Just a quick video before I jet off to Joshua Tree. We've had a lot of fun in June/Mammoth but it's nice to be home. Lisa and the girls, along with Aaron are visiting grandma while I return to work.
First the JT climbing demo, then mountain biking and a Geocaching B-Day party.
Bye for now,
-g
p.s. Mammoth is bringing back the MVP pass, so if you didn't get in before or if you let your pass expire, April 1 is your chance to renew. For folks with shop pass privileges, it becomes cost effective after 17 days. For everyone else it's 7-10 days depending on the rate you calculate with. If you pay for next year too with the mammoth bucks, they'll credit 20 cents on the dollar, so effectively next year's pass is $460; over $100 off, which becomes cost effective after about 13 days over a shop pass or about eight days over a standard three day pass. If you have kids, then they're eligible too. With me and Mina, break-even is about ten days even with my shop pass rate!
we picked up aaron at the mammoth airport and immediately drove to mammoth brewing co. (anyone recognizing a pattern here?).
june mountain is really spoiling us; no crowds. none. get there at ten or so and park in the front row. folks are on a first name basis here. make no mistake, the is a small town ski resort; everyone knows everyone.
when we started skiing with aaron i had some concerns. aaron is a pretty studly guy, 20 something, waterpolo team, rode his bike across the country this summer, (http://2008abikeodyssey.blogspot.com/), etc. but for the first ten minutes i thought, wow, this is going to be a LONG day. lisa asked me to give him some pointers, so what the heck: "keep your hands in front of you, where you can always see them". good. OK, "try to carve by placing your downhill/outside ski knee behind the other knee". good. well, he still was kinda slow. then his sisters started challenging him to races. it's one thing to be a little rusty on skis, it's another thing entirely to get smoked by a four year old.
aaron was getting it and wanted too move on, but we insisted he stay on the green runs until he could link carved turns. after about three runs it was coming together and we moved on to blue. one of the tenets of skiing is that in order to ski a blue well, you need to suffer down a black, so after a couple runs down the blues, we were on a black run. not aarons choice; minnie's choice. and how can any self respecting adult not follow a four year old, even if it's off a cliff?. she gave him some pointers, telling him skiing a black diamond bump run is just like making a series of hockey stops. how hard could it be?
pretty hard, actually. we told aaron that the learning curve on a black diamond bump run was incredibly steep. for the first hundred yards you're certain you are going to die. the next hundred yards you're in denial because you haven't yet died but you think maybe you actually have and you just aren't aware of it yet.
the next hundred yards you fall a lot less, make a few turns where you want, and almost feel in control sometimes. at mile mark 400yd you are WAY past the point of no return and resign yourself to your fate. you HAVE to get down this stupid thing, either on your butt or otherwise. and with a four year old on one side giving tips, and a five year old on the other shouting encouragement, how could you fail? at mm 500yds you actually start to believe you can do this. in fact, if the last ten turns went according to plan and so why shouldn't the next ten? then you realize something really cool. you realize that you're almost at the bottom, that the bumps are a little smaller and the slope is a little less steep, so you make a decision: point the skis straight down hill and go gonzo. holy cow, you made it down alive!
so what did we do next? well, skied a double black diamond run, of course. here's why: it's easier to ski a black diamond once you've suffered down a double black. especially one your five year old sister has already done and asks you to join her on.
mina led the charge over the edge into the abyss called Davos, a narrow, bumpy, fun double black run. I went next, followed by aaron. it's amazing how a double black diamond run brings out all your worst habits. you go into panic mode and you fall back on your bad habits. good thing, because you quickly learn what those habits are so you can fix them. for aaron, it was keep both hand where you can see them, keep your shoulders squared to the downhill and remember to breathe. we talked afterward and decided that the 168 bpm heart rate was due to exertion, not terror.
we did it again and things went well. remember, we were having trouble linking turns on a green run just a few hours earlier, and now we were on a double black diamond run working on details. steep learning curve yields to the flatter part of the curve.
i think what allows some people to learn quickly and others to never progress is simple: you've got to be willing to make a complete ass of yourself to learn anything new. if you never want to fail, fall, crash, or look bad, you'll never have the freedom to try different things and experiment. be willing to look bad and you'll quickly be looking quite good.
so in one day aaron went from suffering on the greens to getting down the double blacks. not a bad day's work!
