fall photo dump.

fun with friends.










peaked, next phase.

down into the cave.

work to do.

vibes

good ones are good to come across.
energies. traveling, intersecting.
dig into the quantemness, and it
all sort of becomes one. energetic
waves of vibrating mass that sometimes
sync up, sometimes don't. sympathetic,
amplifying rythmns that carry from one
day to the next.

my face feels sunburnt, from plenty of
relaxed smiling lounging today. One
day to the next, pedaling on a chill go
get 'em vibe. Super steady tempo gunnin',
sometimes finding that bit of extra.
When you ride, you ride. period.
When you stop, you stop, period.
And you may as well soak it all in.
ya know?

Soak in the thankfulness to be able to
make to the most of a 56 deg bluebird
late November day. No raw brisk chill
on the wind, just a low angle December
Sun piercing the nakid trees. The Sun,
creating the mesmerizing tree enscribed
shadow backdrop for that dastardly road
climb. x2, lots of hammers dropped, ouch.

Into the woods and it's Manuchurinan
Zoolander strobe programming. On
off, on off, on off, on on offoffonon
onoffonfoffoffonoffonononooffon, now
you see it now you don't at some sort
of biologicaly defined tree growth
placement wavelength that you just
get in tune with. Damn, it's only like
this for the next few weeks? Carve,
zip! Carve, ZOOM! Ski season can wait?
Fuckin' hunters.

You feed on the awakening good vibes
and just roll that Charlie Brown snowball
down the hill until we reach critical mass.
Ride thru flashing CIA Hollywood lights,
and absorb the programming and tap into
the sense of cycliste'. Become young Jedi ninja
Jabberfixy pedaling trail rider, on it and
flowing through the woods. Nooo brakessss,
all feedback and input, that taste of purity
that's part of the answer to 'why?'.

Look for the bright spots, ride the highhh
line and stay out of troughy trouble rut and
float on that energetic vibrant uptick and
try to be nice, try to be respectful to those
behind and not let that gap grow always
always always trying to at least keep the next
wheel in sight, no matter how much double
visioned blur, out of body sketched remote
instinct pedaling it takes.
.

It was a rippin good end to a rippin awesome
wknd, thank's to Mr Jay the Man for pulling it
all together. Get it while you can!

Heal up Cupcakes!
Thinking of all ya'll.

peace.

turning on...

sent an email out
last week...made the
call for 6-8" in Canaan
by the end of the wknd.

WhiteGrass shows 5" @ 4k,
7pm last night, call it a hunch.
woulda been sweet to chase it,
staying close to home instead,
taking one for the team.

Yesterday felt like early
spring, lack of motivation
to get behind the wheel
for any reason plus a lack
of all day ride to the trail
& back motivation found
me down in the shop for
a qwik road bike tune.
Found the creak in the
stem, suit up extra warm
and out to battle that chill
breeze of 15-20 out of the
west/north west.

Raw scene out there, when
not head down grimace into
the moving air. Dense cloud
streets rolling a mid level steel
ceiling with pockets of blue
giving a smidge of hope. But
always the wind. Experience
it this way, then chase it later
to higher elevations, keep the
motor humming.

Novemebr riding.

It was a bit more dysfunctional
then usual, but it's late fall,
it was beautiful out,
and everybody seemed
ok with that.

Get it while you can,
before it's not quite there
like it is now, it's good again.

uh huh, uh huh.

the quiver

bored and rainy out, procrastinating cog
time in the workshop, sometimes folks
come to visit, 'Jesus that's a lot of skis...'
so, snap a pic for those that haven't been
here...this is the view one step thru the door:

the what & the why, L to R:

old Karhu Jaks, 180 w/ O1's. picked these up off of TTips for a bargain last month, always wanted to try these skis, bindings are low use, so will find life once these skis are rocked out, if I like 'em that is. Will probably be the second ski in line on any given day, backup to the Works under the lifts or back up to the Bro's for touring when the snow is worth it.

K2 Work Stinx, 180, G3 Targa. Really dig this ski as my new goto for the lift served, had about a month-ish on it end of last year. Big enough platform to not get tossed in the chop at 88mm underfoot, but not too fat to not be able to zip down thru the bumps. Holds a sweet edge on the firm stuff too, an easy to ski ski.

