hollies new gear

hollies splitboard!!!!!!!!!
This is the Prior Backcountry. The split board comes apart into 2 "skis" so you can "skin" up the mountain. Its much faster than snowshoes.

Spliting allows you to access more of that(pic above) and do more laps
check out www.splitboard.com for the "101" on it all. I am really excited for hollie! time for some face shots! With the new snow and cold temps we have right now, i think it is game on! we are heading to mammoth this weekend, so hopefully they are getting the snow too!

Masters nationals for me, and some guns for hollie

Sunday morning, I awoke to some new snow...this made for the racing to be more difficult than usual. Fluffly, punchy stuff ontop of melted slush. Unpredictable and hard to ride that flat ski.

MMMMMMM, mountains, the cascades are in your face in central oregon

My camp. I spent part of my apres ski on saturday drying out some clothes and getting some sun.

Views from the trail.

hey, thats me and my new LEKI poles. Leki poles rule, well balanced and light

This mountain was the backdrop of the start / finish stadium with just a touch of alpineglow

Mount Shasta, taken at 75 miles an hour while driving, not bad composition!

Mount Lassen.

Shasta, this pic was taken in Weed, California, just for Heather Corvey.

Catchin' some sun while "boondocking" it at mount bachelor

That is baxter. His owner is a ski bum whom lets baxter roam all day while he skis. Baxter was a little fire cracker.

The trip to Bend pretty much ruled. I left thursday morning and went to royal gorge for a ski on my wayout of town. Heading that way allowed me to drive the "back way" and see all the beautiful stuff in Lassen, shasta and trinity national parks. It was about 100 extra miles, but i got in a great ski and took in some great views.
Once I got to Bend (it was late) i rolled up to the mountain where they let you park for free if you are buying a lift ticket. I was also suprised to see some moonlight skiers on a knoll right behind my camp. This was good to see first hand...so i knew where to make my assult later...oh yes, i took my back country gear too! Anyway, I would ski in the morn and roll down to town in the late faternoon and go catch a burrito with BEN G everyday and hang out with the Far West Masters Crew.
oh, i raced the masters nationals 30km freestyle. I never really got going, but skied okay for the conditions. The worst part was I got 2nd, for the second year in a row by 4 seconds. that hurts a bit. It was a good time. I also went to a wax clinic put on by 3 time olympian and Bend resident, Justin Wadsworth...cool. the trip home was easy breezy, down 97 and to the 5 got home around 8:30 and had a beer and a shower!
Hollie stayed home with the pups and she did her first Nordic biathalon, her shooting was not the best (7 penalty laps) and still managed to win her 9km race. look out for hollie! she also tested some new gear she picked up recently...more on that later................................
I guess i will have to show hollie how to do this so she can chip in on the content...
Up next the Mammoth Marathon. 42kms for me and 21kms for hollie.

hangin' on

Hangin' On
That isme hanging on the back, the last skier in the pic wearing the white, red and grey. I got back on, only to be dropped again. arrrrgggg. I need to get faster! Those guys are the big hitters in North America...olympians and all that!
Anyway, I am off to Bend, Oregon on thursday for Masters Nationals, so wish me luck! 30km freestyle...I need to recover from the Gold Rush!

the gold rush '07 is in the bag

I survived my weekend and so did hollie. She had a real good time with her mom, sis and niece in SF and I got through the 50km Gold Rush at Royal Gorge Nordic center today. (hollie is not back yet, so i will let her fill you in on her weekend.)
The race conditions were very warm, but the snow was cold and icy...boiler plate icy. The first lap was just nuts no one was in command and the front group was around 25, (until 1/2 way around the first lap) then the climb up stage coach split things up a bit. Having a bad start, I was on the wrong end of this group and had to go big to get around the exploding skiers to catch up to the front. It took about 5 km of frantic skiing, but I made it back. Then I had to settle down a bit and find a rhythm. I settled in and tried to stay out of trouble. as we left the stadium for lap #2 I felt good about how things were going. We approached the first downhill turn and i strted to step through it when I noticed I was flailing and could not get any edge, I barely made it through. As we approached the big downhill I gullped and feared if i would get through the technical sections without stacking it. Again, I could not get any edge. The snow was like frozen dust on top of ice it just sucked, you could tell who the good skiers were as they adjusted their techniques and railed that section. Another gap to close. I fought hard and got back on after about 7km. Right as I got back on there was a little attack that sent me out the back. I regrouped quickly and focused on skiing hard and smooth. I ended up not getting back on and I guess i missed the final fireworks which saw the bad ass Carl Swensen go away for good! I skied the rest of the race with a University of Utah skier...I told him I was a former Ute and he tried to drop me...he did not, and i shelled him going into the stadium at the finish. The nice thing about skiing with him was that he was so smooth it allowed me to settle in and ski hard and calm! I ended up 12th on the day, 2:08:??. I will take it. I did not bonk and I skied okay. it was a beautiful day and a blazing fast race.

