A lot of people are conflicted about this weather, to which I respond

Scott Barnes, Dustin Lee, Bob Rich and I all enjoyed a thoroughly long
and fun mountain bike ride today; the first of the season! We met up at
hogle zoo (or Scott, Dustin and I did) Bob rode from his place up and
over red butte gardens and met us at the top of the trail overlooking
the zoo lot. From there we went back over the same route, dropping off
the trail because of some stupid project that apparently needs the
entire mountainside cutoff. anyway, we rode on their lawn because of
it. After that we rode on to dry creek and it was...dry that is. It
was a busy day and we encountered a LOT of bikers and hikers on the
trail.  bobsled was dry and fast, though i am upset that they still have the blind left hander towards the bottom.  it caught out Bob and Scott.  Anyways, it was a 12 miles ride including a ride back to scotts house.

This Saturday there is a ride scheduled.  meet at 1230? at the JCC?  [Dustin can confirm].   Shoreline, sans bobsled.

you bet! winter isn't quite over yet, looks like Alta got 14 inches and
is expecting another 5-10 today! DP anyone?

Here is Dustin's new bike.  Very nice!  cant wait to get to riding (as soon as winter riding is over)

Wade and I had a very successful tour this Saturday, despite the ridiculous Condition to we faced to get there.

We started at "our lady of the snow" and worked our way up towards flagstaff peak. It was pretty obvious what the warm weather and sun had done to our south facing aspects as it was legitimately ice.

if you are looking at the picture you will notice that about half way the path goes from skin track slope cuts to a more direct strait up approach.  It was here we decided to take off our skiis and walk.  We did this because if we decided that if we were to miss a turn on our skins we would have no chance of stopping our slide down a very icy (did i mention that it was ice) south face.  Since neither of us felt like sliding sideways down a mountain, it seemed like a good idea.

on our way up we say two other people heading in our direction, one guy who graciously bootpacked the trail for us and his friend down lower on the mountain.  She was having more trouble skinning and so he decided to leave her an apple on the trail to boost her spirits (as he was much farther ahead).  As I passed it i thought "what the...someone dropped an apple" and then just about stabbed it with my pole for fun...then i remembered overhearing something that may have sound like "im leaving you an apple here" shouted between the two of them, so i left it.  I turned around a little while later when wade called to me to show me that he had stabbed a discarded apple with his pole.  oh well.  When we met up with her and her friend on top they didn't seem to mind, in fact he offered a matte to us and we all had lunch up on the summit.  (note: matte is nasty...sorry Argentinians, but your drink tastes like hay.)

[is it just me....and anna...or does wade kind of look like some kind of Japanese ski warrior]

After a brief lunch of hay water, granola bars and the like. we put our skiis back on and starting heading west up the ridge towards the upper ridge to ski down into days fork to the north.






MMMM, these mashed potatoes are sooo creamy!















After we skied into Days for it was time to head head back up.  Climbing a skin track that gains 1300 feet of elevation in 1000 feet of "as the crow flies" distance is...tiring.

Once we got back to the top of flagstaff ridge the wind had really picked up and i was ready to be off the peak.  For the record...I hate the wind!  Anyway, the next step was to get the top of the west ridge we were climbing earlier and then traverse to the low angle south east facing slope that is Toledo.




















By about 1130 the sun had done its bidness on the slope and had softened if from "death ice" status to a more appealing "Spring corn" status.  Whats better than mashed potatoes?  mashed potatoes and corn!

This isn't pergetory, the camera was stuck on manual exposure.  cool effects, eh?

This little tour of ours was from 800 am to 1230 pm, quite a solid little outing for the URC, since we typically don't get the time or have the energy to undertake such tours.  On tour quality...8.5, snow quality...7 [spring condition quality..9].  Quite a success indeed!

I am feeling a tour this Saturday! I think we should try and get out
around 7 and try for something like the LCC saddle, days or silver
forks. The conditions should be favorable for finding some good stuff
so long as we get out early enough. what say ye?

YEAH! we are under a winter storm warning for tonight and tomorrow,
"expect periods of intense snow of 3-4 inches per hour during the
passing front" according to my good friend NOAA. Check out the weather
links on the side...and p.s. don't go into the backcountry for a while.
Currently there is a avalanche watch for today and a high danger rating
expected for tomorrow (i expect it to be upgraded to extreme). I love
Utah in the spring. El Nino, your a jerk for waiting to give us snow
until now, but thanks for sending it anyway...better late than never.

Wade, Tom, Dan and I had a good ski free this Saturday. no pictures but
that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time! Dan tears is up on the
groomers and throws down on the jumps. Wade Tom and I dropped into
great snow off veil ridge and i have two unfortunate encounters with rocks.