it quite yet. This evening I'm doing some heat and stretching on the tightest areas and then back to ice, Advil and elevate before bed. It feels so good to be doing something to get better and seeing improvements, even though they're small. Having my Ultrasport entry and check soon arriving in Alaska is really motivating. I think I'm going to print out some of the awesome pictures and hang them around the house for all those times I'm feeling down. I also ordered some boot liners today and talked for a bit with a cobbler. I'm determined to find a good solution to the winter clipless boot problem despite my size 12 stompers. Lots of ideas floating around and underway, we'll see which one actually works in real life.

Tomorrow will be the first Fatbike Friday post and I've got a fun little one planned!

Zoo Tired

2009-11-11T17:53:00.006-07:00

Last night's post about taking the Kinders to the zoo got lost in dreamland. After "one crutching" around the zoo all morning and helping out in the classroom afterwords I was wiped out by 4pm. Marni and I made it home and into the house, a little dinner and both fell asleep in front of the TV somewhere around 7pm. I rallied to come upstairs and stayed awake a little longer but soon I was once again in dreamland preparing for another big day today.

This morning we were up early for another DR appointment and followed it up with breakfast at Snooze. I dropped Marni at home to nap and ran some errands including picking up my sweet new Speedway Fatback 135mm front fork from the post office. Then in the afternoon we watched some more of The Office with my foot up. By evening I was ready to give my first bike trainer session a shot. I felt surprisingly good after the big day yesterday but I was still pretty nervous. It seemed silly to don bike shorts for such a short session but I did it anyway.

I hobbled downstairs, put on my cycling shoes, clipped them in carefully and started to spin. I had the trainer set on really easy at first and it didn't feel too bad, if a bit choppy. I shifted up to the big ring and spun 60-80 rpms. My ankle was super stiff and I felt like my seat would have to go down. Thankfully it started to loosen up somewhat and by the time I hopped off I felt closer to normal. I can certainly put the power down on the pedals (relatively speaking) but it's going to take a little more ankle flexibility to do a longer ride yet. We'll see how everything feels tomorrow and if all is well I'll start inching up the trainer time each day. I can't believe I'm dreaming about watching movies in front of the trainer. Ha!
After I undid my shoes and hopped off the bike, no unclipping yet, I did my core work and a few sets of hangboard pullups. I have to admit, I'm pretty beat. Dinner, ice, elevation, a little vitamin I for me and then off to bed. I'm mostly encouraged but it's still a bit scary how stiff my ankle is. Just got to take the good with the bad and keep on working at it.

More to come and a special post on Friday to kick of some snow biking stoke!

One step at a time

2009-11-09T19:20:00.003-07:00

So far so good. The bones are healing well and I'm cleared to start walking on the left leg with the boot on for protection. I can sleep and work on my range of motion stuff with the boot off. First I'll start with the crutches or a cane, increasing the weight on my left leg as pain dictates. So far the pain isn't an issue and I can do some walking unassisted though longer sessions like tomorrow's Kindergarten zoo trip will be crutch assisted just in case. After pressing them for a while on various details of what I can and can't do and more importantly why, she finally came back in the room one final time and pushed, pulled and prodded my ankle a bit more. I didn't wince once. Then she watched me walk on it. "You might be further along than we thought but give us two more weeks of healing and another set of x-rays." Not exactly what I wanted to hear but fair enough. She did say the boot would probably come off at that point which would be ideal.

The doctor was not in favor of cycling or other activities yet but the fears were mostly out of concern for a shock loading or crash on the still healing bones from what I could pry out of them. That I understand. More talks tomorrow with Jenn, the PT-inlaw, and I'll make a decision on starting to ride the trainer. Obviously crashing isn't a risk and the weight on the ankle is much less than walking unassisted but perhaps there is another medical point of view I'm missing. I don't want to make anything worse but I also don't want to sit around for 2 more weeks for unfounded paranoia. Even some low level enduro paced sessions would really help stem the loss of fitness too much further. Plus I'd be a lot less bored and it seems like it would help with my range of motion. You know you're bored when you're begging to be able to ride the trainer.

