Jackson Hole,Jan07

For the past three years we've gone up to Jackson Hole,usually about the same time--New Years. And it never seems to let us down. Besides being one of the baddest mountains in the world,the snow has always seemed to greet us when we're in town. On this day though i had to go at it solo. Kent broke 3 ribs the day before at Grand Targhee, so i was on my own. Didn't really get to touch any backcountry,though i did hike up to Casper bowl. On this particular friday a skier was killed in an area outside the resort, called rock springs. One of the pictures above was taken from an area near Rock Springs. The skier was above a rock drop called "fat bastard" when an avalanche ripped above him. He tried to outrun the slide,hucking himself off of the 60-80ft drop,but landed too far out into a flat landing zone,killing him.

No Name Peak-Z Coulouir,May06

Jessi,saddling up just below the summit.
The Z coulouir,as featured in Schralptown.

A short break at the ol cabin before the push up.

No Name peak in background. Impressed yet?

This was a fun peak to ski in some warm weather. It was def. spring corn skiin. The line we rode is named the Z Couloir. You kind've have to make out a Z from the peak. It was a fairly long day and approach for one line. Around 6miles total. But it was a nice,long line. It was the steepest at the top but still not too bad.I skied(boarded) it with Kent and our buddy Jessi--of "Schralptown" fame. Edit:it may also be called Unnamed peak.

Pumphouse,June 06

This is the Pumphouse section of the Colorado. No real rapids here,more of a scenic float.Its 11miles in tota. This day sucked. It was soo windy and kent and i were paddling it by ourselves into a nasty headwind. Tom and his brother Ron,and their wives, were along too. We actually took out a little early cause of the wind. Kenny didn't care though,he just jumped out of the boat the whole time and swam. Look at em go

Mt. Lulu,Aug 06

Show em your puppy face,Kenny. Show em!!!

This is just a random peak i decided to climb with kenny. Its 12,228ft.,located just N. of Rocky Mountain Ntl Park. Kenny and i hiked roughly 9 or 10miles round trip. It was pretty easy. You can see us above a plane that was cruising the valley. We saw the moose and her young'n that morning when we pulled up.

Westwater,Aug 06

This was from our last Westwater trip. Anyone that boats has probably done westy a million times. But its always fun. Its a short section of the Colorado River,rated class III-IV. Not very many good pictures here. I couldnt take many shots b/c i was oaring my raft by myself. Thats why there are no photos of rapids. Its a very cool 17mile overnighter, just across the CO border into Utah.We've done it every August for the last four years.

Kenny Bean Jr.

Our pride and joy. This is one of my favorite pictures of beaner. I took it at our Motel 6 room in Jackson.

Ruby Jewel Yurt,Jan 07

Some photos from our first yurt trip. Participants included myself,kent,ol skool T-bone(cousin Tommy),Hofer,and Jessi. The Ruby Jewel yurt is part of the Never Summer nordic yurt system,near the Medicine Bow Mountains and Rawah Wilderness Area. They are prolly an hour and a half from Ft. Collins. These things are sweet. They come fully stocked with everything except booze and food. All the wood you could ever want to burn. They stay super warm,it was in the single digits at night but you could sleep in the top bunk and not even need your sleepin bag. The toilet was freezin cold,as you could probably tell. Next season we'll prolly try and do at least two nights and link up with a different yurt. The skin up was about 2miles and super easy.

Cameron Pass,Nov.06

This run is called Papsmear. Aptly named.

Hofer and Kent,settin the skintrack.
The diamond. Pretty much where we always ride
Myself,gettin all barrelled in the white room. Thanks to Kenny for ruining the shot with his tracks. Dogs.

This was from an early season dump up at Cameron. It was a perfect powder day.....in November!! Bluebird skies and deep powder.

San Juan River,June 06

Mexican Hat.

Comb Ridge Anticline

Grand Gulch camp

Looking up the river towards Slickhorn Canyon

Oasis in Slickhorn canyon


Government Rapid-Class III+ at this low level

Inside the world famous Goosenecks

First off,sorry about the formatting. I'm a blog newby. I dont blog well. The pictures at the top are towards the end of the trip and work backwards.

In late june of 06 Tom Schachet.,Kent,Beth and i took our first(of many)multiday raft trips. It took 5nights,6days. We scored a permit for the San Juan river, from Sand Island to Clay Hills Crossing--83miles. It was an awesome river. We were expecting a coffee brown colored river but were surprised to find out that it was a very cool green. The water was relatively warm. At night theres no better place in the USandA to see the stars. Its some of the cleanest air in N. America and makes for ridiculously clear skies. The days were insanely hot. 100+ everyday. It didn't matter though,we were all enjoying the scenery and float too much to care. Theres nothing like being removed from the world for 6days,down in a giant ditch on your own with nothin to entertain you but each other and boxes of Keystone and wine. By the end of the trip your whole body is covered in layers of sand and sunscreen. You get so used to it though,and you dont really notice(care) until your back in the car.This was the maiden voyage for my new raft also. Well,maiden voyage for oaring it,i guess. Kent and i paddled it on the Colorado and Poudre once. This was our first time using it since we had the custom frame built for it. We were pretty pleased with the cargo capacity of our lil 14footer. The grey one is ours,the blue one(blue-au)is Toms.

Notice Kent, the greenhorn, gettin my raft hung up on the one rapid this entire trip. Luckily,it came off with a little coaxing. He's a kayaker,he dont know nothin about oar'n. Then your man,greasin the wheels, in Toms boat. He was a little too nervous to oar it himself so he asked for my expert assistance. I obliged. It was very low water and made for a technical class III+ rapid. Not too bad but kinda nerve-racking at the top. The low water made it almost impossible not to hit a rock. Anyways,all of our camps were exceptional. Some more than others. On our final night,after a short 4mile day on the river,we stayed at Grand Gulch. I've read that its world famous for its Basketmaker archaeological sites and artifacts. But they are extremely difficult to access from the river,which we found out personally. This is also the place where an early explorer from the 30's,named Everett Ruess,is thought to have vanished. He was likened to the protagonist from the famous book"Into the Wild." And that swimming hole was definitely an oasis. It was soo cool to find this little pool in Slickhorn Canyon. It was so dry and not really the wet season there so we were surprised to find one. I've seen pictures of this canyon in wet season,there are so many cool pools that form. The picture of the long fin,about halfway up the pictures,the one obviously out of the canyon,is the Comb Ridge. A 90mile fin that i have read about in Outside magazine. It stretches from Utah to Arizona. Some guys had traversed the whole route. Pretty fun. The scenic shots are prolly from the world famous "Goosenecks."