The Snow yesterday was pretty mashed potatoes, difficult anywhere it was flat and in the sun so we kept moving around to find where it was good. Despite the challenging snow conditions, and the fact she was catching a cold, Mina was linking tele turns! Great Job!
After we skied the girls still had some energy so we went to Mono Lake and explored Panum Crater. Very cool place. Panum was erupting only 650 years ago!
Aaron flew in today so he'll be trying to keep up with his little sis's tomorrow.
It's a long drive from LA to Mammoth so we try to break up the trek with a stop mid-way somewhere fun. Fossil Falls was our choice again today. The girls were asking 'how long 'till Fossil Falls from Lancaster on. As we entered Rose Valley we could see the massive cinder cone from twenty miles away. A few miles from our turn off I put the idea of looking for Indian arrowheads into their heads. Who can resist a treasure hunt?
We jumped out of the car and read the interpretive boards describing volcanos, floods and artifacts. Minnie checked with me one last time to make certain the volcano right next door was extinct and not planning on extincting us. Fears assuaged we marched on. I remembered seeing massive piles of reject arrowheads littering the ground, but could I produce today? It had only been about 20 years and for all I knew, assuming I remembered where to find them, they could all have become souvenirs. well we got lucky and not only found thousands of obsidian chips littering the ground, we also happened upon some cool rock art!
The sun was setting so we climbed around in some lava tubes before we drove on to dinner in Bishop and our place in June Lake. Tomorrow, tele!
We love everything about June Mountain. Lodging is inexpensive and nice, the mountain is empty, the terrain parks are fun and it takes us four minutes to drive to the resort where we park fifty yards from the lift. Yeah, Mammoth has more variety, etc., but it's nice to spend the day where the ticket agents, lifties and patrollers all know us by name. Heaven.
Like every morning, I asked the girls what they were going to do today. They both said 'Black Diamond Bumps'. Sounds good to me. We did some warm up runs, played around in the trees and the kiddie park, then stopped for a quick break. Well mom and I did; the girls just kept playing on their skis and wouldn't even stop to eat a snack. Cliff Bars on the lift are all they're interested in these days.
After our sandwich break we went to the top and headed toward our goal: Sunset Bowl, a nice, wide, empty black diamond bump run full of still-soft snow you can sink a pole a foot into. When we got to the top, Minnie had a change of heart, so Mina and I 'checked out the snow' for her while she cruised an easier way down. The snow was fantastic. Mina has spent yesterday skiing double blacks, so when she skied the black that had given her trouble only two days earlier, she was amazed at how easy it seemed.
We met up with mom and Minnie at the lift and rode up together again. Minnie told us she was coming with us this time. Standing at the top, Mina gave her some pointers and demoed a few turns. Minnie had a bad experience at Bear Mountain last month, taking a long slide down a snowboard-scraped black diamond, so she had some concerns about not being able to stop. Mina assured her the bumps would stop her should she fall. Still skeptical she followed Mina and me into the abyss. And she did GREAT!
The girls laughed and giggled their way down the entire black diamond run. After the first fall and immediate stop against a fluffy mogul all fear was gone. We skied that run four more times. We were having so much fun even mom, a die hard blue skier, wanted to join in. Mina gave her some pointers and she was making great looking turns in the bumps after a few minutes. Mom said each turn was a leap of faith, but she kept it looking good. The entire family skiing down a black diamond run by their own choice and everyone was smiles and giggles! Success!
We're home checking on things, but will be back in June tomorrow. We're bringing everything this time; I'm bringing the Rossi B2 teles, the K2 Public Enemies, the Volkl 7-24 Pro's, a snowboard, and my Karhu BC touring skis, each with their own boots. Yep, five pairs of boots (most of which I purchased at the used gear sale)! Everyone else has skis, a snowboard and BC skis.
