Here is Johnny

My month long absence from the blogosphere is explained by a physical and mental shock of going back to the 9-to-5 desk job, moving to a different house, a few lesser engagements, general lack of inspiration and the absence of a desk or a table in my new living quarters. Also since the entire Blog was dedicated to my ski-bumming venture, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue with blogging. I am still pondering on it, with several possible topics and directions for the blog being under consideration. (Suggestions are welcome). I wanted to write about my job search and the general state of the economy, but decided against it at the risk of coming across as being arrogant or show-offish. I will say, that I am still bullish on the economy. In fact I just sunk a sizeable amount of money into the market. It is possible that I could be just another fool, watching my hard-earned cash evaporate in the series of bankruptcies, takeovers and government bailouts. If that happens, I am certain that my inner Warren Buffet will go back to playing with his toy-trucks and pretending that he never said anything about oil futures and credit default swaps. Of course I couldn’t spank a child, especially if it’s an inner child. But not to worry, there are things that I can spank, which may not be a bad way to get over a lost investment… A few days ago I was on my morning run and out of nowhere the deer was charging up the mountain road right at me. I stopped running to let the deer get by, which it did, but a few dozen feet later it cut through the traffic and got hit by the truck! I told this story to a friend today, to which he replied that it could have being a possible suicide due to a market downturn last week. Now that I think about it more, it’s definitely seems like a possibility. Assuming that it was a male deer, when the bears are out, the bulls are running. In this case it was much too literal.

P.S. A few fresh pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/karasikfried/CottonwoodHightsTheHood

The football season is over

I borrowed the title for today's post from Hunter Thomson. On Sunday, April 20th Alta has closed. The ending of 2008/2009 ski season was celebrated by a traditional gathering on top of High Rustler. Many people were dressed in various costumes as if it was Halloween. The "treak-or-treaters" were swapping booze and joints, rather then candy. Leaving the party” meant skiing down. Those who decided to depart were hit by a rain of snowballs – another Alta tradition. The parking lot was taking over by a tail-gate party were more drinking, grilling and dancing went on late into the evening. Hotdog and cold beer made me feel nostalgic and I was wondering if some poor partier would be left sleeping on the High Rustler. As sad as it may be, closing of Alta is not the end of the ski season – there is plenty of backcountry skiing is left to do.

Besides Alta's shut down, I have another announcement for my readers: I have decided to stay in Salt Lake City and not go to California. This means that instead of being a “cool Californian” I am going to be a “weird Utahan”. I am still pondering on the details of the transition from “coolness” to “weirdness”. In the mean time, I have accepted a job with a local software company and as of today I am a regular working stiff all over again. I am going to reflect on my job search and the economy in my next post – the microwave just announced that dinner is ready.

Still Curving Turns

I haven’t been able to write in the last 10 days, but I am still in Salt Lake City and I am still skiing! In fact it was a powder day on Tuesday and Wednesday!

To my none-skiing readers, I am posting a glossary of technical ski terms:

Telemark skiing is a term used for skiing using the Telemark turn. It is also known as "free heel skiing." Unlike alpine skiing equipment, the skis used for telemarking have a binding that only connects the boot to the ski at the toes, just as in cross-country skiing. Telemark turns are led with the heel flat on the outside ski (the downhill ski at the end of the turn), while the inside (uphill) ski is pulled beneath the skier's body with a flexed knee and raised heel.

Backcountry Skiing is skiing in a sparsely inhabited rural region over ungroomed and unmarked slopes or pistes including skiing in unmarked or unpatrolled areas outside of ski resort's boundaries, frequently amongst trees ("glade skiing"), usually in pursuit of fresh fallen snow, known as powder. More importantly, the land and the snow pack are not monitored, patrolled, or maintained. Fixed mechanical means of ascent such as ski lifts are typically not present, but may be used to gain initial altitude. Backcountry skiing, ski touring or ski mountaineering can involve single or multi-day trips through snow camping or the use of mountain huts where available. Backcountry skiing can be highly dangerous due to avalanche danger, exhaustion & mountain weather. Other hazards include cliffs, rock fall and tree wells.

Powder is a fresh snow that is both dry and light. For most skiers, skiing in powder is the ultimate experience on the slopes.

I will write more in the next few days. (It's not me on the picture, but perhaps I could look like that in the near future...)

