Sunrise Over the Sandias

Redefining Sunday Mornings

Apologies for the over-abundance of road themed posts lately, but I need to write this down before the details fade, or before I get too embarrassed. This morning, instead of sleeping in like normal people I woke up at 7am to get ready for the Sunday Morning Ride at the Ride Studio Cafe. I have done their Women's Rides, but never the mixed gender Sunday rides. While some have tried to lure me to join, others warned that these rides are faster and more difficult than described. Especially after reading this, I was inclined to believe the latter and sensibly steered clear. So why now? Well, I need to train for the Hell's Gate Hundred and time is running out. And also these people convinced me that I could do it. With a straight face they said: "Oh you can definitely do it." And I believed them - figuring that since they were designated to lead the ride this weekend, they ought to know.




So, could I do it? That really depends of your definition of that concept. I mean,I finished the ride. I didn't crash. I didn't walk uphill. I didn't throw up or cry (though I came close). So in that sense I guess I did it. But it was such a humiliating struggle, that I can hardly think of it as an accomplishment. It was worse even than my first paceline ride last May, when I showed up on a touring bike and everybody else rode racing bikes. Only this time I did not have the "slow bike" excuse - it was all me. At least now I know where I stand.




When I left the house this morning it was 25°F outside with a brutal headwind. Of all the mild Sundays we've had this winter, I just had to choose this one. As I pedaled the 10 miles to the ride's start my eyes were watering and my lungs were burning; doing this was beginning to seem like a terrible idea. But I'd already told people I was coming and didn't want to back out.




As cyclists arrived bundled up and in good spirits, I felt more relaxed.By the time we got ready to ride, it warmed up to 30°F and the sunny morning made me optimistic. "This will be just like the Women's Rides," I told myself, "only with men." There were only 4 of us in the slower group; this was going to be fun and social.




Trying to analyse it in retrospect, I am not sure what exactly made this ride so difficult for me. It was probably a little bit of everything. The speed in itself would have been fine, if it weren't for the headwinds we were continuously assaulted with. The hills would have been fine, if there weren't so many of them. It was also difficult to breathe the cold air while already struggling to breathe from exertion.




Werode 34 miles through the towns of Lexington, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury and Lincoln. We climbed two substantial hills, with lots of littler hills in between. I was without a doubt the weakest member of our group, and on hills this was especially apparent. I wheezed. I whimpered. I swore out loud. I almost fainted from pushing myself to try and keep up. And still I lagged behind. My legs felt like lead.Flats and downhills did not offer much respite, since I had to work harder than everyone else to keep up the pace. My face was bright red from shame and effort.




I employed various coping techniques to get through the ride. At one point, I mentally talked myself through it. "It's okay... Pedal, don't think... Look at the pretty trees... Focus on the wheel in front of you... What doesn't kill you makes you stronger..." After that stopped working, I began to play Bach in my head until the repetitive harpsichord pieces started to feel like a seizure. Then I tried to separate my mind from the physicality of what I was doing, as if it were happening to somebody else. Some time after that delirium set in and I don't remember anymore.




At some point - I think this must have been closer to the beginning - something really cool happened. The faster group caught up with us and "swallowed us" before speeding away. I have never experienced this before and it wasn't the same as merely riding in a group. Suddenly, the faster cyclists were ...everywhere. On my right, on my left, in front, behind - some seemingly no more than an inch away. I felt carried along, swept away - it was scary and exciting at the same time. "Like a school of fish" said a rider in our group later. Is this a taste of what racing is like?




When we finished the ride I could hardly walk. I vaguely recall being hugged and given high-fives as I rapidly chewed a croissant. I had done a Sunday Morning Ride. It was hard, and it was embarrassing, and I will do it again. I rode 55 miles total by the time I got home. Sunday mornings will never be the same.

Sagging Saddles?

It seems that I complain a lot about saddles, finding fault with most of the ones I try if not immediately then certainly within a year's time. This one won't break in, that one hurts my crotch. This one is too narrow, that one is too wide. This one is too soft, that one is too hard... So what now?