Monday I'm teaching Mina to tele (push the knee over to carve, then to turn the other way, stand up tall, slide the lead foot back and carve it on the outside. Finish by pushing the knee over on the new lead ski. Just like carving alpine except y0ur feet are backward. EZ). I also threw in a tele instructional DVD. Tuesday Aaron is flying into Mammoth (that means Mammoth Brewing Co., again), and the forecast for the week is sunny and beautiful.
A few of you have mentioned you may be coming up, so call and we'll do some runs together.
HTML clipboardAnother perfect day today under sunny skies. Cool temps kept the snow from last week soft on all the north facing slopes. We were even kicking down sluffs in a few places. Jared and Meghan are up so we found them and toured the mountain.
girls looking at trail map
Meghan and Mina are both really easy to ski/ride with as they'll go pretty much anywhere everyone else wants to go. Park, sure. Steeps, why not. HTML clipboardThe three of us cruised up chair 1 and did the Wall , then Gravy Chute, then we had lunch. Lisa, Cara and Jared were in the park and they met us for some of Tito's chili fries and pasta salad before we all hopped the gondola.
chili fry face
Mina said she wanted to do Cornice Bowlto turn her 'lunch legs into ski legs', so Meg and I followed her down. We cruised over to chair 23 and debated what to do. Mina had her heart set on Drop Out Chutes but the tired adults convinced her to try Scotty's instead, which she loved.
We missed the last chair on 23, so the three of us cruised back to chair 1 to do Gravy Chute again. The snow was nice and Mina had a ball on it the first time and wanted to do it again.
HTML clipboard
We finished up with a luge run through the trees and hopped a bus back to our car at Canyon Lodge. It was really nice having Meg along again; I know the girls really like having her along.
After beating ourselves up following the kids around we again needed some refreshment of the Mammoth Brewing Co. variety, followed by Mexican Food at Gomez's and finished with some 30 Rock.
oh-beer-mas tree,oh-beer-mas tree
Tomorrow we'll be at June again for a crowd free Friday.
HTML clipboardMina ripped a double black and Minnie busted a couple of quarter pipe 180s today!
After our coffee and bagels breakfast we talked among the fam' and decided what we wanted to do today. The consensus was to go to the park. Specifically, the Super Park at June Mountain. Both girls love the jumps and features so we headed off.
Four minutes after we left our motel we were unloading gear from the second row of the June Mountain parking lot. At 10:30am. The liftie put down her book (it can be 10-20 minutes between loads sometimes) to help us on the chair and we were off.
The only problem with June Mountain is you start to think every mountain should be like this. Big open bowls, fun steeps, fun terrain parks and great staff. And almost no people. That means no ticket lines, no lift lines, and no one running over you on the slopes. Now if you want to hang out with all the cool people, you should go to Mammoth or Mountain High because there are certainly LOTS of people in those places, but if you want to ski bumps or the park all day and you never want to share a run with anyone else all day, then June Mountain is the place for you. It's like having your own private resort.
Every day we work on a few skills, so today it was park etiquette. Look up-slope before y0u go, call your drop-ins, don't stand in blind spots or landing zones, wait your turn when there are people waiting to drop in, and go big when the video is rolling. Both girls were working on quarter pipe 180s today too.
Mina also wanted to work on bumps a bit so we skied a black diamond bump run, followed by a double black after lunch which she nailed. The run is called Powder Chute and it's steep and narrow and right under the lift. Too bad there was no one on the lift to see it! And of course I ran out of memory just as we dropped in, so you can't see it either.
Meghan and Jared just moved in upstairs so we’re all going to Mammoth tomorrow to play.
Because the wind was so brutal today we decided to not ski. Instead, we thought we'd play tourist around town. We started off at the Cast Off thrift store and scored big. We found some great books for the girls, a VHS copy of The Muppet Movie, a cute sweatshirt and a pile of easter tchotchkes, all for $14.
