"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 7)

                I’m really at a loss of words when I think about today. It could not have been a more perfect day. I’ll start at the beginning—we started this morning much the same as the previous three. Wake up, eat breakfast, get everything ready, and leave for the day’s activity. There was a slight twist today, however—it was our final day up in Irwin. I think this fact weighed slightly on all of us and we all strove to make the most of the day. The weather helped—it was an absolutely beautiful day. A beautiful blue sky with sun, complemented by 40 degree temperature (Fahrenheit) made us all the more eager to get out the door and start skiing. Despite these influencing factors, we were still not really on our way until 10:30 AM. We had decided the night before that we wanted to ski the Anthracite Mountains again. We had already skied them on Tuesday, but we had only skied one part known as First Bowl. Today, we decided to ski some unnamed stuff before finishing our day on a part known as Second Bowl.

                We towed over to the bottom of the mountain again. Towing is always a slightly harrowing experience. You usually get up to speeds of around 30 miles an hour. It can be slightly intimidating at times. Fortunately, this time around, there were no mishaps and I managed to avoid wiping out. We arrived at the bottom of mountain and got ready to start skinning up. There’s no real way to describe the hiking bit of backcountry skiing. It’s a mixture of pain, overheating, and annoyance. Today, the heat bit really rubbed itself in. Before I was even a quarter of the way up, I had already stripped down to my base layer—literally my t-shirt. And I was still hot. The pain part also was a highlight of the hike—after 3 days of hiking up mountains, my body is ready for a break! Despite these challenges, I still managed to make it up the hill in about an hour and a half, arriving at the top around 1:00 PM. Once we reached the top, we started our runs.

                The skiing was absolutely marvelous. There was still a lot of untouched powder that was totally up for grabs. Rather than ski all the way down to the bottom, we skied a little mini-bowl that was close to the top. That way, we could stop and skin back up, saving ourselves another long hike. After the first run down this bowl, I wound up staying at the bottom and filming. After nearly 6 days of skiing, my weak knee had decided to kick up a fit. Rather than risk injuring it again, I took it slightly easier today (though that by no means stopped me from participating partially). It was really annoying—I was looking forward to a full day of skiing. Still, better safe than sorry. While I filmed, the others climbed and skied the same bowl twice more. By the time they had finished their third run, it was nearly 2:30 PM.

                We hiked back up the slope one last time and started hiking out to Second Bowl. It took us only about 15 minutes to make it over to third bowl. Most of the hike was a traverse across to the bowl. The hike finished on top of the ridge above Second Bowl. What awaited us on top of that ridge defies words. Honestly, I don’t think I can do it justice. When we arrived on the top of the ridge, we literally felt like we were on top of the world. All around us were beautiful, endless peaks. For me, the moment was a reminder of how much everything has changed since I left home for UWC about 7 months ago. I could never have imagined myself on top of a ridge, having hiked up myself on skis, hanging out with 7 other amazing people from all over the world. It’s a feeling I rarely get nowadays, when such a fantastic thought a year ago has become just a little more commonplace, but when I get it on those rare occasions, the feeling is like none other. Try to imagine pure happiness and quiet peace in one moment and I think that about captures it. When I’m back on campus, overwhelmed with work, I’ll think back to that moment to remind myself of just how amazing life can be.

                Moving back to the day, after pulling ourselves away from the view, we got ready to go downhill. Going downhill after hiking up is no simple process. I do actually miss ski resorts where you don’t have to change between going downhill and uphill. In the backcountry, it’s a different ballgame altogether. When I’m hiking, I am literally wearing one layer—a hat, sunglasses, a t-shirt, and my ski pants. To ski down, however, I need to basically totally change. My hat and sunglasses are swapped for a helmet and goggles. I add at least one waterproof layer to my upper body. That’s not to mention having to clip one’s bindings down and take off the skins. Changing from uphill to downhill mode in the backcountry is a time-consuming process. After getting everything changed over, we finally took off down the mountainside. Once again, the entire slope was basically powder. David warned us about the dangers before we took off down the mountain—the entire run is basically one massive avalanche chute which could be set off at any time. Nonetheless, down we went. Despite one moment where I took a delightful face-plant (the tips of my skis dug in and stopped me in my tracks), our run down was pretty successful. From there, it was a quick run back to the snowmobiles.

