Has Anyone Seen Winter 2014?

This site’s been quiet lately. We’re in the middle of the worst winter in several years. They say in Alaska you have to have a short weather memory. The frequent rain and wind can be demoralizing in both summer and winter. For skiers who only know AK from ski porn, well, that’s mostly fantasy. The reality is more painful and far less glamorous. I like to say that when it’s good, it’s pretty damn good but you’re gonna have to wait for it.

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Where's the Love??

After recently getting flamed by a couple of trolls on a popular internet skiing forum, I started thinking about various encounters I’ve had out in the back country over the last few years. I started wondering,…”where’s the love?”

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Slough Management

Alexis and the gut of Apocalypse CouloirSlough management. The expression suggests an ability to somehow control one of winter's most powerful natural forces - piles of snow yielding to the force of gravity. We see the term written in stories and hear it and see it in adrenaline-fueled ski porn. The fatter skis and higher speeds of today's free skiers allows for "managing" ever larger so-called sloughs. But at some point we need to call a spade a spade and admit that some of these events are really avalanches. I mean, who are we kidding here?

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Expectation and Commitment

The morning's breakfast offering - Broad Fork TwinLast week I traveled to the Wasatch to join the irrepressible Andy Dorais for an attempt at the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Link-up (WURL).  Since it had only been completed twice but attempted many times I knew we were in for something hard. On the other hand, knowing the fastest time was just shy of 18 hours, I figured we had as good a chance as any at not only completing it but, perhaps, even vying for the record. Ah, the arrogance of ignorance.

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Hard-Wired to Compete

This post was inspired by a recent experience I had at a local athletic event. It covers territory well-traveled by psychologists and anthropologists way smarter than me. However, the experience affected me enough to want to document it here with some musings on the topic. Mostly preaching to the choir, I imagine, but fun to think about nonetheless.

Two weekends ago I participated in a local fund-raising event, the Skinny Skis Run and Ride. This is a 5 km run followed by a 15 km bike ride done either solo or as a team. After hitting a cement planter box and injuring some ribs during a criterium a couple of weeks prior, I was not going to race. I had looked around for a fast runner initially but after getting hurt I stopped looking. Seemed like all the fast runners were already spoken for by other cyclists, anyway. As a local cycling team, we decided that some level of participation in home events should be maintained for appropriate sponsor exposure. I felt a little bad not doing my part. 

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