In other news I got to stab my wife in the butt with a needle!I'm not going to steal all her pictures but keep an eye out for her blog and Facebook for the details. That was a new one!

The Score

2009-11-08T19:38:00.003-07:00

Five weeks since the accident. Tomorrow we'll see how the bones are healing and I'm banking all my mental energy on good news. It's been quite a different month plus than I'm used to. Sure there was a little one legged shoveling of the two feet of snow.
But mostly hours and hours and hours of this. Well actually this was the good part. Usually it was me alone in bed with my foot up, drugged up and bored. I read and worked on as much as I could but the mental drain of the pain and unknowns ate at me quite a bit too.
The last few days I've tested the ankle just a bit with some indoor one legged rock and ice climbing. Nothing too crazy and no pain so far. At least getting out is good for the brain. Good thing because that helmet sure wasn't doing anything good for it.
Nor was this ice tool?? Haha. I might have Aaron do this to me if they give me 6 more weeks of terrible news.
I've lost an unscientific inch of muscle out of my left leg which is pretty weird. Turbo sure is ready to have his mobile daddy back and I'm ready to be back. At least I'll have more news tomorrow. I'm hoping the xray groundhog doesn't see any strange shadows...

Pulling Plastic

2009-11-06T09:17:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was a good test day on the ankle. I cleaned the house and in the evening, Aaron took me down to the BRC to climb with him and a friend of his. I still put really limited weight on my ankle but I carefully tried out a few things to see how it felt. No pain last night or today so I'm pretty excited. I ended up climbing primarily one footed at the gym but luckily I could still top rope steep stuff up to about 5.10. The boot is worthless unless I can get the rubber bottom part on the holds and I didn't want to risk slipping off. If I have to wear it for a while longer I'll glue some sticky rubber to the front, otherwise hopefully I can just climb in my mountaineering boot which is much more stable and protective than my rock shoes while at least having some good rubber. I have a feeling it will be a little while until I can lead or boulder and risk a real fall but it felt good to use the muscles again and get pumped. I wasn't quite as terrible as I feared I would be. It was weird to be the center of attention climbing where I usually just fade right into the background.

Tonight we're headed down to Monument to hang out at a little indoor ice climbing competition and check out some new gear for this year. Good timing since the avy monster ate one of my BD Rages and I wanted to get some leashless tools anyway. Cobras are top on my list but I'm curious to see the Nomics as well and play with Aaron's Vipers. The new Fusions look sweet too but might be too mixed focused for me. The Ice Holdz guys are supposed to be there too which could be fun. I want to get some of those when I get the garage wall up.

Sort of lame blog I know but if I can get back into a regular writing groove then that's a good thing. I promise lots of bike stuff to come just as soon as I'm allowed to pedal for real. The trainer is already all setup and Marni and I will get the singlespeeds all cleaned up this weekend. Then hopefully in a few weeks the Fatback will arrive!

Mojo Rising

2009-11-05T12:19:00.002-07:00

After 5 weeks I'm feeling the end is in sight, the clouds are starting to break up. Just a few little tests have been super positive with no pain. I got to pedal a bike for a very short time, I put a little weight on the foot in the boot and I've been up all day moving my "office" back downstairs. I'm so sick of laying in bed and it's demotivating. I slept without the boot last night because it's just terribly uncomfortable and with Turbo banished from the bedroom until it's healed (sorry bud) it doesn't need protection at night. My range of motion sucks compared to normal but it's not as bad as my friend Scott's after his 6 weeks in a cast.

Tomorrow is Starbucks Date day, tomorrow night we're going to an indoor ice comp and gathering with my new partner Aaron and his wife and this weekend I'm going to get OUTSIDE! Then just cross your fingers for Marni and I as we both have scary DR appointments on Monday.

Okay time to get back to pumping Dr.Dre and cleaning the house. Oh and Jessie, Marni and I have a surprise for you! If anyone is bored tonight and wants to get me out of the house I wouldn't argue...Marni has class 'til 8:30.

P.S. Yeah NYY!! World Series Champs.

The Big Snow...Show?

