It’s true. A group of us managed to remove ourselves from the back of our computers and head down to the warm sunny skies of Southern Utah to push ourselves to the limits. It started off early as the transition area opened at 5:30 or so. We arrived around 6:30am to drop of our bike and other gear. Looking around at all the competition it looked pretty stiff. Some of the bikes I saw were pretty sweet compared to what I brought along. They could have been straight out of the Tour De France. 1600 people had signed up for the race, however I know of quite a few that didn’t show up.
Needless to say the weather wasn’t as ideal as I would have hoped. The wind was blowing. I heard reports that is was 40+ mph. The night before it was windy as well but at least it looked as though you were swimming with the wind. At race time it looked to have done a complete 180 and the swim was directly into the wind. Being a fairly weak swimmer I had a few butterflies while looking at the water. I just hoped that all the training was going to pay off.
Race time approached and the longer triathletes were up first. They had a mile swim ahead of them. My group was the sprint class and only had to swim half a mile. The gun sounded and the men took off swimming. Next up was the women in the longer distance. Fifteen minutes after the men the women were off. Now it was my turn. With my wet suit on I strolled into the 60 degree water. A bit chilly on the extremities. At first we were delayed 5 minutes. Then it was 15 minutes. Next thing we knew it was 30 minutes later and we were still chillin’ in the water waiting to start. In the meantime boats were coming back to shore carrying swimmers who had decided enough was enough. The number surprised me and made me a little more anxious about the swim. Finally something was mumbled on the loudspeaker and everyone wandered back up onto shore. The swim had been canceled. All that swim training for nothing. Needless to say there were quite a few people who were upset including the author. Oh well thats the way it goes.
At this point the it has turned into a duathlon. Bike and run for those who couldn’t hack the longer distance. Basically the officials took everyone and started them at the swims finish, shot the starter gun, and the race began. What a mess in the transition area. Making it worse was it being my first triathlon, not knowing what to do in the first place and having everyone else around you frantically trying to get out on the biking portion of the race. It was an interesting start.
Once out on the course things got better. However everyone told me triathlon courses were flat and fast. A lot of people had areo bars and time trial bikes. I’m sure they worked great since we were heading straight into a head wind. However there is a big hill not far into the race. It’s long, pretty steep, and has cattle guards. I kind of regretted not having a triple crank for my bike. I heard that some of the grade were over 7%. Once on top of the hill it was flat and didn’t take long to get to the turnaround point. Then came the fun part. Going back down the hill. With my newly attached bike computer I saw my speed hit 55 mph. It was the highlight of the race. Going that fast on a bike is a little unnerving which definitely gets the adrenaline flowing. Especially when I saw the approaching cattle guard. Some guy right behind me cased on it pretty bad I heard. I passed the ambulance on the way back to the transition area. An update I heard today is that he is ok and vowed to battle the hill again.
With the biking behind me it was on to the run portion. I heard other people grumble how they hate the running portion on this race since it is all on a trail. I quickly realized why running on this trail is something to gripe about. Sections of it had several inches of sand. Combined with tired legs from the bike, it made for a tough time. At points I thought I wasn’t going to be able to run the whole thing. However the last mile was pretty packed down and wasn’t so bad. The last section of the run ended with a sprint to the end where I was unable to catch the couple of guys in front of me and then someone handing me a metal as I struggled past over the finish line.
Feeling spent but accomplished I pulled my last little remaining energy to cheer on the rest of the Campman team. It was all over by 10 am. The rest of the day was spent cruising around the golf course in Mesquite having a few celebratory cold ones. However since the swim was canceled I can’t say I’ve completed a triathlon, so the training continues with the Salem Spring Tri being on June 7. Hopefully we’ll have better weather then.
Sounds big, scary, and like a ton of fun on the end of a flyrod. I saw a preview of the next trout bum diaries on Outdoorzy.com. Looks like a pretty sweet place with giant primitive trout-like creatures. Here’s the post from Outdoorzy.
The guys from AEG, who brought you Trout Bum Diaries: Patagonia and Trout Bum Diaries II: Kiwi Camo, are back. For two months the guys travel to five rivers that potentially no other fisherman has floated down in search of a mysterious fish. Their travels in this fly fishing adventure movie take them into inner Mongolia by horse, camel, Russian military vans, and hiking boot in search of the taimen, also known to Mongolians as River Wolf.
