The Confessions of Captain Swallowtail

Grandaddy ++

2012-01-30T00:36:00.004-05:00

Finally got out snowboarding again in the ridiculous snow year we are having.
This tree tells the story pretty well:

Turns out Blogger updated their photo system, so click the images below for a better view, it's worth it :)

So Jeff, Najeeby and I headed back to Grandaddy. Apt name for it, long haul up the valley between Corn Biscuit and Lips.

These next photos are climbing the skyline in the photo above.

not bad not bad, if you're into winter and mountains that is. Yeah!

Tommy moe run on the W face of Grandaddy. BIG! Did Tommy ski it? I have no idea, but it's a proud line so I'm guessing he did. Jeff coming into where we could spot from... conditions were perfect, pretty slow snow made the angle feel a bit easier than it really is.

Back up and over. Not too cold this day, probably never got above zero but the sun actually felt warm at times, actually only right here I think.

yes the swallowtail was happy.
Nice chute to get back to the valley we came up. After this Jeff and I skinned over and booted up the thing in the background for a run on the Mistress, oh the Mistress.

climbing one of her thighs.. light fading.

Jeff ready to go down on the Mistress at sunset.

sick day, 3 new runs for me, 2 of which have long been of lore and intimidation. Good (and stable!) conditions make it happen. Will have no problem sewing little bags all day tomorrow.

Happy 2012

2012-01-02T01:50:00.004-05:00

So it's been what, 5 months since I've updated this thing? Guess I'm not too into blogging lately. Maybe in 2012 I'll make more of an effort. doubt it!

Jeff, Najeeby Andy and I started the New Year off right. Temps never got above zero and the wind was brisk on the ridges but conditions could not be any better. Skied Todd's run on Tincan in perfect top to bottom powder. Then climbed up the left side back to the top and did one of the south face lines between Proper and the hippie bowl, superb conditions that felt like those sweet pow lines you seen in ski films shot in Japan, skinny trees, steep, tons of snow, you get the idea. Up again for the wicked gnar line (thanks Andy) to the road. Wore the big gloves all day and the puffy pants emerged from the pack quite a bit.

Mostly skinning photos, the temps & wind were not conducive for exposing flesh for photography sake on the descents.

Looking over to Eddies and Wolverine, Joe and Cathy are somewhere along that ridge.

Had some of the deepest, almost underwater blue tones today - yelling at you "it's faaacking cold here", especially later over the 20 mile valley.

Heading down the South side

Happy New Year!

gear geekery

2011-07-06T01:30:00.003-05:00

I've had a bunch of questions about gear for the beach trip so here goes. A key point in this however is not so much what, is how. What's loaded where is constantly in flux.

BIKE:
Old style pugsley, 80 mm chopper rims, larry's, thick surly tubes, singlespeed 22-20/22 with bashring, XT freewheel, surly front hub, no brakes, salsa 17 degree straight bars, square taper cranks, phil bb.

The trend with fat bike design is for more and more standover but I think it's over rated, it's not an issue for me and I'd rather have the frame bag space for big trips. If all I rode was winter singletrack then I'd have a different opinion.

Brakes are only useful when pushing and you want to keep the bike from slipping back, but they die no matter what within a few days, even if they don't die the sound of grinding grit will make you sick of them.

seat bag:
I used a stock Viscacha on this last trip and liked it better than the rack & drybag combo used on Yak-Cordova. Inside the bag I had 12 days of dinners and breakfasts in a fitted drybag, Iridium Satellite phone in hard case, the megamid and once some dinners were eaten, a spare surly tube. Totally full! I think this is the max length of trip for this setup. One trick I learned was that for stream crossings I could loosen the post and swing the seat 180 degrees keeping all the load, frame bag and seat bag (all the dense food weight) centered on the boat. Another advantage is less paddling interference than a rack for long paddles when the bike is stripped down, less to catch on bushwacking, and it's lighter. Man i sound like I'm sponsored by them of something.

Frame bag:
The bag I used was a big, simple, single zip, tapered front bag with 2 vertical dividers. I made heat sealed dry bags for the 2 vertical compartments which held my daytime snacks for 12 days. The front section held 2 x 20oz water bottles and pedals when they were off the bike. The skinny drybags worked very well since they were super easy to unload into my pack for schwacking and pushing. I took the bag completely off once and shoved it into my pack's beavertail when we played roulette with the La Parouse glacier and I wanted to be able to run with the totally stripped bike on my shoulder... and that I did!

Gas tank:
multi tool, chain lube, bug net, random crap. The new design kept more water out for sure.

Front:
Packraft and sometimes paddles loaded in a Sling. Worked good, last minute decision, I would have brought one of the small pockets next time to go with it. What was nice is that the straps could be used for other things.

Pack: old home made, 22 oz, 45-50ish L (?) with beavertail, no lid, frameless. Key to be able to unload bike to varying degrees and be able to carry everything. When biking it was pretty light with zero water or food weight, carrying only sleep stuff (go lite syn. quilt, prolite XS pad, sleep socks), clothing, ti cookpot, and random stuff drybag (camera batteries, repair kit, ibu) and PFD. I empty it every night and use it as the sleeping pad for my legs.

PDF - Opinions differ but I like using a real PDF, simple kokatat. Sure it's heavier and bulkier than alternatives but... Its safe in the water, part of my sleeping pad setup and can be used as an insulation layer under rain jacket giving a warm buffer between your body and wet pack, that's the clincher personally. On Yakutat north we wore them probably 40% of the time, all day for added warmth. We had superb weather so did not use it really at all for that on this trip.

Clothing:
Thin wool T, Ibex hooded indie, home made wind pro hooded fleece (similar to an R1 hoodie) older REI gossamer hooded puff, go lite storm rain jacket with modified wrist cuffs. Bottom: Patagonia R.5 tights, homemade fleece tights, homemade goretex rain pants with neoprene ankle cuffs and a extension that came up mid-torso. Patagonia release runners with sewn on mini gators (nice and durable uppers but the soles could be better... you are so close Patagonia!) wool socks, NRS hydroskin thin neoprene socks, simple kenai neoprene gloves (luxury).

Since the weather was so darn dry and warm on this trip I did not get to compare how the Ibex wool layer compared to just using fleece against skin. When it's really wet I like just a T, then fleece. Nothing long sleeve synthetic or wicking since it just stays wet and cold, wicking from wrist up.

Shelter:
MC and I shared a BD megalight mid, the other was a go-lite mid, using the paddle shaft as pole. Splat paddles works fine but the adjustable length of the Sawyer paddles sure is nice. no stakes, I use small parachutes made of ripstop and ribbon at the 4 corners for sand and rocks.

Raft:
Old stlye llama circa 2003, with old deck. 2 thick bungee's tied off on the front, mini biners on the other ends. works for me, tons of ways to go about it. The pro-lite XS fits like a glove behind and under the seat for back comfort and warmth.

Bike to Packraft changes:
The prep (or lack of) taken for paddling goes in varying degrees. Basically for quick river crossings and the water is mellow I just put the bike across the front and jump in the boat, Pack either still on my back, or on top of the bike. This way I can quickly jump out of the boat and get everything out of the water since the bike is not attached, It's fast and efficient and great for when there is quicksand, no eddys etc. This disaster style method (thank you Kelly Cordes) gets dodgy as Dylan and I once learned when there is any sort of wind / wave action which might move the bike on the deck, but for most stream crossings it's totally fine.

For long paddles, it's pedals off, seat post off, handle bar off and everything packed tight and compact. Doing this I can get full paddle stroke and go for hours.

Bike to schwack:
Minimally it's pedals off and handlebars unloaded. That's fine for most pushing. If Carrying is involved then food gets unloaded into the backpack using the drybags. For mega-schwacks the seapost gets dropped and the seat bag comes off.

What else? Lumix LX3 camera in a mini shoulder strap drybag case. Bear spray on pack strap bungee. Cookset was 4 oz of 99% alchool and a Ti pot. The alcohol used as fire starter and aquaseal repair prep. With the dry weather we cooked exclusively on fires had a minimum of 2 a day with abundant hot meals. If it had been raining lots, then fire starting would have been more interesting and I would have eaten more cheese and cookie dough for breakfast.

All this stuff has been learned through trial and error. After this trip the only change I'd make would have been bringing the dark lenses not yellow for my sunglasses and maybe a visor. That's it.

all my secrets. go nuts.

Mike's Video

2011-07-05T12:09:00.000-05:00

Don't even think of watching this without pressing the full screen button!

Bikerafting Alaska's Lost Coast: Yakutat to Glacier Bay. from lacemine29 on Vimeo.

Yakutat to Gustavus Coast Trip part 1

2011-07-01T02:00:00.002-05:00

11 days in the wilderness.. how do you sum it up and put it into words? I always have a problem with it and every effort falls short. This will be no exception since my brain is mush and has been in a stream of conscious mode since I've been back.

We had nothing short of a fantastic trip. The weather cooperated, the route was excellent with good riding and a host of challenges, our group was solid and could crack dirty jokes 27 hrs a day. But leaving it at that would not make for much of a story. Details! photos! right?! ok fine. twist my arm.

I've been thinking about this and the best way I can describe how this trip came about is "Circular Inspiration". Roman did bad ass trips in the 90's that blew the doors off the notion of wilderness mountain biking as we know it. Following in the footsteps, Dylan and I were amped on the concept and started packrafting with our bikes a few years ago. Eventually We spent 19 days riding, pushing and paddling our Pugsleys on the northern section of the Lost Coast from Yakutat to Cordova, a route brought to light by Erin and Hig who walked it. At some point a now older and wiser Roman saw the new bikes and the potential... bought one this spring and proposed doing the Southern part - Yakutat south. um yes, Game on! Friends from Colorado, Steve Fassbinder and Mike Curiak, both well versed in the world beyond 2.25" joined in. It was quite the crew, well rounded (literally for some) and experienced.

