Sonora

 Unknowingly at the time, Andrew and i took a weekend gettting some sonoran boating in early this spring. Besides the lower salt (which i hav done a few times, most recently in midsummer amid thousands of others) there is not traditionally much boating that is considered good in the area; it is the desert afterall and desert doesnt typically mix with water. Nonetheless, my worktrip happened to coincide with some winter rains which meant at least a few options were possible. A few possibilities had been suggested among a small group for a late winter weekend, but neither Andrew nor I had held a paddle for at least a few months, since our thanksgiving San Juan trip which hardly counted as whitewater. Rather than entering into excessively risky terrain or trying a lesser known section, we optend to hit the Verde.

The verde does have many miles of paddling that consistently flow yearround, as there are springs that contribute water consistently and has been a go-to for us when we want to get on something easy without the hoards that are on the lower salt. This time we went from Tapco to past Tuzigot (we originally had intended to take out at Riverfront park in cottonwood but were having a good time so we went all the way to the 89A bridge).

Tapco Put in

The upper bit is a popular day run and is well kept by some local outfitters. Even at 65 CFS, which leads to some extreme pool-drop-y-ness, it goes clean and the water is crystal clear which makes for great fishing, obviously the primary use of this stretch. For the most part the pools are long and the rapids are more like short slides (that can be quite narrow sometimes) through trees between pools. After the Tuzigot take out, the river does pass through an old dam diversion site that is no longer functional. This one spot was by far the hardest rapid in the stretch, a ledgy double drop that was fairly steep. At such low flows you just kind of slide dow, but i can imagine at higher flows this might have some interesting hydraulics. Shortly thereafter the trees started to encroach. It started with one log, then another... then, huge jumbled messes of downed trees across the river. With some effort we got through, and as more water returned to the channel/joined from riverside springs, the channel got a bit wider. Close to the take out (with a river that was now very much a CL1 run) things started to become more constent. It is probably worth linking this to the other common section downstream that ends at Beasely, if for no other reason than to be able to see the confluence of oak creek. 

The easy run was of course in anticipation of something more. A few options had been thrown out: Oak creek (turned down for now due to potential wood hazard...), Buro Creek (turned down because we just missed the tail end of the flow pulse), and a section of Tonto Creek, which we eventually settled on. It was low but runable, and for whatever reason was off my radar because i was more aware of the class 5 sections upstream. But a winner we had found!

Rye Creek, i dont know if you can call it floating with much less water

Tonto is a true gem. A reasonable self shuttle (i ran it in an hour and a half or so), and plenty of action to consistently keep things interesting. Plus, how often do you get to float free flowing whitewater in the Sonoran desert?? The day trip starts just out of Jakes Corner at the bridge over Rye creek. THIS creek now officially takes the record of lowest volume water i have ever paddled and i dont know i can go much lower. We thought that the verde at 65CFS was low... Rye was probably at 20 or less, but was JUST passable with a little bit of scraping. It is a short bit that starts in a wide box canyon, and before too long Rye creek hits bedrock resulting in some rapids and water slides. Right at the confluence you have to get out to go over a barbed wire fence, all in all a short half mile or so, which leads you right into the action on the Tonto! The creek needs to be in somewhat of a flood stage to be boatable, so expect water in the bushes and currents to be strong. It is pretty consistently pool and drop with plenty of bedrock features and the occasional wall shot, most of which go at 2+ until you get to "the gauntlet". Here the creek hits bedrock and is funneled into a narrow channel with a drop at the entrance. At 450 CFS this was pretty straight forward, maybe on the low end of CL3, but i could see this being much harder at higher water. We stoped here to set up a safety and run through the rapid one by one. Andrew and i even decided to swim it to practice defensive swimming and rescue throw techniques because the outflow was clean. During lunch, we had the pleasure of watching another group run through it and somehow two of the three flipped in the small hole dropping into the gauntlet; we got to help play clean up. After this there was a short but excellent section of basalt narrows with some very fun rapids, plus a nice side hike to a water fall before the run ended all to quickly as Tonto flows out into the floodplain of the tonto basin, on its way to the slackwater in Roosevelt lake. 

Eddied out just downstream of the first drop on the Tonto

Gorge goodness

It was an excellent run, i would definitely go back and do it again, and turned out to be the perfect warm up for the Salt River Wilderness run we did a few weeks later, which was a similar style but a bit harder.  

