Recent Biking Adventures

Been on the bikes a pretty good amount lately. Trying to keep in shape for ski season. Did the Drops to Hops road bike race a couple of weekends ago. Here's some pics of that . . .

Getting ready before the start:

And just before the race:

Rode behind Ace at the beginning (until she pulled away):

I was riding pretty hard, but not hard enough so I couldn't take pictures:

Eventually, I caught back up to Ace, and we crossed the finish line at the same time. Pics here.

Then, I tried to make a run at Skiing on Columbus Day. It didn't work out so well, so it turned into a mountain bike adventure. Going into Vermont:

Brought Skis and Bikes, just in case:

Stopped for beer. Mmmm . . . Alchemist . . .

Enough Snow?

We decided no, and just did some Mountain Biking:

We got to do the sweet Kimmer's downhill, which was awesome. And here's a pic on the way home:

Thoughts on Manaslu

By now, everyone has heard about the Glen Plake/Greg Hill story on Manaslu. The best summary of the story is from Greg Hill at his blog here. Also, if you know who Plake is but don’t know who Greg Hill is, read this link. If you don’t know who Plake is, you need to repent for your blasphemy with 5 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Mohawks. The details are out there and I’m sure people will debate safety concerns, what should have been done differently, and the logistics of the rescue operation.

 But I wanted to talk about a comment I saw on the NY Ski Blog forums. Here it is:

serious ski mountaineering will eventually kill you. the odds are not in your favor. you can not control this very dangerous environment. 

Now, this statement is patently ridiculous (just substitute the words “driving a car” for the words “serious ski mountaineering”), but this argument is generally accompanied by the idea that rewards of ski mountaineering are not worth the tremendous risks. So I wanted to explain my (evolving) thoughts on that subject.

I’ve written before that I don’t think I would ever really get into the whole “ski mountaineering” thing. Well, after getting into rock and ice climbing last year, I ‘m starting to come around.

I love the idea of skiing the Trap Dike like the Famous Internet Skiers did (in fact, Greg from FIS listed it as one of East’s classic descents). And yes, people have died there – as they have on groomed resort trails, halfpipes, and other ADK backcountry routes I’d like to try.

I think the problem is that one day I’m skiing a little tree shot at Gore, the next day I’m thinking of skiing an enormous couloir in Banff like this guy. Everyone lives in their own little ski worlds (I talked a little bit about it here), and in order to expand your horizons, you have to make your world bigger. But if your first taste is 4 inches of snow on an intermediate run, it doesn’t mean you should try the 45 inches of snow over a weak layer on a 37 degree pitch. It’s cool to land your first little air in the mini park, but that doesn’t mean you’ll love ski BASE jumping.

It’s almost like a drug addiction – sure, some alcohol and cigarettes and maybe a little weed are okay, but do you really feel like you need to try LSD or cocaine or heroin just because they might give you some similar feelings? Why pull from outside of your comfort zone, when the thing that you really like is a nice beer at the end of a ski day?

And that’s my problem with really getting into ski mountaineering. I feel that the further I get from the things I love about skiing (powder/air/trees), I’m starting to get outside of my “thing”. I’d be buying stuff (crampons, ropes, climbing equipment, etc.) to use on days when I’d probably rather be charging at the resort. Yeah, I’d like to have a crazy adventure a few times a season, but I don’t really see myself getting into ski BASE-ing anytime soon (although the movie Action Jackson now available on the Ski Channel has some serious ski BASE stoke).

I definitely understand the need for something bigger, better, and badder, though. When you’ve accomplished as much as Plake, I’m sure you get to the point in your skiing career where you start to crave a little more . . . then a little more . . . then all of a sudden, you’re on Manaslu being dragged down a mountain in your tent.

It just seems like a lot of people are never content with what they have going. I’ve got a tendency to do this too – always asking myself questions like “What’next?” “Where to?” and “What else?” You'll never see me shutting down people’s wild ambitions. In fact, I like to encourage them. And I love new experiences, new places, and new activities. But sometimes, you have to look around on a sunny spring day, riding the chairlift after another run of soft bumps, and say to yourself  “You know, right now, in this moment, this is pretty damn good. . . .






At least until I hit the Trap Dike next week . . .






On shrooms . . . .”

New Phone, and MTB Trip to Pine Hill

I finally got my first smart phone, so I thought I'd try to write a blog post on it. Doesn't seem too great, but it might be good for a photo and comment type post. Here's some pictures from today's ride:

Mountain Biking - Ithaca, Shindagin Hollow State Forest

We took a trip out to Ithaca for a little mountain biking. Leaving Friday afternoon, our plan was to camp out Friday night. I read somewhere that there were a few free campsites along Bald Hill School Road. It wasn't too hard to find a spot to pitch our tent:

When we woke up in the morning, we were right on the trail system. Here's the map:

We were a little to the west of the green P in the top left area of that map.  So we started out on the yellow loop. Here's some pics:

It wasn't very technical overall, but there were some fun log features;

We did just about all of the Yellow trails in 45 minutes or so, so we moved on to the red trails:

We did a nice downhill on Y2 and came out onto the road:

Then went over to the blue trails. We especially liked B6, the "Creek Trail"

The creek itself was a little dry:

Still, though, the Blue trails were definitely the best trails there.  After doing a big counterclockwise loop (in retrospect, we should have done it clockwise), we rode through a nice little pine grove right before busting back into the parking area. Very cool:

We rode for about 4 and a half hours, then went into town for some awesome Mexican food.  Good times.

