Friday, July 20, 2012

Catching up: May-June

We'll start out by catching up with what we've been up to this spring.




The decision to move out to Leavenworth was hatched in the cold dark winter of employee housing of Alta Ski Area.  Planning for a summer adventure without a car was both exciting and daunting.  Delusions of grandeur and crafty schemes slowly fell into line behind our main objectives: we wanted to climb, and we didn't want to buy a car.  Leavenworth was a destination on both our minds as a world class location for cragging and alpine climbing.  Once I realized how close it was to town and the possibility of commuting to all the crags and trailheads by bicycle, I was sold, not to mention the tourist nature of town allowing us numerous means of gainful employment.  Luck was on our side when a fellow Alta skier extended an offer of renting out a room in town.  Although neither of us had bikes by the time we left the mountain, it seemed a small matter to overcome.  Liz found a sweet ride on craigslist, and my brother was generous enough to send an old whip out to Washington.  Anxious and excited, we left Utah for Leavenworth.  Cold rain announced our arrival to the northwest but our spirits were high, we quickly found our new home, and settled into town.

The next couple of months are chronicled below in pictures highlighting some memorable trips.  Needless to say Leavenworth didn't let us down.  Our first week here we loaded up the backpacks and road the 4 miles out to Castle Rock, birth of technical climbing in the Northwest and some of Fred Becky's first ascents. Those first weeks of riding were slow and tough.  Our legs were used to skiing, not pedaling, and our asses were used to chairlifts, not bicycle seats under the weight of heavy backpacks.  But we were stoked to be doing it.  The pace is slower, the appreciation greater, the stoke, boundless.  Those first couple of weeks found us climbing mostly in Tumwater canyon, a little closer to town, and thus easier to get to.  We were both eager to explore the Icicle canyon and nearby Enchantments, but we realized our bicycles could use a little tune up and our way of schlepping the climbing gear would need some tweaking.  Liz was blessed to find a used B.O.B.(beast of burden)  trailer on craigslist and that made our backs and butts grateful.  We found some rigid forks and skinny tires online and transformed our bicycles into road machines.  Now we've both got trailers, comfortable, smooth rides, and smiles on our faces.  Our rides have progressed from 4 miles, to 10, to 15, and the trips have gone from an afternoon to multiple nights up in the mountains.  We've gotten stronger and smarter, learning what we're capable of and also what we're not.  Amazingly all those dreams hatched back in Alta are coming true, and part of the motivation for starting up this journal is that what we thought would be a tough, fun summer, is turning into a paradigm shift of what we think is possible.  After realizing, not only is this possible, but we might be the only ones out here committed to it, we thought it'd be fun to share our experiences and get others motivated to push their limits as well.  Hope you enjoy the pictures, there only gonna get better.

Simple beginnings...

Upgrade

Topping out on Pulled Pork, getting dark.

Heading up to the Pearly Gates

Wildflowers Abound!

Beaut'

"Flowers are the Earth's way of Laughing" R.W.E.



Hauling

Learn to deal with these guys, they love pee.

Fellow Skierboy Jake sending "Pearly Gates" 

Liz officially topping out on Peek-a-Boo Tower.

Jake pulling the crux of Scarecrow, Peek-a-Boo Tower.

Snow Creek Wall, 800 feet of quality stone, outer space visable as the white streak on the upper headwall.
Liz sending on Outer Space.


Der-Town from the Icicle Ridge
Mt. Stuart beckons.

More Snow Creek Wall.

The unreality of Outer Space, perfect hand crack and knobs everywhere at 600 feet off the deck.

Snow Creek drainage.

Garden bound.

Community Garden plot, Bav-erica's not all that bad.

Topping out on Condorphamine Addiction.

What I want for my birthday....to CLIMB! (oh and a fatty cupcake would be nice)

Bike before, thanks Taylor!

Shocks and knobby tires, not helping on the road.

Transformed.  Surley Troll Fork.

Road machine.  Thanks to Eric at Eurosports!

Garden doing it's thing.

A job?

Ski Mission (took Scott's truck for this one)
Check out skierboyz.blogspot.com for some more pics on this trip.

Summit Stoke

Liz and Stu, looking forward to that one.


Tim

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