Gold Rush is tomorrow

Happy St. Patricks Day. I hope my last name is Irish and not Scotish, for tomorrow at least...I am going to need some of that luck! Tomorrow is the Gold Rush 50 km sakte race at Royal Gorge Nordic Center. Its the big daddy, all the top Marathoners in America show up so it should be good. It is really warm though!

Steve and Susan

Although it was quite warm out, the snow was holding up pretty good in the treed areas. Steve (my team mate) and his girl friend Susan still managed to have some fun out there! Sun and Snow, its got to be California!

WARM!!!! (8:30am) temps in C

I was happy to see that at 10 minutes to 10 this morning the snow in the stadium was looking okay. I figure we will be racing for a bout 2 hours + and we start at 8am so i think we are going to have fast, dirty snow. I am going in a different direction than the wax recomendations for tomorrow so we will see how it shakes out.
wish me luck. I hope Hollie is having fun in SF

i want a "10" everyday

My Proud BBQ

Foxy Lurking

Hollie left for San Francisco yesterday to meet up with her Mom, Sister and Niece. The visit is long over due..I am sure they will have a blast. So, its me and the pups out at the ranch! It was so warm when I got home from work yesterday i fired up the BBQ! I grilled a nice lean burger up on my little one man BBQ and enjoyed the nice summer flavor. I also enjoed a cold porter from Butte Creek Brewing Co. actually i had 2... The dogs wanted in on it so bad...but i dont share.
Yesterday I said to myself, quietly to myself, that I want everyday to be a "10". like, on a scale of 1-10, i want everyday to be a ten. Well, i think this is going to be hard. I would not rate yesterday very high at all! So I am going to have to work at it. life is too short to not have a good time everyday! Maybe by setting my "10" goal out in the blog I will try harder...now its written!
Have a "10" day

bike commuting

The Commuter Bike

I just wanted to say that I think everyone should give bike commuting a try at least once. Its not physically hard, its just a minor routine change. You might have to get up a little earlier and plan what you are doing when you are in town a little better. But I have got to say, ITS FUN! Hollie and have been riding to work since the weather turned so nice. We did a lot of commuting last year, probably 50% of the time. You know it is nice to save a little gas money, but the best part is the fun you have going to and from work. I dont know many people that have fun driving to work...i know i dont. I get to work after riding in and i feel like a little kid who got 2 cookies when nobody else got 1.

If you own a bike do it. just try it. pack a bag with your work clothes, lunch and ride to work. you are going to love it. See if you notice any changes in your mood. You dont need any fancy gear, just a willing mind. Try it.

Its got a flashy light and fenders

day light savings

DAY LIGHT SAVINGS

so I guess the good thing about day light savings is that I can ride home from work in the light of day. If you have ever been here, you know that there are no flat roads...so to just ride home nice and easy is near impossible. But alassssss, we have flume trails. You can link up a ton of these flume trails and get some sweet flat off raod riding in. I love taking the Kona, Jake the Snake cross bike out on such trails...they are a blast and they go on for miles! anyway, in 1.5 hour ride home i am only on pavement for about 20 minutes total.

AHH, THE GOLD COUNTRY

but where did the winter go? i rode home in shorts and short sleaves!!!!!

IN WAITING

SO a quick update on our trip plans...or lack there of. We are looking at a departure date of middle May to middle June and we plan on going into Idaho and checking the Sawtooths out pretty hard. We can deviate in any direction though as we are on a lose schedule and our mission is to enjoy ourselves...so you never know where we may turn up. We could even turn up knocking on your door asking to do laundry and or to plug our camper in! Anyway, I found a great blogspot from a couple years ago that has been great to read as the couple went on a year mission that is very similar to ours...its worth a look, but you need to check the original post! www.underagedrvers.blogspot.com
Other than that, we are back to work and trying to get a rough idea of what we want to do and where we are heading. I am also thinking about camper / truck modifications.
-2, 6 volt batteries in place of the 1, 12volt we have (increases ahmp hours)
-ski box on roof
-black waste hose storage (poop tube)
-possible flatbed with boxes on truck
-better bike rack. the $500 rack we bought from THULE sucks!
anyway, that is it.

