Adventure Sports Journal // Oct/Nov 2017 // #99 by Adventure Sports Journal

AMIE ENGERBRETSON / GEAR WE LOVE / EVENT PROFILES / CALENDAR

September/October 2017 ISSUE #99

BANDALOOP perspective tilted

VENTANA WILDERNESS ALLIANCE

after the Soberanes fire

YOSEMITE CLIMBING in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;80s

TIOGA by Bike

TYLER FOX

Santa Cruz Waves

C OSTANOA.C OM | 650.879.1100 2C0O 0S 1 R I R S C |A 6 D E5R0O. ,8C7A99. 1410060 0 T OASNSO AD. ,CPOE M

Table of Contents

Photo: Leonie Sherman

Photo: Ventana Wilderness Alliance

Erich Hueb USFS, Debi enc, Jean Le

departments

6 7 10 24 25 26

Editor’s NotE

The Fight Club

Ear to thE GrouNd News & notes

EPiC: VENtaNa WildErNEss

VWA and the Soberanes fire

EVENt ProfilEs

Featured upcoming events

CalENdar

Directory of upcoming events

GEar WE loVE

Goodies for your adventures

EVENt CalENdar

4 ASJ — Oct/Nov 2017

features

12 14 16

Photo: James Adamson

tioGa BY BikE

Autumn Yosemite explorations

routE 50 mtB

Mountain biking in Nevada

saNta Cruz WaVEs

Tyler Fox’s Herculean effort

18 20 23

Photo: Kurt Gensheimer

YosEmitE iN thE 80s

A look back at rock climbing

BaNdalooP

Dancing on cliffs and buildings

amiE ENGErBrEtsoN

Q&A with Warren Miller athlete

Cover Founder of Santa Cruz Waves, Tyler Fox tucks into the tube on a big day at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. Photo by Kookson

DON’T MISS AN ISSUE – Subscribe to Adventure Sports Journal Mail a check for $20 to PO Box 35, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 along with subscriber name and address, or order online at adventuresportsjournal.com/subscribe.

Photo: John Barbella

asj contributors

the

Describe your ideal fall adventure. PUBLISHING + EDITORIAL

leoniesherman

Restoration work in a wild remote setting with people I love.

bner/ i LoreBlanc)

chrisvanleuven

A morning run in the woods followed by an afternoon of cragging with friends.

kurtgensheimer

Riding my mountain bike through a snowstorm to a hidden cabin kept warm with a fire and good friends. PS - This has actually already happened!

aloedriscoll

I’m looking forward to going on a surf backpacking trip for my birthday in October, a tradition for the past few years. `

mattniswonger

My ideal fall adventure is surfing a new break with my kids and we have the whole beach to ourselves.

cathyclaesson I am fixing up my parents’ old 1987 trailer so this year’s ideal fall adventure is to have the trailer ready in time for a “glamping” surf and bike trip in Big Sur with friends and family.

michelecharboneau

Backpacking with my pup and a certain other companion. Sleeping under a blanket of stars, maybe discovering some hot springs. No tech, no traffic, no red tape. Just rock, dirt, trees, lakes. For days. Bliss.

larsfilson My ideal fall adventure would be a long mountain bike ride in the hills, ideally in the fog a few hours after it has rained.

fun

starts here ...

PUBLISHER Cathy Claesson cathy@adventuresportsjournal.com EDITORIAL/MARKETING Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com EDITORIAL Michele Charboneau michele@adventuresportsjournal.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jennifer Stein jen@adventuresportsjournal.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Leonie Sherman, Chris Van Leuven, Aloe Driscoll, Cathy Claesson, Kurt Gensheimer, Lars Filson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Leonie Sherman, Kurt Gensheimer, James Adamson, Scott McClain / Called To Creation, Carlos Brava, Basil Tsimoyianis, Thomas Cavanagh, Dang Ngo, Russ Walling, John Barbella, Ken Yager, Kaori Photo, John Kameen, Kookson, Tyler Fox, Dave “Nelly” Nelson, Veronica Hart, Yvonne Falk, Paul Topp, Erich Huebner / USFS, Christophe Hassel, Debi Lorenc, Jean LeBlanc LAYOUT Cathy Claesson & Michele Charboneau

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COVER Juliann Klein WEBMASTER Brooklyn Taylor brook@adventuresportsjournal.com ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Cathy Claesson I 831.234.0351 cathy@adventuresportsjournal.com EVENTS & DISTRIBUTION Matt Niswonger matt@adventuresportsjournal.com EVENTS COORDINATOR Jennifer Stein jen@adventuresportsjournal.com Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Adventure Sports Journal or our advertisers. We usually agree with our articles, but sometimes we don’t. We welcome all contributions. All content © Adventure Sports Journal 2017. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the editors. ADVENTURE SPORTS JOURNAL PO BOX 35, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 Phone 831.457.9453 asjstaff@adventuresportsjournal.com PROUD MEMBER

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Room to Exhale…

Editor’s Note

Fight Club The Power of No Mind

ately I have been spending a great deal of time in the ocean, surfing with my middle son Lukas, who is thirteen. He is going through a phase where he wants to surf as much as possible, and I’m stoked to spend quality time together. Some days I feel motivated to catch as many waves as possible, but usually it’s fun to just relax in the lineup and watch Lukas ride waves. His skill level has long since surpassed mine, and I’m happy to just soak in the beauty of nature from a magic place: floating in the ocean while looking back at land. Recently I had an insight while surfing with Lukas. The deep feeling of relaxation that was rejuvenating me was connected to the fact that I was in a neutral state of mind and just absorbing my surroundings with very little interpretation, similar to looking at art or listening to music. Meanwhile my iPhone was back on shore, out of reach. Surfing was forcing me to take a break from my smartphone, and that felt good. Then I wondered if there was anything on my phone that needed attention. I had to admit I was curious. Had any important emails come through? Were people responding to my business and personal Facebook or Instagram posts? Had President Trump tweeted anything shocking or outrageous that I should know about? What was trending? Suddenly, my sense of relaxation vanished. I need to look at my phone, I thought to myself. That day, floating on my surfboard, I admitted to myself for the first time that I am an iPhone addict. Yes I occasionally need the stupid thing for business, but I am constantly checking it, even though

That day I realized I am a slave to a little black screen I carry in my pocket. Photo: Cathy Claesson

the second most valuable thing I could imagine: money. Forty years later I am still fascinated with human happiness and how to create it for others and myself. Along with my wife Cathy, I started Adventure Sports Journal sixteen years ago because I had a spiritual epiphany while climbing in Yosemite: adventure opens the door to my imagination, and imagination is the royal road to happiness. As I noted in my last article (The Adventure Path, issue # 98), power is the direct product of adventure. While feeling powerful we have greater access to our imagination, and outdoor recreation with calculated risk makes the entire sequence possible. One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1990s cult classic Fight Club. Somewhat disturbing and completely unforgettable, the movie is a Jekyll and Hyde allegory about a man wrestling with two sides of himself; the disempowered Jack (Edward Norton) and the uberpowerful Tyler played by Brad Pitt. Working a corporate cubicle job, the pathetic Jack is really a social commentary about the disempowering nature of society itself, a daily path of hunched over disillusionment and despair.

