kendall card 2.0

Going Fast, I love it. Cynthia says that my driving is too fast. I know this.

Here are two examples of going very fast (three if you count the picture):

1. I’ve never owned a bike computer. I do now and last Saturday’s ride on Wolf Creek Pass was a fun testing ride for it. On the descent I was letting it run and looked down to see I was going 48.4 MPH! I admit that I pedaled a few times to see if I could push it to 50 but alas, thoughts of an out of control fall kept me still and poised for the downhill, tapping on the brakes a bit.

In case my mom is reading this, yes, I know what would happen if I went down at 48 MPH and yes, I wear a helmet (although at 48 MPH I’m not sure what good it’d do)

2. I’ve wanted to climb and ski the Grand Teton for a few years now but I guess I’ve not wanted it bad enough as it’s still a vision, an idea. I figure I could do it in a day. Then there’s Jimmy Chin. The guy is FAST. He flashed the Grand, Middle and South Teton this past month climbing and skiing all 3 of those peaks and did it car-to-car in just under 11 hours!

Oh yea, he did it solo. Mad props Jimmy!

This past Saturday I headed up the Mirror Lake Highway with friends Jim Holland and Alex Stoy to slide on snow. As typical when we get together the adventure was a bit more than just sliding on snow.

After ascending the NW Coulior of Reids Peak we ditched the skis and climbed to the summit which involved plenty of scrambling, some easy 5th class climbing and a couple of “no fall” moments while surmounting rock and snow ledges.

With it snowing again today (yea, can you believe it?!?) I may be headed out there over the next couple of days.

For now, here are some photos from Saturday’s adventure.

It’s no secret that I love to ski. But I really love to ski when the season is winding down.

Attention turns to biking and running, golf courses open up around the valley, lifts run nearly empty if they run at all, walk on trams at the bird until Memorial Day, backcountry shots that are typically tracked out by 10am on most powder days remain untracked, mountain ridge lines become silent, and ski parnters that I often miss hooking up with during the core part of the winter seem to come out of the woodwork. I think a lot of the latter has to do with the lack of people skiing, so the few that remain seem to gravitate to each other.

So it was yesterday when my good friend Matt Rink dropped me an e-mail and urged to me take the afternoon off to get a Dusk Patrol in that it would be our first outing of the season. Desination? A shot in Little Cottonwood Canyon called Scotty’s Bowl that I’ve wanted to ski for years, but have never gotten around to it, always opting for other spots in LCC when I make the drive over there. My desire to ski it has become such common knowledge among friends that Matt and some others have coined it “Powstash Bowl”.

It was only right that I would get it this good my first time. And no a track to be seen all the way to the bottom. Here’s a teaser photo: (click it to see the larger image)

The entire story is on FeedTheHabit.com with some photos on Ski Utah’s blog

–photo by Matt Rink

I’ve had 3 amazing resort days this past week skiing at Snowbasin with my oldest son McKinley, Park City Mountain Resort yesterday and then today at Deer Valley with Jason Mitchell, my good friend who owns FeedTheHabit.com. But Wednesday morning backcountry skiing, which is the primary content in the video below, is evidence of why I love to backcountry ski!

In case you’re wondering, yes, I forgot my goggles and had to ski in sunglasses. What a rookie move.

Vid filmed and produced by my friend Derek of Piton Productions.

After much prodding from my wife I pealed away from the computer for some needed ski touring. The road over Wolf Creek Pass is still open so I took advantage of the easy access and solitude.

The evidence is posted over at FeedTheHabit.com but here is some proof below of a great morning of skiing.  Nothing like some time in the backcountry to clear the mind and freshen  your attitude.

Disclaimer: Although this could be considered shamelss self promotion it is in fact shameless self promotion…as well as promoting my friend Adam Barker who is a very talented photographer

If you’re looking for something that the skier in your life will be stoked on and will appreciate for years to come look no further. This photo was taken on 4-19-2006, just a month after the doctor gave me the go ahead to start skiing again following brain surgery where I dogged the bullet and got what I call “extra innings”.  I’m stoked it came out so well and certainly shows Adam’s skill.

The photographer, Adam Barker, is doing a limited run of 1000 of these posters which are 24″ x 36″ and printed on high grade extra thick card stock. $1 from each poster sale will be donated to the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation.

If you’d like to purchase a poster check out Adam Barker’s website to buy one online. Cost is $25.

My ski season is finally over. I blogged about it on the Backcountry.com Blog that I run. The camera is still broken so I had to “borrow” some images from SummitPost.org. With skiing on July 6 it meant that my 2006-2007 ski season was 9 months and 2 weeks long, or 307 days long. Not bad at all for what some would say was one of the worst ski seasons in recent history. Complainers!

In other skiing news Chris Davenport was up on Denali with a crew of skiers that included Nick Devore and photographer Adam Clark and they managed to ski a PILE of first descents and proud lines. What a coup. One of these days I want to climb and ski Denali - or just hang out at the 14,000′ camp and ski lines while bumming fuel and food off of climbers who are descending.  Check out the image of the lines that they skied by clicking above.

And lastly, I read a very sad story that reminded me how a good day of summer skiing can go tragically wrong in a hurry. My sincere condolences to Tom’s family and my sincere appreciation to Andy for posting this write up of a skier that was killed on Rollins Pass in Colorado. This sort of thing makes you think twice about the reprocutions of your actions in the hills. RIP Tom.

It snowed again, so like any self respecting backcountry skier I put my bike away for a few days and went out to ski some powder which promptly turned into another fine corn harvest.

With the road to Wolf Creek Pass open for the summer, I took advantage of this easy access location just 20 minutes from Kamas. Besides the access, the other beautiful thing about Wolf Creek Pass is that I would have the area to myself - no skiers, no snowmobilers, and virtually no drive by traffic.

