Backcountry Splitboarding: Brown Mtn

As Friday wrapped up, it was time to get packed and start the trek down south to Cabana Hodgie for a weekend of backcountry fun.  The plan was to hit Brown mountain on Saturday and then head up to Crater Lake on Sunday.

The drive down 97 towards Chiloquin was fairly non-eventful until Chemult where the roads got to be a snowy/icy combo and there were several cars off the side of the road in snow banks.  I proceeded with caution as the cabin was close and there was no rush....

It was great to see familiar faces again at the cabin and we made a subconscious collective decision  that we apparently had  a few too many brain cells and therefore the only proper thing to do was to proceed to kill off a few....we polished of a growler that I picked up at Empire Car wash...yes, there is a growler filling station at a car wash in town (blog post to follow at some point).  The nectar of choice was the Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA.  With a 8.8% alkie content, it started the evening off in fine fashion.  Fast forward a few hrs and we had managed to empty a couple more bottles of wine.

Fast forward to the a.m. when we started to doubt our prior evening's strategy on liquid carbo loading for a long day in the backcountry.  Josh showed up on Saturday morning and was less than impressed with how we looked...which was probably better than how we felt.

We loaded up and headed up to Brown Mtn.  The mountain was covered by a fog/cloud combo and we started the skin up...It was slow going as we were breaking trail along the way.  There was about 5-8 inches of snow to pack as we skinned in.  The prior evening's dehydration strategy and the hard effort of skinning & sweating proved to be a challenge.

For some reason the skin up seemed to take much longer than the last time...we gained about 2,000 ft and as a formality we skinned to the 'summit'.
Josh/Bob:

The summit views were about the same as our skin on the way up...foggy and cloudy.
Da' boys on the way to the summit:

We converted from tour to ride mode and it was time to enjoy some backcountry powda'!  The descent was amazing and our concerns of heavy snow were laid to rest as we floated and carved our way down Brown.  The last 1/3 of the mountain was a little trickier as it was a game of maintaining momentum as the angle eased up.  We got back on our skin tracks as close as we could for the last little push as the packed down trail helped to maintain a little speed.

One of the gentler slopes you had to maintain speed on:

Suffice it to say that there was still a fair amount of hopping forward on the board, snow grabbing to push along, post-holing, skinning, and even a little skiing to get back through that last push.  I got to the car and surmised that whatever mode I was in (and there were several change-overs from tour to ride to tour to ride to postholing to falling and feeling like a turtle on its back), it was the wrong mode!

It was a superb descent.  The snow conditions were just about perfect.  It would have been nice if the fog/cloud combo had lifted but we still had an amazing day.  It was now time to head back towards Chiloquin and find a greasy establishment to replenish some calories and hydrate.  A fine day indeed.....

Josh on the descent:

 Hodgie getting his flow on:

Phat Santa

Santa was kind to us this year and he dropped off some rubber for the fat bike.  My Fatback currently had the stock Larry and Endomorph and one of my first mods was to switch out to more aggressive tread.  I had built the 9zero7 last year with Surly Nates and was absolutely sold on their performance.  The only setback was the weight penalty of all the knobbiness!

Fast forward 1 yr and there are all sorts of options for fat bikes in the rubber department.  The long term plan is to go tubeless on the tires so I had to keep that in mind when sorting through the tire choices.  I quickly settled on a Surly Nate up front and then decided to try the Surly Knard in the back.

I went with 27tpi options on both tires.  The theory is that although they are heavier tires, they should seal up better when I go tubeless as the beads should be stiffer.  I think the lighter tires would have been fine for setting up tubeless and am now second guessing my theory on the heavier tires...especially given the combined front and back weight penalty of around 1 kg!  I was shocked at just how much heavier the 'heavy' tires are.  The biggest problem is that the weight is being added in the absolute worst place...on rotating mass....and on the very edge of the rotating mass!  crikey!

I swapped out the rubber this past weekend and went on a couple of rides.  My first impressions of the tire combo were a wee bit negative.  I LOVE the Nates but am starting to see the shortcomings of the Knard in snow....more to come on that in a later entry as I am still dialing in tire pressure and don't want to jump to conclusions...for the time being, let's just say my bike gained a couple of lbs from the rubber transplant....crap....just like its owner, my bike appears to be gaining hibernation weight....

Bend Urban Snow Ride

As the snow piled up outside last week, I figured it would be a great opportunity to get out and 'Get me Some' on the snow bike.  Given the 6 + inches on the ground, I figured it would be fun to head out on the Deschutes River Trail (mellow terrain given the snow accumulation) and ride the trail into town and then circle my way back via NW Crossing and the COCC campus.

It snowed consistently throughout my ride and in a way it made for a peaceful ride as most sane people stayed at home while I was out plowing fresh tracks in the snow.  Woohoo!  It was a really good/fun ride that opened up my eyes to the possibilities of urban snow riding (when there is enough of that white stuff).

Ride details:

Tumalo Splitboarding - Dec 19th

As the snow was flying in Central Oregon last week, it was time to dust off the snow gear and go play. Last Tuesday ended up being an epic day at the resort at Mt Bachelor.  There was a ton of fresh snow and the conditions were as good as I have ridden in years!

Fast forward 1 day and I decided to take the splitboard up to Tumalo and see how the hill was for backcountry.  There was not a lot of visibility and given the amount of snow the area received over the past several days, I decided it would be prudent to stay off the ridge/bowl area that must just continue to be loading up for avie at some point.