2009-11-04T16:30:00.001-07:00

I wrote this post last week when I first heard the news. Since then I've been on a bit of a mental roller coaster. On Monday I have my next appointment and x-rays and I'm really really hoping for good news. My mood has been improving this week the closer I get to the weekend because after 5 weeks spent more in bed than ever in my life, I have my first chance at getting back on my feet. Both of them. Even if (okay okay when) it's severely restricted activity I'll be really excited. While I've been down it's been the worst reported early season Colorado avalanche activity in a long time. There have already been 8 slides catching or nearly catching people. So glad I could start it off...NOT. Okay onto the original post...

I've been keeping busy the past couple weeks, well as busy as one can be when spending as many hours a day as possible with my ankle elevated in bed. Last night I slept until 5am and with a couple wake ups, managed to sleep in until 9am. It may sound strange but that's by far the most sleep I've been able to get in more than 3 weeks. (Last night I slept through the whole night for the first time with one small wake up) Marni is on fall break and Denver's first winter storm is in the process of dumping up to 18 inches (we got 2 feet) at our house with even more in the mountains. As is pretty normal, I pulled the laptop up onto the bed to check the morning emails. Facebook was going off with snow day comments and then I saw it...

An email from Bill Merchant. It could only mean one thing. I clicked on it with my heart racing.

Holy crap it was true! There was an email in my inbox asking me if I still wanted to do the Ultrasport, having emailed to get on the waiting list months ago and unfortunately gotten the very disappointing news that I might not get in this year. I immediately asked Marni and then with her approval, replied that I'd love a spot.

I'm excited about this race because it still scares me and because I want to visit Alaska so badly. The distance (350 miles to McGrath) isn't so bad, but the trail and weather conditions and remoteness of the course is what sets it apart. I feel like I've slowly been building up to this challenge for the past few years and I want to take this next step. I'm not even sure that I'm ready but I'm going to give it a try and I'm really happy to be part of the race. So now the Arrowhead 135 will be my big shakedown ride and then I'll be off to Anchorage for the big show.

Luckily my singlespeed titanium Fatback from Speedway Cycles is already ordered and I'm so pumped! A big thanks to Greg for helping get me on a top notch snow bike that will fit and Marni for supporting a bum like me and still letting me get a new bike. Sorry for all you purple lovers but the Pugs was too small and not my favorite color. I've got a lot to figure out still but now I really feel some urgency.

I can finally let myself start the planning spreadsheet and it is so good to finally have a nice big new goal!

More Ultrasport news to come. I'm still extremely excited and cannot wait to pedal again!

Charity Rides

2009-10-16T09:40:00.004-06:00

Serious question blog readers...

In the past I have resisted asking for money for any of my races or trips. I have no reason to beg. I am capable of earning my own money and saving up to do what I wish with it but I don't begrudge anyone else's way of financing their dreams. I enjoy the freedom that I am beholden to no one but myself when I am "out there." I know my blog provides entertainment to people but I don't feel like it's a job and don't wish to turn it into one. To me it feels more like family, as cheesy as that is.

However if I let myself dream bigger, I could see planning a trip that perhaps costs a significant amount of money and time that would be followed of spectators via SPOT and other means. Charity riding comes in when I use that event following to raise money for a good cause. I'm sure we can all debate what's a worthy cause, but to me there are more out there that are truly worthy than I could ever give a significant contribution too. My problem with charitable fund raising for a ride always relates to taking any piece of the money.

Is it ethical to use a percentage of donated money, stated clearly up front, to fund a trip that overall nets a charity a sizable donation? Or could/should you ask separately for a trip costs donation? Certainly without the trip's entertainment value to spectators, the donations to that charity would be much less. But if I still could find a way to fund the trip myself, the charity would get that much more. The crux becomes, at least for me, if you use a percentage of the money for the trip, you could take more overall trips and raise more overall funds for charity. Obviously you would need to state your intentions up front.

But I'm torn. My gut is wary. What do you think? Do you give money to charity? What about fundraising events like I'm talking about? Would you give more or less if 100% of your donation went to the cause? Would you donate separately to make sure the trip got off the ground? Please leave a comment, you can be anon if you want. I only delete highly inflammatory anon comments which I don't really ever get.

