Ahhhhh ... the great outdoors!

Day 40 - Wednesday 20 February 2008

See - I can do it - embracing wide open spaces, breathing fresh air, getting muddy shoes and staring in awe at nature's wonders I mean.

I've been away from blogging this last week or so because, for the first time on this journey, I've found myself in a car and behind the wheel. And the weirdest thing's happened. I've appreciated the way your brain changes to it's surroundings when travelling. Driving on the right hand side has felt the most natural thing in the world and not once did I pull out into the left hand lane. I can only assume it's because I'm feeling very naturalised here in the States. The car's back now and I'm having a day hanging out in Moab.

Moab is the coolest piece of the States and it's a joy to live here. It's in south east Utah (Grand County) and is the heart of the adventure/outdoor scene in south west USA. It's populated by mountain bikers, 4 x 4 drivers, climbers, car washers (!), motel owners, restauranteurs and others! The locals here are concerned it's becoming Aspen-ised i.e. house prices are growing and difficult for locals because out of towners are loving all the adventure activity. I've come at such a top time because it's not peak season and it's quiet/very affordable. The weather's been awesomely sunny (although cold-ish at 10 degrees centigrade) and the National Parks empty ... more coming up!

I was staying at The Lazy Lizard Hostel before I arrived and found out they were plastering my room - while I was in it! But a hop, skip and Hercule Poirot investigation later ('I didn't know he lived in the village') and I'm cosily in The Virginian Motel paying 14 pounds a night for a room the equivalent of a Travelodge! But enough about town-y stuff...

It's rugged, it's dramatic, it's iconic, it's red, it's orange, it's movie image evoking, it's wild and it's west. And I'm soaking it up! I'm now in danger of calling this my 10th No. 1 favourite place. But when you sit at sunset looking at the following image of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park it's hard not to say 'no, this is my favourite place'. It's overtaken Yosemite for me because it's so different to anything I've seen before ... just check this out ... it's 60 feet high on the edge of a cliff!



















For the twitchers amongst you that's a big raven (stick it in your book and have it on me Gars/Swifty) and those are the La Sall mountains in the background. I did get pictures of me and Delicate Arch only they were taken by half wits! Everyone round here is a an amateur photographer way off my Dad, Del's standards! The bloke who snapped me with Delicate Arch sticking out the top of my head and minus it's top was the classic case of 'all the gear and no idea'. Now we're back to the educational bit of this trip. These arches (that have to be 3 feet wide to qualify) and other rock formations in this area are formed by: a prehistoric sea evaporating leaving salt, rock debris blowing down on top of the area, the malleable salt beds bulging upwards, moisture/wind getting into the salt/rock and EROSION doing it's thing (regular commenter and physical geography teacher Growie may like to clarify ... big man?).

I have sooo many pictures of this area and in fact I feel a bit like a natural history photographer right now. This is not unexpected when you think about all the Hollywood movies made in this area. Including, and hooray, the start of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade that was shot here. The bit when River Phoenix played a young Indy. Check it out using this You Tube link and all of those images are exactly where I've been hanging out. The very first scene is Park Avenue in Arches just round the corner from the Visitor Centre. Jaw dropping huh! I was planning on going to Monument Valley (150 odd miles south from here) but there's just no need. You can get the wild west feel everywhere you look around here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSnGx3DEpqU

I've also been to Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is where the Green and Colorado rivers have wended their way through the salt/rock and carved out canyons as they've gone. There's 3 areas to it. The Island in the Sky overlooks it all and is a piece of land surrounded by air except for one spit that connects it back to the Moab fault. It's 2000 feet from the Island to the canyon floor waaaaaay below and creates images like this. Again. At sunset the play of shadows makes for the most spectacular views ...

















The second area of Canyonlands is called the Needles and it's remote. I visted and for the 30 miles, single lane road to the Visitor Centre off the main interstate, I didn't see another car. When I arrived and did yet another short hike I was literally in the middle of nowhere. The silence was deafening. And really showed up my tinitis! In fact at one point I had to look out for intruders and kept my eye carefully down the barrel ...












