Thursday, December 13, 2012

Getting in the mood for the season: herbal cold remedies

Not even a week after returning from Moab I caught the latest crud going around... 'Tis the season to feel like a germ magnet, I guess, maybe I should start wearing a surgical mask everywhere. While searching around for my own benefit I found this site, which seems to be useful enough to share with anyone interested in avoiding the typical cocktails of pharmaceutical gnar during illness:
http://www.learningherbs.com/cold_home_remedies.html

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Freya Fennwood Photography!

While I'm taking a break from cleaning the kitchen, here's a link to my friend Freya's recently updated site:

http://fennwoodphotography.com/outdoor-sport-photographer/7.html

She is a radiant, adventurous soul, and her passion for photography and the outdoors can be seen in all she does. I just wish she would move to Tahoe sometime soon! ;)

Road Trip Part 2: The Rock

   Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for!  An in-depth description of our SE Utah/SW Colorado climbing adventures!!  As a warning: lots of climbing terminology gets thrown about within, therefore if you have little to no knowledge of the sport but still want to read on, THIS may come in handy for you.

   Still grinning from the epic ride on Porcupine Rim, we headed south on Thursday to Indian Creek to show our Tahoe friends the abundance of crack climbing on their last few days in Utah. We climbed some popular routes on Friday including the Incredible Hand Crack and the 130' tall 3AM Crack, which was almost my undoing on lead as I lacked any endurance to climb something that tall (average climbs are 70-90ft). Somehow I stuck it out, happy that it was a corner dihedral with good rests and mostly great hand jams.   On Saturday the crowds descended and we wound up doing a couple of obscure off-width and wide hand cracks, neither of which are my strong point. Kit wrestled up the off-width on lead and ended up with some giant gobies (sandstone abrasions) on hands and ankles...ouch! Somehow I escaped unscathed, likely from not desperately scrabbling for friction while run out above a piece of gear. Climbing certain things on top rope is quite nice.  I remember an analogy overheard my last time at the Creek: climbing wide cracks is like flossing, isn't always the most fun but at least it's good for you!  Despite that wisdom, the newer climbers in our group opted to take photos and enjoy the scenery while the more seasoned individuals took turns on both cracks, climbing into dusk to finish the last route.  They drove back to Tahoe the next day with images of splitter sandstone burned into memory and a vow to return again.

5.9 warmup at 16z
  While hanging out in Durango, a friend of a friend of a friend (seriously) we were introduced to over beers suggested instead of going back to Indian Creek for the overly crowded "Creeksgiving" weekend, we should check out a newer sandstone crag in western Colorado.  Carpenter Ridge was originally suggested, with its beautiful Wingate fractures identical to those in the Creek, but most climbs required two ropes (!) to get off of, and we had only brought a single 70 meter cord.  His roommate was heading to 16Z, another area with some bolted sport climbs in addition to cracks, so we decided to tag along for an exploratory mission. The climbing did not disappoint, with a 5.11 sport climb that looked more in-your-face than it actually was--even I managed to lead it with some minor pondering and improvisation at the crux. Kit and I split off to find some nearby crack climbs, locating a fun 5.9, a progressively harder towards the top 5.10, and a 5.11 fingertip lieback that could be toproped from the same anchor. After climbing the polished rock at Indian Creek, the grip of the relatively unclimbed rock was impressive--one could actually smear a foot on un-featured rock and it would stick like glue! Both of us agreed that the .11 was the best line of the day, with a tricky changing dihedrals crux in the middle and an exhausting off-fingers section just after. The company was not quite as good as the rock climbing, however, and Kit suggested we head back to Utah before he got too fed up with our new acquaintance, so back to Moab the next day, via Paradox Valley to scope out Carpenter Ridge for future adventures.

Kit on the chossy 5.10 above camp
  Once in Moab we took a "rest" day that entailed trying a random bolted climb above our campsite on the west side of the Colorado River.  It was a little loose and chossy in places, and the actual climbing was somewhat sketchy feeling with hollow sounding blocks and flakes everywhere.  Kit had no trouble leading it, along with cleaning off some loose stuff that came flying past, making me wish I had worn a helmet to belay.  I cleaned the gear on toprope marveling at how easy he made it look. I found it rather terrifying, though the climbing was not too hard; just a mental trip wondering if my next handhold was going to pull off the wall or foot would skate off a sandy edge.  The next day we climbed at Wall Street, revisiting some classics that I had climbed on my last Moab trip. Surprisingly I must have gotten stronger, because I put away a couple of 5.10s on lead without much ado.  Kit got on a 5.11a he had his eye on the previous week, and sent that quite solidly. I cleaned on toprope again, cruising most of the climb but getting temporarily stumped by the final high-step/lieback move to reach the anchors. It was a tough move physically after completing the rest of the climb, and looked highly improbable, but just required commitment in the attempt. Sound like downhilling at all?

   We headed back down to Indian Creek that evening to prepare for a final round of jamming, pulling into the Cottonwoods camp just before dark. When morning came we let Pork Chop out of the van to do his usual business, and he returned with our neighbors in tow, a couple of guys from Washington no less. We hung out and chatted for a while, waiting for the sun to hit the Pistol Whipped wall above camp to the south, listening to stories about some cool climbs in the Cascades that should be done on our next trip up to the Northwest.  The Washingtonians took off for Moab, all climbed out and ready for a rest day, while we hiked up to the wall wondering if anybody else would be up there.  Nobody came up, so we had it all to ourselves the entire time!  Starting with the shortest, easiest 5.9, we worked our way through several .10 and 10+ climbs, all of the thin finger lieback sort and the last two were kind of burly for their rating.  Finally we came to Coyne Crack Simulator, a 5.11- that resembles another more popular climb in the Creek.  Kit's goal was to send that, and he proceeded to do so, despite the awkward .75 big fingers section to start. I found that the .75 size was not that terrible for me, having slightly smaller hands I could actually squish them into the crack a little, so Kit told me to shut up about it and lead the climb already... Ok, fine! I tried to jam the whole first part but started slipping after placing my second piece of gear,  got scared, and ended up liebacking through until it widened enough to get a hand in. I almost came out once, so the beginning was not all that graceful, but once I could stuff a whole hand into the crack it went much more smoothly.  The rest of the climb was cake, with good thin to wide hand jams all the way to the anchors.  That's the hardest trad climb I've led yet, without much climbing all summer and on only 4 days of climbing for the whole trip.  I've still got a long ways to go before I'm a solid 5.11 leader, but it's encouraging to see myself progress on this trip in such a short time!
My first 5.11 trad lead!

   Kit thought that since we had both done the Simulator that he should get on the original Coyne Crack the next day, a 5.11+/12a on the much more popular Supercrack Buttress.  We sat in the parking lot for a while trying to motivate, talking with a Canadian couple about climbs they recommend, but I personally felt like a lazy sack of potatoes and didn't want to do diddly squat for the day.  3 straight days of climbing sorta hard will do that!  Kit wanted to make an attempt on Coyne Crack, so I agreed to belay.  His attempt was short-lived, as the previous few days of climbing hard had worn us both out, and the route was greasy from Thanksgiving weekend traffic, so we bailed and headed back to Moab with the last day of Utah climbing in the bag and time for one more bike ride before driving back to Tahoe.

