Jason loses his manhood

As I sit here aimlessly in Baltimore listening to screaming children incessantly get placed in timeout while I watch the snowfall in Salt Lake I've begun to wonder why anyone in the world would ever have children or for that matter get married. But...after meeting Jason's wife Amanda 6 months ago I guess I can make a few exceptions.

This being the case on Thursday a bachelor party was arranged for Jason Dorais courtesy of his brother Andy (whom arranged a very nice get together). We skied, drank beer, consumed a fair amount of brats and sausages  and we even were graced by the presence of strippers albeit they were of the wrong gender and with our party, and for some reason everyone still took pictures (which if you'd like to see visit another one of my fellow bloggers websites...I'm sure they'll turn up).

All and all a great time on all accounts...some say mine's next. We'll see about that.

The festivities begin

A great spot for a party

Tracks

The man with the boobcake in the foreground

BBQ

The bachelor...that motorboatin son of a bitch

Good food, good friends, good times

 Who say's you can't have fun on little skis...me dropping courtesy of Adam O'Keefe

This guy is actually a doctor can you believe that

A Fresh Coat of Paint

I'll spare the "pleasant surprise, it rained on Tuesday, only expected 6 inches" rant and get right down to buisness. It snowed (I even had to shovel my driveway) more than was expected and enough to get some serious skiing in. Judging by the amount of people out yesterday I would assume much of Salt Lake knew this as well, nonetheless it was a good day.

Travel first took me into silver fork for a few laps then over to Toledo bowl for a few more. I'd say probably 5 or 6,000 vert. for a short day outing.

Packed skin track

Turns

I must admit at first my setup: Dynafit Broad Peaks, Scarpa Aliens, and Dynafit Tech Binding did not appease someone who skies K2 Hellbents (with a 130 underfoot). But persistence using my lightweight skis/boots/binding has led me to believe this is the ultimate ski in one's quiver; just enough ski/boot to actually enjoy the down but light enough (under 10 lbs but I'm no gear junkie) to really cover some serious ground even for a fat kid like me. 

Skiing 

 Chesy couldn't make it up; some business about forgetting snowpants or bad roads so here she is repelling.

Oh yeah and some cam art + beer

O’Keefe’s Oddness

Several months ago Adam O’Keefe skied a very contrived line in the Cardiff pass area (aptly named O'Keefe's Oddness by me); essentially rappelling some of the cliffs under the summit simply to access the snow beneath them which was in no way was any different than the any other snow in the area but as George W. would have “No Child Left Behind” so would Adam have “No Snow Left Unskied.” And as the snow would have it, this was our theme of the day. Trudging up Cardiff with 70 meters of coiled goodness in my backpack was some way to ski snow that could easily be avoided but with the lackluster performance of winter thus far (yeah I said it; don’t forget the dry spell we’re supposed to have these next 10 days) rappelling seemed like a very fun idea and as it turned out it was. The turns were quite good too on both North and South faces.

Solid Anchor

 Setting Up

The Universal Sign For Rock And Or Roll (Notice the lack of gloves)

Jack Making His Way Down

The Line We Took (Dotted = Rappel)

Nice Turns To End The Day

The Rock Saving Weekend

In case you've been living under a rock or maybe you just fell asleep for 20 years (I hope you know the literary reference)...it snowed, not just a few inches like last time but this storm left the Wasatch with some serious precipitation. Both Alta and Snowbird are reporting between 3 and 4 feet. Trudging through 4 feet of unsettled powder however, proved to be a bit difficult both uphill and downhill. So we took some baby steps for our first "real" turns of this season.

While Chesy slaved at work on Saturday morning (I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to go in myself) Nak and I went to investigate the recent deposit up Neff's Canyon...it was deep up there. We then used the afternoon to head up to Alta to ski some S. facing slopes and then again on Sunday and in my dreams Sunday night.

It's how deep out there? 

"Where is that Pesky Wabbit"

 Pow

Chesy skinning. 

Attempting to descend 

Attempt......

Successful

Making something out of nothing

Alta received a measly 12-15 inches but just as the waitress tells you the plate's hot you still have to touch it to find out...so I went up to investigate. Recent beta suggests main really wasn't ready to go so I skied off Baldy shoulder. Coverage is reasonable given you're going to hit rocks and shrubs. I'd do it again but just barely maybe that's just the lack of skiing talking.

Out of focus pictures below:

Yosemite Trip and Climbing El Cap...base routes

With a few scheduled days off and a well placed Chemistry building power outage on Saturday, Chesy and I decided on a short trip to Yosemite or as my Chinese lab mate calls it "Yost_mite". So I jetted home from work on Thursday evening to get our "anodized nik naks" in order and head out.

Don't forget the knife for killin bears

Flash forward 5 hours: As awoke from a dreamless sleep at a random Nevada rest stop (more like dirt pullout with a 40 gallon drum for a trash can) the rain was pouring effortlessly on my car. I wrestled off my sleeping bag and we were off again; a few hours from the park. Soon enough the sun revealed itself along with the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. Now on any other day this phenomena would leave me excited and breathless, but after 7 hours of driving, poor sleep, and a few too many Red Bulls all I came to realize was that the pass to Yosemite would be closed. Of course as Chesy and Travis luck would have it this was indeed true. Abridged Version: we drove the long way (6 extra hours) around. 

It's ok though, gas was real cheap.

As we arrived into a socked in park 6 hours later than we expected we were greeted with beautiful vista views of dense fog, moisture, and dim headlights that you couldn't really see until it was too late (at least we still had our senses of humor). Things did clear up quite a bit later that night.

Avatar!

Look at that enormously active waterfall! Well pretend.

Blue cloudless skies and mild temperatures greeted us the next day. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Chesy on El Cap (actually a True Statement) but not as cool as it sounds. 

 Quintessential Half Dome pictures

A full day ending it with an easy out up Munginella

View from our tent

Running to add icing to the cake. 

As William Nelson once said "I just can't wait to get on the road again"

No Real Stories Just Pictures

To break up your daily routine here are some pictures. Enjoy!

 Running up Bell's Canyon

Colors 

 Climbers up Ellworth-McQuarrie

An overly protected Bushwhack Crack 

There's Nak too...she's a goofball