The best coffee

Ink, the best coffee in Aspen!

A week in Aspen makes your legs look like this!

Went mountain biking yesterday! Now, on our way to in climb something long.

Bill Briggs agreed to be a TShirt!!

WOW! I got an email yesterday afternoon from Mr. Briggs, the first man ever to ski the Grand Teton, who has agreed to let me make a HardHead t-shirt about him! I am thrilled and honored!!!

We are taking off to go rock climbing after watching the Tour de France this morning, and will do more mural work tonight. Look for the t-shirt on line tomorrow!!

Sunset for slack line!

Beautiful sunset in Aspen!

Mural update!

Mural update!

Mural update

The second stage of the mural at highlands.

A beautiful hike, and the begining of the mural!

I'm here! Aspen is just as absolutely beautiful as i remember it being. The weather is amazing, its been warm, sunny and bluebird skies since I got here. The first day, we went for a short hike up the Ute Trail to take a look at the valley, and that night we went slacklining in a local park. SO FUN! I'm totally addicted. I really suck at it. We did it for about a half an hour or so, and I could only get about five or six steps down the line. We ran into some kids, so we worked them into our rotation and let them give it a try, they were pretty good at it!

Yesterday, we went for a big hike up to Cathedral Lake. We were going to go up to the peak, but we got a late start due to watching the tour. Whoops! Anyhow, we hiked up, and GOSH it was a good thing that I've been training, because if I thought I was hiking fast before, I WAS WRONG! It was buggy. Kurt took OFF up the trail, and I was determined to pace him. Yeah. Good luck with that! I was definitely faster than I've ever been before, but it seriously kicked my ass, which was, of course, FANTASTIC!

The lake was beautiful, and we hiked up the opposite side of Electric ridge, off the trail and over these sort of tongues of scree. We hiked up to the grassy saddle, and saw the incredible site of Peral pass on the other side. We hiked up to the highest point, scrambling up this beautiful purple rock with orange lichen all over it, and came very close to an enormous raptor of some sort!

I have great photos of all of this, but I am working off a friend's computer, and can't download my camera onto it. One thing I can't wait to share with you are the photos of our descent, which was an adventure and a half and a major blast.

We hiked down this super steep scree field, and i got to learn how to use both my poles in my uphill hand to stabilize myself on the steep slope, like poling in a gondola. It was a very helpful tip that Kurt learned from the guide he climbed Mt. Rainer with.

We got over to this little sliver of snow that was left on the hill, and decided to glissade down it! It was super steep, and kind of ridiculous, and we were both totally psyched to give it a try. Skiing in our tennis shoes, yes we did! I have photos of our tracks coming down this thing, its insane.

We hiked over a huge boulder field where all the boulders had come crashing down a long time ago, covering the old mining road, and crossed over the stream to meet back up with the true hiking trail. All in all, it was a beautiful, beautiful day, with gorgeous weather, and I got great photos for Doug's mural, which I started today.

Here are some photos of the underpainting! I'll try to keep posting as I work on it! Tomorrow is a possible rock climbing day, and more painting if the underpainting has set up enough.

Slack line practice in Aspen!

learning to walk on the slack line!

Top of the ute trail at Aspen mountain.

Welcome to Sherridan, Wyoming!

Lost 20 min waiting for a train in Sherridan on the way to get gas, going to loose another 20 min waiting for another train on the way back to the freeway!

News from the road:-)

My first ever 16.9 oz red bull! Nine hours to go!

Road trip!

On the way to Aspen!

Happiness is a new pack: Why we love Northern Lights Trading Company!

One of my goals this year is to build a good, light, efficient ski mountaineering kit so that I can explore more and more places to ski! I am really enjoying climbing (of all kinds, but here I'm talking about the ascent before the ski descent), and have always loved multi-day trips (my longest so far being 28 days in Nepal about a decade ago).