what a sunday (morning)

that is "THE ROYAL GORGE"
GROUP SHOT
DEVILS PEAK IN THE BACK GROUND
HOLLIE IS RIPPING

HOOT OWL RD

We made it home from N.O. and it took a day for us to recover. We both felt hung over on Saturday, so we layed low and took the dogs out for a few walks. After a good nights sleep and springing our clocks forward, we headed up the hill for some skate skiing

HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG?

Hollie kind of fell into a sun cup that she did not see in the flat light...glad I was there to capture the moment.

SHE WAS UP QUICKLY AND READY TO POSE FOR THE CAMERA

We headed out sterlings canyon to east ridge and up to Pt. Mariah. Our goal, to snaps some cool photos and to take in some stellar spring snow.

THIS VIEW WAS ON THE WAY TO EAST RIDGE

AND WE SAW THIS STRANGE TREE

It seems to have broke and grown back to itself. Ahhhh, nature being nature. Speaking of nature...I am a little freaked out by how warm it is. Not for ecological reasons per say, but more for selfish reasons. I still have a lot of skiing to do this year! I may put my snow inspector hat on tomorrow and SKIN in and SKI Mt. Tallac. Its like a 3 hour tour for some great skiing.

(the first 4 photos should come last in this blog, but i posted them backwards...sorry)

New Orleans

hollie blah blah blah

So tuesday morning Hollie and took off for New Orleans for work. Neither of us really wanted to go on this trip, but we are trying to have some fun while we are down here. We are both jonesin' to get back home and get on the snow before its all gone. Our days consist of food and meetings...boring. However, we have worked out everyday and managed a 7 mile jog this morning with a few other members ofout group that led us by a giant cemetary and to a big museum it was a nice morning

Hollie giving scale to this Naval Boat

We also took a little foot tour yesterday to see some sights. We walked down Canal st. and Burbon st. and we also ventured over to the mighty mississippi. That is where we saw the USS New Orleans. This boat is being commisoned this Saturday.

Hollie made a friend

Hollie also met this guy. We gave him a buck thinking he would start to break dance or something but he just stood there. Strange. I bet if I would have grabbed that buck back he would have moved!!!!!!!!!!

New Orleans seems a sad place to me. There is still ruin here but the sad part to me is the action here. Drinking, Flashing, Strippers and Vodoo. I guess the Vodoo is kind of cool, but I dont get the whole out of control burbon st experience. I guess I am getting old, I felt bad for a lot of the people down there. After we left Burbon st. we went to some famous cafe for fried donuts...i passed.

Brian Boe would be soooo proud!

the black circles are smaller than a silver dollar! Nice shot from 10 meters!

So Hollie is alwyas bugging me about learning how to shoot...rifles! I dont know anything about shooting, perhaps some whiskey on occasion, but not guns. I have a friend who is a skilled marksman. He was a navy seal sniper, and worked with the US biathalon team back east. He is a bad ass. anywho, i asked him if he would give her a taste...who knew that he shoots everyday while roasting coffee, (thats what he does now). He has a 10 meter range inside his work space and he shoots all the time. Well Hollie went up there today for about an hour...check out the grouping! She shot from a prone position and a standing position. she learned all the techniques etc...now she wants a proper rifle for herself!
I had better start doing the dishes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Great "space case" ski race

hollie at the "GORGE"

last years great race...(thats chris in front)

