The Gore Race takes dirking to a whole new level. Everyone is a Class V boater so they can take care of themselves, but any time you get that many people together things go slow.
I set safety for the Gore Race this year. I saw a lot of this sort of thing.
I bring you... Behind the 8 Ball... the best R4 in the world...in all black.
Who doesn't want to paddle long boats down Gore in 18 min?
Pretty colors!
Dropping into one of the easier Vs followed by Morgan from WA, Mike Reid Photo.
I have to admit, this section of river has been at the very top of my tick list for a few years. Deep inside I knew my skills were up to the task, but still I have been hesitant to run this classic test piece. I definitely wanted it to go well when I finally did commit. Labor Day weekend I finally took the plunge and experienced first hand the rapids I had been visualizing for a long time. It went great and I couldn't be more excited. On Friday I just ran the lower seven miles, which contains some of the easier Class Vs like Jaws I to III, Hound's Tooth, Juicer and Crunch. It went great and gave me a chance to get used to a borrowed set of tubes and frame. Although, I did end up in a rather large hole on river right in Jaws II. I battled my way out without incident and swore I would never go in there again, because the odds of a repeat performance ending as well are not in my favor.
Saturday and Sunday I ran the whole 15 miles of Class V from top to bottom and it went perfect both times. Nutcracker is the real deal, then the next bunch of read-and-run Vs are great fun with nothing too serious in the way of consequnces. Then there's Jacob's Ladder followed immediately by Golf Course (named for it's 18 boat eating holes). This whole deal constitutes almost two miles of continuous Class V with awful consequences for blowing a line or getting upside down. Undoubtedly, I was a bit intimidated dropping into this one both times and probably will be every time in the future (wonder about me if this stops being the case), but I totally nailed the line both times.
All told, my third Idaho trip of the year was just as good if not better than the previous two outings. It was so nice to fly and not have to do the drive. This would not have been possible without the generosity of the incredible Idaho catbaoters that drove me around and let me borrow gear. Thanks Al for the tubes and Craig for the frame. You guys are the best.
Gore Falls. You can see that the swim sucks if you screw up the 8 footer.
I rowed Gore Canyon on the Colorado for the first time on Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day on one of the most classic Class V runs in the country, but things turned a little epic so all you get in the public domain is a pretty picture and a promise for a good river story the next time we have a beer together.
Beautiful scenery on the South Salmon
For the 4th of July weekend I was able to escape for a whopping six days and take another trip out to the great state of Idaho. Phil was once again able to join me for a long weekend and I picked him and his kayak up at the Boise airport on Thursday morning and headed for destination Yellow Pine, ID. On the way up there we had the pleasure of seeing the ultra-classic North Fork Payette for the first time in either of our lives. The North Fork is one impressive piece of whitewater and it quickly becomes clear that the numero uno rule of road scouting does not necessarily apply. For those interested, the numero uno rule of road scouting is, gIf you can't see it from the road, it's easy.h Eventually we stopped road scouting the most awesome river I have ever seen, killed my iPhone by submerging it in water, made it to Yellow Pine, ID and were on the water by two pm.
We had the pleasure of boating the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River with a crew of three WA catboaters and the very solid R2 of David and Laura. David was Val Shaull's R2 partner the day they showed Dana and I down the Truss and had the infamous flat wrap. Anyhow, I promptly proceeded to make a complete fool of myself by popping an oar in the long complicated Class V that is Flight Simulator and my troubles didn't exactly end there. I managed to row a pretty good section of whitewater with one oar while trying to get my other oar back in until this large double fin rock blocked my downstream progress. My left tube popped up over the first fin and dropped into the slot between the two and pinned before unceremoniously dumping me head first into the river in a downstream flip. Fortunately the only injury was to my ego and that was the only section of Flight Sim that was not being watched from the road.
The next couple of days we repeated with same run with different boating partners and better results, except for the Phil's Rock incident. We were actually in Yellow Pine to meet up with our new Idaho catboater friends Jerry Kiser, Craig King, Steve Rich and Ted Day. The latter two were to be our partners in a three day wilderness trip down the South Salmon.
Phil came to have a rock named after him on our second day of boating the EFSF. He paddled over this wave/hole thing to find a surprise pyramid rock hiding right behind the pillow. His bow dropped between the pillow and the rock he pinned horizontally with his head downstream. I was ahead of him at this point and quickly alerted our boating partners to the developing situation. From my vantage, I could see that Phil was able to get breaths intermittently, but had no idea how long he could sustain the effort to do so. It turns out he had pinned in such a way that the pyramid rock was directly against his cockpit (lap) and precluded any chance of pulling his spray deck and swimming. After a minute and forty seconds of this heinous situation, Phil was able to extricate himself by climbing out the tunnel on his spray skirt. I have never been so happy to see a kayaker swim in my life.