It was truly amazing. This was on top of a huge rock that was used by the ancient Puebloans, Ute Indians and, finally, cowboys as a camp. The rock overhang was a great shelter and it was called Cave Spring so water was, very rarely for the desert, available. They still had the camp set up, but, more incredibly, on the rock were ancient hand prints (pictographs) going back hundreds of years and created by ancient indian hands much smaller than my own. Right there, nothing protecting them except the conscience of the visitors and in mint condition. The USA at it's very best ...












The final area of Canyonlands is the Maze and only accessible for 4 wheel drives (my Kia Spectra didn't fancy it). It's legendary because many, many outlaws hid out there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Including Butch Cassidy apparently. It's still considered the remotest part of the USA and, obviously, back then the lawmakers couldn't get out there. And even if they did it's a myriad of vertical stone structures (fins) and you can get lost for days and weeks. Magic for horse-rustlers and murderers ...

I got my own feel of what Butch got up to when I visited the Fiery Furnace back in Arches yesterday and did a ranger-led tour that involved clambering around amongst the rocks and getting your feet dirty on the ground of the wild west. A must if you come here rather than just looking at the views from behind the warmth and protection of the wind shield! Murray Shoemaker was a real icon (the National Park's rangers are revered out here and rightly so).














It was a fabulous 3+ hours and maybe my first Indiana Jones experience. There were some big drop offs, tight gaps and sure footed requirements. Not to mention the mountain lions signs (cougars to us in GB I think). And I passed with flying colours. Mind you I should have really. A 5 year old did it all! Admittedly carried by her Dad for half of it but what an experience for her! Murray also commended us on our time of visiting. In Summer it's over 30 degrees centigrade and they have thousands of car each day. Now that would spoil the spirit of out here for me.

Finally for here in Moab I've experienced a real life 'don't listen to strangers' experience. Only joking. It was awesome and I love Americans for being soooo enthusiastic about life and their 'can do' attitude. The bloke on the back of the Big Horn Express that shuttled me here from higher up Utah said I had to do the Slickrock Trail while I was here. OK. Recommendations from locals have been highlights of this trip so far. And still are by a big piece of 'being out of my comfort zone'!











http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/slickrck.htm

Slickrock is a mecca for mountain bikers. It put Moab on the map back in the 1960s and has elevated it to it's status now. Only one problem. It was designed for motor bikes! Slickrock refers to the rocks that a trail has been marked out over just north of Moab and stretching for 10 miles. 10 miles of steeeeep, often close to vertical, ups and downs. Think Junior Kick Start crossed with Evel Knievel. On a mountain bike in it's lowest gear. I'd like to see Peter Purves pull this one off. Going up you pedalled like fury and jumped off before you fell backwards. Going down you put all your weight over your back tyre and hoped your nuts wouldn't clang against the back of the bike seat ... I fell! Once, uphill and onto my right hip. It still hurts. It all felt a bit like the steep snowboarding. Only the stakes are just a bit higher when you're going to fall on rock not powder snow. And did I mention the canyon drop offs of a hundred feet or more! Thankfully the rock and my Cannondale Prophet's tires stuck to each other like glue. The bike had suspension on the front forks and the main frame's seat. And it was all worth it afterwards. I'd cracked a grade 4 (of 4!!!) mountain bike trail. Well. Half of it. The whole thing may have killed me! It's also given me a flavour of fun to come. Gravity-assisted mountain biking in Bolivia might now be an option ...

And a quick one for my godson, George, who loves dinosaurs. Alongside all this wild west and outdoors stuff I'm in dinosaur-alley right now. This picture is the REAL, ACTUAL footprints of an allosaurus (think T-Rex) from millions and millions of years ago. It's in a slab of rock out in the hills here and I scrambled up to be right where the massive carnivore actually walked. Thankfully he'd long gone and how cool is this ...

















In the next couple of days I'm moving again to St George in Utah and Zion, Bryce and The Grand Canyon (!!!) National Parks. My camera's just warming up ...

When I last posted I didn't think I'd have collected 2 'do this before you die' experiences when I sat down again ... but I have!