   There really wasn't much trouble deciding whether to ride or climb on this trip, fortunately going with the flow just seemed to work out for the best and the right balance was struck between both.  The most conflicted I felt was definitely about coming back to Tahoe and cold rainy winter weather after spending nearly a month in the desert; it was easy to get used to the sunny days.  The long, cold nights not so much, especially when camping out.  Our bedtimes crept toward 7-8 PM by the end of the trip, or whenever we ran out of firewood.  Heated floors and indoor plumbing sure are nice to come back to!  Unfortunately I also came down with a cold, so no skiing yet; just knitting and blog updating.  Still figuring out winter employment at Alpine, hoping they can work with letting me go race at Bootleg over busy President's weekend.  I have no option but to work in ski school again so that I can take the PSIA Level 2 teaching segment, and complete my Level 2 certification this season.  Then I can become a sidecountry guide at Alpine and shred the gnar pow all day long. Hahahahaha, seriously!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Moab Road Trip Part 1: The Wheels...


   Wow, what a trip! Moab is so similar to Tahoe in the wide array of outdoor pursuits close at hand, yet so different in the stark desert landscape of sculpted sandstone and sagebrush, but it almost feels like home away from home.  Following my first short visit 3 years ago I had been conspiring a return trip, and Kit had not been back in 6 or 7 years! Finally we had the opportunity to do it in style, spending 3 weeks in the decked-out van, with a crew of Tahoe folks for the first week and then just Kit and I for the remainder, going with the flow of climbing, bike riding, and relaxing on rest days. For whatever reason I've decided to split the story up into bike riding and climbing sections, so this part covers the pedaling adventures.
Finally getting to sandstone canyon country!
   The trip began a little wobbly on a Thursday, with us almost getting stuck in snow at our camp in eastern Nevada on the way over, and me with a weird bug that lasted for several days, followed by a severe neck cramp that rendered me unable to do much for a couple more days. All the madness subsided by the following Wednesday and a group of 6 of us (me and 5 dudes) headed out to ride the Porcupine Rim trail.  That wound up being the best ride of the trip (in my opinion), even now after doing a couple of other Moab classics.  Filled to the brim with rocks, drops, and heady technical sections, it felt like a giant mountain bike playground on the longest downhill of my life! It crossed a variety of terrain including dirt singletrack, fast rocky 4x4 trail, and back onto a winding technical singletrack with a few cliffhanging bits, dropping down to the Colorado River. An added bonus was our friend Ben Meester bringing his camera gear along and shooting some sweet photos along the way.

Colorado Trail
  The Tahoe crew headed back home that Sunday after a couple more days of climbing so we decided to make a trip out to Durango to see Kit's family and hang out for a while longer with his climbing buddy Harvey.  At Harvey's suggestion we took a side trip into Mesa Verde National Park, which we probably would never have done otherwise, except that it coincided with a good rest day activity.  We ogled at the ancient cliff dwellings and marveled at the climbing skills possessed by the ancient Anasazi. Once in Durango we inquired about bike trails at a local shop; the Colorado Trail was spoken of highly so we set out to pedal the loop shown to us on a map. It started with a grind of a singletrack climb, filled with switchbacks, and as Kit powered away on his single front chainring I struggled and spun the granny gear feeling very much like a hippopotamus stuck in quicksand.  Out of shape much? At 20 miles this was the longest ride of the trip, and after turning onto a short but very fun descent it climbed yet again to loop back to the Colorado Trail and left us wondering when the trail would finally cross and we could start descending again. As far as trails go, this one had scenery aplenty but was lacking in the fun terrain features and swoopy berms that elevate the fun to a rating of epic in my book. So picky, aren't we? It was still a good ride however with some options to connect with other trails.

   The next day we took a short ride on the Horse Gulch trails behind Fort Lewis College, much more fun in terms of flow and short techy bits, and filled with loops and options galore.  Topping off the Colorado trail experience, we stopped in Cortez the following day for a ride at Phil's World, a relatively new trail system that had been mentioned to us a number of times in context with "must ride!"  Kit and I both concurred on that note--flowy trails, numerous loop options, one-way trails to avoid collisions, and some fast hard-packed clay sections (the Rib Cage, shown in the video) that rode like a giant pump track. So fun!! 

Kit on Slickrock
   After a day of desert sandstone climbing at a new area in western CO, we headed back to Moab, arriving with just enough time to take a lap on the famed Slickrock Trail. Luck and timing were with us on this Black Friday since the crowds seemed relatively thin; our 2 PM start left us with a couple hours of good sunlight and not a lot of traffic on the trail. Not the longest ride of the trip, but we both agreed that it was the toughest, since taking the climbs easy was not usually an option and the descending was too short for much recovery. The scenery was incredible in the late afternoon light and I spent a lot of time stopping for photos. The riding was equally off the hook, living up to expectations for gravity-defying traction and exploratory options. I wouldn't rate it quite as high as Porcupine or Phil's World on the grin-o-meter at this point, but with more familiarity of the trail and surrounding terrain, it could certainly get a lot more fun.  Following a couple more days of climbing, we decided on Amasa Back as our final Moab bike ride before heading home. The climbing was technical and somewhat brutal in places (or maybe it was just me), but on the whole a lot more fun than a boring fire road climb. We explored the slickrock at the end of the trail for a few minutes, and headed back down for the highlight of the ride: coming back down what we rode up! A majority of the ride was blindly mobbing down bumpy rock trying to keep up with Kit on his 7" Yeti, with a handful of more challenging sections where I hoped to remember lines I'd checked out on the way up. Mission accomplished, including not flying off the 4 foot drop to flat at the bottom. On the short climb back up to the trailhead we stopped at a smaller drop with a bit more landing to take some photos, since the light was just at the right angle. With our final Moab trail ride in the bag, we were on the road back to Tahoe by early afternoon.

Amasa Back fun

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Sponsor radness!!

This past season wasn't quite what I hoped it would be, but at least I had some folks to help make things better :)

THANK YOU to Loeka Clothing for keeping me stylish on the bike (and off, with my new hoodie and leggings). At least I can look fast now!

AND Kali Protectives, who make sweet, lightweight helmets that do a darn good job of protecting your noggin when you need it most. I took a few spills this year that tested my lid, and not even a headache.

AND Lindsay at Shine Riders Co, who is working so hard to encourage and promote female gravity racers, and to get the women's freeride movement going. She is doing an excellent job so far!

All done racing, now what??

   Well, let's see here... the Tara Llanes Classic was about a month ago now, and the following weekend was Northstar's closing day. That was also probably the best day of riding all season, with a newly rebuilt upper half of the Gypsy trail, and no agenda for practicing anything! I did so many runs I eventually lost count, always a good feeling. And, another awesome thing happened the previous weekend: apparently this guy flew into a fit of rage over Northstar's impending closure and the end of the racing season (or something like that) and dissected his bike right in the parking lot... fortunately a friend was nearby who heard me complain about my brakes dragging incessantly for the past 2 weeks, and snagged the brakes for me! Finally my bike could roll freely and it was amazing!! Thanks Sean, I owe you a few beers next season.

Stopping on the Flume on our Rose to Chimney ride
   A couple of weeks later I did a fun XC ride with some ladies on the TRT from Mt. Rose Meadows to Tunnel Creek and the Flume Trail, finally ending on the Chimney Beach downhill. That has got to be my favorite Rim Trail section of all time, and everything was in such good shape from the rainfall a couple days before, even Chimney Beach was all-time great traction!

