In 2003 I went skate skiing for the first time. I bought a pair of skis about a year later, and have been doing it ever since.

After 7 years of skiing, I would like to think that I’m halfway decent at it.

Then, two weeks ago I took a lesson at the Nordic Center. It pretty much turned my technique upside down, shook it like a kid with a piggy bank, and completely threw me for a loop.

Seems as though I’ve developed some habits that, although they were working for me, are really bad for efficiency and speed.

I spent last tuesday at the nordic center chasing people around that I usually ski with. I felt completely off balance, out of sync, and very frustrated.

It’s a feeling I haven’t had in a while.

Maybe it’s a feeling I haven’t ever had.

There are many times when I’ve picked up something new and had to gain the necessary skillset from a blank slate. There is a certain expectation that I’ll be bad at whatever I’m picking up, and over time, will become better. I did this with snowboarding, tele-skiing, mountain biking, unicycling, and a host of other things that I’m halfway decent at now.

Skate skiing is different. I thought I had become somewhat proficient. I thought I had built a solid base of technique.

I was wrong.

……and now I’m having to unlearn the bad habits that I’ve developed. Last Tuesday I was frustrated. Tonight I went back out there and concentrated on nothing but technique for a good hour-and-a-half. I was still very frustrated, because I’m deep enough into ‘relearning’ that I can’t even go back to the ‘old way’ now and take a break. Nothing feels right anymore.

Although, after an hour and a half of struggling. I feel as thought I’m starting to pick it up (again).

But I feel like I’ve taken 10 steps back to take that one forward tonight.

Maybe it’s good?

I hope so.

As I was driving back home from the nordic center, I reflected a bit on my situation. Although it’s frustrating right now, I feel like in the end it will pay off. Building the solid base of technique will then allow me to build the strength and refine the technique to become much more proficient than I was before. (at least that’s the theory…)

As I was thinking about how this chain of events came about and what led me to this frustration and struggle, I started to wonder if there are other things that I’m currently doing that I should take a look at the ‘basics’ on.

As a rational person, and one who believes you can never actually achieve ‘perfection’ at anything, I strongly believe the answer is ‘yes’.

Maybe I’ll take another tele lesson this year…….

I’ve also always wanted to take a freeride lesson on the mountain bike….

Or maybe even go to a downhill clinic…..

Or maybe a freestyle skiing camp…..

I can’t say that I’ll actually do any of these things, and I don’t know how much this is really going to ‘change my life’. But, I do feel like being humble in your abilities and being able to really give yourself an honest evaluation of skills every now and again is essential.

I guess that even if the lesson did nothing but shake up my technique, it was worth it.

It’s a common misconception that I’m obsessed with skiing during the winter.

Alright, it’s not really a misconception at all, because it’s true. But, I am able to, occasionally, pull myself away from skiing and have some other fun in the snow. This weekend was one of those.

A couple of my friends from college were in town this weekend, and they aren’t much for the backcountry skiing, so we found some alternative means of entertainment.

They were supposed to arrive in flag friday morning, but due to a snafu in their flights (and a night spent in minneapolis as a result) they didn’t roll into town until friday mid-day. Andy brought along his snowboard, and we were supposed to hit up snowbowl friday (and attempt to avoid some of the weekend craziness). Instead, we decided to try to brave it saturday. Unfortunately, after making it up to mile marker 4 on snowbowl road, we noted the bumper-to-bumper traffic, tucked our tails between our legs, and retreated.

Fortunately, there was fun to be had in my very own front yard. We hauled out some shovels and set to work building a nice little run in and out of the corner of my roof.

Who needs a ski lift when you’ve got a ladder?

After hucking ourselves off the roof of my house for an hour or so, we booked it down to sedona for some food, a little hike, and a visit to the page springs winery.

I will admit, I got a couple halfway decent pictures in red rock country, but really, most of the time behind the lens was spent playing with Nic’s wide angle lens on my camera, which resulted in a lot of pictures resembling this:

Today we got a late start, ate some Martannes for breakfast and then embarked on an epic afternoon in the snow at a spot I’ve scoped out a couple times. This spot has a nice run-out, some great steepness, and enough length that it would probably be considered a ski run in some midwestern states.

We proceeded to embark on such activities as R-rated ’snow-woman’ building and extreme sledding.

That would be Andy and I in the sled, and yes, we landed it. It was up there as one of my crowning achievements for the winter.

Needless to say, even though there was a lack of skiing, I still got a lot of good winter fun in this weekend. I hope you all did too.

10 days since I’ve been on the mountain bike.

A week before that.

Maybe two before that.

It doesn’t even have any wheels on it right now, since the last time it was out I blew (another) brake line on my hydraulic brakes, spewing DOT4 fluid all over a neighborhood street in Sedona. This necessitated a bleed of the system, which caused me to realize that the rear pads were beyond ‘worn’ (which I haven’t bought replacements for).

And thus, the wheels are sitting next to the bike on the floor of the gear room.

Do I feel bad about it?

With 4 feet of settled snow depth out my front door, and my name not anywhere near a registration for Old Pueblo……….not really.