Taimen is the largest fish species in the salmon family. In the natural environment, without pressure, taimen can grow in excess of five feet in length and weight as much as 75 pounds. The have eyes that are centered more towards the front of the head which allows them to see prey below and above the water. This allows them to find and eat other fish species as well as mice, prairie dogs, and small water fowl and with rows and rows of teeth, they have no problem taking on that task.
At first they guys have a hard time locating taimen. What does taimen water look like? Where do they hold up in the river? These are the questions the guys have to answer during their 14 to 20 km river floats. In the beginning, the crew is catching lenok, which is the Mongolian equivalent to trout. The crew tried a multitude of flies: tungsten head streamers, top water streamers, giant grasshoppers, and so on, but all they could catch was lenok. It wasn’t until one guy had on a lenok and after releasing the fish back to the river, a giant taimen come out of nowhere and ate the fish. That is when the guys realize that they were not fishing flies that were big enough.
The movie has some spectacular views of the mountains and rivers of Mongolia as well as plenty fly fishing footage. The guys spend their nights sleeping in tents or on the ground, drinking beer, tying flies, and fly fishing for the mysterious River Wolf and once again the deliver a great fly fishing adventure movie. I can’t wait until the next movie.
I’ve heard that most of the time you can only find one or two of these things in a mile stretch due to their fiercely territorial nature. Might be tough fishing to find a catch the one fish in a mile of river. However if you did . . . WOW!
A couple of years ago my father showed me a book. “50 Places to Fly Fish Before You Die” Both of us being avid flyfishermen we marked off all the spots we have already been. Since we both are previous Montana residents we had fished a lot of the Western US streams listed in the book. It did list destinations all over the world. Peacock Bass on the Amazon to Sea Run Browns in Argentina and many other incredible places. Some of them I had not heard of before. Some of them are incredibly expensive as well. Here is the link to the old USA Today article written about the book. If you are a flyfishing enthusiast and like to travel to new waters then check this book out.
This weekend Campman took a trip down to the Creek. For those of you who don’t know about Indian Creek, it’s a world climbing destination for those who want to test their crack climbing skills. Known for its perfect splitters I thought it would be a great place to try out Green Gear’s Hand Jammies, Jetboil Group Cooking System, and Edelweiss Liquid Chalk.
When climbing cracks one usually tapes the back of the hands in order to protect them. The idea behind the Hand Jammies is to alleviate the need for taping. Making tape gloves takes time and a little skill to make. The Jammies just slide on and you Velcro them down tight. That’s it you’re done. Not only are they easy to get on but they also have climbing rubber on the back so they are sticker than tape on the rock. All of these peaked my interest so I thought I’d give them a shot. I strapped them on and started up a route that was hands to fingers sized. I noticed from the moment I put them on that they were really stiff and thick compared to my usual tape gloves. In the thin parts of the crack the gloves actually impeded my process. The few hand jams that I did get they were great. I wasn’t impressed on my first attempt with the gloves but I thought I’d give them another shot just to be fair. It was pretty much the same on the next route. The verdict was I was going back to tape. However after reflecting on the Jammies I figured they would be good for a route that was just hand size or rattly hands. Once you get into finger locks or fingers they are pretty bad.
Next on the list was the Jetboil Group Cooking System or GCS. It includes the pot, self lighting stove, and covers for the pot. It was incredibly easy to use. Put on the Jetboil fuel can, bottom stabilizer, pot stabilizer, turn on the gas, and push the lighter. It started right up and I was cooking. I decided to make breakfast burritos that morning. So I tossed in the hash browns, sausage, eggs, and cheese. 15 min later I had a feast. I did notice that the pot got really hot and I had to turn it all the way down. Once all was said and done I don’t think that the this stove is great for cooking dry food such as hash browns, but when I boiled water it was extremely fast. So as a backpacking stove this is great. When car camping I would bring along the dual burner stove and fry pan. Definitely the best backpacking stove I’ve used. It’s extremely simple and works great. The only down side I could see in the backcountry is that I would bring a fresh fuel canister every time to ensure I don’t run out of fuel. So the possibility to collect half full canisters is a likely possibility.