You won't see a paypal button on my site any time soon but I do wonder how I can do the most good with my activities in the future. Much of my charity has been volunteered time, not money but all kinds of donations are good in my opinion. Those who can donate funds at this time, please give to Fat Cyclists's Fighting for Susan campaign. You can even get a sweet bike and vacation out of the deal...

Enough!

2009-10-15T14:40:00.004-06:00

Warning: This post is not sexy, there are only two pictures and it's not much about bikes. But it's my blog so I'm posting it anyway.

Sometimes you really have to be hit hard and knocked to the ground, figuratively and literally, to be able to get up again with conviction. Nothing brings out passion like a fight.

And if those sentences don't make your blood boil inside just a little bit, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore ;)

To say things haven't been going well lately is about the understatement of the century. First the miscarriage, a week later I get swept off what should be an easy alpine mixed route by an avalanche and luckily walk out with my partner, each of us crawling and hobbling for 7 hours on broken ankles to self rescue. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd ever fucked up before bad enough to cost me my life. Pain in every single tiny step reminded me both just what I have to lose and just why I had been there. Some people would want me to quit, never step foot on snow again. But those people don't really know me. If it wasn't a passion, I wouldn't have been there in the first place. All I can do is promise to learn more, train more and continue to listen to my gut instincts. Fear of the white death grows stronger when you feel it's power.

Since getting booted up at the hospital, I've spent the last 9 days primarily laying on my back in bed healing. At first I was cursing pain meds that made me feel goofy and stupid. Now I loath insomnia worse than I've ever had. I cannot sleep more than a couple hours at a time without waking up aching and extremely uncomfortable. Weird positions cause new pains in a self perpetuating cycle. Sleeping pills are not the answer for me. I've never taken them and don't wish to now. I think there is a natural answer or maybe I just need more patience. My wife, family and friends are amazing as always. They've stepped up without hesitation to send me emails, pick up slack, calm me down and keep me sane. My thanks to them cannot be stated enough and they know who they are.

I have a long way to go. I've never been injured this badly before. There will be no shaking it off. No White Rim weekend a few days after an ultrasound on my leg. No couple extra Advil with my recovery drink. No hobbling around the office but still pedaling easily. After a week and a half of laying on my back as much as humanly possible, taking Tylenol and icing my foot, it's still very discolored and swollen. It's much better, but it's still ugly. It took me 3 days alone to be able to bend it to 90 degs in my boot and remove the two cheater heel shims. It took the rest of the week to be able to stand without screaming pain, very literally. I probably scared the neighbors a time or two. There have been plenty of tears. At least I can shower alone now and putting lotion on my injured foot afterward is cathartic. I apologize. I promise to fix it. My foot can't answer but it makes me feel better anyway. It's still hard to look at and touch my injured body part.

But I have to move on and move forward. My good buddy Dave promises I will wake up one day in much decreased pain and with a thirst for knowledge. I believe him and hope the pain fades eventually. It's not as bad now, but it's ever present. At least I don't have to scream or grit my teeth. I already want to move forward. Simple things like taking Turbo for a walk last night or being able to help Marni by emptying the dishwasher are small steps. It takes far too long to shuttle plates and bowls on crutches but I do it anyway. Marni and I sorted out the gear I was wearing and carrying that day, taking inventory of things to be cleaned, fixed or replaced. Bent steel crampons drive home the beating I obviously took. Today Bill took me out to lunch and I put on "real" clothes for the first time since the avalanche. It went well and I smiled genuine smiles. I'm looking for more things I can do. Moving forward on applications, planning races for when I'm healthy again, reading, studying, eating well and hopefully soon, exercise. Many have cautioned me against moving too fast, pushing my recovery. I hear that and do not want to cause myself future pain and suffering just to get back on a bike or my feet a couple weeks sooner. But I know that I recover faster than most and that there must be positive no impact things I can do now, or at least soon. Core work, hangboard work, crutch walks with Turbo...something. And hopefully those things will encourage healing in a multitude of ways.