The first was last Thursday at Arapahoe basin - or A-Basin to the locals. It's the most amazing 'area' (not resort like the others) that is for the die-hards of the Colorado skiing scene (although boarding's allowed and embraced). It's totally no thrills. No brand names, no daft entertainments, just the sports themselves and the infra-structure needed to run them. It reminded me of a non-for-profit golf club. The restrooms (that's common place for me now and I don't know if I'll ever re-lapse back to toilet) were straight out of Ross-on-Wye Golf Club. It's the highest area here in the Rocky Mountains and it showed it's teeth. In the morning I boarded their back bowl and you're totally above the tree-line amongst the rocks ... and the snow! We had the worst white out I've ever experienced and I limped back to the halfway house barely able to see my feet. I couldn't tell up, down, left or right. I lost the horizon and became motion sick falling over once or twice. Perhaps this should have warned me off ...

But for every white out of course there's soooo much snow. I knew it might be a bit special when, during my lunchtime recovery, I saw deep tracks disappear over a bowl of chilli (classic mountain lunch). In the space of a few hours there must have been 12-18 inches of fresh champagne powder that added itself to the already deep base of about 5 feet! It was cold, a Thursday and pretty much just me and the lifties. I spent the most incredible few hours hammering it down green and blue runs (where I could see!) just to pull the hardest turn using my back edge and spraying snow as high as it would go. I beautifully covered my whole body, face and head numerous times and got a double whammy on one go! I was so chuffed to hear another mega-experienced boarder in my hostel tell me she was out in the same conditions and they were the best of her life. I think they'll have been the best of mine? It was so deep it made the front page of the Summit Daily News (Summit County here's widely read newspaper). You just have to be in the right place at the right time!

http://www.arapahoebasin.com/

And if that wasn't enough I then travelled to my fourth area (all on the same lift ticket) on Saturday. It's called Keystone and is similar in resortishness (new word from Jez for the dictionary) to Copper Mountain. But they have a big advantage. Floodlights and night skiing/boarding! Now I'd seen this thing in magazines before and not given it a second thought. But I thought I should at least give it a try. And boy you have to all give it a go at some time in your lives! Even the non-skiiers or boarders. Learn just to be able to do this! It'll be worth it.

The best way to describe it is Disneyland meets mountain sports. It's the most magical thing to wend your way down and amongst an incredible mountain backdrop under the moon and the stars. Aided by the floodlights of course. This being the USA the floodlights covered half of their front mountain so there must have been about 12 runs for all standards to enjoy. And for my family (and anyone esle who has been to the Isle of Wight) it was Blackgang Chine on ice! It was one of those times (that I hope will be repeated in the Andes and the Himalayas) when you feel about a nano-metre big. Everything around you is so immense, it's quiet, it's dark (the floodlights create mysterious patches of light and dark) and you can sense that the world around you has been here (and, baring a cataclysmic disaster, will be) for millions of years.

It massively helped that I was at my boarding best and the slopes were brilliantly groomed. So I was going fast! (I'd be a giant slalom boarder if anything). They managed the transition from day to night so well and, while allowing you to board through dusk, got everything up and running to keep going until 9pm. The USA at it's customer-focused best! It's also pretty wild! Because of the light you don't necessarily get the best view of the terrain ahead. Consequently, I was wiped out from behind - twice. The first time I fell on my ass and lost my goggles when a middle aged man (like me now I guess!) took me out before he hit his wife who wiped in front of me. What a pair. But he was brilliantly apologetic and I went straight back down to the same place and re-claimed my goggles that were lying in the snow! The second time hurt a bit. A young punk going way too fast for his ability (and forced to apologise by me afterwards) cleared out both my back feet. I was going pretty quick and I was airborne long enough to think 'shoot, I'm airborne'. I now ache like a bugger after that and 11 of the last 13 days boarding. But wasn't it worth it for Keystone at night!

Keystone's also got the most dramatic views of any ski/board area I've visited. I found that out when I visited again on Sunday and saw it in daylight. And it stopped snowing for the weekend. Jaw dropping ...

http://keystone.snow.com/indexskiride.asp

And now it's Monday night and I face my final day on a board tomorrow before I head through the Rockies and into Utah on Wednesday. But I'm trying to go out in style by experiencing the full boarding phenomenon. Today I've completed a black diamond mogul field and ridden it without falling over! I'm even balanced enough (or unbalanced depending on style points rating) to use my hand on the mountain to show off!