Last but not least was the Edelweiss Liquid Chalk. It comes in a small bottle so I was wondering how long it would last. I tried just a small amount at first, about the size of a quarter in my palm. I spread it around my hands and it dried pretty fast. Once it did my hands were dried out from the alcohol and chalked up. I was pleasantly surprised. This is a great way to get a good base layer when starting for the day or anytime before a route. The bottle should last awhile if you use sparingly. Which is all you need to use it anyways. Definitely worth the pick up for the avid climber.
Utah’s three foot rule is going to get it’s first test. An alleged prank turns criminal. Here is the Salt Lake Tribune Article.
Cycling advocate Jason Bultman makes his way home along… (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Jason Bultman was pedaling his bicycle up 500 East in Salt Lake City in November when a red pickup zoomed up beside him and a hand swiped across his back.
Startled, the all-seasons bicycle commuter feared he was so close to the truck that it would send him sprawling. Instead the truck veered away, the passenger withdrew inside and Bultman took down the license number for what would become the first reported prosecution of Utah’s 2005 law requiring motorists, in most situations, to give cyclists a 3-foot buffer.
Police followed up with the driver and Salt Lake City prosecutors confirmed they filed charges under the 3-foot rule, adopted by the Utah Legislature in response to the 2004 death of University of Utah graduate student Josie Johnson. She died after being hit while cycling in Big Cottonwood Canyon.
“It’s kind of interesting that you can actually prosecute someone for violating the 3-foot law,” Bultman said. “[People] were saying it’s unenforceable.”
City prosecutor Sim Gill said his office filed the charge against a George Richard Young, 46, but attempts to find him and serve a summons for an arraignment earlier this month failed. The city will try again before issuing an arrest warrant, he said.
Attempts by The Salt Lake Tribune to reach Young at his last reported address were unsuccessful.
“Just because you happen to be in a motor vehicle doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to operate in a way that respects everybody’s rights to be in the roadway, including bicyclists,” Gill said.
The charge is a misdemeanor with up to a possible $750 fine and 90 days in jail, though Gill said there’s no minimum mandatory fine and the courts are untested on these matters.
Bultman said authorities gave him several options to charge the passenger, including assault. Instead, he opted for the 3-foot rule, figuring it was the driver who had endangered him by swerving too near.
“I was well off into the shoulder and was all of the sudden brushed,” Bultman said. “The guy was hanging out the passenger-side window of the truck. I don’t know how the mirror missed me.”
If the driver and passenger taunted Bultman in the way he described, they chose the wrong cyclist. Not only was he aware of the new law, but he is president of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective. Plus, in 2004 he suffered a crushed ankle in a car-bicycle crash. “My side job in life is to try to educate people that bicycling is a great way to get around town.”
Education, not revenge, led him to press charges for what he called a “botched prank” with likely no harm intended.
“Good for him,” said another cycling advocate, John Weis, when he heard of Bultman’s case. Weis was director of Johnson’s graduate pathology program at the U. when she was killed, and he helped lobby for the 2005 legislation.
He had expected the law to raise awareness, but not necessarily draw prosecutions, he said.
“Even before we had the 3-foot law, we had a law that said you can’t get too close to a bicyclist, and police told me they had never used it,” Weis said.
The law is not easily prosecuted, acknowledged its sponsor, Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake City. But jailing people was never as important as making drivers more conscious of the necessary buffer, she said.
“Luckily, this incident did not result in bodily injury or death,” said McGee.
Looking around at forums one guy said he has gotten two people prosecuted in Wisconsin however the law is very hard to enforce. Some people have even said that it is unenforceable due to the difficulty of proving it really happened. In this case it is a little easier since the person was actually touched. Riding a bike on the road can be a scary endeavor and maybe a couple of people getting fined for getting too close might bring about awareness.
We’ll see if this one sticks. If it doesn’t then the law probably is unenforceable.
This last weekend the World Pipe Championships were held in Park City. It was a great time to see some of the top riders in the world throw down. The top women boarders, men boarders, and men skiers exhibited their best tricks in hopes of winning part of the $80k purse. It was a pretty nice day. The light was a little flat in the morning but turned out to be a nice day.
Men’s Snowboard
1. Shaun White 93.00 $15,000
2. Mason Aguirre 90.33 $8,000
3. Janne Korpi 85.33 $3,000
Women’s Snowboard
1. Torah Bright 96.67 $15,000
2. Kelly Clark 93.00 $8,000
3. Soko Yamaoka 85.00 $4,000
A friend showed this to me the other day. Its old but I thought for those who haven’t seen it can still be amazed. These guys are crazy. They have gliding parachutes and go flying down the Eiger. With all the rocks its pretty amazing the control they have. It would scare the crap out of me to do something like that which makes it all the more impressive. Check it out and see if you’re impressed.