Two years ago, I signed up for Old Pueblo solo, and I hit it hard on the rollers all winter long. 4 mornings a week I was up at the asscrack of dawn riding in a half-awake stupor. But I kept it up, and I felt halfway decent (at least for a february bike race…)

Last year I signed up for a duo at old pueblo with Mancandy, and kept up the rollers a couple days a week, with at least once or twice a week on the mountain bike thrown in.

This year I’m headed down to old pueblo with a bike, camping gear, food, a camera, and a ton of beer. I have no intention of racing, which is the first time since I moved to arizona. But, I do have every intention of riding, taking pictures, heckling, drinking, and witnessing the deterioration of everyone in the race.

It’s gonna be great.

I’ve been hitting the rollers a couple times a week to keep the leg circles going, but (more importantly) I’ve been skiing at least 4 days a week (sometimes more) for the last month. Is it gonna help me when the biking rolls around again? I have no idea, but I guess we’re gonna find out.

So where am I going with this? Well, I mostly just wanted to say to all of you who read this blog primarily for the biking part of it: I’m sorry. I know I’ve been neglecting the two wheels lately in my updates, but the reality is that the pendulum has swung towards the skis in a big way this winter.

I started the season early for skiing with the New Zealand trip, and it gave me the bug. The biking bug is still there, it’s just in hibernation.

Although I have to say, every time I open up Chad or Scott’s blog, it makes me get the itch again, so maybe I’ll be making a little more effort in that direction……after I get some new brake pads, that is.

We’ve all seen the forest close in the summer due to fire danger, but it seems that the sheriffs office and the coconino national forest have taken a cue from their summertime ways and closed the forest to backcountry travel due to avalanche danger.

From the Coconino National Forest Website:

Kachina Peaks Wilderness Area Closure

Flagstaff. AZ- The Northern Arizona Emergency Operation Center is announcing the closure of the Kachina Peaks Wilderness Area on the San Francisco Peaks due to extreme avalanche danger caused by recent excessive snowfall. In the interest of public safety the Coconino National Forest has issued a temporary Forest Order closing the Kachina Peaks Wilderness area to any and all entry. This order supersedes all Kachina Peaks Winter Backcountry permits already issued this season. This means that any backcountry skiing, snowboarding or snowshoeing from Snowbowl is prohibited until further notice, and violators are subject to criminal penalty.

This closure is based on recent storm activity and field observations of natural avalanche activity and snow instability. This week’s snowfall is on pace to be the greatest in over 30 years. Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue personnel have conducted two search and rescue operations in hazardous weather conditions this week. Search and Rescue must make risk assessment decisions and will take into account rescuer safety before deploying personnel into the field. This Forest Order will be cancelled as soon as conditions permit at which time Back Country permits will be valid again.

For additional information please refer to the Coconino National Forest at www.coconinoforest.us
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This definitely puts a damper on some weekend plans for up here. Unfortunately, though, I understand where they’re coming from.

I would be willing to bet that the backcountry gate at the top of snowbowl was closed on wednesday, yet a snowboarder was still lost until thursday night after going out of bounds. I would put a large sum of money on the fact that he ducked a rope, not went out through a gate.

So, even though the bitching, whining, moaning, and complaining has come out in full-force on the KPAC message board, I’m not sure that there’s really anything that can be done about it, and I don’t necessarily think it was an unjustified decision.

There isn’t a very big SAR operation here in flagstaff, and for as small as they are, they do a good job. Although, at this point in time those same people are probably very busy with all the other craziness that has been going on around town.

The thing I find most ironic about the bitching and moaning on the KPAC boards is that most of it is being done by supposed ‘experienced backcountry travelers’ or even ‘locals’.

Good for you. I’m glad that living in flagstaff instead of phoenix puts you in a much better position to bitch about what the forest service should and shouldn’t do.

I consider myself an ‘experience backcountry traveler’ and would even call myself a ‘local’ by this point (although it’s only been 5 years, so maybe that’s a stretch).

You know what I did yesterday?

I used my backcountry knowledge and my local knowledge to get some friends together, set up a skin track that gave us about 1000′ of vertical, and found some delicious turns on a completely safe slope that was in no way anywhere near the kachina peaks wilderness.

Now, I will say that we had to do some flatland hiking to get out to this area, and heard some pretty scary whumping as the lower layers collapsed through those meadows, so I would definitely put the avy danger as ‘high’ anywhere around here. The slope we were on was pretty heavily treed, and you don’t have to cross any open slopes to get to the top. We dug a pit, we spaced out, we took turns breaking trail through the knee-deep powder, and we had a blast.

So to all you haters out there on the KPAC boards I say this – If you’re really somebody who has the knowledge to be safe, and the ability to pull out a map and start looking for alternative options, then do it.

If you’re not, then please, by all means stay out of the backcountry and sit at your computer all day and bitch. I don’t mind, I’ll be out enjoying the weather.

And if you’re planing on going up to snowbowl once they open, and you’re thinking of ducking a rope, you better do it while I’m not watching, because I’ll kick you in the teeth if I’m around.

