Lesson learned in Limber Pine

These are the two couloirs I planned to ski this morning. Limber Pine is on the right (Green). This picture was taken back in March.

This morning I took a scary fall, and I came out of it fine, but it easily could have been a lot worse. I screwed up, but I take full accountability for what happened, and considering what happened on the Pfeifferhorn earlier this week, I think its important to get the message out that just because its mid May, that doesn't mean everything is safe to ski right now.

I had the day off from work, and my plan was to link up two of the major LCC south-facing couloirs (pictured above), Limber Pine and Little Pine. The idea was to climb Limber Pine first, ski it, then climb Little Pine, ski it, then cross the street and head up White Pine canyon. It was an ambitious plan that would require over 10,000 feet of climbing. I started off ~5:50am from the White Pine trailhead, and within 20 minutes I already knew that my day wasn't going to go as planned. The snow didn't get a good freeze overnight, and as I started to make my way up the Limber Pine Couloir, it was obvious that the snow under the top layer had not consolidated yet. It was in the process of becoming isothermal, but wasn't there yet. I reached a "choke" point where some rocks and trees were sticking out, and it got steep and icy at this point. I thought to myself "If Andrea was with me, I'd be turning around right now... there's no way I'd let her go up this." And stupidly, I kept going up. Mistake #1 - don't be an idiot when Andrea isn't around!

In the next 10-15 minutes, the sun began to hit the snow, and instantly it turned to mush. I tried to gain the ridge to the left, but sunk into thigh deep snow, only about 20 feet from the ridge, but I couldn't go anywhere. I knew at this point I had to turn around, and hoped it wasn't too late...

I put my skis on, and when I went to tighten my boots, the primary strap on the left boot wouldn't tighten. 99.999% of the time, I wear 4-buckle Garmont Mega-Ride boots. I love those boots and they have never let me down. Today I decided to take my Scarpa F1s (to save 11 ounces per foot). They are great on the UP, but on a 40 degree no-fall-zone slope, they don't cut it. Mistake #2 - Don't take gear you haven't used a lot into a committing ski zone.

I made about 10 turns, but the snow wasn't supportable enough to make jump turns, and I was basically skiing on one boot. So I threw my skis back on my pack and decided I would downclimb. I descended about a hundred feet and then the snow totally dropped out underneath me. I fell face first, forward, into a hard icy runnel of snow and started to slide for life. Survival instincts kicked in, and I tried to plunge my whippets into the snow and self-arrest... they both ripped out of my hands... now I was moving very fast towards a small patch of trees and rocks (again, HEAD FIRST)... I was not in control at all... the next thing I know, I smashed my shoulder into one tree, and grabbed onto another tree with my right hand and managed to hold on and stop my slide. It was extremely scary, and happened so fast that I'm not even sure how I managed to stop myself.

I ended up being able to get my crampons on, retrieve my whippets, and downclimb the icy section, then ski the lower half of the couloir. But I was definitely shaken up by the fall, and decided to just call it a day (at 9am) when I got back to my jeep. I went down to Dimple Dell Park and had a great trail run to clear my head.

This morning I was humbled. We've had a great year of backcountry skiing... about 50 days and no incidents of note before today... I made a mistake and nearly paid the price. Lesson learned. This one will stick with me.

And the snowpack needs more time to consolidate.

Morning light on the Coalpit Headwall

On a spine above the Limber Pine couloir

Looking down from the section where I re-grouped after I fell. I crashed into these trees and managed to hold on and self-arrest

The tree that I grabbed and stopped myself with

Despite things not going like I planned... the views were still pretty good

The lower half of Limber Pine

Looking back up... I climbed the chute to the left (not the one filled w/ avalanche debris). It doesn't look like it goes continually to the top, but it does.


Some scrapes like this were the worst of my injuries, luckily

Provo City Half Marathon

Off the start at the Provo City Half Marathon. I'm in the orange singlet... Andrea is in the black shirt and blue/green shorts.

Yesterday we ran the Provo City Half Marathon... long story short, we both raced really well and came away with huge PRs. Andrea ran amazing, taking first place in the women's race (and incredibly 7th place overall) in 1:21:43. I had a very nice race as well, finishing in second place with a 1:10:52. In my opinion these are pretty good performances at 4500 feet of elevation.

