The Confessions of Captain Swallowtail

Hope to Kenai

2008-07-21T18:03:00.004-05:00

Had a fantastic trip with Dylan on our little pugsley shake down. Technical singletrack, ocean currents, swamps, quicksand, river crossings, drunk rednecks and miles and miles of beach.
Full Story here:

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

New Bike

2008-07-17T21:00:00.004-05:00

Surly's are great bikes, they ride great and are pretty much zero-bling bs.
The guys that run the show are into adventure riding, touring and off - the wall kind of stuff. Look at their blog for proof, of just their products. Really...

A little history. I used a Karate monkey to singlespeed the Mcgrath race back in 2005. It was great, conditions were good enough for a 29er with snowcats, aside from knee destruction and searing pain for 90 miles, I had a great time. I think a few emails were traded. Then the monkey went to South America and generally got the snot kicked out of it. Aside from a large amount of salt deposited inside the frame and a messed up paint job its no worse for the wear... I start making bike bags... Surly liked the bike bags.. I like Surly's... I come up with far flung trip ideas.. Surly liked far flung trip ideas... trip ideas need fat tire bikes... I don't have one and am cheap :( Surly makes fat tire bikes :) A bags for bikes barter was made and everyone is happy Hurray!
So without further delay..
My new pugs:

Going to go break it in and get it wet over the next few days.

Mt Alice

2008-07-11T21:33:00.001-05:00

Capt Dano got me down to Seward yesterday for a climb up mt. Alice, We've both been wanting to do it for a long time since its just oh sooo tantalizing from the Town. With a decent looking weather window up the trail we went.

Conditions looked good, there was a bit of a question mark connecting the lower Couloir to the middle snowfield though.

The crux of the route was in fact that lower couloir, it was fairly steep and borderline to needing crampons. At the top of the snow it required some exposed scrambling and pulling through a large boulder to get to the middle snowfield.

The middle and upper snowfields were in great shape, a bit on the soft side on the upper part, but nothing to really raise red flags.

After 5,000 of climbing we saw this and started to wonder why we left the rock gear in the car...

after giving it some good looks we found a reasonable route through it via the main gully in the photo, then around the back of that there is a low 5th class chimney, or a loose and exposed scramble up route. Not bad or unreasonable unroped but focused climbing for sure due to the exposure. Nice and airy summit ridge...
There were only about one log entry per year up in the register, and nobody yet this year. cool!

Heading back down:

The bottom Couloir consumed a bit of time as we had to face-in down climb the whole thing, its pretty steep, at least 50 degrees.

Back at the tundra we had nap and story time as the clouds drifted in, I think we spent at least 3 hours of the day napping in the sun, it was great! Low stress climbing for sure

Nice views of Seward

A Great Day to take Saturday on a Thursday!

Good things!

2008-07-08T02:39:00.003-05:00

Lots brewing,
First - the monkey got a face lift.
I finally threw in the towel about getting my black sheep Ti bike up and running again. Why do I have 2 29er hardtails? I dont know... but I can never seem to have them both running at the same time so screw it.

threw the WB fork on...

and added some new technology like a granny gear...

and got my new rack eyelets brazed on (thanks Dave Grey @ Surly and John Evingson...)

SO its a real mountain bike again. I might even put a rear disc brake on it to replace the $19 deore v-brake I have that has worked works just fine for the last 20,000 miles...

on to other things - Behold- the monster twinkie seatbag! Swallows up both large and small mammals with ease. Should be a hit this winter...

Also got my mind on some other projects, or should I say trips..

These should come in handy,

and this

and this

and last but not least this...

How do I sleep? I don't know...

The Cruel Tutelage of Unimak Island

2008-06-28T17:53:00.005-05:00

I thought to myself before leaving "if I'm going to make a film about these guys, then I need to immerse myself in their world...". Along with getting video footage as a third person, That was the point of going. I really need to watch what I ask for...

