Time for some randomness?

Well I have not been out taking any photos recently due to the lack of snow that Colorado has been getting. Also on top of that I have somehow contracted the nastiest virus on my computer and have put little effort in cleaning it up so I have not had time to process the few photos that I have taken.

Anyways here is a bunch of cool stuff I have found on the internet lately:

My Buddy Jon Jay’s recent exploits to RMNP: http://jonathanjay.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/pillow-talk-in-the-dream-chutes/

My Buddy Owen Mckee’s Awesome Exploits of being Unemployed:

Hilarious Video of Backcountry Skiing on Berthoud Pass:

TIMMY TUESDAYS, REDNECK BACKCOUNTRY from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.

An awesome climbing film short:

Also Make sure to check the behind the scenes of the above video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNgdN48RnRY&

Collection of Some Pretty Sweet Home Climbing Walls:

http://mountainproject.com/v/general_climbing/what_does_your_woody_look_like/106606591__1

Well here is to hoping to get some sweet snow and finally shoot some awesome photos!!!

RIP 2005-2010

RIP 2005-2010

There has not been a single piece of equipment that has ever defined my outdoor experience as my last snowboard did. Throughout my life I have always viewed all outdoor gear as a good tool, a piece of equipment that assists in outdoor explorations, and I have only focused on using high-quality tools that will last. Over the past five years of adventures I have been through an enormous amount of snow gear; four jackets, three pairs of snowboard pants, two snow backpacks, two pairs of boots, and countless base layers, goggles, and gloves. However I have only had one snowboard.

Almost five years ago I purchased the Palmer Honeycomb snowboard. At that point in my life I had just started to really experience snowboarding and this snowboard helped propel me into the rider that I am today. From the deep powder days in Jackson Hole, to the glorious backcountry days throughout the Rocky Mountains, to the backyard kickers in friends yards, to the aggressive big mountain lines in remote areas, this board has been the single piece of equipment to carry me through it all.

For almost five years and well over 120 days of riding, this board had stood the test of time. Everything I threw at this board it withheld. Numerous deep core-shots were easily fixed, the sidewalls were strong as ever, and outside of some minor wear and tear it never slowed-down.

Based on the incredibly solid build of the board I always thought that I would have it forever. Therefore it was only fitting that the last day of my board was on the first bottomless inbounds powder day of a very dismal season. Much better for the legacy to abruptly end then slowly fad into memory as the backup board. Abruptly it did end as I misgauged a pillow and dug the tip which catapulted me forward into the deep snow. Unharmed, I stood and took my first turn and immediately fell and noticed that the entire front end of the board had snapped in two. This was the end of the legacy, and as I spent the next hour making my way down to the base area, I could not feel anything but joy as I reminisced about all the good times this board had brought me and helped define my life.

Hopefully I will cross paths with another board of this caliber, however at this moment I am grateful that this piece of equipment lasted as long as it did.

Thank you Palmer for making a quality board and I leave all of you with a few of the moments that defined me over the past five seasons.

(pics of broken board will be posted shortly)


Grettings from Snowy Colorado

Happy Holidays and here is to the hope that this snow becomes strong for another awesome season. Thanks to everyone for the adventures over the past year and look forward to the crazy stuff that we will come-up with in 2010!

Just enjoying the snow as much as possible:

20091115-dsc_0054

Random Updates

Hey Everyone,

A few things have been added to my website that I wanted to share with you. The easy one is that I finally got around to posting a photo album on facebook for the 2009 Winter Season; go see it here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097098&id=20202675

Secondly I have been working on some new pages (look above) for Useful Links as well as a Climbing Map.

The Useful Links holds a ton of awesome links and one of the best things is that I have included 20+ links to some of the best action sports photographers out there (located at the bottom of the page). This could easily distract you for days…

The Climbing Map is a map of all the areas I have visited in a nice visual location. Go to that page to get more details, meanwhile I have included the scaled-down version here:
View Climbing Areas Around Denver in a larger map

Late Spring/Early Summer – RAIN EDITION

Well going through the photos it took to compile the original post: Late Spring/Early Summer, I realized that for the first time ever I might have more then enough photos of just rain to compile a post.

Therefore I bring you the “RAIN EDITION” which highlights the serious amount of stormage that has come through our area. Please realize that the vast majority of these photos are mainly for illustrative purposes and are primarily for humor. Hope you enjoy.

Golden Gate State Park in the Rain:

Three Sisters Park in the Rain:

Castlewood in the Rain:

Hiding in Caves to Avoid the Rain:

Driving in the Rain:

Trying not to get hurt by rain:

Watching Rain’s close cousin Hail:

Horestooth Reservoir and trying to wakeboard in the Rain:

Watching Rain wreck havoc from far distances:

And a picture of Rain’s worse enemy: THE SUN!!!!

Picture coming as soon as I am able to see the sun…

Late Spring/Early Summer Activities

The last thing I need to mention to anyone that is living along the front range right now is how much rain we have seen throughout the latter part of spring and now through mid-July. It has been straight-up crazy.

