Springtime, already…

 

One of the Highcountry streams starting to flow for the season.

 Spring seems to be coming a little early this year, with the snow set up, days getting longer, and creeks beginning to run under the snow – even in the highcountry.

Springtime brings around different riding conditions. Although it’s not the powder of midwinter, spring is still an awesome time to ride. With the snow set up, there’s less avalanche danger, and you can go more places. You can climb way steeper hills, and it also hardens up the jumps – so you can fly more… It’s not better or worse then midwinter, it’s just different.

Apart from the afternoon “rot”, spring also is the end of the riding season. It’s good and bad; it’s more change, but it also gives a time to patch up the sleds up for another season. That’s what makes it so cool here: the variety. If it was just snowy all the time, all of our sleds would be broke down! 

The “Hotdogger”

It’s simple, yet brilliant, and it’s one of the greatest things to happen to snowmobiles – the Hotdogger or Hot Pot. Also know as hot food that goes with you.

It’s a clever idea: a metal cooker, which attaches to the exhaust pipe of a sled. It works really good, heating up and even cooking food. We’ve tried almost everything in the Hotdogger: hot dogs, cocktail smokies (miniature hotdogs) bratwurst, taquitos, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, leftover turkey meat, and lately, Hot Pockets!

Like I said, it’s a cool idea, and it brings a new meaning to “fast food”. It’s also a luxury to have hot food on a ride… Unfortunately, all the venting I’ve done to my sled take away from the very principal of the Hotdogger: heat. Cooler temperatures equal more power, but lukewarm hotdogs… So the Hotdogger goes on my dad’s sled, which doesn’t have as much venting, and we still have hot lunches.

Snow Conditions, and how different they are from year to year

 

 

Jumping a drift from last year - this year, there's no drift in that same spot.

 Over the past six winters that I’ve been actively riding in the backcountry in this part of Colorado, I’ve noticed a great deal of variety in the Highcountry snow.

Each year, the drifts are unique. They have different angles and different locations. For example, one spot had a jump three years ago, but hasn’t since. Several other spots had good jumps last year, but this year they are smoothed out. Even between rides they can change. One specific drift in the “play bowl” (near the head of Bear Creek) has been different on every ride this year. Each and every time, there’s at least one good jump – but it’s changed every time I make it back.

Drifts are more permanent, over the course of a season, but snow conditions can change within hours. Especially in later spring, when the morning snow is hard enough to walk on, but by noon it rots and is a challenge to even ride thru.

It’s interesting to ride on different conditions every ride, and have new jumps in the old spots. If the mountain doesn’t keep you on your toes, then the snow conditions will!

Ride 2/22/09 – with pics!

 

A smaller drop, with a pretty good background...

We got a killer ride in on the 21^st, and we also got a smaller ride in the next day… Even though we only made it to the forks of Bear Creek and the river, we had a great time!

We spent several hours in the same spot, swapping sleds, and tearing it up. The snow was really good for doing turns, and working the terrain. It wasn’t anything extreme, but it was a good riding time, in one of the best playgrounds!

For only a couple of hours, it was a fun ride, and we left it with quite a few more tracks then were there before…

 

The turbo sled pulling a wheelie...

Ride 2/21/09!

This weekend, we had some of our buddies up to ride. Cory has been riding up here for the past ten years (since he was my age, learning to ride on an Elan!), and he still thinks it’s the greatest place to ride. This time, he also brought some of his friends, to share these mountains with them.

We went up Bear Creek, which is our big playground (we keep it tracked up best we can, all winter long!). The first spot we stopped at was Beartown flats, where we climbed the south-facing chutes. After climbing every chute there, and one of the riders having a pretty nasty hang up with a tree, we moved on…

We went to the big drift above the Two Little Cabins. The drift spans about a half mile, and the cornice size ranges from 5 inches to 50 feet. When it’s not an avalanche hazard, it’s the perfect place to drop in – and today, it was safe. After a bunch of drops off of the smaller 2-5 foot sections, Cory and I started sending it off a section with a 20 foot-tall cornice… With a little speed, it was a solid 40 foot drop!  I hadn’t dropped anything close to that big before, so it was a major progression for me (plus, I did it without getting hurt at all – major bonus!). We also got some of the other riders to try dropping off the smaller sections of cornice, with success – and again, no one got hurt!

After what seemed like not much time -but was about two hours – at the big drift, it was late enough in the day that we needed to start heading home. We headed back down into Bear Creek, but then climbed out to Hunchback Pass. Once we were up there, we made our way down the ridge, until we could drop into the trees. The chute we took was a giant half pipe, with plenty of wall-riding. It was like a giant roller coaster, but all natural, and all in how you rode it. Once we got headed back down Bear Creek, we managed to ride all the way to the river, before we veered off course and took liberty of an untracked powder hole… After there wasn’t untouched powder there anymore, we got back on the single-track, and headed for home.

It was an epic day. Incredible weather, big air, and best of all, no one broke down (although the one hang-up with the tree wasn’t pretty!). Personally, I feel I really stepped up and pushed my limits with the drops. Before, my biggest drop was only about 20 feet, and today I doubled that – safely and confidently.

 

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any stills during the ride, but the videos do it justice… The first one is of Cory dropping in , and the second one is of me dropping in as well.

drop 1

Drop 2