Expedition Coastal fat tire biking is a unique animal. It's gear intensive with Bikes and packrafts, yet simple and primal. When things click it makes for a very efficient method of travel without the mundane of simply walking. Yet there's more too it than that. You'll have try it for your self, but for me it has something to do with real adventure riding. The giddy feeling of riding where nobody has biked (or even thought of it!) in a remote environment with the self reliance and determination that comes with it. There I tried.

(The photos in this post are a mix of mine and some of DOom's)
Off to Yakutat, landing there and prepping our bikes brought on total deja-vu of 3 years earlier. Same bikes, same flight, same bacon cheeseburger from the lodge.

Heading out to the beach:

We had the perfect night, a low tide that made for a fat tire playground. Gigapixels were burned finally on the beach.

Roman with fatties..

a funny thing happens when everyone is spinning nearly the same gear combo...

We enjoyed near perfect beach for the first 2 days. Crossed Situk Lagoon, The Dangerous River and finally the Alsek as we worked our way closer to the Fairweather range.

We spent the whole trip traversing below all these peaks.

Immense mountains smack in front of us, crashing surf off to the right. Is this really happening or am I dreaming? if so don't pinch me..

At the end of the third day we hit Boulders. Boulders on the beach mean big glaciers are close by. Following bear trails we went up into the woods and schwacked to the lagoon formed by the Grand Plateau Glacier. (note clawage)

We reached the lagoon as the evening's chill was upon us, combined with icebergs and glacier melt made for a brisk paddle in search of a camp spot.

We found one, a tiny stretch of beach between the alders and rocks.

Tall tales by the campfire accompanied sporadic glacier calving off in the distance and we hoped that the lake level would not rise from the mini tsunamis and swamp our camp.

Putting in the next day, everyone giddy for good reason!

Our exit from the lake was a bit of a crap shoot. Our maps (last updated decades ago) showed a braided stream leaving on the far end of the lake. Our plan was to follow that back down to the beach. We did, but the stream was not really there anymore. The landscape had changed dramatically and we climbed up away from the lake in full on schwackfest swamp mode.

We found the stream, but it was just slime covered boulders, balls deep at times.

Off the stream and into the quality. Mike gets acquainted with Devils Club and all that summer Alaska trip have to offer.

A few hours later we broke out onto the coast. The massive boulders were gone and we were greeted to smooth and ridable beach. This would be the theme for days to come. Bash and bushwack in the morning, cruise in the evening.

Cape Fairweather - Subdivision sized boulders loomed ahead. I figured a solid 4 hrs to get around it all. It took us about 6 or so reminiscent of the Sitaki Bluffs along the Malispina Glacier. It was here that Roman educated us on the aptly suitable verb "Stumblefucking" nothing describes it better. Roman obviously derived the term from decades of perfecting the art. You bash along with your bike in mind numbing tedium. Thought process slows, as does time. Your body tires from the minute yet strenuous movements needed to carry, push and bash though the cobbles and boulders. The only thought that need to be held on to is that yes, the bike will be useful again at some point so keep bashing, you're having fun you idoit.

Bear trails, not the best maintained in these parts. good times!

they grow em big out here.

As evening progressed we left the boulders behind and were quickly greeted to the goods. re-pack, pedals on. I was in no hurry this night however. After a solid day of stumblefucking the big trees, big beach and big ocean brought a sense of calm. an erie calm in a way, something that made me think that this moment right here and then, is what I came for.

heading back to the beach

2011-06-13T21:34:00.002-05:00

Once again I find myself with a bike box, looking at a pile of food and gear and a print out of my boarding pass to Yakutat. It's Roman's fault, he got a fat bike and proposed doing the southern route version of the trip Dylan and I did 3 summers ago. I had long thought of going back to Yakutat and pointing the tires south, one email is all it took so now that's what we are doing. The interesting thing is that there are 5 of us. Me, Dylan, Roman and from Colorado Mike and Doom. It's a fat tire wilderness bike packrafting gagglefest!!

should be awesome beach for at least half of it, then marginal, then tons of boating as we leave the outer coast and cross Glacier Bay.
Hope the weather cooperates.

I thought about doing a cool gear post of all the crap I've put together the last few days (frame bag drybag system, seam taped goretex paddling pants, modified rain jacket, new gaiters. It's been refreshing to actually be working on my own gear after not making anything for myself in like a year and a half.

But screw it, I'm not all that into geekery at the moment. been more into this.

Front range rigdes with Finn

2011-06-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

It's not summer until you're up on Front range mountain ridgelines in a tee shirt.
To properly get in the summer groove I took Finn up Near Point, and up the North side of Wolverine and back over near point. Peak bagging with a baby is kinda like adventure racing. You don't want to stop since it will wake up the sleeping kid, If he starts fussing you go faster and see if the motion will soothe him back to sleep, you can't carry much food or water, and you're slightly more uncomfortable with the extra 16 lbs and bottle warming up wedged under your waist belt. If anyone thinks they will get out of shape once they have a kid they are quite wrong! With towing the ski trailer all winter and now hiking and bike trailer, I think it makes you stronger.
anyway..
Up Near point, over the top, back the ridge to our first stop. Finn likes tundra and crinkly things.

Lucy mid nose dive into the snow:

Top of Wolverine, he started fussing big time once we hit the ridge but I just went faster and he fell back asleep. Success.

Finn was awake the whole way back, so we stopped a bunch.

He was not too thrilled about the moderately overgrown steep trail down N. pt. but he got over it.
Awesome day.

Springing into Summer

2011-05-26T01:07:00.000-05:00

Wow, has it been 2 months since I updated this thing?
I suppose that speaks of how f-in busy life has been lately. Time for blogging takes lowest rung with a 6 month old tearing up the Jumper-roo and everyone and their mother-in-law getting hooked on bikepacking. No complaints, just very little free time.

Some review...
Helped Dusty (resident bar tacker in training) with his senior project making a bad ass pack with integrated chest harness. He did everything I just chipped in half ass advice from time to time.

Finnster and I did some peak bagging in April, here is his first summit of Near Point

And up on the Knoya Ridge...

We all finally went up Near Point again...

Then the little guy started day care and Julie and I instantly got sick for the last 6 weeks. Not much to speak of there, lots of snot and the coming of summer.
Got a lot of work done though:

Went Hiking up out of Hope last weekend...

So that's the jist of it. Lots of little things rather than one big thing. Little adventures on a daily basis with Finn and learning how to be a parent.

I do however have a one way plane ticket to Yakutat in June and a new frame bag for my Pugsley. Coincidence? here we go again!

Carpathian

2011-03-14T20:32:00.007-05:00

Hell yeah.

Billy Yvonne, Wayne, Carrie and Tim went in the night before and spent a frigid night up on the upper Portage Glacier. We wanted to meet them for Coffee but they were already high on the ridge. Billy's photos of us coming up:

It's never too late

2010-12-27T14:24:00.002-05:00

December 24th, latest day of backcountry ever.. but I've had good reasons. Really good ones.

Billy and I drove down to Turnagin an ended up stomping up the Freeway that is the Tincan skin track. I have not been on tincan in like 5 years in favor of all the other goods at the pass so it was fun to see the views again. 15 below in the valley so it was nice to get high and warm.

Down to business. Tincan proper. Droolfest line but are always sketched out by the ave hazard. Things are quite stable so off we went.

Played tag with a mountain goat on the ridge! (photos by Billy)

On top or Proper. I checked messages to make sure diaper changes were going smoothly...

Me off the summit. Hummm. reconsidering dropping into the face.

Super fun terrain.

Billy at the bottom. Basically you go right off the top then bounce around on the small ridges at the bottom.

All the way back up to the ridge to ski Todd's run in the evening glow. It was manky but who cares.

That Thanksgiving rain crust is still out there!

anyway, better late than never. i needed a good mountain day, thanks Billy.

Snow biking with mom.

2010-12-06T03:49:00.000-05:00

Introducing Finn

2010-11-07T22:36:00.000-05:00

Mr. Finn Fields Parsons came into the world last Friday.
Many, many, adventures to come...

Ode to Near Point

2010-10-22T12:58:00.004-05:00

Near point.. Just a bump in the front range, so easy to be overlooked by it's much higher siblings with sweeping alpine ridgelines. Near Point holds such high importance to us east Anchorage folk. Often just a gateway to longer adventures, sometimes a destination on it's own. Seeing it out my window beaconing every day...

When you just need to gain perspective, it's easy, drive 10 minutes, hike 25... or run up from Basher.

Or sometimes it looks like this...

Back to that gateway thing. Sometimes Near point is the stepping stone for extended front rage romps.

Off it's back side you can launch up Wolverine, Tikishla, Temptation, Crow Pass or the Canadian border...

But sometimes. Just Near Point itself is enough.
So thank you Near Point (Near Bump) for the 20 or 30 mountain therapy sessions this year. I've lost count...

Ram to Eklutna

2010-09-14T11:47:00.002-05:00

The stars aligned for both the rain to stop and home buying & moving to be out of the way. Headed out to traverse the upper Peter's creek drainage with Billy and Yvonne following the huge ridge lines and bag a few peaks. Spent a night in the little drainage below Bee's Heaven. Met up with Abby and Steve on Sunday which was awesome.

It was the best hike of the summer, and one of the best hikes I've done in the Chugash.
anyway...

Descending towards Peeking Mountain after climbing in the clouds for a few hours.

Dropping down to Peters Creek.. home of the big ones.

Billy near the sick line we skied this spring:

My camera battery died but it came back to life on sunday... traversing to Thunderbird after climbing Bee's Heaven:

Following goat trails towards Eklutna Lake:

another never ending stretch of alpine ridge? yes please...

just an awesome weekend.

Billy's video: ( I think its the first time Billy chose louder music than I would have..)

Sick...

2010-09-09T12:14:00.000-05:00

So the move went well, working on the new shop space now. or.. having handy friends work on it while I sew like mad.