Outdoor recreation gives our brains a chance to rest, to reset to a default state of power and effectiveness because we are forced to just be in the moment without constantly interpreting the moment. it often robs me of peace of mind. That’s the textbook definition of addiction: doing something over and over again even though you know it’s bad for you. I also thought about how often I pause in the middle of a mountain bike ride or a climbing gym session just to respond to a text. Can that text wait thirty minutes until my workout is over? Sure, but I still respond immediately because I am a fullblown slave to a little black screen I carry in my pocket. I am reminded of a scene from Lord of the Rings. “The ring is precious to me; I need to have it.” said Gollum over and over. Then he proceeded to choke out his best friend. One of my earliest memories as a child was blowing out the candles on my birthday cake after wishing for the most valuable thing I could imagine: happiness. I purposely did not wish for 6 ASJ ASJ—Aug/Sept — Oct/Nov 2017 2011

Here is how I interpret Fight Club: Tyler Durden represents a powerful version of myself, struggling to emerge. To help me uncover my truest self, a self that is incredibly powerful and effective, outdoor activities like trail running, cycling, surfing, skiing and climbing are available. These activities, pursued on a regular basis, will expose and increase a savage effectiveness that is essentially a superhuman version of me. In order for us to give birth to our own version of Tyler Durden, many of us need to spend less time on our smartphones. There is nothing powerful or cool about seeing how many likes or comments we have on Facebook. The whole game is fine in limited doses, but eventually it becomes disempowering. My insight while surfing that day was this: Tyler can’t thrive in our daily lives without a regular practice of no mind (AKA the unattached mind), or the absence of interpretation. Outdoor recreation gives our brains a chance to rest, to reset to a default state of power and effectiveness because we are forced to just be in the moment without constantly interpreting the moment. Music and art is also helpful in this regard. Our lives are increasingly complex, and so we are already using our tired brains constantly. Add smartphones to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. Now you have taken away every sliver of mental recovery time during the day and filled it with likes, tweets, comments, shares, emails, photos, and videos. No wonder it feels disempowering. Tired brains are not powerful. So the net effect of all this smartphone addiction is that we are reducing the benefits of outdoor sports and other empowerment activities like art and music that we pursue. Basically we are draining our mental resources into a social media app while Facebook is laughing all the way to the bank. Is excessive smartphone usage a national mental health crisis, or am I just projecting? Feel free to send me an email: matt@adventuresportsjournal.com. Just don’t expect me to respond right away. I’m taking a break from my smartphone until further notice and will mostly be working from my laptop.

In contrast, Tyler Durden is a badass who lives in the moment. He starts a fight club to help Jack access power, imagination, and happiness. The movie has many twists and turns, and in the end Jack rejects certain aspects of Tyler. In the late 1990s many critics found certain aspects of the movie offensive, but I think Fight Club is brilliant social commentary that has grown increasingly relevant over time. Tyler’s fight club heals Jack, in much the same way a regular practice of adventure sports is healing in real life. The author of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk, is a graduate of the Landmark Forum, a self-help education program that I also completed. Through this shared connection I deeply relate to the broader meaning of the biting social commentary —Matt Niswonger that makes his book (and the movie) so poignant.memories from Sea Otter, 2017. ASJ editor, Matt Niswonger on the plasitc horn. Campfire

Ear to the Ground

News and notes from the outdoor industry

Called To Creation

Golden Tour Winners Announced

Rivers for Change: Source to Sea Learning Adventure In the face of current and future effects of climate change, providing enough clean water to support healthy communities will continue to be one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Working with science teachers across multiple school districts along the Truckee River, the non-profit organization Rivers for Change implemented a dynamic format for teaching kids about the importance of their backyard river, combining challenging adventure with environmental learning, planting the

seeds for a future generation of river stewards and advocates. Using a combination of stand-up paddle boards, whitewater kayaks and rafts, pack rafts, and outrigger canoes, a team of ten student ambassadors between ten to 14 years in age and representing seven different school districts completed an exploration of the Truckee river from its source above Lake Tahoe, CA to its terminus in Pyramid Lake, NV, discovering where their water comes from and how their backyard river is important to their community. Learn more at riversforchange.org.

The California Enduro Series (CES) wrapped up its 2017 Golden Tour (pro triple crown) with the Kamikaze Bike Games (KBG) Enduro at Mammoth Mountain on September 17. Series regular Evan Geankoplis defended his 2016 title while Amy Morrison took first place for the women. Both riders race on the Marin Enduro Team. The KBG Game Enduro was round 7 of the CES 2017 season, and also an EWS qualifier. The series heads to Ashland, OR for this year’s final round – the Ashland Mountain Challenge presented by Ashland Mountain Adventures. ASJ is a proud sponsor of the California Enduro Series and the Kamikaze Bike Games. Learn more at californiaenduroseries. com and kamikazebikegames.com.

White House Remains Silent on National Monument Review Interior Secretary Zinke’s controversial review of National Monuments has sparked a high profile debate over our public lands, and Americans are eagerly awaiting the details of his recommendations. The long-awaited

report that will determine the fate of the many climbing areas in our National Monuments has been submitted to President Trump, but it has not yet been made public. Zinke promised a more transparent and thorough review process, but it is unknown at press time as to whether he delivered on that promise. Learn more at accessfund.org/newsand-events/news/white-house-remainssilent-on-national-monument-review.

Kaori Photo

Wildflower Tri Returns for 2018 The much-loved Wildflower Triathlon Experience returns in 2018 to celebrate its 35th Anniversary on May 4-6, 2018 at Lake San Antonio in Central California. The previous year’s event had to be cancelled due to continued drought. It is with much relief and excitement that for 2018 the full triathlon race line up is back including the Long Course, Olympic, On Road Sprint, and Mountain Bike Sprint. All races will begin and end in the Lynch Festival Area. Registration for all events are now open to the general public. Learn more and register at wildflowertriathlon.com.

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New Bike Podcast Debuts

Epic Rides Adds to Series

Cycling enthusiast “Big Lou” Mollineda welcomes listeners to his new Beyond the Bike podcast. Mollineda started this endeavor because he wanted to capture the stories of mountain bike pioneers, pro racers, adventurers, race organizers, cycling legends and anyone in between. Although passionate about bikes, the podcast is not limited to cycling. Lou also ventures out into the unknown in order to meet new people doing awesome things. Lou feels blessed to live in Southern California where folks can ride bikes almost all year round. He says, “I’m beyond stoked with the support of so many people who have come on the show including California Enduro Series founders Erik Saunders and Steve and Megan Gemelos, Fullerton Bike’s Mike Franze, Not Dot Adventures’ Jon Kearley, Kenda’s Roger Hernandez and so many other inspiring guests. Beyond the Bike podcast episodes can be found on SoundCloud, iTunes and Google Play. Stay tuned at facebook.com/ beyondthebikewithbiglou.

Epic Rides – already well known for its popular series events in Carson City, NV and Prescott, AZ and Grand Junction, CO recently announced the addition of the Oz Trails Off-Road in Bentonville, AR to its 2018 line-up. Utilizing the Oz Trails network at the foot of the Ozark mountains, this event will be held October 5-7, 2018. It will also serve as the OffRoad Series finale; a series that boasts the biggest backcountry mountain bike event pro purse in the world at $160,000. Learn more at epicrides.com.

The North Face Donates $1 Million for Climbing Walls The North Face is committed to help make climbing more accessible by donating $1 million to The Trust for Public Land in its endeavor to build public climbing walls in US communities, focusing on underserved areas. The Trust for Public Land has worked collaboratively to connect communities to the outdoors while creating public spaces that everyone can enjoy. Learn more at thenorthface.com/ featured/walls.html.

Amy Gubser Completes Solo Swim Across Monterey Bay

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC) “Ante Up for Trails”

On September 22, at 8:15 pm, Amy Appelhans Gubser stood near Santa Cruz harbor wearing nothing but a swim suit, cap and goggles. Staring into the dark abyss, she began to swim. 17 hours and 49 minutes later, Amy meandered her way through clumps of kelp as she approached San Carlos beach in Monterey. Amy is now the fourth person to complete a solo marathon swim across the Monterey Bay. This means she completed the swim following the rules of marathon swimming, which are often referred to as “English Channel Rules.” Previous swims were completed by Cindy Cleveland (1980), Patti Bauernfeind (2014), and Kim Rutherford (2014) – all women. During Amy’s epic journey, she swam over nine hours in the dark and battled strong currents, wind, and hundreds of jellyfish stings. The water temperature ranged from 54 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. According to her crew, she remained positive the entire swim, smiling and cracking jokes the entire way. Learn more at swimmontereybay.org.