                Our day did not end there, however. David and Dan started towing us back to the cabin, dropping my group off before going back to get a second group. We didn’t have long at the cabin, so there was no real time to get comfortable. The night before, one of David’s friends, Billy, had stopped by the cabin. Billy is one of the co-managers of the Cat Skiing operation that runs up here in Irwin. He offered to have us over to the cat-skiing cabin to talk about avalanche education and such. We had scheduled it for Thursday evening, so rather than relax at David’s cabin; we got back on the snowmobiles and headed over to the cat-skiing cabin. It wasn’t far to the cabin and we were there in no time.

                Billy is the Snow Safety Director for CS Irwin (the cat skiing operation) and he knew a LOT about avalanches. He needs to after all—if he’s got paying guests up here, he needs to make sure that they are going to be safe. Before he showed us some of the information that he’s got on the computer, he showed us one of the two weather stations that the operation uses. I had no idea that the art of predicating avalanche conditions was so advanced. The complexity of some his instruments really astounded me. Once we’d had a good look at the station, we headed back inside the cabin. The cabin is really nice inside—warm, cozy, and comfortable. It has a built in projector with screen and such. Billy showed us some of the programs that he uses to track avalanche conditions. I really enjoyed the presentation, however, it did drag on for quite a while—it was nearly 7 before we left. Speaking of leaving, we had a very interesting journey back to the cabin in the dark. Dan’s snowmobile doesn’t have a light on it, so he was navigating by headlamp. A very interesting journey, indeed, especially for those who were being towed. Our day came to an end with some very tasty crab-meat enchiladas and some great conversation. I must say that I’ve enjoyed my time up here, but I’ll be very glad to get back to civilization. Tomorrow is the day that we head back to town and I can’t say that I’ll be sad to get back to internet, flushing toilets, a shower, a proper bed, etc….

"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 6) *Part 2*

*This is Part 2*

                The day was not totally wasted, however. Once we had all gotten back to the cabin, we had a detailed debrief and discussion about the morning. Well, not really. Our “discussion” consisted of an impromptu snowball fight which was started by a group of us, including none other than my math teacher. It’s very interesting—UWC is really a place where the boundary between teacher and person is truly blurred. I have a gained a much more comprehensive understanding and respect for my math teacher during this trip—especially for his ability to throw a mean snowball. We all had a lot of fun during the snowball fight, getting very wet and snowy in the process. We split into two teams and wound up digging massive snow forts in David’s front yard. The whole fight was a lot of fun, but eventually we stopped in order to do some more skiing! We had decided to ski up behind the house rather than try to tow anyone anywhere. Nonetheless, David and Dan each offered to tow someone halfway up the slope, much like we did on Monday. Despite my misgivings (given my prior history with towing), I decided to volunteer to be towed. It was another disaster. Dan was towing me this time. We didn’t have enough speed going up the main slope, so his snowmobile got stuck (again). David came back to help and ended up getting his snowmobile stuck again as well. If the previous episodes had resulted in copious swearing, it was nothing on this time. They were both extremely frustrated. After some more furious digging, they managed to dig out both snowmobiles. David came down to get me. This time going up, he wanted me to ride “Canadian”. This technique involves us each standing on either side of the snowmobile, leaning from one side to the other to steer the thing. We managed to make it up to the top without any major mishaps. I left David and the snowmobile, strapped on my skins, and started to hike up. This hike was nothing like Tuesday’s hike, so it was no time at all before I was at the top.