So check back soon. There are more blogs to come. If I'm stuck in bed much longer I'll just have to go back in time and start telling some old stories. I know there are some good ones you all want to hear. In the meantime, give the phone a few extra rings or the front door an extra knock. I've been knocked down a peg on crutches.

Crushed

2009-10-01T22:38:00.002-06:00

I am not feeling up to sharing quite as much as Marni is. I'm really disappointed but getting through it. I'm positive for the future still but was looking so forward to our little baby and even more my wife's excitement over it. Finally. But it was not meant to be, at least quite yet.

A longer version on Marni's blog here.

Still here

2009-09-08T11:21:00.003-06:00

I'm still here, somewhere out there. Not many pictures, but great focus. Usually the camera has stayed home, selfishly enjoying the scenery with just my own eyes, or sometimes sharing with a friend or two. I'm in the picture below, a small dot in the lower right in the sea of Winky Woo.There are still treasures to behold, worth leaving a warm bed in the middle of the night and hauling a borrowed pack and a few snacks to great heights.
Taking suncup street and the runnel express. Rule number one, don't fall.
Bikes are more forgiving. Falls can be brushed off. But laser like focus is still free for the taking, weaving down narrow singletrack descents. Bike mojo slowly returns from the great Divide brain drain.
So don't worry, I'm somewhere out there. And eventually I'll come back here too.

Just click "Register" and send in your waiver

2009-08-03T16:42:00.004-06:00

The last month has been strange. Since finishing the Tour Divide it's been a mix of extreme sloth, occasional unstructured exercise and long jaunts in the mountains. Plenty of time to think, too much time to eat. I'm beginning to itch for some structured training again. Rolling out with the Colorado Trail racers yesterday morning probably pushed me over the edge.

Today I registered for the 2010 Arrowhead 135, a large part due to the influence of my "friends"... ahem Jill, Doug, DaveB, Eric, Pete, Jeff, JayP and T-race. Of course I'd by lying if Mike's beautiful 2009 race report hasn't also been an influence. I've wanted to race in the snow for a few years and the awesome Leadville winter series has kept me in check. However the passion has only grown despite my focus and funds being allocated elsewhere. Winter is one of the most beautiful seasons and I really do enjoy it's harshness. I decided this was finally the year to get serious. Last week I sold my too small 18" Pugs and there is a new 20" Pugsley on the way. While I would love a Fatback, it's just not financially in the cards. Luckily the new grey Pugs is quite attractive, much better than purple. I don't have the money for a wheelset yet but I do have a brand new 20" Surly Karate Monkey frameset in red that's for sale if anyone out there is interested? Luckily or unluckily, depending on your viewpoint, I'll also have some actual earned income coming in the somewhat near future.

So now I'm committed to at least racing the Arrowhead. I'm a little nervous and a lot excited. There are critical things to figure out, number one being my footwear situation. But nothing forces creativity like necessity and I think I'm up for the challenge. Is it too early in August to say...let it snow?

Longs Peak Redux

2009-08-01T14:48:00.005-06:00

Marni has much better words for our Longs Peak trip than I do so I'll just share a few photos. Can't think of a much better way to spend the day though, just awesome.

Dawn just below the Boulderfield
Coiling the rope at the top of the technical section, I really like this picture.
Summit together. Our 20th joint 14er, only our third without Turbo.
Admiring the view of the cirque below. The Diamond, Mt.Meeker, Chasm Lake, Mt.Lady Washington. Everything the opposition direction was one giant cloud.
One of my all time favorite Marni self portraits. I believe this is while waiting at a belay station while I tried not to fall off icy 5.4 in Exums somewhere above. Background is a cloud.
More to come and I sure am glad to be so lucky.

Belford/Oxford

2009-07-30T17:11:00.007-06:00

At least one more overdue report here as Marni and I pack for Longs Peak in the predawn hours of tomorrow. On our way down to Scott and Melissa's wedding we swung through Leadville to visit Cycles of Life on our way to Chaffee County Road 390. What's there you ask? Well the trailhead to quite a few 14ers! After our success on Yale, Marni was itching to get a few more Sawatch range 14ers done in this perfect summer weather season. We stopped at the Missouri Gulch trailhead, cooked up some pesto ravioli and popped up the switchbacks.