Cameron Lawson sent me this sweet vid just now of buzzing the Lost Coast route. I don't know about you but this just gets the juices flowing and makes me want to buy a super cub.

Flying the Lost Coast of Alaska from cameron lawson on Vimeo.

Other peoples trips

2010-08-29T01:50:00.005-05:00

Been doing the vicarious experience thing quite a bit lately. Two trips recently are hitting pangs of nostalgia since I've been through the places before by bike.

First off is Dylan's big adventure. In pure Dylan style he started from Seattle in January on a single speed and has been cranking south purely by bike ever since. He recently passed from Ecuador into Peru via the Eastern mountain route that is barely passable by vehicle. Dylan never posts photos so here are some of mine:

He also followed the same route I did in 06' up from Jaen to Chachapoyas-Cajamarca. Along this route you pass through an area of high archeological significance where Civilizations made hillside fortresses many years ago. Think Machu piccu unearthed.

After that of course is the 9,000' descent and 9,000' climb in and out of the rio Marion Canyon which simply redefines the scale at which I judged "big" climbs on a bicycle. (and that's after riding in Ladakh!)

Follow Dylan along here: (day 231 and counting...)

Next of course is Brett deWoody's and Cameron Lawson's modified repeat (sans Hubbard Gap) on our 2008 trip on the Lost Coast in the Gulf of Alaska. This trip was a big leap foreword it felt like. Expedition summer time fat tire biking with packrafts. We both walked away from this one feeling like we accomplished something pretty amazing. The door to all terrain biking madness was kicked open big time.

Brett and Cam's successful endeavor takes just a weeeeeeeee bit of the specialness out of it on a personal level, but I guess just like climbing big mountains, someone is always going to come up after you. The planet is too small these days to think otherwise. Congrats to Brett and Cam on a successful trip! looking foreword to hearing about it...
Their trip blog here:

The glolden orb has returned!

2010-08-22T14:33:00.005-05:00

Lucy was complaining the other day about how few new peaks she's bagged this summer. Always the same old nearby stuff. So we headed off to do the Elliot ridge and peak starting from Stuckagin. We did a part of the ridge last fall in the other direction.

So this was Near Point to Wolverine then the ridge to Elliot. Dropped down to Williwaw lakes (found a sweet goat trail). Then over the pass to Long lake and out the valley up and over near point again. Awesome loop on more trails made by sheep than people.

EDIT!! Lucy had in fact bagged this peak before, you can tell by the way she guided me the entire day and ran me into the ground.

Kachemak Bay

2010-08-15T23:48:00.002-05:00

Julie and I had been planning to do a fly-in trip into the Talkeetna mountains all summer. Twice the awful weather kept us home and working with bags packed since we could not fly where we wanted to go. We have a little dude on the way, are trying to buy a house, life is busy as ever and time is ticking, so we finally decided to gas up the truck and drove to Homer. Wait a sec... a little dude?! yep. 7.5 months along... mountain biking & heavy packs get the thumbs down, but packrafting and base camping - yes!

So the four of us started off the 5 hr drive to Homer. Lucy was just thrilled about this, we started laughing at her antics right off the bat and did not stop for 5 days.

Spent the night at Pat and Kathi's then got a water taxi across the Bay to Right beach with Mako. Good guy, great service. Low and behold the sun even came out.

Hiked in the Grewingk glacier trail.

Lucy became acquainted with her new DFD. It was not an instant hit, but she eventually warmed up to it.

there is a bit of a learning curve involved getting her to lie down in the boat. Mostly she just laid down and convulsed like she does all the time since she's scared of everything.

soaking up the Grewingk glacier.

Days just flowed and we rolled with the weather, lounging in the tent during rain and just being unplugged.

One morning we paddled into Halibut Lagoon and hiked up the trail a ways. Riding in the rising tide and later out with the falling tide. The water was just chocked full of life. We had seals and a few groups of porpoises swimming around us amidst big salmon flying out of the water, jelly fish and tons of birds.

Other days were all about just playing stick and playing in the water...

a little closer view is needed here...

Later dinner views..

Even the gray was pretty in it's own right and made me think back to other long beaches slogging with a mission along under the drone of crashing waves.

Our last day we hiked back to Grewingk Creek and paddled out the glacier fed ripper to the ocean then hiked the spit back to camp. Super fun loop for all four of us.

On Glacier Spit.

back to civilization... thanks Kachemak Bay.

Friday photos

2010-08-06T11:53:00.001-05:00

Falls creek wind fest

2010-07-30T23:03:00.004-05:00

Ok so I got my camera back from Panasonic and after a 2 month hiatus this blog will now return to it's usual banter.

Dave twisted my arm to take advantage of the 6 hr weather window this morning to see some new terrain.. for me at least.
Started at Falls Creek and made a hard left to go straight up the ridge instead of the valley trail. The ridge does not mess around gaining elevation from the arm.

Some curious Sheep:

The views matched the wind at times, both huge!

Linking up some stellar sheep trails.. they make the best ones out there.

Cruising the ridge after about 4,000' up. still windy!

With a constant blow of about 50-60 mph (?) here we decided to skip entering the vortex over south Suicide and bail on our planned route.

Dropped down to the head of Falls Creek and headed back up the gully on the left to the Indian house ridge in the background.

Back up to high sheep trail runnin'

and down the Indian house ridge (steep!)...

Thanks Dave, that was sweet!

when it rains it pours

2010-07-26T02:03:00.000-05:00

Little bit of a radio silence for the last month, my camera has been dead and I've mostly just been running around the front range.

Feels like fall lately, cool and rainy.
Hike the ridge up Cummulus on saturday just before the deluge.

Luc's vid

2010-06-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

AMWC 2010

2010-06-23T02:15:00.002-05:00

Wild dreams, wild plans, all over with before we knew it.

I was planning on doing the race for the last year, but actual plans did not come together until days before the race. Obligations and life were pulling hard at my "free" time. But the plan.. oh the plan.. it was just too good to NOT attempt. Luc Mehl's psyched factor helped lots with motivation. I owe it to him for pulling it all together at the last minute.

Anyway, bike around the Granite Mountains on ATV trails, then up the Delta river gravel bars, then bash and bike up the Black Rapids glacier. Switch to skis at snowline and tow the bikes in the inflated packrafts. Cross over into either the Susitna-Nenana, or all the way to the Yanert. Float out. 4ish days. beautiful & maybe even competitive. Unfortunately both mechanical woes and weather put a damper on things and we only made it to the Richardson highway.

Luc and I at the start are we missing any sports here? a kite maybe? paragliders? We got a lot of looks with the multi-sport approach and anti-light weight thinking.

Trails started fast, we quickly dusted everyone doing the round about route.

But then mud bogged for a few hours. Chris, Bobby, Tyler, Chunk and others leap froged with us since we were slower with all the crap.

About 6 hours later we pulled away from every one on better, drier trails with some decent climbs.

Crossing Jarvis Creek... Luc is actually smiling here.

Covering ground on old moraine...

Route finding got tricky, we were on this roller coaster ATV trail that was taking up alot of our energy with the climbs. So we pondered other routes. During a really minor little brush crossing this happened:

Major Drag. Both single speed gear options did not work. The bike was toast, then it started raining... hard.. and did not stop for the next 10 hrs. We got soaked and ran the trails, then down to the pipeline, then all the way to Donnley and signed into the one and only checkpoint of the race. We were somehow still the first ones there, but it did not matter much.. I was not about to push my bike up and over the black rapids glacier and the weather was not inspiring. That about does it. Chunk and Tyler tried the BR route but turned around from a wall of rain that was engulfing the Alaska range. So I don't feel so bad. The PJ's and a guy from Fairbanks are still out there on the normal route. Probabaly totally killing it with nobody chasing them.

Over with before I knew it. Psyched for redemption next August...

slayer!

2010-06-13T00:27:00.001-05:00

since my ipod has nothing but crappy old metal on it, this just totally killed me.

nothing against gospel or anything.

Adventure Cyclist

2010-06-06T14:01:00.001-05:00

Adventure Cyclist Magazine just ran an article on the beach trip Dylan and I did in 08'

bit of a title change, the original was dubbed "Chronic Wetness" for the feelings and personal humidity levels encountered. Figured that would be edited! :)

also, Jill just took a job there so it's all the more reason to support the Adventure Cycling Association.

New site

2010-06-05T14:08:00.000-05:00

Remember that little naming contest I had over the winter?

well nobody won, but I appreciated all the ideas and support.

Introducing:

http://www.revelatedesigns.com

Bikepacking on the beach

2010-05-24T10:49:00.001-05:00

Julie and I headed down to the Kenai and rode from Captain Cook State Park up to Point Possession and back. Spent 2 nights out. It was fantastic and a nice contrast to the snowy trips lately. This trip is a must-do if you own a fat tire bike and don't mind getting the chain dirty.

Erroding bluffs

Nearing Point Possession

Around the corner looking at Chickaloon bay

ahhhhhhhh...

busy week ahead with some exciting stuff to show off soon.

Mountain immersion

2010-05-17T11:20:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning: Was planning on working all weekend with the mediocre weather forecast - 8:40 phone call, "we are rallying for Pitchlers.." 2 nanoseconds later an uncontrollable "I'm in" blurted out of my mouth.

The time is now.

The next 30 hrs went something like this:

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

another therapy session complete.

alaska range sickness

2010-05-15T00:21:00.000-05:00

Billy just climbed the Mooses Tooth. Yeah!
Nice job man!

The peak of many slogs

2010-05-09T22:57:00.003-05:00

JT is on a lifetime quest to summit all the peaks in Chugach state park. His over riding enthusiasm to go after the more obscure peaks is contagious and next thing you know you are hiking up Eagle River for a West Kiliak attempt.