Here's our race recaps, followed by the pictures:

Andrea: I have had my mind set on the Provo City Half Marathon since the beginning of this year. I really liked the looks of the course because it was a fair course at altitude. So many races here in Utah have large elevation drops to account for the altitude, but I was just looking for a relatively flat unaided course. My training has focused on the half marathon distance for this race (and the Utah Valley Half coming up in another month).

That said, I am very excited about my performance. I won the race!! But more important than that, I have improved significantly in the last few months and I exceeded my goal race time by over two minutes. It is a great feeling to know how hard I have trained this winter/spring and how much it has helped. Honestly, I owe about half of the credit to Jake because he has run about 70% of my mileage with me and been a great resource (I'm starting to call him Coach).

About the race: My plan was to run 6:20 miles for the first few miles, then try to negative split from there on out based on how I was feeling. As soon as the race began, I settled into a pace that felt relatively easy - 6:00 for the first mile. Another girl (Kassi Harmon) was right there with me, and I made the decision to just go for it. Try to maintain her pace . About 5 of us ran in a pack for about 4 miles. 6:16, 6:06, 6:13. People started dropping off one by one, until I was running alone. I was determined not to drop off the pace at this point because I couldn't handle the idea of going out too fast. I was feeling pretty good. Miles 5-11 were pretty uneventful (6:12, 6:08, 24:33 (4 miles around 6:08), 6:09)...I was disappointed that there were no mile markers throughout the entire bike path. There were definitely times when I was unsure if I was even going in the right direction. But I made it through. Back on the road, I almost got run over by a truck because he refused to stop despite the 5 volunteers with stop signs and me running in front of him. That adrenaline rush helped me through to mile 12 (6:19). I was really feeling the fatigue here, and it was hard to push through with no other runners in sight. The bridge at about 12.5 miles didn't help - it was much harder on the way back! I pushed through to the end (with Jake right there cheering me on) and was so happy to see my time and be done! The last 1.1 miles was around 7:00 pace, so WAY off my other splits [EDIT: Turns out the course was about 0.05 mi long, so that last stretch was actually ~6:40 pace]. But I am still proud of the way I raced. I went for it, and although I blew up a little at the end I still ran much faster than I thought.

Then I heard that Jake ran under 1:11! He is so fast, and I am so proud of him :o)

Jake: I came into this one feeling better than I have for any of the previous races this year, and really felt that I had a chance to not only set a big PR (previous best was 1:12:28, at sea level), but get under 1:11. I figured if I could do that, then shooting for a sub 2:30 at the Utah Valley Marathon in 5 weeks is very realistic. My workouts have been going great recently, despite the fact that I still haven't dropped my mileage below that magic 100 mile per week threshold (even this week, with the race). Off the start, several guys took it out pretty quick (their first mile was ~5:05) while I hung back and came through the first mile in 5:17. My plan was to run 5:25-30 / mile, so I was a little quicker but not too quick. I was running relaxed and between miles 2-4 I caught 4 guys and moved into second place. The guy out front (Teren Jameson, 2:16 marathoner) was way out ahead and out of reach. I knew that that point I was running a time trial for second place.

I hit the 6 mile mark in 32:55 (5:29 pace), and then there was a 4 mile stretch along the bike path with no mile markers. This was unfortunate as I didn't have a great sense of my pace. When I came off the bike path and back on to the roads, I made a wrong turn and had to double back a bit (it probably only cost me 5 seconds). Finally I hit the 10 mile mark in 54:34 (which meant I had been hitting 5:25s for the past 4 miles) and that was encouraging. I hadn't fallen off the pace... I had actually picked it up! Now it was go time... my next 2 miles were 5:16 and 5:21... doing the math in my head, I figured I should be under 1:11.

On the last mile we came over a good sized bridge and that hill really sucked the life out of my legs. I felt like I was walking at that point, so it was a surprise to find out that my last mile was ~5:15, and overall my last 5K was 16:18. Another big negative split race for me. I came through the line in 1:10:52 (Teren had won the race in 1:09:44), grabbed a drink of water, and started running backwards along the last mile so I could run along with and cheer on Andrea for her last stretch of the race. I only made it a few minutes, and already there she was coming over the bridge with no other girls in sight! I was ecstatic and ran along on the sidewalk as she brought it home! I almost couldn't believe how fast she ran... its been so awesome and motivating for me to watch Andrea's transformation into such a high-level runner. I've known she was immensely talented since I've known her, and believed she was capable of these kinds of things... but believing something and actually doing something are completely different things... and her dedication and hard work are really paying off. I really think these kinds of performances are just the beginning for both of us.