It turns out that Independence Day in Yellow Pine is a pretty fun albeit redneck experience. We had some great fireworks, potato gun duels in Main Street, and a pretty good band on the porch of the Corner Bar singing the classic rock anthems. Later in the evening I had consumed enough whiskey to dance with the local ladies and sing karaoke in the Corner Bar. We didn't get a particularly early start the next morning for our South Salmon trip.
I am not really at liberty to discuss the South Salmon trip in the public domain. All I can say is that the South Fork of the Salmon really sucks. The whitewater is sub-par, the canyon is all burnt, the bugs are awful, no fishing, no good campsites, well you get the picture (above). Skip this trip and boat your local roadside commercial run instead.
Roger making the meat line at No Name Falls look easy.
Phil flew in from Vancouver, BC for the weekend and we drove down to Durango to fun the Upper Animas. Coolest raft trip in Colorado. On the way down we stopped and ran the Numbers section of the Arkansas with Kyle Dickman and his ladyfriend Turin. It was great to see them both, but I'm still not sure how we were unable to convince them to join us on the Upper A.
After a sleep deprived wrong turn and much dirking Saturday morning we finally arrived at the put-in caffinated, fed, carrying freshly sliced deli meats and a great bottle of Rum from the Montanya distillery in Silverton, CO. We met a crew of 10 others including Dana and randomly enough, Josh Mack, a guy I guided with back in the day. I just showed up at the put-in and he was like, Keith? Yep, that's me. Great to spend time with an old friend that just randomly happened to be on the same river trip.
The Upper A is rad! I can't go on enough about how much I love this section of river. We had a great crew, great whitewater, great food, we ran the Rockwood Box, made new friends, hung out with old friends, told stories, and slept next to the river. Dana had to drink booty for flipping his paddle boat in Mandatory Thrashing and Mark took a little swim in Red Wall which led to his consumption of the unknown bottle of whiskey I found in the eddy below. Awesome weekend!
The first big river on this Spring's Idaho trip was the Middle Fork Salmon. Five of us launched on 5/19 and took off on 5/22, perfect to hit this year’s peak of 7.3 ft. Phil and Adam paddled their playboats, Jake and I were in our cats, and Amanda rowed a 14’ round boat with incredible style. The weather was perfect, the food was great, the group dynamic was as good as it gets, the hotsprings were the ideal temp, we met cool people, and the whitewater was awesome!!! All told, this was one of the best river trips I have ever been on.
In order to run the Middle Fork in the spring you have to start on one of it's tributaries, Marsh Cr. This is necessary because the road to the normal put-in is blocked by snow until early June most years. Marsh Cr. has a reputation for being full of wood and has been the site of many epic adventures in the past. This year Marsh was relatively free of wood and was actually enjoyable instead of just being a necessary evil for the rest of the trip to happen. The last drop before the normal put-in for the Middle Fork is Dagger Falls, a giant Class V monster of a rapid with a brutal portage.
We arrived at Dagger Falls to find the bank lined by freaked out paddlers with whistles and throwbags waving at like crazy fools to eddy out. My first reaction was, ‘Shit, someone died! Hopefully they just have ropes in the river or there is wood in the falls.’ The Dagger scout is pretty hard to miss. Bridge over river. Check. Giant eddy with stairs leading to it. Check. Thundering Class V clearly audible around the corner. Check. Why people were offering to throw me bags as I made the easy pull into the eddy is beyond me. Anyway, I looked at the first competent seeming person and asked what was wrong and if our assistance was needed. “Nothing is wrong we just wanted to make sure you guys knew this is the portage.” Portage?
I had a quick look at the falls to make sure it was wood free and to get my bearings. Jake and Amanda both decided they didn’t feel up to funning the falls. We had met three extremely competent Boise catboaters earlier in the day and they agreed to run Blue Angel style with me for safety and off we went. Four cats four clean lines. The three Boise cats agreed to set safety while I ran Amanda's raft through and Phil and Adam decided to fire it up in their kayaks. Raft and two kayaks, three more clean lines. At this point our group has just one more cat at the top of the falls and the Boise crew graciously agreed to set safety for me while I ran the final cat through the falls.
I jogged back to the top of the falls and took a breather for a second to get my game face on for round three then hopped in Jake's cat and pulled out of the eddy. I was in the swirly room above the falls getting boiled and swirled around similarly to my previous two runs when all of a sudden I experienced what can only be described as whiplash. It took a split second to realize that something totally unexpected was going on and I turned around to see the two foot diameter butt end of a 60’ pine tree between my tubes and pushing on my cat frame. At this instant the thing was lined up perfectly behind me and pushing me off line and sideways into a part of Dagger falls I had no interest in investigating. My first instinct was to get ahead of the thing so I started pushing on the oars like a crazy fool, but I quickly realized the insanity of dropping into Dagger Falls with a tree chasing me. My second instinct was, ‘Get me out of here before I die.’ I pushed harder than I ever have for the fish ladder on river left and abandoned ship in one magnificent leap. I mantled up onto the concrete of the fish ladder and turned around just in time to see the log mash Jake’s cat into the boulder that forms the lip of the falls. The log then released and chundered on through the falls followed closely by another huge tree trunk and a full tree with attached limbs and greenery.
