Mountain Life

So I picked up a 2005 Honda CRF450X dirt bike. I am on a mission to turn it into my ultimate off-road adventure bike, for multi day self-support bike trips. I figure this project will carry me through the summer with an early fall trip starting to take shape. The first exploratory ride in the Swell is under my belt and the wheels are spinning 1000 miles an hour in my head about the possibilities!

Stay Tuned…

JmH

Been waiting a few years for the rumors to be true, and they are better than I imagined. Time to start saving pennies, check it out…

Can’t wait to demo one

The bike trip is getting closer and closer, so I’ve started getting things ready, packing the bike, trying to go as light as I can, ditch the things I don’t need absolutely need and make it all fit.  I think I have it narrowed down to the bare essentials and it will all fit in my saddlebags and one Small TNF Base Camp Duffel.

For a more detailed list of what I’m bringing keep reading below.
The final details on my route are coming together, and I’ve decided to hit a few hot springs and ghost towns across Nevada and into California, so I’m now researching how to continue that theme back into Southern Utah and beyond.  The primary targets include Pott’s hot spring and Diana’s Punch Bowl in the Monitor Valley of Nevada and then onto the Owen River Valley before wandering into Death Valley.  I’m getting psyched to get on the road.  I hope the damn weather holds

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Well this weekend brought my 09-10 avalanche teaching season to an end.  It’s been a long year but as always, very rewarding and fun.  This last Level II was awesome, good snow/weather conditions for a course – the kind you rarely find in the Wasatch in March – normally the snow is so boring this time of year pits are just a painful, necessary evil.  But this time around we had all sorts of cool stuff to check out on all aspects and all elevations.  A few small avalanches, some pretty good skiing and an overall great time.

For the first time this year, I finally felt like I had a handle on the hazard and was felt OK to start skiing some steeper slopes after careful consideration and evaluation.  I pushed onto north, northeast over 35 degrees for the first time in what feels like months.  Now before you go charging out into the wild west on my advice, please keep in mind these were carefully selected slopes where I felt the risk of avalanche was manageable and the surface hoar problem wasn’t widespread across the slope.

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