We are fortunate here in Bozeman to have an AMAZING outdoors store, Northern Lights, with incredibly helpful people who really know what they are talking about! One of the best parts of shopping at Northern Lights... the total lack of ego in the employees. Every single time I've gone in looking for something or needing to learn about something, the employees have always been knowledgeable, welcoming, and really happy to explain anything you are curious about!

Before our trip to the Beartooths, Kurt and I stopped by Northern Lights and one of the "upstairs" employees, Lauren, helped us out with maps and tips on visiting Cooke City. It was a great experience, Lauren was nothing but helpful and informative, there was no elitist additude that one can run into in so many shops (I really don't think you should ever have to "trot out your resume" to get good customer service...).

Anyhow, I ran into Lauren again while I was looking for a new backpack, and he happily helped me learn all about the proper fit of the pack I was in love with.

Here it is, in all its glory: the Osprey Atmos 50: super light weight, big enough for multi day trips, loops for skis (I wish they were fastek buckles, having to slide the skis in is a bummer), it has a shovel pocket made out of some sort of soft, stretchy pocket, and two mesh zipper pockets on the super light weight waist harness, where I can put my camera and Gu, so I don't have to stop hiking to take a photo.

The pack fits more snugly even than my CamelBak Isis, which I run with, and I took the Osprey for a run up the M Trail, and it was perfect! The mesh panel on the back not only keeps the air flowing, but it keeps the lumpy load off your spine.

The only complaint I have is that the hydration pocket, while large enough for a 3 liter bladder, takes up a huge amount of space inside the pack, so there isn't so far a great place to stow ski boots. Because the pack fits so well, hanging them around my skis to dangle puts them in an uncomfortable position. But I am pretty sure with some wrangling I'll get it figured out.

Climbing up and skiing down with this pack was amazing: I forgot entirely that I was wearing it, an experience I haven't had yet with a pack!

Thanks, Northern Lights for the terrific selection and great help!

We DID it! We skied the Great One!

Finally! It happened! I've been wanting and wanting to ski this line, and today... we DID IT! Look at the range in the back of the picture, its the long white line on the left. Angela and I hiked in in our shorts today;

(lesson #1 today: tie your long sleeve shirt around your skis so when its time to boot up something steep, you can just throw your shirt on rather than having to take your pack off.)

and left our tennies at the snow line, and booted across the snow field, to the bottom of the Great One, where I practiced my self-arrest technique with Angela's ice axe she'd loaned me for the day. (Lessons 2-5 how to load your ice axe on your pack, walk with it in your uphill hand, belay off it, and self arrest on both sides with it.)

Then we booted up fairly firm snow to the middle pinch, hiked across the talus field, and then I kicked in the steps for the second half, up the steep top pitch of the couloir. (Lesson 6: don't move your feet if your ice axe is moving. Don't move your ice axe if your feet are moving.) It was really fun to boot up something so steep, and I was psyched to be breaking trail. I needed to pace myself a bit slower, I was slowing down at the top, but I felt SO much better than the last bootpack I did!

The interval training, week of rest, and steep hiking has helped! We had a nice lunch at the top with a couple of guys that came up the long way "Wow, are you guys in training, or something?" was the question as we climbed out of the couloir and onto the top.

The boys took off, and we followed a bit after, Angela let me ski it first, which was pretty fun, the snow was firm, and not rocky, I didn't feel like I needed to do any survival skiing, I could actually kind of get after it in there, and THAT was an awesome feeling!

At the bottom, we took our skis off to hike across the talus, and, of course, as I'm standing there looking at them, I think, "I should either turn those over or pick them up." and off they go. Bouncing down the rocks. That was a nice little extra detour. Angela was just totally laughing, until her laugh started HER skis down, but she caught them.

We skied the second pitch with a bit more verve, the snow was still fantastic, and we tipped em over a bit more on this pitch. We were going to give the line across the basin a go, we watched a snowboarder come down it and it looked super fun, but it was getting late, and TODAY is my little sister's birthday, so we did a mini hike up the bowl and skied down to our shoes.