   And I finally got my "new" Tahoe rocky trail XC bike, an '07ish Santa Cruz Blur LT off Pinkbike, such a good deal I couldn't restrain myself since I'd been talking about getting one for years. It fully lived up to expectations, shredding the rocks with no problem and inspiring me to catch air anywhere possible, plus being pretty darn light. It'll do for now, until I can afford the latest fancy carbon  thingamajig, whenever that happens to be. Keep in mind I've been riding a 10 year-old aluminum hardtail leftover from my XC racing days, so this is a huge step up! And then of course, it snowed. Luckily I can still take it to Moab in a week!

   Speaking of being able to afford expensive bike parts, my life for the past few weeks has been consumed by resume writing and mailing them off to prospective sponsors for next season. The easy part is putting together all the results and some pretty pictures, but being convincing as to why I deserve sponsorship over some other dude is for some reason the hard part... I really feel like I'm a lousy salesperson so it's kind of a frustrating time of year. Furthermore, between the internet in my house still not working and having to use Cline's computer, and not having a color printer readily available to make my photos look good, it feels like the universe is conspiring against me getting much done in that department.

Indian Creek
   On to more fun things: UTAH ROAD TRIP!! Although our departure date has been pushed back to this weekend thanks to Kit's work obligations, we still plan to head out there and stay until early December, bike riding, climbing, and just hanging out in the desert. Plans include plenty of time in Moab to explore bike trails, climb towers, and check out Arches National Park. Just an hour south of Moab, Indian Creek is on the list as well for some crack climbing and maybe a trip into Canyonlands to do a bit more...uh, climbing. Oh yes--finally, I get to jam my hands and feet into some desert splitters!! It's SO exciting! (Now you see why I'm so conflicted? I love bikes, but sometimes I just need to go climb a rock!) We may also venture to Colorado, New Mexico, or Arizona if the weather gets too cold later this month, looking for warmth in the sun.

   In the past weeks I've also been trying to whip my climbing muscles back into shape, both physical and mental, for leading on gear. A trip to Donner Summit kicked my butt when I tried the short but stout overhang on Firecracker Roof 5.10b (on toprope), but then cleanly led two 5.9+ cracks after that, before my arms went totally noodly and I was done. Last week I hit up another local spot for climbing cracks, the Crystal Bay Boulder, just 5 minutes away from me in Kings Beach. It's about 40 feet tall and has a .10a flaring chimney and a .10c hand-to-offwidth crack, both very physically exhausting; the chimney especially gives one the feeling of being simultaneously eaten and spit out. The hand crack gets hard about 10 feet from the top, where it requires either a careful transition to a lieback, or arm-bar and cram yourself in through any means possible, as it widens to just over fist-width. Most climbers, myself included, find this type of "off-width" climbing terribly difficult and painful, but for some reason I keep throwing myself at it... though I will probably stick to more friendly climbs in the land of sandstone.

   Here are a couple of photos from my last visit to Indian Creek, which was exactly 3 years ago at this time. A small storm blew through the night we arrived, and we went back to Moab for a couple of days to let things warm up. A week later, the weather was beautiful and the rock was warm, but I only got to climb there for a day before we had to return to Tahoe.
 
The Creek with a dusting of snow

Friday, October 5, 2012

Last Sunday in photos

The practice run...obviously, since I'm all clean

The race run, about to launch the ramp at the finish. Looking a little dusty!

Podium time!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Whoosh! That's the end of mountain bike season flying past at warp speed.

   For all intents and purposes, 2012 DH racing is a wrap! The last 3 weekends have gone by so stinking fast I can hardly keep track of up or down (or keep my wheels on the ground for that matter)...Somebody sped up the earth's rotation without letting me know and it's really been messing with my balance lately. Racing on Boondocks--already 2 weeks ago at this point--at least I stayed on my bike, but couldn't keep it on the trail. That bobble cost me probably more than the 2 seconds I lost to first place on that run, but I pedaled madly and stayed off the brakes more than ever in the lower sections to make up a decent amount of time.  After screwing up I managed to stay focused, and definitely would have beaten my Pro GRT time if the finish had been in the same place.
   The Tahoe Fat Tire Festival at Squaw Valley the following weekend brought even more fun and excitement; I had just replaced my brake rotors that were bent and rubbing with brand new ones, which just happened to rub even worse, like riding with your brakes on. Crap! I'm not exactly a mechanical genius, in fact I'm kind of scared to mess with my bike too much because I seem to always make it worse, so I just decided to ride Kit's bike for the race instead. The course was a whopping 3 miles long with a good amount of pedaling, and the only techy rock section was at the top and not really that bad at all. That made it easy to decide on a 30 lb 7-inch travel bike without perma-brakes over my V-10. I took one practice run before the race and decided it was good enough, never mind the suspension was set up for Kit (and being air I could have easily changed it). But I didn't. Probably would have helped a bit...Midway through the rocks I put my front wheel in the wrong place and went OTB, not a hard crash but a slow topple that cost some time. I hopped back on and got going, and things were smooth until farther down in the woods I snagged a pedal on something and found myself in the dirt again. Got a little mad and pedaled harder, but not quite enough to catch Tasa, who finished about 8 seconds ahead of me. Despite my inability to stay on the bike during the race, it was a good event overall. The festival atmosphere always makes bike racing more fun, and being able to race on a new trail in the spectacular setting of Squaw's mountainous terrain is pretty neat. Hopefully the event makes a return next year, with a real DH course, and maybe a dual slalom or something!
  Finally there was the Tara Llanes Classic this past weekend. The race I was second in last season, by not a whole lot, so my goal this time was to be second again and under 2 minutes to World Cup racer and BMX Olympian Jill Kintner, who obviously was going to win unless her bike had serious mechanical failures. Oh, and I wanted a CLEAN RUN for once! Only out of three goals were met this time: in an effort to "conserve" energy, I took it way too easy on the flat, winding Flameout trail section. What the heck! That didn't do me any good. Then after greasing through the main rock waterfall and gnar section on Sticks & Stones, I make it to just above the last rock garden on the lower trail and spectacularly wad up in a dusty rut. Seriously, I have no idea what even happened, just wound up filled with dust in every orifice and shaking my head. I shook out as much dust as possible and continued on, dirt trickling out of my helmet and goggles the rest of the way to the finish. I wound up in third, just a few seconds off of second place, and barely under 2 minutes from Jill. If I had either pedaled harder (oh the irony) or not crashed it would have been a sure second place--if I had done both pedal and not crash I maybe would have been well under 2 minutes back. Oh well, that's what I get for trying to be smart and strategize--better to just pedal till my legs fall off! My friend Shanna who beat me rode hard the whole way and had spaghetti legs at the end, she definitely earned her giant check! I got one too, just a little bit smaller, but it will still help me fix my bike and get it running better for next year.
   Also a shout-out to Kali for replacing the busted visor on my helmet, probably good that I waited till after the race to do that or else I would have needed 2 of them! And my POC body armor has performed spectacularly this season, keeping me un-injured through the many times I've sampled dirt. Last but not least, Loeka Clothing for keeping me well-dressed in some snazzy gear--unfortunately I've put holes in just about everything this year with my many crashes!
   I'll wait till next time to ponder how I felt about this season as a whole; my patience for sitting here is wearing thin and I need to get outside for a bit before going to the dentist this afternoon...

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Only the raddest Labor Day weekend. EVER!

Finally getting back on my butt to finish this post--it's been a crazy couple of weeks!