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC) will kick off its next “Ante Up for Trails” campaign on October 3, 2017 – this time in partnership with Santa Cruz Bicycles. This fundraiser offers folks the opportunity to win the Santa Cruz mountain bike of their dreams while supporting MBOSC’s trail building and maintenance endeavors. For every $5 anted up as a donation to MBOSC, donors are entered into a drawing for a chance to win a Santa Cruz model of choice, spec’d to the nines ... including the best from FOX suspension. Campaign ends November 13. Learn more and donate at mbosc.org.

New Film to Highlight Women Climbers Never Not Collective – started by four veteran climbers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers – is crowdfunding for a climbing film called Pretty Strong. The film will feature women climbers and showcase their strength without having to be compared to men. Learn more at nevernotcollective.com.

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Rockfall on El Cap in Yosemite Kills One; Injures Another

HelmetFacts.com Educates About Helmets and Head Protection

At press time, one person has been reported dead and another injured after a rockfall on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The NPS said a rockfall of “undetermined size” occurred about 1:55 p.m. local time on September 27th. The release point appears to be near the Waterfall Route, a climbing route on the East Face of El Capitan. This is the area where Horsetail Fall flows in winter and spring conditions. The name of the person killed had not been released when we went to press. Park rangers took the injured person to a hospital outside of the park for treatment while search and rescue continued to survey the area. It’s unclear if any other climbers or tourists were hurt. It was reported that there were about 30 climbers on El Capitan at the time of the rockfall. Learn more at nps.gov/yose/learn/news.

Thom Parks knows helmets. And he’s more than happy to answer the inevitable questions that he gets once someone discovers he’s spent the last 30 years working with head protection. “Can I wear my ski helmet on my bike?” “What’s the difference between CPSC and DOT safety standards?” “How does MIPS work?” But after a while, Parks and his co-workers at the Dome, the global leader in helmet testing, research, and development based in Scotts Valley, CA, realized that sharing their collective knowledge on the web might provide a greater service than merely answering random questions at industry events and cocktail parties. So they launched helmetfacts.com. The website serves as an educational resource for consumers and helmet brands alike and includes videos as well as a library of detailed information regarding materials, standards and testing protocols for helmets and head protection. “We saw unmet needs for more information related to head protection,” said Parks, whose official title is Senior Director of Product Safety at Bell Sports. “Now, more than ever, we’re seeing a lot of confusion and misinformation in the marketplace. The Dome and its engineering staff have taken a leadership role in this arena for more than six decades, so we thought it appropriate to invest the time and energy into educating consumers.” Visitors to helmetfacts.com can browse sections titled Materials, Standards, and Design, getting up to speed on the sometimes-confusing alphabet soup of acronyms including MIPS, CPSC, ASTM, and even DOME itself (which stands for Design, Observation, Materials, Engineering.) Riders from all disciplines can watch helpful videos on topics such as why it’s difficult to say when they should replace their current helmet, but what the Dome uses as a guideline. There’s also a section of videos profiling some of the more than 50 test fixtures in use at the Scotts Valley facility, with amusing and sometimes ominous names like the Drop Rig, the Therminator, and the Whacker. While the Dome and helmetfacts.com are transparent in their relationships with leading brands Giro and Bell, who produce some of the world’s most popular cycling, snow, and motorsports helmets, it also is clear that this is no mere marketing exercise but a true effort to share the knowledge gained from more than 63 years of head protection experience. And that’s something every rider can benefit from, even if they never get the chance to ask Thom Parks a question in person.

Middle School Surf Team Seeks Golden Ticket To Kelly Slater’s Wave Pool Shoreline Middle School, located near Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz County, has a surf team that competes in the Santa Cruz Scholastic Surf League. Recently members have been talking about a field trip to Kelly Slater’s wave pool near Visalia. What started as an idea to petition the legendary surfer for a crack at his “dream wave,” turned into full-blown rumors that Kelly had already granted the middle school surf team a golden ticket to his surf ranch. “We have not heard from Mr. Slater regarding the use of his surf ranch, despite rumors to the contrary,” Shoreline surf coach Caleb Murray told ASJ. “We are definitely keeping our fingers crossed. We know every surfer in the world wants a crack at that wave, and it would be a dream come true for these kids and the whole community.” Shoreline eighth grader Tyler Bonner wrote the following to the surf icon: “Dear Mr. Slater, you are an inspiration to us. Before our surf practice some of us watch videos of you as motivation to be the best. If we ever have the opportunity to surf your wave pool it would be a dream come true and an inspiration to every student at Shoreline Middle School. I hope you consider inviting us.”

www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

After the Fire Ventana Wilderness Alliance continues to educate and advocate after the devastating Soberanes Fire By Leonie Sherman

In 1998, five dudes got together around a campfire and decided to work together to preserve the towering redwoods, twisted oaks, coastal meadows and baked southern slopes of the Ventana Wilderness. They loved to hike and swim and hang out where the mountains meet the sea but were disturbed by the impact of over-grazing, increased use and the Forest Service’s inability to protect these fragile places. Twenty years later the non-profit they spawned manages 23 volunteer rangers, oversees over 300 miles of trail maintenance and instills land ethics in the next generation of wild land protectors. The Ventana Wilderness Alliance (VWA) doesn’t just advocate and educate, it encourages citizens to ask essential questions about government priorities.

Main image: VWA Trail Crew volunteers donate thousands of hours each year improving access in the Big Sur backcountry (Jean LeBlanc). Above: Ventana Wilderness gets its name from the window (la ventana) at the top center of this ridge (Debi Lorenc). Opposite page, top row: Winter snowfall is not uncommon on the higher ridges of the Santa Lucias (Betsy MacGowan); The VWA Youth in Wilderness program connects young people from the region to their public lands (VWA); The after-effects of the Soberanes Fire will make maintenance of the trail network extremely difficult (Erich Huebner/USFS). Opposite page, second row: Volunteer wilderness rangers patrol the backcountry (VWA); USFS fire perimeter map October 6, 2016.

10 — Oct/Nov 2017 10 ASJ ASJ—April/May 2013

he VWA focuses on 313,000 acres, from Mt. Carmel in the north to the border with San Luis Obispo County in the south. This is the Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise from the Pacific Ocean to the 5,500-foot summit of Cone Peak in less than four miles. The other 1.5 million acres of Los Padres National Forest are fifty miles away, spanning parts of San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The Monterey Ranger District draws millions of visitors every year, but the headquarters are in Goleta, over a hundred miles away. “With a growing population, we have ever increasing visitation and usage but there’s not a corresponding increase in funding for management of recreation,” explains Rich Popchak, VWA’s Communications and Development Director. “The US Forest Service is tasked with protecting the Ventana Wilderness, but they’re severely underfunded. Without an organization like the VWA, those lands would be in serious trouble.” Even with an organization like the VWA, those lands are in serious trouble. In July of 2016, somebody abandoned an illegal camp fire in Garrapata State Park, just five miles from the northern border of the National Forest. Years of fire suppression had created a tinderbox of ladder fuels and the blaze scorched 132,000 acres before winter rains snuffed it out.

