Late Week Snow

The upper elevations had received a lot of snow over the tail end of the week last week and I decided it prudent to stay off of Tumalo for the day since there was probably too much snow to maintain speed along the way back down again...the 3 week Friday Tumalo streak was snapped but the upside was the resort received a lot of snow in prep for the weekend.

I took my bindings off my 10+ yr old board and put them onto my Rome Anthem I got last season.  I had ridden that setup with my backcountry boots the week prior and was curious to see how different the board felt with 'resort' boots that were a little lighter and a lot less stiff.

long story short...I got some new boots on Friday to finish the setup.  Everything is on end of season sales right now so the prices are sweet!  I ended up going with the Burton Ruler boots.

It took all of about 1/2 a run to figure out that it was going to take a little while to break the boots/moldings in.  About 1/2 way down the first run the arch pain was unbearable and I had to stop and make some adjustments...I loosened the bindings and hoped that the pain my arches would subside but alas, no joy...this went on for about 2 hours when it started to get a little better as I loosened the bindings even more and tried to find the sweet spot.

After about 3 1/2 hrs of agony, we called it...it was time to hit the lodge and relax while letting the arches recover.  The feet continued to bark so we ended up only doing a 1/2 day which was probably just as well as we were able to find some good deep snow that was not totally tracked out in the trees.  We more or less stayed on the right side of the mountain as we searched for the goods.

Some pix of the day:

looking towards S Sister....

 S Sister with Broken Top on the right...

Tumalo BC

It's a Friday 'thang....for the third Friday in a row, I busted up to Tumalo for a quick backcountry lap after a long work week.  At this rate, it might have to be a Friday Happy Hour routine...

The snow was spring like in some areas and then got a little heavy towards the bottom - the views were still killer and the attitude adjustment was still a big upward pointing thumbie!

moving from left to right with Bachelor as the point of reference...

scanning left to right towards Bachelor

from Bachelor to BrokenTop

 from BrokenTop scanning right....

Intervals....

The dreaded 'i' word is back in the training vocabulary for this year.  We were treated to great temps last week and it was time to start thinking about putting the legs under some stress...Intervals are never exactly fun but are a necessary day or two of suffering to hit some higher intensity that us longer slow twitch types need to wake up.

The best and worst part of these particular intervals is that I do them from the house...so the access is silly easy.  This silly easy access also makes it too easy such that the guilt starts to hammer away at your conscience if you don't step up.

I usually do around 5 intervals on a hill that is about 300 ft in elevation.  It takes about an hour and as the legs / lungs start to feel better, the # of intervals will have to increase.

Today might have to be another interval day to snap the legs back - here is to finding the motivation for an hr of suffering!

BC vs Resort Days

I was driving up to Mt Bachelor on Sunday in order to use one of my days from the 12 pack I purchased earlier in the season.  I did some quick math and realized that I have by far gotten out more in the backcountry than I have on the resort this year....by more than a 2 to 1 margin!  It made me realize that I probably should have used more of those 12 pack punch days when we had better conditions back in the December timeframe, but it also made me realize that it has been a good year so far in the backcountry.

The backcountry access in Central Oregon is pretty outstanding so it makes it very approachable and gratifying to get away from the herds....

The upside...lots of days in the backcountry...the downside...potentially feeling like I will be losing $ on the 12 pack.  It will be an interesting dilemma next year as to whether to purchase a pass of any kind for the mountain...maybe a 4 pack is in order?

Comic Relief History of Rap 4

Another round.....and they do not disappoint!

Macklemore is blowing UP!!!  Besides making some appearances on day time telly, this dude even made an appearance on SNL and you know you have arrived when Fallon and JT include in one of their History of Rap sessions.  This is f#$%king awesome!

Phunk It Up

Mystikal channeling his inner James Brown:

 

TGIF

Somehow this past week flew by and by the time Friday rolled around it was time to think play!  I decided to follow last week's Friday protocol and head up to Tumalo for a quick backcountry lap.  The wifer joined in the fun and we were in the Dutchman Sno Park parking lot by 3:30 and were skinning up the side of the mountain by 3:45.

The views on the way up were mixed  but the snow looked really promising.  There was a cloud that enveloped the peak of Tumalo as well as enough cloud cover north so you could not see Broken Top and Sisters.  There were still great views of Bachelor and the west though.  We got up to the top and were treated to views of...yup, clouds.....the cloud cover looked like it was moving relatively quickly and if we had the time we might have hung around for a little bit to see how quickly it would have cleared up.  I was in bare bones minimum clothing and forgot to pack and extra layer and the wind was making things chilly enough to want to keep moving.  In the mad dash to head out of the house after work, I forgot to pack a shell and was in a base long underwear layer with a shirt on top of it.

Quickly enough we were in ski/snowboard mode and enjoying the FINE powder on Tumalo.  What a great surprise snow wise.  The mountain was in great shape and the quiet peacefulness of floating on top of the snow was a perfect way to wrap what was an incredibly hectic week on the work front.  Soon enough (all too soon) we were back at the parking lot but I could sense that my tension had been relieved somewhat from the whacked out work week.  The soul had just been fed a little and it was time to relax and enjoy the promising weather for the weekend....

Worth a Repeat View

Hellllll no, you better lose that singulator chief...

might be the best line in there

Spring Teaser

Central Oregon treated us to a preview of spring this past weekend.  The weather was amazing and it is that time of year where you can essentially go chase whatever playground you want to pursue.  As mentioned in the prior post, I started the weekend with a bang by going up to Tumalo and doing a quick lap in the backcountry on the splitboard.

With a de-pressurize from the prior day's activities, it was time to figure out what the weekend held in store.  I decided to take the road bike out on Saturday and get a ride in.  It is always a bit of cat and mouse scenario during this time of year in trying to figure out when to ramp up mileage versus riding for because the weather is nice.  It is hard to know what the weather will allow in terms of consistent riding and if you start to ramp up saddle time too soon, you run the risk of burn out mid-summer.

I watched the clouds build up over in the Cascades and wondered whether I could get through my ride unscathed from the oncoming storm.  Fortunately, the storm stayed in the high country and the low country just had cloud cover to contend with.  I rode out to Sisters, did a couple of small loops out that way and ended up back at the homestead with a nice 60 mile ride.  It will take a while to get the body and legs used to longer days again but it is part of the process of ramping up.

All in all, it was a great day to be out and putting the legs through a workout.

Tumalo Splittie Lap

After a rough week in the trenches at work, I managed to shut the computer off after my last meeting on Friday and run up to Tumalo for a quick backcountry lap.  I was dressed for play while holding the last call and watching the minutes click by as we wrapped up the week.

We were in the 60's in town and I was curious to see what the conditions were like up on the hill.  I was skinning by 4 and on the summit by 5.  After a few shots on the way up and at the summit, it was time to go into ride mode and see what the snow had in store.  It was a little on the heavy side and it took a couple of turns to figure out that you had to keep your tip up and lean back a little so as not to get buried in the heavy snow.  I managed to keep enough momentum all the way back down to the parking lot and was back in the car by 5:30.  Woohoo!  What an AWESOME way to finish the week - and start the weekend....

Sisters and BrokenTop on the way up:

 skins tracks and Bachelor on the way up:

 starting to get above tree-line

 summit fish eye with Bachelor on the left and Sisters/BrokenTop on the right

 summit fish eye view including the splittie in skin mode -