Where else but Tahoe can one mountain bike downhill and xc, surf, climb rocks, AND have the spectacular backdrop of a massive, clear alpine lake? Ok, so I haven't really researched it, but I can't come up with anything offhand. Tahoe wins!
   After a groggy 5AM start to make an early work meeting in Roseville, I was cut loose by noon to enjoy the rest of my day and get a head start on the 3 day weekend. I chowed some leftovers and made a fresh glass of kale-cucumber-carrot-apple-ginger juice in my new juicer. Yum! (here are some recipes I use for juicing inspiration)
   First up was Northstar for some practice, since I wanted to get a few runs on Dogbone before the Vista chair closed at 5, and maybe check out Livewire and make sure nothing major has changed. I made an interesting observation on Dogbone: riding rocks clipped in still terrifies me. Figuring I didn't need to swap out pedals to practice since I planned to race Livewire clipped in on Sunday, I had no idea how much it would mess with me not being able to dab a foot or detach from my bike in case I topple over...lesson learned. Add that to riding rocks in general; I've spent such little time at Northstar this summer that I probably should have ridden the rocky trails more. I only took 2 runs through and by the end of the second lap my arms were getting tired and stomach grumbly; the bottom section was quite out of control as I sketchily bounced off boulders and tried not to crash. Yikes! Time to call it.
   I headed home and decided to jump in the lake, but as I stood there waves rolled in and crashed on the shore, and my friend Aimee was coming over to surf before watching music on the beach. Wetsuit recently acquired, I bummed a stand up paddle board from Tahoe Eco Sports where I used to work. I forgot how much fun it is to play in the water, taking some spills and catching a few waves; it probably helped that I was on a giant, wide standup paddle board because it seemed easier to stand up than I remembered. The wind gradually died down, waves got smaller, we got cold, and the music started so we got warm and settled in for the last outdoor concert in Kings Beach for the summer.
   Saturday was a good day to hang out with Kit since I planned on racing the following 2 days. We decided to climb at Eagle Lake Cliffs, a rad crack climbing area up above Eagle Lake by Emerald Bay. We only did 2 climbs, a couple of times each; the first one was deceivingly sustained, often awkward, and ended with a terrifying off-width that needed a giant #5 cam to protect. Needless to say I didn't lead that one. The second was as fun as the first was awful, though I didn't lead that one either, with a beautiful steep headwall split by a widening hand crack that still was fist jam-able at the top. 2 or 3 laps on that and I'm spent!
   Race day for Livewire brought me some crappy-feeling legs, thanks to the 45 minute rock hopping stairstep approach to and from Eagle Lake, whoops. One practice run in and I hung out and snacked till time to warm up, then did an easy lap on Vista Chair and went to the top. Livewire is honestly kind of scary to race because the jumps really aren't built for high speeds (the boys must have it really rough), and you go flying off at funny angles from the steep takeoff lips. I was pedaling my brains out any time my wheels were on the ground, so I must be getting in better shape, because my legs seemed to have enough in them for a good race run. I wasn't sure I could pull it off again, but I won the race for the second year in a row! Off to drink a beer or 2 and celebrate.
   At the last minute I decided not to race Dogbone, feeling disgruntled about spending another whole day up at the mountain instead of doing something fun with Kit (who has no interest in watching those smaller races and I don't blame him at all). We hadn't done a big cross country ride in such a long time that it sounded like about time for one of those. Bikes loaded up, we took both cars over to Incline and set up a shuttle at the bottom of Chimney Beach, heading out from the Incline Flume trail on Mt. Rose Highway. Neither of us felt much like climbing thousands of feet so the shuttle seemed like a great idea, and the short section of climbing on Tunnel Creek road to the Flume, and another climb up to the start of Chimney Beach trail, proved to be quite enough. Beautiful weather, not too many people on the trail for Labor Day, and great company put such a big smile on my face! I even cleaned the hard part of the small technical climb on the Flume just below Marlette Lake, only to topple over in surprise just after. Chimney Beach trail was a blast, some parts a bit challenging on a little hardtail, and widened my stupidly big grin at every turn. Stoke-o-meter was high all the way back to the car and down to the beach just down the road where we capped the day with a swim in the lake to wash off all the dust. I needed that so badly!! I brought the camera along for the spectacular Flume Trail but only nabbed one shot of Kit as we were having too much fun to stop. I wore my colorful and comfy Loeka XC kit; we'll have to re-ride that soon and get some more photos!
Kit single speeding the Flume
   That's all for now, back to having fun!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Mid-season musings

   Last weekend's race at Northstar went well--for once, I didn't really have an excuse to do horribly, so I won instead. The course was super easy with lots of pedaling; almost a relaxing experience aside from cranking till your legs explode! I probably could have pedaled more and gone faster, but with the way my season has been so far, I'll take what I can get.
A good shot from last weekend by Chris Demere
   At this point, it's getting dangerously close to the end of another bike season, and I'm already thinking ahead to next year and what to do differently. Case in point: Northstar. While I credit the place for getting me a good start in riding DH, it's feeling smaller and smaller every time I ride there. And with 8 races in the series, being there almost every weekend is starting to get old. I love to ride my bike and don't usually mind where, but growing up racing in Washington spoiled me in getting to travel around the state for races, experiencing a wide variety of venues. So with that in mind, I'm tentatively thinking about a pass to Mammoth next year instead of the 'star again, and definitely focusing on fewer races with more importance, like the Pro GRT series and/or Grand Prix, whichever I can make it to most easily. That would give me more time to train, ride for fun in other cool places, kick back on the beach, and even do some overnight backcountry rock climbs like I used to in the good old days...
   Despite its drawbacks, it has still been a good season to stay local and save money; I've been so far unsuccessful at ridding myself of the same tenacious sinus infection that's persisted for months through several courses of antibiotics, a candida cleanse, and lots of sleep. Next stop is the dentist, who may perhaps find a tooth infection (apparently a common cause of mysterious sickness). Yuck. I HATE going to the dentist, and haven't been to one in several years, go figure. If that clears things up, great, but i'll sure feel like an idiot for not going in sooner!
   More racing this weekend: Live Wire and Dogbone back to back, we'll see if I can defend my victory from last year on Live Wire, and redeem myself from a terrible race at Dogbone when my fork quit working so well.