The wifer and I skinned up and I kept thinking to myself that there was a lot of snow and debating the sanity of skinning up and possibly having to ski/skin down due to the amount of snow.  The skin up was beautiful as the snow caked the trees and the wind blown nature of the trees towards the ridge made for some beautiful scenery:

We finally peaked and we changed over into ski/ride mode.  Sure enough I made it down the first couple of minor slopes and then got stuck in the above knee high snow....The slope was not steep enough to keep any momentum and my snowboard would just sink into the snow.

I resorted to going back into tour mode and put the skins back on....the skins lasted about 15 minutes until they lost their 'stick' thanks to the snow.  I was now in 'ski' mode on my splittie and I had visions of yard saling down the mountain since ski mode is anything but 'secure'.   This time, the snow depth worked in my favor and the above knee deep snow kept me from gaining much  momentum at all.  When I switched back into ski mode, I was post-holing above my waste so walking out was not really a good option...fortunately ski mode for the splittie seemed to work well.

Mt Bachelor is going OFF right now...lots of snow, great conditions...pix from Tuesday's excursion:

Khumbu Glacier - Mt. Everest

very very cool GIGApixel pic of Everest and area...you can zoom into base camp, watch climbers along the route (including the Khumbu icefall) and track the route part of the way up.  Be ready to kiss some time away as you get sucked into this somewhat interactive scenery.

Khumbu Glacier - Mt. Everest - The Glaciers of the Himalayas

Elk in da' Hood

We have had a local herd of Elk that has been roaming through the hood over the past month or so.  The surprising thing is that it is a big herd....probably around 60 or so elk.

Yesterday they roamed on our lower field and in the common area on the other side of our house.  They are some big animals....now if only we can keep the dogs from being tempted to eat their dookie....

Mt Shasta Split-Boarding

Bob and I decided to bust a move down to Shasta last week for some split-boarding.  We got there on Friday morning and the plan was to see where the best conditions were.  All the media reports of 'epic' snowfall amounts seemed to be largely exaggerated as we drove up the access road to the parking lot.

The 'hundred' year storm  that supposedly dumped multiple feet of snow on Mt Shasta over the past couple of weeks seemed to be a fairy tale made up by the media.

Once we got up to the parking lot, we decided to take our chances going up to Green Butte and seeing what conditions were like.  We got our skins on and started from around 7,000 ft and worked up towards somewhere around 9,000 ft where we morphed from tour to ride mode.

Bob had the new Karakoram binding set up with new DeLuxe boots that he was breaking in...or they were breaking him in...

It was great to get out on the slopes and start to understand just how large and in charge Shasta is.  We had poor visibility and the snow conditions started to change above tree-line to the point where the slopes were scoured and icy.

The first day out was a great day despite the poor visibility.  We had planned to camp out at Shasta proper so we could get another day of splittie action on Saturday.  We had prepared for the elements with Bob's sweet winter tent and our winter sleeping bags.   We motored into town for dinner and then watched the car thermometer drop  as we went further up the mtn....The thermometer settled at 18 F when we pulled into the parking lot at 7,000 ft where the tent was.  The scary thing was that it was only 6:30 in the evening and we realized it would be a cold night.

It get much colder during the night and I would venture to guess that it got close to zero or perhaps even sub-zero Fahrenheit.  Fortunately the sleeping bag held up well until I slid off the sleeping pads that were helping to insulate from the snowy ground....it got a little chilly for a bit but was not unbearable.

After a night out on the mountain, we rallied in the morning and got ready for day 2 of our splittie weekend.  We ended up picking the same line as the day before thinking that we might explore a different gully on the return.  The snow was much different than the day before and it got icier as we got higher.  When we changed from tour to ride mode, I noticed all the ice build up on the bottom of the board.  I pointed the board downhill and quickly realized the brakes and anchor were holding me back.  After unmounting, it was time to work the ice off the bottom of the board with fingernails...not fun...Fortunately, the ice came off and the brakes were no longer ON.

Long story short....I look forward to heading back to Shasta for more exploring especially when there is better visibility.

Some quick pics:

No Rhyme Random Pix

Some random pix of life over the past few months....

Happy Days in New York - for Dan/Becca's wedding:

 Dan/Becca Reception

 Let the eat-fest begin!

 Thrilla Series Hat

 one of my favorite local establishments (10 Barrel) along with one of my favorite meals - the Lamb Burger:

 Mr Yates during a visit from Montanny

 Dogs in Ashland after having treed a cat at casa Hodgie:

 first snowfall during Fall with the leaves changing:

 Phil's trail network art:

 Turkey Day Table

 Turkey Day snacks 'n Drinks

 Good Life Brewery - let the bagpipes play on.....

 Bend...Cross...

NPR Tiny Desk - Macklemore

Shoulder Riding

The high country looks to be receiving snow but the lower country has been deluged with rain.  Since the temps in the low country are not wreaking havoc with snow dumps, it leaves a window to get out and ride (trail condition dependent).

Despite the recent snow dump (16 inches of fresh at Mt Bachelor), I opted to stay away...I figured first big snow + weekend day = chaos...

As an alternate plan, we managed to get out yesterday for a quick ride up to Helipad on the Phil's trail system.  The last uphill push from the road up to Helipad proved to be some serious resistance training due to some snowfall that might it tough work.  The ride down Whoops in the snow was pretty exciting though.  Fortunately the temps were just right and the snow just crispy enough that it was good and tacky!

We rode for about 2 1/2 hrs and my feet were froze blocks by the time I got home.  I had forgotten to include some toe warmers on my shoes and paid the price with numb toes that were not happy while they were getting warmed up...nothing like some good old fashioned pain as the blood started to return to the digits.