West Killiak is big, 7450' almost as high as Yukla and is seldom climbed. In hindsight its offers the quintessential Chugach mountaineering experience. Long approach, half bushwack "trail" to get up closer, then mega slog for a few thousand vertical, then like 50' of easy technical climbing.. but that you still need to carry a rope and gear for. Then difficult route finding since you have no beta because nobody ever really goes up there in the first place.

Dropped overnight gear at the river and turned off from the Crow pass trail - with like 7,000' vert to go.

Along the brushed out trail into the Icicle drainage (thank you Dave Hart!)

We quickly hit snow and had our first of many body holes of the day...

Out of the trees finally, snow just a bit better. long way to go. The upper Icicle valley is a jaw dropper, the north face of Yukla is a gnar alpine mecca and guys with names like Clint like to hang out here.

With beautiful north face routes looking prime, we headed up a talus slope from hell to get up to Kiliak's upper slopes. This is some quality shit right here.

glad that's over with... ok where are we going? UP!

We went up the couloir in the middle then traversed far left to go up the skinny one.
The slogging was slog-a-rific, but the views sure were nice! Polar bear, Flute and Eagle in the back.

into the clouds.

Yukla!

On JT's previous attempt he made it to this spot and ran into about 30' of ice. We came prepared for that, but it was pretty small this year - a thin, wet, exposed step we needed to get over. I went up it then got out das rope and hip belayed JT up.

He was psyched to get past this point and continued trenching out a stair case for me.

Now things got interesting, it opened up and had several choices. 2 of them got steep quick and the last went what seemed too far to the left. After poking around I went left to see what I could see, feeling not optimistic at all about it. It was late and we tired. The snow thinned out and we had to get up some rock steps. Still having no idea where the true summit actually was or where we were going, just taking the path of least resistance.

JT decided to wait while I poked around a bit more. Still feeling like we were on some ridge leading to a false summit I dropped my pack and kept moving up.. then wait.. what's that? a plateau with a small snow lip.. humm looks summit like. scramble scramble. holy shit this is it! So heck yeah West Kiliak Summit, higher than most everything and my darn camera is in my pack below me. Drats!

Going down,

we rapped the ice step.

and down-post-holed the route. Ridiculous views.
hi Eagle Peak..

and out.. the sub optional body holing continued.

made it to the river at 10:30 for a 14 hr day. Julie and Adrienne had a fire going and I got to sleep on a punctured therma-rest with a snoring convulsing lucy dog. what a day. maximum. thanks JT!

TGRVPCSF010

2010-04-26T00:03:00.005-05:00

Big Day, 2 huge lines, stellar weather, great snow, 3 valley traverse. Simply one of the best backcountry days I've ever had.

Billy's vid:

Up Raina from Ram Valley:

Upper Peters Creek!!!!!!! BIG MOUNTAINS!

Jeff dropping into the Raina Chute:

Jeff in his element...

Back up the south side of Peeking. baking sun, sticky snow. Was glad to get this one done with. de-ja vu from a few weeks ago

Looking down the Peeking cooler. umm we're skiing what? Huge, intimidating and very limited visibility for spotters.

words just are not quite cutting it on how this was. Billy is the tiny dot in the middle. It's big!

The North side of Peeking is a total alpine playground!

Touring over 2 more ridges to get back to the start..

At the pass above falling water, only 3000' down to go here.

JT and his dog August House... August chased some Sheep and decended a super gnarly cliffy slope. He won the sack award of the day for sure on that one.

With 8000 vertical under our feet we made it down to the car and with several days of euphoria packed away. slay.

re-designin

2010-04-20T12:40:00.002-05:00

Its easy to get caught up and not take the time to try to improve things. So I spent a few days last week on the following:
Super Twinkie - It's still gigantic and not for 98% of my customers. but hey, "it" lives on...

psyched on how it came out, much improved top pocket and elimination of the extension seam and stress point, mostly though the improvements were to make the patterns more precise and the bags come out more consistent and save headaches.

next - gas tank.
the Small gas tank is no more... I was only getting 1 in 25 orders for it anyway, so the new tank is a bit shorter than the old medium, but taller. The 2 1" straps bar tacked to the bottom have been consolidated into a single reinforced 2" strap which will give more compatibility with frames with head tube gussets. Also I'm adding a little flap to cover the gap at the front and fully lining the bags with white fabric. sweet...

mucho mejor..

Crusties for breakfast

2010-04-09T21:27:00.001-05:00

Wake up at 6:00 am..
Drink 1 French press
drive 45 minutes.
Breakfast is Served!

These crusties were a bit on the soft side. I hope to eat harder crusties soon.

Falling water Valley

2010-04-04T12:04:00.002-05:00

Billy, Dan, Pat and Todd and I went in to the Falling water valley to ski the chutes on Rainia's North Face. Great Day I've only looked into the area before from the mile high ridge. Lots of big terrain to be found.

The couloir we went up is the one on the left. Raina's main Chute is over to the left around the corner.

The view... what an awesome day.

Dug a pit.. found a funky layer 18" down. Continued booting up... was not feeling great about it dug another and found more of the same with pretty easy shears. We called it about 2/3rds of the way, just before the angle kicked up some more.

At the bottom we ran into Viking, Nora, Dave, Mel and Cathy. They came in from Ram Valley and skied the main Chute. Awesome! It was good to be back into the sun. I had Peeking on my brain so headed up the basin further. Trying to keep motivation going. :)

It was just Billy and I that headed up the next gully, nice sun crust corn for skinning.

Finally out of the chute and up onto Peeking's West face. The snow changed dramatically from spring corn - a deep winter snowpack.

We stopped shy of the summit, too early for this stuff at 6,500'.

Nice turns in the cooler... nice views too.

Viva spring in the Chugash!!

update - Billy's photos here

this and that,

2010-04-02T22:34:00.003-05:00

ot much exciting lately.
This has been the view for the most part:

Aside from wildlife viewing a lot got sewn together this week.

I set up to do a batch cutting job with more layers than I'd ever cut with my little electric 3" blade... It got hot fast and reminded me of that smell when you're mixing cookie douugh with a cheap-o mixer... not good.
It was a good excuse to try out my latest ebay impulse purchase. It's a little ahead of it's time for sure but I like buying cool industrial equipment. Think chop saw with a razor blade for fabric:

It worked but it was like gardening with a bulldozer... over gunned, needed more layers and weight. Back to smokin' little blue.

Did I mention it's Friday?

Enough shop stuff. I got some fun Press lately. The first was west coast based Momentum magazine, they got wind of the pugsley beach trips and did a little blurb. Here is the web link.

Alaska Airlines magazine also did a breif profile of Epic Designs this month with a few other local business big and small. It's short and sweet, but I had to laugh however at the caption for the photo.
If you're flying this month you'll see what I mean.

Congradulations Mike!

2010-03-23T11:08:00.002-05:00

photo pulled from Phil's blog.
Totally self sufficient Knik to Nome.
I don't see any processed sugar left in those bottles - Pretty lean looking fella ain't he!

Carpe Diem

2010-03-17T23:44:00.007-05:00

one of the advantages you hear about of being self employed is being able to skip out on weekdays all the time. This actually is not true and you will find yourself working most weekends as well. As Julie pointed out "you're self employed.. get the hell out of here!" When the Yellow Orb in the forecast calls, in March, it must be heeded.

Jeebs, Page and I went to Turnagin with Pastorial peak on the docket. It's been a year since I've been back there (a good day it was) I was hell bent with way too much jitter juice flowing to say the least.

Started with a run off of the top of Sunburst:

Sun crust forced warp factor 11 speeds... crazy fast! Page is the dot near the top for scale.

Back to Taylor Pass.. thanks skin trail.

Up Pastorial

a bit windy at the pass and along the ridge for sure...

You simply can't top the view from Pastorial Peak on a clear day. Huge mountains in all directions beckon.

Top to lower valley run.. no photos, broke a nice skin track back up to the glacier.

Killer pow, must repeat. all the way back up to the top.

Manta ray cornice.

Thanks Pastorial.. we did the runs just left of the summit, this view is fore-shortened and deletes the whole middle part.

by popular demand.. The swallowtail cam!

back up out of the basin, up over sunburst to get back. Page is the most ripping tele skier I've ever seen, with about 7,500' vertical of climbing under her boots she was pretty happy.

Thanks Ladies!

Jeff's B-day

2010-03-08T13:53:00.001-05:00

Jeff got what he wanted for his birthday, blue skies, incredibly fresh blower cold smoke snow, and no body out there. Felt like we had the place to our selves.

Up To PMS bowl on magnum. Breaking trail from the car all the way to the ridgeline. The cornice up there is the biggest I've seen it.

Crazy cornice.. looked like a head down battering ram.

A group heading to Taylor pass:

3 runs on Magnum, then busted up the valley and did Super bowl.

A group on the wild ridge heading up to Gold Pan that Billy Yvonne and I did a while back.

Best snow all year!

Marlin's ice drums

2010-03-01T12:52:00.002-05:00

Marlin's been cooking up this for a while and got some good press this morning. Follow this link .
Fat tire bike expeditioning on the great lakes with packraft safety sled for personal scientific studys. Awesome.

Surgery

2010-02-21T02:32:00.001-05:00

Big Brother is finally back in action. I learned a lot in the process. Had one key snafu which had me mystified for hours.. but a fresh start today (and a run up Wolverine looping over to Near point) helped volumes with the patience factor.

First - taking everything apart. Feet off, trimming knives off, broken hook assembly removed.

Old hook.... new hook.. remind me later to open a machine shop in Japan to make millions on these things.

Timing and opener adjustments.. key.

Everything back in place...

back in business.

Extreme!

2010-02-19T02:34:00.001-05:00

shit, you better put your beacon on if driving to Seward..

This says it all

Thinking about crust skating up the placer when this crap re-freezes.

drats...

2010-02-17T02:52:00.001-05:00

This was one mistake I'll not repeat again.

Ship Pass Emergency Overnighter

2010-02-14T20:32:00.001-05:00

Headed over Ship Pass and spent the night up near the north side of Bird Ridge Overlook Peak. This will be a photo essay. enjoy.

