Sun, Dirt, Wind

Jen and I loaded up the truck with plans to ride one day and then climb in Zion, but somehow I managed to pinch a nerve in my neck and put myself completely out of commission for Friday. By Saturday I could kinda move, so I decided to ride with the crew and just take it easy. On Sunday I was still jacked up, so I pretty much hung out and took photos while the crew played around at the old Red Bull Rampage Venue. I got in plenty of pedaling this weekend, but all things considered, I would have rather been climbing.

Lazy

After getting shut down twice due to weather on our previous desert trips, Jen and I decided not to chance it again and bailed on "30% chance" of rain in Moab for pretty much the same in SLC. Predicting shitty weather, we treated ourselves to a particularly nasty workout on Friday afternoon, and basically sat on the couch and watched hockey all day on Saturday. Today, we finally got off our asses and drove into LCC for a few easy pitches before the rain rolled in.

Swell

Jen and I are stoked on the desert, but a little sick of driving five hours to get shut down by rain, so we opted for the Swell. While grabbing dinner at Groggs on the way down, we ran into Rick and Jess, and turned our group into a foursome (well, five if you count Chaco). Day one was at a unnamed wall with unnamed routes of unknown grades, and it was super fun. Lots of sendage and Jen learned how to jumar. On day two Jen and I did the Lightbulb and then we went over to the Scenic Byway area where I got to clean up my roadside project from last year. All in all, it was a pretty damn good weekend.

Playground

I had a very full day of skiing yesterday, and Jen had a hockey tournament this weekend (including a game today). But the snow was way too good to pass up, so we headed up into Grizzly and found ourselves a cool little zone with cornices, steep tree chutes, and a wide open field. We did a few laps, and today was the first time Jen jumped off anything with skis. After going off the cornice the first time and crashing in very spectacular fashion, she decided that speed was her problem, so she went about twice as fast the second time and sent it huge. Her landing zone was a body length further down the slope than mine was.

Tournament Final

The Black Diamonds ended up getting second place in this weekend's tournament. Good job ladies.