Outdoors

The first round of the 2013 Enduro World Series took place in Italy this past weekend and it was pretty epic. Enduro is an evolving format with bits of XC, downhill, and even street riding mashed together. In the first race of the year — formats will all differ — it required more than 4,500 feet of climbing and 40 miles of riding, with four timed sections. Who made the podium says a lot about how attractive the style could become, with downhiller Fabian Barrel winning, enduro specialist Jerome Clementz in second, and former BMXer Jared Graves taking third. The field was extremely broad: Old school downhillers like Steve Peat clashed against pure cross-country riders like Adam Craig, and world champ downhiller Greg Minnaar even risked his collarbones. Maybe this enduro thing is actually tapping into what regular mountain bikers know and most of the establishment seems to have forgotten: that riding lots of different terrain, earning your vertical, and encountering different styles over a few days is really, really fun. Add a stopwatch and suddenly you have racing. Very cool and not too contrived racing…something a lot closer to the soul of the sport. Photo: Matteo Cappe

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Rupert Grey is making a good run at the world’s most interesting man. After graduating Wellington College in the UK in 1965, he moved to Canada and worked as a lumberjack, cowboy, and roughneck. He came home, got a law degree, then became a paratrooper. Between 1969 and 1972 he prospected for copper in the South Pacific, hunted oil in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert, dredged oysters in the Tasman Sea, and dug fence-post holes in the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand. He came home to work as a lawyer, found it dull, accepted a job as a photographer, ended up in Fiji helping build schools, acted in a Hollywood feature film, and navigated a river in Papua New Guinea “in a dugout canoe counting saltwater crocodiles with an Alaskan smokejumper, three lance corporals and a radio presenter.” You could just stop right there, but this incredible life goes on. In 1977, he married his sweetheart, Jan, and they traveled through Asia. His photographs of the Himalaya ended up in National Geographic. And now? He and Jan have been traveling across India in a 1936 Rolls Royce. In his first post from the road, last November, he wrote, “The Rolls, being made of English ash, shrank as we crossed the Gujerat Plains. So did Jan and I. It was quite hot. Further north, in Rajasthan, the rough rural roads of the Thar desert rattled the screws out of their sockets and the nuts off their bolts. Parts fell off. Staying here, in a fort from the battlements of which we look down on the Thar desert through the haze characteristic of northern India, both we and the Rolls have recuperated.” If you’re feeling like you’ve stumbled upon an inveterate, unflappable, and eminently British traveler from days of yore, you aren’t alone. Filmmaker Oliver McGarvey has just wrapped the shooting of Grey’s trip and has begun piecing together Grand Trunk Road. AJ caught up with him for a few quick questions: How did you come upon Rupert? Rup and I have known each other for years. He has been sort of a mentor to me. The Yoda of how to live in big cities. Why make this film? Before this “film” existed the journey was being planned and mapped out. The original plan was to drive from Dhaka, Bangladesh, back to London via Iran and Turkey. When Rup first told me about the trip he had already been approached by the BBC to shoot a mini series. He declined because he felt they would mess with his style and was adament about making a radio log/show thing. I visualized him and his car in the most remote places running out of gas in colorful jungles and thought to myself. There is no way you are going to do this trip and NOT film it. In order to make that happen we had to fund the shooting of the film through grants and out-of-pocket. Alas, two years later we returned back from India with 200 hours of footage and some unreal stories. What was shooting like? Shooting the film was the most fun ever. I personally lost close to 30 pounds. Hanging out of old helicopters in the Himalayas within Nepal, hanging on to the camera rig and many a tuk-tuk for dear life, getting the shot in the middle of the night in a jungle and running to catch up to the leaving cars…the stories go on and on and on and the filming of the adventure was about as much fun as the trip itself. Sometimes it was incredibly exhausting, though, as it was a six-month journey. On, say, day 120 you are knackered and just want to have a glass of wine by the beach rather than wait for the DI data transfer of the daily rushes to be done. It was a mammoth undertaking and was the most testing film shoot I have ever worked on hands down. 200 hours of footage to be edited? Oi. When do you anticipate releasing the film? Yes, we have rather a lot of footage (not to mention we just finished shooting a ton in the UK and have some upcoming interviews with some amazing adventurers to come). We are working hard to A) find the right people to work with regarding