Monday, August 6, 2012

Playing catch-up

   I guess it's been a few weeks since I wrote anything, so here we go.  2 weekends ago was the Northstar series race on Karpiel, a trail I hadn't actually ridden top to bottom yet, ever.  Practice with my friend Tasa on Friday night had all sorts of fun in store, winding up at one point doing splits over a rock with my bike on top of me, bringing at least a couple minutes of hilarity at being violated by Fabio (that rock section's name was Fabio Falls, it's a long story).  No injuries, just a lot of laughing and some puzzling at how to get out of such an awkward position.  Sunday morning pre-race practice packed a harder punch when I decided to try jumping over some roots in a more familiar part of the trail and found myself forcefully digging in the dirt with my full face helmet.  Helmet totaled, but my brain was ok; sometimes things that seem like a good idea at the time should be considered a little more carefully, luckily the rental shop had a decent lid for me to borrow the rest of the day!
  Race run went well aside from a pretty major bobble at the top of Fabio Falls, not a crash so much as another one of those awkward positions that required some thought to undo. I cleaned Vietnam (the second rock section) without any trouble and wound up in third place, not too bad for the few practice runs I as able to get.  Notice a pattern here yet? Being too darn out of shape to ride all day still, it appears as though adequate practice time is my biggest weakness, but at least it's something I can fix for next season by staying healthy enough to train all winter and into spring.
   I topped my record for practice runs this season on Boondocks, the Pro GRT course for this past weekend, coming in at around 8 or 9 total (hahaha).  My boss was cool enough to let me take time off both Thursday and Friday afternoon to get those much-needed runs before qualifying on Friday evening.  After a few moments of panic at the lift suddenly being stuck at 2 mph for half an hour, we arrived at the top of the course to find that qualifying had been pushed back by 20 minutes to accommodate this.  Phew! I qualified in 4th with a clean but safe and slow run, knowing there was plenty of room for more speed.  My goal for the race was originally not to finish dead last like at Sea Otter--yep, gotta aim high!  Going up against some pretty fast girls, all but one having gone to World Cup races this season, and one the current national champ, this seemed like a tall order with an enormous field of 5.  Even Tasa can pull off a lightning quick run seemingly out of nowhere, whereas I feel like I'm still horribly inconsistent (uhh, practice?).
   I came off the start feeling great, up until only the third corner, a loose and sandy flat turn wherein a stump jumped in front of me and caused an emergency dismount.  Crap! Untangle bike from stump, remount and attempt to clip in (darn pedals, it's never been that hard before!).  The rest of the run was an attempt to not get my butt kicked by too much, sprinting anywhere possible and actually even nailing all of my lines, not to mention successfully staying clipped in around all those duffy loose corners! Coming in at 5:13, 3 seconds slower than my clean qualifying run, I'm a little disappointed in making a mistake like that--but on the other hand, without the crash I would have been right up there with 2nd/3rd place, who were both just under 5 minutes.  So the speed is definitely there, even without that much time on the bike this summer.  It was a bittersweet day for sure, but also a great learning experience on the amount and speed of practice I need.  Yeah, I need to start going faster in practice too, because the reason I blew up in the corner was probably coming in a lot faster than usual!
   So Tasa saved me from coming in last by taking a nice Sunday stroll down the course, haha, thanks lady!  And I wound up with a little $$ for 4th place, took care of my entry fee and still some left over for food and bike parts.  Cool beans.  Got some things to work on before next season but I'm feeling positive that it's nothing too big.  Maybe if I can scrape myself together before the Tara Llanes Classic this year, I can pull off another good result in that race, but in the meantime it's time to finish out the series at Northstar, hoping one of these times I can pull it together (and not break bike parts) for a win.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sticks & Stones...

didn't break any of MY bones, or my bike for that matter.  But it was a huge bummer to hear after the race that one of the ladies I met checking out lines in the rock waterfall section got injured in that same part of the course.  Hope she recovers soon and gets back on the bike before the season ends!
  I had a clean run, hit all of my lines well, but just ran out of gas at pretty regular intervals while trying to pedal through flat sections.  Being stuck with practicing on Saturday this week, my out-of-shape-ness  became evident while trying to pedal my bike up the short climb to the gondola...only 5 runs the day before, but the rough course took its toll on my body and made it hard to stay on the bike at full speed.  Hence, I probably slowed down more than necessary for some sections.  I came in second place, which was not too bad out of 7 girls, but felt like my fitness was the biggest limiting factor which has definitely not been the case in previous seasons!  
   Struggling to rid myself of a stubborn sinus infection for  over 2 months, and multiple doses of antibiotics do not help a training program at all--even if I had one, that is.  Worried that any physically intense activity might suppress my immune system more, I haven't ridden my XC or road bike much in the last couple of months after coming home from work feeling like crud just about every other day.  But it seems to be finally moving on out, maybe the last round of antibiotics actually did the trick, or perhaps religiously using a neti pot multiple times a day has helped.  Either way I can't wait to get back to pedaling hard (after taking today off to recover)!! There's no race this weekend, but might be a good time to get some runs in on Karpiel and be able to conserve energy a bit more for the weekend after. Then, the Pro GRT, where I'll be pretty happy to be somewhere other than dead last at this point!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

Northstar says...

...Welcome back, sucker!

Needless to say, I didn't win the race yesterday.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Robyn visits Wisconsin!

A neighboring town...Poulsbohemians might find this amusing
   Kit's sister decided to get married back at the family farm in Waupaca, WI, which sounded like an event I shouldn't miss if at all possible. So I managed to get the time off from work and book the same flights as Kit there and back. Excellent. Upon arrival in Milwaukee, we were greeted by Kit's brother (and an authentic Chicago deep dish pizza) for the 2 hour drive to their folks house. This pizza was quite possibly the most amazing thing to go into my stomach all week, gluten be damned--perhaps having something to do with being ravenous and ready to chow any sort of edible object, but it was still quite delicious the day after (and day after that).

This barn was built in 1901, according to the year on the stone silo
   Although we had to help prepare for the festivities just a little bit, most of our time was occupied with being in/on the water to escape the heat, canoeing, swimming, and fishing in a nearby spring-fed lake. Kit managed to land a good number of fish, but I only succeeded in hooking vegetation off the bottom of the lake...and then all was well after a refreshing dip in the water. At one point the boys managed to nearly sink the kayak I had been paddling around in while they fished from the canoe, making for quite the swimming workout to get it back to shore filled with water. Buttheads! Kit's parents also had a couple of halfway decent road bikes in the garage, just waiting for somebody to get on and pedal. So we did, all over the country roads around his hometown of Waupaca, enjoying the absence of traffic and trying our best not to get too horribly lost. I took it upon myself to take photos of all the neat old barns and other cool things on the bike rides; there's not much else out there besides cows and cornfields, so a 100+ year-old barn is something exciting to see (relatively). 

Yep, it's pretty flat. There were a few short hills but not many.
   The wedding was a real hoot, with a live band that played multiple polkas complete with accordion and tuba, and brought back long forgotten memories of Norwegian folk dancing. Only in Wisconsin I guess--and maybe Poulsbo too! The whole week was about the most fun I could have imagined having somewhere as flat as I was. My only complaint? Eating hot dogs and pizza for nearly every meal, because it's hard to find anything else to chow on out there! 
   Now back in Tahoe, it's time to get pedaling on the mountain bike and dive into downhilling again. WahoooooOO!!!!!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Ashland...better late than never!

   Some might have checked out my link to Shine's story on last weekend's racing action, but if not, here's a full report.  The weather couldn't have been nicer, with cool enough temps not to roast on either day, but warm enough to hang out in shorts and enjoy the sunshine. We got up there on Friday in time to shuttle one run from the top of the downhill course all the way down to the bottom of the cross country course, which was nice to see the trail we'd be racing on the next day.
   At the last minute Kit decided to enter the cross country on Saturday, so he and my dad would start together 15 minutes after me in the Cat 2 race and be chasing me the entire way. As my first real XC race in probably 6 years, this was a real doozy: 9 miles of climbing, followed by another 8 of flat fire road pedaling (both of which I really stink at right now), and finally a fast, switchback filled singletrack descent. The whole way up the climb I was questioning my sanity as the rest of my category disappeared up the road, and though the girl ahead of me had a 2 minute gap at the top of the climb, I'm pretty sure that increased by a lot over the 45 minutes of flat road. I finally got to make up some time on the descent, passing quite a lot of riders who blew by me on the flat, but not nearly enough to catch the closest woman at about 1 minute back. A time of 2:15 for the 24.5 mile course, 6th place out of 6, about 20 minutes back from the winner of the women's race...I've got some work to do to get back into cross country racing shape here! Kit came in at 2:07 on his single speed, but didn't quite manage to make up for my head start and catch me in the race.
   Being pretty worn out after the XC I still questioned my sanity, wondering whether I'd have enough left in the tank for the downhill race on Sunday. A few practice runs before the race felt good; finding a smooth line through the only rock section on the course, and my legs were actually doing fine for pedaling. Excellent! Though my big V-10 was really not the bike of choice on this smooth, flowy trail, it still was a blast to ride and definitely crushed the rocks and one small jump at the top of the course. Fun!!!  My race run went great except for one small bobble when I just randomly rode off the trail toward a tree, but I got back on track in a couple of seconds and soon was sprinting up the hill toward the finish. Crossing the line at 4:50 with the fastest girls' time of the day was pretty rad, 9 seconds ahead of second place, and Shine teammate Kirstie Douglass took third fastest time for the ladies! 
  It was a super fun weekend of bikes and racing, hanging out with the family at a nice bed & breakfast, and I can't wait to ride in Ashland again. My ability to race 2 events in a row without too much trouble amazed me, as I had half expected to not be able to get out of bed on Sunday morning. Maybe with more training of the uphill sort things should get even better. Since it just rained/snowed up here in the mountains today the trail conditions will be epic, just perfect for bike time on my 3-day weekend and training for the Fears, Tears and Beers enduro in 2 weeks!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Shine Riders Co.: Ashland Spring Thaw DH - Shine Riders top the podi...