And just to keep the 'rude rider' himself happy (Vanster) I hit the terrain park yesterday and today. I've slid down a couple of boxes and come out of them with my manhood intact! And, of course, I've pumped my first tranny! 3 times in fact. I totally messed up twice and fell down. But on the third time I found myself peeking over the top of the half pipe but kept it together enough to stay upright and fall out the bottom thinking 'what's that all about'! To be honest Van I'm rubbish and need a few lessons from you and your boys in the future! Not that you can see much of the pipe (Breckenridge is rubbishly cold and windy!) but here I am pulling a Reggie glum one (the eyes were up Bish - honest!) before I put my life in Van's hands!

So over and out from the mountains dudes! Grab your spurs and your horses (by the way the Spanish introduced them if I haven't told you before). It's the wild, wild west in a few days ...

The board v ski debate ...

So ... 6 days into life as a snowboarder and:

I've totally kicked a diamond black's, moguled ass today
I've spent the whole day on intermediate to expert slopes at my second resort of the trip, Breckenridge
I've hit my head on the mountain for the first time
I've slid 20 metres down the slope after my feet flipped over my head

So, all in all, I feel I'm suitably qualified to offer some views on the titled just in case anyone else is thinking the same! All I can hope is that none of the expert boarders (and I mean experts who hike up mountains to be able to board and get their kicks!) staying in my hostel (the unbelievable Fireside Inn) read this and smirk. Ah well. They're a cool, chilled out breed that I hope one day to join! Hang on! I'm in already after today! See. I now wear a lid!















You'll just about be able to see that we had blizzard conditions this afternooon and at one point I was hurtling forwards seeing about 1 metre in front of my feet. 'Hmmmm ... nice ...'

So back to my opinions about boarding v skiing. Boarding is a way freer experience because you're not carrying those poles and spending every second on the slopes concerned that you'll cross your skis and go A over T! All you have to do is wave your arms about to keep your balance. And the 'catch a front edge' in boarding is a bit of a myth - for me anyway. I think I've done it just once. Providing you can trick your head and tell it to lean down a 1 in 10 slope you tend to always be in control. And when you do fall, providing you tackle steep slopes, you're actually quite close to the ground. Fall 'backwards' and you only travel a yard or two before the slope catches you. It's not strictly backwards as I'm sure the Vanster would point out but that's the easiest way to explain it. The board itself is a pretty stable object to ride. When there's this much snow around (I've just heard 30 inches predicted for the next day or two!) it cuts through the snow and keeps you bolt upright, provided, (Americanism slipped in there!) your weight is on your leading foot ( I ride normal not daffy) and you keep a tension in your legs that knackers them come mid-afternoon. And I think it's generally a lot easier than skiing. I'd love to research skiiers and boarders and see who have better sporty genes and are more co-ordinated. I bet it's the skiiers. I'm riding terrain that I'd have no right to do afer the equivalent time on skis. But you give it back when it comes to the flat sections. You really have to learn fast how to let a board run. Otherwise it can drive you insane and did on my first day. You also need to pick your mountain.

And I'll shift for a second and mention Breckenridge. I'm finding it nowhere near as good as Copper for me. It's just flat. It's big and has great, long, rolling runs where you could traverse around all day long. But I've realised that I love the 'shoot, I'm falling, no I'm not, I've made it' experience. And I found it only today on my fourth peak at Peak 10 (they're numbered 7 to 10). They do have an amazing high section of diamond blacks at around 12,000 feet above the tree line that I must tackle before I leave here! They're not as hard as they sound. Breckenridge was an old mining town and I visited their neat, little museum on Main Street. More learning about where I am! It's an old mining town and the population, after the rush, dropped to about 100. Here it is the other day when we had a rare break in the clouds (it's between my left shoulder and that tree ... OK ... cack photograph from a kindly boarder).