Unimak Island, the first island in the Aleutian chain, home of several large and active volcanoes, notoriously windy and wet and all that stuff. For the end of Erin and Hig's trip it was "to go as far as the bears can go" which was the southwest tip of the island. From that point at Scotch cap, its over 12 miles of open ocean to the next island and out of scope of the packraft.

leaving False Pass

Beach hiking in the mist

We traveled about 190 miles in 11 days mostly along the island's coast, walking the black volcanic sand beaches and following bear trails through the tundra over rocky headlands. We saw Orcas, sea lions, caribou, foxes, lots and lots of huge wolf tracks, countless eagles and 14 Brown bears, more on that in a bit.

on the bear trails

On our 4th night we were finishing dinner at the cooking fire after a long 20 mile day, it was close to midnight and starting to rain. Our shelter was just up in the tundra from where were were cooking on the beach, as I approached I senced something wrong, the mid wasnt there any more... a few seconds later I see a big Grizzly bound away from the remains of our camp a short distance to a bluff. It was a tense moment, it seemed to be a habituated bear, or a very bold one at least. I yelled down to Erin and Hig and once we were grouped up the bear continued to back away into the rolling tundra. We then assessed the damage:

The toll was staggering, our (very important!)1 lb silnylon mid was totally torn up on all 4 sides, all three thermarests were torn up, one in several pieces, he put a gaping hole in one raft, sliced and diced two try bags, then stomped and cracked a paddle blade and literally chewed on Erin and hig's ID and credit cards. He also got some food of course, some of it totally gone.

After kinda standing in shock at the carnage the reality set in - we are about 80 miles and 4 days from anything with no shelter from the relentless wet weather. We needed the shelter back.
Luckily the three of us know our way around a needle and thread so we worked around the clock in shifts through the night and late into afternoon the next day sewing up the shelter with dental floss. Hig took the first watch in a cold rain sewing by headlamp next to the fire, Erin and I tried to get some fitfull sleep under our rafts. I woke up cold and wet around 6:00 am, Hig was literally passing out mid-stitch and it was my turn, Hig made excellent progress in the night, he moved the fire and had the shelter pitched over the previous fire spot so we could get some warmth from the hot sand. My down sleeping bag was soaked and I generally felt naucious in the morning hours as my body tried to shake the wet cold and the poor night's sleep. Stitch by stich the shelter came together, 24 feet of hand stitching later. We mostly dried my down bag using hot rocks buried in warm sand as a heat source... it stopped raining, things were looking up

With the shelter repaired we started work on the packraft, thermarests and Hig & Erin's sleeping quilt. All said and done most of the critical gear was repaired and usable again except for the one totally destroyed thermarest, by 7:00pm that night, we were hiking away from the camp and the rough night.

Our food supply was low however, we over analyzed it countless times, but in the end we simply came to the conclusion that a hasty packing job in False Pass was to blame and many , many calories that we needed were left behind packed in a duffel. We startred on "first hunger" rations, which quite quickly turned to basically starvation rations... I had a hard time with it. It was hard to keep warm in the wet conditions without the calories... onward we went around the southern tip of the island.

Erin in full conditions

We packrafted around Scotch cap after a breif celebration of Erin and Hig's turnaround point, just another sea stack on a black beach... we paddeled the open ocean getting driven by wind and rain around several points, covering ground fast but getting soaked to the bone in the process... finally it was obvious that the wind was getting beyond the point of being safe and we were all quite spread out. Erin and Hig got ashore on one beach while I got blown further down the coast, as I watched a brown bear wander in their direction along the beach. Regrouped we started hiking fast inland, totally soaked, layers of fleece and primaloft trying to keep the body heat in. We marched northward now with the wind across barren volcanic cinder plains... when we finally saw it.. A massive world war II radar station on the horizion. It looked like a small city from a distance and we knew that we could find shelter from the storm there.

