2010 - here we go

Off the radar lately, too busy to write about stuff.

Raced NGAR and took second. You can read about it here on the DART site.

Hit Colorado for some sun and powder.

Trying to figure out the 2010 calendar...more on this later.

Back Country Travel

Here is a link to one of the best articles I've read about back country travel and the Risk/Reward side of it. Unfortunately the article was tied to the death of 3 snowboarders who were from Seattle, but it sheds a bit of light into what we get out of the adventures we take!

Here a couple of good quotes ...

"The public—mostly people who aren't likely to try backcountry snowboarding or skiing—only hears about the backcountry when people die or are injured. But people play and survive in the backcountry regularly. More importantly, people take risks in everyday life far away from the dangers of the mountains, and many of those risky behaviors are much more likely to kill than backcountry snowboarding. People drink, smoke, or eat themselves into early graves. All of those behaviors offer some form of reward; otherwise people wouldn't take the risk in the first place."

"Anyone interested in the backcountry is naturally more of a risk taker than someone who is inclined to get his kicks on the couch playing Wii"

Orienteering, Biking and Skiing...the adventurers winter diet

This weekend was comprised of some good fun in the mud, rain and snow. Saturday started off with Cascade Orienteering's O' Series #5 event at Bridle Trails state park in Kirkland, WA. This was a real runners course (very spread out) and there were a lot of local adventure racers out tuning up there navigation skills and getting in a good workout. As it turns out I happened to get a slightly better workout than most of them as the field crushed me... and I speant about 10 minutes more on the course that everyone else ;-) One wrong turn between 5 and 6 and going to checkpoint #3 instead of #13 did not help me any. I think Alex might have had the fastest time out of the AR heads, with Glenn up there in contention as well.

After that a group of 5 of us set out for a ride from Bridle Trails to Mercer Island and Ballard, I made it about .5 mile when my hub (Freewheel) broke and I lost my ability to pedal forward. Boohoo, I called emergency support (family) to pick me up and the gang continued on what Aaron said was a great ride. While I waited for my pickup I propped my handlebars on the side wall at the busy intersection I was at and proceeded to have my own spin class to stay warm, I'm not sure if I had ever had so many strange looks before....it was pretty funny.

Back country skiing - Kendall Knob

Sunday Matt, Ruaraidh, Eric, Mike and I headed to Kendall Knob up at Snoqualmie Pass for some fun in the snow...check out the pics here. It turned out to be a great day and the snow stability was good all around.

Winter is here...Mt. Biking, Back Country Skiing, Base Training

Rest and recovery is officially over. I was able to take 2 full months off of competitive adventure racing, specific training and any competition for that matter. Recharging the batteries and most importantly the body. Thanksgiving has come and gone, got my turkey and now am laying out my 2008 fitness plan, adventure racing calendar and recreation.

My plan is to emphasize running and incorporate that into my early season plan of Long Slow Distance...the legal LSD. What does this mean? Lots of variety and not just running, not too much intensity to build in the muscle memory and get my body ready for long races by being out for a good amount of time.

I usually focus on keeping my training fun in the winter and include a variety of activities while taking advantage of the snow in the Cascades and Olympics. It is starting to snow here...look for me in the mountians this weekend!

In an effort to keep my Mt. bike handling skills up I usually ride more technical biking trails that are shorter in duration during the weekdays. We started our night rides last night and had a big group of 10 peeps out on the trails and had them outfitted with Light and Motion lights. I got a chance to ride with the new Stella LED and loved it...check it out. Matt wrote it up and has some good pics here on his blog.

Adios AK-St Patricks Day

We flew for a fourth day and once again we got extremely lucky with the sun. The temperatures got a bit warmer and the snow changed a bit over night. Some of the firm wind buff actually loosened up and turned into light dry pow. We hit a run called Girls 3 times as it was soo good.

Here is Chad ripping up a gully half way down Girls Our guide Steve checking out a line down Sailfish
Heath celebrates St. Paddy's day in style.

