Tuesday, March 3, 2009

RECIENT HAPPENINGS

February was a much wetter month than January in the Sierra Nevada and that made for some excellent trips to the mountain in the last couple of weeks.

To kick off February, Dave put together a hut trip to the Ludlow hut in the Desolation Wilderness along the Pacific Crest Trail. Our GPS rout in can be found here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7596726


Friday Morning: Dave prepping for the hike into the Ludlow Hut.

The skin in went fairly well, we were staying for 2 nights and three days so we each packed moderately light packs. The snow cover was pretty scarce for the first 500 or so feet and never really got all that impressive at the summit. January was a hard month for Tahoe.

Skinning up to the Ludlow Hut.


The hut was a happening place that weekend. Not only was our party of 6 staying there but also another couple from Grass Valley, a father-son trio from Kings Beach, a couple from the bay and a couple from Sac and a couple of dogs. CA is a full state.

The majority of the Ludow Hut crowd.


The Ludlow hut is a quant little A-frame primitive mountain hut with two small pot belly fireplaces, one on each end, and a loft that sleeps 12-15. It was no Motel-8, but it but it served us well and made winter camping much more enjoyable, almost too enjoyable.

Ludlow Hut and I.


We skinned in Friday, which took much longer than it should, so by the time we arrived at the hut we were pretty beat and just spent the remainder of the day relaxing and enjoying the mountain hut.

Saturday, Nick, Dave and I headed to the top of the only peak around, Lost Corner Mountain, where the clouds broke and we got some good views looking west to the central valley all the way to the Coastal Range.

Is that a member of the Israeli arctic-ops armed forces? No, it's just Ludwick snowshoeing up Lost Mountain.

We (I) skied all day Saturday, in which time I only managed to get two runs off Lost Mountain and One off the south face of SoughDough Hill. That night we defeated our hunger by celebrating canned seafood specials, as depicted in this wonder full ensemble of pickled Sardine, sharp cheddar and trisket:

What would the backcountry be without a little canned seafood?


We skinned out Sunday and headed back to Grass Valley satisfied by the adventure but concerned about the snow depths. Fortunately mother nature smiled upon us during the first couple of weeks in the year of the Ox. Storm after storm brought in ample powder days, most of which were undocumented. Nick had his camera for one powder day in Sugar Bowl a few weeks back:

A Sierra Blue Bird Powder Tuesday.


Jeff, Nick and I enjoying the day at Sugar Bowl.


One thing I've noticed about NorCal riders, they like to jump off shit. And I've found that I do too (fortunately I don't mind eating shit every now and again either):


Cooper, Jesus and I headed to Boreal for some night skiing last Thursday. This gave me a great opportunity to try out several items. I just received some new bindings for my touring skis in the mail the day before, so I needed to give them a go, I just got my new weather-proof cell phone, so I wanted to test it out in some harsher conditions, and I was yet to see what CA night skiing was like. I must say I was impressed, not blown away, but impressed, about everything. My bindings performed great, the phone worked well, and Boreal wasn't too terrible.

Jesus had his first day on the snow and quickly got the hang of snowboarding. It won't be long before he's ready.

Jesus at the top of the hill.

This last weekend Zachi organized a local ride through various parts of Grass Valley open space, of which I never even knew existed. The ride was an interesting twist on mountain biking, more like "adventure biking." There were few trails to speak of, more like true free-riding, and the goal of the ride was to find an abandoned mine.

Half of our 6-member GV free-ride crew (LtoR: Zachi, Dave, Ryan)

The ride consisted primarily of climbing moderate climbs followed by short, but fun drops back down to the valley. Any time a log or natural obstacle was encountered, it was challenged by the group.

Tommy styling a log crossing.

The Grass Valley free-ride scene.

After about an hour of biking and 5 or so miles of trial (no, we were not breaking any land speed records that day) we came across this old mine. The entry had been choked off from a recent small debris avalanche but it would have been neat to poke around in there for a while.

Abandoned gold mine entrance.

After the ride and a lunch filled with Paco's Tacos and Fat Tire we had the first Forest Trails Alliance (FTA) meeting. FTA is a group of adventure seeking mountain bikers united by the common bond of developing Forest City as a hub for mountain biking and backcountry adventure. FTA's primary objective is to establish an intence network (100+ miles) of well designed and built bike/multiuse trail system that will link Bullards Bar to Downieville creating a mountain bike mecca comparable to the North Shore, or at least that's our goal. After the meeting we all took time to familarize ourselves with the trail building equpment.

This little mini excavator had a track width of about 3 feet. I could bearly fit on it.

I was hoping to get some back country in Sunday but snow levels were as high as 8500 ft so most of the good stuff was getting rained on. Good news though, this currnet storm is loading the mountain big time on the order of FEET!

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