We arrived at the Dismal fortress and got the needed shelter from the wind and rain. The compound however was straight out of a sci-fi horror post-apocoliptic nightmare movie, complete with erie shreaking sounds, broken glass and rusted gnarled metal on each step, dripping roofs, gnarled and rusting machinery, dark and empty computer rooms full of thrashed wires and panels. We half expected to find zombies or aliens here, it was that freaky... With our one headlamp Hig explored the 5 story living quarters of the compound and we eventually set a sort of camp in the stairwell and made a fire at the top to try to dry out. the Wind updraft was increadible and the fire literally jettet straight up to the shaft... I bivied in a less drafy spot in a dark room while the thrashings and erie shreiking sounds echoed relentlessly. With no water for the night or morning, we quickly left in the morning back into the mist, glad to be leaving the dismal fortress... like a fussy dream it was quite an experience:

For two days we circled the islands southern volcanoes cutting back inland crossing expansive cinder plans and glacier fed rivers. We waited out the weather one day until 2pm until we finally needed to make progress in light of our very limited food situation. We hiked into Fisher Caldera, a massive volcanic caldera many many miles in diameter where we found a bit of shelter from the blowing wind and rain. I was in survival mode at this point and at one of my lowest points of the trip, my torn thermarest piece stuffed under my rain jacket to add a bit of insulation. We packrafted across the large lake in the caldera and soaking once again, packed up and started hiking further, and further, it cleared a bit,, drying out a tad, further still until midnight.

lakes of Fisher Caldera

From the Caldera it was about 10 miles back to the coast which we covered the next morning. Getting to the coast was a big deal, because it meant there would be driftwood and a fire, and a meal, and a new batch of spatial rations.

back on the beach

food+fire=happy

Cooking on fires was a new thing for me on this trip and I learned alot just by going through the motions. Both Hig and Erin are fire starting Ninja's as they've relied on them for every meal over the past year. Hig can ignite things just by looking at them:

Home stretch to False pass, we backtracked along the beach for about 20 miles, then shortcutted inland, crossing marhes, more rivers, cinderplain and tundra.
The food intake bottoming out, taking me to new places...

surrounded by empty ziplock's...how far to False pass?

The weather cooperated the last two days which really made for higher spirits, aside from the lack of calories it was some of the best and most beautiful traveling you could ask for. We popped back to the coast with only 3 miles of coast remaining and finished the trip. For me it was a challenging 11 days, a bit out of my element, but for Erin and Hig it was just a tough leg out of the past 4000 miles and the end of the line for them. With smiles they boarded the ferry back to Homer being the first motorized vehicle they've used for over a year.

See Erin and Hig's blog post here

My video efforts were cut short as my camera decided to take a dive after the bear thrashing. It was really quite fitting that everything got thrashed on this trip, but it sucked carrying the extra dead weight that I could not eat!

Stampede trail

2008-06-12T10:03:00.003-05:00

Too much to re-write about:
Check out the write up here
and sign up for an mtbr account.

Eagle Peak North Face

2008-06-01T16:41:00.005-05:00

Like I said earlier, cant go a week without doing something in Eagle River!

Joined in last minute - a climb of the imposing and intimidating North face of Eagle peak. It boldly stares at you whenever you visit the valley...
Billy, Yvonne, Dan, Bryce and I headed out at 6:00 am stashing a second car at the south side of the south fork valley just in case we needed to descend the back side. More on that later. Ropes, bivy gear and alot of food for a big day.

After the river crossing we started the thrash through devils club, alders and the stream bed to get up to the hanging valley:

The North Face looming 4000' above:

Getting higher, snow conditions were good, almost didnt need crampons.. about halfway up the couloir with the steep notch above...

at the notch, getting steep:

The Coulor topped out at a very exposed corniced perch, after probing around a bit we found that it could accomidate a good lunch break. We were all stoked at how good the weather and conditions were. Above the perch was the summit snow pyramid, Dan was on fire all day and fired up the thing breaking a nice bootpack for the rest of us.

through the rock bands...

and zeee summit!

We were psyched, it was 4:00 pm.. humm do we descend the side we just came up, or traverse out the south side since we already have a car there?? being a veteran of recent south fork death marches, I was inclined to go back down the N. face, but he sound of traversing the entire mountain was too enticing to pass up along with the rotten south facing snow, and miles of slogging. Down we went... all the usual friends came out to play, like Kokohusk

Flute and Calliope:

Down down.. no furry wildlife sightings... darn

around eagle lake:

The forced march continued out the valley, getting to the truck at 11:00 pm, a 15 hr or so day, like 7000' vert & 15 miles or so. mmm ice cream and waffles....