While the rain has caused some problems with doing certain outdoor activities, there still has been some time to get out and enjoy the summer (and let me clarify, it is not the rain that is the issue, it is the insanely massive lighting/thunder storms that rush in faster then a fat kid in willy wonka’s factory and subsequently dump enough monsoon rain to make it feel like you woke-up in the middle of a CIA waterboarding torture). Anyways enjoy some of the photos of random things around Denver:

Caitlin enjoying the lush landscape (a nice benefit of the recent weather) of Three Sisters park:

Getting some climbing done at the Corridor area in Castlewood (with Jake, Trent, and Bethany):

Getting one small day of wake-boarding in at Horsetooth Reservoir (with the parental units):


Hiking around Mt. Evans and Echo Lake (with Caitlin):


Watching some Fireworks over Lake Dillon from some random pontoon-boat that we hopped in at that was parked at one of the piers (with Caitlin, Trent and Bethany):


Getting some sport-climbing done at Castlewood (with Ben, Andrew, Beth, Whitney, Caitlin, Tyler, and Kevin):

Random Awesomeness from Around the Interwebz

Here are more random awesome links, videos, etc that hopefully you find as enjoyable as I have:

Rock Climbing Related:

Snow Related:

Photography Related:

Intelligent (?) News:

Random Items of Interest

This is a first. Normally I only post stuff that is directly related to some activity that I did or was a part of; however it has come to my attention that sometimes great internet finds need to be shared with the larger audience.

Therefore I present to you the new, but infrequent “Random Items of Interest”. I promise I will try to keep it on topic about outdoors and what-not; however if you know me you know I always bring in about four hundred unrelated topics to try to describe a situation. So we will see where this goes:

#1 Item today:Matt Holden in Backcountry Magazine:

#2: Collection of Recent Badass Ski Trip Reports by People I Don’t Know:

#3: Collection of Some Amazing Photography Found on the Web:

Well that is all for now. Please let me know if anything here was worth the look or if you find anything else and I can post it up.

With that I leave you some more visual and auditory pleasure(?) (follow link for full HD version)


Cut Chemist – 1st Big Break from eyestorm on Vimeo.

Photo Gallery May 2008-October 2008

Check a summary of my decent photos from the last few months here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073841&l=17ead&id=20202675

Most of them you should be familiar with…just conveniently located in one spot.

enjoy

Southern Colorado Road Trip

Dates: Saturday June 14th – Monday June 16th

Miles Traveled: ~775 Miles (over just three days!)

Route: Sat: Denver to Durango (stay in Durango at our crazy cousin’s bed and breakfast), Sun: Parents start bike race, we head to Mesa Verde NP, then back through Durango over Molas pass to Silverton, over Red Mtn Pass to Ouray, then to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison for camping, Mon: Black canyon back to D-Town.

What the Hell Happened: This trip began as my parents had the crazy idea of riding their road-bikes from Durango to Breckenridge with Ride the Rockies and convinced me to drop them off for the race. So, my sister and I decided we make the best of it and explore parts of Southern Colorado, an idea which morphed into an excellent adventure.

Lizard checking out Molas Pass on the way to Silverton:

The Accomplice Checking out Molas Pass

Sunset over the Black Canyon:

Sunset over the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Of course in true Andy style planning we pretty much started the trip with some ideas but no concrete agenda which allowed for us to just check out some cool spots without really worrying about time. After getting to Durango we stayed the night at our Cousin Al’s and his wife Emma Lou’s Bed and Breakfast http://www.lousbandb.com/. The next day the real journey began as the parentals set off on the bike ride and my sister and I headed out to Mesa Verde NP.

Mesa Verde is really cool to check out how this civilization lived and how they abandoned the cliffs; pretty interesting stuff and really crazy to see how fortified some of the dwellings are and how desperate their culture must have been at one time.

While there I had the pleasure of scaring the shit out of my sister when we did one of the tours and she had to first climb a 32 ft ladder to get into the Balcony House Dwelling and two 15 ft ladders (on a steep cliff face) to get out. She did not enjoy it too much, but I had a great time watching her…hehe.

At Mesa Verde:

Andy at the Spruce Tree Dwelling

After that we headed up and over the passes to Silverton where we hung out in the town. A little different then in winter when I visit that place. Taking the road up and over Red Mountain Pass was probably the most beautiful drive I have done in my life. The mountains were so lush it did not feel like we were in Colorado, instead it felt like a mix between amazon jungle and Siberian pine forest. The rivers were flowing at maximum and my picture taking skills just did not represent how gorgeous this place was at that time.

Our last major destination was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a huge chasm that cuts 2000ft deep into some of the hardest rock on earth. Here we camped out and spent a good chunk of the next day hiking and exploring this insane geological feature.

Lizard and Andy at the Black

Check out the photos for more goodies:

Welcome:

Based in Colorado I spend as much free time as possible exploring various aspects of the outdoors. Everything on this blog is kept tightly categorized in the top links (ie "Blog Post Categories"). I only post about once a month and try to make each post interesting and useful. If you like something or have a question please leave a comment.

Home Climbing Resource:

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Awesomeness:

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