After one powder day with my friend Alex and a solo corn day I asked my eight year old son McKinley if he wanted to go backcountry skiing. He doesn’t have touring equipment but I reasoned that if we got there right at sunrise the surface would be firm enough to bootpack up the main slope. With his excitement and the green light from his mother (knowing that he would likely be late for school) we got our gear ready.

At 6:30 I woke McKinley and after a mandatory stop at the local Chevron station to entice our taste buds with some of the worlds finest doughnuts, we headed off to the pass. A quick ski across the flats and we were booting up the main slope.

Reaching the top we had spectacular views of the Uintas and the Wasatch Mountains. McKinley looked around and said,

“Dad, this is so awesome. It’s like our own private ski resort for just you and me.” I had to smile, responding, “Welcome to backcountry skiing.”

After some hydration we started down. The snow was buttery smooth as this main shot gets the first morning light. McKinley went first and although he skied a bit timid I couldn’t have been more proud. When I arrived at the bottom of the slope he asked if we could ski one more lap. But of course.

Once more we arrived on top and took some time to snap photos with my camera phone (my digi is broken) and spent some time chatting. Some father’s take thier son’s golfing, others play video games with them while some go fishing in order to have keen time to openly communicate. I take my son(s) to the mountains.

I could have never thought so much enjoyment could come from skiing a little 400′ shot but there was no place I’d rather have been nor anyone else that I would rather have been skiing with than my oldest boy.

The second run was smoother, both snow and McKinley’s skiing. After skiing that run we hiked up to the highway and then walked back to the car. I said to McKinley that we needed to get him to school to which he replied,

Dad, I could miss school today. I don’t care when we arrive.” I asked him why that was. “Because backcountry skiing with you is so much better than going to school,” he said.

It was priceless.

Doug Coombs was an icon for me and many others that grew up skiing in the late 80’s and 90’s and for whom skiing steep terrain became a passion. I don’t really categorize what I do as “Big Mountain Skiing”, I just ski. A lot of the time I search out steep terrain, rock lined chutes and yes, I like to climb big mountains and then ski down as evidenced in the photo to the right.

Sadly, Doug died last year, doing what he loved - skiing steep terrain in one of his favorite places on earth, La Grave, France. I never had the opportunity to meet Doug Coombs. I saw him at Snowbird one time in passing and just missed a chance to interview him for a documentary that my friend was working on called “Teton Skiing: Legends of the Fall Line“. Perhaps it’s selfish for me to wish I had met him, to recount the moment that could have been but either way I’m left inspired and in awe of how he lived and what he loved.

I just watched this trailer about Doug Coombs and I was pulled in by what he says when skiing steep lines “you can almost get a feeling of flying”. I’m looking forward to watching this film “STEEP” when it comes out as this little teaser below leaves me wanting more. It’s a documentary by The Documentary Group which is associated with PJ Productions.

My good friend Josh moved to Ohio.

It was two years ago that we first started to dawn patrol together, right after I started working at Backcountry.com. I found in him a like minded backcountry skier - one of (semi) conservative lines, a knack for adventure, nary a phobia of early morning starts and a nose for powder. We even spent a portion of last summer cutting a trail through heinous scrub oak so that one of our favorite dawn patrol skiing stashes would be easier to access.

So on the morning of his departure it only seemed right that I would give him a proper send-off as we returned to the location of our first ski tour together - Flagstaff.

On that first outing, we found the skin up Flagstaff bulletproof and Josh’s skins were having issues. He cursed them and with a bit of duct tape and determination we made the summit of Flagstaff only to turn around and ski right back down having run out of time. To this day I still remember how dry and light the snow looked on the north face of Flagstaff. I stood there staring down into the untracked powder of Days Fork from the top of Flagstaff. I remember the angst I felt with the decision to ski back down the heinous bulletproof junk that led back to the car with meetings and TPS reports looming.

This time though I would have the upper hand.

Like our first outing, the skin track was bullet proof and we soon favored booting up Flagstaff rather than test our skills with skins and edge work. As I approached the top of the peak the snow went from thin and firm to dry and light. Probing my ski pole on the north facing aspect that dropped into Days Fork, I felt the anticipation grow and yelled down to Josh, “It’s dry!”. His pace increased.

Dropping in the first couple of turns were on chalky firm snow but it soon yielded to dry fast pow. Small turns morphed into fast GS and then super G turns as I neared the bottom of the basin. Watching Josh rip fast smooth turns in untracked dry powder was as good as it gets. As he swept into the bottom of the basin we clicked poles, the air buzzing with stoke. For this very reason I sometimes get more stoked watching my friends ski pow than I do myself.

The skin back up to the top was steep and although the snow was dry the sun was HOT! We got to the top and Josh said something about the needing to go down and start the long drive to Ohio but how it was so tough not to take another run. I put my foot down. “Sack up, gear up and let’s drop in for round 2!”. I’m sure Josh’s wife thinks I’m a poor influence but I had to do it, if not for me for Josh. One last run.

The second lap was faster than the first and spicy in nature as we flashed a steep ramp to a couple of tree lined chutes. By the time we arrived back at the top of Flagstaff the time had come to call it a day. I wondered if Emma’s Ridge would be corn by now and we headed that way. As we neared the top I knew we had scored.

Descending in tandem thanks to solid conditions, we skied some of the best corn I’ve ever skied. I could hear Josh’s hoots just over my shoulder as I lead down. It was the run that kept on giving…untracked and super smooth corn. What a way to finish what was already a perfect day of skiing with one of the best ski partners I’ve ever had the chance to share the skin track with.