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Eagle River

2008-05-27T11:13:00.002-05:00

Cant go a week without doing something in Eagle River.
Hiked back 12 miles with Nora to the fording site but the river was too low there, so we back tracked and splashed around for a while on the way back. Echo Bend is sweet right now though...
Gopro helmet cam. Not great footage, but still learning the thing.

New Vid

2008-05-26T10:28:00.002-05:00

Edited and Posted a quick clip for Erin and Hig last night.

I'm going to try to make another one tonight

eating snow is good for you

2008-05-22T01:38:00.004-05:00

It was hard getting anything done on Tuesday, Bueatiful high pressure - the mountains were calling, but I didnt act on it. A evening hike up Brid ridge with Dan confirmed that I did indeed need to get out for a full day next chance I got.
Woke up, same bueatiful weather, pounded coffee, cereal and emails and out the door I went.

Word in the Chugach was that Korohusk Was in good shape, and I fully intended to poach Billy et. al's beta and boot pack. Got a late start, leaving the parking lot at 9:30, unheard of for a big peak in the Eagle River valley. oh well, I'm not going to have to break trail at least... so I thought.

Korohusk from the River:

Finding the game trail up to the Dishwater valley wasnt too easy, so I just started the bushwack.. all peaks in the valley worth their height begin with a good schwackin' and so it was:

after an hour of easy schwacking I found the real trail higher up, which was a big improvement, despite the huge piles of black bear poop, always a fun thing to see when you're alone with no pepper spray. The views were jaw dropping...

So I only brought one quart of water with me which I had already finished post-coffee. I was sure that I would hit dishwater creek which drains the hanging valley above... I was counting on this as I was already getting dehydrated in the warm sun and steep climb through the trees. next thing I know I'm on snow, no creek in sight, no water it would be, let the snow eating commence! yum! Slowly I worked my way up the moraine and up to the lower fan of the route.

The snow eating helped me get higher and higher, I also decided to loose my empty water bottle so I wouldent be tempted to fill it later:

Eagle Peak is the big one in the middle and Flute is just to the left of it in the back.

The weather was fickle, it was warm, but snowing horizontal.. and blue sky all around. I was just climbing into a big dark grey cloud. oh well.. Also snow conditions had changed dramatically since the weekend when Billy's crew was here, the lower snow much softer, and up higher fresh snow had totally filled in their steps. No poaching for me.

Summit ridge after 6,000' of up:

Neoprene socks, trail runners and Aluminum crampons - Light is kinda right - sometimes.

made it down supppper fast, world class 2,000' vert glissade included. Lots more snow eating and a king size snickers later it was back to summertime.

9 hrs, and a big 7,000' peak, pretty good for a late start and no water.

oh, and finally saw this bear molesting the garbage can as I was driving away. he was cute.

This time lapse was shot using a tiny goPro helmet cam, the cameras are sweet, the company hooked me up with some for packrafting film projects. They have a still shooting mode with an intervelometer function. It is by far the lightest and most idoit proof helmet cam, and also time lapse photography, setup there is:

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Dirt Rag

2008-05-16T00:47:00.004-05:00

I knew they were running the article, but the freakin cover story? wow! that was a suprise..

link here

can't wait to see the print version and see what photos they used.

wish I wrote more... so much more to expand on, too bad writting is hard.

I can't play the flute

2008-05-07T12:31:00.004-05:00

22-24 hours of moving out of 28, wasted tired.

Simple plan - solo time in the mountains, Try to climb Flute Peak.
Going into the South Fork Valley is a bit like going home, so many great days have been had back there, close to town, big mountains, long approaches.
Flute was the goal, but there are pleanty of other options if I didnt feel up to it.
rope, rap gear, bivy gear, stove, ice axes, megamid & not enough food all packed hit the Harp Trail at around 6pm monday night.

