Category: Miscellaneous

2009-10 Season in Review

Posted by Brittany – July 19, 2010

The hot weather this past week has had me glum. Yes, Crested Butte CAN have temperatures above 80-degrees- which, for us, who are used to temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, 80+ degrees seems ridiculously hot. To keep from wilting away in the sun, like the flowers have on my deck, I’ve turned my thoughts back to skiing. Oh, how do I wish it would be snowing again.

I have never done a season in review post before. I never really felt the need. But, this season was full of story after story – from healing from last year’s ACL surgery, hosting several women to Crested Butte to my 14er project and other goals. To top it off, this season was my first season to top 100 fantastic days of skiing. I’ve been close to 100 before, but have never actually been able to top it in a season. This year was the year :)

I set out this season with some huge goals, most of which I was not able to fully accomplish. I was hoping to ski 120 days this year, but my knee and work prevented that from happening (although I will be fairly close!). I was also hoping to finish my 14ers this year, but was unable to finish my 9 remaining peaks. I was unable to hit Pyramid in good conditions, and then the line melted out as I sat around waiting for a week-long round of 50mph winds to settle. This left me with 2 14ers left to ski- Pyramid and Pikes, which I am saving for last. Though I didn’t accomplish all of my goals for the season, it was still a season to remember and I am happy with what I did accomplish. So, to honor and reflect upon the stories of this season, I’ve decided to do this season in review. By no means does this account for every ski day or every ski tour, but focuses on the highlights. I hope you enjoy.

Early Season
My season started off back in October, skiing at Loveland shortly after they opened. After not having been on snow since February due to tearing my ACL, I had anguished over actually getting on skis again. But, when I strapped those planks back on, I was ecstatic, despite being terrified of other skiers on the slope.

I enjoyed some early season skiing at Wolf Creek.

My knee didn’t feel right, so I took my time to get into the backcountry. The last thing I wanted to do was to re-injure my knee on some obstacle not fully covered with the early season conditions. But, skinning felt good on my knee, as I found when I began skinning at the resort in November.

December
December marked my first backcountry trip, to Redwell Basin off of Red Lady. I felt like a whole new person.

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TR: Black Canyon views

Posted by Brittany – July 16, 2010

My mom was in town last week, visiting from Ohio, and we took the opportunity to do a bit of sight-seeing in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Never, having been there before, I soaked in all the inspiring viewpoints. I would love to go back for more.

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Rock-climbing Bear

Posted by Brittany – July 9, 2010

This video is crazy! It shows a bear that was “rock-climbing” up a 200 foot cliff in Western Colorado (not sure of the exact location). In the process, he knocked down rocks onto a road, causing the road to be temporarily closed. The video shows only the last bit of this bear’s rock-climbing steeze. But, it’s entertaining all the same!

The magnificent “monument flower”

Posted by Brittany – July 8, 2010

The beautiful wildflower-filled landscape is dotted with something conspicuous this year. It’s a large, extraordinarily tall white flower called the monument plant, monument flower, or green gentian. It’s scientific name is the Frasera speciosa.

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These flowers are not seen every year. But, this summer, they are in nearly every green field that is above 8,500 feet.
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Not having seen these before, I had no idea what these prominent plants were until I read an article in the Crested Butte News. As it turns out, these plants are simply amazing. Here’s a few interesting facts I learned from the article:
* most of these flowering plants are really old, with estimates being that the average flowering plant in Gothic valley is about 35-40 years old, and near Cumberland Pass it’s about 50 years old
* some plants may wait as long as 80 years to flower
* after the plant flowers, it dies
* each stalk doesn’t produce just one flower, it’s actually about 600 different tiny white flowers
* flowering seems to be triggered by some sort of environmental cue like soil moisture or summer precipitation, but since these plants flower so rarely, scientists are unsure of the exact trigger
* the environmental cue is usually widespread, often crossing over into other parts of Colorado and Utah
* since many of the plants tend to flower on the same year, this increases their chances of being pollinated and reproducing
* a stalk may drop 30,000 to 40,000 seeds, but on average only one seed survives to actually grow a new plant
* the plants “pre-form” their leaves, which means that their leaves form on the stalk underground about two or three years ahead of when they actually reach above the ground, which means that the “environmental trigger” causing them to flower likely happened two or three years before

So, if you see these magnificent monument flowers, remember that they are nature’s example of patience. Also, keep in mind that that some of these plants may be older than you and that it could be a long time before you see them again!