Looking downstream towards the Tonto exit

NZland

 This summer, after so many years of wanting to make it down to the land that inspired the Lord of the Rings films to be created, Lindsay and i made the trip down south. For me, this was an inevitibility just like arctic Alaska; New Zealand was a place i had never been to but i knew it was a place that, once i visited, i would not be able to leave easily and i would long to return to, and I think for Lindsay it was the same. Its been more than month since we got on a plane to leave, Bali bound at the time, and we both cant help but think, almost daily, about picking up and moving South. 

The trip was a bit of a whirlwind, we had 2 weeks to travel both islands. Not nearly enough time, however i dont know that i would ever have enough time to go everywhere and do everthing i wanted to. 

A lonely beach at sunrise

We did get to experience a few wild slivers of New Zealand, though.

On a solo mission that Lindsay graciously volunteered to shuttle for, I got to run the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, supposedly one of the best treks in the world, or so the signs said. The signs also were adamant that I was doing the route backwards, but that's ok. An hour before dawn (which is nice and late in midwinter at 830 or so) I set off from the northern trailhead, off into the dark forest that immediately made me think I was more in Jurassic Park than Lord of the Rings; I was constantly looking back over my shoulder to make sure there wasn't a velocirapter hot on my tail. Luckily, the islands have no large natural predators and I had nothing to fear. 

Sunrise Looking north over the High Lakes region just north of Tongariro National Park, North Island

At dawn I emerged from the thick primordial forest into the alpine. The alpine zone in New Zealand, though, starts at like 2-3.5k feet above sea level, a bit of an oddity for me coming from the States where we have conifers that can better withstand the weather (fun fact, NZ doesn't have any native alpine zone pine/conifer trees outside of a juniper and a cedar). Looking uphill, I had a few thousand feet of climbing where I would gradually leave the tundra behind for raw volcanic rock. Looking off in the distance, however, there was a seemingly endless series of smaller forested mountains and lakes I was rising above. On the ascent, I passed some bathrooms, clearly a testament to how popular the route is, as they would have to be serviced by helicopter. The route itself is largely manufactured, in that it has a graded and stabilized surface, very unlike the rocky terrain we frequent here in Utah. Apparently at one time there was a mountain hut on my ascent, about an hour and a half out from the parking lot, but during an eruption in 2012 it was taken out by some flying debris, wild. Before long I had entered the true alpine zone, devoid of vegetation and covered lightly in snow. In the alpine zone there are a few beautiful lakes, some active hot springs and fumaroles, and a lot of loose volcanic sand, and views seemingly to the end of the earth (at least, to the end of the north Island, I could see other volcanoes off in the distance). 

Emerald Pools and Fumaroles on the Apline Crossing

Up and over the crest of the alpine crossing, as I was running on the slopes of mt Doom (My Ngauruhoe was used as mt Doom for any shots showing the mountain in it's entirety) I finally came across the beginning of the crowds that flock to this trail, all, conveniently, going the "correct direction". Funnily enough, because I was wearing my standard winter running gear, shorts and a sun hoody with some backup warm clothes in a pack, one of the trekking guides mistook me for another kiwi! Before long I had come to the end of the standard trail, however I had intended to connect for another 7 miles to the next volcano to the south where I would hopefully meet Lindsay on the trail so we could check out some waterfalls. The back 7 running was, well, subterranean. I am not sure I have ever seen a trail more washed out, and I understand why there was so much extensive work done to stabilize the popular section now. In this lesser used section of trail, I was often in a trench up to 20 feet deep and constantly navigating loose unstable mud slopes as I went the out the many drainages I needed to traverse to get to the whakapapa trailhead. Checking the map, Lindsay decided on a self care napping day instead of a walk, so, once I got to my final choice, head up to a waterfall and make my intended loop or head south to the trailhead, I cut it short to just 18 miles, I was behind schedule anyway and Lindsay and I had things to do! All in all it was a nice trail for the alpine crossing section, somewhat unique, but it just goes to underscore the beauty that Lindsay and I live in here in the intermountain west!

Crossing the Apex of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Mt Fuji? or Mt Doom? looking back at Mt Ngauruhoe

The following day, we set out from a campsite just west of where the alpine crossing was set, with out sites on the Tongariro River instead of the national Park. The river generally is boatable year round, according to some prior research, at least for packrafts. I had planned for Lindsay and I to float the access 14 section, sandwiched between two basalt gorges that both hold class 5 water. The run we were looking at should top out at a low and boney class 3 but had a (short and flat) basalt slot canyon of its own, plus the water! It was supposed to be one of the cleanest rivers in the world and home to a whio (blue duck) population, which is apparently relatively rare. The access 13 section did not disappoint. Also, while camping the night before, we were graced with kiwi presence, or, at least, a kiwi screaming somewhere near by in the forest.

