The Grand Traverse!

Okey people! We now have less than 2,5 hours to start here in Crested Butte. I just had a power nap and are now tejping up my toes and nipples. In a race like this your body goes through a lot of stress. If you can minimize that leval of stress before hand that helps a lot. Hopefully we will have no problems along our way. Because of the poor snow situation this ha e now turned in to an adventure race were we have to boot pack for 7 miles and cross over bigger streems/rivers. Our primary goal is to finish and secondary with a good time around 12-14 hours. I have never done this particular race before but Himay has. We start of under a star clear sky with headlamps and will finish in sun shine and bluebird. That's the forecast with light winds. See you all again when we finished in about 14-16 hours! :-)

Telluirde to Valley X!

This morning when the phone rang it was nothing else than relaxed voice in the other end. It's the day before our race from Crested Butte to Aspen (The Grand Traverse) and we wanted to do something easy. We meet up at chair 4 around 10.00 am and headed out, still not 100 % sure of what we were going to do. In the lift we were talking about the race and what gear we needed to get after we were done skiing. Also about when to leave in the morning to get there in time for gear check in and race meeting. After a short boot pack we stod on the top of the ridge looking down on our run and Valley X. That's what we ended up skiing. It offered great spring corn snow all the way down with some grass skiing in the end.

We changed tyre on our ride (car) that we will be using for tomorrow and headed back to Telluride and Jagged Edge! Erik, the owner of the best mountaineer and outdoor store in Telluirde, Jagged Edge had offered to sponsor us with the gear we needed for the race. A BIG Thanks for setting us up with everything we needed to Jagged Edge and Erik. Because there is a load of things you need as mandatory gear for this race. We are racing through the night between friday and saturday and finish hopefully 12-14 hours later. The race start tomorrow at 23.00 (11.00 pm) and we are now all set and super exited to race. Also a Thanks to Peak Performance and POC Sports for supporting me all winter and year around.

I have prepared way better for this race and feel strong. So does Himay and he's been going big everyday since last race in Aspen we did together. So we expect to have a great time and lot's of fun! Our main goal is to finish and secondary within a good time!

Himay dropping in!

Jump turning in the tight chute.

Me showing of infront of Himay!

Happy spring skier.

Surfing the wave.

Himay knows how to do it too.

Old left overs from a avalanche the Himay find funny to play with.

Getting closer to the valley floor.

Once down we saw a lot of this =)

Almost at Himays door steep and house.

Okey, enough! Take of your skis Himay.

Some of the mandatory gear for tomorrow race. Again, Thanks Erik and Jagged Edge for helping us!

Sheep Chute!

Sheep chute... but... first I want to tell you about our mornings here in Telluride. An insight how a typical morning could be and most likely are for a skier in our beautiful valley. Around 7.30-8.00am you better be up, dressed in ski gear and shoveling in breakfast because the fun is soon to begin! Depending on who is really eager to ski that morning or have something special in their mind usually pic up the phone first. Today it was Himay. And the conversation start, almost like a business meeting call the phones goes warm (our like they say about my blog, it's on fire!). One call to Himay, one to Ricky, another to Chris and the fire spreads rapid. From one to another in town,  just to get a clue of what people are doing on the mountain today. After some passionated 30 minutes of heated discussions of what to ski and who to bring a decision has to be made so we can gather in time for todays skiing.

So of today we choose to ski Sheep Chute by Lizard Head Pass and Sheep mountain after all our phone calls. A great couloir that turned out having the best snow we skied in a long time after lot's of warm weather lately. It's a great skin up through the trees from Lizard Head Pass following a ridge, half way up you reach a wind scattered south/southwest face, from here you boot pack up the last part to the summit if you didn't brought ski crampons.

Then finally your about to put your skis on, click into your bindings, have a last look around and give your friends a hug. Then you through yourself off into a great run that just slumber and waits for just YOU!

Himay boot packing up.

