Monday, June 29, 2009

The Summer Shred Is On

After 3 weeks of daily rain at the beginning of June the weather has finally cleared and the upper elevation trails are starting to shed their snow. Summer riding is in full swing and I am working on my tick list of trails for the season. The riding season has jumped off to a good start with my first Super D Race at Wolf Mountain and and an afternoon shralp on the Wasatch Crest Trail with Darek. Larissa and I also got to hit an epic while visiting McCall, ID for Walt and Devin's Wedding. The Ruby Meadows/Loon Lake Loop outside of McCall rivals any ride that I have done in both scenery and enjoyment.

The heavens unleashed the rains right at the start of the Super D race at Wolf Mountain. Made for a slick course.

Can't get enough of the views on the Crest Trail. Still quite a bit of snow on the peaks of the Wasatch. Maybe enough for a 4th of July ski?

Darek finds one of the few patches of snow left on the Crest Trail.

Larissa burning up the Loon Lake Loop.

The singletrack through the burn section on the Loon Lake trail rivals the burn section on the Fisher Creek Loop in Sun Valley.

Larissa scored a new 5 inch rig this spring and she has definitely been getting her shred on.

Sick views and singletrack along the Secesh River.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Dirty Snow

I made a quick visit up to Montana to visit my parents for the weekend. I managed to talk my Dad into driving me up to the Beartooth Pass on Friday for a bit of skiing. With the gloom and doom of rain forecasted for the rest of the weekend I was stoked to have a bit of sunshine and made a couple of fun runs on the Gardner Headwall, but when I moved over to ski the Rock Creek Headwall the rain and fog had set in and I decided to call it rather than stumble around looking for the entrance into the Headwall. Needless to say it was another good trip to the Pass.

We bypassed the lift on Twin Lakes Headwall and aimed for the Gardner Headwall.

The left line off of Garnder Head Wall was a fun one. It started off with some fast steep turns off the top and funneled into a choke that was a left a bit boney from a wet slide.

Here I am on the Gardner Headwall. I am the little spec in the upper left hand corner. There is another skier in the lower right the skiing the main shot on Gardner.

Wildflowers are amazing. They can thrive in the barren tundra at 10,000 ft.

I attempted to ski the Rock Creek Headwall, but got shut down by the thick fog. This is a photo of my Dad creeping around in the clouds.

Wouldn't be a trip to the Beartooths without a little fog and tundra.