When touring in the Chugash.. one must select the proper skis...

These next few are for Gnat.. who request time exposures this weekend. These are 15-40 seconds.

Weather rolled in as forecasted - woke up to wind and snow.

Back up to Ship Pass..

pretty windy now..

back to town.

2010-02-03T00:56:00.000-05:00

lots of this:

with a decent helping of this...

Been really enjoying short jaunts up in the front range this winter. The night above's 35 minute rager descent of near point has had me sore for days. Good sore though. Its never too early to get into summer time mountain shape right?

FAIL

2010-01-30T00:57:00.000-05:00

Some of you regulars may remember this post..

Well. It's obvious. I have failed.

The flack jacket did it's job protecting the back and spinal column of mr bungee duck. However a key weakness was found.

So obvious now in hind sight. Now that there is nothing that I can do to help this poor thing.

It's just a shame. really.

Dead.

Inverted

2010-01-24T14:04:00.001-05:00

Lucy and I got out for a front range ramble up Knoya yesterday. The temperature inversion was amazing. -1 at home, but high 20's in the mountains. The leather boots and thin layers got packed.

Up the dome, ice fog and hoar frost giving way to Spring time.

The last time luz and I were up here was early October when we embarked on a 5 peak slay fest.

She was pretty excited to get back on the horse.

Up top - looking over to Tikishla.

Temperature were indeed tropical feeling - no gloves, base layer. Dead of winter? not here..

some nice boot skiing on wind hammer covered with powder..

Go up.. it's warmer.

daytime ride?

2010-01-23T01:52:00.001-05:00

you must be joking! Winter riding when it's light out?
Yes it actually happened today. It helps that the days are getting longer.
Puurfect trail conditions on snowy single track. Temps in the low singles.
Shop - tour trail - Speedway - Rovers - Tank- Moose Ridge - Tour trail - back to sewing.
I had done a similar version twice in the past week, but it was dark and no camera. Nice to see it during the day.

Dual Larry's - Need I say more? ok I will - they Rock!!

Hatch

2010-01-13T01:04:00.002-05:00

This view never gets old, neither does the powder and speed - both of which were abundant on sunday...

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T13:44:00.002-05:00

Skied in to the Crescent Saddle Cabin to ring in 2010.
clear skies, full moon, good friends and assorted alaskana... Could not ask for more.

Joe and I got all geeky with time exposures and got some great results. These are 20 second exposures with the lx3 straight out of the camera:

Yesterday was clear and cold, we found some sweet terrain above the lake.

Happy New Year.

Go Dylan Go..

2009-12-30T17:13:00.000-05:00

Mr. Dylan Kentch just left Alaska en route to the lower 48. He's starting a year (or 2?) long trip from Seattle down to South America via Mexico to Brazil & Argentina on an lugged steel 80's vintage singlespeed. I would not put a repeat of the Darian gap crossing beyond him.

He looks like this:

If you happen to see him along the side of the road in Washington, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico etc. Please give him abundant food and shelter.

Good Luck Dylan!

aww gee schucks..

2009-12-23T03:18:00.004-05:00

Mr. Dial came by the shop yesterday for a 3+ hour Alpacka binge sewing session.
I think he was pretty excited at the results!
Thanks Roman

Long before I even moved up to Alaska I had read about Roman's hell bike missions. Traversing the Alaska range? where the heck is the Alaska range? Roman and his partners took wilderness mountain biking to a place where followers (even fueled by modern cookie dough!) would be hard pressed to reach again. We stumble along humbly in the footsteps day dreaming of riding across the Black Rapids Glacier and eating bacon grease for 40+ days.

He's the kind of person who picks something and takes it to the highest possible level before moving on or loosing interest or motivation. Obsessive possibly. Highly Driven Yes.

Now, with packrafting he's pushing it to new realms it's never been, and his enthusiasm is highly contagious. (six mile on Solstice anyone? Knik arm attempt duex?)

Have fun in New Zealand Roman... and stop feeling so Guilty about leaving!

stiched

2009-12-21T14:30:00.003-05:00

ok no more doom and gloom.
Here is a stitched photo from biking in the Quimsa Cruz.
This spot was pretty nuts, we descended from a 15,300' pass and hoped to drop some, but all we found was a frigid wind off the glaciers and abandoned mining ruins inhabited by enormous high altitude feral rabbits. Around the lake and back up we went to some even
higher unnamed pass!

Fitting

2009-12-19T02:52:00.002-05:00

This pretty much sums up my feelings recently.
It will make sense in the next few months.

Gold Paning

2009-12-13T22:49:00.003-05:00

The "Omega High" pressure has caused a crazy inversion for the past week +. Resulting in lots of fog and not much sun. So it was time to go find some above the fogged in city. Billy offered a boondoggle and even if they aren't' they are. And I always seem to bite hook line and sinker.

Up we went, around Corn Biscuit to to Goldpan. The glowing orb in the distance is the sun. Yes it still exists.

The main chute on Goldpan usually has a school buss cornice and is downright spooky looking. But with the stability it looked feasible.

Kevin and Ryan passed us. Thanks for the skin track and boot pack guys!

Super aesthetic up track, a bit exposed..

Hard and crusty entrance gave way to more of the steep chute. Then the flat light fan lower down.

Here comes Yvonne..

Stoked on the run we headed up the back side of Corn Biscuit to hit the Corner pocket Chute.

Righteous sunset even if it's at 3:45. The Chugash just soaks it up...

Top of Corner Pocket:

Humm.... looks a touch firm.

it was.

Fantastic day out. who cares if the snow sucked.

Thanks Billy and Yvonne!

Tuesday Triage

2009-12-09T03:52:00.000-05:00

Lucy is a Killer.
The death toll lately has been staggering and the bodies have been piling up.

Medical attention was needed.. and Fast!

Mr. Watermelon Head getting sutures.

Mr. Rope dog had cranium matter exposed. The situation was dire indeed.

In the end amputation of the head was required.

Mr. Bungee Duck was not looking so hot with severe lacerations to the the back and torso.

The wound was closed and Mr. Duck received a heavy duty flack jacket to prevent future injuries.

All in all it was a rough day to be a stuffed dog toy, but they live on to see more thrashings.

hello winter

2009-12-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

Inagural day at Turnagin. Rocked.
Thanks Jeff and Cathy!

gear thoughts

2009-12-02T02:09:00.004-05:00

I try to keep this blog less about gear and more about doing, but what the heck, a little geek out now and then never hurt.
So some random thoughts:

Bikes:
Touring on an aluminum frame with a thru axle suspension fork and 26" wheels is actually pretty sweet. Just like old days, I did not miss the bigger wheels really. Please don't hate me...

Schwable marathon extreme 2.25's are totally incredible tires. No flats, not a scratch in the sidewalls. Now they just need to come out with a 29" version. Way more dirt worthy than the XR's. Wish I had these on previous trips.

Bags - beat on and no complaints, at one point I had 25 lbs in the harness (water) , then later hung 20 lbs off the bottom of the seat bag and nothing ripped. awesome.

Camping:
Megamid worked as it always does, but next time I might consider bringing just the outer of a Hilleberg for better performance in wind.

XGK burning gasoline - 3rd world no brainier. Except that the pump cup died on the very last morning. MSR switched the tried and true leather pump cups for rubber. silly MSR...

Pads - Julie's Big Agnes primaloft pad leaked like a sieve - on the top fabric! It's gotta be defective. we could not keep air in it despite many patch jobs. My prolite 3 3/4 length was not thick really enough for the hard Bolivian ground, it's the same pad I used last time down there so I must be getting soft.

Bags - I brought a 20 synthetic because that's the good mid weight "alaskan" bag I have. A 15 degree down would have been perfect. No need for a synthetic down there. I also brought a ultra light primaloft hooded jacket and slept in it almost every night (with all my other clothes too!). My Mont bell alpine light down jacket would have been better and warmer. (Last time I had a 5 degree down and a tent...and was toasty the whole time, I must have forgot that when packing...)

Shoes - I brought my Sidi's and trail runners... mistake. I was just too lazy to buy new bike shoes with winter coming. J had pearl izumi X alp enduro's with flip flops... I was Jealous as she walked with ease on rocky stuff while I stumbled in the plastic soles (not much left of them), later the soles delaminated and they are basically destroyed now. whoops.

We barely had any rain, even though we were expecting much more, so thankfully none of that stuff really got tested or used in any way.

anyway, this was all mulling around. now it's not.

Sorata

2009-11-28T05:53:00.001-05:00

I put the first part of our bike trip on bikepacking.net.
Link here

Heading home

2009-11-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

Last night of this extended vacation before a 36 hr enduro air port a thon to get back to Anchorage. It´s been an amazing trip. Packed a lot in that´s for sure. The Illimani / Qusima Cruz traverse was an increadible route with all it´s many ups and downs. Those Andes I tell you... Since then we´ve gotten a taste of the Altiplano rainy season in Sajama which basically consisted of ¨run but you can´t hide¨ hail and lightening storms, then after that some much needed down time hiking into warmer climes in the Yungas.
Photos soon!

onward

2009-11-02T10:04:00.001-05:00

Back in La Paz after a great 4 day loop around Sorata. No pictures to post.. sorry. I dont trust my memory card to sketchy public computers!

Basically climbed all day to 13,000´and took an abandoned road that short cutted the tops of numerous valleys and ridge lines over to another village. Then came back on a low road which contoured all the valleys we passed over. Super Dramatic vertical relief.

Julie is fighting a stomach bug and I´m already on Cipro for the same... so we are back in La Paz resting and re-stocking up for a 10-12 day trip to Cochabamba via the south slopes of Illimani and the Quisma Cruz range.

vacation..

2009-10-17T21:52:00.005-05:00

ahhh Bolivia
Adrienne, Julie and myself for half, then 2 of us for the rest.
Diverse temperatures, altitudes and landscapes...