                The ride down was very soft, gentle, and, well, powdery. Barely any of the mountain had been skied, so I found beautiful, open slopes—barely touched—to ski down.  When I got to the bottom, I found Dan and the remainder of the group waiting for us. We had a brief chat about our next move before deciding to head back up to the lake and try our luck at jumping. This move ended up being the day saver. Mauri and Charles had decided earlier to stay at the cabin to get some work done, so it was just the two adults, Danny, Patrick, Jakob, Henrik, and me. I was pretty tired by this point—digging out the snowmobile was really hard work—so I volunteered to come along to film some of their exploits. Once we reached the lake, we all de-skied in order to build a jump. The idea was that we would build a small jump on the surface of this very flat lake and then the snowmobile would tow someone off behind it, much like in water skiing. We set to our task—getting the jump built. Before long, the whole thing had begun to take shape. It looked pretty professional by the time we were done—something you might find in the terrain park at a major resort. Then it was time to do some jumping. I filmed as, one by one, everyone took their turn being towed off the jump. We got some really good footage of people doing nice jumps.

                Before the day was over, however, it was time to do some really serious jumping—off a natural cliff. At the edge of the lake was a very large cliff that was maybe 20 feet tall. After some initial evaluations, we decided to try jumping it. I watched with slight amusement as Patrick, Henrik, Jakob, and Danny flung themselves off the jump. It wasn’t really that bad, but I did admire their courage. I don’t think I have the courage to fling myself off a cliff.

                After the final jumps, we decided to call it a day. We got everyone back to the cabin and relaxed. Unfortunately for Jakob and me, it was our turn to cook dinner. We made burritos, which weren’t half bad in my mind. After getting some work and this post done, it is time to turn in for the night. I must say, although I have enjoyed my time up here, I am ready to be back in civilization—with all the comfortable trappings that it brings. We only have one day left—tomorrow, which promises to be an exciting and action-packed day. Overall, this day was pretty rough at the start, but got far better as the day went on. I learned quite a bit about conflict resolution and am starting to realize my limits as far as skiing goes. That’s a good thing to know and I hope to use it when I next go skiing.

*Pictures to come*

"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 6) *

*This is part one of two*              

 

Gotta love powder days. We very nearly ended in disaster today. The morning was, to say the least, a challenge, but the afternoon more than made up for it. To start at the beginning, overnight, we received around 5-6 inches of new snow, on top of the 4-5 that we had received the day before. There was a LOT of fresh snow around. While in some ways, this phenomenon is a wonderful thing, in other ways, it really isn’t. For example, take using snowmobiles in deep powder. While some snowmobiles are designed to be used in deep powder (known as powder sleds, they are extremely light and powerful with wide tracks designed to make them “float” on top of the powder), others are not. Take our two snowmobiles, for example. Our two snowmobiles are considered “work sled”—they are made for hauling gear up and down flatter, smoother surfaces. They aren’t generally supposed to be used for going up really steep or powdery slopes. Unfortunately, we didn’t have access to any other type of snowmobile so we used what we had.

                The morning started out with another very civilized wake-up call at around 9:30 AM. We’ve settled into a steady rhythm of waking up here. Dan and David normally wake up early—around 8 AM, but let us sleep in until 9:30 AM. We all slowly wake up to the sounds of cooking and bluegrass music. (David is a big fan of bluegrass music) When I generally wake-up, I generally feel extremely groggy. For one, I have not showered since Sunday evening. I hate waking up feeling dirty. Second, I do not sleep well here. I’m lying on a pretty narrow wooden bench that is covered only by a sleeping pad and two sleeping bags. Third, I experience pretty wild temperature extremes at night. When I go to sleep, I’m usually sweating buckets due to the very hot cabin after letting the stove burn all day. By 3 AM, however, when the stove has burned out, it’s absolutely freezing and so I have to wake up and crawl into my sleeping bag. To put it simply—I cannot wait until I get back to civilization with a proper bed and a shower. It will be heavenly.

