Justo8484

Views from PPL didn't suck tonight. Win for the U didn't hurt either!

Rained a little bit at the beach last night... Also, most of my trips are done on the cheap. Staying with friends or setting up a tent doesn't cost very much and allows you to do and see more. Also I'm still driving the same subi I bought when I got my first job after finishing school, going on 150k with a duct taped together front bumper. I'd rather spend my money on experiences than things for the most part, skis and bikes aside ha

i do what I can. More on the way, been in Ecuador for the past two weeks...

drive up took over 10 hours I think due to traffic, getting lost with no gps, and the campground being closed then getting lost again. Drive home was about 6.5, but we were hauling. Normal driving would probably be closer to 7.5 or 8. We camped at some random state park in the white mountain. Pretty nice spot, close to a stream, good views, passable toilets for a campground, and only $25 a night per car, so way cheaper than a hotel, and my camping gear is probably comfier and cleaner than some of the sketchy backwoods motels up in New England. Tough to beat getting back to the campground after a fun day of riding and cracking some beers and getting a fire going.

Yes please. Maybe we can get toast and gssucks to join too

Figured it's about time I got around to posting a trip report for this one. I had been planning on hitting up tucks the first weekend in May pretty much since before blue closed. Lots of people said they were in, then out, then back in, the out again, so it actually came together pretty last minute. I ended up driving up with Vince from Buckmans, some of you may have met him at blue. We left my house in philly around 4pm or so, just in time to get slammed with NYC rush hour traffic. Great start to the trip... After the delay from traffic and getting a bit lost in New Hampshire trying to find gas without cell reception for gps, we made it to our campground around midnight. Except that the campground was closed, and since we didn't have cell reception, we never got the message to go to a different campground. After driving around aimlessly for about 45 minutes trying to get cell service, we got a hold of the rest of the crew we were meeting and found out they were at a camp site about 20 miles away. All said and done, we ended up getting to sleep around 3am, got about 3 hours of sleep, and were up with the sun to begin the real journey. The campsite we stayed at was about an hour drive from the Tuckerman ravine trailhead, and after a quick stop for breakfast where I found out my debit card no longer worked, we loaded up our packs and started hiking. Mount Washington in our sights Half mile walk to the trailhead from where we parked. 'Twas a bit crowded, to say the least. The first mile or so of the hike was done in hiking shoes, with all our gear strapped to our packs. 60lbs on your back with an ill-fitting pack was a rough start. Luckily, I brought skins, so after a mile of dirt and rocks, and another half mile of intermittent dirt, rocks, snow, slush, and mud, the snow became consistent enough to skin. While skinning in and of itself is not really any less tiring than hiking, it was a huge relief to lighten the weight of my pack by trading 35lbs of skis, boots and bindings for a pair of shoes. The last stretch gets too steep to skin, as I found out when my skins gave out and I started sliding backwards, heels unlocked. Luckily, there was no one behind me to take out, and I managed to grab onto a tree to stop. Skis back on my pack, it was hiking in ski boots with some pretty exciting rock scrambling for another half mile, with the bowl in our sights the whole time. Finally made it to the base of the bowl, after about 3 hours of hiking, skinning, and climbing! After a short beer and snack break enjoying the scenery and the radness of people sending the icefall, we started the boot pack up to the top of the bowl. As is evidenced by the photo, I think this was the sweatiest I've ever been in my entire life. The first line we chose was about 45° sustained, passing 50° in some spots. Snowboarders were basically using their boards as ladders the entire second half of the boot pack up near the head wall. I was pretty much crawling up the snow. Finally up top, the view did not suck. Photos do it no justice. After a flask of miscellaneous whiskey(?) made the rounds, it was go time. Ready to drop Probably the steepest sustained pitch I've ever skied. There was a lot of check turning, and it wasn't pretty, but it was definitely rewarding to know that is pushed my limits, both by testing my fitness just to get to the top, and to ski the line we skied, which was down between the two big rocks you can see on the left of the photo. The beer at the bottom was much deserved. After relaxing and watching others get rowdy or get destroyed, it was time for round two. Since we were pretty cooked at this point, we opted for an "easier" route. Not quite as steep, but the run would be a bit longer and allow for more turns instead of just trying to manage speed the whole time. This dude with the air of the day, rode straight into the icefall, aired it out about 50 feet, and straightlined out like a boss. Sweaty but freezing at the same time, we made it to the top again. Drop in was a bit tighter than we anticipated. But opened up for some nice spring turns. After that run, it was nothing but the hillman highway runout and then a mile or so of hiking back to the trailhead to end the day. Totally exhausting, but totally worth it. We also got to see a some pretty rad views on the drive out.

