The Last Ride?

This was possibly the last ride of the season. South facing trails are turning into the kind of mud that takes a rut rather than an imprint. All other aspects have a glazed snowy covering. My muscles are starting to remember the bite of a scraper on storage wax, the meditative groove of the skin track, the V2's rhythmic pendulum and resulting glide - but it's hard to let go of that single track.

Lions and Tigers and Bears....

When you're riding down the bike path and some lady across the street is yelling at you, it's probably smart to give her the benefit of the doubt rather than thinking to yourself "crazy lady, I wish she'd be quiet". There may be a pair of bears 300 feet away.

Coloradical 2

This is getting posted long after the fact, but nonetheless is documentation of one very exceptional ride. I know that sometimes I'm secretive about locations, but even if I explained how to get to this ride there is a very high likelihood of getting lost on the way to the trailhead; it makes a stronger impression on the memory than it does on a map.

No dogs were harmed in the making of this video. They loved every minute of it.

Summer 11

It's been so long since I've posted that I had forgot my password and had to do a password recovery. It may appear that I was living under a rock this summer, but it was actually very active. Summer is hard won around here, but the payoff is long dry days with lots of sunshine and light until 9 or 10 pm. No one wants to be inside and there is a manic urgency to be outside and wear flip flops.

A great night of BBQing and riding ill-equipped at the BMX track. I can't say it's the first time for an Xtracycle to take on the track, but likely the first race between an Xtracycle, a Surley Long Haul Trucker, a bike pulling a dog in a trailer, and a tandem. I love it when things are used for unintended purposes.



It was also the summer of experimenting with the capacity of both bike and car. This couch took two tries and some serious shoving to go through my front door, but it went effortlessly into the Element. The Element sat lonely for days at a time though upon the arrival of the Ute. If it wasn't for weekend road trips, one could go completely carless in this town with a bike like this. I actually catch myself saying things like "cars are stupid" and feeling extremely self-righteous. Expect the massive sideburns and Cars-R-Coffins t-shirt any day now. I already bought a pair of black tall-socks.



The other end of Bangtail Divide. This is one of the greatest rides anywhere. Lots of climbing at the edge of redline through loamy forests with the reward of ridge top single track and views of the Bridgers and Crazies. This one is a gem.


Hardscrabble Peak with Dr. Dave. This is about a half hour out of Bozetowne up in the Bridgers, but it feels like the top of the world. It's neighbor, Sacajawea gets a lot of attention and draws a bit of a crowd- but we didn't see a soul after taking a right turn at the saddle between the two.



Another great hike with Dave up a drainage on the back side of the Madisons, under Fan Peak and Lone Peak

More Reasons to Love Bozeman

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/education/article_839f5f5c-ceac-11e0-b41d-001cc4c002e0.html

Check out this great article from the Chronicle. Two things I find very cool about it:
1. An incoming MSU freshman moved into his dorm using bike power.
2. You gotta love a place where skis are considered a necessity! "Freshman begins hauling skis and other necessities into his room"

Who needs a Fedex Pickup?

I made a trip to FedEx with 4 shipments - totalling 18 pair of shoes. The bags swallowed the smaller boxes, and the bigger boxes went on top without any shifting or swaying.No sweat. Well, a little sweat. Super stable load, although things get a little squirly if you stand up and pedal. I felt like I stuck out a bit until I saw three horses and a dog walking down Olive St.

Newest Addition

I experienced my first police auction today. It's strange the things that get left behind. How do 70 bikes just go unclaimed? I want to know the stories. I imagine that the previous owner of my new-to-me Ute is a fugitive, or in witness protection, or joined the circus - because why would you not claim this thing? I don't know, but it's mine now. I'm keeping a photocopy of the receipt with the bike in case I get accosted by some dude with black socks, a "cars r coffins" t-shirt, and large sideburns who thinks I swiped his bike. I know I stereotype a lot, but sometimes I can't resist. I won a fierce bidding war between a few other sandaled, bearded dudes and rolled away on my new Ute.