Missouri Mountain, which we're hoping to climb soon, is at the summit of the couloirs that are still present in the far center of the picture.
We hiked up towards our trail split with the Elkhead Pass trail in the early evening hours. There was plenty of time before sunset to find a spot and we didn't have far to go.
Turbo loves to stop and smell the roses, well roll in them anyway. Puppy bliss.
We settled for taking some pictures of this great wildflower season.
The trail was in great shape thanks to the awesome work of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.
Turbo pretending to be in the sound of puppy music.
There were quite a few big (and loud) groups camping in Missouri Gulch but I found us a nice quiet spot off the trail. It was mostly level ;)
Turbo doesn't really like being in the tent, he prefers to roam the wild searching for things to smell and guarding camp from marmots. We let him chill outside until it got dark and then called him in for bed.
Marni and I entertained ourselves with more mini-card rummy. I spotted her a 175 point lead (NOT on purpose) but managed to score a few big hands and come back for the victory! A little candy snack before bed and plenty of water and we dozed off to sleep at 11, 700 feet.
Motivated to reach La Veta at a decent hour and increase our chances of a double summit, Marni actually wanted to get up early. We awoke before 5am and were rolling by 20 to six, full of muffins and coffee (well me anyway).
Sunrise followed quickly and soon we were hot hiking up the slope. We stripped to more realistic hiking attire, sans puffies and long underwear.
No one was stirring in the tents below and we wondered if we'd be the first summit of the day.
My cutie.
The sun gradually filled the valley with light and all the Sawatch around us began to appear.
Turbo was making quick work of this trail, much better than the loose scree on Yale. "Hurry up slow bi peds, I have quad paws!"

Almost there!
The west slopes of Belford open up to a nice ridge near the top, with nice easy walking to the summit.
Turbo leads the way and just after 7am we were closing in on the top.
Belford Summit! We make zee summit! Turbo's #16 and our #18 in cloudless skies. We were however the 2nd to the top, another early riser caught sunrise on Belford.
We descended after a quick snack towards Oxford.
A steep descent, some easy saddle hiking and another short climb led us to the top of Oxford another 50 minutes later. Harvard, Columbia and dozens of other summits were visable.
Almost to 14er #2 of the day.
Ahhh it's nice to be up high.
Another self timer shot brings us to Turbo's #17 and our #19 on Oxford. We're almost 1/3 of the way through the list and I'm excited for the ones that remain.
After topping out on Oxford we still had to return over Belford or Elkhead Pass to return to our tent. We decided to return back over Belford and headed down the switchbacks a ways before stopping for some lunch. Turbo was quite pleased with turkey and cheese sandwich plus 2 summit bones and an ABCB (advanced base camp bone).
A few more switchbacks brought us back to our tent. The clouds were moving in quickly now despite it being not even noon so we packed up quickly and hussled down the trail to the E. A quick stop at K's in Buena Vista for some burgers, cheese fries and ice cream and we headed off towards La Veta.

Little Monkeys

2009-07-30T08:19:00.005-06:00

Busy bees and lazy bloggers! Another belated update since recently Marni and I took our niece and nephew out to the climbing gym for the afternoon. They were spending the week with their grandparents so we headed up to Denver to take them out. Well first we got lunch while their awesome mom ran to Kinkos to fax me some legal paperwork so they could climb without her there...then we went climbing!

Trevor getting suited up to go climb for his very first time. He was nervous but would gradually go higher and higher all day long.
Trevor and Marni with Kylie in the background.
While Kylie amazed me with her texting prowess (oh to be 13), Marni took Trevor up the wall the first time. He would pick a goal, a sign or particular big colored hold, and go just up to that spot.
Me climbing on the auto belay while Trevor and Kylie check out the wall.
Marni and Kylie.
Kylie had been climbing once before and she was a natural. She made it up every time I think.
Trevor lapped this wall half a dozen times, each time getting a little higher. By the end of our session he asked Marni if I could climb next to him and he would try to make the top. Despite his thoughts at the beginning of the day, he made it all the way up!
Both the kids also thought the slackline was pretty cool.
And Kylie climbed all the way up the rope ladder too.
Not having been at the climbing gym in ages I floundered up a few 5.10s, it was not pretty. Apparently my weak hands and arms do not do overhanging right now.
All and all we had an awesome time.
Trevor liked playing with the camera. He'll be a natural blogger and facebooker in a few years. Hard to believe he was born the day before Marni and I met for the first time.
Soon I think everyone was worn out and we headed off for celebration ice cream. :)