Some words on Ashland by Kirstie Douglass:
Shine Riders Co.: Ashland Spring Thaw DH - Shine Riders top the podi...: words by Kirstie Douglass This year's 21st Annual Ashland Spring Thaw DH saw two Shine Riders hit the top of the podium as well as earn...

Sunday, May 6, 2012

In the Tahoe backyard

   I've been sticking mostly around Tahoe since the Sea Monster (er, Otter), busy with work and putting some miles in on the XC bike in an attempt to prepare for my next 2 races.  I'm planning on doing both the XC and DH at the Mt. Ashland Spring Thaw just for kicks, and I think I'll do ok just so long as I remember to bring lots of energy snacks for the XC race.  Kit and I rode last weekend once in Reno and got a good butt kicking and bonk session while chasing some friends around while I neglected to pack any snacks for calorie refreshment... hopefully we're not going to repeat that mistake any time soon!  The lower trails up behind Kings Beach are completely melted out, perfect for after-work pedal sessions, and hopefully the Tahoe Rim Trail and upper connectors will be clear soon making for even more fun.
The pump track, a good way to get the neighbors staring.
   Meanwhile, around the house, Kit and I had sudden motivation to revitalize the pump track.  This led to copious amounts of fun, and more motivation to keep working on it after it became more fun to ride!  In its current state it is already so much more awesome than it has been for the past 2 years--hopefully soon we can get some friends to join in and get some good feedback on further improvements.  My dream of summertime pump track parties may actually become a reality this year!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Ohhhh, the agony of the Sea Otter Classic!

   First off, let me say that I actually really had a good time down at Sea Otter this year.  Thanks to the generosity of some friends we had a place to spend a night on the way down, scored a camping spot right near the downhill course, and a free festival pass for Kit for all 3 days.  And thanks to the race support I had my rear shock and brakes serviced, and scored a fancy new rear derailleur, all for free. Sure, this is just how it works at a race, but I'd never actually tried to have my bike worked on at a race before. That alone was worth having made a $50 donation to the Otter for the dual slalom race I wasn't able to attend!
   As for the race, well, my record of terrible early-season race results still stands (or did I break it?)...the field of 22 was enormous for a women's race, and contained 6 or 7 established World Cup racers, never mind the fact that everybody had most likely been riding bikes much more than myself all winter long.  The worst part of that was being sick for the past 2 months and feeling like crud every time I had a day off to do any sort of directed workout--and forget doing anything physical after work, not going to happen. Not helpful at all! So considering what terrible shape I was in, being only a second off of #21 was actually not that bad, and probably more due to my couple of mistakes on course than anything else.  The remainder of time between me and the top 10 was definitely due to a lack of practice and training over the past few months, hopefully something I can easily make up before the Pro GRT at Northstar this year.
   And now for something completely different, back to work on the pump track in my yard... It's going to be good this year, I can feel it! So if anybody wants to come and help me dig/revise it PLEASE do, I need some assistance to bring it to its full potential of radness!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Another Eastside Trip--or how to lose a goggle tan in 5 days!

  My last day of work at Alpine Meadows was Tuesday April 10, so Kit and I loaded up the van and headed down to the Bishop/Mammoth area once again. I only had until Sunday to play because I was starting my new summer job doing mosquito abatement for the county, but that still left enough time to enjoy a little vacation. We started with 2 days of sport climbing at the Gorge, getting on some new routes that neither of us had climbed before, but by midafternoon on Thursday it was evident that a storm was on its way in.
Locomotive at Laws Museum
   For a little side trip we went to the Laws Railroad Museum just outside Bishop and wandered around among all the old buildings and machinery, even getting to climb inside an old locomotive and watch a small rock crusher at work in the mining display. Lots of photos, so here's the album.
   We brought bikes this time so we cruised over to meet a friend at the bottom of the Rock Creek trail for some shuttles as a handful of snowflakes drifted down from the clouds. The trail was quite mellow with lots of pedaling, but flowy and fun, and very scenic following the creek down through sagebrush and volcanic rock of all kinds. The lower section after the final road crossing had some short technical rock sections, not too hard but just enough to make it interesting and enjoyable on a big bike. I can hardly believe I've been climbing in the Bishop area for 6 years now and had never ridden this trail! From now on, if that area is not buried in snow we will be bringing bikes down on just about every trip :)
The lower third of Rock Creek

