New Years in the Sierras

Squaw Valley's Olympic Rings

End of year generally means that I'm roaming a warehouse somewhere counting inventory. Living the dream sons! Ah, but for the second straight year the warehouse on my schedule was located near Tahoe, CA, so my off-days became a snowy wonderland of awesome. 

Set up base camp in Truckee where more than three feet of snow fell earlier in the week. I literally clicked into my nordic setup and skied off the porch and into the woods on several evenings. That, is living the dream.

Turns on the downhill slopes of Squaw Valley on New Years Day with the Desert Babe, where I snapped the sweet photo to your left there. 

This brings me around to a bit of trivia that I have dutifully researched: The US has hosted the Winter Olympics four times since their inception in 1924. Squaw Valley hosted in 1960. Without looking it up - who can tell me where and when were the other three US-hosted Winter Olympiads?

Leave your best guess in the comments. I'll add the answer Friday evening although I'm sure curiosity will get the better of the guesser well before then.

Sunset at Squaw

Sunrise in the Sierras

Wheeler Peak, Taos NM

Wheeler Peak, the far high point, New Years 2012

The wife and I spent our New Years in the backcountry near Taos. Specifically, we hiked into the Bull-of-the-Woods yurt two miles northeast of Taos Ski Valley. From our toasty wood-stove fired base camp our party spent the holiday-weekend roaming around the nearby hills by ski and snowshoe. There's plenty of terrain to tour around on nordic skis as well as some decent backcountry skiing on the slopes of Gold Hill. I was drawn like moth-to-flame to the Wheeler Ridge which stretches south from basecamp toward the highest point in the state, Wheeler Peak, 13,161ft.

Grabbing the first ascent of the new year seemed pretty keen to me so while the others were out ski-touring I taped up my heels, stepped into my boots, and set off up the trail on a New Year's adventure run with three hours of daylight and a mostly full moon to light the way.

Base Camp

Through tree-cover to the ridgeline. Light-footing the drifts to avoid death by post-hole

Fast and light. Snowshoes for impassable sections

Taos Ski Valley in the distance

Just 5mi to Wheeler, up a few hills

Gaining the ridge. Some evidence of trail though better footing to be found off trail

Big-horn sheep, a ram and ewe. Taos Ski Valley and Kachina Peak in the distance (12,481ft)

I steered well around these two. They didn't have interest in me either fortunately

I thought Wheeler might be behind that big guy top left. My route crossed through the bowl to the left

Gunning for the high ridge in fading light. It was beautiful

To the west, the first sunset of the new year

To the north, the ridgeline approach, the Latir Peak Wilderness and Culebra range further north, the Spanish Peaks far right, Blanca Peak range distant center-left

From my high point I see I'm short by a (very scenic) mile. Wheeler at far right

Fine effort, good run. A little brandy to power the return trip

The moon helps guide the run home

The trail was at least 6mi from camp to summit (a two mile head start from the trailhead). I felt like I was really moving and would steal the summit for certain. In the end there were four false summits on the approach and I made it up only three. Gazed across the fourth and destination-fifth (Wheeler) as the sun set behind the Jemez. The summit push was another 1mi+ of snowy and technical ridgeline, across and back in the dark, which didn't look like fun so I tipped some brandy in a New Years toast and turned it around. Well played Wheeler, well played sir.

Summit gear included gaiters, ski poles, snowshoes (precautionary), a headlamp and a thermos of hot chocolate and brandy. With the snow, the primary challenge was route-finding - and retracing the route on the return (super-important).

I was really excited to be out in a mostly-full moon. The lights of Taos Ski Valley shined invitingly from below the ridge as I ran along hoping from rock-to-rock and vaulting snow cornices with the aid of my poles. What would the new year bring? Anything I will it to I suppose. Nearly anything is possible if you just get out and make it happen.

Related Links

 - Santa Fe Area Trails Listing

 - New Years 2010-11: Cumbres Pass Yurt, Neff Mountain CO





View Wheeler Peak in a larger map

Year in Review - Running Log

My ride, rockin' the new snow

I made it into work on Wednesday by bike.  It was a little cold and a little wet, but I'm tough - and that's what showers and washing machines are for anyhow.  Wednesday's ride was significant because it meant that I had rode into work at least once every week since the beautiful bygone summer days of June.  By my best estimates I figure I logged at least 300 total commuter miles this year and saved about 15-20gal of gas.  I don't reckon I saved any money in this endeavor since I was busy buying up an extra bike lock, an upgraded bike pump (the new ones work really well), a needed tune-up and a new derailleur, new brake-pads and chain, and a high-grade light.  I can say with experience now that it's a lot more fun buying up stuff for your bike(s) then for your truck, and it's a lot more fun arriving at work after a morning ride than being pissed off from traffic and being held up at the short-timed traffic lights. 

Running log (mi) - Peaks for Boston, then kinda falls off a cliff

A lot of the riding and commuting I put in since October was really just a substitute for being off my feet, recuperating from an overuse injury and being really bored.  Up until this point, I had had a great year of running.  My best ever really, although with the lingering caveat that I spent the last three months of the year laid-up due to all the awesomeness.  Looking at my tally, I rang up 1500mi on the trails - or for the 9.5 months I was on my feet - an average of roughly 35-40mi p/wk.  This is almost double my mileage for all of 2009.  And while some of this increase is surely due to bigger goals and a greater depth of experience, a lot of it is due to the gradual but necessary build up of strength and resistance that came from the 20mi weeks the year before.  The results were best times in every race I ran over 5K. A seven minute drop in the marathon. Five minute drops in most races I had run in previous years.  Best times on favorite training runs that I'd run-out dozens of times over the years. I actually won one of the races I ran this year - a very foreign and out-of-body feeling to have.  Damnit, that was really awesome.  For the 5K distance and shorter (track workouts basically), I ran my quickest times since high school days, and noted the obvious, that my speed could use a lot of work in comparison to the strength and endurance I'd built up.  

Biking log (mi) - Lots of unrecorded riding during the summer

The lesson I learned from this year's work isn't that mileage necessarily builds improvement, but rather it is consistency that really adds to increased fitness and performance.  I think mileage is a metric that needs to be looked at as a measure of consistency.  My mileage the last few months is for all purposes zero, which reflects a substantial flaw in my training and long term consistency.  The success during the remainder of the year reflects a lot of work and preparation that was done well, but was fundamentally incomplete.  A regimen of stretching and balance will need to be added to stay on the trails and out of the pool. 

Swim log (hrs) - Also known as the injury log

Happy New Years!  Run well, drink local, enjoy the trails, and don't swim (b/c it is the opposite of fun). 

Related Link:
  - Santa Fe Trail Runner - A Quick Look Back