"Summer"

Ummm, there might still be snow on the ground when winter rolls around. It's a little silly. There is plenty of hiking to be had, but ran into 3 feet of snow in Hyalite in the middle of July.

Grassy Mountain

I was driving back from CO and got a message from my buddy Nick that he was passing through town. Perfect timing. He hung out for a couple of days and we headed up Bridger Canyon to ride in the Bangtails (the range on the opposite side of the canyon from the Bridgers). Great ride. We climbed a road for a long time, took some manky semi single track and topped out. Then hold on to your visors - descended for a very long distance on sickety-sick singletrack through BIG trees. The switch backs are built just-so and rocket you out the backside...you can actually lean and steer with your feet and flow through them. I found myself wanting to sit down just to give my calves a rest.

I find myself saying "well, in Colorado we"....fill in the blank..."can ride 100 miles of singletrack right from the doorstep, have sick flowy trails, have a better bike culture, more trail building organizations, etc etc etc". I must annoy everyone around me because I annoy myself. It's not fair to compare. It's just different. In MT you just get a different experience; you have to work much harder for it and sometimes the reward is amazing, flowing trails. Sometimes the reward is a good day with good people exploring a serious backcountry experience. Either way, it's good to be on a bike.

Coloradical

I know I promised more detail on the CO Trip. Life, work, and recreating have been taking precedence. The trip was awesome. Saw a lot of great people and missed a lot of great people. I came down from Idaho into the Flaming Gorge and Vernal. The plan was to ride Vernal but it was pouring rain. I came down CO139 over Douglas pass - which is a totally new place for me. I though I knew CO pretty well, but this was a surprise. Pretty awesome drive and scenery. Rode at Tabaguache, P-Towne secret trails (not really secret anymore after the Mountain Flyer article, but I still didn't see a soul in three hours), The Butte, Salida super secret trails, Buena Vista super secreter trails, and then busted home. It was a lot of single track for one week and I was thoroughly beat on returning to Bozeman. A worthy trip for sure.

Idaho? Udaho.

Life brings you to some weird places and you get to just roll with it. A 22,000 acre private cattle ranch in Nowhere, ID was the last stop. And it was brilliant.

No Idaho visit would be complete without a cabinent of ammo and an AR-15. While the AR-15 was pretty impressive, I much preferred the cowboy action Colt .45, shooting clay pidgoens with an over-under, and a really fun .25 Auto Pistola.




You think that I have a thing for mountain biking and Nordic skiing? When I was a kid I was obsessed with horses. I begged my mom and dad for one. I would spend nights awake, concentrating all my energy on willing a horse into my life. Somewhere along the way I moved on to other obsessions: girls, punk rock, caring about my GPA, and a career. Bulls Eye the horse re-introduced me to the 11 year old Dave. Smiling, connected, living completely in the moment. This was no nose-to-butt guest ranch ride on "safe" overly broken horses. This was a full on into-the-sunset, across the range ride on an extremely capable horse. Every time I slowed down to a walk or gallop to try to regain my composure he would snort and throw his head. This horse wanted to go. Bulls Eye and I came to a power-sharing agreement - I suggested some direction and kept a stern grasp on the reigns, and he got his yayas out and was twitchy without being scary. I smiled so much my face hurt.

Helena, How Do I Love Thee

Helena. I'd made assumptions about Helena. I'm suspicious of any mountain town that doesn't have its own ski area. How exciting could it be? A couple of my fit testers from work kept mentioning the trails in Helena and how awesome they are. I didn't expect that the trails are bona fide ride from town single-track. You could theoretically introduce some unconstitutional legislation or squander tax payer money with some foolish branding iron veto sideshow in the morning and then ride straight up into a patchwork of city land, BLM, and Forest Service in the afternoon.