Desperate efforts to protect property and land made this the most expensive fire fight in US history. “It cost taxpayers $260 million to suppress the Soberanes fire,” says Mike Splain, VWA Executive Director. “How expensive would it have been to hire a couple of rangers who might have prevented this fire through outreach and education?” On September 2, as the fire continued to rage, the Forest Supervisor closed the entire Monterey Ranger District to the public. Visitors ignored the “Forest Closed” signs but the underfunded government agency, already stretched thin before the fire, could not enforce the new regulations. Within eight days, VWA’s team of experienced volunteer rangers stepped in to patrol the perimeter and educate the public about the reasons for the closure. “The approach all of our rangers use is to let the resource, not the regulations, dictate our actions,” says Splain. “Our volunteer rangers are educators. They explain to the public why we behave the way we do in the wilderness,” says retired firefighter and VWA Lead Wilderness Ranger Steve Benoit, who has been hiking the Ventana Wilderness since he was nine. “People are really good about complying once they understand what’s going on.” The last time the Forest Service paid a ranger to patrol was in 2010. So Benoit put on a uniform, agreed to patrol the place and put together the yearlong training and probationary period for VWA’s volunteer rangers, who took responsibility for protecting the forest in the wake of the catastrophic fire. The Soberanes fire obliterated almost 150 miles of trail in the Ventana Wilderness. After the fire, the VWA didn’t just patrol the area, they surveyed damage and began trail reconstruction. Their experienced volunteer trail crews have put in hundreds of hours trying to reopen access to popular areas. “The trail to Sykes Hot Springs is completely gone,” says Benoit, shaking his head. “Beyond Barlow Flats there’s a cliff that’s collapsed, it’s going to require dynamite to fix. We don’t have the skills or the

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sent 10,000 pounds of trash on the cable they rigged. Despite their remarkable achievements, VWA still struggles with raising the necessary funds to continue their education and advocacy efforts. But the survival of this small non-profit, the Ventana Wilderness, and public lands in general requires more than money or volunteer hours, it requires a fundamental shift in values. “The Ventana Wilderness is the place that produced the poet Robinson Jeffers,” says Splain. “Jeffers foresaw a Copernican shift. When Copernicus said the earth wasn’t the center of the universe, he was kicked out of the church and branded a heretic. Our earth is not going to survive if we can’t complete the next Copernican shift to realizing that humans are not the center of the world.”

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equipment to do that kind of blasting.” He predicts the trail will be closed for years. “We’re not just a club that keeps the trails open,” insists Splain, downplaying VWA’s most visible stewardship. “We get people excited about public lands and aware of the threats they face. We bring young people who might not have access otherwise into the back-country.” VWA sponsors public events, like the Wild and Scenic Film Festival or a popular bio blitz that identified 300 species in a single day and contributed to the range extension of four moth species. The organization also organizes trash clean ups. “And we always have a good time!” says VWA Administrative Assistant Amy Patten, with a laugh. In 2002, just four years after its inception, the fledgling non-profit worked with Congressman Sam Farr to add over 17,000 acres to the Silver Peak Wilderness, part of the northern section of Los Padres National Forest, just south of the Ventana Wilderness, which was also increased by 37,000 acres. This area contains the southernmost redwoods in the world. VWA’s next move, less than a year later, was to clean up the mess left behind by years of mining and squatting. “We found all kinds of trash,” says Popchak. “Couches, TVs, lots of glass, remnants of an old house, roofing, old car batteries, water heaters, stoves ...” More than 60 volunteers participated in a series of weekend cleanups that culminated in the big haul. To protect spawning steelhead and prevent erosion from foot traffic, two volunteers set up a Tyrolean traverse over the creek and

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Tioga by Bike Exploring Yosemite in the shoulder season Words and photos by Leonie Sherman

he next time you’re stuck in traffic at the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite, pause for a moment to consider that without the ingenuity of Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, you’d be walking. If the wait is long enough, or nostalgia for a frenchfry-free Tuolumne Meadows washes over you, just wait until October 15th and grab your bike.

After mid-October the Tioga Road is closed to overnight parking between the pass and Crane Flat, but a visitor can lock their bike at any trailhead and take to the back-country for a dose of rare alpine Yosemite solitude. The shoulder season cyclist needs to be painfully aware of the immediate weather forecast. Overnight parking is prohibited to prevent cars from getting stranded by early snow. The precise date of that first storm varies widely – in 2004, snow buried the high country on October 17, but only eight years later the road was open until mid-January. Over the past three decades, the road has closed 19 times before midNovember. The window is short, so start planning now. Check the weather with religious fervor. Nobody wants to push their bike through miles of Sierra cement.

Even in autumn, a permit is required. Yosemite Valley wilderness centers are open year-round, but entering from Tioga means self-registration. In summer a permit allows one night at a front country campground at the beginning and end of a backpacking trip. In October the campgrounds are closed to automobiles, but a cyclist can easily bypass the gate and sleep there. This is a fuzzy area in Yosemite regulations, but with an outhouse, bear box and trash cans, sleeping at a campground is obviously the lowest impact camping around. Starting at Tioga Pass allows instant access to the high country and a glimpse into the history of this spectacular road. Biking from the entrance station to Tuolumne Meadows takes less than half an hour. Natives passed through these meadows to trade with their neighbors as early as 2,500 BC. Their route, the Mono Trail, started in

Yosemite Valley and followed the course of today’s road past Tenaya Lake and into Tuolumne Meadows, where it crossed the crest at Mono Pass and headed down Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake. White men didn’t venture into the meadows until the 1850s, when Lt. Moore and his battalion pursued Chief Tenaya and the remnants of his tribe across the Mono Trail. The natives managed to escape execution and white people stumbled upon the largest alpine meadow in the Sierra. In 1864 Congress granted Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to California as a natural preserve; the rest of Yosemite National Park was added in 1890, thanks to the tireless dedication of John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson. Before Europeans came to the Yosemite high country for recreation, they swarmed the area looking for silver. From 1878-1884 the area just north of Tioga Pass was overrun with miners, engineers, merchants and mule drivers. A route suitable for wagons or a railroad was surveyed in 1882 and completed in 1883. The mine folded ten months later and no ore ever traveled the

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Tioga Road. From 1890-1915 the road was privately owned, and maintained in a haphazard manner by the concessionaires that sprang up along its edges to serve travelers. But in 1915, Stephen T. Mather foresaw the advent of the automobile and wanted to ensure public access to Yosemite’s high country. He got legislation passed allowing for a gift to the government like the Tioga Road and then persuaded his wealthy friends to purchase the right of way. He made up the difference from his own pocket. Since he was a government employee, he couldn’t make the donation himself, so he arranged for the title to be transferred to a friend, who then donated it to the Park Service. The remnants of the Great Sierra Mine responsible for the Tioga Road are perched on the Sierra crest at 10,670 feet, a two-mile walk from the Tioga entrance station. Saddlebag Lake is a short cross-country jaunt away and provides an excellent base to explore the glaciers and peaks of the Hall Research Area and Hoover Wilderness. Returning along the Saddlebag Road and back to Tioga Pass allows the possibility of catching a ride back to a bike and makes an excellent low-key loop. Another excellent loop, normally swarming with happy hikers, starts at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center. Cathedral Lakes are only a few miles away. Camp there and devote a day to clambering around on the fourth class routes of nearby Echo Peaks. From the lakes, head south past the gleaming granite of Tressider Peak and Columbia Finger before arriving at Sunrise Lakes. Continuing southwest for six and a half miles brings a hiker to the junction for Clouds Rest, a few miles north. John Muir said this was his favorite spot in the Sierra to watch the sunset. One magical night in late October, I slept on top of Clouds Rest to watch the full moon rise over Half Dome and Yosemite Valley; the sun streaked the sky orange and magenta before fading to indigo. From Clouds Rest, the glittering shores of Tenaya Lake are about seven miles away. Follow the trail that parallels the road back to a bicycle.

Title image, opposite page: Wildlife is more abundant on the Tioga Road once traffic calms down in the fall. Top image, this page: The majestic granite sweep of Stately Pleasure Dome. Second row, this page: Fresh autumn snow blankets the high country in early autumn; No tourists at Olmsted Point so the author had to take a selfie!

