Ride 3/21/09!!

 

Looking towards the head of West Lost Trail.

Late spring conditions. A month early from last year, but conditions we’ve had many springs before. Hard getting there, but good going in the highcountry….

Getting to the highcountry was the problem. The road was mostly dirt, and what snow was there, was ice-hard. We had to fight with both riding on dirt, as well as having issues with our sleds overheating. Apparently, we were desperate to ride…

Once we finally got to the base of Timber Hill, the conditions improved. After only one more section of dirt, we made it to the snow of the highcountry. But since we couldn’t go back the way we came, we also had to find another way to get home…

Despite that fact, we went to the Stony Pass and with a little bit of route-finding, dropped into Maggie Gulch. After checking a couple mine shacks there, we got back into the familiar terrain of Pole Creek.

Even though it was getting somewhat late, we decided to reattempt climbing out on Pole mountain. We tried last year, and didn’t get close. But this year, we were able to climb right to the 10-foot gap in the rocks. That gap led right onto a sidehill ledge, with cliff above and below. From lower, that ledge didn’t look that steep, so I went for it… After I got there, however, I found out that it was a lot steeper then it looked. I also found out why my dad didn’t want to go up there… After some “road” building, I was able to get back across the ledge, and back down to safety. Sure, I might be the first person ever to get to the top of Pole Mountain on sled, but I really had to work at coming back down…

After that, we continued on across to Lost Trail Creek. Considering our only other route required a lot of hiking trudging six miles in rotten snow, we dropped into Lost Trail Creek, and got on the trail for home. Because we had packed that trail in earlier, it was half decent, and not too rotten – and we only hit one patch of dirt…

For a late season ride, it was pretty good. We got to some new places, found some new routes, and had a great time on what might be our last ride of the season.

 

 

The line i took to get to the top of Pole Mountain...

Ride 3/14/09!

 

Dropping off of a cornice, above the Two Little Cabins.

Like always, the conditions were different this ride… The biggest challenge was finding a route thru the patchy snow, until the base of Timber Hill. But the biggest achievement was sending it off of a 20 foot-tall cornice…

Our route thru Brewster Park had been on the river. Unfortunately, it had opened up in numerous places, so we had to find our way thru/around water crossings. But it beat running on the dirt of the road… From Timber Hill, we went into our old playground of Bear Creek. Once we got to Beartown flats, we climbed out one of the chutes to the north, and followed the ridge around to the bowl in which the Two Little Cabins are located. And, with the new snow, the big cornice was ready for another round of drops…

After a few drops off of a smaller section, I moved over to one of tallest parts of the cornice to send it. With a bit of speed, it was a pretty good drop. I thought it was really cool, because I was able to push my own limits with complete control and confidence.

After the session at the cornice, we went around to Kite Lake, and climbed out to where we had a 360 degree view of the surroundings. By this time, the light was getting flat, so we dropped back down into the trees to (slowly) play our way back home.

It was an awesome day, not in miles, but in going bigger and pushing limits. It was an ideal day of backcountry riding: good snow, blue skies, bigger airs, bigger climbs, and overall, a good time.

 

Video

Looking into the wilderness, and at Neebo & Storm King mountains.

Ride 3/1/09!

 

Silverton, as seen from a high mountain peak.

This ride was different from most of our recent rides, in the respect that we went to explore new terrain and routes. And head out into unchartered territories, it’s untouched in the winter, and seldom touched in the summer. With good snow conditions, mild weather, and blue skies, it was a blank page in our book of rides.

Before we headed out, my dad researched the area by checking it out on Google Earth. This gave us a good indication to what the country we were headed into was going to be like, and we referred to this knowledge several times throughout the journey. If you’d like to see the area we rode in, go to Silverton, Colorado in Google Earth, and head 6 miles north-east…

Our adventure started by some route-finding… Instead of heading for Bear Creek or Stony Pass as we often go, we turned up a small creek bed parallel to Pole Creek. We’d never gone up it, but since we’d checked it out earlier on Google Earth, it looked like a do-able route… After getting stuck a couple of times due to trees, we made it where we wanted to get: the open expanse of Pole Creek.

From there, we went up the north fork of Pole Creek. Already, this is farther then most people have gone in winter, but we consider it the farthest reaches of our backyard. Once we topped out, we were dropping into the Unchartered Territory…the head of Cuba Gulch. Thru there, although we’re far above treeline, at an average elevation of 12,600 feet (the highest point of the ride was at 13,200), the terrain wasn’t too challenging; we just had to navigate thru windblown islands of rocks. We were able to make it clear to the pass between Niagara Peak and Jones Mountain before the terrain got too gnarly to ride. From that pass, we could see down into Animas Forks, where there were tracks – something we hadn’t encountered on this ride since Timber Hill. Makes me wonder where they came from, most likely Silverton.

Since we couldn’t go any further then that pass, we turned back, and on our way, climbed out onto a ridge that looked down into Silverton. Just when you think you’re really out there, you see a town – even if it’s 6 miles away… My dad whipped out his cell phone, and wrote home. By now, home was 25 miles away, where there’s no phone service, but satellite internet connection. I’m sure hearing from us was the last thing my mom expected…

On our way home, we did stop to play for a little while (as if we hadn’t been having enough fun already!), on one of the drifts above the Rio Grande, and one of our favorite hidden powder pockets on the south side of Bear Creek.

A climb at the end of the ride... It's not extreme, but the lighting was really cool.

 

 

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