The latest thing to hit the market is video cameras to record your extreme exploits. They typically strap to your helmet or some other adventure accoutrement. They take hours of video and usually are ready to upload right into YouTube. Do you think you’re the next viral internet superstar? Make you can land that huge sponsorship with the backflip of the 60 ft cliff landing switch.
Some of the better models I’ve seen are the GoPro Hero. It isn’t as compact as some of the others but takes decent videos. They have mounts that fit onto helmets, bikes, or paddles. It records into easy to upload formats. Not only that but it is one of the least expensive ones. You can pick one up for around $140.
Another option is the VIO POV cam. It comes in at the high end. The price starts at $750. However it has tons of features that cater to people who are looking for a little higher quality video shoots. You can shoot and then tag the sections you wanna keep. The software manager allows easy sharing. It has a wireless remote so you can easily operate the camera while on the fly. It also has a mini LCD screen so you can watch your exploits immediately after they occur. So you can determine whether the mute grab is sweet enough or you have to do it again with a tail grab.
Bottom line is that you don’t need a big film crew to get some sick shots. Record yourself or your friend with a compact digital video camera.
It’s not really an important question when things like the war and the campaign trail for the president are going on but an interesting one none the less. How would you judge if you do or not? The amount of outings that you have a year. The amount of vertical feet you ski a year. I’m not totally sure. I was watching a Warren Miller film the other day and they were in Wiegle World in British Columbia. It said that one of the guides skis one million vertical feet a year. So I was thinking that it sounds like a pretty big number. I got out the Suunto X6 HRM that sits on my nightstand because I can’t figure out all the functions and decided to see what I could do.
I usually get a season pass to Snowbird since I get the student rate. I’m on the lift in about 30 minutes after I lock the front door. I like to think that I ski a lot since I have minimal travel time to get some turns in. However I have turned into a full on snow snob and only ski powder days. Which there are a lot of here. I digress. The experiment is to see how likely it is that I can fit 1,000,000 vertical feet skiing into one season. Initially I wanted to see how many vert on an average day I get in.
So I’ve been up about six times this year so far. Most of the time its a 9am to 12 pm window. (after that most of the powder is tracked out) In three hours I have come to the conclusion that I get in about 13,000 to 20,000 vertical feet. Mostly in the range of about 16k-17k. With one exception where I was there till 3 pm because the snow was so epic and got in 27,000 vert. If I average 16.5k a day it would take me 60 days to reach one million. Definitely doable but that would be more than I usually get out.
So in conclusion if you are part of the 1,000,000 vert club you ski a lot! I still think I ski a lot but I don’t think I’m getting into that club soon. As always I pray for snow. All I need is 54 more powder days and I’ll have it.
Here in the snowy mountains of Utah we are having a good year for snow. We had over ten feet of snow in the month of December and it’s still coming. Lots of snow makes for great powder skiing. Especially in the backcountry. Do you have all the necessary tools for backcountry travel. A short list of items you should have would be the following:
1. Beacon - Don’t head out without one! If you don’t have it and you are caught in a slide you’re probably dead. Know how to use it too!
2. Fat Skis - Makes skiing powder easier and way more fun.
3. Skins - A good pair of good fitting skins makes travel easy.
4. Backpack - You need a place to keep you stuff. Make sure you can put your water bladder in it. Stay hydrated!
5. Chestpack - Keep everything vital right in front of you. Holds a radio, beacon, and cell phone. Snacks too.
6. Probe - Another safety Device.
7. Shovel - Ditto above. Plus to build BC Kickers!
8. Breathable Clothing - You’ve got to earn your turns and you’ll work up a sweat. Make sure you can get rid of the moisture or it’ll be a cold day when you get to the top.
9. Good Partner - Probably the most important piece of gear. Always good to for someone to have your back!
10. Education - Know before you go. Go with someone who knows what they are doing or take a class. Knowledge will keep you out of a lot bad situations.
These items should keep you pretty comfy while traveling in the BC chasing freshies.
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Campman.com, Outdoor Activities, St George Triathlon
