Skinning Loveland

Ever since moving to Colorado snow sports have appealed but the cost had always been the limiting factor. My 1st year here I picked up snowboarding and got in a good season of 23 days on the slopes. Last year funds dropped and cost of living increased and I got a measly 3 days on the slopes. This year I've yet to get a day on the board but am hoping to change that in the next few weeks.



Back country beckoned but the idea of being caught in an avalanche...simply put, scares the shit out of me. It should too, experienced backcountry users with avalanche training and the proper gear can be caught off guard even in areas they know well. The number one killer for winter backcountry use in Colorado is an avalanche and being a father and husband, it makes me take pause.



This weekend I knew the mountain bike trails were gonna be out due to all the recent snow fall in the Denver area so I sent my buddy PBR a text to see if he wanted to do some low angle and relatively safe backcountry at Butler Gulch. He was game so I contacted another buddy, Bad Andy to see if I could borrow his gear.



All was set but when Bad Andy and myself started talking more about it, he brought up some concerns. The ok snowboarder that I am, skiing is something I had never done in my life. His concerns were the trees in the Butler Gulch area and it rose my own concerns to where I contacted another friend who was a skier and snowboarder and we all came to the conclusion that maybe I should try some wide open areas 1st. Bad Andy's idea was skin up Loveland before the lifts opened and after some coercion we got PBR talked into it.



PBR and I arrived at the Loveland Ski area around 6:30am in the morning. We skinned up about 2 miles and somewhere around 1500-2000 ft to a little over 12,000 ft. I'll admit that the skin left me feeling a little too self assured as skinning is just about as easy as hiking. As soon as the skis turned downhill though, I became about as efficient as a snail high on crack. It was so ugly, that it took me almost 3 hours to ski down what it had taken a little over an hour to skin up. It was so ugly that ski patrol stopped and asked us three times if I wanted a ride down, which I turned down all three.



Funny though, as slow as I was, it didn't give a knuckle dragging snowboarder the chance to avoid me. Fugger! He got his ears chomped a bit but in the end, I let it go. Even funnier, I'm going back to the old faithful snowboard. Though I am looking at a Split board set up, which is basically a snowboard that can be split into two halves for skinning up the mountain and then put back together so you can snowboard down.

Custom Misfit Dissent Fe (geared or singlespeed) for Sale

$850 with the Buyer to pay shipping. Help me fund my next 29er project.

All the gory details on the MTBR Classifieds.



oh, and Sunday...its time for something new and I'll be in the high country with PBR doing this....

T.I.T.S. Snow Ride

Just another night on Green Mtn....and it was Bad ass!



If you have broadband internet click the 360p and change it to 720p to watch this in HD.

HD Video, A Jersey, And A New Camera

Just the other night a friend pulls out a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 camera, gives it to me and says I'm tired of viewing all your blurry ass pictures, make some Magic. To That, I give you Magic, well in a short teasing sort of way but shooting HD Video is sweet and when I finally figure out that Handlebar mount I want, it'll be even sweeter.

I give you 50 some odd seconds of the Red Rocks and the tail end of Dakota Ridge. There would've been more Dakota but I've never shot video before and it kind of came as an afterthought about midway through the ride.

I promise in the future I'll not be repeating a bunch of the same video. At the time I was shooting it I didn't even know if I was doing it right and running back up the hill after setting up the camera became tiring pretty quickly.

The second hurdle was figuring out the video software which in the test video I used Windows Movie Maker...pretty simple and easy to learn. I'm looking at the Adobe Premiere Elements as an upgrade though.

On to the second bit of greatness. That being the new Pisgah Mountain Bike Adventure Race Jersey offered by Pisgah Productions. Only $69 and you get to wear a jersey made after the greatest mountain bike race on the east coast and even cooler that it was designed by the Great Brado! Keep in mind they run a bit small so being 6 ft tall and 208 lbs of a semi muscular build with padding, I went with an XL.



Oh, the new camera does take pictures and as a signing off, I give you some eye candy

...Looking towards Green Mtn from the Saddle of Dakota Ridge





Some Dakota Ridge Technical Goodness


Mount Morrison and the Red Rocks



Looking south from Matthew Winters



If your a local...get out and hit it now...Trails are prime with only a touch of wet here and there.

Love from the Original Big Ring

Late last week I got an envelope in the mail. Turns out Jebus, formally known as "Buddy Christ" loves me and so does the OBR!!! Awww, ain't that sweet?



Probably misses the nights of spooning in the tent when I took him to Crested Butte. I can't wait to apply one of these to the new work bench that I'll be manifesting out of a piece of multi purpose furniture that PBR gave me.



Thanks Big Ring, your the Best!!

December Rewind

I am an adventurous soul by nature and nothing packs a few weeks adventures into a few hours quite as well as a bike.

So way back on December 12th I pulled Guacamole out of the rabbit hole and went for a ride, my 1st in over a month, his 1st since the 1st week of September when he broke his hand.

It was a good ride, full of sunshine, naps, and some quality downhill after a bit of climbing then repeated.









Later in the month there was a few night rides

one where PBR was in the spirit



And others where I had the trails to myself to work out the inner demons



I finally had an epiphany and in the wise words of Full Trucker, "I let the ride be the ruler of my emotions, not letting the emotions be the killjoy of my ride"



and the week before Christmas brought a special treat. The private trails of Ken Caryl Ranch. Knowing someone on the inside has its benefits.

The Beerd Belly 2011

Be it a blessing or a curse, the Goat rides again. There were a few rides in December that deserve attention but being the New Year, The New Year's Day ride takes priority.

The Front Range has been blessed with an unusually warm winter with the highs being in the upper 50's. As of the eve of New year's eve though, the temperatures dropped and we saw our 1st descent snow. With that brought the annual New Year's Day ride, once again at Bergen Peak. This year somewhere between 4-6 inches of Champagne snow covered the trails with a starting temp of 5 degrees F and topping out at a whooping 20 degrees F.

There was a beard, mine alone



There was beer



a few big bellies



and a whole lotta fun riding



















and the biggest herd of Elk I've ever seen. Had to be 100 +