                Going back to the day, after we had all woken up and had breakfast, we started getting ready for the day. Preparing to go skiing is a process which takes time and patience. There are always a lot of things to pull together and get ready before you can even start putting on your skis. Nowhere is this more evident than in the backcountry. Preparing to go skiing in a resort is hard enough work, but in the backcountry, this work is amplified many times over. In addition to all the clothing that one must wear to guard against the cold, one must take a beacon, shovel, and probe as obligatory equipment. We must also carry a fair amount of water and food in case we get stuck. All in all, it makes for an obligatory pack when skiing and more stuff to throw in. At around 10:30 AM, we were finally ready to go. We had decided the night before that we wanted to ski the dyke—an interesting run, or so I’m told. We all loaded up the snowmobiles and got ready to go. I wasn’t in the first group to be towed—that honor went to Jakob behind David and Danny/Henrik behind Dan. As they pulled out of the cabin, the rest of us could already see major problems cropping up. Not even a couple of minutes into the run, Henrik wiped out, but Dan didn’t see him, so he kept on going. This led to major problems down the road, while Dan and Danny went back for Henrik. David, meanwhile, came back for Charles. That tow seemed to go smoothly. Before long, he came back for me. I had never ridden the single tow behind David, so it was an interesting experience, but not necessarily an unpleasant one. As we left the cabin behind us, David pulled me up a hill, before reaching the currently-frozen Lake Irwin. It was a beautiful ride as we crossed the lake. At the end of the lake, however, stood a massive and very steep hill; before I knew what was happening, I realized that David was building up speed to get up the hill. What this meant for me was a period of slack as he went up the hill and I caught up with the sled, before literally being roughly yanked up the hill. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage this hill with much grace—I wiped out halfway. By this point, David, already frustrated by the other delays, just became more frustrated with my wipeout. It was not a particularly good moment. I recovered, however, and David started to tow me again. We went past where David had dropped off Jakob and Charles and continued up the track towards our destination. We carried on like this for several minutes before David started trying to go up a slope that hadn’t been heavily used. Before we knew what was going on, the snowmobile slid off to the side of the slope and firmly dug itself in. The powder was so soft that the snowmobile literally sunk in. David was very frustrated and so was I. I took my skis off and climbed up the slope towards David and the snowmobile. When a snowmobile digs itself in like this, there’s only one thing that we can do—dig it out. As I mentioned earlier, we all carry shovels in case of avalanche, but these shovels also serve another purpose—digging out snowmobiles. David and I set to our task and began the painstaking process of digging the snowmobile out. When we had finally dug the snowmobile out about 15 minutes later, David tried to back it out. The snowmobile moved—back into another snow bank. Once again, the machine dug itself in. David was really annoyed and frustrated—and so was I to a certain extent. Needless to say, a fair amount of swearing ensued. After our initial frustration had worn off, we set to our task once more. There really wasn’t anything more to it than to dig the snowmobile out a second time. It was a very hot and tough task. Finally, with the snowmobile freed once more, David was able to get it out—leaving me behind. I packed up all the stuff and started to get my skis on to start hiking, when David suddenly showed up again to start towing me once more. We did actually make it out this time and David started towing me back to where he left Jakob and Charles. We stopped briefly to make sure that Dan was ok—he had gone off in a different direction and gotten stuck in the snow. After digging himself out three times, he finally joined us and we all (Dan, David, Henrik, Danny, and me) headed back to the lake to rethink our options. The trip back to the lake was smooth and easy. It was a nice gentle downhill slope the entire way. When I got back to the lake—next to the hill that I had wiped out on—I found Dan, Danny, Henrik, and Jakob standing there. Henrik and Jakob graciously offered to let me ride with Dan and Danny back to the cabin (we had decided to return to the cabin to decide, due to the fact that both Patrick and Mauri were still there). A nice easy, gentle ride back to the cabin had us end up right back where we started—only two hours later.

*Pictures to come*

"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 5)

                Today started off in a rather interesting way. Keep in mind that I was sleeping on a bench, so there was no real way to get particularly comfortable. Still, David did not force us to drag ourselves out of bed until 9:30 AM. We all got ready for the day and enjoyed a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, avocado, bacon and melon. We cruised out of the cabin at cool 11 AM and headed out for the day’s expedition. The mission for the day was to hike and ski the Anthracite Mountain’s First Bowl. The trailhead was about a 10 minute snowmobile tow away from the cabin. This time, however, I was not so lucky with the towing system. On the way over to the trailhead, I managed to wipe out twice. Both times, it was due to one ski being in the track and the other outside the track, in powder and getting caught. Fortunately, both times when I fell over, I landed in nice, soft, cushy powder.