Municipalities around the Mountain West listen up: Helena is your public recreation archetype. The quality is incredibly high and the access is as good as it gets. I stopped in Big Sky Cyclery for some good, friendly advice. I know the dance well - ask about the trails and where to eat, then buy a tube or a map. I'll tell you, skip the map (unless you're a mapophile) and spend the eight bucks on tacos or something. There's been a lot of trail construction since it was published, and it's tough to get lost. Head out of downtown a few blocks on Davis or East Main and you'll see trails. Start riding up. Generally ride in a clockwise direction. Even with the map I kept dumping out a little farther up or down the road than I expected. A few of the intersection are marked. The system has three sections: Mount Ascension City Park, Rodney Ridge, and Mount Helena City Park, each divided by a major drainage and road. Ascension and Rodney are fairly uncrowded (even on a beautiful, warm Saturday), and Mount Helena has a few more hikers and dogs. There is plenty of room to spread out. I only saw about a dozen riders and 5 or 6 hikers. Almost every group of riders stopped to say hello and chat. I met a lot of very friendly folks from Helena and a couple groups of riders who made the trek from Bozeman (and who were nearly speechless on one of the descents). Thanks to all for the advice, conversation, and company.

The trails are mostly single track and run through timber and meadows. There are great 360 degree views. Good, stiff climbs no matter where you go. I was off my bike a bit but nothing obnoxious. I rode for 3.5 hours without doing much retracing of trails. The Entertainment Trail was a spectacular descent. There is a lot of ground to cover. I imagine that if you lived there and rode 3-4 days a week you might be itching for some variety toward the end of the season, but at times I lost sense of time and geography. It was just ridiculously good riding.

Go Pro

Happy Spring everyone. I hope that your neck of the woods has a bit more sunshine than Bozemanistan. We have rain. Lots of it; but everything is starting to green up as a result.

For some reason I never fixed up my blog settings to display comments. Not sure why. I do see them and it's crazy sometimes to know that people actually read this stuff; and there are some of you from other continents that read this. Weird. Cool that the Google leads you to this very small corner of the internet. The biggest source of comments was the very brief mention of a Yeti Bigtop. That bike has a rabid following. I wish I would have written a more comprehensive review of it. The other request that I get is for information on the video on the site and what I use to get it (anonymous responder from today, I hope you come back to read this). I bought a GoPro HD at a tradeshow about 18 months ago. It was too good of an offer to pass up. Here's some basic info:

1. You can get a lot more out of the camera than I do. My use is very rudimentary and I use a low quality setting. I do this for a couple of reasons, primarily that I can't be bothered with changing the settings and I have a smaller SD card; secondarily, Blogger.com has limits on the size and resolution for video. If I shot in true HD it doesn't really make that much of a difference in the blog-sized format. I promise to explore the issue this summer and see if I can milk a bit better resolution out of the process. Also, using a bigger, HD specific SD card will remove the glitches and herky-jerkiness; and it will record a massive amount of footage.
2. All that being said, the camera is amazing. It charges quickly on a USB connection; has a million different secure mounting options (though I think I would get more use out of a chest harness and handle bar mount); takes a lot of abuse; has a built in battery heater for cold weather; is fun; and can be set up to take a pic every few seconds; is a lot of product for the money; waterproof casing.
3. The downsides: can be obtrusive; can make people nervous when you're cruising around with it sticking off the top of your head (or can make people ride fast); isn't equipped with a standard LCD screen (you can buy an attachment), so I'm never quite sure if I'm shooting a good angle or not. My best advice with that is to just use it a lot. You'll throw out a lot of footage, but eventually you'll get it. Even so, I still get it too vertical sometimes. It's not as sleek as a Contour but I was surprised at how much it "disappeared" given its size.
4. I've ridden with this thing a lot and I tend to not be affected by it - the weight is pretty insignificant. I don't ski with it as much - I'm a pretty slow skier on the uphill and down and I feel like it makes me even slower; it's hard to remember to take off my skins, switch my bindings to downhill mode, lock my boot cuff, adjust my poles, close all the zippers, buckle my waist belt, take a pee, and get the camera ready. Half of the time I'm skiing with my boots in walk mode on the downhills because there's just too much to remember. If you're a bit faster on the uptake than me then you should be fine. Most of my skiing this season was squeezing in a few hours on a powder day before work so that caused me to leave the camera behind in favor of streamlining the morning routine.