Trail conditions were horrendous, worst snow imaginable... heavy rotten wallowing for hours:

Spring tundra skiing at its finest, took the boards off about 20 times:

Took 3 hours just to get to Eagle lake, I was demoralized and tired.. but the lake looked good so I kept going in the cool wind and fading light, nice and fast across the lake, then more rotten slogging up the valley finally broke a skin track up ave debris to finally get to the first step at midnight. Stumled around tired in the dark, heavy pack took it out of me. then I lost my spoon in the snow and had to use a piton:

up at 5, nice and cold out, good crust. out of the mid before 6.. snap, WTF? I look down and my ski pole broke in half. Black Diamond crap, I sware their stuff is getting cheaper and cheaper, not too peppy. sluggish. skin skin, up up, Finally on the Flute glacier, up the right side, slow, steady. snow is good, pack heavy, damn rope... but no reason to turn around yet. to the base of the Couloir, the bergschrund is nicely filled in with ave debris. Out comes the probe.. one pole skinning.. probing to find the cravasse... no sign of it, must have already passed it... too steep to skin, time to boot. A bit soft, maybe its just on the bottom fan, up and up, humm ok, a little better, crampons on, up and up 45 degrees, not so bad, but a bit punchy, 50ish degrees. Is it going to slide and take me out? no its fine, no slab, the lower layer is re-frozen crust, its cold and 8am, stop worrying. higher, wow, this is going to go... topout - windslab? cornice? its cool, just steep, suck it up and finsih it.. top.

where too now, crampons staying on, some rock scrambling, "this isnt soo bad..." then finally the view I've seen photos of:

It dosent look too bad, but what is not visable is the 100+' death fall down to the right. Took a long brake here and gave it some serious thought...

after 2 "looks" I grabbed my pack and made it across the exposed traverse to the top of the small ice patch in the middle, from there the route cuts left and after another long time thinking, no Thanks, too exposed. I don't feel like vomiting or dying today. I will come back with a friend. oh well, 50' from the top is pretty damn good, and I gave my rope a nice long walk...

Down down down..
at the bottom of the couloir with some morning light:

The couloir cuts up the right side of the peak:

humm, its still before noon, must keep moving. Calliope. it has turned me back twice, there is no reason not to go for it, you're here scoped a route up the back side, the normal routes are on other faces, but this looked like it would work.

deep snow, kick kick, hot sun, kick kick, long way up... nice neve on the upper half, on to the ridge... sweet.. Cool summit, required a bit of poking around to find. The hours of kicking steps starting to catch up to me:

sick views of the high chugach - Polar Beak, Organ Peak, and Flute:

Down down, crampons, then booting, then snowboard turns...Back to the bivy and fired up the stove for re-hydration, I was going to spend another night but I ate all my cheezwiz and ho-ho's and my bivy was in the shade, so out it was, beginning the long march back to civilization:

looking back at Eagle Peak:

Eagle lake, good traveling:

South fork valley, not good traveling

back to the truck at 10pm brain damaged with one Gu left.
Its good to be back in the groove.

Vid

2008-05-01T15:10:00.005-05:00

Bryce and I were listening to the Chemical Brothers driving home, it just seemed to flow well... the video camera didnt come out (or come at all) on the more technical stuff so this is mostly about the turns!

Billy's writeup and excellent photos here:
http://www.peakaweek.com/index.cfm?section=mountains&page=Alaska&cat=Talkeetna%20Mtns&&contentid=562&viewpost=2#gallery

Upper Talkeetna Glacier

2008-04-29T23:43:00.006-05:00

With my knee uncertainties I was hesitant to make any spring climbing plans this year, that all changed after a huge day at Turnagin when I realized that the thing was pretty darn solid and could tolerate big days again. So I plead to Billy, Yvonne and the group he put together to throw me in a duffel and that I would break trail, knock off cornices and melt snow as much as possible. It worked. I threw all my shit together and within a few days we were flying out. The unfortunate last minute drop of Paul due to a cold brought the group to 4, which worked out well as far as camping and climbing goes.

