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!

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

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

Digging around in internet-land, found this shot from the GRT back in August:

http://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/member/Pro-GRT-Northstar-2012-Day-1,4111/done6-1,40275/GnarHuck,5862

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!

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...