I edit in iMovie which is ridiculously easy (though I still can't figure out how to fade music). The footage that you get is the footage that you get. iMovie will let you zoom in on the frames a bit, which helps, but generally what I post on the site is fairly raw. Like I said, I could definitely be getting more out of it. Questions? Fire away. Hope this is helpful.

Lewis and Clark Caverns Mountain Biking

I certainly didn't expect to do much riding on dirt this early in the Spring. It's been warmish here but two weekends ago brought a fresh 2 feet up high and we just had a 5" shot of wet, heavy snow in town. Folk keep telling me about Pipestone which is about 45 minutes west of Bozeman and a lot drier, but last weekend there was a huge MX race happening out there; so I decided to check out Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park instead. The Caverns themselves aren't quite open yet, but the park is open for riding and hiking and has about 10 miles of single track. I decided to make the 45 minute drive to check it out. The drive alone is completely worth it - along the Jefferson River, through wheat fields, with the Madison mountains in full view. I stopped in at the visitor center and they gave me a trails map and a bit of advice. Apparently some hikers are sensitive to mountain bikes so I was cautioned to take it easy and be polite. I started at the lower visitor center and mostly climbed for 45 minutes up the east side and topped out at the upper visitor center and cavern entrance. It's a lung-burner this early in the season, but nice and steady. Then I pointed pointed it west for the downhill back (you can ride it clockwise or anticlockwise - I like the wide open, fast descent on the West side). The trail had a few squishy spots but was 95% dry; it's a mixture of wide open, twisty single track and side-hill bench cut (yes, with the cactus and the bench cut I had to actively remind myself I was not riding SMT - the similarities are eery). The grades are nice for climbing and descending; could be single speedable if you have iron lungs; very nicely built with a backslope that's not too obnoxious and with nice grade reversals. Mostly smooth with a couple rock features - one in particular on the West side that is really fun and rewarding. Folks put some time, love, and thought into the design and layout. The only bummer to report is the switchback construction. They are tight. I pride myself on being able to get around the tightest switchbacks even on a 29er, but I could only make a couple of these on my 26" bike. It really interupts the flow of the trails - but, they are beautiful trails in a beautiful spot that was ice/snow free...so thumbs up. I can't wait to go back. The park gets great southern exposure and I actually climbed in short sleeves!I saw some bike tracks, two hikers on the way up, and three hikers and a dog on they way down. Not too crowded for a Saturday.

YNP Road Ride

Yellowstone National Park does a really cool thing for cyclists during the transition from Winter to Spring. While the road crews are out plowing to allow for maintenance and supply vehicles to get in, they let folks run, skate, ride, roller ski (or whatever form of human powered transportation you choose) while the roads are closed to cars. We had a lot of snow, cold temps, and generally unsettled weather during this time. I kept chickening out when I saw snow/rain in the forecast or temps below 40 degrees. The magic time period came and went but I did get the consolation of riding on the first day the Park was open for the "summer" season. It was on a Friday so the traffic was minimal. I saw maybe 30 cars, most of them pretty friendly; I sensed that they were employees getting to their seasonal posts.

I parked in Gardiner and climbed up to Mammoth Hot Springs, then on to Swan Lake Flats toward Old Faithful. It's a steady climb that took a few hours with lots of stops along the way for pics. The ground and road were clear all the way until Swan Lake Flats, where there is a definite snow line around 6500 ft. It was a pretty special experience. What an amazing way to see YNP. No Bison jams or half-mile lines of RV's. Just lots of solitude and scenery, miles of good road, and tolerable temps.

You may be admiring dogwood flowers or watching little green shoots pop out of the ground; I think I'm a long way out from that, but the consolation has been blower pow.

