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Posted by – October 2, 2009
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October 1st Lucidity
Posted by – October 1, 2009
This photo of me was on February 13, 2009 by photographer Alex Fenlon on the most deliciously deep day of the year- my last day in the backcountry, only two days before injury ended my season. My thoughts keep revisiting this day, one of the highlights of my season cut short.
Today is October 1st. I woke up early to falling snow, over an hour before my alarm was to go off. Maybe it was the silence of the snow that woke me. I’m not sure. But, here I am, at 6:30am, one cup of coffee down and breakfast already finished. Not the normal kind of morning for me.
I awoke in a cold sweat, in a slight panic about something. I’m not sure what that something was but as I lay awake unable to dream the ’something’ transformed. I found my thoughts consumed by skiing, but not with the usual blissful excitement that usually fills my mind this time of year. Instead, I found myself anxious.
Today marks seven and a half months since that fated day that I tore my ACL. This equates to exactly 228 days that I have not skied. Never in my life have I gone this long without strapping on two planks to my feet and swooshing down a blanket of white snow. Even when I tore my ACL twelve years ago, my doctor ensured a quick recovery, so I returned to the sport that I love within five months of being injured.
So, I find myself wondering- What will it be like to ski again? I’ve been away from this sport for so long that I forget what it’s even like anymore. I’ve had to search deep inside my brain to remember the elation, the exhilaration, and the contentment skiing brought to me. I even find myself a bit nervous- Will I even be able to ski? Have I forgotten how?
But, I rummaging through last years photos conjures those delightful memories that have been put aside on the dusty shelf. I am lots of things in life. But, first and foremost, I am a skier. When I am skiing, I am in the place where I feel most inspired and satisfied. These past seven and a half months I have been walking around in a stupor, my eyes fogged over with what ever task is at hand.
I’m looking forward to awakening from this dream that has clouded my mind for 228 days. I know the moment I strap those skis to my feet, the dust will exit my mind. The clarity I’ve been lacking will return and all the memories will come flooding back into my brain. I will lucidly remember that inexplicable feeling. I will remember why I ski.
TR: Eccher (27 Sept 2009)
Posted by – September 30, 2009
Echher Gulch has been a cursed trail for me. This trail is Frank’s favorite ride, yet every time I’ve attempted it with him, something has gone wrong- bad weather, bike mechanicals, too cold. There have been instances where we’ve ridden almost the entire loop, but had to skip the actual Eccher trail. In four summers of riding here in Crested Butte, I finally was able to ride Eccher Gulch for the first time this past weekend.
Eccher Gulch and the associated trails provide one of the most scenic fall rides. Knowing this past weekend was going to have great weather and prime fall leaves, we decided to attempt Eccher once again. Frank and I were joined by our friends Jarrett, Adam, and Ethan.
Here’s some pictures that show just how lovely it was!
Adam
Ethan
Jarrett
Me
The group enjoying the views.
And the beautiful fall leaves!
Spectacular views were everywhere. But, this one was my favorite.
Thanks, Frank, for taking all the photos. And thanks to Jarrett, Adam, and Ethan for a great day out!
For more Trail Information see Eccher on our Crested Butte Mountain Biking Guide.
Video: You can view Jarrett’s fun “mouth cam” footage on this video linked from Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1044224961808
Movie of the Month: In Deep
Posted by – September 28, 2009
Movie of the Month: In Deep
Who?: Matchstick Productions
Year: 2009
Where can I find it? Matchstick Productions
Matchstick Productions In Deep appeared at the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte on Friday evening. For most Buttians, the annual MSP films have become a September ritual. MSP was born in Crested Butte, and the locals here appreciate their consistent return, even though their films have spread far beyond the borders of Colorado.
In Deep opens with the inspiring 16-yr old skier, Sean Pettit. This fanatical teenager skis lines that most of us would dare to even dream about. Pettit, despite retaining the gorilla-park style that reveals his roots, is clearly the future of our sport.