A quick moment of Calm on the Tongariro Access 13 stretch

After a 4 mile or so hike through the forest at sunrise, we made our way down to the river just downstream of the tree trunk gorge, apparently the site of a few boater deaths due to narrowness,. hydraulics and the possibility for wedged trees. Right off the bat, the water stood out for us Colorado plateau boaters used water thicker than chocolate milk. The river was definitely lowwww. It had decent flow but the bed was chocked with a lot of large ish boulders which allowed just enough room to maneuver around. Coincidentally this was our first trip with our new refuges which paddle a fair bit smaller than the expeditions we are used to. That combined with the new continent shock plus the fact that we were paddling north (into the sun and Lindsay forgot her sunglasses) meant that Lindsay was on edge and way in her head about the float. 

a Whio or Blue Duck

Passing through the Pillars of Hercules

In general the water was somewhat unremarkable, just fun and consistent steep ish boulders dodging drops with short pools between, not too dissimilar to a lot of the muddy rivers we paddle in Utah. Lindsay ended up bottoming out a few times and getting stuck, and decided to walk a few rapids that she wasn't feeling. About a mile and a half in, we saw a blue duck (whio)! Apparently there are only about 3000 left so seeing one was definitely a treat. Then, we saw another, and another, then a pair sitting on a rock! All in all we saw maybe 6 of these good looking ducks. After a few more boulder bar drops (the last one was pretty steep! At least where I dropped it) we found ourselves at the pillars of Hercules, the short basalt slot that marked the start of the gorge section. It's really hard to describe how beautiful the water here was, it had maybe a slight blue-green to it but was just so clear! After a while longer of some interesting pool and drop rapids, we passed under the electric transmission lines, an obvious sign to get out lest we need to send it over the waterfall in the gorge below. Before packing up the boats, I convinced Lindsay to jump in with me to celebrate the beauty of the river! The hike out was exciting. Almost like a 5.2 climb with packs,  but climbing on holds made of dirt and tree roots, ascending a hidden stair that took us out of the he gorge and back to the road a short walk from our site. I ran off to grab the car and we set off for Wellington and the south Island.

Walking over to the low water channel on the Makarora

To give a quick review of the south Island, it was everything I thought it would be and we didn't have nearly enough time. I shifted some of our plans around a fair bit due to weather and water conditions, originally thinking about floating in the whitewater hotspot of Murchison, then moving on to try the hāwea (which was at highest floor stage) until we finally settled on driving into the southern alps to run an all to short section of the Makarora. This was where we first met the new Zealand biting black fly, that, although it was winter, was still very much so active. The views were so worth it though, and the water here had all the clarity (and tons of huge trout) that the Tongariro had, but with more of a sapphire hue. A fair bit easier, the Makarora is a short 3 miles of class 2 boating. Conveniently, the main attraction in the area, the blue pools, were closed to foot traffic because the bridges were out of service. Luckily, with boats, we could still access them, and just wow, the color and clarity is just something else. The pools seem like they should be at a tropical beach, not the near-alpine in New Zealand with near freezing water temps. All too quickly we saw our white behemoth on the side of the highway indicating our take out and just about the end of our New Zealand trip.

About to take out on the Makarora

We did get a day of mediocre skiing in at the remarkables (maybe they are more remarkable with more snow) before moving on to Bali and a wedding followed by sickness that soured the end of the trip. I can't wait to go back and get more into the mountains and backcountry of the south island which definitely lived up to the hype. 

Spring Strike Missions in the San Juans

Its been a while since i have been on a proper ski trip. Longer than i would like. I guess lately most longer trips have involved boats and whitewater, i think i was just stuck in that cycle last year. Mike managed to lift me out of it this year after the prospects of an AK trip fell through. Instead we set sights on the San Juan range, somewhere i have long thought about skiing (especially last year when andrew and i floated the upper Dolores starting in Rico). A late season storm shifted plans a bit and pushed back timelines but we found ourselves setting out on the 28th with sights set first on the Telluride area. 