   A friend in Mammoth had offered us a place to stay and some free lift tickets for a day while we were down there, so with the snowy forecast for Friday we headed over to the mountain. Sleeping in the van was actually quite toasty with a down quilt, and much more comfortable than sleeping on the floor in my friend's apartment, and we woke on Friday morning to 6 inches of light dry powder covering everything. Snow was still coming down as we got ready and skied to the bus stop--really--it was much faster than walking there! Not knowing Mammoth Mountain very well we just took some exploratory laps in a number of different places. Upper mountain was closed all day and the snow was falling still, so we tried to seek out the elusive "free refills". Chair 22 was supposed to be the goods, but we got there a little too late to find fresh tracks, and after a couple of laps went back to the main lodge side. Chair 1 had some of the best skiing all day with some short fun lines through rocks and small trees. Did I mention how much snow was there? 3 FEET! Thigh deep, and so light! That also meant it was very cold out there, and despite both of us wearing down jackets, we got chilly and decided to bail at around 2 and seek out some nearby hot springs.
The van and the snowy Sierra
   After watching storm clouds drifting over the mountains from a steaming hot tub, we went back down to Bishop to camp out at another friend's house and make plans for Saturday. Possibility of backcountry skiing was tossed around, but the friends decided to ski Mammoth resort, and we went to sleep figuring we'd see what the weather looked like in the morning. Gray and cloudy, not terribly cold or hot, and not the best conditions for staying warm climbing in the Gorge, so we went back over to Rock Creek and took the dog for a short pedal. Following that, we parked at the middle section of the downhill trail and pedaled up to the top for a lap as it started snowing (again). Kit was kind enough to offer to drive the van down to the bottom so I could ride the lower section of trail, and I took full advantage of this. It felt much smoother than the last time and gave me a little bit of encouragement that I hadn't actually forgotten how to ride a mountain bike!!
   Following the ride we decided to head up to Benton for some hot spring time at the resort, with individual campsites each having its own private tub. Unfortunately the whole place was booked for a wedding...major bummer! Next plan, head back down to Bishop and camp somewhere warm. Upon waking Sunday morning, we had no plans for what to do with the last day, but settled on climbing at Granite Basin, a randomly located granite dome in the middle of the valley near Mono Lake.
View of the White Mountains the top of Granite Basin
    Hair Raiser Buttress 5.9 is a 5-star ultra classic bolted sport route, 3 pitches of amazingly fun and sometimes sketchy slab climbing, and it looked perfect for the day. What we didn't realize is that Kit started on the first pitch of a nearby 10c, wondering why it felt a little hard. Then, in the middle of the second pitch, I connected the two climbs with a nearly 40 foot runout in between bolts...yikes!! No falling! I'm not usually a fan of slabby friction climbing, but at least this one had good hand and foot holds that felt secure, so I just tried not to think about the runout and kept going until I was at the next bolt. A third pitch with some tricky moves that Kit led, and we were on top with an incredible view. We had no clue about the inadvertent linkup until looking at the guidebook at lunch, and counting bolts on both climbs. That climb was enough for the day because the sun had moved off the mostly east-facing rock and it was going to be cold in the shade.
More photos from the trip here!
   Back to Tahoe on Sunday night, and I had to be up on Monday at the ungodly hour of 4:45 to drive to Roseville for training on my new mosquito hunting job. We'll see how this summer goes, I think it will work out well given the schedule and cool bosses who are ok with me taking days off now and then for travel to races. It will be nice to actually save some money and be able to buy a full suspension trail bike for next season!
  I almost forgot to add, the Sea Otter Classic is this weekend--I signed up to race DH and DS but thanks to the new job I'll have to miss dual slalom qualifying on Thursday and not get to race the finals Friday. Boo. On the bright side, it gives me a little more time to practice and get to know the downhill course which I am not very familiar with. Being the first race of the season and knowing a lot of ladies have been riding and training all winter, I'm setting my expectations kind of low and just trying to have a good time, if I manage to pull off a great run all the better!

Monday, April 2, 2012

A relaxing weekend on the eastside

   Bishop is a neat place, both Kit and I agree. Every time we make the 3 hour drive from Tahoe it seems like a world away, with an expanse of sagebrush desert sandwiched between the ancient White Mountains and the tall, majestic Sierra Nevada jutting dramatically toward the sky for 7,000 feet. In the low elevations of the Owens River Gorge, one can find warm sunshine and downright hot temperatures for climbing rocks in the winter.

Eastern wall of the upper Gorge
   Heading down after work on Friday night, we met up with friends and camped just on the north end of the O.R. Gorge, perfectly stationed for a short drive to the upper gorge parking area the next day. Saturday brought sun and warmth with just enough breeze to keep things from overheating, which was nice because we found a south-facing wall to begin with, jam-packed with fun and rope-stretchingly long climbs. I did 3 climbs there, all 5.10a/b, led two of them without too much difficulty. The one I didn't lead was the first, with a steep and awkwardly balancey start, after watching Kit struggle with it for a few minutes. That nerve-racking start led to an amazing lower angle finger width crack and tested my neglected jamming techniques. We moved back upriver to another wall with some old familiar climbs, took a quick nap in the sun waiting for friends to catch up, and then Kit opted to try an 11b which neither of us had climbed before but looked really neat. I remember eyeing it several years ago while in top climbing shape but for some reason had never tried it.  So much for the onsight, but at least I didn't embarrass myself by flailing horribly on top rope, as I feared might be the case. I kept expecting it to be harder, but just cruised through every move. The crux was a weird chimney that I had to wedge into for a few feet, but didn't get spat out as I had expected...another encouraging moment in my attempt at a climbing comeback!
I'm a pro belayer!
   That evening we went to see the Banff Adventure Film Festival at the fairgrounds in Bishop, a fun time but some of the films stretched on for a little too long. My favorites were both of the ski flicks, but those were only 10 minutes each, kind of disappointing. I'll be looking out for the full version of All I Can, was wishing for more after that one!
   When we woke on Sunday morning it was about 20 degrees colder and a brisk breeze came from the north. Brrrrr...instead of trying to chase the sun in the gorge, our tired fingers voted for a bouldering session in the Happy Boulders, which are much more sheltered from wind. And by "bouldering" I mean mostly laying in the sun, occasionally pulling my shoes on to try a problem and then realizing how much my fingertips hurt, compounded by the rough texture of the volcanic rock. I used to get excited about bouldering back at SNC when class trips frequented the Happies, but for some reason I just can't motivate to put all that effort into conquering a 10ft tall rock any more. Upper body strength is also still lacking, painfully obvious when I tried the Monkey Hang, a classic V2 overhang that I have climbed successfully in the past but couldn't even get my butt off the ground this time...
Crushing the Monkey Hang back in '07 
   In all, no matter what my climbing performance looks like, any trip down to the eastern Sierra is a fun time, especially with good friends and nice weather. I always feel refreshed and ready to get back to real life and whatever obligations lie in wait after spending a little time in this wonderful place...next time though, we're bringing bikes and checking out the Rock Creek Trail, a 5,000 foot descent right in the middle of the valley!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Crushed the Level 2 Ski Exam yesterday!

   Wahoooo!! Any doubts I had about passing vanished quickly, and wasn't the least bit nervous the entire time, after the examiner told me my skiing reminded him of a friend of his who was trying out for National Demo Team this year. That, however, was a major surprise! This was before lunch time on the first day; by the end of the day I had figured out I was apparently the best skier in our group of 6. Some of the others started getting pretty negative toward the end of day 2, because they presumably had started with expectations of being able to pass. I felt bad and tried to give some pointers on the chair now and then, but so much seemed to rest on prior preparation and knowing the expectations of the exam that I felt a little awkward being in that position. I was having a lot of fun showing what I was capable of doing on skis and had worked hard on all season, and was enjoying the further coaching we received.
   On my evaluation sheet I had exceeded expectations on all but 3 task/demo aspects, and had lots of positive comments on my bump and steep skiing along with some things to work on for Level 3 (still a ways off). I have to give a lot of credit to the trainers at Alpine who helped us prepare fully throughout the season, and other instructor mentors who took the time to ski with me and give feedback. After all, it was pretty obvious who had not been prepped to the same degree! Alpine went 3 for 4 on passing this exam, which was a pretty darn good percentage for the Level 2, and I am already making plans with my co-workers to study and prepare for the L2 Teach exam next season.
   With 10" of fresh snow at the mountain today I feel like a bum not going skiing, but my legs are in need of a break after 5 days in a row of work/skiing, and I have to go to work tomorrow... rest days are good!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wallowing in the sniffles again, oh well