Now we have 3 big weeks of training, which we'll cap with a tuneup race over Memorial Day weekend (10K). After that, its the Utah Valley Marathon (me) and half-marathon (Andrea) on June 11th.


Start of the race


A little past halfway


Andrea in the lead and still managing to smile for the camera!


At the finish... relieved to be done and under 1:11


Andrea bringing it home for the win!


Top 3 females... not shabby competition... Kassi (left) is a former NCAA champion, and Michelle (right) will hopefully qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials in a few weeks


Top 3 males


In addition to some serious cash, Andrea also won this great watch!

The course map and elevation profile. It was a fair course but had a few climbs. This would be a pretty fast course at sea level... at 4500 feet its a little bit slower.


Mt Timpanogos towering over Utah Valley. We're hoping to get back down there to ski this one in the next couple weeks.


After the race we decided against skiing... I know, sacrilegious, but we didn't feel like driving up the canyons, and it was finally hot outside... so we took the bikes for a spin


Riding the Bonneville Shoreline Trail


Its starting to turn towards spring in the foothills


This trail is right behind where I work


On Sunday we skinned up a high point at Alta...


...and saw the next storm rolling in... we're expected to get 14-24 inches of snow in the next 2 days...


... so we skied down and called it a day... hopefully spring's next appearance will be for more than 2 days!

All the pictures from the weekend.

Full Results from the race.

SLC 5K Pictures

Some photos from the 5K race we ran this past Saturday. Thanks to Salt Lake Running Company for hosting a fun event!


Off the start... I think Andrea is ahead of me at this point!


At the finish, making sure to click the watch


Andrea finishing with her eyes on the clock... sub 18 with plenty of time to spare!


Andrea and I post race

May 1st - Gone Chuting

Andrea showing how its done in May... seriously... May!!!

Well, today was another one of those "best days ever." We thought that the sun had done a good job baking the snow yesterday afternoon, and NOAA predicted a cloudy day. We were wrong, and they were wrong, and everyone was better off because of it!

We woke up to clear blue skies as far as the eye could see (which has been a rarity lately w/ the nonstop storms). After a nice run in the sunshine, we headed up to Brighton and started skinning up towards the top of the Milli Express lift... then strapped the skis to our packs and booted another 500 feet of so up the ridge to the top of Mt Millicent. The weather was perfect... sunny and (relatively) warm.

The first objective was skiing a fun little NE facing chute called the Elevator Shaft. It falls at 40 degrees right off the summit of Mt Millicent, condenses into a rock choke, and then opens up to a huge apron / bowl below. I've skied this line before a few times this season, but Andrea hasn't, so we thought it would be fun to repeat. Conditions were the best (BY FAR) I've ever experienced on this run. It was powder right off the top, sloughing but easily manageable. I skied first and Andrea followed. This was probably one of the steeper/tighter lines she has skied, and she nailed all her jump turns in good style. The rock choke towards the bottom (which I negotiated using a rope 6 weeks ago) was completely filled in. Once we hit the apron it was nonstop powder turns!...


Here's Mt Millicent and the Elevator Chute is ID'd by the red arrows


On the ridge


Andrea booting up


Andrea skiing off the top under some gigantic cornices (which are everywhere right now and are going to be a huge hazard once it starts warming up)


Andrea working it through (the mostly filled in) choke


Skiing the apron


Looking back up from the apron


We skied down to this point, transitioned, and then headed right back up. This was Andrea's second week in a row skiing a line from The Chuting Gallery :-)

After skiing the Elevator Shaft, we skinned and booted back to the top of Mt Millicent, then skied west down the ridge to the top of another chute that has been on our hit-list, Stupid Chute. This is a north-facing, wide open chute that empties down into the Twin Lakes area from the Millicent/Wolverine saddle... probably starting at around 40 degrees, rolls over once, then mellows out into a gigantic bowl. When we got to the top, it appeared to be a little wind-scoured. Andrea suggested that I throw a snowball (a crafty move) down the chute to see if it was softer down low. I threw it about 20 yards down and it just sunk into the powder. Game on!

I skied first and made about 3 jump turns on a windboard surface... and on the next one, just sunk into amazing powder and started ripping turns down the chute. Another guy we met at the top (John) skied next, and then Andrea followed. The snow was light and bottomless... hero snow! One of the best lines we've ever skied... just the combination of perfect snow (especially in May!), a scenic location, and incredible weather...