All three trees disappeared around the corner and I turned my attention back to Jake's pinned cat. His boat was pinned, bow upstream, right at the lip of the falls with the only damage being a mangled oarlock and a broken oar shaft. Realizing that I would only be rowing with one oar over the falls backward I hopped back in the cat and bounced it a couple of times so it would release. I promptly flipped in the hole at the bottom of the falls and climbed into the cockpit of the upside down cat. My safety chased and we herded the cat into the eddy at Boundary Cr. We reflipped, replaced the oar and oarlock and proceeded to have the best MFS trip ever.
All told, I feel incredibly fortunate to have escaped the nightmare situation of being pushed around by wood above a big Class V with only a broken oar and oarlock. This could have turned out very badly! I learned this lesson and learned it well, I will always look upstream before pulling out of an eddy!
Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork Salmon at 7ft.
Jake is in the Orange cat, I'm yellow. We are each featured a couple of times. More Idaho stories to come.
New York Times photographer Damon Winter was awarded the Pulitzer Prize today for his coverage of President Obama's (I still love typing that, President Obama) 2008 campaign.
There is a great montage of his work here...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/20/722464/-Im-in-Love-with-My-Country
Yes, I went climbing in Vegas again. Without me implicitly saying so, you may be noticing that this is one of my favorite places to climb. This trip I flew in and met up with Dane for four days of awesome climbing. I scored a free plane ticket on my way out for getting bumped a mere five minutes, how inconvenient. I would have spent that time waiting at baggage claim anyhow. The first route we did was Sour Mash (600', 5.10a) in Black Velvet canyon. This climb is awesome! A highly recommended must do Red Rock classic.
The next day we had big plans to link up Black Orpheus (1500', 5.9+) with Rainbow Buttress (1200', 5.8), but the weather was less than cooperative. The guy in the entrance booth at 6am informed us that 60mph winds were in the forecast and he was right on. What he failed to mention was the snow. We were about half way up Black Orpheus when the wind picked up and a couple of pitches higher we were in a full blown storm. I got a wee bit of the hypothermia at the hanging belay for pitch seven with freezing gale force winds pelting me in the back with snow. If we could have bailed on fixed raps, we would have. We were pretty close to using our whole rack to get off that one, but the easiest way off was up. We repeatedly had to hit the deck on the flat summit to avoid being blown off. Needless to say we didn't get the link up with Rainbow Buttress.
Day three was leisurely, mostly we were recovering from the excitement of the previous day. We did three single pitch climbs, all great fun. We ate a bunch and we prepared for our big objective of the trip.
The East face of Mt. Wilson with our route shown in red.
The fourth day was the big one! Dane and I linked Inti Watana (2000',IV,5.10c) with the upper nine pitches of Resolution Arete (2800',V,5.10+,A1) up the Aeolian Wall on the NE face of Mt. Wilson. This is one big radical sandstone face! We spent about 2 hrs. on the approach, got to the top of Inti Watana at about 1pm, a few more hours to the summit, a nice nap on top, and three hours walking down First Creek Canyon in time to make it back to the car before dark. I have never done 21 pitches up a Grade V in a day and it was so fun! We even had daylight to spare! One highlight of the day came on the descent when Dane rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a mountain lion. It took off and Dane's reaction was to do the same. I was like, "I want to see the kitty, where did it go?" I got my wish about a minute later when the cat started back down the slot canyon towards us. This was one big cougar! My best guess, and no exaggeration, is 140 lb. We decided that sharing a slot canyon with a 140 lb cat stalking us was a bit intimate for our taste and boogied on out of there.
Check out my totally radical new cataraft frame! Powdercoated aluminum construction by the Madcatr in Washington.
We have a launch this evening. It can be viewed here at 9:42pm EDT.
AV-016 rolling out of the VIF to the launch pad Monday morning. Have I mentioned that I think what we do is so freaking cool! Plus, that is one sexy rocket.
Since it is a launch day an Atlas related trivia question seems appropriate. In the early days of Atlas, one awesome rocket scientist is credited with two innovations (both were very controversial at the time) that carried on to the later Atlas program. Namely, monocoque pressurized tanks that also served as part of the external airframe and gimballing the entire engine thrust chambers for flight control. Name the rocket scientist.