JUNE 2, 2018

Approaching from the west side, several backpacking loops are possible out of White Wolf. Ten Lakes Basin, situated around 9,000 feet, is about a ten-mile hike from White Wolf. From there a further 13 miles of trail brings you to the south fork of Cathedral Creek, past Tuolumne Peak to the Polly Dome Lakes. Four miles north is Glen Aulin; from there a late season hiker can follow the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne to Pate Valley and climb out to their bike at White Wolf. This loop is about 50 miles and should only be attempted with high pressure and a sunny forecast. A less ambitious loop from White Wolf takes in Smith Meadows with a possible excursion to Smith Peak before heading south to Aspen Valley and returning to a discreetly parked bicycle. Late-season Tioga-bike-assisted backpacking presents limitless options. Rangers are long gone, the stores are shuttered and the Sierra High Camps lie abandoned in the crisp autumn air. The grasses of Tuolumne Meadows are brittle and yellowing, but waterfalls still flow over granite domes. Shallow puddles may have a skin of ice, but lakes and streams remain open until weeks of hard freeze seal their fate for the season. Squirrels and birds frantically secure their winter caches, while black bears are settling down for a long winter’s nap. Watching the season turn in the high country is a privilege, but a late season bike-backpacker needs to be mentally prepared and entirely self-sufficient. The days are warm, but the nights last twelve hours and often dip below freezing. Bring a friend or a good book, plenty of fuel and food and extra warm layers. Borrow an expedition weight sleeping bag. Understand the risk involved and enjoy every moment of stillness and solitude, the most rare and precious of commodities on a crowded urbanized planet. www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

Mountain Bike Road Trip Across Nevada US Route 50 will become a focal point for backcountry mountain biking By Kurt Gensheimer

t may be considered “The Loneliest Road in America,” but for anyone who has ever experienced US Route 50 through Nevada, one thing is for certain – there are a lot of mountain bikes strapped to vehicles crossing the state on their way to either Utah, the Colorado Rockies or Lake Tahoe and coastal California. Despite Nevada’s status as the most mountainous state behind Alaska, many mountain bikers zoom through interior Nevada without ever taking their bikes off the rack. But thanks to the efforts of the Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority, all that is about to change. Created in 1926 as a part of the original US Highway system, the historic US Route 50 runs more than 3,000 miles from Sacramento, California to Ocean City, Maryland. After passing through South Lake Tahoe, US 50 crosses through the Nevada state capital of Carson City and the agricultural community of Fallon. After Fallon, US 50 becomes “The Loneliest Road in America,” with only three small communities in more than 300 miles of driving. Although the “Loneliest Road” moniker has worked well for Nevada tourism over the years, the highway needs to appeal to a younger generation of adventurous outdoor enthusiasts, encouraging them to get out of their cars and explore. Therefore, the Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority is reaching out to the rural communities of Austin, Eureka and Ely, focusing on US Route 50 as the preferred through route for mountain bikers, establishing the Nevada MTB Road Trip Experience. “We want to give mountain bikers traveling through the state a reason to stop and spend a night or even a few days riding in Nevada,” said Joel Dunn, Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority. “In addition to some great trails in historically rich communities, interior Nevada also offers numerous hot springs, ghost towns and some of the most expansive alpine terrain in North America.” The communities of Austin, Eureka and Ely are similarly situated, each sitting beneath mountain passes reaching 7,500 feet elevation, making for very easy shuttle service access using US Route 50. And with surrounding peaks as high as 10,000 feet elevation, there’s enormous potential 14 ASJ ASJ—June/July — Oct/Nov 2017 2012

for singletrack descents in each town exceeding 3,000 vertical feet. The only element missing is purpose-built singletrack, but at least one community is already on its way. Towards the eastern end of the state along US Route 50, Ely is already making a name for itself as an underthe-radar mountain bike destination. Those who’ve explored Ely know how good the riding is, especially if they’ve ever participated in the Fears, Tears and Beers Enduro, arguably the oldest mountain bike enduro in North America established in 2004. Starting and finishing right in downtown Ely, riders can pedal to dozens of miles of technically challenging, high-speed singletrack in the shadow of Ward Mountain, rising nearly 11,000 feet above sea level. Ely is also close to Cave Lake State Park, featuring nearly a dozen miles of singletrack with commanding views, rocky technical challenges and fast, flowing descents. Mountain bikers might recognize the name Austin, a town of barely 100 residents, home to several Nevada mountain bike state championship events more than a decade ago. Some passing through Austin might even see the giant billboards advertising mountain biking as “A Challenge!” Unfortunately, Austin never made it as a mountain bike community despite its ideal location at the foot of the mighty Toiyabe Range, rich with beautiful alpine terrain featuring year round streams, aspen groves, juniper and pine trees. But Austin has enormous potential provided a network of purpose-built singletrack trails can be constructed surrounding town.

Austin is relatively close to the Toiyabe Crest Trail, a historic singletrack 75 miles in total length running as high as 11,000 feet elevation along the shoulder of the Toiyabe Range. Although the southern 35 miles is in Arc Dome Wilderness, the northern 35 miles is outside Wilderness and legal for mountain bike access. Despite it being a National Recreation Trail constructed in the 1930s, the mighty Toiyabe Crest Trail suffers from lack of use and is quickly disappearing. In an effort to bring more folks to Austin and the nearby community of Kingston where the Toiyabe Crest Trail ends, a federal trail work grant is being applied for, and if funded, will employ a crew to brush out the entire length of the trail from Ophir Summit north to Kingston Canyon. Upon completion, the Toiyabe Crest Trail will once again become one of the West’s great mountain bike epics, running between 8,000 and 10,500 feet elevation for 35 miles, finishing with an incredible 5,000 vertical foot descent into the community of Kingston. In between Austin and Ely is Eureka, a vibrant and very historically rich mining town of 1,200 residents. Although Eureka currently does not have any multiuse singletrack near town, it has much potential and

Opposite page, top to bottom: Descending the forgotten Pony Canyon Downhill Trail near Austin, NV (Kurt Gensheimer); The Toiyabe Crest Trail near Kingston, NV (Kurt Gensheimer). This page, clockwise from top left: A rider enjoys miles of singletrack and epic views from the Ash To Kings Canyon Trail in Carson City (Courtesy of Visit Carson City); Looking down on Austin, NV (Kurt Gensheimer); Riders can find solitude on the trails systems along Hwy 50 in Nevada (Courtesy of Visit Carson City); Hike a bike up a steep section of the iconic Toiyabe Crest Trail (Kurt Gensheimer).

community leaders who understand the importance of trails both for residents’ quality of life and the economic boost from tourism. The city is currently applying for a number of grants to begin the process of building multiuse singletrack, one of which may come off the top of Prospect Peak at 9,573 feet elevation. Although not on US Route 50, another Nevada community that’s experiencing a trails renaissance is the city of Caliente in southeast Nevada, located right between Las Vegas and St. George, Utah. Through the cooperation of the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), Nevada State Parks, the Bureau of Land Management and city government, nearly $1.5 million dollars in grant funds were secured to construct nearly 40 miles of multi-use singletrack. And since this

spring, nearly ten miles have already been constructed. To help get the word out, the Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority has offered to help train local officials on using social media to promote the trails with travelers. “Ever since our bureau’s rebranding four years ago, we’ve seen an enormous increase in tourism and community pride because of our focus on outdoor recreation,” said Kyle Horvath, Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority Marketing & Social Media Director. “In Carson City we are blessed with award-winning

trails, and we want to share what we’ve learned as a community with our friends in rural Nevada.” By helping one another, the entire state of Nevada is working towards becoming a premier destination for outdoor recreation. And although a lot of trail work still needs to be done, the Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority is driving this Nevada MTB Road Trip Experience in the hopes that mountain bikers will spend more time exploring the wild, historic and uncrowded backcountry communities of Nevada.