Apolobambo, Quismera Cruz, Altiplano,?, ?

Here is my new pack, basically I wanted a pack that is light and fine to bike with, but still have enough volume to put everything into and be able to do, say a 4 day trek.

It came in at 1 lb 9 oz, which is pretty light. Its 7 oz lighter than the Talon 33 and right about even with the 22, and able to carry much more. I was going to use my old standby, but the hip belt was a bit bulky for long term biking, and a touch on the large side.For this, the back and side pieces were already cut, and were the last bit of dyneema grid I had, so they determined the size right off the bat. I've never had a pack with a big back stretch pocket, so it's a bit of an experiment.

Full Dyneema X-pac bottom... nuts.. its incredible material. friends in high places...

I designed the buckles so that I could use the front pocket of the harness as a lid for backpacking. I've done many a bike trip using the lid of a pack for a handle bar bag, and it's what inspired the Harness design to some extent. Multi function gear is good!

See ya later!

Front range rally

2009-10-14T02:01:00.003-05:00

Tuesdays have somehow become my day off. I had plans today to go for a hike and get some other stuff done. When I looked outside to thick, pea soup fog and mist I had a feeling it was one of those days where you can get above it...
With wipers on driving up through borderline rain I started to have second thoughts about my optimism. Top of the Dome trail - thick fog, 1/2 way up knoya same... then it started to happen.

My energy level went through the friggin' roof right about then, let the slaying begin!

On top of Knoya, Lucy was just getting her groove on as well.

Tikishla, one of my favorite front range peaks. We took the ridge to Knoya pass then went straight up the scree face. (not great, but decent)

Luz was stoked about Tikishla, and celebrated by basking in the Indian summer sun.

Next up - East Tanaina. woo hoo, I've never done this one before, no better time like the present. Bombed down scree and traversed the basin to the right side ridge.

From the top of E. Tanaina, West Tainaina was close, but big talus and bolders are not the GPT's 18" tall specialty and we were starting to ponder return options. Humm this looked good....

Elliot Ridge and Wolverine finishing via Near Point for a loop, sounds like a plan. but first a big drop to Long Lake..

This photo is cool since it views a previous photo I took a few weeks ago in the opposite direction - scroll down.

into the fog again.

up up up to Elliot ridge, starting to hurt a bit now...

Elliot Ridge was fantastic, can't wait to head back and do it again, just awesome ridge running.

Glen alps area..

Looking back at the first part - Knoya, Tikishla and the Tanaina's

up wolverine, down, up near point down.

Totally giddy.. feeling like I got away with something. But with 8,000 something vert, my feet think otherwise, Lucy is busy researching new pads.

2009-10-12T11:58:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend I pretty much finished all orders that I've promised to people. So now its all about actually getting my own gear together. In a week I leave for Colorado for a few days, then on to La Paz Bolivia for a month of biking and talking to llamas. The header photos recently have been from the last trip I did down there. The previous one was in Parque Nacional Lauca after crossing into Chile on the road to Arica. The one above is in the middle of nowhere after leaving the tiny Aymara village of Sacabaya. I had an amazing experience both in getting to, and passing through the village. So the photo above describes a lot of things right now.

33 woo hoo!

2009-10-07T01:44:00.006-05:00

Two weeks ago, The GTP turned 1 and I took her out for a good long mountain run. Well today was my birthday, so she took me out on one to reciprocate the favor and to visit with my mountain friends. Good thing we both like galloping!

We landed a perfect like 18 hr weather window between the "colder by the day" rain.
Up we went. Long ridge line with lots of up and down on the south side of South Fork, then back via the valley trail. I've only done this ridge one other time like 7 years ago which is crazy since it is freaking awesome.

I love ridge running.

"Go faster you slacker - there's more ridgeline to slay!..."

Hello Alaska range...

"Hurry up!"

Eagle peak looking all Alpinesque..

We made it to the Triangle pass where I threw in the towel amidst changing weather and a stiff wind, Lucy wanted to go slay Triangle peak but I talked her into chasing Sheep instead. By the time we got down to Symphony lake she was actually starting to show signs of tiring herself...

I thought she'd let us just walk the valley out back to the trail head, but nope, no such luck today. She made me gallop.

The shop

2009-10-02T20:57:00.015-05:00

while this blog is really about running around in the mountains, I figured it was time to do a post on where I spend the vast majority of my time these days (especially recently!)
The shop started in the basement of a rental, not much, just the Juki and a small table. It eventually moved into a 1 car garage and had a bit more breathing room. Since then I've moved 3 times due to crappy housing situations until this spring when my friend Jeff granted me sweatshop Asylum. I've been taking up like half to 2/3rds of his garage ever since, slowly inching outwards (don't worry man, I'm done for a while!).

Chaos generally prevails:

This is the fulfillment center, finished stuff waits more finished stuff, then gets boxed up and weighed.

The big table: Originally I used the floor when I started out, then got some drafting tables.. Then built a 4x8 table, then expanded it to 6 x 8.. now it's 6x10 with fabric storage underneath (key...)

The big table is used for everything, but when it comes time to do a major cutting session - the thing gets cleared off completely and this comes out:

It will go through 5 layers of VX21 pretty well which lets me cut, well 5x as much...

Using lighters to sear the ends of webbing got old, a dedicated soldering gun was not much better, so I picked up this hot knife chopper. Makes chopping webbing oh so fun.

It's not on Surly's website yet, but it soon will be. It gets very very hot and I'll be happy come winter when my hands are numb.

Machine time:

Ms. Juki (DNU -241H) has been with me from the start and has made everything with an Epic Designs logo on it to date. It's former life was doing repair work for the coast guard. Smooth running and simple, it has never given me any problems or needed really any work or adjustments. With Big Brother in the house, ms Juki will be doing binding duties and other special tasks.

Big Brother... B891-705 This beast arrived on a palate shipped by truck from Tennessee yesterday. It's not your grandma's singer that's for sure. Tony and I muscled it's 250 lb+ girth into ms. Juki's old spot. I think it came out of an automotive seat factory - so I'm happy that it's new life will be in making bike gear. I wanted a machine geared towards efficiency and production - It's more machine than I really need, but once you make the jump from a basic walking foot and want features like thread trimming, needle position, auto back tacking etc, it's all or nothing. Used machines are good since they are broken in, and easily half the price of new ones. I had to buy a small air compressor today to get all the functions working. Its nuts and somewhat intimidating, very, very fast, yet controllable with a computerized servo motor and no I don't know how to really use it yet. Eating rice and beans for capital investments works.

Bartack - LK 1852. This machine is great, although somewhat fickle at times. I'm still learning it's nuances, since what it does - it does ridiculously fast and it's hard to tell what went wrong. See the video below...

Bartack reinforces key stress points and makes simple attachments easier and faster. it's also a major time saver for finishing off webbing ends.

The shelf - all the raw materials go there like zippers, velcro, webbing, buckles. It's on it's last legs, I don't think it will survive another move... the sound system typically is blaring mindless repetitive music, gotta keep the groove on somehow.

and I almost forgot - Shop Mascot and constant play needer: Lucy Dog

If there is dog hair in your velcro, it's not my fault!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

The GTP turns 1

2009-09-20T00:55:00.006-05:00

Lucy had a birthday, to celebrate I took her out to do what she loves most - tundra galloping!
3 pm late start, but lots of built up glycogen from sitting and sewing way too much this week. Left Glen Alps parking lot really not knowing where I was going, but it was just going to be fast!

Up to the ball field, down to williwaw lakes..

Up the pass to the long lake valley...

hammered up to the ridge overlooking the ship valley and got a sweet view of the area of the last overnighter

started to head up the ridge to Koktoya, but it was fairly chossy rock.. and this day was all about galloping through the tundra so we actually stopped 5 minutes and soaked in the view a bit. she's a ball buster that dog...

Was pretty amazing to get so far back in the front range so quickly..

anyway, ran back to glep alps taking the ball field route for some bonus vert.

just awesome.

yum

2009-09-17T01:05:00.000-05:00

they are still up there:

Bird ridge +

2009-09-08T00:25:00.008-05:00

Quick plan thrown together for an overnight turned out to be one of the best weekends of the summer.. or is it fall? feels like it. anyway, climbed up Bird ridge from the arm to 3,500' and kept on going:

taking the ridge back to the overlook peak - lame name for a cool mountain.
Bird ridge makes you work for it up front, but then it just does not get much better.

Circled around the peak and dropped into an alpine basin via super steep tundra ramps.
The north face of the overlook peak, still a lame name for this one!

Fall is upon us, temps hovered right at of just above freezing, there was a tinge of frost on some grasses in the morning.

Luz got her morning started off right...

up we go, gaining a ridge with light packs, our camp was in the second valley down.

some peak, I don't even know the name of it yet. matters not, was a super aesthetic hike to get up there. superb ridge walking and cloud 9 views...

North Fork of Ship Creek, Organ Mountain and Marcus Baker in the Distance:

The back side of the 5,000'ers in the front range, cool to see them from this perspective since we look up at them all the time from Anchorage.

I love my new camera, I've never been much of a close up photo person.. but I am now.
when Lucy has a few thousand vertical under her paws she starts to make a mellow enough subject.

yeah - from a point and shoot. crazy.

anyway down, back to camp, up and over a pass down side hill down, 6' tall grass vertical down falling, solid bushwack & moments of doubt by the blondies, reached the Indian Valley trail for the hike out through immense piles of bear shit to hit the road at dark. A Maximum Weekend for sure. Can't wait to go back.

new camera

2009-09-04T23:20:00.004-05:00

Have had my head down for the past two weeks. This has been the view:

From good reviews by some aspiring photographers, I picked up a Panasonic LX3. Hopefully I'll be nice to this one. The images so far have been stunning. I'm stoked to have a good camera again. It's going to come in handy pretty soon.

