Hidden Falls - 12.18.10

Hidden Falls is a great ice flow in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park.  The trail follows the St. Vrain river in the shadow of Mount Meeker.  This farthest south entrance to the park is popular with snowshoeing and cross country skiing, however the ice flow is only a couple miles from the trail head and offers a low altitude alternative for ice climbing compared to Loch Vale and other high alpine ice climbing.  This is a perfect place for someone's first ice climbing experience.

Short secondary ice flow

Ryann needed to get out on some ice and I thought this would be the perfect spot for her very first time.  I decided it would be a great place to teach her the basics and get her comfortable with ice climbing.  She would have the chance to practice some good technique on the short secondary fall and then run some laps on the main fall.  I would help her with pointers on technique, temperature management and efficient climbing styles.
We hung a top rope over the small fall and I gave Ryann some pointers for efficient climbing.  I also let her know that a huge part of ice climbing doesn't have to do with climbing at all.  It has to do with temperature management and proper clothing for the elements.  We worked on making sure she had a few things that are essential when ice climbing anywhere.

1. Windproof Beanie
2. Multiple pairs of gloves
3. Softshell pants and jacket (windproof)
4. Warm boots and socks
5. Fleece/wool layer and down/synthetic layer
6. Long underwear (wool or fleece)

Winter Park 12.5.10

Winter Park is quite possibly one of the most user friendly ski mountains in the world.  Mary Jane, the second mountain at WP, has enough parking to accommodate the early crowd and the parking is right next to the ski runs.  That means you get lunch at your car with a comfortable place to relax, eat, and split a six pack, then it is right back to the lift.  I went up with Austin and met Mike, Crystal and Brian.  We got some early runs in with great snow.  We charged hard and I got some great footage with my Contour HD helmet camera.
As you can see from the video I got some great perspective shots from mounting the camera onto my ski pole and holding it out in front of me.  This worked really well and gave a different feel with the skier in frame instead of just snow and skis.  It was fun to get the shot on the lift with Austin sitting next to me in the chair.  I am looking forward to editing helmet footage and this ski pole footage together in the future.  Check out my review after the break...

Follow My Tracks

So my super sweet Android phone has a free app called "My Tracks".  It uses the GPS in my phone to track exactly where the phone goes on Google Maps.  It also records a myriad of statistics including distance, speed and elevation.  I have used it for mountain biking, but i can't wait to chart some ski runs and ice climbing locations.  Look for a lot more My Tracks to come.  Check out my public Google Maps page to see where I have been and all the stats of my adventures.

One of my mountain bike rides

Lincoln Falls - 11.28.2010

Mike climbing the right line

So it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I decided to go ice climbing with my friends Mike and Crystal Gasell.  My girlfriend Ryann had to go back to school so I told her parents I would take her to the airport in Denver and hook up with Mike and Crystal there.  The plan worked out perfectly and we got a long day of ice climbing in at Lincoln Falls just south of Breckenridge, CO on Hoosier Pass.

Crystal climbing and Mike belaying

I got to Mike's place right after 9:00am and we left for Breckenridge right away.  We stopped for breakfast sandwiches in Breck and continued on to the top of Hoosier Pass, probably 1.5 hours from Denver.  Lincoln Falls is a great place to ice climb because it is a fairly easy approach and offers a variety of terrain from fat flows to pillars and even a little mixed climbing.  Since we got a later start than usual we arrived at the base with 2-3 groups taking up a good chunk of the main area.  We warmed up and got ready for the thin right side as one of the parties was cleaning the route and heading out.  The route was a little brittle and thin, but it was a fun WI 2+/3 and offered some good technical climbing.  Apparently showing up late wasn't all bad; by the time we got done with the first route the other groups were heading out!

New Gear - Epic HD Helmet Camera

So I finally got my Epic HD helmet camera.  I took it out skiing at Copper Ski Resort here in Colorado and it worked pretty well.  It is lightweight, shoots HD video, takes still photos on a customized timer and can go anywhere thanks to an adhesive mount, a vented helmet mount and a jointed mount.  It uses AAA Lithium batteries to power it and it takes a SD card up to 16GB.

Epic HD Helmet Camera

The camera shoots high definition video in 720p at 30 fps.  It captures a faster sport like skiing pretty well and there is very little color distortion.  I had the camera mounted onto my vented helmet with the provided strap and it worked well.  The camera did not shake at all and the mount did not affect the footage.  A fish-eye effect does happen every once in a while because of the wide angle the camera uses (120 degrees).  This wide angle causes the camera to readjust to the changing dynamic of the environment more frequently because it is catching more information.  It also has more of a bubble lens instead of it just being flat and this probably contributes to the overall distortion.  It is a good and bad thing and I will be working with the settings to see if I can customize it.  Check out the video after the break.