                Once I finally reached the trailhead (narrowly avoiding a third fall), I strapped my skins on as I waited for David and Dan to go back to the cabin to fetch the second bunch of people (keep in mind that we can only tow 3). Once we were all at the trailhead, we got geared up, made some final adjustments, and headed out. We left Dan with the snowmobiles (he didn’t want to ski today). The hike started with us heading into the trees. Before long, the slope got steeper and we really started heading up. Believe me—the hike was not easy. This time around, however, I wore fewer layers, so I was not nearly as hot as I was on Monday. Still, the hike took us about an hour and a half. By the end, I was pretty tired. David told us that we had hiked nearly 1500 vertical feet—roughly the distance that a standard chairlift will take you in 6 minutes. It was really hard work! We stopped briefly at the top to admire the view and take our skins off. Then, it was time for some serious powder skiing.

                One by one, we launched ourselves off, skiing initially through the trees before emerging into a beautiful, massive field of powder. At the beginning, I wasn’t enjoying myself due to my fatigue from the hike and my poor technique. Before long however, I had leaned back, pulled my tips up, and really started cruising! We skied down the run in what seemed like no time at all! It wasn’t bad at all though, because it was pure fun. Once we reached the bottom, we were about 100 yards from the snowmobile. A brief hike got us there in no time. When David offered to take us up again for another lap, I declined. One run up had exhausted me enough—there was no need for yet another run up! Dan towed Jakob and I back on the snowmobile. Apart from one brief mishap where I got my ski tangled in the tow rope, I avoided any mishaps on the journey back. Once we were back at the cabin, Jakob and I set about getting the fire restarted, our stuff cleaned up and dried, and changed into more comfortable clothes. A pleasant evening of discussion and good food (pasta!) rounded off what was a very nice day!

"The Kings of Crested Butte"--Project Week 2011, Crested Butte, CO (Day 4) *Part 2*

*This is Part 2 of Monday's Post*                

We unpacked the stuff and made our way inside the cabin. Once we were inside, the interesting architecture really hit me. First, to get into the cabin, you had to drop nearly 9 feet to get to the door! The snow was INCREDIBLY deep. It was insane. Immediately after I commented on the snow depth, David told us that he had dug the door out the previous day. Needless to say, I did not envy his job. Upon entering the cabin, we arrived in a mud room/prep area. In this area—which isn’t particularly heated—the firewood is stored. We also take our boots off in this area, to avoid bringing tons of snow into the cabin. Going through a second set of doors, we arrived in a storage/living area. Standing bang-smack in the middle of the room was a wood stove—the only source of heat for the entire cabin. Along the wall next to the door were hooks—our storage areas. These hooks are where we store all of our ski gear. Opposite the doors was a double bed/raised futon—this was to become the sleeping area for Patrick and Jakob. Underneath the bed was yet more storage space. From the door, to one’s left is the kitchen. There’s no door or wall between the entry area and the kitchen to allow the heat from the stove to move throughout the cabin easily. The kitchen is pretty small—but well equipped. There’s a full stove/oven and a propane refrigerator. The middle of the kitchen contains a ladder up to the second story and an island. There isn’t a whole lot of room between the island and the stove. Finally, turning left again, one reaches the den.  A counter (with stools) separates the kitchen and then den. In the den, there are a couple of couches and a small table. In addition, David has a laptop for movies and some speakers to play music.