MSP’s film continues, with several segments focusing on a specific athlete. This film is unique in the fact that it features constant voice-overs with the athletes speaking about their experiences. These voice-overs bring the scenes to life. Viewers have a better sense of what is occurring in each scene, making the movie more tangible. One of the most memorable voice-overs is Chris Davenport’s explanation of two major crashes while skiing in Haines, Alaska. In these scenes, Davenport comes dangerously close to serious injury or even death, yet escapes unharmed. But, Davenport’s voice-over reveals his feeling of humility for the mountains and relief that something more serious did not happen.
In Deep features many stellar athletes including Kaj Zakrisson, Hugo Harrisson, Mark Abma, Mike Douglas, JT Holmes, and many more. Segments were filmed from many places around the world including Squaw Valley, Keystone, British Columbia, Italy, Haines, Sweden, and Crested Butte.
My only complaint about In Deep, as with most ski movies, is their lack of female athletes. In Deep boasts that they feature Michelle Parker and Ingrid Backstrom. But, these females are “featured” in a tiny segment which also highlights other male athletes. The total female presence in this movie is probably around 1-2 minutes. These women may not ski quite as aggressive lines as some of the male skiers, but when given the opportunity, these girls can hold their own. They ski with such finesse that viewers rarely realize the difficulty of the lines they ski. Ski movies need more of these women.
Anyone who has seen In Deep will tell you that the most memorable part is at the end, featuring the last ski base jumps performed by Shane McConkey. The somber story is told in voice-over by JT Holmes, who was base jumping with McConkey when he skied off a cliff to his instant death. This heartbreaking account is followed by other “Shane stories”, celebrating his life and revealing what a funny, clever, and wonderful person he was.
All in all, In Deep is a movie to be seen. This movie not only commemorates the life and death of McConkey, but it reveals the growing success of the once-small filmmaking company, Matchstick Productions.
What season is it?
Posted by – September 21, 2009
The calendar says fall doesn’t start until tomorrow. But, the leaves in Crested Butte started changing well over a month ago. This morning I woke up to freezing temperatures and the smell that I love so very much. It smelled like winter. Snow squalls have been passing through all day, and Loveland ski area started making snow today to get ready for a mid-October opening. Winter, here we come!
Squalls on Snodgrass Mountain.
A bigger squall.
Tiny little flakes scattered on our deck’s doormat.
I love living in a place where it snows more months of the year than it does not 
Bring it on ULLR! We’re ready!
Beware the Bears!
Posted by – September 19, 2009
Crested Butte has had it’s share of bear problems this year. Bears are everywhere. Not only are they getting into people’s trash, but they are making their way into people’s cars, houses, and even our police station. The problem has been building all summer, and is now culminating as bears are scrounging for every bit of food before settling down for a nice torpor. Accounts of several bear encounters can be read in these three articles by the Crested Butte News.
Marshals concerned with new wave of pesky bear problems – Aug. 19, 2009
Local vehicles feel brunt of bear problem – July 22, 2009
Bears gone wild? Local bruins cause night chaos across town – July 15, 2009
Photo from Travel Alaska
But, perhaps the funniest encounter I’ve heard comes from my friend Alison. Posted on her Facebook earlier this week she said:
We have a big momma with two cubs who comes by our house all the time. Three weeks ago, the mamma broke into our house, while we were away on a bike tour, and ate 200 Clif Bars. She wrapped up her excursion by heading into our bedroom for a drink of water in the toilet, complete with an investigation into our bathtub, it was full of hair. Each bar was opened carefully and nothing broken in the house. Wrappers filled four rooms. How she got back out remains a mystery, as our door swings shut after you open it.
This past friday night, asleep and home alone while Jason was working in Vail, I heard our door open, and a moan, which puzzled me, as I had locked both doors. Then I heard moaning and a crash. I grabbed my newly purchased paintball gun, ready on the bedside table, and came around the corner all rambo-styled, as I had just freshly graduated from Hunter Education and rifle training the day before. With two hands on the gun, I cop-styled around each corner of the mudroom, with the last turn leaving me face to face with the 500-pound mamma bear. She roared repeatedly, not happy with me being home. I yelled “GET OUT”, and it went on for a bit, like a bad soap opera, until she started stepping backwards. She was so big that her rear foot was still keeping the door open, but she was through the gear room and her nose was in the next room, our greenhouse/mudroom, just inches from my barrel. After many roaring protests on her part and yelling and gun waving on my part, she backed out the door and I shot her with a paintball, which caused her jump and turn. She ran while I got two more shots. She came back an hour later, and tried to open the locked patio levered door again. I watched in fascination with her dexterity on the levered knob, moving it around carefully while she leaned her full weight into the door in pulses. Frustrated, she went for the second door, where we had removed the knob to keep her out. On this one she just tried to break it in with her weight, but was clearly pissed. When she looked away to listen to our neighbors dog bark, I quickly opened the door and was able to get in three good shots.