Res pass

2009-08-25T12:42:00.004-05:00

Quick overnighter with J up to the Resurrection Pass and back.
Great trip, couple hours up, rain all night, couple of hours back in sprinkles and mud.
Perfect.

Fall is upon us!

Let my people go slaying

2009-08-21T11:34:00.006-05:00

I read Yvon Chouinard's business memoir "Let my People go Surfing" a few months ago. I think if it works for Patagonia then it must apply on a small scale as well to keep morale up and burn-out low, even if its a one person business. High pressure bluebird skies at the end of August is the Alaska summer equivalent of a good surf swell or a winter day of cold smoke.

Bashful peak at 8005' highest peak in Chugash State park, rising almost 7000' vertical feet above Eklutna lake. It was a worthy objective for what I call an "Eric day", have not had any real solo mountain time this year and have been craving it.

The 10 miles around Eklutna lake were quickly put behind me thanks to the karate monkey with marathon XR's, made it to Styver's Gully in an hour from the parking lot. Armed with good route beta I picked up the faint path that lead steeply to the hanging valley and mostly avoided bushwacking.

The Fireweed is saying goodbye to summer too.

With 5000' of ridgeline ahead of me there was no time for lollygagging. Gained the ridge via the tundra ramp on the far right after bashing across the moraine.

The first 3000' went by pretty nice, decent footing and just classic ridge hiking. Higher I left the mosses that bind the rock together and the scree slogging began in earnst.

Chicken shit gully - the crux of the route. It's nasty. Terrible footing and awful rock. I tried leading up the center part to avoid rockfall on the easier gully with a trace of ice to the right, but eventually had to back off, down climb and run the gauntlet up the steep semi-frozen dirt/rock with kitty litter. Chugash crud at it's worst.

Above Chickenshit the altitude and scree slowed me down, but the views - damn!

The last bit to the summit. Reminding me what state I'm in..

It's pretty amazing, the summit register had about 10 entries in the last 5 years. Thinking how this is the highest summit in the area I'm surprised Bashful does not see more attention. It's what I love about climbing in the Chugash - There is no guide book. To figure out the peaks you need to do some homework and then just see what you find when you get there.

Down down down. 7000' worth

I'm going to push for the "let my people go slaying" program at the next board meeting.

Bashful Peak from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Bikes & boats

2009-08-14T13:14:00.001-05:00

The fine gentlemen at Surly have caught the Packrafting bug.

http://www.surlybikes.com/surlyblog.html

Good stuff Nick and Dave!

Emergency Overnighter #2

2009-08-09T20:09:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you just need to call a state of emergency.
After both of us worked all day, the red button was hit and we headed out to the backyard starting at like 8:00 pm. Just wanted to get some air.

Up powerline..

Pitched the mid at the lake just below powerline pass, its actually starting to get dark at night these days.

I've been experimenting a bit with a really light 24oz Big Agnes down bag. It's great so far, warmer than I'd expect and packs to nothing.

mmmm

one thing that must suck about being a dog - you never know if you're going to sit on the couch all day, or in this case - run downhill for 15 miles!

down down down.

The emergency situation has now been downgraded. But one never knows when it will arise again. Back to work.

The Mamma visits

2009-08-05T11:59:00.002-05:00

Mamma Parsons is passing through town. She recently retired and immediately embarked on a 540 mile canoe expedition in the Yukon. Paddling down the Porcupine river and finally to the Yukon ending in Ft. Yukon, then flying to Fairbanks and taking the train to Anchorage - not the typical way of arrival for a family visit!

With strong paddling arms, we quickly decided to head out sea Kayaking.
Capt. Dano's Sailboat provided water taxi services out Resurrection Bay in style.

He Dropped us off at the Fox island spit

Nice evening paddling...

These basalt cliffs were really cool.

The Mamma in her element:

This was pretty amazing, paddling up to the head of a little creek amidst thousands of spawning salmon.

Made our way to Thumb Cove,

and did battle with the beach monsters!

The following morning we made an early crossing of the bay to Caines Head. The fog caught us in the middle, there was about 5 minutes that were pretty disorientating before we poked through it.

Looking back to Thumb Cove:

back in anchorage, The mamma gets acquainted with Luz

classic carnage

2009-08-04T13:44:00.005-05:00

The AMWC is all done.
I had a good talk with one of the hobbled winners and described it as the toughest he's done yet. Most finished in 3-5 days covering 170-200 miles skirting the north side of the central Alaska range.

Roman's awesome, chill-inducing Vid:

The Soggy

2009-07-28T12:14:00.002-05:00

The Soggy Bottom 100 goes off this weekend.
It's AK's only 100+ miles summer MTB race, and its pretty much 100% singletrack.

looking forward to hearing about the carnage. Wish I was doing it.

Chrome Mods

2009-07-27T11:39:00.005-05:00

On Friday's I give my self the luxury to spend a bit of time on my own gear. I feel like its the shop equivalent of surfing the internet. Usually appearance goes out the window and I just try to get things functional again. This day it was my faithful Chrome Messenger bag.

I've had this thing for about 5 years now, if you cant afford a re-load, Pac or some of the other more custom bags, they are pretty nice. My first gripe though was the lack of padding under the big (heavy) buckle and the lack of reflective stuff on the back so I added this pad under it, with a lower cross strap attachment point and sewed on some 3m tape - note the hack job dating the sewing skills 5 years ago...

Friday though I wanted the bag to hold more volume. This 5" vinyl flap extension was the end result:

For some reason Chrome does not have reflective tape, or blinky light attachments, that's been fixed too. I also chopped off the lower straps and added about 12", and now I can run straps through the loops on the flap to attach more crap to.

Next up is replacing the oh so hip & stylish, but oh so heavy chrome buckle - the people I wack this thing with on airplanes are going to rejoice for sure.

touring

2009-07-17T00:21:00.002-05:00

Cass and his friend Dan from the UK are out touring around now. They just did a little Kenai singletrack bikepacking trip before starting the long haul from Prudhoe bay to Panama.

Follow their blog here:

http://whileoutriding.wordpress.com/

Good luck guys!

Mile high to Ram

2009-07-16T00:30:00.002-05:00

A quick change of plans, a quick overnight along a stunning ridge within spitting distance of town.

Luz got a bit overexcited mountain running, dog aid was applied.

big brother

2009-07-09T02:17:00.004-05:00

Ms. Juki just got a brother, a 270 lb one, effectively doubling the horse power behind Epic Designs.

Enter the Juki LK 1852, 42 stitch cam driven bartack.

This bad boy will be reinforcing the crap out of everything and also making my life much easier and the resulting products better.

Metal baby...

Lost Lake

2009-07-03T13:53:00.002-05:00

Lost Lake in Seward.. such a sweet trail.
Especially when it's Canzorific. God I love this bike...

Luz loves breakfast..

Pretty Birds.

Back

2009-06-23T17:56:00.001-05:00

blabbage here

off we go

2009-06-14T19:14:00.001-05:00

I like bikes with a purpose...

Full story next week.

Good wine

2009-06-11T13:07:00.007-05:00

Bad news came this week than an Avalanche killed Jonny Copp and his climbing partners in the Chinese Himalayas. I was lucky enough to meet Jonny very briefly while on a bike tour detour in the Cerro Torre area of Patagonia in 2002. He and his partner Dylan Taylor had just put up the gnarly alpine route "Southern Cross" on the back side of Poincenot adjacent to Fitz-Roy. Being a fellow Coloradian at the time they welcomed me into their tent vestibule to share their insanely high stoke level and to polish off a box of cheap Argentinian box wine and dulce de Leche with crackers. The guy was psyched about everything and was living the climbing dream. Over the years since I'd seen his name pop up all over the place in the climbing world doing incredible routes in remote places. I always thought back to that evening and just knew that he was simply having a good time doing what he loved, invigorated by the mountains.

Your spirit will live on Jonny.

If you have 10 min check this out.

Flute - at last...

2009-06-08T13:33:00.002-05:00

"Alpine hot line calling - which couloir in the high Chugach will you be climbing this weekend?" was Billy's voice mail. With a quick call back, weather check and all reason thrown out the window, it was decided for a one day climb up Flute.
Flute has been haunting and heckling me for some time now. It greets me everytime I head back to the Flute glacier. Last may I got to within 50' of the summit by by myself before having to turn around due to the exposure on the last rock section. Then Dan and I tried it a few weeks ago, only to get stormed away with out ever seeing the peak.
Stars aligned and we headed in under thick fog and cloud cover, with the anticipation (and fingers crossed forecast) that it would burn off.

Julie and Luz left us at Eagle lake and Billy Yvonne and I kept heading back the valley to the first step. The fog and cloud band was just sitting up there, so up we went into it..

Now it got interesting and our moral was starting to drop, making our way to the glacier we did a complete 360 totally disorientated in the fog.

Finally we headed up the steeper snow ramp and popped up onto the bench at the toe of the glacier, just as we did that the sky got super bright and we emerged into a big sucker hole - za zing- hell yeah!

a quick snack and up the left side we went, immediately the fog socked in again and visibility was dropped to 50' "it will burn off..." then it parted again just as we needed it too so we could find our route over the pass to the Organ glacier. Here we left the fog & clouds behind for good.

Over the pass and down to the Organ Glacier and our first view of the climb ahead of us. Basically up the right side of the snow, crossing the bergschrund ( a particularly nasty German Crevasse) angling up and left.

It was hot! softer snow slogging up the Organ glacier..

Finally back in the shade and up the Couloir.

at the saddle,

Now for the rock section. The other time I was up here it was pasted with a bit of ice and just felt much more serious. Wearing plastic boots and crampons didnt help any. So with a rope and we cruised up the pitch placing a cam for protection on the crappy crumbling rock.

ze summit..

It was a good day to do a 6,000' peak, they were the only ones above the clouds!
Yvonne heading down

Billy and Yvonne descending the snow.

Down the Organ...

Up over the pass, down the flute and back to the world of Green...

