Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I am 27

 I am 27. My family gave me a great birthday. My parents came to town and we played laser tag and went to dinner with my Uncle Roger. Neena put together a huge Party and her parents place. It was a good time and I was glad to see everyone. Thanks everyone!
 I have a great wife.

 I ended up with some really great gifts as well. I am now up to 6 cams! Thanks Neena, Andrew, Steve, & Janita
 I am ready to fly fish! Thanks Mom and Dad!

January Mountain Biking

 So, basically this winter has been terrible. The idea of getting out in the backcountry is absurd. For the first time in years I am just wanting winter to be over. Mostly so we can hurry up and get to next season. To make due we have been filling in the gaps with summertime fun.

A while back I got out mountain biking with Neena's Dad, Steve, for a few hours. After which I met up with Justin Olsen for another ride. Justin and I kept joking that we were getting the best pow turns of the season on our bikes. It was a good day.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

2011

I couldn't be happier with how 2011 went for me. I was able to accomplish a lot throughout the year thanks to the support of friends and family. I wanted to recap 2011 with a list of some of my favorite moments and pictures. The year for me really was made worth it by the relationships I developed through all of the excursions listed below:

Got Married and went to Hawaii on my honeymoon
Finished (pretty much) my Bachelors Degree
Went ice climbing for the first time
Went aid climbing for the first time
Went fly fishing for my first time
Did my first trad climbing lead
Went into the "Heart of Darkness" (A blog post of that line is what got me started into splitboarding)
Climbed Everest Ridge and snowboarded down the west face of Timpanogos
Rediscovered mountain biking
Raced my 6th LOTOJA
Trips to Maple
Climbed Black and Tan
Worked Outdoor Retailer and Interbike
My bachelor party (Mtn. Biking, Shooting guns, BBQ)

Stood on the summits of:
Mount Rainier
Grand Teton
Mount Superior
Monte Cristo
Provo Peak
Pfeifferhorn
Cascade (mostly)
The American Fork Twins

While there are a lot of things not pictured or listed, this was an amazing year where great people made my life even better than I could have imagined.

 Lake Powell with my family.
 left: Camping in Maple with Parker and Kristopher; Right: Touring with Ben and Parker, this is when I snapped my board and fell in the river.
 A short tour with Jeremy.
 This was an amazing trip up Everest Ridge. This is where Neena's sister, Meera, and I really became friends.
 Touring with Jeff and Todd. I love my brothers.
 Knuckle Dragger Couloir. This was a blissful suprise.
 Left: Tanner on Everest Ridge; Right: Parker headed toward Pfiefferhorn
 Mount Rainier
 The Summit of Rainier
 Touring with friends. Making the best of cruddy conditions. Couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to be in the high country with.

 Tanner is one of my favorite guys to be around. He is a solid friend.
 Touring with the southern Wasatch crew

 All smiles after my first trad lead.
 The feet on the right belong to Greg Osborne, he is a great guy to have around.
 Mtn. Biking.... I have missed you.
Eric Montandon is one of my best friends. I can always count on him to be there for anything. Even early morning climbing when it is 30 degrees.


 Ice Climbing. Neena climbing.
 Grand Teton
 Lotoja
My first pow turn of the 2011/12 season
 
This is a picture I was excited about, J. Eichorst took it of me out in the backcountry one day. I used to draw a similar picture when I was little of Peter Line doing the same trick.
 I got married to the babe of the century. The great part about a lot of the adventures above is that she was there for most of them. I love her and the fact that she will join me for these types of things makes my life so much better.

Winter Springs

 Winter has been an illusive thing this year. The idea of waist deep turns is something I try to push out of my mind as I stare up at the sparsely covered hills. A few days back I snuck out with a friend who was in town for a quick little climb. The only problem was I forgot how fast it gets dark in the winter...




Wednesday, January 4, 2012

PERDIDO

 Where have I been lately? Not very many places... unless you count the climbing gym, hospital, new apartment, new job, visiting family over the holidays, getting fat, getting skinny, Milosport, making splitboards in the shed, the Mall (for the first time in almost 5 years...), St. George, and I don't know where else.

In all reality the weather hasn't been too friendly for doing anything outside until recently. I threw together a few photos from a recent outing we took on Timp. Hard to believe that almost exactly one year ago we were taking waist deep turns down Primrose at 3 a.m. This time we were struggling up in a couple feet of terrible snow.

The snow was consistently crappy all the way up past 10,000 feet. It was a fun group to be out with and I am glad we went. At least the day provided some good photos.
 This is surface hoar. The winter version of dew that forms during long periods of cold dry weather.
 Greg borrowed a board from parker...

 Ice





 The McMillan




 Emerald Lake