All of this chaos makes me feel sad for the bears. Bears are getting killed because of our invasion on their home. Negligent people who left their trash out without bear-proof latches caused these bears to learn to rely on human garbage. Now that they can’t find the garbage, the are forced to look elsewhere in our cars and houses.
All this said, I find it completely ironic that I have never even seen a bear in Colorado!
Dreams Deferred
Posted by – September 18, 2009
Netflix is great. Our membership there causes us to watch movies religiously- movies that we may not otherwise watch. Lately, we’ve watched a series of movies that have really caused my head to churn, especially a movie called Revolutionary Road.
Revolutionary Road is about the life of April and Frank, a couple living in suburbia with two kids. But, they are empty inside. The adventure, the passion, the zest for life has vanished. April suddenly realizes this one day and decides they should follow their long-lost dream of moving to Paris. So, they prepare for the move and their life is happy again, for the moment. But, and unexpected pregnancy causes their plans to come to a screeching halt. With Paris no longer feasible, their relationship plummets, causing April to spiral into a deep depression which eventually results in suicide.
Sounds like a horrible movie, huh? I mean, who wants to watch a movie about someone committing suicide? But, I actually liked it. I liked it for the point it made. If you live an ordinary life, because that’s what society tells you to do, then you might as well not be living. A life of emptiness and forgotten dreams is not a life at all.
And then the philosopher in me got to thinking- Paris was their dream deferred.
A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
I don’t know about everyone else’s dreams that have been deferred. But, my dream deferred- well, it exploded. Here’s the story….
Like most children, I grew up dreaming my life away. I lived half my life in an imaginary world with imaginary friends in an imaginary house and a pretend name. I dreamed of what I was going to do, of what I was going to be. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. But, that was slowly taking shape. It’s easy to dream when life hasn’t punched you in the face yet. I was going to be an ordinary person living an extraordinary life…. Someday…
I had a lucky life as a child. As many doors opened for me as I had to open myself. But, then more and more doors began to shut. Sometimes they were slammed right in my face. As life roughed me up I slowly became complacent. But, complacent is not the same as content and content is not the same as happy. “Someday” finally came and I finally realized: I wasn’t an ordinary person living an extraordinary life.
The thought had been slowly creeping up on me for several years. My life was ordinary and I knew it, but I wasn’t ready to face it. Then, one day I was listened to this Nine Inch Nails song.
See the animal in his cage that you built
Are you sure what side you’re on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart
And it’s all
Right where it belongs
What if everything around you
Isn’t quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?
The lyrics to this song woke me up out of the haze. I wasn’t all I wanted to be. My heart was hollow and frankly, I just wasn’t happy. I wondered how my life could be so full but yet so empty at the same time. I was just going through the motions of every day life. As Pink Floyd puts it, I had become “comfortably numb” with the life I had built for myself. I was alive but not really living. Why were all the doors no longer open? Where had the passion gone? What had happened to all of my dreams? So, I decided, it was time to re-open the doors.
My dream deferred had been to live in the mountains. This had been my dream since I was fourteen years old, when my father took me on my first backpacking trip in Alaska. I worked hard all through high school so I could leave Ohio and go to a school that would be closer to the mountains. I ended up at CU Boulder, which was an amazing place at the time. But, Boulder is at the foothills of the mountains, not in the mountains. I didn’t want to be living in a cosmopolitan suburb full of yuppie-wanna-be-hippies, pseudo-athletes, and fake facades. I wanted to be where people were living real lives and real dreams.