Race Report - Single Speed USA 2012 - Stowe, VT

Well, after the Black Fly last year, I said that I wasn't really into racing. I should really take these lessons to heart instead of immediately forgetting about them and signing myself up for ever more ridiculous challenges. SSUSA was hard. Really, really hard. On the very first climb, my goals changed from "mid-pack finish with lots of drinking" to "just finish the race".  Some of these people in this race seemed to be genetic freaks. I'm in pretty good shape, but I might as well have spent the last 4 months laying on the couch. Compared to the top guys, I was basically standing still. Anyway, here's the report:

Breakfast of Champions at the Stowe Motel:

 I rode 3.5 miles on the amazing Stowe Bike Path to get to the start:

We started out at the Stowe Polo fields.

There were some "interesting" costumes:

After the pre-race talk, George from Bike29 said "go" and everyone just started going.

Here was my view for a little while:

I started out in the group, but as the road turned (straight) uphill, I started losing people.

If I had put in any more effort, I think my heart would have exploded, so I decided to just let the fast people be fast and settle back into my own pace. Soon, I came up on the first rest station (Sponsored by the Alchemist Brewery). I already told you that their Heady Topper is my favorite beer, so I had to have one on the way past.

After a lot more climbing, we finally got into the singletrack:

It was beautiful. Not too technical, just nice, rolling riding with plenty of nice Vermont trees and rooty goodness. I did have to push up a couple of climbs that I normally could ride, though (I think I was still tired from the first brutal climb):

After we busted out of the single track, there was a long, washboard-y downhill, which came out on the same road we climbed up on.  There was a big group of people waiting at the edge of the road, not sure if they were going the right way. Eventually, we determined that we were, so we took off down the hill we came up earlier.  The good news about this is that we got to hit the rest station for another Alchemist beer. Mmmm . . . 

Then we headed down the pavement back towards town. Hitting about 40 mph on the single speed was fun...

Man, Vermont is beautiful. Anyway, at the bottom of the hill, we got to the second rest station:

This rest stop was sponsored by drunkcyclist.com. Whiskey, Rum, Beer, and water if you asked. I got a shot of chilled tequila and a PBR. There was a forty left, and if I wanted to try the "chug a forty, finish, and win a $40 bar tab" challenge, I could have. I decided against it, though. This nutcase chugged 2:

Then, he finished an hour ahead of me. Like I said, some people are freaks. I actually felt really good after I started again, and I was able to crank pretty good up the hill out of town:

I reached a cool chairlift bench in the middle of the woods with a view of Stowe (that you can't see because I sweated all over the lens to my GoPro. 

Then there was some nice singletrack with some cool skinnies to ride:

We started climbing again, and all the energy I had seemed to go away pretty quickly. I started hiking it:

And then I took a sitting break at the top and had some Sport Beans (which is my new favorite calorie source on long days).

A couple of people passed, but I was not concerned at all about "racing" at this point. I just wanted to finish, and keep riding these awesome trails.

After a nice downhill, we busted out by the High School:

And turned up some doubletrack turned singletrack near the Trapp Family Lodge. 

It was another horribly brutal climb, but at least I was able to ride most of this one. I thought I was out of the woods, but then we got on the road and kept heading up:

And then back to doubletrack for more climbing:

Then more singletrack:

The final downhill was the best descent I've ever ridden (I think it's called Kimmer's).  It reminded me of the big long downhill at Pittsfiled State Forest in Mass., but longer and better.  Unfortunately, the batteries in my GoPro picked just that moment to die, so this is the only picture I have of the downhill:

You're going to have to trust me, though.  It was awesome. When I finally made it to the finish line, everyone was drinking keg beer and partaking in shenanigans to choose the location of the next SSUSA. Here's a couple of pics of the Maple Syrup Chugging Contest:

Totally ridiculous/awesome. There was some controversy as to who won, but I was too tired/drunk/faded to even care (it was Minnesota). It took me almost 5 hours to finish the course (which seems kind of ridiculous, but I did take a bunch of breaks at the rest areas, and there was that 15 minutes we spent discussing which way to go).  The top guys finished in about 3 hours (which is freaking incredible on this course). The hills were crazy. If you don't believe me, here's the course profile from this guy's Strava.

I'll definitely be back to ride around here at a more civilized pace (probably with a geared bike). If I wasn't having heart attacks on every hill, I think I'd be even more stoked on the sweetness of the riding around here. I'd say it rivals Kingdom Trails for trail quality, but I think Kingdom and Millstone still have them on pure mileage.  No matter. Stowe is a phenomenal place to ride, and this was a great event. More reports here and here and here.

UPDATE: Here's a picture at the finish. I look pretty glassy eyed at this point . . .