First Ride

Got on the bike for the first time since November. All systems go. Made it home 10 minutes before a torrential storm. The roads around town have been mostly dry for a week or so, but the temps aren't always cooperative. The Bridgers have a ton of snow. Full coverage at the ski area with nearly continual snowfall above 7,000 feet for the past few weeks





MOA Inspired Shot

Snow!

This is what an inch in a half hour looks like. The flakes are quarter size. Tomorrow morning is going to be sick!

Color

There are a few key elements to making footwear - research and development, project management, fit/wear testing, color, calendar - and I love them all. Each one fulfils an emotional or personal need for me, draws on a strength and offers an incredible challenge. This week we've been reviewing color-ups for an upcoming season. We start with about 6 colors from our colorist and work down to 2. Sometimes it's an obvious process and sometimes there is some effort. The cool thing about the current situation is that everyone in the building participates. It doesn't matter if you do customer service, marketing, or are the President or CEO - you sit in on color reviews and offer your opinion. Being small opens up some great opportunities for level of involvement. At other companies the interns always construct the physical color palette - pulling the chips out of a book and glueing them to the paper. Today I got to do it and this seemingly mundane task took on a new meaning and I felt really connected to the palette; I started noticing associations; I thought about each color, it's name, it's Pantone number - turning the words and digits over in my head. All while listening to Joni Mitchell's Hejira. It was really calming. No, I wasn't stoned.

41 for 41...Maybe Next Time

Setting a goal and not reaching it just plain stinks. I'm not a very destination oriented person, but I do sometimes set ridiculous goals so that I'll get myself motivated to accomplish something rather than just sitting in my comfy chair eating chocolate covered pretzels all day. 41k did not happen. More and louder Fugazi cannot always overcome a lack of preparation. There are all kinds of factors - my lack of any real training; my ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers, didn't eat/drink enough, whatever...but one legitimate factor was the cold. When the temp drops near or below the 0 degree Fahrenheit mark things begin to get very slow. The rudimentary physics go something like this - when your ski base runs over the snow there is a very subtle melting process that occurs. It's a blink of an eye type thing. The ski runs on these momentarily transformed molecules. Too little melting (cold temps)and everything gets static-y and goes into slow motion. It becomes a time to shift expectations or continue on in frustration. It becomes a good day to bundle up, take things easy, and enjoy the view; or kick really hard and drive yourself utterly into the ground; or go inside and make soup. I definitely saw my expectations shift as the day developed. I remember the first few hours being borderline OCD, seeing my goal slip away from me. It took most of the day to realize that it's really just about having fun. If I wanted to accomplish something I could always go to the office and switch on my computer. All that being said, a really fit, talented skier could tick off 40 or 50k on a day like that. So, it was a tough day on the emotions. I keep coming back to the fun factor. It's gotta be fun. Don't get me wrong, there is a time to push and train - but not when it makes me feel like a gerbil on a wheel. I had a job as a deckhand on a boat. When I first started I struggled with the lines making these ugly coils while coming perilously close to catching and breaking my ankles. That's when a fellow (female) deckhand told me to handle the lines like I would handle a woman. In other words, stop struggling. "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".

41K

I'm getting psyched up to ski 41K for my "41nth" b-day. It was -26 degrees at Bohart this morning, so I hope that things improve by Saturday morning. I'm skiing in a fund-raiser for the Galatin Valley Land Trust and thought it would be a good opportunity for a birthday challenge. They do great things for trails and access around the valley. I'm all for that. I don't usually wear an ipod when riding/skiing/etc., but I may need a bit of motivation. I'm going for a mid-tempo playlist. Something that will keep me rocking steady without spiking the adrenaline for about 3-4 hours. Here is a snapshot of what my day could feel like.