So, here I am in Crested Butte– my exploded dream deferred. I am finally an ordinary person living an extraordinary life. But, my life is not unusual by any means. I am an ordinary person, after all. There are 2000 other people in this community living the same dreams and doing the same things that I do on a regular basis. What makes my life so extraordinary? I am finally living the life that I want to be living. Only you can decide for yourself what will make your life extraordinary. Are you living your dreams? Are you pouring your heart and soul into something you love? Does your heart feel full of happiness? If the answer is ‘yes’ then you are truly living a life less ordinary.
TR: Doctor’s Park (14 Sept 2009)
Posted by – September 16, 2009
My schedule seems to be shaping nicely this fall with tutoring, allowing my Monday mornings to be free for some fun! This time, instead of riding with the girls, I went with my friend Zach. The night before, a lot of rain fell. But the day was beautiful. So, the trails were in perfect shape. Here’s a few pics.
Crossing the Spring Creek.
The fall colors are emerging. The trees seemed to radiate in yellow when the sun hit them.
Zach making his way up the road.
The view from the top of Doctor’s is always lovely, with or without the clouds!
Zach on the descent.
Me.
The ride kept getting better and better. I was reminded how fun the Doctor’s descent is! It’s definitely one of the best trails in the CB area. But, the sweet ride turned sour near the very end when poor Zach took a crash that resulted in a tacoed wheel and a deep gash in his arm. The gash was deeper than anything I’d ever seen before and it was obvious he needed stitches. Zach went through an entire roll of paper towels and half a container of wet-wipes, all filled with blood, in the drive back to CB. We took Zach into the CB Medical Center, where Doctor Sherman took one look at him and basically said his gash was beyond what he could take care of. The doctor’s concern was that the gash was so deep, and right on the joint, which is apparently especially prone to strange infections. Evidently there is a kind of bacteria that can go in and eat all of your cartilage in a matter of a few hours. Doctor Sherman set up an emergency “surgery” at the Gunnison OR with Dr. Beim, the same doc that reconstructed my ACL. Zach’s surgery didn’t start until well into the evening. Dr. Beim confirmed that the wound was dangerously prone to infection. She said it went clear to the bone. She cleaned out his joint tissue and then sewed him up. I never knew getting stitches could be so complicated!
Despite the sour ending, the ride was fabulous! Zach is on the mend, though he’s not allowed to ride his bike for 2+ weeks. My best wishes go out to Zach for a quick heal. And thanks again for joining me on a great ride!
For more trail information please see Doctors on our Crested Butte Mountain Biking Guide.
A ride on the Dyke Trail
Posted by – September 12, 2009
I think it was the massage that helped my hip-flexor. My friend Carrie Jo, a massage therapist, spent an hour working on it on Thursday night. When I woke up Friday morning, it felt remarkably better. So, I decided to test it out on an after work ride at the ski area. As long as I didn’t push too hard up steep terrain, my hip-flexor felt alright.
With my hip-flexor on the mend, I was able to make riding plans for today. Frank was riding with Tom, doing Scarps Ridge to the Dyke Trail. The Dyke Trail is one of my favorite rides in these parts and was on my list to get done since I was cleared to ride single track two weeks ago. Not wanting to aggravate my hip-flexor too much, I opted to let the boys ride Scarps on their own, and I met them at the beginning of the Dyke Trail at Irwin Lake.
The Dyke Trail is a fairly short ride. So to make it a little longer, I rode from the bottom of the Kebler Pass road, adding some fairly easy road miles to the trip.
View of Mount Crested Butte from the parking lot.
Axtell. Leaves are changing fast and the peak should be in a week or two. Before long we’ll be skiing this lovely peak!
Beginning of the Dyke trail, with storm clouds looming. Thankfully, with the exception of a few sprinkles, we dodged the rain all day long!
A shot of the boys.
And a couple of me.
Instead of taking the Kebler Pass road all the way back, we opted for the new Wagon Trail down.
All in all a fun day, and I’m glad to be on the mend. Frank will be posting a full TR of his Scarps to Dyke ride soon!
For more trail information please see Dyke Trail on our Crested Butte Mountain Biking Guide.