   I'm not entirely sure what's going on with my immune system, but it seems to dislike me a lot this winter. I find that a bit strange since I'm no longer living in a trailer in the back yard like last year; perhaps having a warm cozy house is a good incubator for germy things.  Who knows? It would be nice to finally have clear sinuses again someday.  In the mean time I have plenty of spare minutes for blog blabbering :)
   Pondering on my race schedule again: I'm thinking Sea Otter is definitely a go for this year, even though it seems like my first race every season is a little wishy-washy, maybe this will be the year to break that pattern.  It'll be fun to finally race with the pro girls, and hopefully improve on my dismal performance from 2010, when I botched a jump right in front of Kit and got caught by the winner before the bottom of the course.  The dual slalom actually looks like more fun than the pedally downhill that my V-10 is going to be a tank on, but I might as well race both just for experience.  I would really rather go to the Pro GRT in Port Angeles the following weekend, but money-wise that's not going to work out since traveling will cost a lot more than Sea Otter. Hooray for being a ski bum.  With 3 of the GRT races this year within reasonable road tripping distance it was a little tough to make this decision, but I might just take this season to do all of the different fun races I've always wanted to try like Ashland and Downieville, and save the gravity series chasing for next season (when I hopefully will have more sponsorships and a good job situation figured out).
   In the skiing realm, I passed the teaching portion of my Level 1 Telemark exam yesterday in the rain at Alpine.  Now I just have to complete some basic questions and get checked off on skiing skills and I'll be certified to teach intro to telemark lessons, hooray! If only I had more time this season to ski tele--it's so much fun, but between working in alpine gear and Level 2 Alpine training there hasn't been much free time to free the heel.  With my Level 2 ski exam coming up next Monday and Tuesday I'm going to cram in some practice time in the mornings before work, hopefully with some friends who can tell me if I'm on the right track.  I'm not too worried about it though, from everything I hear the ski portion is a breeze as long as you're decent, but the teach is where things get hellish. Thankfully I'm not taking that part of the exam until next season! Upon passing that, I will be able to guide guests into the sidecountry areas at Alpine thanks to my Avy 1 course, and see if I enjoy it enough to move more into backcountry guiding.
  Time to get off my butt and bake some goodies for the work week ahead, and make some more tea. Hoping I wake up tomorrow morning with a much clearer head!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Miracle March?

   Wow, last week was craaaazy! I think I was at Alpine Meadows every day for 12 consecutive days thanks to work, training, and the avalanche course.  Which was excellent, by the way.  Being an avid backcountry skier who has gotten by so far on common sense and instincts mixed with a small amount of knowledge, it was good to go in-depth on the specifics of terrain selection, snowpack analysis, and the ubiquitous human element.  An avy fatality in Tahoe the previous week was sobering to consider, but provided much good discussion as a case study of typical human behavior in relation to this year's sparse winter snowfall.
   The winter weather pattern in Tahoe, with the exception of last year when it snowed continuously from November to June, seems to consistently lack snow in December-January, and then the storms roll in with a vengeance from late February through March.  Now that there's only about a month left in the ski (resort) season it seems as though winter is here for a little while. Very funny mother nature!  As far as backcountry skiing goes, hopefully the season will go a little bit longer so I can increase my dismally low number of vertical feet hiked this season.  Or, if things do melt out sooner than normal, I can just go ride my mountain bike a lot sooner.  Either way it would be fine by me!
   Fortunately due to all this nasty rainy and windy weather here at lake level, Kit and I got memberships at the local climbing gym High Altitude Fitness just 10 minutes away in Incline Village.  They take pride in their climbing wall as the tallest indoor gym in Nevada, and have good route setters that re-set on a fairly regular basis.  Now that my shoulder is fully healed (minus some annoying crackly scar tissue) I can reach, pull, and push in any direction, aka start climbing hard! And that's just what I'm doing, trying to work back to where I was over a year ago leading 5.11 sport climbs and 5.10 trad.  The first 3 or 4 times at the gym were frustrating, seeing moves I should make and then not being able to actually do them from lack of strength, but last night felt like a breakthrough when I was able to complete a 5.11a on lead without falling! I am amazed and encouraged by how quickly strength is coming back--luckily technique never goes away or I'd be a lot farther behind.
   I am excited for climbing outdoors again this summer with Kit and all my other friends, getting back to pushing my boundaries to a new level.  Of course this all has to happen in between riding and racing my bike during free time, but luckily I feel like climbing is an excellent complement to mountain biking, especially downhill which requires so much upper body/core strength and balance.  So much that I'm going to keep it as a main part of my alternative "training" plan year-round.  Sure, I could be lifting weights too, but until I have a personal trainer telling me what to do this is a lot more fun. I'm lifting my own body weight--see?  If any mountain biker girls out there in internet land are interested in trying rock climbing just give me a holler!!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Back to business as usual

Starting on Friday, things got a little crazy again in Tahoe. A beautiful bluebird powder day always brings the folks out to the slopes, without exception, so I made sure to leave the house just a little bit earlier than usual to avoid getting caught in traffic. Little did I know that I barely missed a huge backup by only a few minutes--an instructor that left Kings Beach 10 minutes after I did wound up barely making it to lineup at 10. Yikes! Nobody expected that!
Aside from missing traffic, my other goal was to be in line early for the lift opening so as to maximize my pre-teaching powder runs. It worked on all counts, and I had a grand 3 runs before all the crowds really hit. Then, off to teach the beginner class! Turns out I only had one student for the day so that made life really easy. She even got so worn out that she quit early...well, I did explain that doing "just one more run" when you're beat can lead to injury...so I don't blame her. Skiing uses all kinds of new muscles that can tire out easily with the inefficient movements of a beginning skier.
3 PM and I'm off, what to do next but go for a hike? One of my favorite sidecountry stashes beckoned, hopefully still reasonably untracked, so I shouldered my skis and plodded onward. Caught up with a group of guys who were going out that way and asked if I could tag along just for safety's sake, so we all headed out together. It made for the best run of the day, as all 5 of us managed to find untracked lines through the deep fluffy powder! Satisfied with the day's finale I headed back to the locker room just in time for the evening CPR class I had signed up for. 4 hours of classroom learning ahead of me, I snacked and settled in to refresh my mind on such an important lifesaving procedure.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of teaching mainly kids in private lessons; mostly fun, sometimes a little trying. This morning I went to Level 2 ski training at Alpine--countdown is 3 weeks to the exam and I feel just about ready (if I can find some decent skis to use for the exam). Tomorrow through Thursday I'll be increasing my avalanche safety knowledge in an Avalanche 1 course offered to us ski instructors at a greatly discounted rate. Hooray!! Stay tuned for updates on the experience!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Ummmm, snow?

Well, it appears as though winter is finally here - in March no less - and we're all hoping it sticks around for a little while! Squaw yesterday was amazing, making laps on KT-22 and finding all sorts of stashes and fun things to jump off of. Alpine today was also good, though the lift line on Roundhouse grew to incredible proportions by midmorning and pretty much killed the vibe for me after 4 runs. Grrrrrr. I guess everybody is so hungry for pow it doesn't matter how hard the wind blows this season. If I wasn't on the schedule to work I would have probably been hiking up some nice sheltered, treed slopes for some untracked turns, like in my backyard here in KB.
If I hadn't gone to Alpine, however, I would not have randomly ridden the chair with the rep for Whitedot skis, a guy visiting from my home state of Washington. He convinced me that I needed to try a pair since he had some demos in the car, so he grabbed those and set them up for me while I went to ski school lineup. Luckily, I didn't have to teach, so we took another run. He wasn't kidding, those things rip! A small ski company, handmade in Chamonix and ridden to recent freeskiing world tour wins, I would hope they ski well! The Preacher is their all-mountain fatty and despite being 112 underfoot it also carved some fine turns down the groomer back to the chair--after shredding the bejeezus out of the pow on the way down. FUN!! The only downside? $420 for the skis, a screaming deal, but an amount I'd have a hard time coming up with after missing 5 days of work during the biggest ski week of the season. Crud.
On that note, at least it's still snowing! Tomorrow should be good, but knowing my luck I'll probably be teaching beginners all day.