PM Gear Bro's, 179 soft flex, G3 Ascent. If there's a turnable natural snow base, these are the goto skinnin' ski. Nice and soft and flexy for crankin' tight turns in the snow, but get wicked chattery bounce on the harder of the cured hardpack. The edge will stick underfoot, but that big old tip flops around a good bit out there, not exactly confidence inspiring on piste. But awesome to tour on and chase driftlines with, light, free pivot binder, perfect for taking full advantage of the lake effect love.

Atomic TeleDaddys, 183, Cobra R8 yet to be mounted. Another Ttips bargain this year, what the hell. I know what a soft fat ski can do in the Bro. Curious to see what a stiffer fat ski of similar shape can do. And woh baby, do these things have some backbone, 'a man's ski' Stubbie says, should be interesting. Got skins with 'em, but between the Bro's and the Jaks, I'm not seeing these things venturing beyond the lifts, at least for my off-piste tastes and our local environment, don't see these as being 'qwik turners'. Skins will fit the Jaks no problem though once I trim 'em, so there's a loaner set.

Karhu Guides, 185, G3 Targa, soon to be swapped with either the O1's on the Jaks or the Ascents that are on the way via Brown Santa. Waxless beater ski, have skins for 'em too for chasin' vert. Light, go anywhere, do anything ski. See's a lot of thin conditions.

Atomic TM-RX, Voile plate on CRB release. NASTAR gate ski, big riser w/ the release plate makes it feel like you're skiing on a barstool. Keep these puppies on edge, don't ski these too much nowadays.

Fisher Outtbounds, no bindings currently. Reserve backup waxless, should put an NNN-bc on these...

Karhu XCD-GTx, 20?, nnn-bc. Skinny edged xc skis, fun for beating around the local forest, kick n glide at WG. Get's really interesting when you try to ride lifts with 'em, edges need cleaned up a bit...

Movement Freeheels, 174, G3 Targa. Rippin' carvin' hardpack and bumps ski. For when the Works just don't cut it or in the mood for short poppy turns. Previously the goto lift serve ski, replaced by the Works last year. They started to feel small underfoot, and a bit short.

Boots, new for this year EnerG's, feeding the power addiction. Replace the shwooped out SynerG's w/ the bigger boot for the bigger skis. Keep the SynerG's for WG and Denton Touring, but retire 'em from the on piste. Also a pair of NNN-bc boots, for the kick n glide days.

Yeah, I know, lots of skis. Here's the theory. I wanna find a good all around 95-100ish waisted ski for everyday use, have my eye on a few, but no chances to demo anything of the like. Sooo, pick up some decent used skis of differing personality and see which one suits, then pull the trigger on something fresh and new and thin out the quiver. I've read and heard a lot of good things about the Jaks over the years. This pair has quite few days on 'em, but aren't dead yet, I think. At least it's a baseline for figuring out likes and dislikes, interpolate from there. Also read good things about the TD's, and I know the Bro's pretty well by now....so who know's, all I can do is wait for the snow, and then ski.

skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.
skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski.

ski.

I can't wait to schuss down ze mountain.

last blast.

actually diggin' this warm blast of air
and high pressures. leaves have been
down for that just enough spell of time
to allow for other traffic at the popular
spots to tamp it down. local woods are
still sometimes follow your nose instinct
thru the wind blown stashes, slow going
at times.

but get onto the beaten path, and trails
are primo, just dank enough to allow raw
roots to keep you honest, the rocks get
tacky as they dry in the sun, nice. day 5
of successive time in the saddle, those
nighttime suburb spins have helped bring
the system back online, the legs are looser,
the techy fixed Saturday cruisin' tuning up
the balancing act.

Good flow early in the woods of Lykens
but no legs or willingness to exert on the
road climbs, cruise control off the back,
save it for in the woods and then get in
a good ripper chasing Buck & OMW down
the trail. Lost Buddy just before the payoff
single, bad luck with a tire vs rock challenge,
bummer. Found some end of ride legs and
happily ventured into that dizzy focused pace
trying to reel in Buck, again & again & again.

A most excellent time of rippin' thu the woods,
retarted fast carving on mini berms and lofting
into no consequence rock gardens with that
levitated stoopid grin plastered across your face.
oh yeah, oh. yeah! braaaaaaP! hopefully sneak in
a couple more before the guns come out.

shiney!