Okay, I've had this Brooks B72 for about a year. No complaints about the shape, size or breaking in period - it felt wonderful from the start on a semi-upright bike. I have owned several other B72 models as well - both modern and vintage - and they've all been good. This was the one saddle of all my saddles I thought was pretty darn perfect. Then a couple of months ago I started to notice that the outer edge was pressing into my derriere. At first it was subtle, but the feeling kept getting worse - until one day I looked at the saddle, and the leather was visibly sagging in the center, with the outer edge (where the rivets are) forming a sharp ridge. Regrettably I neglected to take a picture of this before we messed with the tension, but I really ought to have emailed it to Brooks. It is unexpected that a saddle should sag that much under a 125lb rider in less than a year's time. It had never gotten caught in the rain, I am not a proofide zealot, and I had ridden maybe 600 miles on it in the course of 8 months (it is installed on a city bike) when the problem began to present itself.



Though some recommend not to mess with the tension on a Brooks we went ahead and did, and the saddle felt great again... for a couple of weeks. But now, slowly but surely, I am starting to feel the rivets pressing into my behind once more as the leather continues to sag ever so gradually. Darn.



Having spoken to a few long-timeBrooksowners and retailers, I do not think that this is an issue with the B72 model specifically, but rather a general issue with quality control and the natural variation in leather thickness. A couple of retailers have told me that some Brooks saddles will sag in this manner and there does not appear to be a pattern to which models are susceptible to it. Well, that's not very reassuring. I am especially disappointed since this particular saddle was my overall favourite before the sagging problem started. I guess perfection is a myth and it is best to keep that in mind to avoid disappointment. I am curious whether others have experienced the "sudden sag" syndrome on any of their leather saddles, and if so which makes and models. Is there a cure?

Goodbye Visit with the Grandkids

Today we drove down to Boca Raton to say goodbye to the grandkids. It's been an emotional winter for us in that area, so we were thrilled that the visit was a great one. Each time we see them, they seem so much older. Each time we see them, we are tickled pink that they still get so excited to see us. We're guessing that will change at some point, so we soak it up for now.



They gave us "gifts" to take with us. They were these little rubber bands that are shaped like animals and such, and you wear them as bracelets. So cool!

After our way too short of a visit there, we headed over to see Ambir and Auburn. One, or both of them, maybe be moving in with us so we had lots to talk about. We took Ace back home with us, which thrilled Aric because he is close to Ace. Ace is HUGE now! He's still sweet as could be though, so it's hard to take his size all too seriously.



Living the life in Florida!

Northward Bound

Tuesday, April 19th - - After four lovely days of visiting friends in northeast Louisiana, I headed north on Sunday morning (April 17th). My goal was to get back to Indiana without traveling on Interstate Highways at all and to avoid four-lane highways as much as possible. That I have done thus far but I'm only halfway there!



I stopped at the Civil War Interpretive Center in Corinth yesterday (a post is forthcoming on that visit). Last night I stayed at this beautiful State Park in Mississippi – the Natchez Trace Parkway runs through it – and got on the Parkway this morning.





My campsite alongside the lake at Tishomingo State Park in northeast Mississippi.



The sun had been hidden by heavy clouds all day but showed itself for a few minutes late in the evening.







I just love the “green” all around. Delightful. And easy on the eyes.

Cats

I was posting a photo and a little info on each of my 6 horses, 3 dogs, and -opppps - I didn't do the 3 cats. (I think I got sidetracked by the eclipse and the shipwrecks.) We do have 3 cats. Only 3 at this time. The number of cats has varried over the years. We went as high as 7 at one time, but that is way to many for one house. Now we are back to 3 which is a much more managable number to have. I think the first pet I ever had was a dog. A rough coat Collie named Sport. I know there are photos of me with him when I less than a year old. He had been my granddad's dog but when he died just before I was born my parents took him. He wasn't a young dog even then.
After that there were a string of cats. I don't remember them but there were a few photos. I don't know why, but I really love cats. I have done without cats, dogs, and horses, for years on end in my life (and managed to live over it) but I don't think I could ever do without a cat again. I love my horses and dogs dearly but cats are really special. I don't think I have been without a cat since I was about 14 years old. That was a long time and a total of 20 different cats. Some didn't make it very long for one reason or another. But most have lived a long life to go on to a well deserved place in Cat Heaven. Right now we have Jade, K.C., and Murphy. This photo is of K.C. . Eight years ago she came to the door as a tiny kitten, screamed and screamed that she needed to live with us and finally had her way. We don't know where she came from and couldn't find anyone to claim her, so she became one of the family. Her name is short for Kitty Cat. Named by my then teenage son. Now isn't that orginal. K.C is the kind of cat that regardless where she decides to lay down she can look totally and completely comfortable. With all the cats I have had, and cats are known for looking comfortable, K.C. takes it to extreames. I just wish I could do as well at relaxing as she does. K.C. is also, an excelent mouser, and gets along better with the dogs than the other two cats do. In fact she is not sociable with the other cats at all. Even after knowing Jade, (who is 10) all her life and Murphy ( who is 5) all of his, she still hisses, and spits at them if they come close to her. She diffently perfers the company of my husband and myself over other cats, but will run and hide if we have visitors.

