Altaholics UNITE!

Yep, you guessed it! Alta is now open for the season! All 24" base & 24 runs (so far) of it! Yeah, a little sketchy, but still skiable none the less. Defintely watching for rocks, even on the groomers. The skis were happy, the feet will get used to it, & we are pumped for another great season! Come on out! First ride up for the season
Lots of "treasures" waiting to be found, & some people found them.
We won't be touring over there anytime soon....

PRAY for SNOW!!! (That's all Jeremy wants for Christmas anyways) :)

Chainlove

We were still stuck in the in-between a bit in SLC, so in order to enjoy a couple more days of mountain biking we once again headed down to Moab. The skies were blue & the sun was bright, arm/leg warmers beneficial, & definitely cool in the shade since snow was there too (NEVER seen that there before!). We scored a sweet winter deal on a hotel. We had always just tented it, but since it was dark & cool at 5pm we were excited for a hot tub too (Jeremy, however, was certain to let me know not to get used to it!).

Views along the Amasa Back trail (called Cliffhanger if you're Jeepin' it!)

It's a LONG way down if you miss the turn on this trail

WAY down below

Spinning on slickrock, nice!

Baby Steps trail, pretty day with new snow on the La Sal mountains

Fun trail!

Heading out....more to come next year!

Flakes

Winter decided to arrive to the Salt Lake valley, so we decided to get out & enjoy it! Zelli was sure to get her fill of the flakes. Now it's time to just pray for MORE snow, as Alta opens this coming weekend! Mt. Olympus trail
Our buddy Matt, & dog Alta

You better BELIZE it!!!

After getting SCUBA certified, I wanted to put my new skills to the test. No better place to do that than Ambergris Caye, BELIZE!!! The water was 86 degrees, turquoise blue & crystal clear! We saw lots of neat fish, coral & sponges, 2 turtles, sting rays, green moray eels, & even petted Nurse sharks! We took water taxis to/from town of San Pedro & otherwise enjoyed our pool & hammock time. The seafood was amazing & the people friendly. It's a beautiful place we'd love to go back to...we're sure you'd love it to! Our pool: Belizean Shores hotel

Huge hibiscus flower
Walking the beach (there was actually a "single track" bike trail there too!)
View from our shore
Jeremy's favorite hangout, a beachfront (& cheap) bar! We went there daily :)

For the rest of our photos, you can visit:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?albumId=834555501407&ownerId=38930772307

Now it's just about time to think SNOW back home!

Endless summer

With the first freshly fallen snow on the mountain tops...we couldn't get out & bike around SLC so we headed to the desert for a bit more of "summer." Moab never fails to deliver AND we even had our tent site with tent UP by 3pm! A record for sure! We checked out some new trails in the perfect scenery & weather!!!

Views of the hillsides along the way

Bull Canyon trail


Two tortise rock trail

Ready to pedal

The conditions by the time we arrived back at the car: DARK

Our camp site at Jaycee Park

Hike to Corona arch

Views well worthwhile

Baby Steps trail...a new favorite?

then the camera battery died....................oops.

I'd rather be working?

Well, since our fence was severely toppling over into our neighbor's yard & Zelli was about to escape...we decided it was time to get it replaced. Jeremy ended up having 4 days off in a row...& might have just rather have been at work. He put in several long days, with help from his mom (he had Barb out there shoveling the concrete too!) and dad. After only 4 trips to Home Depot & just the right number of boards & nails....our project was complete!

Getting the frame work right

Now it's the easy part

All done!

Nothing would get done without this one around! Slave driver (& quite possbily the cutest Boss ever!) Ha!

Awesome Autumn

My friend Megan was in town visiting for a wedding up at Snowbird. We got to catch up over a couple days & enjoyed a great hike up to Lake Blanche. Gotta love this time of year! Big Cottonwood Creek

Getting there...

Fall colors

& there's the lake!

Amarillo (yellow) aspens! Gorgeous day!

Fun times & a great friend!

How Grand!

Well, we actually termed it our "sufferfest", but we managed to tag the top of the Grand Teton at 13,770 feet!!!! Jeremy, me, & our dads (60, 69yrs old) headed on up Garnet Canyon (*see below) hoping for the best, even after every ranger we talked to said the route up to the summit was covered with ice in spots.

Sunrise on the peaks on the way into the park

Waiting at 7am to get our permit

Jenny Lake in the stillness of the morning


The famous range

*Garnet canyon. You can see the Lower Saddle at 11,600ft and the summit 7038 vertical feet above the trailhead!

Gearing up! Who wants to carry the large cams? Paper, rocks, scissors?

Starting at the valley floor (6732 ft.)

Coming out of the woods and into Garnet Canyon (notice the dad's trying to drop us).

Mastering massive boulder fields, tougher with these "monkeys" on our backs!

Documented rest stop above Spalding Falls and Petzoldt Caves

We encountered intermittent rain showers on our 6.5 hour hike up to camp in the moraine just below the lower saddle, arriving just before dark.

Our camp at the Moraine (~10,700 ft) with the Lower Saddle in the background.

In the morning we were glad to claim a "rest day" that involved filtering lots of water for meals & our summit day, hiking 45 mins up to the Lower Saddle (11,600 ft) to check out the route to the upper saddle pictured behind us, & get to bed early for a 3am start.

After some helpful tips from a nearby guide & our awesome leader Jeremy, we managed to crawl through the "chockstone", thread through the "Eye of the Needle (pic above)", tip toe around the "Belly Roll-Almost" and then proceed "easily through the path of least resistance" (according to the guide book...yeah right!!) to the upper saddle (pic below: 13,160 ft) about 7am.

Then the real climbing started. After donning our harnesses & roping up we confidently mastered the "Belly Roll" & "Crawl" (pic above) with super huge exposure & even made it past the crux of the Double Chimney! WAY TO GO DADs!!!!



Next was the Owen Chimney (Jeremy leading pic above), which we heard most about, being possibly treacherous with ice/verglass...but we climbed up without much difficulty; just had to be cautious with your hand holds and foot placements.

Yeah!!! We MADE it!!!

We scrambled our way up to the summit with a watchful eye on the weather.


It's official!!!


Hope I'm able to do this when I am 69.

Just "follow the path of least resistance." The Enclosure is the peak below us where Jodi went in 2005 due to inclement weather.

Sargent's Chimney rappel.

The final rappel down to the Upper Saddle was 120 ft & included a "free" part, dangling just in the open air.

We maintained our focus & carefully found our way (usually on all five's) down to the lower saddle & back to camp around 7pm.

The Black Dike (inverted V) was a good goal coming up & getting down

The fixed rope section we used to get up to & down from the Lower Saddle

We were TOTALLY blessed managing to escape the forecasted thunderstorms, with a minute or 2 of graupel & a slight sprinkle once we arrived back at camp...despite some pretty scary looking clouds along the way. After a quick minute to lay down, we packed up camp & headed towards the car just after 8pm. The trail seemed unending & in a trance and sleepwalk-like state we arrived at the car ~2:30am...a full 24 hour day for sure. Luckily we had hotel reservations and crashed.

Upon waking after 11am we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast & dessert (leave it to Jeremy to order triple berry pie AND chocolate cake!) at The Bunnery in Jackson Hole prior to heading home.

Woo hooo! We made it!!!! And less than 12 hours later we began discussions of our next mountain adventure...a winter ascent of the highest point in MN? ;)