Freelance Whales: Generator
The Rural Albreta Advantage: Eye of the Tiger
Afro Celt Sound System: Release
And So I Watch You From Afar: A little bit of solidarity goes a long way
Arcade Fire: No Cars Go
Au: rr vs. d
Band of Horses: Is There a Ghost
The Beatles: Here Comes the Sun
Ben Harper: Gold to Me
Bob Marley: Could You Be Loved
Cake: Short Skirt, Long Jacket
Built To Spill: Temporarily Blind
Deer Tick: Straight Into a Storm
The Black Crowes: Hard To Handle
The Black Keys: Tighten Up
The Big Sleep: You can't touch the untouchable
Broken Social Scene: Pacific Them
Bombay Rockers: Ari Ari
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run
Built To Spill: Hindsight
Calexico: Ballad of Cable Mogue
The Cure: Close to Me
The Dead Milk Men: Punk Rock Girl
Explosions In The Sky: Snow and Lights
The Flaming Lips: Turn it On
Flobots: Handlebars
Bee Gees: Stayin' Alive (obligatory inclusion)
From Good Homes: Cool Me Down
The Fugees: Vocab
Husker Du: Eiffel Tower High
Iron and Wine: Bird Stealing Bread
Isis: Backlit
Luna: 23 Minutes in Brussels
Jaco Pastorius: Come On, Come Over
Jazzanova: No Use
Lauryn Hill: Doo Wop
The Raconteurs: Level
My Morning Jacket: Gideon
New Order: Age of Consent
Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel
Public Enemy: Give the peeps what they need
Screaming Trees: Nearly Lost You
Son Volt: Picking up the signal
Steve Earle: The Revolustion Starts...
Sugar: If I Can't Change Your Mind
Talking Heads: Girlfriend is Better
Sun Kil Moon: Salvador Sanchez
Wilco: Too Far Apart
Tortoise: Djed
Trampled By Turtles: Help You
Wilco and Billy Bragg: Airline to Heaven
Yo La Tengo: Here to Fall

Breathe, eat my Clif Blocks, stay warm, keep moving. Full, but concise report to follow.

And We're Back

I'm in Montana. I'm not going anywhere. But I'm back to WesternSlopeExile.blogspot.com. It felt unnatural to move away from this blog. It's like my brand name or identity or something. The other blog isn't working. So I'm going to try to merge my CO past with my MT future, and this is the place to do it. There is some good history here and I can't archive it away to some dusty corner of the internet.

It's been above 40F Degrees for three days; not even freezing at night. Total Junuary. Like Mud Season without the mud. There was a line at the car wash today and if it keeps up I'm going to pull out my road bike. The Nordic trails in town have turned to mush. But, oh how nice it is to walk around in a fleece vest and no down jacket.

Tele Boot History

You're looking at a Garmont Triple G circa 1999. I bought these used in 2000 from Tele Movie Star Luke Miller. They served me well over the years with countless vertical feet of climbing around Camp Hale, Waist Deep Days at Steamboat, and wind-scoured days at Eldorko. I always kept these as a "backup" and because they fit like a glove. I've been through a couple of pair of various boots since then so I figured it was time to send these out into the world. I took them to the ski swap and no-one there could appreciate them; so off to Craigslist they went as I mouthed a prayer that they would go to some deserving soul who would appreciate them and would use them to launch into a lifetime of Tele turns. A week went by and my phone rang with a second season Tele skier from Big Sky. He swings chairs for a living in the winter and manages Appalachian huts in New Hampshire in the summer. The boots fit him like a glove and got him out of his mis-fit garage sale tanks. Many happy turns to him and my old Triple G's.

The Cobbler's Son...

The old adage is that the cobbler's son has no shoes. What about the footwear developer? I take more shoes to the thrift store than many people will ever own in their lives. I used to have giant bins of every shoe I've ever worked on. Before the big move I cut it down to only the significant stuff - like successes (Tech Amphib), learning experiences (PI Octane), and weird stuff (a Salomon Creek Boating boot) and only in half pairs.