Sobering or it should be anyway...

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., Jackson Hole, Wyo.



March 21,




The route two skiers chose during an excursion near Ranger Peak on March 7
was a key factor in them getting caught and killed in an avalanche, park rangers
said Tuesday.



Steve Romeo and Chris Onufer died after being swept nearly 3,000 vertical
feet. The two likely were headed to an unskied south-facing couloir above
Waterfalls Canyon in Grand Teton National Park that Romeo had eyed over the
years, rangers and a friend of Romeo’s said.



Romeo and Onufer’s ascending ski tracks led to that goal, rangers who
investigated the avalanche deaths said. The route they chose took them from the
edge of an avalanche path into its starting zone, which was the ideal steepness
for slides, rangers said.



“They chose to go up a known avalanche path ascending into an avalanche
starting zone,” Jenny Lake Ranger Rich Baerwald said.



The incident should spur backcountry skiers to learn about avalanches and
reassess the way they make decisions about taking risks, he said. Skilled skiers
and moderate danger can be a deadly combination, rangers said.



Many people who read Romeo’s popular TetonAT ski blog looked to him “as the
subject-matter expert,” Ranger Chris Harder said.



While Romeo skied radical terrain with elan, he also posted several videos
and wrote stories about getting caught in or nearly missed by avalanches.



“I don’t know if he was taking that to heart,” Harder said. “He had more
[encounters] in the last few years than I’ve had in my lifetime,” the 30-year
Teton veteran said.



“I feel pretty strongly a lot can be learned by this,” Harder said.



Neither skier told anybody of his exact plans, rangers believe.



“What their ultimate objective for the day was, we will never know,” Harder
said.



Piecing together information from the ascent track and from friends Romeo and
Onufer talked to before leaving, investigators put together a likely scenario
for the accident.



Romeo and his sometimes ski partner Reed Finlay had talked about skiing a
couloir west of the avalanche path — on a spur of 10,355-foot Ranger Peak.



“It’s a really nice line, a pencil-thin, straight shot.” Finlay said Tuesday.
He and Romeo last saw it together Feb. 4 while on Eagles Rest Peak.



Finlay couldn’t return to the area. His wife, Rebecca, gave birth to
firstborn Kershaw on Feb. 29.



The ill-fated skiers were scheduled to depart Colter Bay at 7 a.m., rangers
said. Across the lake, the slope the two ascended was “a big avalanche path,”
Baerwald said.



“It narrows down from a big basin to gullies chutes and rock bands — it’s
hourglass-shaped,” Baerwald said.



Climbing the avalanche path with skins on their skis, Romeo and Onufer
initially made the best of hostile country, Baerewald said.



They stuck to the climber’s right, near where cliffs form the edge of the
slope.



At an elevation of about 9,700 feet, they made a critical decision.



“They start making their way away from the edge of the avalanche path on into
the avalanche track and into the starting zone,” Baerwald said.



Added Harder, “If they were heading to that [pencil-thin] couloir, they
probably short-cut over to it.”



An alternative would have been to continue up the right side of the slope,
rangers said. This route was less steep and led to a ridge.



“The ridge would have been a safer route,” Baerwald said. Ridge safety is a
basic concept, he said.



“The message with regard to route-finding is, it’s super important terrain be
considered,” he said.



A rising traverse and switchback brought the pair to a slot between two
triangle-shaped cliffs in the middle of the basin. Here the slope steepened to
about 40 degrees, the classic angle for slab avalanches, rangers said.



It is likely this is where the two triggered the slide. The crown, up to 3
feet deep, indicated the avalanche entrained snow that had been falling and
drifting from five days of storms. In that period, 28 inches fell in parts of
the Tetons, the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center reported.