Next stop was Mammoth Mountaineering. MM is the best tele and backcountry store I’ve ever visited. They have forty styles of tele boots on the wall, and sell every BC gizmo imaginable. If you can’t find it at REI, these guys probably have it. We stopped by to see if they rented kids' tele gear, and guess what. . . Size 19 mondo plastic tele boots and 110 tele skis for $35/day. Score! Guess what Mina, mom and I will be doing next week!
After all that hardcore activity we decided to quench our thirst at the Mammoth Brewing Company. For those of you not in the know, it’s a craft brewery in downtown Mammoth Lakes with free beer tasting. Yes, I said free beer tasting. Well, in theory it’s free, but after we tasted how good these beers are we kinda brought a few home with us.
Charles poured us a taste of each and we found some new favorites. The Epic IPA (hoppy with strong grapefruit and subtle mango) has long been on my list, but the Double Nut Brown (coffee and chocolate with hints of sensimilla), the Floating Rock Hefeweizen (fresh and full), and the Hair of the Bear Doppelbock (9%, smokey, dark and full bodied) are equally delicious.
After carbo loading we went for a sunset XC ski session off the Mammoth Scenic Road. Temps were in the 20s but the wind finally calmed a bit and gave us a chance to go play before dinner. We found a spot along the side of the road and jumped out. The girls are both on some pretty basic gear but still managed to do pretty well stomping around.
Tonight it's supposed to dip below zero, but tomorrow will have light winds and we’ll be snowboarding at Mammoth. Enjoy! -greg
Maybe it's because we were just basking in 80 degree sun, or maybe it's because the wind chill temp this morning is in the teens, but today we think we'll catch up on some books and movies rather than go outside. We bought a DVD player (with a remote!) from the Salvation Army store and brought it along to catch up on BSG, 30 Rock, FIS slalom racing and some favorite ski movies.
To say the weather is hostile would be putting it lightly. Right now I'm looking out the window at snow being blown off the ridges by 100+ mph winds. That same snow is blowing sideways past our hotel window at 50 mph. When we open our front door snow blows ten feet into our hotel room. On the bright side, it's sunny. I'm having Wisconsin flashbacks.
The NWS says it all:
CAZ073-100515- MONO- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...BRIDGEPORT...COLEVILLE...LEE VINING... MAMMOTH LAKES 706 AM PDT MON MAR 9 2009
...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON PDT TODAY...
.REST OF TODAY...WINDY. PARTLY CLOUDY EARLY IN THE MORNING THEN BECOMING MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS EARLY IN THE MORNING...THEN ISOLATED SNOW SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS 31 TO 41. WEST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 55 MPH BECOMING NORTHWEST 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. RIDGE GUSTS UP TO 105 MPH. .TONIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY IN THE EVENING THEN BECOMING CLEAR. LOWS 2 BELOW TO 8 ABOVE ZERO. WEST WINDS 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 MPH DECREASING TO UP TO 10 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT. RIDGE GUSTS UP TO 70 MPH IN THE EVENING.
Or the Local Dweebe Report:
Dweeb Report : Monday, March 09, 2009 9:54:32 AM
BEWARE OF THE IDES OF MARCH!
MONDAY UPDATE:
AS OF 10:00AM WX FRONT STILL NORTH OF MAMMOTH SO CONTINUED WINDY THIS AM....WINDS EXPECTED IN THE OWENS VALLEY WILL INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON.
EXPECT A COLD WINDY DAY TODAY WITH FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW POSSIBLE WITH LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE......HIGHS IN THE UPPER 20S AND LOW 30S IN TOWN....TEMPS ON MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN ARE WELL DOWN INTO THE 20S FOR HIGHS AND UPPER ELEVATIONS IN THE TEENS...WITH GUSTY WINDS. IT IS A COLD DAY UP ON THE HILL...DRESS WARMLY.