Friday night - The Midtown Gran Prix was more or less a warm up for the team.  We were just sitting in, riding into it, and using the opportunity to practice putting together our leadout train.  We were active covering moves early, but in the middle of the race a group of 12 went away and we were not represented in the move.   We practiced putting together our leadout for Shane and Isaac and did it well, with Isaac winning the field sprint for a minor placing. Saturday NCC- Tour De Grove - We went into the race with Shane being the protected rider after his win last week in Dana Point.   The rest of us covered breakaway attempts, with the goal of setting up a field sprint. It was very windy, and was a 4 corner course with long straightaways.  We covered all the moves until about 30 minutes in when we realized it was definitely going to be a field sprint. With 11 laps to go we decided to take the front to keep the sprinters out of trouble, and we rode under the instructions of Shane and Isaac who were piloting us around.  It was hard to maintain control on the long straightaways, and Jelly belly tried to take us over 3 times but we had enough horse power to fend them off.  With 1.5 laps to go UHC took us over, and Shane and Isaac were in perfect position heading into the last corner. Sitting pretty with 400m to go, Shane’s chain came off his front derraileur going into the last corner, taking him about 10 guys back.  He couldn’t get it back on quick enough, even though Isaac gave him a push. In the end he sprinted to 9th place, which was unfortunate and not representative of the level of professionalism we saw from our guys in this race. Luckily, this mishap has no bearing on Shane’s standing in the u25 jersey for the USA Crits series. Sunday-  Dutchtown Classic We went into the race with Isaac being saved for the finish because Shane wanted freedom to go with moves.  Once again we covered all the moves.  Shane rode amazingly well covering the majority of the breakaways himself. With 6 laps to go we took the front and rode super hard to keep Isaac and Shane out of trouble.  Jelly belly helped the leadout by contributing a couple of riders to the effort, as well.  With two corners to go, a couple of riders shot the inside forcing our guys back a bit.  They sprinted well and end up with Shane in 5th in a hectic finish. Team captain Adam Myerson has a nice interview posted over on Cyclingdirt, where you can hear him talking about the races, St. Louis, training and some other things.

The hardest thing about driving through southern Utah’s Indian Creek is keeping your eyes on the road. All those splitters…the Simpsons clouds…the Six Shooters on the horizon…that’s why you should let someone else drive. *More or less. Probably more. Don’t be literal.

He said he would do it and he did. Just five months after having his fourth heart surgery, 80-year-old Yuichiro Miura (at right in photo with son Gota, left) became the oldest person to climb the world’s highest peak, reaching the summit of Mt. Everest at 9 a.m. Thursday. Although Miura’s fame has faded in the last couple of decades, he’s best known for being the first person ski to Everest. Although he didn’t start at the top, he link 4,200 vertical of turns down the South Col, slowing his speed with a parachute before taking a tumbling digger. Miura also summited Everest at ages 70 and 75. “I made it!” Miura said in a sat-phone conversation from the summit. “I never imagined I could make it to the top of Mount Everest at age 80. This is the world’s best feeling, although I’m totally exhausted. Even at 80, I can still do quite well.” Miura stole back the “oldest summitter” title from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, who took the crown, such as it is, from Miura in 2008 at 76. Sherchan is now 81 and is in base camp prepping for his attempt. Being a home boy on Everest doesn’t hurt, either: Shercan just found out that Nepal is donating $11,200 to help cover expedition expenses and waiving the $70,000 permit fee. Via Associated Press

Doug Abromeit, retired director of the Forest Service National Avalanche Center, died suddenly on Sunday near Sun Valley while he was riding his mountain bike with friends. The cause of death is still uncertain, but he was ahead of his friends and when they caught up they found him lying on the ground still in his bike clips and no sign of trauma. Idaho requires an autopsy of unwitnessed deaths, so there may be more answers soon. I met Doug in the fall of 1986 when I moved to Utah from Montana by way of Alaska to take over as the director of the Utah Avalanche Center. Doug was the new snow ranger for Little Cottonwood Canyon. We hiked the Flagstaff ridgeline across the canyon from Alta with several other key figures, Duain Bowles, Al Soucie, Roger Atkins, Brad Meiklejohn, and Doug’s omnipresent dog Julio. Doug instantly won me over with his mellow, easygoing charm. Like a friendly golden retriever in the city park, everyone seemed to gather around him. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Doug for the past 27 years on a wide variety of projects. He moved snow ranger to the national coordinator of the military weapons program for avalanche control, which later became the Forest Service National Avalanche Center. He often described it as being a “program with a big name and a very small staff,” as he was the only employee until Karl Birkeland joined him 12 years ago. Doug had a wide influence on the avalanche community not only by his superb organization of the national military weapons program for avalanche control but by mentoring the creation of many different avalanche centers in the U.S. He also represented the avalanche community and the Forest Service on countless national committees and organizations. I miss him, not only as a good friend but collaborating with him on avalanche projects. In fact, I was supposed to call him last Monday to collaborate on a couple other projects, and my wife Susi and I were planning to stop by Sun Valley in a couple weeks on our way to Montana and pay Doug a visit. But, alas, it’s not to be. As my 96-year-old, live-in mother-in-law from the Czech Republic often says in her thick accent, “Look zee beauty”, and every time I leave the house she says “Enjoy every minute.” Doug certainly did not have a problem following her advice as he lived his 65 years to the fullest, always fit and healthy and an avid backcountry skier, climber and mountain biker. He seldom let his work interfere with his enjoyment of life. Photo by Bruce Tremper. Tremper is the director of the Utah Avalanche Center