The upper talkeetna is a seldom visited area. All the attention of climbing and big mountain glacier skiing goes to the Alaska range, High Chugach and the Wrangell St Elias. The area around mt soverign in the middle of the Talkeetna Mountains is quite remote, about 40-50 air miles from anything. The bueaty of it is that we had the whole range to ourselves, no other air traffic, and it all had a air of adventure since we really had no information at all about the peaks other than the topo maps.

A fat base camp, alot of good food, a week of perfect high pressure and countless peaks to climb it was hard to decide what to do and we quickly set to work exausting ourselves.

Home for 10 days:

First up: Mt Soverign - why not start with the highest peak in the area?
What appears to be a technical climb on a wall of granite actually is not the highest point, the real summit (on the map at least...) lies to the west, up a long, long ridge. We were all sucking wind with the quick jump from sea level to 9,000'. The snowpack was also horrendous - under a thin crust was bottomless granulated sugar snow and you would wallow in knee to waist deep. What looked like a straight foreward walk-up proved to be pretty tough! But we did get a good view of the entire area and got to drool over other objectives.

the South wall of Soverign leaving camp:

High on the peak, camp is the speck on the glacier mid level towards the left:

Descending from the top:

We got lucky and were able to glissade much of the way down on a mellow gully that wasnt totally bottomless sugar, otherwise we would have all been totally wasted.

Day 2: Looking for a mellower day to acclimize a bit more we decided to head down glacier and explore a bit, it ended up being a big day as we skinned around and made a big loop by connecting a series of col's on the map to bring us back to camp. We made one good south facing run in the sun while working on our suntans...

We dubed this peak "The peak of many Couloirs" Bryce and I later climbed one of the chutes to the left of the summit. We toured around the back of the nunatak and gained the upper bowl on the right:

Higher up, Mt Soverign in the distance:

After skinning for hours, the descent was very welcome and it closed the loop back to camp. Although all the south facing slopes were slough avelanching from baking in the sun, our route dropped down one of the few slopes that didnt have a big debris pile at the bottom - always a good sign!

With recon done, it was time to get down to business. Billy and Yvonne decided to head up the face right out of camp, while I talked Bryce to head up a steep couloir on the east face of the same peak with a mixed top to it. We set off with lots of gear, double ropes, rock rack and mountain boots to change into. Here is the cooler from the east.

We were really camped just below the peak to the right. After the skin to the base we realized it gets baked by morning sun (duh) so we dropped the extra gear and headed out to a peak we later dubbed "the iron nipple" a few miles across the glacier. From the col between the iron nipple it looked straight foreward, but what looked like sastrugi turned out to be breakable crust into waist deep sugar snow... yuck... you can see the trench we made in the first photo, we made it up the rocks a bit and said screw it.

Luckily there was another peak we could try from the col, so we half heartly headed up that, fully expecting for strike 3 from the snow conditions. Turned out ok.. we skinned high and carried our boards over the top, in the back of my mind I just knew we could traverse the peak and have a south facing descent...

Bryce loves steep exposed skinning on sastrugi without whippets or ski crampons - really...

He also loves steep booting with his skis on his back.. really...

We summited the peak and scoped the descent, a steep downclimb above a gaping bergschrund runout.. humm better not board it.. so we downclimbed then traversed the bergie and finally made sweet corn turns in the lower bowl.
Bryce's photo:

Billy Took this shot of us high on Sugar mamma, we are just barely visable in the lower part of the shot after descending the central Couloir and traversing left above the gapper.

Billy and Yvonne high on "Sugar Mamma"

Turns out it was sugar snow all the way for them, with some alpine ice (covered with sugar snow of course...) at the top. From there on all peak names were derived from sugar, or sugar substitues. We made it back to camp quick and I got Billy's big Nikon out to get some good shots of them descending the face:

Getting more and more familiar with the conditions and peaks, Bryce and I went for an ice route I had been drooling over for the whole time we had been there. It was to be Bryce's first alpine ice climb, so he was stoked, in a anxious sort of way.

We set a hero skin track up to the base of the face over the bergschrunds and got on the rock to the left. We lead up two pitches or so on the snow using some rock gear, pins borrowed from Billy and nuts for anchors. The rock was so perfect and free of cracks that the pins saved the day as we hammered in knifeblades with wild abandon.