Yeah I will write something up for tucks one of these days

Flying over one of the Galápagos Islands View from our hotel in Quito

Dammit! I thought I was gonna claim latest pasr ski day of 2015!

Worth it to rip trees in late April, hit a small cliff, get my first day ever of touring, and so many other reasons. You should probably join next time.

Finally getting around to writing this up, you're welcome doug. Ty and I decided it'd be fun to drive up to vt for closing weekend at Stowe. We skipped work on Friday to do a day of touring since I had just gotten my touring set up. After much heckling on tgr, we came to the realization that we'd have to hit up a ski area that had closed for the season. Bolton valley did the trick. The hike quickly lent itself to skinning up. Skinned for about 45 minutes to the peak. We found a cool fire tower which we climbed and decided to have some beer and take in the scenery. Always throw beer in your pack in case you come across a sweet fire tower while climbing a mountain. We found some nicely spaced trees with some gross manky snow, then went back up for another lap. We chilled at the ski patrol shack with some locals for a bit and had a few beers while catching the sunset. It didn't suck. We the. Proceeded to ski down and try not to die. I'll add more later.

come to center city, there's a bunch of trees that are flowering now that smell exactly like that...

no kidding. Bike trails are super dusty, pollen is everywhere and the city is starting to get stinky. We need a good storm to blow through and clean everything up.

Can't skip out on work Friday unfortunately. I'd like to do tucks so if anyone is game to drive up Friday after work that'd be cool. I have a tent with room for another person, but you're not snuggling into my sleeping bag.

Weather's still iffy for vt but I think heading up tomorrow after work. Undecided between Killy and Stowe, our buddy up there can only ski Stowe Sunday and it looks like it's getting below freezing Saturday night. Not sure I want anything to do with Stowe after a 50° day followed by a 30° night right now as potentially my last day of the season [emoji25]

My sponsors paid for everything

Holy crap glad ya made it out ok. Julio is no joke, probably the first trail I skied up in VT when I was young that made me recognize my mortality, and that I was not quite as good as I thought, having only skied in the poconos up until that point. Looks like weather is clearing up, so headed up towards Stowe Thursday night. Not sure what the definitive plans are, but I should be skiing this weekend. Got the skins all set in case it's time for some TGR type 1.5 adventures!

planning on it but weather is looking kinda iffy at the moment

dont use marker bindings. Problem solved. Definitely wanna hear about the one armed dude. How was Killy? Planning on going next weekend if the rain doesn't look too bad.

Biking Saturday, skiing Sunday. I still think it's really dumb they're not running the Boulder lift. What's their primary demographic right now? I can't imagine it's anyone other than people who really just want to ride park. Freedom is flat and slow, and you can get to love just as easily form the Boulder lift as you can get to Boulder from the merriwidow lift, and there's better terrain over off the Boulder lift. Whatever, still skiing in April, I'll take it.

i hate that damn lift. How do they plan to have everything open running off of one lift?

nah, straight up amateur hour meadow skipping.

boulder lift is my bet. Skiing back to Merry Widow from Boulder sucked.

boulder has plenty of snow, but if I read correctly, only running one lift. If I had to guess, that'll be the Boulder park triple lift, so love MIGHT be open, but I highly doubt anything that far left will be open. Snow last weekend was slushy for sure, even first thing, but fun.

The heel ripped out, or sheared off at the track? What kinda bindings? Armada uses solid wood cores so unless the holes were literally millimeters apart, the proximity shouldn't be an issue. About 5mm is really all you need. If there was an edge crack or any sort of sidewall or base damage that could have allowed water into the core that could definitely do it.