Significant wind carried that snowfall to lee slopes, rangers said, including
the fateful basin on Ranger Peak’s spur. Southeast facing, its orientation
catches drifting snow carried by prevailing winds, they said.



Once the skiers provoked the slide, nothing could have saved them, rangers
said. The avalanche ran a linear mile over cliffs and rocks.

It likely
propelled them at speeds between 60 and 80 mph, rangers said. It ripped off one
skier’s pack, another’s boot, all four skis.



Searchers found the base layers of one ski ripped from its top plate, its
climbing skin still attached.



“The ski was completely delaminated, separated,” Harder said. “Speaking to
force, that says a lot right there.”



The chaos likely tore Romeo’s helmet off his pack, and it “sustained a lot of
damage,” Harder said.



Romeo had an Avalung pack — a device designed to allow avalanche victims to
breathe if buried. Its mouthpiece was deployed, but rangers couldn’t tell
whether he had it gripped in his teeth during the slide, they said.



Friends of the two have asked whether avalanche airbags could have saved
them, rangers said. Airbags are stowed in backpacks and deploy instantly with
the pull of a toggle. They help suspend a skier high in flowing snow and help
prevent burial.



But neither skier was really buried, rangers said.



“Chris probably could have sat up,” had he been alert or alive, Harder said.
“Steve probably could have wrestled an arm out.



The Teton County Coroner ruled the cause of death was blunt-force trauma.



Buffalo Fork Sub-District Ranger Rick Guerrieri said no gear could have
helped.



“One piece of equipment wasn’t going to have any effect on injuries,” he
said.



Added Harder, “The best tool they had with them, they weren’t using the most.
That was their brain.”



Rangers discounted other skiers’ sentiments about the pair being in “the
wrong place at the wrong time.” Such phrases are best reserved for victims of
meteorite strikes, they said.



“This [event] had factors in it that [include] decision-making,” Harder said
of the avalanche. Rangers are uncertain to what extent the pair took into
account the snow and winds.



Avalanche forecasts from the center called the chance of a slide moderate.
The predictions range only to 10,500 feet.



Search leader Guerrieri would not call the pair’s decisions a mistake.



“Different people are willing to accept different levels of risk,” he said.
“I hate second-guessing people.”



Backcountry travelers need to ask themselves what the consequences of taking
a risk might be, Harder said. In this instance, had the avalanche been witnessed
from across the lake and a rescue mounted within 10 minutes, the outcome would
have been the same.



“They died instantly, it’s pretty safe to say,” he said.



Even with working cellphones and helicopters at the ready, an injured skier
would be lucky to get from the Tetons to a hospital within three hours, Harder
said.



Decision-making is an increasing part of avalanche education, Baerwald said.
A study widely cited in recent years indicates that skiers and snowboarders
discard caution in the face of social considerations that range from the lure of
untracked slopes to a commitment to reach a goal or even familiarity with a
slope.



“Taking an avalanche course is critical, even late in the season,” Baerwald
said. Education can help skiers understand what an avalanche forecast means and
provide other lessons, he said.



“There was some decision making that factored into the accident,” Baerwald
said. “Route choice — that’s the one that stands out the most.”



Post script by the editor @ Cold Thistle:



This statement from the article above should stand out to everyone imo:



“I don’t know if he was taking that to heart,” Harder said. “He had more [encounters] in the last few years than I’ve had in my lifetime,” the 30-year Teton veteran said.



In my 40 years of back country,area skiing and winter alpinism the VAST majority of friends I have lost had been in avalanches previousand then eventually died in avalanches.



It is NOT a numbers game. It is a choice you make every time you venture into avi terrain. Start disregarding your fear and you will make the wrong decisions.

None of myfriends were total back country snowdummies. All knew the risks we take. But all made fatal errors...usually more than once and only survivedthe first few incidents because of pure, dumbluck. Harsh? Sure it is. But easier to tell you now than remind you at your own funeral.

How many funerals do youneed to attend before the point is drivenhome?



Snow safety is not rocket science.



The next time you ski or walk into dangerous terrain ask yourself, "is it reallyworth the risk today?""Overs" in this game are hard to come by. Gear will never replace the high tech shit between your ears. Everyone has the same gear there but you have to be willing to actually use it.



Double click to enlarge the terrainphotos of the accident area below.