San Juoaqin Chute

An asthetic line for sure. Its not often that you get a laser straight and deeply incut chute but when you do its bound to be a classic. Set in the backcountry and accessed most easily from telluride, i am sure this one gets skied somewhat often, especially with how visible it is from the resort, but nonetheless it was quite the outing. After a 4 am wake up we drove up to mountain village at Tellurise (not a whole lot of good options for late night/early morning parking...) and set out around 5:30. The 4k or so gain up telluride went quickly (although the snow levels were a bit higher than we had hoped). We made our way to "See Forever" and followed that to the top of the resort, then out the backcountry gate. A quick descent navigating some cliffs left us in the basin to thewest of the Chute where we transitioned back to skinning. We opted to skin around the back of the chute rather than boot straight up to minimize hazard. In short order we were on top of the chute where there is a rap station (not sure what this is for? maybe for ski patrol rescues...). Dropping in, mike did a quick ski cut and found stable powder! The chute proper is ~1k vert long, straight, and at the choke only maybe 15 feet wide, definitely a classic! From here we took a gradual bench to reassend (the sun came out and things got HOT FAST) and went back down more or less the way we came up, done by a bit after noon, too easy! We went into town for a bite to eat before moving south out towards Lizard head pass. 

Mt Wilson +Box Car

Another 4 am wake up. Luckily we had snow consistently from the trailhead, which, given the early melt and snow conditions at Telluride, seemed like a bit of a blessing. We botched the approach a bit (following some previous ski tracks) and rather than traversing, added a few hundred feet of vert on both ends of our trip, maybe it was more direct, maybe not... EIther way, a bit after sunrise we were nearin the basin draining the east and northeast sides of Mt Wilson. It was beautiful and clear and we were hoping that the fresh snow would have corned a bit from the sun the day prior. Ultimately the ascent was fast, albiet hot in the sun. We opted to skin around the boxcar chute which descends skiers right of the east bowl through some large cliff bands. At around 10:30 we made the final short 100 ft ascent to the peak proper (its been a while since i have been on a peak like that, it was definitely a treat!) and downclimbed back to our gear (the top most part of the peak was not skiable). A quick ski through some heavy powder on the upper east face led to the chute entrance. After a bit of trepidation about the conditions in the couloir and how narrow the top was, Mike dropped in and quickly found that we were good to go! The snow was soft (if a bit heavy and wet, trending towards wetslide potential) so we pitched things out trying to get through safely and efficiently. Another gem! Its a shame that the couloir doesnt have more like the very bottom where it is deeply inset inbetween the cliffs, but the position was stellar! At the base we reversed course and followed our tracks out, managing to avoid the need to take skis off, although i am sure the snow broke up a day or two after our ascent. 

One of mikes friends who joined us for the ski went back to Glenwood and we set off for ouray and the other side of the range. We checked into a cabin and called for a rest day on wednesday before resuming skiing (largely based on some potential for weather that we didnt want to be out in).

Mt Potosi North Chute

Little did we know, the road was open almost to yankeeboy basin. On the drive up we were met with a dusting-2 inches of snow around the 9k mark. At the mine/road to yankee boy split we decided to call it and walk from there due to unknown road conditions and a desire to not get stuck/waste time messing with the truck. The ascent up the almost uncleared road (just a dusting of snow and ice) went quickly and at twilight we were looking up the base of the southwest face. The southern exposure of Potosi is full of a patchwork of cliffs, i had looked into going up the southeast face to the col with the north chute to prevent the need for a reascent, but having now been up there i think that route would likely have som etechnical scrambling and would likely be slower. The south facing shot we ascended was about 2k vert of fall like through a rocky choke, it looked like a decent ski line (and had some tracks from some one skiing it not too long ago). In the choke proper there was ice fall after ice fall, kinda makes me wish i would have brought my tools! most of the ice was pretty rotten at this point though but seems like it could be a cool place to get away from the crowds and climb (with some obvious avalanche hazard). At the coffepot col, we could finally see the line and it was in great shape! The easterly aspects were heating up though, so we quickly descended (one at a time due to slab potential) to the base of the chute and transitioned back to booting. 