YES, I must admit, there is INDEED a Kate Faceplant in this story, really, what back country adventure would BE complete without me landing on my face? ONCE AGAIN, when it was very nearly flat, my ski hung up on something, got pulled behind me, and I was very suddenly on my face. So much so that my nose was jammed full of snow. And, of course, rather than blowing it out, I snorted it in. Immediate result: brain freeze of doom. Angela was looking at me like I'd grown horns. "What happened?" Who knows? Too sporty on a low angle with rocks and twigs sticking out of it. AGAIN. Maybe I'll learn that lesson one day.

ANNNNYHOOO, not important. The climbing was awesome. (I had a perfect moment climbing UP! That's happening more and more on the climbing part, which is exciting, because it used to just be painful, like PLEASE GOD let the ridge be CLOSER, my lungs are DYING!) The skiing was awesome. There is still a ton of snow up there.

The hike out was serene, and a bit damp (we had a little tropical storm to cool us off as we headed for the car.) There are so many great lines to explore up there, and the snow is just right! Thanks for another super fun day, Angela! See you in September!

In Which Kate is a BONEHEAD yet again...

I'm really excited to be leaving for Aspen in a few days. The plan is to paint a big mural as a surprise for the Mtn. Operations manager at Aspen Highlands, who is a rather cool dude, and whose office looks out on a blank wall in the basement. I haven't painted yet this season, and have been really jonesing to get to it, so this is a great excuse to get crackin'.

Of course, at the same time, I plan on running around all over the mountains down there because, of course, I have to take some reference photos to paint from.

This was all hunky dory, as we got about half the travel covered, and all the expenses of the paints (I hope), so I was gonna load up the truck and head outa dodge on Thursday really early.

I went through what I'd need to do for the painting in my head a couple of weeks ago, and, as I've packed up my entire studio more than once before, I wasn't too concerned. Everything is in one place, theres a LOT of stuff, but it packs well. When I used to paint al fresco, I'd put it all in an "old lady" shopping cart with my easl on my back and my portable table rolled up on the top (sometimes with Bodhi or Ethan riding on the top) and we'd go bumping down the trail.

I've been focusing more in the last week or so on getting in shape to hike with Kurt, who has gamely offered to haul my slow butt up a couple of big mountains around the Aspen area. As such, I decided that perhaps said butt should be able to move a bit faster. With Bodhi's illness and other things, I got very distracted. Today, I spent the day trying to finish up my t-shirt project, and a bunch of other stuff before I hit the road, as tomorrow is going to be full: Angela and I are finally (!!) going to ski the Great One off Sacajawea Peak, and then it's Liat's birthday!

Tonight, as I was getting ready, and mentally packing the truck, Tom told me that it cost him $350 to travel 14 hours in the Suburban when they went to the city of rocks in Idaho. This means a 28 hour round trip drive for me would be $700. Yeah, our travel budget was $200.

So, I thought, maybe its cheaper to fly! I got on line, tickets were $750, so I went to priceline and offered $360. I was so freaked out about the money that I FORGOT ABOUT MY PAINTING CRAP! My offer was accepted, and came out to $422 with taxes and then its $15/bag on top of that...

And then I realize that I will now: a. Have no car in Aspen with which to get to the trail heads because I forgot that Kurt doesn't have a car, and didn't bother to call him first, and b. have to ship all my painting stuff, which will cost about $50 each way, because you can't fly with flammable liquids, I'm pretty sure.

YES! YES I DID make that bonehead move! Which didn't feel too boneheaded until Tom came in and said, "Wait, I remembered that wrong, it would cost you $500 to drive..." which is less than this flying debacle is going to cost, and I'd have a car and all the crap I wanted with me! GRRRR! Bleh! GRRR!

Oh, I am trying so so so hard to think things through and use patience and wisdom, but sometimes, because I am really just a bulldozer at heart, I get excited and then look behind me and go: oh, crap.

SO. Nothing to do about it, I'm flyin.

HardHead T-Shirts are HERE!