Powder Skiing in April

In the last two weeks there was almost a daily snowfall in the Little Cottonwood Canyon. The conditions were either perfect or nearly perfect, which gave me enough time to hone the tele-turn in the waste deep snow. My powder skiing skills went from “better”, to “I am too tired", to “my quads are burning and I can’t ski anymore”. On Sunday my friend Bill Tatton ripped down the Devil’s Castle (curving a text book tele-turns) and made the “Picture of day” on Alta’s Web Site. I was skiing right behind him, but didn’t make the cut. Bill has lived in Utah for almost 20 years and skied here even longer. I am guessing that fame is based on seniority and my picture could be going up on Alta's site some time in the next 20 years, if I stick around.

41st Day in Alta

My buddy Ken, skinning up the hill. Ken is a fellow East Cost expatriate with a skiing and cycling “problem”.

A "long" draught (about 2 weeks without new snow) and a very warm spring weather came to an end on Monday. The winter has returned into the Wasatch – the forth day of snow fall in the valley resulted in almost a foot of pretty fluffy powder up in the Little Cottonwood Canyon. It took me 40 days to figure out how to curve a tele-turn in the deep snow. All that theoretical stuff about the “one big platform”, “equal weight on each ski” and “not edging” finally came together and I was able to link a few fairly nice tele-turns in the waste-deep, sugary desert snow. This is the very quantum leap that I was looking for in the last several weeks. I sort of hit the plato in my skiing and didn’t feel any improvements until yesterday – when it all clicked…

The mountain men

On the picture is my friend and Backcountry mentor Lloyd Johnson, taking climbing skins off his skis before “ripping it down”. Lloyd has planned and led every single one of my Backcountry "ventures". He is a very humble and unassuming man, yet an incredible athlete. Lloyd guided all of our "back side" outings, cut all skin tracks and climbed up so fast that I could barely keep up with him. He is also an avid runner with 11 marathon finishes and 2nd place in his age group in Chicago Marathon.

Last week after a 3 days long class taught by “Utah Mountain Adventures” ski guides, I got a “Level I Avalanche Forecasting/Rescue” certificate. Now I can consider myself “legit” in the Backcountry. By no means do I think of myself as an expert, but at least I can be self-sufficient in the avalanche terrain and can stop being a liability to my ski-friends. I learned how to use beacon, probe, shovel, travel safely in the Backcountry, test stability of the snow and perform a basic rescue. I do realize that having this knowledge is not an insurance from being caught in the avalanche, just like having a driver license and obeying road signs doesn’t exclude a possibility of the fatal car accident, but at least I stopped feeling like a kid who is sneaking into the theater to see R-rated movie. The additional benefit of the class was a chance to ski with professional ski-mountaineers: Dave Budge (Dave climbed with Alex Lowe and skied Mt. Denali) and Mark Appling who has been a skiing/climbing guide in the Wasatch for the last 20 years. On Saturday afternoon Dave took us to the White Pine Trailhead in the Little Cottonwood Canyon. We skinned up a picturesque mountain a few miles west of Snowbird and after digging pits, testing snow and doing rescue drills we got to ski a juicy chute, whose name completely escapes me. On Sunday, Mark set an aggressive skin track up the Grizzly Gulch and we ripped a few lines in the Silver Fork – another Wasatch Backcountry notable. Both Dave and Mark are true “Mountain Men”, who turn their passion into a career which pays very little or has a huge pay out, depending on how you look at it…

Saturday in the Cirque

This morning I got up at 6:30AM, gulped down my Oatmeal with coffee and headed out to the Little Cottonwood to rip a few Tele-turns. The day progressed as follows:

- Up the Supreme Lift and short hike up to the Sunset pick (hike on skis)
- Ski Sunset Pick and climb back up (ski and skins)
- Ski Wolverine bowl twice (once on each side of the Cirque)
- Climb back up for each descend (ski and skins)
- Lunch
- Climb Rocky Point (hike on skis)
- Ski down
- Climb back up (ski and skins)

And the crowning jewel of the day – booting up the Wolverine and putting the first track on Granny’s Couloir in the Cirque! That’s right, we put the first track on the Wolverine Cirque’s Chute! Yes, it’s the least technical of Cirque's Couloirs, but it was my first and it hasn’t been skied since the last snowstorm. The first picture is the Cirque and the second has Granny's Chute marked with a red line.