But despite all the technical cack about snowboarding the main thing is it's just more fun for me. Or sweeter as I now say recurringly. But you really can't take youself too seriously when doing it. The micro-culture that makes it up has the best use of the English language I've ever heard. This following line is 100% true. I heard it from the public announcer when I stopped at Copper for a break and watched a bit of the half-pipe competition during the 2008 US Open Championships (see, I came at a great time huh?).

He said 'And, you know, you won't survive in this competition if you can't pump a tranny' ... gumph ... what have I let myself in for ...

For a quick finish here's the beautiful Fireside Inn in Breckenridge run by the wonderfully British Andy and Nikki. Another amazingly warm welcome (apart from the mystery snorer last night but I don't think they can do anything about that). I love it's bright blue colour and the tea/coffeee/cake they serve at 4:00pm after a hard day on the mountain. A different than I'm used to form of apres ski. But so much better for the liver than recounting stories with Robbie Jackson et al! The dormitory is the Organ Loft and it's the window beneath the eves including balcony viewing of the slopes!















Enough for now 'cos I'm sat in the O2 Lounge in Breckenridge and if this snow keeps up I might not make the 300m walk home! Top altitude news today that I forgot to mention. I'm taking what looks suspiciously like a Gill placebo called 'Altitude Adjustment' and it did the trick. 'A complex mixture of homeopathic substances' they claim. 'A subtle blend of sawdust and superglue' it looks like ...

See ... it can still snow on the planet!

Day 26 - Sunday 3 February 2008 (Superbowl Sunday!)

(My apologies any blog-fans but the format of the blog software is driving me nuts and so, for this edition, the photograpsh are all at the end and you'll have to guess where they came in the texty bit! They are all in the right order!).

Well I'm definitelty sitting in the cosiest, most beautful, quietest spot yet to do the latest entry in what I'm hoping will turn into a bloody long book by the time this year is over!

I'm sat in stunning Frisco nestled right in the heart of Colorado's Rocky Mountains. If I look outside I can see the snow gently falling (it has been since I pulled back the curtains this morning), people walking their husky dogs, the restaurants welcoming evening patrons and the street lights glimmering off the white landscape (Dylan Thomas has got nothing on me and all he wrote about was a wet Welsh sea-side village if memory serves me correctly - a prize for the first person to name that dreary novel?!) . But I digress ...

Now this was what I came on this trip to see! Screw me if I've never seen so much snow! I've been transported back to the 1980s and the snow is sitting all around me in feet of drifts and those piles when humans shift it all somewhere only for the pile to finally melt in about June. They're having a record year here in Colorado and it's snowed on 33 of the last 35 days!

This is the quaintest little town and one that all the package deals from the UK would miss. There's no big hotels or chain restaurants. I struggled to find a cash point and not a Starbucks to be seen - hurrah! By luck I've landed right where all the locals in-the-know stay and then ski (more coming up soon). And here I am and here it is! Admittedly a couple of days ago and we've had another foot just today! I love how the snow falls so fast they can't keep the roads clear. I've not seen that for yonks. I ended up here after a great couple of days in Denver where the California Zephyr left me last Sunday morning. The train journey was a beauty and gave me a good glimpse of the Great Plains and a dusky view of the Mississippi River (and yes that is the right spelling if you're wondering). Now that's a really huge stretch of the USA and is so flat it makes Norfolk look like Victoria Silvstedt. Real tornado alley. Farmland, farmland, farmland with the mid-wests arable land giving way to the prairies cattle land as the ground rises into the mountains. Magical stuff and sunsets/sunrises. Check this out and notice how these Amtraks run on a line that's in the middle of nowhere. No adjoining road running in the same direction. It lends a nostalgic feeling of travel to this modern age.

Denver was a really laid back place and the people there (in fact all over Colorado) are the happiest people I've met yet. And why wouldn't you be when you live in, arguably, the world's greatest playground. I spent much of my Denver time organising my trip into the mountains but had a great experience staying in what I thought was the Innkeeper of the Rockies Hostel but turned out to be the nicest bed and breakfast accommodation you could imagine (after 3 weeks on the road and sleeping in a room with at least 2 other people). Linda (who owned the place) and Hanne (a friend of hers from Holland) made me sooo welcome and, again, it was proper America away from the downtown area. Before I left Linda gave me sun block tips and Hanne planned my trip to Utah giving me the map I needed as well! They were stars!