15 hrs, 22 miles and 6,500 vert later we got back to the truck thoroughly thrashed.
A good day to call the Alpine hotline!

Performance Nutrition

2009-06-05T01:15:00.004-05:00

There has been some good recipe sharing on the internet these days. Especially among some people the endurance bike in mountains crowd. So I thought I would share my version of multi-day power fuel.

It all starts here, go Organic if you want to be healthy:

Then get this stuff out of the cupboard...

you should be here by now:

or here if you're slow (its ok if this is your first time)

While that is still going - get a big pot and throw in some of this. the more of the brown stuff the better.

double check the stove gain. 1 1/2 to 2" is optimum. Dont slack off and forget to measure. this is key!

now comes the fun part...

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

Throw in some of this for good measure:

it has been proven that caffeine helps with endurance performance - just ask the people at Gu and all those other food companies.

Zing!!!

if you followed all the steps right your resulting food product should have a nice even glaze to it. That's what you're going for.

done - Food for 4 days.

This stuff is field proven - just ask Dylan!

Untitled from Eric Parsons on Vimeo.

crankin'

2009-06-04T12:03:00.004-05:00

Lots and lots of bags going out lately. This bike packing thing is catching on I tell you ;)

total postal run junk show. all I needed was a few kids and a random grandma hanging off. maybe one day I'll get a big dummy / xtracycle. The people behind me in line loved me...

Memorial Day weekend -Yukla!

2009-05-26T13:18:00.004-05:00

Where to Start?
This trip simply oozed of awesomeness in every aspect.
Headed up Eagle River valley to the Twin Falls valley Saturday with JT, A, Dogust, Julie & Chunkfest 09.

Very Busy Beavers!

After a few hours we turned and headed up the very steep hunter trail into Twin Falls.

Windy night, chicken curry, a flapping megamid and restless puppy gave way to a stunning bluebird morning.

JT, A and Dogust headed over the pass to Vertigo peak and the ridge, while J, Luz and I headed up Mt Yukla. Its the highest peak in the Eagle River valley but has a nice snow route that twists around the back side of the peak.
up up up... past the little glacier.

Over Twinsicle pass to the back side of Yukla. Mt. Soggy just plastered with ice..

up up up, made our way through a little couloir and over an ice buldge that Luz needed to be carried through. We were not sure at that point how to get her down but 'll get to that later...

summit ridge, luz needed to be tied off to prohibit 4000' cornice hucking.

Yukla has twin summits, J & luz stayed on one, while I went over to the other.

View down Yukla's North face into Icicle Creek. Nice contrast between summer's lushness and the alpine. About 6,800' vertical relief!

Time to go down. Luz was short roped as the exposure was quite stiff for a fearless puppy.

To the ice step. After some quick thought, the only real option was to sack the dog. She really did not protest at all and quickly started snoring. A good reason to bring a decent sized pack!

down down down, 1000's of feet of glissading:

Monday was beautiful again. A hiked out early, so after a mellow breakfast with JT we headed up to the ridge for a little hike before going back. JT headed over the pass again to traverse around to Emerald peak and out Thunder gorge.

Glacier Lake - the start of Eagle River and the crow pass trail valley:

Devils Mistress and Beezelbub - Two hard to climb peaks in the western Chugash.

Yukla from the trail hiking out the valley:

still oozing..

Africa

2009-05-22T00:05:00.002-05:00

Jesse sent me this link.
Looks like a well produced and edited piece of work for sure.

abort 2x

2009-05-17T21:32:00.006-05:00

Feeling antsy - Plan B went into action, to try to climb Killiak in Eagle River with JT and his friend Jennifer. Hiked in to above the river at the enterance to Icicle creek Saturday night to the most stunning campsite you could ask for.

Views of Organ, Compass Butte and Flute were jaw dropping.. in a taunting sort of way.

I was feeling pretty crappy on the hike in.. J's cold seemed to pass my outer defenses. The early start to a huge day confirmed that I am indeed fighting a cold again. Turned around after like 45 minutes heading up the hunter's trail zapped for energy. Some weekends just don't work out like you hope for. Had a nice hike out the valley in gorgeous weather and went home to bed. The obsession continues.

abort abort abort...

2009-05-16T13:52:00.003-05:00

When high pressure comes crashing down.

Didn't even make it to the glacier. grrrr...
next time.

Ze big Three

2009-05-14T12:04:00.005-05:00

Time for some Chugach.
Going to attempt to traverse the peaks in the header photo of this blog over the next 3+ days, Flute, Organ and Polar Bear. Yes there is a reason that photo is up there!

First up Flute:
I tried it last year via the Couloir on the Flute Glacier side which was fine, but got turned around at the top rock pitch solo. So this time should be better with ropes and gear.

On to Organ:
The west face of Organ is a stunning alpine wall, but rounding the corner on the Organ glacier shows a somewhat more straight foreword route via the glacier ramp just left of center in this photo...

And lastly Polar Bear:

vamos a ver.. time to pack!

Vancouver & Squamish

2009-05-11T13:54:00.002-05:00

Got back last night from a great trip and much needed vacation to the pacific northwest.
Julie had long been planning and training to run the Vancouver B.C. marathon so it was only natural that we extended the trip by going to granite rock mecca of Squamish for the rest of the week.

A quick buzz through Seattle and a hop over the border to the glass city of Vancouver. At first I was taken a back by the city, then began to like it. It has a huge Asian population and it kinda feels like you're in Hong Kong with the glass high rises.

That's her on the home stretch.. rock star

On to Squamish.. with one of us with dead legs and unstable rainy weather we did lots of walking around the first few days and warmed up on some nice and easier climbs and got scared on wet cracks. It had been over a year since I lead trad rock so I had to get my head game together a bit as well!

The Cheif - big wall playground!

We pretty much stayed in Smoke bluffs the whole time. Fantastic 1-2 pitch climbs around every corner. Like Pikie Corner a nice 5.8 pair of cracks:

This was another fun crack at the Neat and Cool wall:

The weather got better later in the week and we climbed till dark on one of the evenings. Hiked up to the shannon Falls climbs and lead a nice 5.8 crack that turned to fists higher up and was wet.. it generally blew me mentally for the rest of the day leading that thing.

Anyway, fantastic quality 2 pitch climbs at Mosquito - here we are topping out on Flemish Dance an awesome 5.8 that is quite stiff!

Great week, J's first real into to the world of gym-free climbing and it was great to get on some stellar granite climbs. Just as we had to leave we actually felt like we were warmed up and were ready to step it up a notch and get on some harder climbs but there is always next time. Looking foreword to more mixed in this summer at Hatchers.

heading out...

2009-04-30T23:38:00.005-05:00

Leaving Anchorage for the first time since about September... whoo hoo. Julie is running the Vancouver marathon then we are going rock climbing in squamish. Needed it bad 2 weeks ago during breakup, but now that summer is here with a super strong high pressure system and the forecast for Vancouver is rain. humm..

Some recent highlights - Luz made her first descent of peak 3 running after me snowboarding at mach 6.5. It was so warm down to a tee shirt on the up & down, not for Luz though, her slayer training is coming along quite well.

Build up a new bike... 9 speed and full suspension, jumping into the 2000's!

Time now though to pack gear, lots of gear!

Looking foreword to a certain rematch traverse fest in May..

Trials sickness

2009-04-26T15:46:00.001-05:00

This should get the stoke level up.
Thanks Jesse!

The second half is insane.

Tinkering

2009-04-24T11:51:00.007-05:00

Been wrenching on 4 different bikes lately - Turned the Karate monkey into fast city mode with my touring Marathon XR tires. Converting Julie's bike into a single speed. Black Sheep has become light weight single speed fattie wilderness machine, and finally project Canzo has begun in earnest.

Some Pics:

Wheel by Mike C DT 340 hub, sram cassette (9 speed!! I'm stepping into the new millennium!)

My older Hugi 240 with Salsa delgado - great front wheel. The fork I'm simply not worthy of.

The black sheep I just could not part with, maybe next year. This frame was the first 29er mountain bike that James ever made. Now he's got like a year of back log making super bling 29ers. It is not totaly ideal for its intended purpose, lots more standover would be good as would singlespeed dropouts. But it's light, its Ti and it fits 2.4's with 44mm rims. The Surly singleator was the quick and easy solution for chain tension and works perfectly... hopefully it does not get ripped off. I didn't feel like dropping the $$ for an ENO hub and 50mm Uma... So until that perfect other frame comes along, this will be the setup for packrafting.

Peak 3

2009-04-22T11:53:00.002-05:00

The lung bugs have been mostly vanquished.
The corn harvest on peak 3 Monday night was fantastic.
Thanks for the photo Dan!

hacking death cough

2009-04-15T21:21:00.004-05:00

I've had a case of the night time hacking death cough for the past 2+ weeks. This creates a new non-athletic experiment in sleep deprivation. Not much excitement lately except for watching the slush get thicker and wetter on the bike trail every day.
This was pretty exciting though:

Don't worry, this blog will be back to its usual self once I clean out the lung bugs. In the mean time the animals will have to do.

Luz

2009-04-12T23:58:00.003-05:00

Everyone - meet Luz (aka Lucy).
She's a golden lab puppy with 6 months under her furry belt. We've had her for 5 of those. With spring here she's starting to get her first jaunts into the Chugach. Even some snow free hiking.

She's a slayer of the Chugach in training.

Ok, I'll trade it

2009-04-11T11:58:00.003-05:00

I morally couldn't seem to just sell my Black Sheep - so now I'll trade it.
Looking to build up a Titanium singlespeed wilderness bike with fat tires.
So I'll trade this nice Black sheep frame (20" 29er rack mounts - tons of tire clearance, steel fork) for a similar Ti frame with horizontal drop outs with lots of tire clearance.

I know my chances are slim, but it you have a Ti singlespeed frame and want to go with gears let me know and we'll deal :)

If not I'm going to build it up with a Surly singleator, throw it in rivers all summer and call it good.