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Getting Down to Business with Entrepreneur Tyler Fox The story of Santa Cruz Waves By Aloe Driscoll

hat does it take to be an entrepreneur? “Not settling for mediocrity,” says Santa Cruz Waves founder Tyler Fox, who built the digital empire and associated publishing business from the ground up. A regular competitor at the Mavericks surfing contest and former participant of the Big Wave World Tour, Fox strives for excellence in all aspects, citing professional surfing as his first entrepreneurial venture. “If you don’t have a manager or an agent, it’s kind of like running a business,” he says, describing how he milked his contacts, solicited meetings and crafted pitches to gain sponsorship. The idea for Santa Cruz Waves came to Fox in 2007 when a photographer approached him and a group of friends at a nightclub, offered to take their picture, and handed them a business card. When Fox pulled up the website the following day and scrolled through the gallery, he had an ‘aha’ moment. Why not use surf photos as an incentive to drive traffic to a website? “Originally, I did have the thought that I was going to monetize it through traffic and advertising,” Fox recalls. “I didn’t know how much traffic I needed, but I knew if I got enough eyeballs on it, there would be value.” Fox pitched the idea to fellow surfer and longtime friend Chris Curtis, asking him to partner on the Santa Cruz Waves project. “I thought he was crazy,” remembers Curtis. Fox forged on alone, writing up a business plan and investing thousands of his own dollars for start up costs: purchasing a high-end camera and lens, developing a website and logo. “I really did it bootstrap,” Fox admits. Despite going into debt, he never skimped on quality, forking out cash on three different web designs before he felt satisfied with the result. “If I’d settled for that first website and just launched it, it wouldn’t have worked,” he claims. The Santa Cruz Waves website finally launched in February of 2010. Fox hit the streets, shooting photos of surfers at popular spots around town. He put business cards which read ‘View your photo at santacruzwaves. com’ on the windshield of every car in the parking lot, editing and uploading photos each day for months before he ever saw a dime. “You’re just doing it because you have that belief that down the road, you’re going to get enough traffic to bring in some revenue,” Fox recalls. Six months after launch, Santa Cruz Waves was averaging 400 visitors per day. Fox turned his focus to ad sales, bringing on Jon Free as a partner and onboarding local businesses with paid banner ads. Though the website was finally bringing in revenue, it came with more hurdles: clients didn’t know how to make the right size 16 ASJ ASJ—June/July — Oct/Nov 2017 2012

banners, and web revisions were endless. “It’s all hard in those beginning stages,” Fox notes. “It requires constant problem solving and not throwing in the towel.” Fox and Free put most of their small profit back into the company, renting an office space, and hiring staff, including paid photographers. Dazzling photos abounded and traffic skyrocketed to thousands of visitors daily. As the business flourished, Fox continued to raise the bar, concocting a scheme to resurrect the beautiful photos that were getting buried under an avalanche of digital content. “A lot of these amazing images just got back piled in our archives,” Fox says, describing an idea that started as a coffee table book, and developed into a Surfer’s Journal-inspired free magazine. Fox and Free approached Stephanie Lutz, ad director and lead salesperson for Good Times Magazine, about launching the publication. “Oh that’s cute,” Lutz told them facetiously. “You have no idea how a magazine runs.” A month later, Santa Cruz Weekly bought out Good Times, and Lutz decided to jump ship. She joined Santa Cruz Waves, bringing a plethora of ad clients, as well as editor Elizabeth Limbach and designer Josh Becker. The first issue of Santa Cruz Waves Magazine came out in June 2014, and soon became the primary source of income for the company. What started as a website of surfing photos is now a community platform with a social following of more than half a million, and a magazine with a circulation of 20,000. The business currently employs seven full-time employees and around 20 independent contractors. If you think Fox is rolling in dough, think again. “Tyler takes nothing,” Lutz confides. “He’s at the bottom of the barrel as far as getting paid.” When his primary surfing sponsor dropped him earlier this year, 36 year-old Fox chose to move back in with his parents, rather than take more of a salary from Santa Cruz Waves and risk draining the company in a stage of growth. “For the longevity of the company, you have to make sacrifices,” he says.

What started as a website of surfing photos is now a community platform with a social following of more than half a million, and a magazine with a circulation of 20,000. “We’ve definitely run into some situations where we’ve had to get creative to keep it going.” A self-described goofball, Fox has engaged in some memorable marketing antics with Off the Lip radio host Neil Pearlberg. “We decided to do some crazy videos,” laughs Pearlburg, describing a stunt where he and Fox donned roller skates and paddled out on stand-up paddle (SUP) boards. The video went viral, as did others featuring Pearlberg sparring with UFC Champion Luke Rockhold, getting humbled by the Santa Cruz Roller Derby girls, undergoing a transgender makeover, and skydiving in a diaper. Slapstick humor, however, is only a means to furthering more serious ideals. “In every issue [of the magazine] we have something on a non-profit, every issue we have something that’s talking about the environment and what’s happening in our community,” Lutz says. Santa Cruz Waves has established a host of community events: The Swellie Awards, which highlight local businesses; Beer Week, which promotes local breweries; and the Sandbar Shootout, a community surf contest. Fox’s chief aim is bringing awareness to environmental issues, specifically pollution from single-use plastics. “Our planet needs our help,” he cautions. “That’s where I get fulfillment with the magazine, is being able to shed light on important issues.” Though Santa Cruz Waves is still more passion project than gold mine for Fox, this entrepreneur has other tricks up his sleeve. He partnered with environmental activist Brent Allen to form Avventura, an adventure company

Clockwise, opposite page: Fox tucks into the tube on a big day at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz (Kookson); Fox all smiles in route to 4th place at the 2014/2015 Mavericks Invitational (Nelly / SPL); Copy of Santa Cruz Waves. Top row, this page: Fox caught speeding last year at Mavericks (Nelly / SPL ); One of Fox’s passions is working with young up and coming surfers, pictured here from left to right: Santiago Hart, coach Tyler, Sean Winterburn, and Zealand Hunter (Veronica Hart). Middle row, this page: Presenting Ben Coffey and Nat Young their prizes at the Santa Cruz Waves Sandbar Shootout (Yvonne Falk); Guests of Avventura enjoy a post-tour meal atop a giant 16x6ft inflatable SUP (Tyler Fox). Bottom row, this page: One of Fox’s most memorable marketing stunts was roller skating on an SUP (Paul Topp).

offering SUP tours that finish at a huge inflatable SUP anchored in the kelp. Atop the floatilla – complete with tables, chairs, wine, and a chef – guests enjoy a freshcooked gourmet meal, prepared with locally sourced ingredients. “It’s hard to believe anything can be at the front end of doing something in California,” Allen says. “Neither of us had ever seen this.” The same was said of Fox’s mind-blowing surfing at Ghost Tree in 2007 and back to back 4th place finishes in the past two events at Mavericks. “He’s been on the biggest stages of athletic performance,” says Allen of Fox. “It gives you a different mental acuity of how to accomplish

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goals.” To aspiring entrepreneurs, Fox suggests “asking as many questions as you can from as many knowledgeable people as you can” and “finding things that you’re really passionate about.” Fox’s old friend Curtis, who went on to found Alibi Interiors, echoes the same advice. “When you’re passionate, and you love what you do, it’s not so much work anymore, it’s just your life,” says Curtis. Though he admits that starting your own business requires a huge investment of time, energy, and capital, he insists “you will get the return when you invest in yourself.” Aloe Driscoll is a freelance writer in Santa Cruz. Read more at savilasurf.com and follow her @aloedriscoll on Instagram.

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Yosemite Climbing in the ‘80s

It was a time of establishing routes with strict ethics, mastery and boldness – but that was about to change. By Chris Van Leuven

uly 1988: Scott Cosgrove and Dave Schultz are free climbing a 1,500-foot face of golden stone up the remote South Face of Half Dome, tenuously gripping feldspar knobs and credit card edges, on the most difficult route of their lives. Not only is the grade high, 5.12d, the route is so dangerous that a fall in many places will result in a trip to the hospital. Think shattered legs, open skull fractures. Falls so long you scream twice before stopping. To avoid low-friction conditions found in the heat of the day – which makes the rubber on their boots slip and their fingers sweat — they wake at 5am, toil their way up the route, Southern Belle, and push themselves over the edge mentally and physically to see what they’re capable of. “The runouts are epic,” Alex Honnold told Alpinist Magazine in 2016 soon after Cosgrove’s death. “Some of the pitches have a single piece of protection. It’s a definite testpiece that has lived on.” Cosgrove wrote in Alpinist, “We pulled it off by a whisper.” The first ascent of Southern Belle was thirty years ago, a time before social media, Internet forums and video news, so only the in-person friends of Cosgrove and Schultz knew or cared about what they did. Big wall pioneer and longtime Yosemite Search and Rescue member John “Deucey” Middendorf says that was part of the motivation – the isolation was a motivator. “The goal was to get as close to the edge, where all the chaos happens, and come back,” Middendorf told Adventure Sports Journal outside a Megaplex Theater in Salt Lake City, UT. The edge, he explained, was fascinating. To Middendorf, this meant free soloing near his limit (5.11) and nailing pitons into fragile, expanding flakes (A5) on El Cap, where death or serious injury would occur if he fell. But there was reason to this madness. Carlos Castaneda’s book A Separate Reality (1971) was still in vogue, just as it was during the 1970s with the Southern California Stonemasters, who stood on the shoulders 18 ASJ ASJ—June/July 2012 — Oct/Nov 2017