Ricky way ahead of us, way? Yes, he had ski crampons. (He is strong too)

Babsi at the top!

Ricky launching of the wind lip.

Himay too.

Our dream team/crew today, from left; Ricky, Himay, Chris & Babsi!

Ricky coming into Sheep Chute...

...and passing me with high speed!

Chris having fun!

Babsi skiing out the apron.

Everyone cheering and laughing skiing together...

... Love skiing!

Babsi.

Once down we had to walk for 5 minutes back to one of our cars. Babsi and Chris!

Packing up and chatting at Ricky's truck!

Himay and me in he back like two dogs on our way to Chris car up at Lizard Head Pass. 

Me dropping in first in Sheep chute...

...and coming out last...

The Wire!

Last night Chris Chaput send me an text asking if I was still around!? I replied quick: - Yes, I'm yet here! You guys don't lose me that easy. Following conversation touch skiing and what I had in mind doing today. To be honest, I didn't have anything planed. I suggested some runs we could possible do within such sort omen. We ended up going to bed that night with a few different options and decided to make a final decision this morning. Himay called early and told me they planed on doing North Y or San Juaqin chute. But Chris and I had already made our choice. The Wire! The Wire was once (of what I heard...) a part of the final exams when becoming a Mountain Guide in America. Some years ago the pulled it back though it was to technical for people and for being on an final exam. I had skied it before but today we were about to take a new route I never done before. After a short and easy boot pack you ski into the basin behind Palmyra Peak and skin up to Silver Peak that are a few meters (feet) higher than Palmyra Peak. From there it's all down hill in exposed steep terrain. See pictures!!! We ended up having a great day out in the mountains. Thanx Chris!

Chris on top of Silver Peak getting ready to ski down!

That's where we heading! The Wire.

Chris coming down!

Still ways to go! The mountain in the far far distance is Utah and where you can find Indian Creek! 

Coming into the steepest part of the run!

He is in the middle of the steepest part! This is a No Fall Zone, in the lower right corner of the picture you can see where we are going, it cliffs out with a 20 meter (60 feet) cliff.

Getting closer to the cliff. I'm standing right above it attached to an anchor we later used to rappel down of.  

Chris coming up to me after a last scary turn just above the drop-off.

Look closely in Chris goggles and you can see where we heading down. 

Bye Bye...!

...And he disappear below the rock...

...And he is off the rope and starting to ski down before I start my rappel...

Down in Alta Lake Basin.

Making some nice turns!

It was firm but great fun skiing!

Our route from the top of "The Wire", the green part is the rappel.

And I finished of doing an other chute I been looking at, first tracks this year! =) 

For Yesterday!

Yesterday morning I drove out to Valley X for a tour and some skin training. On friday (march 30) Himay and I are racing an alpinism race again, from Crested Butte to Aspen. I thought I could get some training in and get a notification on my fitness level at the moment. Driving in I meet Melanie on the road running. She send me up to their house and we all had breakfast. At that time we decided to go back to the ski area and hike up Palmyra Peak, a summit above 13,000 feet. (4060 meter) as training. We felt great and strong. 

Check out the website for the race; http://www.elkmountainstraverse.com/

Later same day we all went to honor a friend of our and a great skier, Rob Liberman who unfortunately perished in an avalanche in Alaska a time ago. It was a life celebration and around 100-150 people/friends of him gathered from all over the world to celebrate him as a person and his way of living life. Pete, one of his friends said in a speech; - Let's celebrate one another while we are here in life together. This is something we all should be reminded of and have in mind. Later it might be just to late. Thank you everyone that made that evening so special and memorable! 

A lot of people came to Rob Liberman's life celebration.

Pete is having his speech.

Over cast weather but Billy goating up! 

At the summit looking down on everything.

Skiing and actually some cold snow even though we had around 60 F (15,5 C) in town.  Try to find Himay in this picture, where is he?