harvest time

Since my last post, I have been on many adventures....I did not write about all of them due to becoming a bit un psyched about blogging/spray-lordism! But alas, I will be posting periodically because, after all, this blog is about adventure and a little science thrown in for good measure. What this blog will never be about: smug judgementalism (fucking lame), mystical revelations about life and truth (I'm no philosopher), smack talking because I climb a number grade harder than you (I don't climb that hard)...etc

LATE May brought me to Yellowstone park for some inshredible powder ripping with Nick, Kate and Adam. Nick is always so stoked!! I find that the most talented riders and adventurers out there are also beaming a positive psych...People that i know who embody this: Matt Shortland, Kelsey Boleski, Peter Redmon, Neil Kauffman, Joel Kauffman, Trevor Bowman, Peter Ramos, Tom Kingsbury,  Pat Kingsbury, Chris Schafer, Becca Lesure, Liz Rocco, Nick Stayner, Kate McDevitt, Matt Johnson, Jen Womack, Ethan Edwards, Mike McClure... and the list goes on. What these people have done in the mountains would blow minds, but more importantly, I call them friends and want to hang out with them.

Anyways ...At Sylvan Pass in Jellystone (shhhhh)  we got to ski the north couloir on top notch peak, and logged about 10k of pow over two days.... June: 8 (straight) days of climbing in the crushingly awesome city of rocks with Trevor, Catherine and the long lost Bryan Schmitz. My proudest climb would have to have been the Interceptor (soft for the city .11a) once hang ;)  The spring could not have been better, and now that summer has rolled around I am once again psyched...on skiing? The late season harvest is on! Yep I had one great day (6 laps) at b tooth pass, WY, and last weekend I was able to haul my heavy skis up to the great one for 2 laps, a line that i have skied a few times, but still never gets old.... I believe I (along with Georgia Brown) got the season's first descent of the great one on October 12th, and I was happy to return and find a phat summer snowpack. Great creamed-corn conditions prevailed and I was able to ski quite fast....video link:

https://vimeo.com/45002247

Today my buddy Ethan and I envisioned a mind expanding northern Bridger range tripple link up of: skiing the great one, climbing cold forged steel on the Frazier lake spire and then biking the shafthouse trail all in a day. That would be totally sick, and we were planning on doing it saturday..... but E just split his hand open biking at big sky today. He was probably biking over a drop that would be scary on skis, maching at an unfathomable rate for a bike...the Fairy lake multi sport trifecta will have to wait for another day....or will it???

Fluids

Fluids is one of my favorite subjects for sure...Shown above is the result of the last few weeks of planning and testing with some copper pipe and pumps. It was nice to see consistent results with all four curves..fun when everything lines up and you realize that you have learned something awesome!

My fluids prof saw me in the powder park line on a big (25" of 4%) day once. I said that I should be "studying fluids" to which he replied "we are about to experience some visco-elastic phenomena!"

What is the Reynold's number of a  skier fully submarined in 4% water content snow?

wiki answer:

Sphere in a fluid

For a sphere in a fluid, the characteristic length-scale is the diameter of the sphere and the characteristic velocity is that of the sphere relative to the fluid some distance away from the sphere (such that the motion of the sphere does not disturb that reference parcel of fluid). The density and viscosity are those belonging to the fluid.^[10] Note that purely laminar flow only exists up to Re = 0.1 under this definition.
Under the condition of low Re, the relationship between force and speed of motion is given by Stokes' law.

Fall velocity

The particle Reynolds number is important in determining the fall velocity of a particle. When the particle Reynolds number indicates laminar flow, Stokes' law can be used to calculate its fall velocity. When the particle Reynolds number indicates turbulent flow, a turbulent drag law must be constructed to model the appropriate settling velocity.


so Re (skier) = (450 kg/m^3 * 10m/s * 1m) / ( .01 kg/(m·s))= 450,000!


Definitely turbulent. Have fun with your own fluids research, and be sure to send me your empiracle data.

High Contrast

My camera situation right now is not the best....as i sport a $70 cannon with a lost battery.
I am forced to photoshop and mindlessly hit the full color saturation button...

Ahhh...the holiday break

with a bit of free time, I was blessed with a wonderful sabbatical through kansas, montana, wyoming, colorado and utah....and idaho...nice.

Thanks to all my friends along the trail (you know who you are)

awesome quotes from the trip:

"Chinese food $1.75/scoop"  -sign in Moab, UT

"Exploration is the physical expression of intellectual passion" -Early 20th century polar explorer           Cherry Apsley-Garrard

"I'm the man that walks the hillside, in the sweet summer sun" -Mick Jagger

Happy Holidays....

I am extra stoked to hear that there is a possibility of more snow in the future! The super experts over at GNFAC predicted some LA NINA today!!!

my last turns (Dec 21st?) were extra deep, i wanted to get over to Cooke, but that will have to waits til '12....

So the most consistent ski zone (near Bozeman) the last few weeks has been....history rock?

http://vimeo.com/34276878

I skied down the meadow the other day with Mike and Trevor ...they were going laughably slow with their old, broke off skinny skis :-) You traditionalists make me sick, and i will stick with my shiny new gear.



happy holidays to all my real friends and family...I am off to the front range to see Ween for nye. Kind of wish I was going to see this band in that year, but I have been a ween fan for the last 3 decades. sigh


-ty

McClusky Mountain Crag

Exploring the climbing potential in the Butte Boulder Batholith

Mclusky mountain is up there, with a handful of splitter lines. December 15th proved to be to cold and dark to actually enjoy the climbing, but the stone is highly weathered and solid!

The horrible approach made for some funny complaining and ensured I would not be ready for the next day's ski traverse of Sheep Creek.

Trevor "Dr. Send" Bowman, DFA. (doctor of first ascents)

Nice corner that requires some wide gear...a couple 5's and an old 4?

Scrappy exploring in Sheep Creek, Madison Range...

Sage Peak and Redstreak Peak.

Alex on the outrun.

Steep stuff of Sheep Mountain.

Nice looking 1000 foot ridge studded with buttresses like this. Looked to be gneiss? 

 This couloir looked...

Good to Go!

With the semester of mind bending science behind me, I am able to explore more. Nice looking ski terrain here!

The snowpack is still 100% facets/hoar...making for interesting exits and bruised bodies and skis.