We stopped by Fossil Falls on the way up to let the girls burn off some road trip energy. It was getting dark and the bats were buzzing around as we explored.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Canyon sin Nombre & The Mud Caves of Arroyo Tapiado
While planning our adventure and looking for fun trips in Anza Borrego, we stumbled upon vague references to ‘Mud Caves’ way out in the southern part of the park. The only sources of information about the area are the occasional YouTube video, 4x4 enthusiast photos, and one girl and one boy scout troop in San Diego who posted pre-trip info packs that are to die for. The YouTube vids and pics whet our appetite, and the scouts showed us the way! We have three or four good 4x4 guide books for the area and two of them list the trip. One claims the first part of the trip is very easy. As soon as we turned off Sweeney Pass Road toward Canyon sin Nombre we bounced over large ruts, then bogged through deep soft sand. So much for trail ratings.
Almost immediately we were struck by the incredible beauty of this canyon. The area is heavily faulted, uplifting ancient Colorado River bottom sediment into colorful, twisted cliffs on both sides of the trail. Paint it all with blue, yellow and white wildflowers and clear blue skies. . . Well, you get the idea. Heaven. We left Canyon sin Nombre and headed north to Arroyo Tapiado where the much anticipated ‘Mud Caves’ loomed. The trail was very easy and anyone with a RAV4 could have made it through the ‘moderate’ sections. Go trail ratings.
We broke out the laptop and read the scouts info, and quickly found a couple of amazing mud caves to explore. I thought these would be smallish caves, but these caves were impressive. Imagine a slot canyon with a roof and rare skylight or two. The cave twists along for a hundred yards or so before breaking out into a slot canyon, then goes back into being a cave again. Seriously fun stuff.HERE'S A YOUTUBE VIDEO After the mud caves we tried our hand at a couple of geocaches up Bridge Canyon. One of the caches was actually in the extremely narrow entrance to Dip Slope Cave. Good thing we had kids to send in for it ‘cause I sure wasn’t going to fit in there. Lisa found lots of fossils in the sediments in this narrow slot canyon. A few of the more open places in the canyon were actually covered in little blue wildflowers!Well, it was getting late so we had to call it a day. Next time we’ll plan on camping in the arroyo and spending much more time exploring!
We were looking forward to some sun and warmth after our Mammoth adventure and Anza Borrego hasn’t disappointed. Sunny skies with temps in the low 8os, wildflower filled canyon hikes, Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Spade Toed Toads (singing as I write), beautiful sunsets and a lame comet thrown in for star gazing good measure. We’ve even seen crazy sculptures, a hippie bus and a rattlesnake belt, so this desert trip is pretty much complete. Today we took the girls for a hike up Palm Canyon. Just us and 60 fifth graders from Indio. We quickly bailed off the trail and into the wash where we boulder hopped up the canyon, scaring up lizards, snakes and toads. Mina is an amazing frog catcher. She practices in the backyard and her skills are sharp. Her advice to me was ‘you’ve got to be lightning quick.’ Fifteen minutes after we got in the creek she had a frog in each hand and two muddy boots. Minnie had a toad shortly thereafter and muddy boots much sooner.
Several points along the hike the canyon looked impassable, but a scramble up a waterfall here and a passage in a boulder pile there got us up to the next pool each time. How kids can rock scramble with a frog in each hand, plus at least one stick and rock, in muddy boots, is beyond me.
Two miles from our car we shared a bag of TJ’s trail mix before we headed back down canyon.On the way back down we found three Geocaches. Earth Caches, actually. An Earth Cache is a mini geology lesson disguised as a Geocache. The first was a lesson about Xenoliths, the next about Desert Varnish, and the last was about Bajadas and water tables. Cool Stuff.
I just finished geo-referencing my pics and logging my caches, so it must be Miller time. Actually we’re sipping on Mammoth Brewing Co.’s Epic IPA (strong grapefruit with hints of mango; without a doubt the best IPA available), listening to the locals singing their den songs, and roasting marshmallows over a warm fire under a starry sky. Yup, heaven. 10pm and time for bed; the sun comes up hot and early. Enjoy! -g