Changing Gears

Posted by Brittany – July 1, 2010

That’s right folks, it’s time for changing gears. I have lots of gears on my bike and I’ve been using them quite a lot lately. I took full advantage of the snow storm that dumped all kinds of goodness into the mountains in early June. But that snow has been melting at an alarming rate.

These photos were taken of our line on north Baldy, just a week after we skied it. The line is no longer skiable at the top, the middle, or the bottom (though 2 patches of snow still lie in the middle two thirds of the line).
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This photo was taken of Baldy, just a week and a half after I skied both the west (to the left of the peak) and SE (to the right of the peak). There is virtually no snow left on this aspect of Baldy.
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So, it’s official. I’m changing gears. The ski stuff is now put in the hard-to-reach dresser drawer, in exchange for the bike stuff. I mean, it is July after all :) And the riding as of late has been quite good and keeps getting better!

But, never fear- I have a few more ski turns in me still. I do plan on skiing hopefully once in July and August, until the snow hopefully begins to fall again in September. Though the ski gear is put away, it’s not impossible to reach. And I plan on using it a bit more this summer. Because when it’s summer, I’m always wishing it was winter again :)

TR: Daisy Pass Hike (26 June 2010)

Posted by Brittany – June 29, 2010

My folks are in town visiting and after a few days of riding our bikes, we decided it was time to do something different. How about a hike? Now, keep in mind that Frank and I don’t really just hike. We hike to do something- to ski, to ride a bike back down. That’s just what we do. In fact, I mentioned to Frank that very morning, “We’ve never actually just gone hiking together.” “Yes we did. We went hiking along the tow paths along the Cuyohoga River when we visited your family in Ohio in October.” “That wasn’t a hike, that was a walk.” Daisy Pass was going to be a hike!

We parked at the Oh-Be-Joyful campground and began the hike with a bang- Nothing like a nice scary log crossing over a raging river to start off your day.
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From there, we continued along the trail through a dry wooded area near Schuykill Ridge. Susan, Frank and I.
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Frank, and I.
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Majestic Mountains videos

Posted by Brittany – June 15, 2010

In scanning the internet this week, I came upon a couple of videos that I really liked, as they show the beauty, majesty, and hazard of the mountains. I thought I’d share them with you.

The first was sent to my by my Bulgarian friend, Diana. She writes, “Viysotsky is my favourite Russian poet and singer. The name of this song is Farewell to the montains. He sings: Better mountains can be only mountains where nobody was…”

The second was shows beautiful clips from the BBC Documentary ‘Planet Earth’, Episode ‘Mountains’. The song is by Vangelis, titled “Ask the Mountains”.

If you look closely, you’ll find some scenes from Colorado. Lizard Head in the San Juans is the most distinct. Also, if you watch both videos you’ll notice some clips are shared between the two!

“Done skiing”?

Posted by Brittany – June 8, 2010

One of my more favorite videos to be circulating the Internet lately is this one, which I call “Done Skiing”.

The video portrays a comical conversation between a die-hard skier and guy who’s “done skiing” and will drive 20 miles to go ride his bike on 3-miles of muddy trail, and spend an hour cleaning his bike afterwards. Afterall, “corn is for cobs”. Frank and I, being an avid die-hard skiers ourselves, enjoy this video which mocks the people who are always looking forward to the next season.

I mean, think about it. There’s always those people out there. In August, they’re thinking about skiing. In April, they want to throw the skis away, and bring out the bike. But, what happened to enjoying what you have now? If it’s good weather for skiing, then ski! If the weather’s warm in November, stick with the bike! What’s the shame in that?