of the generation of climbers before them, those from the Yosemite Golden Age. The Golden Age, late ‘50s throughout the ‘60s, was the period where the big walls were just starting to get climbed with regularity. The ‘70s brought harder big wall first ascents and also an emphasis on free climbing. The ‘80s blended the two together. All three of these generations had their eyes on climbing El Cap and Half Dome and to do it better than those before them. Some took drugs for mind expansion, to open doors. Some were spurred on from the ethos of their group. During the ‘80s, these ripped athletes, dressed in muscle shirts and painter’s pants, set out on Yosemite’s grand, glacierpolished walls to test their mettle. Things like money and time didn’t exist to this tribe. Only climbing hard mattered. To sustain themselves, they lifted abandoned food off nearby cafeteria tables and some collected the occasional Search and Rescue check. Others lived off saved construction wages. It was Peter Pan Land. “Once you left you could never come back,” longtime Valley local Dean “Bullwinkle” Fidelman said over the phone from his car in Ventura. “To [live in Yosemite] you’d have to give up so much.”

To keep from losing their piece of paradise, tribes spent upwards of 10 years in the Valley, living in tents, caves or their vans so they could be in climbing’s center of the universe and etch their names into the history books. Ethics Were Everything “What had happened in the ‘80s was that traditional free climbing hit a wall,” Bullwinkle, says. “The only obvious thing to do was free climbing on El Cap. But no one was changing the way [they] free climbed.” The style in which Shultz and Cosgrove were climbing was how it had always been done in Yosemite both for practical reasons (the walls were so tall), and also because it was the ethic: ground up, no falls and sticking your neck out. And there were ethics police, like the late free soloist John Bachar who would cry foul if anyone deviated from the norm, like hanging on the rope (hangdogging) while rehearsing a move. Bachar was leading the charge of sustaining traditional climbing. Fights broke out over ethics. Cars were vandalized. Free climbing El Cap required deviating from the norm – it was just too massive to free it any other way.

Changing Styles and the First Competitions Though Ray Jardine had been hangdogging with regularity in the Valley since the ‘70s (much to the dismay of some climbers), he also experimented with chiseling on El Cap in order to free climb blank sections, which further ostracized him from his peers. [Though hangdogging has since become accepted, chipping is still a no-no – Ed.] Although by the mid-‘80s hangdogging was still new and practiced by the best climbers in the US outside of the Valley, including by Bobbi Bensman, Lynn Hill, Alan Watts and the late Todd Skinner, it was not yet accepted within Yosemite’s gates. Australian climber Kim Carrigan pushed hangdogging hard in Yosemite but he was met with resistance. This practice opened the door to harder climbing, which could equate to a spot on the podium of the World Cup events being held in Europe. If the Europeans weren’t afraid to hang on the rope to work out a move, why should the Americans?

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Opposite page, top to bottom: Cory Dudley, Scott Cosgrove, Russ “The Fish” Walling, and John “The Deuce” Middendorf on top of El Capitan. Dudley and Cosgrove had just completed Zodiac, while The Fish and The Deuce just topped out on the fifth ascent of Iron Hawk, 1984. (Russ Walling collection); John Middendorf on the first ascent of the big roof on the Atlantic Ocean Wall (VI, 5.9, A5) on El Cap, 1985 (John Barbella). This page, clockwise from top: Don Reid on the Salathé Wall, 1986 (Ken Yager ); Middendorf after leading an A5 pitch on the Atlantic Ocean Wall (AO), 1985 (John Barbella); Middendorf belaying on the AO Wall (John Barbella).

Cowboys, the Captain & a Loose Block The same summer that Cosgrove and Schultz were risking life and limb up on Half Dome’s smooth South Face, so, too, were Midwest climbers Todd Skinner and Paul Piana. For 30 days they climbed ground-up on El Cap’s Salathé Wall (put up in 1961), hangdogging when necessary, intent on making the route’s first free ascent. If successful, they would be the first to free the formation one thousand feet taller than Half Dome. However, just as the duo was completing their feat, rated 5.13, they anchored their rope to a few pitons next to a giant loose block and mistakenly hauled their gear from the mass, which ripped from the wall. “Todd remembers me putting my hands out at the block and yelling ‘No!’” Piana wrote in the American Alpine Journal. “I recall a loud crack like a rifle shot, and then more pummeling, and suddenly everything stopped spinning and I could just peek back up over the edge. Everything was in tatters, ropes pinched off and fused – it appeared that they had all been cut.” The clipped pitons to the side of the block kept them from falling to their deaths. Though injured and badly shaken, Piana and Skinner slowly made their way down to the Valley floor. Climbing Big Walls Free Five years after Skinner and Piana’s success on El Cap, Lynn Hill (closely associated with the Stonemasters) freed El Cap’s Nose route,

which went at 5.14a, coining the phrase “it goes boys.” Two years later she upped the ante again and freed the route in a day. Today big wall free climbing is definitely in vogue in Yosemite, and standards continue to advance. In 2015, the world watched in awe as Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson freed the hardest route in the world, El Cap’s Dawn Wall. In addition to physically hard moves, their route has big runouts on marginal gear placements. It’s a fusion of opposite styles that were in conflict during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The world watched again, on June 3, 2017, when Alex Honnold climbed Freerider, a variation to the Salathé Wall, free solo (as in without a rope) in fewer than four hours. To prepare for his historic ascent, Honnold spent years preparing, including rappelling into key sections to inspect the moves and climbing the route bottom to top 12 times. By the time he reached the spot where Skinner and Piana nearly died when their ropes were severed by a falling rock, Honnold was already running to the summit out of joy and excitement. What’s next in Yosemite? Will there be a ground-up bolting resurgence? Will new routes be established after weeks of preinspection? Will El Cap get free soloed again? Time will tell. But one thing is for sure; climbers will continue to push the standards, whether purely for themselves or also to publish their feats on social media. As the Yosemite ethics question goes: “If you free soloed a route and told someone about it, was it really a free solo?”

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Perception Tilted

Now in its twenty-sixth year, BANDALOOP performers turn cliffs and buildings into dance floors, bringing experimental art to audiences throughout the world. By Chris Van Leuven Yosemite High Country, 2015, sunrise: Surrounded by sharp peaks, the sun’s first rays peeking through the horizon, Amelia Rudolph twists her arms and legs and arches her back on a rocky overlook, dancing alone surrounded in nature’s beauty. Next scene: A woman is clipped to a white rope strung up a ponderosa pine, with her bare feet outstretched in front, body parallel to the ground, using the trunk as a dance surface. A few days earlier, climbing hardware and hundreds of feet of static ropes are unpacked from haulbags as the BANDALOOP crew prepares to rig lines partway down Mount Watkins, a 2,000-foot wall overlooking Half Dome, for the dancers to perform on. Harnesses and rigging are triple checked. Approaching the “stage,” a lone figure walks down the vertical wall. Associate artistic director and dancer Melecio Estrella describes the feeling of being on the line as “a state of play with gravity and momentum – during a jump we’ll leave the wall for up to ten seconds.” Though the choreography looks effortless, this comes 20 ASJ ASJ—June/July — Oct/Nov 2017 2012

from months and years of practice. This is evident in the soft landings of their bare feet making contact with the rock and uninterrupted lines crossing over the dancers as they come together and break apart. Dancing with bare feet allows the bones in their feet and ankles to divvy the impact without damaging the surface of glass planes and the walls of historic buildings. Executive Director Thomas Cavanagh says that the project brings dance to the people, often in the most unexpected of places, including buildings, public spaces, convention halls, historic sites, theaters and cliff edges. “There is an interruption of someone’s day, an incidental audience – if people can dance on the side of a building, what can’t be done?” Head rigger Braden Mayfield, son of longtime dancer and rigger Peter Mayfield, says, “It takes the audience awhile before their perspective is tilted. Then it looks fun and beautiful. It’s so surreal to people that it catches their attention.” Braden is one of six head riggers. Though BANDALOOP rents a high-ceiling studio in