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
It was a little tough going, but I made it. After leaving work late on Thursday I managed to run out of gas in middle of nowhere Wyoming, lose control of the truck about 30 times on the windy, icy crapper of a winter drive that is I-80, and get pulled over sans ticket at 2am just as I was rolling into Jackson. Upon arrival I discovered two very drunk Melvin brothers rolling in their vomit and peeing on themselves. Just great!
Thankfully, Garrett was quite sober and was able to ski the next morning. We skied inbounds and side country on Friday and I was favorably impressed by Jackson Hole. There is enough awesome skiing to be done in the Tetons to keep one busy for a lifetime. The next two days were bluebird backcountry in the park and we got the goods. Saturday we skied Turkey Chute off the back side of 25 Short down into Avalanche canyon where we made a late day lap in beautiful mountain splendor. Sunday we skied some great north facing couloirs and fun pitches off the north side of Wimpy's. Everything was deep, stable, and so much fun! I have really been getting some amazing days in the backcountry this season and these were two of the best!
Garrett getting the pop out of his turn in the Jackson Hole gate access backcountry.
Garrett points out the line to Minor Melvin.
This skin track redefines "earn your turns." There is a definite one to one correlation.
Did I mention that I think the Tetons are gorgeous!
Passing the skis down to the entrance of Turkey Chute.
Graham gettin' his fix while Garrett and Brian look on.
Even the hard part is freakin' awesome!
Graham playing the little spoon next to my tracks on the last lap of the day.
Me, Brian Melvin, Garrett and Graham after a wonderful day in the Tetons.
It's pretty exciting when space debris reenters and is recovered. There is lots of good science to be done and reentry models to be updated. In October of 2007 ULA launched the WGS SV-1 satellite and the Centaur upper stage that carried it to it's final orbit has subsequently reentered. One part of the Centaur survived its fiery descent through the atmosphere and was recovered. When did it reenter? What part? Where did it land? Link in a picture of the part. Happy internet researching!
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
I met up with Kyle Dickman and friends at the amazing Lexi's house in Telluride on Friday night. We had a little comped tour of the inbounds action at Telluride on Saturday and hit up the backcountry on Mustang Ridge above Ophir on Sunday. Kyle and I had zero beta on where to go backcountry near Telluride, but we managed to stumble on one of the best spots I have skied yet in Colorado. Got to love having a good nose for the pow!
Kyle Dickman got this great shot of me in the backcountry near Ophir on Sunday.
Kyle sussing out the line in the beautiful San Juan range.
Kyle seems to be enjoying his turns, 'cause darn it if he didn't earn 'em!
Black holes have been the subject of much hoopla in the astronomy community lately. Earlier this year, two embryonic stars were discovered just a few light years away from the super massive black hole that lies at the Milky Way's center. It is thought that these stars were born in place rather than forming elsewhere and being "sucked in" by the black hole's gravitational field. Theoretically it is possible for the stars to have formed in more traditional stellar nurseries and moved toward the center of the galaxy, but this theory has been discounted. Why?
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
Sorry about the lack of a trivia question last week. I have been super busy.
We are launching a rocket tonight with a satellite that has an interesting event in it's past. What is this event? I know this sounds super cryptic, but when you figure it out it will be obvious.
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
Jason: Your cookies will be along shortly. I am still working on gluten-free-high-altitude baking. I am loathe to release a substandard product from my kitchen.
The aforementioned event:
Yep, thats a $500,000 satellite that got dropped.
I always think frozen water is so aesthetic.
Dane climbing.
Me Climbing.
Went up to Vail on Saturday and climbed some ice. It was a beautiful bluebird day and definitely in the realm of "type one" fun. We hung some topropes on some super fun ice and dirked around with the whole place to ourselves.
The invocation by Rick Warren at Barack Obama's inauguration was the subject of much controversy. What is the history of the invocation? Who was the first president to have one? What religions have been represented in the invocation/benediction? Has this traditionally been a contentious event?
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world. Jason has correctly answered the first two editions of Tuesday Trivia.
On this day in history a very iconic peak was climbed for the first time. The previous statement has been the subject of intense debate amongst climbers for decades. What mountain am I speaking of and why the conflict? Do you agree with my opening statement?
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
Check out our next launch tomorrow, Tuesday 7:49 p.m. EST. A live simulcast of the TV broadcast of the launch begins at 7:25 p.m. EST, on the ULA Web site: http://www.ulalaunch.com/index_webcast.html. The Delta IV Heavy is spectacular to watch, especially at night, with three all liquid boosters generating nearly two million pounds of thrust off the pad.
UPDATE: This launch has been postponed 24hrs to Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. EST.
What mission is this and what caused the anomaly?
Thanks for playing Trivia Tuesday. Please put you answers in the comments. I will try to post these weekly at noon mountain time. Answer three trivia questions correctly and I will mail you two dozen cookies of your choice anywhere in the world.
