shawndoggy

I thought I learned what fear was when I had to commit to a healside on the steeps. Ol' halfdome about broke me last week. But against my better judgment and the pleading of my 13 y/o daughter we made it to the top.

Living in Gardnerville would also put you A LOT closer (time wise) to Mammoth and June Mountain. Probably under 2 hours to June and barely over 2 to Mammoth. Have to add another hour to both times from Reno.

For carving steeps nothing beats Mt. Rose. It's the highest and has the longest sustained pitches (though not most vertical... no long traverses though). It's in Nevada and only 25 minutes from most locations in Reno. Closer if you want (15 minutes not out of the question depending where you live). If there is a problem with Rose it's that it's pretty small and it's pretty challenging (essentially flat or pretty freakin' steep). Also it's on the far eastern edge of the Sierra, so it gets the least moisture (though usually all snow given the elevation). Nevertheless, I've gotten bored with Mt. Rose and got a Squaw pass for next year. Not really a carver's mountain, but lots and lots of terrain. Will end up skiing lots and probably riding bumps alot too. Mt. Rose in March: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7__lhQ41rg8&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7__lhQ41rg8&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

NOT ME, but skip ahead to about 3:40 into the vid.... <object width="560" height="340"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeL1KJepYps&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></object>

LOL, the dirt road over the pass from Brighton to PC? I think it's hopefully burried in 10' of snow. Have to drive back down to SLC and up 80. ** my info is based in 1997 when I left SLC, but I'm doubting that they'd try to keep that road open in the winter now.

Jack how is this different from what I did above? I uploaded the pic to picasa and then linked using the forum's IMG tagging button. Are you saying not to tag the link and just paste the link "raw" so that readers have to click through to see the pic?

Wow, that's weird because I totally see it (even in your quote).

Does this one work? Hosted offsite and linked here with img tag...

I was never a big lance fan before... I have a soft spot for the underdog. But to see Lance playing it like a true teammate, I've gained a lot of respect. Would be rad to see Astana go 123 on GC. Can the Schlecks TT?

If by "hay day" you mean that you can see straw sticking up on the runs because of below normal precipitation, then yes, you are correct sir!

Really, I was glad it was the truck and that there was as much distance as there was rather than having a small car right on my bumper. It would've been like an opening scene from CHiPs in that case! And in the end it's all good because my homeowners insurance covered it and I ended up getting a full 10 speed DA kestrel evoke out of the deal. But yeah, since then, I try to get the bikes inside whenever possible. and I've replaced all the wing nuts with lock nuts.

LOL, well since you asked ;)... I once had a ti schwinn paramount (which was really made by serotta). I was down in Las Vegas doing a three day stage race. The first stage went well and I was in third place. The second stage was only 35 miles but had nearly 4000 feet of climbing and I wasn't a climber. Nonetheless, I made the break and ended up winning the race, getting nearly a minute on the guy who was in the lead. All I had to do was place reasonably well in the crit the next day and I was golden. So I race the crit and make a minor miscalculation because of the heavy crosswinds and end up getting second on GC. Still, I was way stoked for my performance in my first stage race ever. Pack up the car and start driving to my in-laws (who live in LV) to get my family and start heading home to Reno. As I'm daydreaming on the freeway at 75mph in the fastlane about what I should have done differently, I hear this weird screeeetch from the back of the car and I look in the rearview to my horror to see my paramount, still clipped in to my fork-mount yakima tray, spinning through the air behind the car like a frisbee. It his the ground and luckily the next car is a huge monster truck which rolls right over it. I'm in the fast lane so I can't get to the shoulder and stop immediately so I instead get off at the next exit and circle back to relcaim my now smashed bike. When I got back I was expecting a bike in the middle of the freeway. Instead, in the four minutes it took to get back, the bike was literally smashed to unrecognizeable bits. Full dura ace, look carbon fork, thompson seatpost, ti frame... all of it just looked like the random debris you see on the side of the road. even the chain was broken into three separate pieces. Nonetheless, I played frogger across four lanes of freeway traffic to pick up my bike's remains. When I got home to inventory the salvageable parts, only the chainring bolts were still OK. Ouch. In hindsight, my rack's rear bar clamp (where the back of the tray clamps to the rear crossbar) must have been a bit loose. The tray was mounted outboard of the towers (wide xbars) and a strong crosswind was enough to blow the back of the bike a few inches and slide the tray off of the end of the bar and that was all she wrote.