                 Moving back to the entry area, off to the right of the doors is a stair case leading up to the second-story. The stair case switchbacks half-way up, but not before leading off into another room. On the 1.5 story, there is a room containing yet another bed—to become Charles and Mauri’s. In addition, directly off the staircase there is the bathroom. A note about the bathroom—it is primitive to say the least. There’s a small sink with a cooler (more on that later). Behind a curtain stand two toilets. One is a composting toilet for number twos. The other is a normal toilet for number ones. It’s a pretty basic system, but as David pointed out, it’s a lot better than the alternative, which is to have to use an outhouse. Continuing up the staircase, we arrive in a narrow hallway—literally a loft that contains benches on both sides and a narrow walkway. In one half of the loft, there was a sleeping pad and sleeping bag set up on a bench—this was to be my bed. The other half was used for storage. At the end of the loft stands a VERY narrow entry way into the other loft containing the master bedroom. This is probably one of the more interesting architectural features of the cabin. This entry-way is probably about 3-4 feet high and 2 feet wide. On the master bedroom side, only about half the entry way actually had a floor connecting to it. The unique properties of this cabin mean that the master bedroom loft contains a cutaway that looks onto the kitchen. When David was adding on to the cabin, he could only attach a portion of floor to the entryway. This means that it is a slightly treacherous journey from my bedroom to the master. The master bedroom is probably the nicest part of the whole house. It contains many windows that look out onto the surrounding landscape. In the center of the room sits a bed with chairs around it for sitting out and admiring the view.

                Just briefly, I’ll talk about some of the utilities in this house and then I’ll move back to the day. Electricity in this house is very interesting. David lives totally off the electricity grid, generating all of his own electricity from solar and wind power (he has solar panels and a windmill outside). A massive bank of batteries stores this power for when we need it and David also has a generator as a backup. For water, David actually does get running water in the summer (unpurified, of course), but in the winter, we melt snow for water. A massive pot sits on the stove and just constantly melts water. It all needs to be purified, of course.

                Moving back to the day, after exploring the cabin and getting settled, it was time to make lunch. After a brief lunch of tortillas and lunch meats, we suited up and headed out to do some serious skiing. In the backcountry, of course, there are no lifts to take you up to the top of the slope. Instead, in that time-honored tradition, one must hike up to the top of the slope in order to ski down. To hike up, we all have skins that we attach to the bottom of skis. These skins act as grips on the bottom of our skis—allowing one to move forward, but not backwards. In addition, our skis are designed to allow one to “free heel”—that is, one can be clipped down to the ski, like in a traditional downhill ski, or one can release the heel to allow one to walk almost normally (not totally…as I’ll explain later). In addition to our skis, clothing, skins, and poles, we also took a couple of other absolutely essential items with us. The other important fact to remember about the backcountry is to remember that you don’t have a ski patrol that looks out for avalanche danger and rescues you if one happens. Oh no. Out here, one must evaluate the avalanche danger by him/herself. To that end, we all carry beacons, probes and shovels. All are used in the rescue of a team member in the event that he/she gets stuck in an avalanche. The beacons allow us to look for each other—they will locate a team member, even if he/she is buried. The probes/shovels are used to actually find and dig out the person who is buried. With all that equipment, we packed up and headed out onto the slopes. Today, we were only hiking out of David’s house into his backyard (cool, huh?). His backyard, however, is pretty steep. We hiked up for about 30 minutes, climbing about 800 vertical feet. By the end of that climb, however, I had a deep appreciation for chairlifts and why man invented them. Climbing on skis is REALLY hard work. For one, you start sweating profusely…only this sweat has nowhere to go. It’s so cold outside that you are wrapped up trying to stay warm…until you overheat. In addition, it’s a pretty good workout—I would say it’s about the same as running up a mountain. Your heart really starts pounding. Finally, I reached the top of the slope and headed down. This was the part that made the hike really worth it. The entire slope was basically untouched, beautiful, virgin powder. Once you got your speed up, it literally felt like you were floating down the slope. It was incredible. After a quick second run up (during which the hike just felt even worse), I headed down again. Once more, I got an incredible rush as I headed down. After that, I called it a day and watched the others as they did one more (or two, in the case of Henrik…) lap down the mountain. We all headed back to the cabin and I got my first taste of being towed. Believe me; it’s easier than water-skiing, but still pretty hard work. The worst bit is when you hit some downhill. At that point, you start going past the snowmobile and have to worry about getting the rope wrapped around you. Fortunately, I was able to avoid any serious problems and made it back to the cabin without any serious problems. A quick dinner of stir-fry and a movie (“The Big Lebowski”) rounded out the day. All in all, this day was pretty successful and I really enjoyed my first day of backcountry skiing. I can’t wait for more!

*Pictures are still forthcoming*