I did get in a trip to the Colorado Museum of History of cousre and learned about where I'm spending the next couple of weeks. A potted histoiry of this amazing state is: Pueblo people, Ute Indians, fur trappers, gold miners, Indians put in reservations, cowboys, mountain sporters. Now I must add that I'm sure I've missed out many significant generations of people and offended anyone reading this from Colorado. To them I'm sorry but I've given it my best shot. Gold was found in 1859 here and they have huge trouble keeping water (it flows out of Colorado state and into everyone else's!) They also had a few belting displays.

But that was almost a week ago now when I was still just a Jedi Knight following the path to eternal happiness and fighting for the good guys. For the Growbags, Billys, Thruss', Swiftys, Gars', and all the other skiiers in this world my transformation is complete. I have turned to the Dark Side ... You'll notice that I've decided to dress in black in homage to the Sith lords and I'm riding Copper Mountain on a Ride Control snowboard. And what a wild experience I'm having. I've landed on my feet here and learned a valuable lesson that I'll take home from this trip already. Get to the source, avoid the middle-men and make things you thought too expensive achievable. By asking around, not being frightened to request a deal and phoning places myself (admittedly getting really spawny when someone cancelled at the hostel making a bed available) I'm paying the following to stay here in some of the world's best winter sports territory.

Accomodation (motel 6 nights and hostel 9 nights) average of 32 quid/night

Board, bindings, boots ands helmet (Elliott) 13.50 quid a day (I can't find the pound sign on a keyboard and can't be arsed to do all that Insert/Symbol stuff!)

Lift pass (that covers 5 resorts including Aspen) 25 quid a day

'Pardon?! Did I hear you right my friend a few doors down who's sorted me out an international lift ticket. You only want me to pay you 25 quid a day to take my pick of the world's finest borading? It's a deal. 14 days please'.

I'm currently loving Copper Mountain!!! http://www.coppercolorado.com/
It's the mountain that all the local Coloradoans rate way higher than the other, flashier resorts (Aspen excepted) and they all ski or board at 'Copper'. I don't think I've heard a single British accent although I had a conversation with a Kiwi snow fox. Admittedly I've been lured to this mountain by the babe on the cover of their trail map! I'd help her into her bindings any day of the week. Sadly, I think she's a model and not a lift attendant!

I'll save my views on the switch from skiing to boarding for a later blog. Perhaps I should do a Growbag 'The Art of ...' and dedicate a blog to the study of learning to snowboard. But for now I'll tell you that it's going well and I wished I'd arrived having trained for a bit! Just like the old Andorran days the quads are burning and the most exercise I've done lately is bending down to read the ntoice telling me whether that's a Picasso or an Andy Warhol. I get knackered too quickly but I'm pretty sure the altitude's playing a part. We're at over 10,000 feet here and the air is noticeably thinner. I'm getting used to it but it's a factor. I think! Billy/Thruss can you tell me if you noticed this at Breckenridege. Or am I being soft?!

But the conditions are easily the best I have ever experienced. There's so much snow you're riding in powder/packed powder all day. And it's so dry it doesn't stick to you or your skis/board. And it's not too cold. I mean it's cold. I've had about 5 layers on but, apart from late today when I fell regularly trying to negotiate a black diamond run because I took a wrong turn, I've not been freezing. (Well you can't turn back can you? You have to trick your head, lean down the mountain and take it on). The whole experience of these conditions is unbelievable. I'll leave you with a couple of photographs from the mountains, wish you well and blog again soon-ish I guess ...

BTW: The North Face shop in Breckenridge (TNF must be from the USA because it's everywhere across all of the country) sold me a top pair of snowboard pants (TNF Freedom 60 quid) and goggles (Oakley A Frame and blue iridium 60 quid). The goggles are stunning. Fog-less and, if you zoom in, show the photographer of every one of these snaps of me ...!!!