On the ascent, the snow felt mostly stable and largely powdery. There were a few spots with some weird layers that we pitched out from safe zones, but nothing screamed danger and around 10:15 we had made it to the summit! For such a craggy peak, Potosi has a strangely flat and broad summit. After a quick transition i lead the pitch back to the col with the north chute. Mike sent it from there down into the chute and had some amazing powder turns. You cant beat 50 degree powder turns high in the alpine on a bluebird day! To get back out, we had to reascend to coffepot col which was now both looking warm and like it was starting to get wind loaded. I set off to start breaking the skinner while mike transitioned so we could pitch out the last climb and hop between safe zones. Once again, we were granted passage. Rather than descend back down what we came up (which was still looking very icy and unappealing) we continued up to the coffee pot rock to try and descend a bit further up canyon on a more open slope that might have warmed a bit. From coffee pot rock, there is still a maze of cliffs but we did manage to find a way down, finding a mixed bag of breakable crust, stiff sun crust, and finally, a bit of corn; this was a bit more of what i had expected to ski in colorado rather than powder, but the views were stellar! Before long we had made it back to yankeeboy (and the obvious turnaround that had been plowed out that we could have driven to). We had hoped to potentially do a line on stony mountain as well, but decided to call it due to the warming we were seeing. As it turns out, not parking up high worked to our advantage because we came across a sedan that was stuck on the road up... The guy was planning on taking his low clearance 2wd sedan up a 4x4 road and starting a snow climb at well past noon, solo (closer to 1pm at this point). Red flags all around. I spent some time coaching on how to get the car unstuck (it was wedged in on the nose and the drive tires had almost no load) while mike got his truck to extract. Once getting him unstuck we suggested that it might be a bit late for alpine objectives with avy hazard but i think the message fell on deaf ears. Oh well, we did what we could. From here we left the Ouray zone behind to head down to Silverton and meet up with some others in the hopes of doing a traverse. 

Mt Snowden Naked Lady

After grabing a bite in town in silverton (at seemingly the only place open, which was also actively under construction...) we drove around to look at conditions. This part of the range had considerably less snow down low and our hopes of doing the Turk-Sultan traverse were quickly quashed. Looking around, a few other potentials came and went, until we eventually settled on Mt snowden and a north facing bowl just to the north of it as a potential set of objectives. 

As with every other day, we started off at 4am, leaving our campsite to drive just past molas pass where we would start. The treck through the woods to the base went quickly- probably one of the easiest aproaches we had done yet in CO. The couloir itself looked a bit chopped up. Upon entering while booting up we did find an old booter but quickly learned the skiing wouldnt be quite as good as what we had on previous days. Nonetheless, the boot up the chute went quickly. About 3/4 of the way up there was a rock band that was only barely passable in the snow. We decided it was probably best to just downclimb back below that band due to snow conditions but wanted to hit the peak anyway. Outside of the chute, we found a small rock step on the trip to the top that wasnt overly difficult but had some exposure. It was cool to be able to look around each day and see the lines we had tagged on previous days, and this was no exception. From the top of Snowden we could pick out a few of the other peaks we had summited, even though a fair distance lays between each of our objectives. After a few minutes we turned around and downclimbed back below the rock band (downclimbing always seems to be the least secure) and skied the chute. It wasnt great skiing but the views were great! Once outside the chute we found a still bulletproof crust and opted to boot the short way back up to the north facing bowl we had been eyeing. From afar it looked like it went from the top, but from up close it seems we were a few days late and there was just enough exposed rock to not make it worth it. We donwlcimbed a bit to transition where things opened up. For whatever reason, the face was still holding excellent creamy snow! The upper bowl was definitely the highlight for the day. The traverse back out was a bit long but worth it to have gotten in a bit more powder. Back at the lake we had more or less started from, we saw another lone skier. Once again it was nearing 1pm and the skier was hoping to get on the Naked Lady... We communicated the conditions, and also that it was pretty late in the day to be starting up something like that, but once again... deaf ears. Hopefully he made it out. 

Chattanooga Zone

Looking for something that would offer a shorter approach to facilitate the drive home, we were debating between going back to yankeeboy and skiing Stoney Mt or trying a new zone. Ultimately we settled on a new zone- the Chattanooga area which was definitely the right choice. Kind of like a longer Emmas area in the wasatch, the Chattanooga zone is roadside and has a ton of ~35-50 degree lines between 1 and 2k long that drop straight back to the car. We did two laps, finding a bit of corn and some still frozen icy death sheet on the first lap. Good times were had all around! We bailed for the drive home right as weather started to move in. All in all it was a great and successful trip! Definitely a lot to ski in the San Juans and i am sure i will be back! Thanks to mike for getting the ball rolling on this one!