Footwear procurement for me breaks down into three categories: the crap that doesn't fit me but I wear because it's free or because I need to fly the brand flag; the stuff that fits but was miraculously still free and has the right logo on it to allow me from getting hassled at trade shows (Chaco Flips and PI Seeks); and the hard hard earned stuff that I've banged my head against the wall for - tele and AT boots with liners that have been baked two times to take the shape of my foot, Sidi Dominators that have stretched and molded to my feet through hundreds of creek crossings, Classic Nordic boots that can only be found on obscure websites. You see, I have a weird foot. The majority of footwear developers come into the profession through involvement in wear testing networks - you have a nice, sample size foot, you test for a company, get to know them, and work your way up. That was the route for me as well, except that I don't have the perfect sample size foot. The width of my foot is ridiculously disproportionate to the length, leaving me with few options. Ski boots work because of the moldable liners. Sidi offers an extra wide version of the Dominator (the Mega), and PI used to have a couple of sloppy-wide cycling shoes (of which I snapped up multiple pairs that are sitting in my storage unit waiting for the inevitable delamination or crash-induced failure of my current pairs). My latest interest is skate skiing and it's proving to be a massive challenge. Not only is it technique intensive and favorable to fast-twitch skinny guys with big watches (I'm the only "husky" guy I know who skate skis), it has some serious footwear challenges. The paradigm is that a tight fit equals performance. There are also very limited options for outsoles. Salomon has a couple of sole units that they use or license and Rotefella offers a few New Nordic Norm outsoles. The shape and the width of the outsole limit what you can do with fit, flex and performance. Most companies use a stock Salomon or NNN sole because it costs too much to open their own molds. There is just not enough money in Nordic skiing to work in the cost of a unique outsole - and the outsole has to be compatible with one of two bindings. The Nordic ski market is driven by European brands and end users; Euros wear their shoes tight (if you're interested I can share stats and anecdotal feedback from measuring US feet and Euro feet and comparing the measured size to the size that people actually buy) - so that tight fit doesn't translate well to the typical US end user or someone who values comfort and performance. Salomon is offering heat moldable foam in their boots, taking a cue from moldable alpine and tele liners, giving a slight nod to the US market and the broader trend toward comfort. I'll let you know how it works out as soon as I take a hair dryer to mine.

CO Visit

I've been up to my old tricks. I'll be switching back to WesternSlopeExile mode for this post as I've had some great adventures in the Colorado end of the Rockies. I linked Denver to Crested Butte via bus and bummed rides (connecting with my inner dirt bag), ate road kill (I am not kidding), met my new friends Pekoe the dog and Mama the Hen, skied some new CB Nordic trails, and felt my muscle memory take over when I would walk into the back of the bike shop or reach for a light switch. So familiar. It's hard to shake a near lifetime of Colorado. I sure do miss the sand and sage, the 14,000 foot peaks, knowing and being known. But, there is Cold Smoke to be schralped, the Greater Yellowstone to be explored, Grizzlies to be avoided, and vast wilderness to be experienced here in Montana. On tap: an Alpine Ski skills clinic series at Bridger, skating at Bohart, the NCAA Nordic regionals, a broadened footwear testing network, Moonlight Basin, and the new Sushi place. More to follow.

Avalanche Course

Practice, dig, think, speak up.

Morning Commute

I posted this back in October. Had to repost with Jake's painting based on one of the photographs from Cottonwood Road. Thanks for the best Christmas Gift!

This morning I took the "long" way to work, adding about 5 minutes to my 20 minute commute. For the time being I'm staying with an old friend in Gallatin Gateway until my apartment downtown is available. The drive to work passes a couple of huge ranches, wheat farms, and ranchettes. A lot of these larger parcels are in jeopardy right now. Property values have skyrocketed, even in the recession, and land owners are getting taxed off of their properties. The choices are tough - sell out to the developers and watch generations-old ranches get sliced into ranchettes and Louisville/Erie/Superior-like subdivisions, or sign the land over to the state in a conservation easement. On the surface the easement looks like a great choice. The state owns the land to be forever preserved as ranch land, habitat, or open space and your family gets to live there and continue to ranch. I like the permanent protection (the ranch-land equivalent to wilderness designation), but to me it sounds a bit too much like serfdom. Tough choices.