First first ascent

2009-07-29T19:58:00.002-06:00

Also while at Scott and Melissa's wedding I did my first ever first ascent of a climbing route. Scott had told me there were some climbable rocks near the cabin and he was right. I only had time to put up one route but the sandstone there is solid enough for a few more in the future. My first route was one pitch with 2 roofs, the first one being the crux. It follows up from the right most tree through the roof and shadow to the second small roof in the center of the photo. Protects well with a standard rack, the key piece at the roof being a purple camalot. Other than some lichen and loose rock it was a lot of fun and would clean up nicely if it ever got traffic. Marni followed the route and we rappelled and down climbed off the back with a little bushwhacking back to the road. It reminded me a lot of a mini flatiron climb but without any crazy runouts and slightly more broken rock.

Mind over Bat Poo, 5.7

Sand Dunes

2009-07-29T19:26:00.004-06:00

Marni and I hit up the Sand Dunes on the way back from Scott and Melissa's beautiful wedding. Marni already has a little write up of the weekend but I wanted to post a few more dunes pictures. I've wanted to go down there for a while now but it's a few hours away and we've never managed to fit it into another trip. That's a shame though, it's really pretty and pretty great for training too. Too bad bikes aren't allowed, it's a fat bike's summertime camping dream. Sand, hills and even flowing water with big mountains all around!

Usually it's really hot on the dunes in the summer but instead we got ominous clouds and cool temps. Tourista shot...
Let's race up the dunes! Okay running in sand is hard work if we didn't all already know that.
Erik trying to huck himself off the edge of the dunes.
Michelle getting stuck in the sand.
Me throwing Marni off the dune. Just kidding, I'm trying to teach her how to do a backflip.
Me throwing myself down the dune.
Smile!
Me hucking myself off the dune backwards. See doing backflips on a steep sandy slope is practically cheating!
Erik and I decided to run down the dune and back up the other one, then we wrote a message.
Zoooooooom in!
The girls at the base of the dune we just ran down.
On the way out the clouds grew darker and we soon got some rain. We'll go back another day to hike to the tops of the big dunes when lightning isn't such a big worry.
Plus you never know what you'll find in the sand, cool insects, random big granite chucks or BATMAN GLASSES!

Longs Peak

2009-07-21T15:52:00.004-06:00

Longs Peak is one of those mountains where I've headed out many times with the intentions of summitting and never made it for various reasons. I can't say it's bothered me much as just being in the vicinity of the tallest peak that I can see from my house is always a good time. Chris George called me and asked if I wanted to tackle the north face last Sunday and since my schedule was clear I said sure! Saturday night was my buddy Scott's bachelor party so with only 90 minutes of nap time, I woke up, ate some breakfast and hopped in Chris's truck for the drive up there. All my recent time at altitude has left me feeling pretty quick up high.
After less than 2.5 hours of hiking I made the Boulderfield. Just in time too as I need to hit the privvy in a serious way. After that was taken care of I suited up and we hiked up to the base of the snow you see on the far left of the picture above. Boots were probably not necessary but I don't own any strap on aluminum crampons so we'll just call hauling the Trango Extremes and G-12s weight training.
Chris and I simul climbed the snowfield in less than 10 minutes as it was rapidly warming up now that the sun was starting to hit it. I made the first eyebolt in the rock and set up a belay for the rock pitch.
Chris swung the lead and headed up the rock, both of us ditching the crampons and ice axes. The rock was a bit wet but easy and fun even in mountaineering boots. It was supposed to be 5.4, I don't know if it was that hard though. The epitome of 5.easy for sure.
We quickly topped out into 3rd class terrain, ate some food (turkey wrap yum!) and busted up to the summit.
Wow I finally topped out on Longs Peak! The views were great and the tourists were already in force coming up the Keyhole route. With some clouds moving in to the west and a birthday party for Chris to attend we hightailed it back down the 3rd class ground, simul-rapped the North Face and glissaded the final snowfield. I changed back into my running shoes and we shuffled quickly down the trail head for a 8:30 round trip.
The North Face route is awesome and much quicker and more fun than the standard Keyhole route if you can handle a little 5.easy climbing. The rope is probably not necessary for most trad leaders but we weren't sure of conditions and brought it so we thought we'd use it. Marni and I will be returning there shortly for our couple's summit!