Environmental activist Lopi LaRoe is a provocateur and with her help Smokey the Bear is, too. The Occupy Wall Street veteran has been using Smokey’s likeness in a series of anti-fracking parodies that have gone viral enough to attraction the attention of Uncle Sam: Last week LaRoe received a letter threatening her with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines for enlisting Smokey to the anti-hydrofracturing cause. In the fall, LaRoe created an image of Smokey that altered his famous invective “Only you can prevent forest fires” to “Only you can prevent faucet fires” — a reference to the phenomenon of flaming taps that occasionally occur near where fracking takes place. The adjustment seemed to her in line with the message of conservation Smokey has come to embody. “This is the radicalization of Smokey the Bear,” said LaRoe. “This is Smokey waking up and saying, ‘Oh you didn’t do that to my environment.’ Smokey wants to fight the corporations and protect the air and the water and the plants and the animals and the people.” Her parody went viral. She began printing T-shirts at the insistence of friends on Facebook, but demand quickly surpassed those in her immediate circle of contacts. Soon she was packing Smokey in FedEx envelopes and sending him off to Australia and other far-flung places. There are also tote bags and patches with the Smokey meme available at LaRoe’s website. “It spread like wildfire,” she said. 6 MONTHS, $150,000 FINE? But not everyone is amused. LaRoe received a cease-and-desist letter from the Metis Group, which serves as legal counsel for the U.S. Forest Service, telling her that Smokey, his character, and his slogan are property of the U.S. government. She had until May 2 to halt the use of Smokey and stop distributing electronic copies of the meme. Otherwise, she faces up to six months in prison and a penalty as high as $150,000. “Any time anybody uses Smokey’s image for anything other than wildfire prevention,” said Helene Cleveland, fire prevention program manager for the Forest Service, “it confuses the public. What we’re trying to do is keep Smokey on message.” Cleveland added that the 1952 Smokey the Bear Act takes the character out of the public domain and “any change in that would have to go through Congress.”  Two other entities besides the Forest Service claim joint rights to Smokey. The National Association of State Foresters — a non-profit organization consisting of directors of U.S. forestry agencies — and the Ad Council. Remember “This is your brain on drugs”? Or the Indian weeping over pollution? They were the Ad Council’s handiwork. A non-profit, it describes itself as a promoter of “public service campaigns on behalf of non-profit organizations and government agencies” with a focus on “improving the quality of life for children, preventive health, education, community well being and strengthening families.” Smokey the Bear was born at the Ad Council, on the desk of abstract expressionist and Marx-influenced art critic Harold Rosenberg, who had a part time job there in the mid-1940s. Despite the warnings in the cease-and-desist letter she received, the May 2 deadline to shut down her site and retire her anti-fracking Smokey came and went; LaRoe has not ceased or desisted. Instead, she enlisted the help of her own legal counsel, who fired back with a letter to the Metis Group. In it, attorney Evan Sarzin argues that LaRoe ‘s culture-jamappropriation of Smokey is permissible under the fair-use exemption to exclusive copyright ownership and chides the Forest Service for attempting to infringe on LaRoe’s First Amendment rights. Sarzin also points out that this is not the first time the Forest Service has sought to silence environmentalists for appropriating Smokey’s image. In the early 1990s, the Forest Service demanded reparations from the Sante Fe-based conservation group LightHawk after it used Smokey’s likeness in ads critical of the agency’s practice of auctioning off land to ti

