Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 171 Location: Bishop, CA
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 2:18 am Post subject: TR: Bike to Bag Mount Darwin
Greetings all. In my cockier moments I might believe some of you have been waiting for this: an annual TR/spray-fest about my latest human-powered endeavor. A little background first... 7 years ago I moved to Bishop California, in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada. Each year since I have ridden my bike from my house, into the mountains, climbed a mountain I had never climbed or skied before, and then returned home that afternoon. I just did it again. Monday the 25th to be exact. And it was at times harder than it had ever been before, and at others, much easier. The hard part was motivating. Between work and climbing and a season pass at Mammoth, I've been BC skiing this year far less than years past. I'm especially lacking big days. I somehow got it in my head to try Darwin for my adventure, and it's a long ways out there. The bike ride isn't trivial either. The bike ride alone would be bigger than anything I'd ridden since last year this time. Same for the ski day- bigger on it's own than anything I've done since spring of '08. So it seemed real daunting. To the point of thinking maybe I could let it slide a year. This wasn't a great snow year I told myself. I'd had great accomplishments in other parts of my life. Nothing to prove. Finally I found myself telling my wife and a coworker that I was going to bike up and ski Darwin. Wait! How'd that happen? It just snuck up on me. Now I'm committed.
If there's a moral to this story, it's that efficiency matters! Because the easy part was simply executing. The bike ride always sucks- it's dark, the trailer with ski gear is heavy, it's all up hill. And I don't find biking as fun as skiing. But after that, it was smooth sailing. I credit the ease of the ski portion purely to efficiency. I'm not in incredible shape, but I was smart with weight, transitions, pacing, food and water. And it felt great. BC skiers aspiring to big days should seriously examine their efficiency out there. I've leached onto some experts on the subject and had the opportunity to formally teach others the tricks and tactics of efficient BC travel. It can really make a difference!
Anyway, enough blather: Here's the chronology and some pictures:
2 am, roll out of bed onto the waiting bicycle at 4000ft. I figure if I start pedaling right away I might have a half hour before I fully realize what I'm actually doing.
6:30- North lake campground at 9300, park the bike, change to hiking shoes, all ski gear on the back.
~9am- Upper Lamarck Lake (about 11300), finally on continuous snow, switch to boots and crampons initially then skis and skins.
~10- Lamarck Col (12800), skied a few patches of snow down to highest of the Darwin lakes (11800)
I took some fuzzy pictures earlier in the day, but only from here out did any appear usable. Looking up at Darwin's North Face. You can see the sliver of snow going all the way to the plateau.
Mandatory summit block self-portrait (13,831, 12:30)- tilted due to where I had to set the camera. I fully intended to climb back down, grab the camera and go back up for more pictures. But as tricky as the move was, going up and down wouldn't have been efficient at all.
Looking down the chute- fully skiable from about 15 feet shy of the plateau.
Back towards Lamarck Col the thunder clouds started to build. I raced as much as my 11000 foot legs could up and over the pass and saw weather all the way out to Owen's Valley:
3:00- back at Upper Lamarck Lake, switch back to hikers, pound down trail to bike.
4:40- biking towards home, it's all downhill. Looking back, the mountains were now mostly socked in with thunderstorms.
5:20 pm- home and beer and steak.
Thanks for reading.
Joined: 16 Mar 2007 Posts: 346 Location: sunny southern california
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 3:44 am Post subject:
wow! truly inspirational!! thanks for sharing!!!
i vaguely remember your bike-ski TR from last year...if you keep this up, at least some of the cockier moments will be well deserved...keep it up!
care to share more about your efficient BC travel tips and tactics??? _________________ a ship is safe in a harbor, but that is not what it is designed for.
Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 528 Location: Meyers, CA
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 2:32 pm Post subject:
I get tired just driving from Bishop to South Lake, much less riding it. The snow looked great on Darwin, and no sign of other tracks. You earned it, well done! _________________ Viva La Nina
Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 239 Location: in the moment
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 2:57 pm Post subject:
Yes, Bravo!
I think you are the definition of somebody in incredible shape. _________________ Heh, I know this place. You know you are on a telemark site when peep's concerns about new gear center on the "downside" that the new gear might make skiing somehow easier or different.
-Cowdog, Sept 8, 2009
Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2102 Location: N. Lake Tahoe
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 5:25 pm Post subject:
Well done Jediah! Nice summit block moves with ski boots! _________________ Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day.
Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 171 Location: Bishop, CA
Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 3:23 am Post subject:
thornton wrote:
why didn't you use skate skis?
Yeah huh? When did my F1's become the heaviest outfit in the High Sierra?
TeleKay wrote:
care to share more about your efficient BC travel tips and tactics???
Oh, lots of little things, they all add up:
-I drank 7 liters of water through the day, but never carried more than one and a half. Warm, late season day like that there's water everywhere.
-I wore low hiking shoes for the dry approach and carried all the ski gear.
-Can't emphasize enough the smart transitions...
-Things like going from hiking shoes to ski boots. At first glance it might have made sense to switch to boots when I hit the post-holing, then add crampons when it got steeper. I toughed it out to where I could go directly from hikers to boots and crampons, and ate a good snack at the same time.
-Of all the times I put skis on and off (maybe like 15...) I only strapped them to the pack 3 times. The rest I somehow carried them in my hands- short hops, just a ski in each hand and poles dragging by their loops. Longer, shoulder the skis, both poles in opposite hand. Short steep steps, shove the poles between pack and back and use a ski in each hand.
-Make transitions in smart places: Crossing Lamarck Col I could have skied from a high tongue of snow, gaining a few more turns, but instead descended to a more accessible and comfortable platform.
-Pacing, pacing, pacing. Hydration tube, slow plodding, I try to make structured rest breaks like a full sit down 5 or 10 minutes every hour or so, otherwise slowly moving forward. No "just going to catch my breath here for a minute." Go slower. It's not how fast you go but how long you stop.
Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 770 Location: over the bars
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 2:24 am Post subject:
jediah porter wrote:
thornton wrote:
why didn't you use skate skis?
Yeah huh? When did my F1's become the heaviest outfit in the High Sierra?
i was just being silly, which i think you got.
did you really clean that summit block . maybe not a big deal w/ somebody who lives near the sierra, buttermilks and owen's gorge.
when i was up there many years ago, we had to mantle to get onto the summit plateau, which was 'interesting' reversing. same now? though, again quite different to somebody who climbs a lot.
the bike approach is the absolute icing of awesomeness!
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. maybe not a big deal w/ somebody who lives near the sierra, buttermilks and owen's gorge.