Hut Snowshoe With SkiPulk 27Feb17

Kala and I took Brantley's toward Sangree Froelicher hut recently. I dawned the pulk with all the food and emergency gear, mostly in order to test my sled. The sled worked great and tracked well despite some steep and sidehill stuff. We had a blast on a nice morning before the recent storm. Vino in the brisk winter air is sublime. My objective of skipulk test was surpassed only by my objective of convincing this ardent team they'd be able to get to a hut for night in the winter wilderness - achieved.

Loopin' T-Bar For Horseshoe Bowl And Imperial For Whale's Tail On New Liberty Origin 116s 24Feb17

Despite the wind and cold I hit Breck for whatever the new 3" of snow offered. It's been 10 days of "spring" so I didn't expect much really. I didn't get much initially either as I skied the steps off E Chair with expected conditions. I headed to the top hoping for better but Whale's Tail was closed and I heard avy bombing out that way. Imperial Bowl had similar thin new on top of plenty of crusty stuff. So, I headed over to T-Bar to see how that area was fairing. Woohoo - no lines to speak of and I dropped in on the leeward side of the ridge and found pretty good snow and few lines drawn - the combo of spindrift and night snowfall helped make the bowl good. I spent my time looping that till I read that Whale's Tail was open and then went there for some runs. I mounted the Liberty Origin 116s with STH2 bindings (bought by Wilks really since he didn't want me to rip apart the Helixes which I've been loaning him). Short story is that these light, twin tip "bomb rocker" skis are really fun. Turn initiation is so easy and the width makes for great float - and they are stable enough to drive through varied conditions. Here's one video of the day, backed by New Pornographers new release. Vid removed and replaced hoping for better "traction" via Blogger.

Sinus Explosion On The PT 23Feb17

Continued spring weather in the Rockies chased me out to the PT for some fishing before going back to Summit. Sure it was warm but it was super windy making casting a challenge. I started out of the Nature Center and lost a nice fish soon after again futzing with the vid-cam. I had others on the line but just one nice one shown here via a screen capture. He's a still skinny 18"er cutbow with one lip and very cuthroat-like features; I caught him on a black vinyl emerger midge. There is plenty of sign of redd building. After lunch I moved upstream and lost others - the fishing is not epic yet. The biggest issue with the outing however was that it ultimately drove my immune system crazy... I sneezed while out there but the really bad stuff happened overnight with awful sinus activity. I didn't see any new growth but there must be some - I can't believe I'll need to start antihistamines in February.

Ghetto Crusher Upgrade 20Feb17

With consistently warmer weather I not only came down from Summit for some riding with Kala (and some rainbow fishing this week) but I also was able to spend an afternoon more permanently repairing the Crusher's bear damage. The black duct tape (with 2X adhesive) was good but failed recently on the way to Summit on I70. I had to stop at TommyKnocker's and make repairs to taping. It was still very good but I do want a more lasting fix and cooler look, as I am all about the look. Today I slid the Crusher into the sunshine and 62° to apply the ultimate bonding experience. I used more acetone in prep than I should've, in order to clean the areas I'd prior gummed up max, and then I used the whole tube of adhesive. [Yeah, that's Canadian hockey tape holding the window in place - what could go wrong?] Looks great - I just need it to cure fully and then I'll test in the car wash for weather integrity.

Tests are "in" and high pressure flooding of the window seams hold out the elements! While I didn't try a crowbar, I did yank with hands pretty hard on the window and could observe no movement. I'm excited to put the Crusher back in full service - though w/out driver side rear venting - which I typically used to "dry" my waders. Oh well - I still have the passenger side and the repair was ~$12, as opposed to ~$400. 

Early Spring, Three Avalanches & Funkiphino [Facebook RePost] 17Feb17

Yoho and I endured spring-like ice2slush at Keystone on Friday - we managed sufficient vert but endured marginal snow conditions all day. We left a bit early to hit a new Summit Co brewery, Outer Range (an IPA & Belgique speciality brewer), rent backcountry gear and attend a talk on new lines from Fritz Sperry. I actually bought a pair of SkiLogiks from him last year and went to his house in Denver; he remembered it that I helped him fund Volume 2 that spring. I got both my old Making Turns Volume 1 signed and bought Volume 2 (Indian Peaks and More) and had it signed. He skied some really wild stuff last year. We picked up Steve Brown my neighbor frind from #9 EN and I should mention that Jim and Steve both bought the raffle tix for CAIC and won the best prizes! Jim got yet another set of goggles and Steve got cool shades - both from Native - notably, both items will degrade in five years in a landfill! Jim and I set out on Saturday into the backcountry along Peru Ck and while avy danger was low all along our route, we encountered evidence/aftermath of three older avalanches - one knocking a cabin down, one a wet sluff from recent warmth and one an earlier steep permanent slab release into a couloir and then creekbed. Whew - what power. We lapped a couple modestly sloped runs in our BC gear but skied out in time to catch a great concert at the Snake River Saloon. Funkiphino is a very good 11 piece band with 3 lead vocalists, a keyboardist, 3 sax players, 2 horns, a drummer, a bass guitarist and a lead guitarist. So funky, so good - and Jim could sing every song.