Skywalker

2009-07-18T07:10:00.001-06:00

So this is one I've been wanting to write up badly. The problem is I've been just waiting and waiting to complete the climb first. Last year I climbed the Arapaho Peaks in the Indian Peaks Wilderness several times including the traverse between them. What I really wanted to do was to climb South Arapaho's premier couloir, "Skywalker". However last fall the route was out of condition and my gear was sorely lacking. By spring I had acquired the requisite gear and experience but the route was still under more avalanche danger than I cared to deal with. Then came the Tour Divide and I thought maybe I missed my window of awesome snow conditions. Well I may have missed the perfect conditions but I decided to take my tools for a walk yesterday morning and see how the couloir looked anyway. 4am saw me awake and I was hiking up the trail by 5:30am.
Dawn was just breaking and the sky was clear. Temps were cool but not cold and I hoped the wind and clear skies had hardened up the snow.
I had a little over an hour of walking before I would find out.
From far down the trail the route looked steep and lean. I was nervous I was going to have to turn around.
I made my way to the base of the couloir, further up the slope than normal. Oh well, that was low angle ground so I didn't worry. I sat at the base of the route, ate some peanuts and some CarboRocket and put on my crampons. This little guy and his buddy sure were interested in what I was doing. He must also climb as his claw marks went a good way up the first section.
And soon I went a good way up the first section, the snow was FIRM! Crampons gripped really well and with one tool out I went up and up really fast on the 40 deg snow.
Soon I hit the first melted out section. Ideally this would be all filled in but today it was rocks. Luckily the climbing was easy in my crampons and soon I rejoined the snow.
Here the snow steepened and I took out my second tool from my pack. I didn't really need it yet but I didn't want to "need" it and have it be hard to get to. I passed another short rocky section and a fragile snow bridge to gain access to the top part of the route. It looked totally filled in from here and I was excited.
Near the top I decided to stop for a quick rest before the final 55 deg slope and crux section. I was aiming for the Princess Leia finish which is the direct finish at the top of the photo above.
Ah dad there is a crevice!!!
I finished off my CarboRocket and hit the final section climbing directly through the rockband above. It was verglassed to the left but the right was fine and I drytooled through it.
Looking back down the slope.
Near the top of the climb where it gets really steep there was a surprise waiting for me. Part of the route where it gets really narrow had melted a lot leaving a big gap between solid snow sections. I didn't like the looks of the vertical soft snow so I decided on a quick mixed traverse on the rock to the right to get back on good snow. I carefully climbed the last section of really steep snow above the traverse and hightailed it to the top. Looking down from near the top.
Only a few feet to go!
I sat down in the rocks at the top, took off my crampons, stowed the tools and sent Marni an OK message with my SPOT. A few minutes later I scrambled up easy talus to the summit of South Arapaho!
Looking over at the traverse to North Arapaho. I briefly thought about heading over there but it was our Starbucks date morning so I decided that would delay my coffee and danish too long.
Instead I signed the register, ate my summit candy and jetted down the standard ascent trail.
I must have passed 50 people headed up on my way down including a huge group of Japanese tourists.
Looking back at the route.
I was trying to make it down by 10am but there were just so many pretty flowers.
I had to stop.
Again and again.
I crossed the final rushing waterfall and shuffled quickly to the car.
4:30 round trip from 10.2k to 13.4k and one heck of a good time!