My favorite t-shirt in the world when I was a kid was Go Climb a Rock. I got it in Yosemite when I was seven (1978!) Ever since I started writing this blog I've been sketching t-shirt ideas, as a way to help raise money to travel to training opportunities. I am also planing to give a portion of the proceeds of the "I Am" t-shirts to the cause of the choice of the individual named on the shirt.

It all came together watching Steep, and then reading Annapurna by Maurice Herzog. I was out running down Leverich Canyon, and I realized that one of the things I do when I want to ask myself to go harder, or further, is call up in my mind the will and determination of someone who inspires me! Its like Rent-A-Will.

I try to channel that piece of that person, tap into the thing that made them strong, and know that I can do more. These t-shirts are thank you's to the people that have paved the way before me, teaching me so much every day about what is possible. I have emailed Mr. Herzog, and several other people, Bill Briggs, Stephano De Bennedetti, Lynne Hill and John Long, along with some others, to get their permission to sell t-shirts with their names on them. I'll keep you posted!!

Thanks for looking, and in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled, there's LOTS more coming! If YOU have a favorite inspirational hero, send me a blurb and I'll consider it for a HardHead T-shirt!

PS. There are several colors to choose from, in both Men's and Women's t's, so visit the store and click away!

Thanks for asking! Here's the text that would be on the Maurice Herzog shirt:

in 1950, maurice was the first man to climb Annapurna, the first 8000m. peak ever summited. the expedition spent three months climbing several peaks over 7000m just looking for Annapurna. after climbing and summiting nearly every day for months, they climbed a totally unexplored mountain and achieved the summit. the descent is one of the most dangerous and harrowing accounts in mountaineering history. maurice dictated it from his hospital bed in paris.

i can see my goal. i can go farther.
i am maurice.

July Find Your Bliss Day: Send me a pic of you doin' your thing.

So I was hiking along tonight, watching the sunset, and feeling so freakin' happy to be outside, getting some exercise, feeling my body move and climb, and I thought of a bunch of people who read this blog, Cindy Lou, and Liat, and Stacey, and Jill, Amanda and Angela in particular... And I thought, its SO cool that everyone is outside hiking and skiing and cycling and knitting, and just, finding their bliss!

SO, here's the plan! July 31 will be my first monthly Find Your Bliss photo posting! Send me a pic of you no later than July 29, and a short blurb on what you are doing, and why it is blissful to you, and I'll post em! The blissiest blisser will get a free HardHead T-Shirt of their choice! (They are so cool, I'm so very very excited about them...)

Here are some blissful guidelines: you need to be outside, you need to be doing something for you, that something needs to feel like it is refilling your "emotional vessel". That's it!

Here are some pics that I might submit for this: This is the day that Liat and I went to visit the Spiral Jetty, my most favorite piece of sculpture in the world. Its in the Great Salt Lake, and the water turns rose colored when the sun sets. It was a beautiful, blissful day!

Greetings from the top of the Bridger Ridge!

Greetings from the top of the bridger ridge! 45 minutes to the top with a loaded pack tells me training is paying off, even with a full week off. Aspen on Thursday!

No more hitchhiking when you float the Madison!

Look for FLOATERS SHUTTLE SERVICE LLC on the Madison River this summer. The shuttle will run Monday-Thursday 12:00 PM-9:00PM and Thursday-Sunday 10:00AM-9PM (weather permitting) June through August. Pick up and drop off points are Black's Ford and Warm Springs. The cost will be $5.00/person. Save money and hassle!

Foaters Shuttle Service--"Your Ride at the River"

photo by tn_megan on Flickr!

First run in 7 days!

Greetings from the kirk hill fire road! 30 min to the top. Time to start soaking myself in Deet. Forgot about the huge horse flys! These two hawks are about 20 yards to 10 feet from me and flew all the way down the canyon with me. jerry garcia band "don'T let go" keeping me company. Time to run!

UPDATE: shaved a HALF AN HOUR off my time! And I thought I was going SLOW because it was so dang hot! Whoopee! Thought of nine more things to blog about. Gonna make a t-shirt first.