Overall it was a great trip and I highly recomend it to anyone with the skiils and drive to get in the big mountains...lots of fun. Now back to AR with Baja Travesia right around the corner.

March Madness continues

Another fly day recorded today...we started off with partly cloudy skies and had some great breaks with lots of sun. More people have showed up and ABA is now servicing 3-4 groups of skiers/snowboarders. They still are doing a fantastic job of providing great service and they have a large group of experienced guides that can attend to each group.


This picture is from the top of a run called "Lisa's". We are looking down at the glacier that we spent flying around for most of the day and accross the valley at "Easter Basket" which we finished the day off with.

Here is the view from the back of the heli. Frank the best heli operator/captain ever is up front and one of the guides is always sitting shotgun...see the mountains out the window?

Here is our guide, "JW", digging a pit on Easter Basket, our last run of the day. Notice the massive cornice above him. The top 1/3 had variable conditions and the bottom 2/3 had bottomless pow.

Today was filled with lots of new terrain and we had a blast exploring it with our trusty guide. The temperatures are going up and we were very comfortable not dealing with -30 made the day a bit more enjoyable. We are looking forward to hopefully getting out for another great day tomorrow.

Nasty weather wont stop this train

Here are the ladies (Two of them) of DART-nuun racing. Tough as nails and faster than light! We had an epic training on Saturday with too many excuses to stop and no one was having that. The cold, the rain, the mud, the flat tires...it did not matter for our crew of Aaron, JVG, Seegs and myself riding 107K around Seattle and Bainbridge in route to some running and paddling. We rode the Chilly Hilly course the day before the ride was to be held. The elements proved to be the toughest part of the training but we were able to pull off the trifecta of biking, running and paddling.

Sunday was a good day for me at Alpental with Rury, races with Mergeo, testing out some new gear and searching for the deep Pow. We found it. We got the third chair up international and qued up for what was a great day in the alpental back country. Rury showed me around and introduced me to the locals only club on the hill.

This concluded a monster week for me and my legs hated me on our last hike out the top gate and the 30 minutes of postholing to Piste Pass (sp?) tore me up. The snow was light and fluffy up top but by the end of the day the Cascade Cement took its toll on the legs. What a weekend!

Sauk Mt. delivers POW

Another stellar weekend to be in the hills. I was meaning to go to the Capital Peak ultra and run at least one of the two 17 mile loops but remembered that we had plans to go up to the Northern Cascades and do some touring. Saturday turned out to be a great day and we ventured accross the street from Jeannie and Jamie's up to Sauk Mt...the parking lot there was one of the CP's for the 2004 Primal Quest. It looked a lot different this weekend, something more along the lines of a winter wonderland...

I took my road bike off of the trainer and JVG and I rode the South end of Lake Washington on Sunday. Hopefully I can keep the trainer in the closet for the rest of 2007 and the ice will stay away. It was nice to get out, spin and add some base miles to the training plan.

Bridal Trails and Mt. Pillchuck

This weekend was filled with activities and the training is in full swing. Saturday JVG, Glenn and myself started the day off with a mellow paddle to the Ballard Locks and spent some time on the water while it was snowing. It was very Serene. Afterwards we headed over to Kirkland to run the Bridal Trails Race. I opted for the 10 mile run and Glenn and Seegs (who came down from Squamish) stepped up to run the 50K. There were a handfull of NW Adventure racers on scene getting their training kickstarted with the sub-zero temps. (Mike Miller, Purcell, D, Shannon)

Instead of fighting the cold temps on Sunday, I joined them and went with Stack, Vinca and her friend Sara up to Mt. Pillchuck for what turned out to be an awesome day and a killer workout. The access road to the pilchuck parking lot is closed and we did a 5+ mile 1500 vertical foot skin in to the actual climb and then skinned another 3 miles and 1500 more feet up the hill to catch some amazing views, unbelievable powder turns and a great day of training. Here are the pics to prove it.