Those straight lines in Wolverine Bowl are snowmobile tracks. They are not allowed in this area. Hate to see snowmobilers poaching areas that they don't belong. According to some other people we talked to, apparently some skiers almost got in a fight with these jerks.


Mt Tuscarora's Seagull, X, and Y chutes all looking pretty tasty. Might be back to get some of those lines soon.


Dropping into Stupid Chute on the upper windboard section


Andrea skiing Stupid Chute


Incredible conditions...


Maybe incredible isn't strong enough of a word to describe it?


Looking back up the upper section of the chute at our tracks. I love this photo.


Skiing out of the chute...


... and onto the endless apron


Andrea following behind... we had the only tracks in the chute... awesome for a Sunday afternoon!


Looking back up from where we stopped. You can see our tracks in the upper chute (in the center) and then we came down the bowl, over that rollover, and got a bunch more perfect turns.

After skiing Stupid Chute, we skinned back up to the top of the Milli Express lift (again!) and booted it halfway up the ridge. We skied a nice line off the shoulder of Millicent back to the car, finding some more light powder in the north facing trees that hadn't seen much sun.

Our 10-day forecast now suggests that winter is finally over. Temperatures will be warming up, and we probably won't be skiing anymore powder (although you never know!), but the snowpack is at record depths across Utah, so we'll be skiing well into July!


Panoramic from the top of Mt Millicent

More photos here.

April Training

Here's the monthly training recap for April. After recovering from Antelope Island, we started mixing in some shorter, faster workouts in preparation for the spring racing season. We capped off the month by running a 5K race that showed our fitness is at a good place right now.

Running

Jake
Mar 28 - Apr 3: 102 miles
Apr 4 - Apr 10: 130 miles
Apr 11 - Apr 17: 137 miles
Apr 18 - Apr 24: 113 miles
Apr 25 - May 1: 102 miles (SLC RunCo 5K, 15:45, 1st place)

Total Miles for April (30 days, 53 runs): 517 miles
Average Miles a Day: 17.2 miles (year to date is 17.7 miles/day)
Total Perfect Pushups: 1500 (50/day all 30 days)
Days I drove my car to work: 6 days (that's a record!)

The end of March feels like a long, long time ago. That week after the Antelope Island 50K was rough. I still managed to run over 100 miles, but most of those runs were terrible. Then, just like that, my legs were back and training started to click again. We got into a good groove of doing 2 workouts per week in April (usually a 20-30 minute tempo run, and then intervals on the track). I feel like my training is going well, and running 15:45 this past weekend w/out really having to push very hard is a good indicator that I should be able to pop a good half-marathon.

Andrea
Mar 28 - Apr 3: 58 miles
Apr 4 - Apr 10: 71 miles
Apr 11 - Apr 17: 71 miles
Apr 18 - Apr 24: 59 miles
Apr 25 - May 1: 51 miles (SLC RunCo 5K, 17:52, 1st place, PR!)

Total Miles for April (30 days, 43 runs): 264 miles
Average Miles a Day: 8.8 miles (year to date is 8.1 miles/day)
Hours of Cross Training (exercise bike, elliptical, and weights): 6 hours

This has been a hard training month! I have not done tempo runs and track workouts since high school, so April has been quite a transition. With that said, I definitely believe they have helped my speed tremendously. I still can't quite believe that I ran a sub-18 minute 5k - that distance is not my strong suit (or my favorite), which makes me anxious to see how I perform in the half marathons coming up. May will be another hard month of training towards the big race - Utah Valley. I am very excited about the spring temperatures FINALLY!

Skiing

Total Vertical Climbed: ~21,000 feet in 6 days of backcountry skiing. Highlight: Mt Superior
Inbounds ski days: 3

Next up...

Races: Provo City Half-Marathon (May 7), Memorial Day 5K/10K (May 28), Utah Valley Half-Marathon / Marathon (June 11)
Trips: Southern Utah (Zion, etc) in 3 weeks w/ the Krong parents!
Skiing: Alta closed down yesterday, finishing up the 2010-2011 season with a cumulative snowfall of 724 inches!!! Winter may have finally ended, and we might not have any more deep powder days, but there is so much snow in the mountains that we are going to be skiing AFTER July 4th this summer, and that makes me mighty happy! :-)