Higher up...the snow thinned out and had brittle glacier ice below it. The climbing was secure, but screw placements were a bitch, requiring serious chopping to get to decent ice. We brought 7 of the groups 8 ice screws and we were wishing for that one more.

Bryce's shot of me hacking away!

The upper ice was totally sweet, steeper than we expected, but really secure placements.

Billy got this distance shot of us topping out the ice:

From the top of the ice, it was a mellow scramble to the summit.

The descent was more involved than we had hoped for, it ended up taking just as long as the ascent, we belayed downclimbed the rock shoulder on the left side of the peak and it was actually steeper in spots and way more exposed than if we had just downclimbed the ice, jeeezze. Traversing sketchy 75 degree sugar snow with ice isnt a good thing. We were glad to be off the thing, cranking some evening turns back to camp was a bonus.

a rest day please... no must keep climbing... a morning conference in the megamid determined that the weather was indeed changing and we needed to make the most of it. A cold wind pushed us the 4 of us down glacier to the famed Peak of many Couloirs. Yvonne and Billy headed further down for a Couloir that looked to make it to a straight foreward ridge, where Bryce and I headed to a steep and striking couloir which we had no idea where it would go after that.

Turned out to be perfect re-frozen neve, sweet! on went the crampons and we soloed up the whole thing.

the left slot...

At the top the angle kicked up considerably. I was nervous that our luck would run out and we'd hit sugar snow at the top out, with 1,500 of steep hard neve below you that's not a good thing, on went the rope and in went some gear for the top out.

That was it, the ridge was super exposed and sketchy, not for us.. down we went.

Then the storm came.. climbing was done. Two days in sloth mode, lots of megamid time, a day skiing in a whiteout, a day building a kicker.. another day waiting in a whiteout and out we flew..

This now constitues the longest and most time consuming blog post ever. Hope you enjoyed it!

last minute trip

2008-04-18T14:56:00.004-05:00

Heading up into the Talkeetna mountains, Mt Soverign area tomorrow for 10 days to climb and do some ski/splitboard mountaineering.
Some pics of the area:

The weather looks good so we should be able to get in as planned, one at a time in the back of Mike Meekin's super cub.

I also decided I needed a new climbing pack, its been in my head for too long so I cranked this puppy out. its a bit heavy, but super duper burly and can handle heavy loads better than my ski pack. Design based on the BD Quantum, but with a removable hip belt with pockets that uses the same webbing, side pockets for pickets and a 4 point removable lid.. which is yet to be made. it should last a long long time.

powder and ice

2008-04-13T20:58:00.017-05:00

Big weekend, I'm tired.
Gave the sewing machine a rest and got down to business playing.

Huge day skiing on Saturday something like 12 miles and 7,000' vert in 10 hrs. Covered some serious ground. Up sunburst, over taylor pass, to Pastorial, steep ridgelines, santa claus chute and then some.

Billy's write up and more pic's Here

Heading up Pastorial:

We were aiming for the Santa Claus chute, a north facing chute, but first we had to traverse this ridgeline.. it was a bit airy and had us all wanting ice axes...

Billy pokking around the corner:

Me probing ahead, photo by Billy:

i'm pretty at home on sketchy, exposed snow, that's why they invite me along, so I ended up breaking trail & route finding getting to the col. We came over the pass in the far background. The views were nothing short of stupendous in all directions! high pressure rules!

Billy, Yvonne and Bryce are the 3 dots in the middle on the ridge. sweetness:

Billy took this one of me looking back, we ended up dropping down the face to the right of me:

Although warned of the south facing snowpack we were lured the run partly by my stoke level on the asthetic line, and part of a totally bomber snowpack.

3 good fast turns then hammered, I dont want to talk about it... we half skined, half booted out of the basin, pure work in the sun...

Then it was time for the goods, santa claus chute.
Here it is in the distance, its the obvious big notch on the ridgeline, the peak we traversed is to the right.