So, here I am, pondering these thoughts, and realizing that I’m being my own hypocrite. But instead of throwing the skis away for the bike in April, I want to cling to them. Take the skis away, and I feel like a child who lost her favorite blanket. I keep clinging to my skis, refusing to put them away in the closet for the season. I am in denial of the fact that it’s June, and that even the hard-core skiers have hung up their skis for the season. I’m an addict, after all, and skiing is my drug. I belong in rehab, really. Every week, I find myself hiking farther and farther on dry ground to go seek a few turns on the dirty spring snow that we call “snirt”. But, I don’t care. I’m not done skiing :) It doesn’t matter that the grass is green all around me. There’s still snow in them there peaks!

Photo by Matt Kamper

Maybe I’m trying to make up for lost time? I mean, my season did get cut in half last year by an ACL tear in February 2009. I missed my favorite time of year to ski- March, April, and May. Or maybe it’s that I love skiing more than I love doing anything else on this earth? Or, perhaps it’s the simple matter that I’m just too lazy to get back on the bike. My butt has barely touched a bike seat since November and I know it will kill after my first few long rides. Maybe it’s because the bike doesn’t inspire me like the skis do. Maybe it’s all of the above.

But, when does the skiing stop? If I could have it my way, I’d ski all year round, in a permanent winter/spring. Forget summer and fall. Who needs them anyways? I live for the fluffy white pow, or the round mushy corn. I’ll take either one really. I’ll even take that confidence-inspiring carvable styrafoam. Still, there always comes a point that I really do get “done with skiing”. In 2008, that point happened after skiing Snowmass. The snow was manky, and the hike out was miserable and long, carrying 60+ pounds on my back for 12 miles (including skis and boots), postholing through wet snow, and then still having to hop in the car and drive 3 hours home. I was tired of it. Tired of the hiking, the weight on my back, the postholing, and the driving. I nearly came to that point this past weekend, after our expedition on Ice Mountain (TR coming soon!)- where we lost the faint trail and bushwhacked through the forest for hours, crawling over fallen tree after fallen tree, postholing through hundreds of patches of slushy snow, and marching through bog after bog of mud and bacteria-filled marsh, and crossing flooding stream after gushing stream. My feet were so wet I thought I was going to get “trench-foot”. Still, I amazingly came out of the whole scenario with a smile on my face. I mean, after all, I’m lost without my skis :) So, I guess I’ll just keep on skiing… until I’m finally “done skiing”… and hopefully keep a few of you entertained along the way :)

Reinhold Messner on mental strength

Posted by Brittany – May 25, 2010

It’s May, and May is time for Everest. If you keep up with the Everest gossip, you know about the achievement of a 13-yr old reaching the summit just last week. It seems like every year there’s some new record on that peak. Though today’s records are certainly great achievements, I also like to recognize achievements of old, remembering amazing revolutionary climbers and alpinists like Reinhold Messner. Messner, with is continuous successes at high altitude climbing solo, and without oxygen, pushed the sport to new levels. His solo no-oxygen climb on Everest proved to the world that humans can accomplish the near-impossible. The video below highlights his achievements and also gives a deeper insight into Messner’s mind. Messner’s attitude is different than many mountaineers- he views that in climbing mountains he is not battling the mountain, he is battling himself and his own mental capabilities. His successes are due more to finding the mental strength within himself than just brute physical strength. Great video to watch- inspiring for all athletes as we each battle our own mental demons.

Inspired by a 16-yr old: Jessica Watson

Posted by Brittany – May 20, 2010

Growing up on the coast of Lake Erie, sailing on a regular basis, skippering my own boat beginning at age 6, I still find myself immersed in sailing stories like this one. This 16-yr old girl set out seven months ago to sail around the world. Thousands welcomed Jessica home last week into Sydney Harbor. Though this Aussie is too young to drive, she managed to navigate herself around the world, achieving her dream.

What strikes me most is not just her amazing accomplishment, it’s her perspective- something we can all learn from. Jessica’s record for being the youngest person to sail around the world is under hot debate. But, she shrugs it off, saying, “It’s not something that worries me because there always have been and there always will be some people who choose to not acknowledge the record, and for me it wasn’t ever actually about the record, so I’m not worried at all.”

Jessica tops it off with this: “I’m not a hero. I’m an ordinary girl who believed in her dream. You don’t have to be someone special to achieve something amazing. You’ve just gotta have a dream, believe in it, and work hard.”

Today, I was inspired by a 16 year old. Thanks, Jessica!

Read more on CNN.