I believe the answer is "you'll probably be OK, but don't cry to us if the whole thing fails." Note that most racks say not to exceed 65mph either. and air resistance becomes exponentially greater the faster you go, so that's probably the bigger issue than weight (in my mind). I.e. strap a 250lb lead weight to the bars, no prob; strap a 25lb sheet of plywood... issues. Oh yeah, even though you didn't ask... have you considered a hitch rack instead? Hitches are dirt cheap from etrailer.com (and easy to install... I've done 3), and are way better for mileage because the bikes are "in the draft" on the highway. Depending on the direction of lift of your hatch, they can make it more difficult to get stuff out, tho (my wrx wagon with a two bike hitch-based fork mount tray rack was perfect, though... the hatch would completely open with bikes in the racks).

Tom thanks for posting the thread... made me get out and practice these in the street in front of the house last night. Although my 10 year old and his friends were not impressed I can see how these are a valuable addition to my skillset.

Agree re internet speeds, but if you are also using a NAS media server to serve up video to a couple of xbmc hacked xboxes, throughput becomes an issue.

Those are peak numbers they give for 802.11x... actual numbers are far lower. I've got wired and wireless computers on my network and to move a big file (say a video file) from one to the other will take from say 10 minutes on a wired network to 2-3x that on 802.11n. Way better than the 802.11b days though! You've also got interference from other wireless routers in the neighborhood, cordless phones, etc.

What I'd love to see is the two of them put a ton of time into the field and then have to slug it out mano a mano on ventoux on the penultimate day. BTW have you seen the power numbers for the last flat stage (where they were all escheloned in the x-winds)? Velonews posted numbers from a guy who's currently sitting in 161st and holy crap... something like 240w average for 4 hours and over 4000 Kj burned. On an "easy" stage.

The only thing that's strange is that Lance isn't clearly wearing the pants on the team. But the way he played the race after Contador's attack was textbook. He sat on and covered, just like any good teammate should.

So well played by Astana today! Lance played it perfectly, as did Contador. Now send Lance up the road and have Contador sit on. Rinse and repeat until one of them gets away. From a team perspective, it was very enjoyable to watch let Conty go and just sit on.

I had a 2001 wrx wagon. As others have said, much fun on snow. That car would go sideways at 50 mph forever. My complaint was with the tranny. 1st gear syncro sucked. You either had to double clutch or be at a complete stop to get the car into first. Having driven Hondas for years, I was very accustomed to rolling up to a stop sign at 5mph and putting it in 1st. Could not do that with the wrx at all... it would grind every time. Overall it was a great car and I don't regret buying (or selling) it. Oh yeah, my mileage sucked balls too, but my foot was in it all the time. Even driving like a grandpa, tho, I never broke 25mpg on the highway. On premium (as required), which is essentially an additional 10% penalty.

How about one of these? (hopefully I'd get a bit better with time...) <object width="853" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGOI9OU-G_g&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGOI9OU-G_g&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>

That's a good deal for $100. If I didn't have the gopro already I'd buy one in a heartbeat for that price. I'll bet it's a lot of fun.

rad. My first issue of transworld was the McGill mctwist cover. 1984? I remember a snowboarding article in about 1985 that compared skate moves to snowboard moves and had a pic of Kidwell "acid dropping" off of some cliffs around donner summit.

Oops, my bad. I just know that your original mammoth vid was highly discussed over there. It actually looks pretty dang good. But then I saw the skwal bunny hd video and was pretty blown away with what could be done with just a point and shoot!

You've got tons of hits on that vid over on the mtbr video forums!