Billy dropping in:

The north facing snow was weightless blower powder, bryce was stoked...

did another half run on the lower part and began the long cruise / double pole / skate out center ridge. The Swallowtail was in effect - check out the rooster tail!

Sunday Bryce and I went to Eklutna Canyon for some late season ice climbing. Had the whole canyon to ourselves. It was my first time on ice this season, but managed to lead Ripple. good stuff. Then we did another somewhat stiffer route with Bryce doing the lead duties. Nice place to be after a big day skiing.

April Powder

2008-04-11T11:44:00.006-05:00

Front range powder skiing in April? sweet!

headed up to a new secret stash only a half hour from home. The runs were bigger than we expected (a good thing!)

Had fun in this little chute, the small slab I kicked off made things exciting. Tony got a photo of it at the instant it fractured,

only the 3rd time on the board this winter due to the knee, better late than never.

New bags

2008-04-10T00:27:00.004-05:00

Finished a binge of seat bags earlier this week.
10, yes ten, super twinkies, including one very, very, special one.

Got a new smaller design worked here is that one, not so secret.

snowing like crazy, its april.. when will it stop?

New Shop

2008-04-04T15:01:00.004-05:00

With Spring and summer on the way it was time to move the sweatshop out of the basement and into the garage. The light glaring through the basement windows will taunt me no more. Its still in the 30's so its really more of a icebox than a sweatshop, when you can see your breath sewing and can barely feel your hands you know you're making gear in alaska...

All the necessities of a good work environment, strong coffee, fresh air, really loud music, and instant brutal workout breaks provided by the fingerboard and rings.

Thanks Shelley for the sign!

Now where are those malaysian 10 yr olds?

Dan's Wedding

2008-03-31T12:17:00.010-05:00

See that photo above? That's Dan, We've done countless trips together and I look foreward to many more. I was honored when he asked me to be best man on his big day.
It was a really special wedding, very true, very warm and sincere shared with a wonderfull group of friends and family.

It was really fun being back in Ft.Collins, havent been there since I moved away 6 years ago. Felt like a long time. Got some sun, and some snow, a healthy mix for springtime colorado.
Dan at Rotary,

Dan and I have been Friends with James Bleakly for a long time when he was first getting his roots set in the ground and starting Black Sheep . I think Dan and I both had ti softails # 4 & 5 and I later got the second 29er he ever made. James's wedding gift to Dan and Amy were their rings, which he machined out of solid titanium for Amy, and part of a seat stay tube for Dan's. James let me borrow a totally kick ass, bueatiful long travel softail, with a worthy price tag... I was totally stoked. It felt sooooooo good to tear it up on the old stomping grounds. Thanks James!

After staying out till 3:00 am friday night and working out the hangovers it was finally wedding day, bikes, bikes and more bikes! We rode to the wedding, then after the ceremony about 50+ of us took off to the streets for a cruiser parade of old town before the dancing began...

Congrats you two!

Knik Glacier

2008-03-24T22:42:00.003-05:00

More here...

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=394949

Easter Time

2008-03-19T23:54:00.001-05:00

Easter is right around the corner.
Happy Easter.

Easter Bunnies Evil Twin - Watch more free videos

Back on the board!

2008-03-17T15:54:00.003-05:00

Turnagin is killer now!

Toured Center ridge way way back to Kickstep glacier.
knee is a tad sore but I was expecting it to be for such a big day. Otherwise felt great!

Mud flats

2008-03-12T11:53:00.007-05:00

Conditions are great right now for biking on the Frozen silt on the Anchorage Coast... I call it "The Real Coastal Trail".

Its a playground for childlike exploration that feels like a combination of biking on the moon and an abstract art painting...

Super fun 5 minutes from home.

Erin and Hig in Nondalton

2008-03-11T00:46:00.002-05:00

Woo hoo, and update!
http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/blog/

Looked like an amazing trip from Beluga to Lake Clark,
Hig left me a message said he already sent me a DVD of their raw video so I should be getting that soon.
exciting stuff!
seems like they are over the hump of the real tough alaskan winter travel, spring is on its way...