The predictions so far are playing out.

It’s been snowing most of the week, and it’s still coming down in buckets out there.

Three storms, back-to-back. I’ve got over 4 feet in the untouched areas of my yard, and the front porch looks something like this:

I got up yesterday morning and hiked a run at snowbowl before work, and it was over-the-boot skinning. Once I pointed it downhill I was easily over my knees.

And we’ve got another 1-2 feet in town since then. I can only imagine what’s up at snowbowl right now. Snotel is reporting 45 inches since monday in the inner basin, and snowbowl is reporting 57-82 inches from the storm.

We’re expected to get another 5-10 today and another 5-10 tonight before it peters out on saturday sometime.

The fortunate part is that my work is closed for the second time so far as anyone can remember. The unfortunate part is that snowbowl (and the road up) is closed. So, I’m sitting here trying to figure out where we can go skiing today that meets the following criteria:

• Fairly close proximity to a road
• Steep enough terrain to be able to ski in several feet of powder
• Tree skiing so the avalanche danger is low

The Avy danger is getting higher by the minute, so a lot of stuff that we usually ski is out. It’s bad enough at this point the even crossing an avalanche path is a big no-no. The glades will be phenomenal, but accessing them, and finding some friends to share the epic task of trailbreaking is going to be the tough part. I’m figuring on twice the normal approach time for anything we do today, and there’s a good chance of our tracks being fairly well filled in by the time we get back to the approach.

Unfortunately, there have been a couple incidents already with people getting lost off-piste at snowbowl. It’s getting very epic out there, and it sounds like the rest of the western states are getting the same thing as this system is simply hammering everything in it’s path.

Enjoy the weather, but be careful out there. I’m gonna go find some breakfast and see what I can rustle up for some fun today.

Saturday was a big backcountry day.

Like big in the sense that my legs are still stiff from it.

Like big in a way that we were on the skis for just under 11 hours (and returned to the truck via a ’survival ski’ down the totally icy skin track by the light of LED headlamp).

Like big in the way that the GPS file tells me 13.7 miles of distance covered (and it missed some switchbacking)

Like big in the way that we covered over 6000 feet of vertical elevation gain (and, consequently, loss as well).

Like big in a way that we bagged the top of Reese peak, which few people have probably been to the top of (there’s no trail) and even fewer have been to the top in winter.

View Larger Map

If you want the GPX file that the above map is rendering, check it here.

Splitboard John, tRoy, a couple dogs, and I departed from just off 89 saturday morning. tRoy had proposed trying to make it to cliffband (which we skiied a couple years back) from the top. In order to do that, we would have to go up and over Reese Peak, through the saddle between it and Abineau peak, and then down into the inner basin.

So, we set forth with skis and splitboards strapped on, smiles on our faces, and dogs at our heels. We made quick work of the skin to lockett meadow where we got the view of the ridgeline that we would approach from. Here you can see John pointing out our route to the peak:

It was a nice grade for the first part of the skin, and I think we all enjoyed the scenery as we passed through some incredible aspen glades among the ponderosas. It was a grey day, which ended up being a good thing as we all heated up quickly on the skin up.

After we crossed waterline road, the skinning got a bit steeper, and we started losing track of how far we had gone and how far we had to go. Eventually we started seeing sky peeking over the horizons again, and we emerged just below the top to a view of Doyle and Fremont which were nothing short of incredible. John took in the view, I snapped pictures of this rarely seen angle of the other side of the peaks, and tRoy started plotting lines down previously hidden chutes.

We pushed through the last bit of skinning and reached the top of the peak right around 6.5 hours after we had started.

The plans changed when we noted the time and how much bigger the saddle between us and abineau peak looked in person versus on the map. It was a rubble field with no obvious exit, and we were starting to run short on time.

Instead we skiied down the north side of Reese back to waterline. The first part of the ski down was pillow after pillow of smile-inducing soft snow. Unfortunately this lasted less than 1000 feet of vertical, and the trees closed in to a frustratingly tight spacing. Between the tree spacing and the shallower snowpack of the second half of the descent, it became slow, cautious skiing the rest of the way to the road.

Once we hit waterline, we put the skins back on and hoofed it around to the green cabins. Skinning on slightly downhill forest roads is frustrating at the least, as losing elevation should be done without skins, but at this point there wasn’t much choice.

It was a bittersweet enjoyment of the sunset from lockett meadow, as the clouds were magnificent, but it meant that the last 2 miles of descending would be done on a (now) icy skin track by headlamp.

I did more snowplowing than I’ve ever done, and tRoy and John actually ended up sitting on their snowboards and ‘tobagganing’ down for the last mile or so since the snowboarding was so frustrating at that point.

It was one of the biggest days I’ve ever had in the backcountry. We hiking, we skiied, we laughed, we cried.

Alright, we didn’t really cry, but I was pretty darn sore from the whole thing when we got back (and still am a bit).

I put some additional pictures from this trip, as well as a bunch of the pics from last weekend up on a facebook gallery here.

The latest photo up on the photoblog is also from this trip, check it here.