Saturday Morning Tour...

Until today every Saturday for the past 2 months has been enjoyed at a different cyclocross venue along the Wasatch Front. We have a great series here in Utah and every year UTCX raises the bar on organization, courses, competition, spectators, cash zones, waffles, and costumes. Although I have not traveled to any out of town races this year, CX season has been a success and much better than I ever would have predicted after such a rough summer. I am pleased with how I have ridden and maybe even a little disappointed to not be going to nationals this year. So now with only a couple CX races left my attention has been turning to the ski season. The mountains have a solid base and I have been out maybe 8-9 times during the last few weeks. A mix of general fun tours and time on race skis. Yes I am going to race another couple CX races, hopefully in the snow. But I am also planning to do a little skimo racing this year and don't want to look like a complete hack at the first couple events.

Today was the 1st Saturday tour of the year.

I think the high winds must have scared everyone away because I would expect to see more than 2 people in the "over crowded Wasatch" on a Saturday morning.

Jared and I met Chad, Samurai Sam, and Uncle Roman at Grizzly. We skied 3 great runs into Silver Fork before everyone had to bail except Jared and I. We ran a favorite Chute into Days, burned up to Benson and Hedges ridge, dropped into the Hallway only to find it was not filled in enough, Booted back out, down main Days, Up to Flagstaff and out the South face in surprisingly creamy easterly ridges and gullies. What a bunch of great skiing.

While cruising the Days ridge before our exit some pretty impressive cornices cracked out sympathetically from walking the ridge. A great example of the impressive power of the wind to transport snow and rapidly change conditions. The few days should get interesting.






Today I was on a new pair of Surface skis. Yea Surface, you know, huckin skis, jibbin skis, where's the park Brah skis? Do they have a place in the backcountry? Extended tours covering terrain fast and efficient? I am finding they do. Mounted with Dynafit ST binders and my trusty Dynafit DyNA boots this seems to be a great Wasatch combination. I was also pushing around with some new custom made (by me) nordic poles turned touring poles, but that's a story for another day. Add in some tights and you have a ground covering combination.



When I am not going out to chase Jared on race skis I want to ride something fun on the DH but it can't be sluggish on the climb. So yea, I am trying out the Surface Next Life kids ski. If Jared can wear women's underwear then I can ski on kids skis. It's a 160 cm with an early rise tip, low rise tail, and a little traditional camber in the middle. This little guy ate up all sorts of snow today from wind blown to crusted to creamy. Moving fast is all about strength to weight and although I am always trying to improve my strength, gains come in very slow increments so weight must always be controlled. This ski comes in around 6.5lbs/pair which is pretty good for 100 under foot. Give me some more time on it and I will give you the full scoop but so far I am digging it. Surface has an arsenal of cool looking skis and they are committed to fine tuning things to excel in the world on self propelled skiing. This season I plan to put some of them through the light and fast test. I will keep you posted. Today's 7000' morning was a good start.