New Sticks & New Tubes - Skiing & Desktop Audio Updates 19Feb17

I scored some new mid-fat skis - Liberty Origin 116s - 182 length, a little conservative. I found them used with 2015 graphics at Wilderness Sports for $250 and snapped them up. My Liberty Helixes (105) are goto but I needed something nice between there and the Liberty Genomes (145), which can only come out and play on double digit days. It's established that I appreciate the Liberty bamboo line from Eagle Co Colorado. The Origins are lightweight bamboo playful powder hounds with pretty deep sidecut and rockered tip and tail. These will be perfect I think in most powder and will have the quick turn capability for trees and moguls and such. I'll just repurpose some bindings from my rock skis to make the investment pretty cheap. Now I just need some snow to test these babies - they are not needed in the purely spring conditions we've encountered for the last 2 weeks.

Wilks was using my "rock skis," which are my original Liberty Helix boards with S12T bindings, and chose to buy them for the price of new STH bindings for me for my "new" Origins (rather than have me rip off the old bindings). Seems they did a new generation so I got these STH2 13s for the new pow' machines. The red-orange version will pop with the Origin graphics. It's cool to get excited for some new gear mid-season - we better get some dumpers after I'm back from the Virgin Islands!

I took the next couple of steps in tube rolling in my Vali 2 amp in Silverthorne. Prior I "settled" on the Tesla as my best alternative in the Vali 2; it was very good. Yet, as mentioned prior, buying "better" 6922/EC88/6DJ8 tubes would require bigger investments but might yield better audio - and it did. I found reasonable deals on some of the best rated pre-amp tubes - from the mid-60s Phillips Heeren (Holland) plant and from the mid-60s Siemens (Germany) plant. Perhaps the deals were in part due to the OEM labeling of Valvo on the Phillips Heeren tube and Westinghouse on the German Siemens tube. Whatever, these are the real deal as I checked the manufacturing codes, and still cost me ~$100 all in for both. I tested again with my normal tracks and rotated through the Tesla and the new tubes - and the new, more expensive, tubes were better to my ear. To reprise my criteria and explain these new tubes.

• Listening Fatigue - both tubes were excellent and long listening
• Low Noise - both were decent with the Siemens edging on quieter
• Dynamics - both were great on transitions and plenty quick throughout
• Power Over Range - Siemens was better but colder; Phillips was sufficeint
• Smooth v Harsh - both were exceptional; Phillips was smoother & warmer while Siemens was dynamic & cooler
• Midrange-Forward - both were great but the Phillips was exceptional in the mids without sacrificing anything in the bass; the Siemens was uncolored and audio-wise "flat" in a very good way

There's a new sheriff in town and he's from Holland. It was very close here but the nicer, smoother, rounder Coffin house sound was reproduced through the 1962 gold pin Phillips Heeren E88CC USED ~$65 labeled Valvo. It beat the steel pinned 1965 Siemens ECC88 NOS ~$35 and displaced the Tesla in the socket for most listening.

Sunny With Stones On The PT 15Feb17

After a stop at Quest for a blood draw I headed to Pueblo for a day on the Arkansas. First, I finally found a doc I like and he gave me a full physical - hence the blood draw. I'm off Cobra and have new insurance so a change was timely - I do need a doc before I get on Medicare as getting one then is tough. I've never had an EKG and I was surprised to learn, somewhat like DD, I have an enlarged heart, but for good reasons - athleticism! BP was good, resting rate was ~55. PulseOx was great, "organs" were the correct size and so on. Now if the blood tests show I haven't pickled my liver 2017 tests will be all good.

While cold on arrival the clear sunny skies wamed up nicely on the PT. Flows are very low and water is pretty clear at the Nature Center but sedimented at Valco. I observed some early signs of redds. I saw a small midge hatch and one #20 BWO - nice. I caught some fish including one thinish but nice 19-20"er; I didn't employ the net cam after having futzed with it on my first good fish-on and lost it. It's not spring fishing but it was decent. All rainbows and all caught on tiny segmented midges. LisaS keeps suggesting I'm a NatGeo photo guy - so here's the selfie with a real NatGeo logo. For lunch I even found a fav Stone IPA in cans - heretofore unknown to me. Woohoo.

Game Changer PreOrder 12Feb17

PreOrdered Kanoa bluetooth earphones. Specs imply game changing for such gear. My JayBird JB200s were some of the first BT earphones made and are now five years old. I've repaired them with epoxy twice. They are big/heavy and have a dorky fit over ear, weak battery life, a pesky interconnecting wire behind neck, and BT connectivity which drops out if the phone is too far from head. I like my phone on leg during rides and after a while the connection can become intermittent as leg pumps or head turns.  Pre-order saved >$100 on supposed retail price of $300 (pre-order closes end Feb) but they have been over-promising on ship dates since 2016 and there is community concern. Current commit is "Spring 2017." They look pretty big but my ears are gigantic so not a big concern as to fit.

Splendido With Yohanans 10Feb17

Wow! After a record setting warm day we headed out to Beaver Creek to meet up with Jim and Mary and dine at Splendido. We even dressed up a bit with jackets and dresses for this place in the Chateau in BC. The food, wine, cocktails and friends were great. Kala and I split rack of lamb and dover sole - appys included foie gras, poached lobster & pear, and Kumamoto oysters with 3 different "sauces" and desert was some wild custard + fennel sprinkle + lemon ice, which was spectacular. Jim had the Moon something desert which was featured on the cover of Vail magazine. It was not a brewery and the price was stratospheric but still, I'd recommend going to Splendido if occasion warrants.