Since we last checked in the Brute Double Cab has carried us across Arizona spending most of the time in the Flagstaff area. The Life Untucked Tour got great insight into the Arizona market from key retailers such as Babbitt’s Backcountry in Flagstaff. With summer heating up in Arizona people are getting excited about our newer lines of synthetic and lightweight blended shorts, pants, and sun protective tops. Mountain Khakis Life Untucked Tour was one of 140 exhibitors to participate in the 2013 Overland Expo taking place at Mormon Lake Arizona (just South East of Flagstaff). The Overland Expo is an international event that educates and inspires people to get out and explore the world, by bike and vehicle. Mountain Khakis made a huge splash at the Expo, equipping everyone  with quality apparel built for mountain life. The Expo was a great success boasting over 80 free clinics to attendees including off road motorcycle riding instruction sponsored by BMW, and  an on-site overland driving course staffed by a dozen of the top overland driving skills trainers in the world sponsored by Land Rover. We got to meet the entire AEV team (American Expedition Vehicles), including the gentleman who hand built our Brute Double Cab. The quality and excellence which AEV is known for is apparent in their teams passion and dedication to innovation. Mountain Khakis quality, fit, and style spread like wildfire through the thousands of attendees at Overland Expo. We caught up with dedicated customers and broke the ice with new fans, We can’t wait for the next Expo!

In 2000, M. John Fayhee, a long-time reporter for Colorado’s Summit Daily News and contributing editor at Backpacker, Curtis Robinson, ex-editor of the Aspen Times and one of the founders of Roaring Fork Sunday newspaper, and George Stranahan, who used to own the infamous Woody Creek Tavern and helped found Flying Dog Brewery, resurrected the Mountain Gazette, bringing it back from a 21-year hiatus. In its first incarnation (1966-1972 as the Skiers Gazette and 1972-1979 as the Mountain Gazette), the magazine had published work by the likes of Edward Abbey, David Roberts, Galen Rowell, Royal Robbins, Barry Corbet, John Jerome, George Sibley, Dick Dorworth, and many others. In March 2013, Fayhee announced his departure from the magazine, ending an era. The Gazette had suspended print publication in November 2012, but continued online amid hopes it would resume print publication. The Gazette will continue under Elevation Outdoors editor Doug Schnitzpahn, who is optimistic about re-vamping its online presence and hopes to re-launch print publication in some form in the future. Funky, Cranky, Loved In its second life under Fayhee, the Gazette became a mountain-town magazine that was equal parts barstool storytelling and mountainside introspection, and it fought hard to avoid the destination and gear obsession of shiny outdoor mags and stay true to its roots of quality writing about all aspects of mountain life. The editorial voice was the guy sitting next to you at the townie bar in Leadville or the lady who had moved west with her dog 10 years ago and never left, not the guy with the flashy new skis on the chairlift or the tourist flying in for a weekend for a few Facebook photos. Fayhee’s writing became the centerpiece of the magazine, a wonderfully rambling, throwback style, punch lines and epiphanies abound in his stories of bar fights, trail conversations and observations, and even his reporting — hiking to the lake where John Denver was inspired to write “Rocky Mountain High” (and finding it to be not that inspiring), or searching the West for “Towns Where You Can Get Your Ass Kicked.” In his column announcing the return of the magazine in 2000 (Issue #78), Fayhee wrote of his only conversation with Ed Abbey, in 1979, when Fayhee was a college student at Western New Mexico University. He asked Cactus Ed what he thought of the then-recent demise of the Mountain Gazette, and Abbey replied, “It was just a victim of the times. We are now in an era ruled by the slick and glossy outdoor magazines.” Twenty-one years after that conversation, Fayhee, who was a devoted fan of the Gazette while in college, envisioned a publication that still had heart and soul, a magazine that several Western writers hoped would turn into a sort of New Yorker for mountain folks — if it could only get advertising dollars. (Full disclosure: The Gazette was one of the first publications to print my work and Fayhee is now a close friend.) It was anything but glossy, an 11×17 tabloid format that wouldn’t fit in most bookstore magazine racks, but showed up in mountain bars, coffee shops and gear stores. In an industry where plenty of writers compile lists of “Secret Hikes” that become not-so-secret once a magazine’s readership knows about them and excitedly accept free trips to write about resorts and gear, Fayhee stuck with his old-school morals, penning pieces about how outdoor media had ruined more than one great secret spot by revealing it to the masses and filling the magazine with stories covering all sorts of topics that mainstream mags wouldn’t touch — how-tos on nacho etiquette and chopping firewood, heartfelt stories about a sense of place in our beloved mountains and rivers, tales of lost virginity, lost values in the West, and lost time apres-apres-ski. Summit Publishing, the Virginia-based publisher of Elevation Outdoors and Blue Ridge Outdoors, was the last of four publishers who tried to turn a profit with the Gazette since 2000 — GS