Man, I cant believe how backwards yesterday went for me. Hollie and I set off at 5 am up the hill to work out the logistics of 2 cars in a point to poin ski race. Meaning, we would have a car at the finnish with warm clothes and food. We went early to ensure parking at both places so we would not be trekking around. The early bird lesson paid off, because we had great parking at both places. This is when things started to go bad. In my pre race scramble of testing skis and bib pick up and securing my spot in the 1st wave I made a major error that would send almost the whole day into a downward spiral. When I was taking my warmups off, i left my drink belt in the car. So, for 30km's I had now food or drink, plus the keys to the finnish car and the start car were in the dman belt! I did not realise this until it was 1 minute to start. I paniced, know ing I could do nothing about it. I looked around and saw that about 1/2 of the 1st wave skiers did not have drink belts, so that comforted me but the thought of not being able to get into my car at the finnish rattled me a bit. Anyway, off we went. It was a blistering pace which found my struggling to keep with the top 10. I continued fitting even though my skis were not running until i finally popped. My legs were fatigued and the skis were not gliding. I missed the wax by a mile and my legs sucked. I went over the top of the 10km climb in 9th place and ended up 18th. 1:21:33. an alright time, but I am dissapointed with the performance. I just did not have it. Hollie started 3rd wave (1000 starters) with the mp3 player on and just cruised in her nice 30km pace, 2:00:00 flat. she was 303rd of 812 finnishers. nice work!
So, at the finnish I stood around in my thin litte race suit freezing, hoping that hollie had a key to the car. In an effor to stay warm I went to the beer tent and started drinking the Stout from a brewery from Sparks, NV. I figured that ought to warm me up. While I waited for hollie I realised I was still cold, but it did not matter so much because 3 beers and I was feeling fine! I saw hollie come down in to the finnishing shoot and I went to snap a photo...oooppps, the camera is in the car dumb ass! Hollie came in and we headed to the car...she had a key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So my day felt better. We got changed and headed back to the start to start for part 2 of our day. We were going snowboarding (hollie) and skiing (chris) at a resort! how fun. As we drove off, i realised the keys to the start car will be locked in. SHIT! our 1/2 day of resort fun was shrinking! Anyway, we got there, AAA took about an hour to get there and about 6 seconds to unlock the car and we got going. TO Alpine Medows!!!!! As we started up the lift i realised I had forgot the camera again, dumb ass! I really was bumbed about it because the views were unreal! We had a blast riding at the resort and most importantly we both remebered how to do it! Hollie is sooooooo smooth, she looks like she belongs in a snowboard video. cruzin' down the hill, riding switch doing little tricks, she is awesome.
Well I guess that is long enough. we got home and crashed out.
30km skate race, and 3 hours of riding the snow wipped us out!
i will take pics next time
we are off to New Orleans tomorrow for work(suck) any tips on how to have fun down there would be appreciated!!!!
cheers

early bird...

STILL SMILING!

well, we learned, or re-learned the old lesson of the early bird and all the fruits he gets by being so early. we got off to a late start this morning and ran into traffic on hwy 20....then on hwy 80, then on hwy 89. we finally aborted going to tahoe city xc and turned around and went back to truckee for "brunch" and split board education from Jason at the backcountry ski shop. He got us up to speed..... after all that we went back up hwy 80 to Royal Gorge and headed out to ski. The snow sucked. there was no glide to be had, the snow was in the sun too much and the suction under the skis was more like velcor...no fun. so, we chalked it up to being late!
Now I have to go wax the skis for tomorrows "GREAT RACE". If we have the legs after the 30km epic we are headed to North Star for 1/2 day of groomers!
I am pretty excited about "ALPINE" skiing and hollie is pumped about busting out the "board" hopefully we have as much fun as I am imagining!

later

the inspector

THE INSPECTOR

did you know that I am the self appointed snow inspector for Nevada, Sierra, Placer, Yuba, Shasta, lassen and Plumas counties. its true. Duty called today, there was 6 feet of new snow so I had no choice but to tear myself away from work to go inspect. Its something I just have to do.......I pulled the Rossignol F2 Xium skate ski from my quiver and headed up the hill. As I left my shop I heard my Backcountry skis whining at me a little when i did not choose them for todays work.

Castle Peak from the Sattelite trail

Castle peak seemed to be doing just fine...looking like it was waiting for some turns to tickle its frontside.......

DEVILS PEAK

I think Devils peak was pleased with its new blanket of snow...the summer like sun we had was starting to get to the peak too early for that much sun!

So all in all todays inspection passed with flying colors. The snow was very good and the views...well I am lucky to have seen them.
This weekend Hollie and I will be skiing inthe Great Ski Race. A 30km point to point route from Tahoe City, over brockway summit and down to Truckee. Its an awesome race and its only groomed once a year, so you have to do it!
We are also toying with the idea of riding a chairlift this weekend. Hollie on her snowboard and me on the skis...just to have some fun.

random stuff

the FOXY looking for love...

the KONA KING ZING, sad on the trainer

the new KULA SUPREME from KONA is almost ready for rrrrripppping!

UDO looking for food

hollie peaking around the corner......

Karhu JAXS...sick

I just wanted to post some randum stuff.
skis...hollie...foxy...udo...bikes...
late