Oakland, they also rehearse on The Great Wall of Oakland positioned at the intersection of Grand and Broadway surrounded by locally owned workspaces and restaurants. Since its inception in 1991, BANDALOOP has performed in 22 countries and to millions of people both live and via the web or TV. Shows range from five to 90 minutes, played out in epic natural settings such as Yosemite, the Italian Dolomites, the Indian Himalaya and the rural mountains of China. Urban locations include the Space Needle in Seattle, Oakland City Hall, Los Angeles City Hall, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. The group is featured in an upcoming IMAX film on art and music in America. They also recently performed in an Arctic Circle Arts Festival in northern Norway, on a decommissioned crane in front of 3,000 people dressed in puffy down jackets to keep warm against the tendegree temps. Performances are noted in The New York Times, Life Magazine, NPR, CNN and Smithsonian Magazine.

Humble Beginnings BANDALOOP founder Amelia Rudolph (currently on sabbatical in Italy), was born in Chicago and studied dance since childhood, spending every fourth year in India from her early years through her teens. Her late parents who were noted University of Chicago scholars were based in India and South Asia. An early student of Chicago Hubbard Street dance academy, Rudolph holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in comparative religion from Swarthmore College and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. In 1990, now residing in Oakland, Rudolph – capitalizing on an explosion of modern dance in the Bay Area and the opening of CityRock in Emeryville – founded BANDALOOP. Rudolph didn’t just see the gym or the crag as a space for climbers, she saw it as a connection to vertical art. “Amelia had the vision to re-interpret and site react on locations through the vehicle of dance,” Cavanagh says. Rudolph connected with CityRock founder Peter Mayfield and began climbing and began making regular

pilgrimages to Yosemite to explore her work in urban and natural settings. She used any space where she could hang a rope, whether it was a studio, the gym or on cliff faces. The BANDALOOP incubation period combined a group of dancers and a few big name climbers, including Peter Mayfield, Steve “Shipoopi” Schneider, Heather Baer,

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Opposite page, main image: BANDALOOP dancers at sunrise on Mt. Watkins in Yosemite (James Adamson). This page, clockwise from top left: Tianmen Mountain in rural China (James Adamson); “Cathedral Principal” in Campeche, Mexico (Thomas Cavanagh); Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, California (Dang Ngo); Hall Arts Tower, Dallas, Texas (James Adamson).

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Clockwise from top: Dancers: Jing’An Tower, Shanghai China (James Adamson); Monterrey, Mexico (Carlos Brava); Martin Place, Sydney Australia (Basil Tsimoyianis).

says. “It’s great to be a human and talk with the audience. Recently in Sydney people were in tears. That’s not uncommon. The work moves people.”

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Suzanne Gallo, Karen Elliot, Kimm E Ward, Hans Florine, and Mary Carbanara. “There was an inclusive nature to the early work, a symbiotic relationship developing between us, the dance community and the Yosemite climbers,” Gallo says. Their first outdoor performance was six hundred feet up the insanely steep route South Seas on El Capitan in Yosemite. The team ascended fixed ropes, slept in portaledges and danced at dawn. Where does the name BANDALOOP come from? It’s borrowed from the Tom Robbins novel Jitterbug Perfume (1984). It’s named after a tribe in the Himalaya who did esoteric practices in the mountains to live forever.

Showtime Most shows require upwards of three days of practice on location, which gives passersby a sneak peak of what’s to come. “People take photos from their offices and on the way to their home and post them on social media, this lures people in,” Braden Mayfield says. Though Mayfield spends the show on rooftops keeping the dancers safe, at show’s end he finds his way down to street level and absorbs the atmosphere from the crowd. “It’s so surreal to people that it really catches their attention.” After every performance, the dancers rappel to the ground and do a meet and greet. “So often with dance the performers are untouchable,” Estrella

Though Estrella has been dancing with BANDALOOP since 2002, he hasn’t lost his healthy awareness of exposure. “I get butterflies when I lower off the edge of a building and it takes me three runs to feel comfortable. Even though I’ve been doing it for so long, my body has to go through the learning process every time. It’s a balance of my mind knowing the system and my body feeling the hug of the harness before I can release into the dance.” When Rudolph gets on the wall, despite the stresses and complications of touring the world – complete with delays and last minute improvisations – she has more fun than anyone in the crew. “She definitely becomes a little kid again. She has this spirit and excitement that makes it easier for us. Her joy is contagious.”

Cresting the Wave & the Future “There’s been a series of healthy growth waves over the years,” Cavanagh says. First in 2003, then again in 2011 when BANDALOOP hired the creative arts agency Sozo Artists (sozoartists.com), which led to the current iteration that tours upwards of 30 cities per year. In addition to vertical dance, BANDALOOP (a 501c3) is also active in the environment of cultural diplomacy. To learn more about BANDALOOP, follow them on Facebook: facebook.com/projectbandaloop, Twitter & Instagram: @bandalooping, and on their website bandaloop.org.

ATHLETE PROFILE

Amie Engerbretson Photo: Christophe Hassel

From the slopes of Squaw to Warren Miller’s new film Line of Descent

By Cathy Claesson Amie, where is “home”? Truckee, CA in summer; Salt Lake City, UT in winter. What brought you to Salt Lake City? Do you get any ski days in California still? I have started basing in Salt Lake City in the winters mainly for convenience of travel. The city is very central and it is easy to drive and fly many places. Also, a lot of the ski industry is based in Utah which is helpful as a professional skier. Often I will drive back to Tahoe for a storm, ski the storm and then drive with the storm to Utah and ski it there! How about your favorite ski run? KT-22 at Squaw Valley will forever hold a precious place in my heart and will be the place where I have had some of the most fun imaginable on my skis. How long have you been skiing? I was on skis for the first time when I was 10 months old. I had little plastic skis that strapped on to my little snow boots. I would lap the rope tow at Squaw or just cruise laps on my driveway with my dad towing me to the

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kinda gal. I am also usually starving so any food does me great!

top. I loved it and just grew from there. Been skiing ever since! Were you hooked on skiing right away? Yes. Skiing is in my blood and has been a huge part of my life. I did step away from skiing a bit in high school to pursue dance and ballet, but I always came back to it. Do you have other sports/hobbies? Yes, I kinda love it all! Dancing, mountain biking, running, hiking, surfing (at least trying), paddle boarding, camping, cooking and watching cat videos. We had an incredible year of snow in CA last year. Do you know how many days you got in? I am lucky enough that I get in so many days a year, I lose count. Any predictions for snow accumulation for this year? I am always banking on it being a good year. Positive thinking right? Best post ski session reward? I am a traditional-cold-beer-after-a-great-day

You do some work with High Fives Foundation. Do you have any projects planned with them in the year ahead? I have worked closely with High Fives for years and truly love the foundation and the people behind it. I do everything from volunteer, attend fundraisers and teach classes in their healing center. No big plans yet for this winter but they are always working on something new and I am always doing my part to help out. How many Warren Miller films have you been in so far? This will be my second. I have always dreamed of being in a Warren Miller movie so the first was surreal, being in a second film just makes it feel like a reality. What do you love most about being a part of Warren Miller? It is really cool to be part of a major legacy

and something that so many people look to for inspiration and stoke for the winter ahead. Skiing to me is about the collective stoke and Warren Miller films really embody that. Any fun highlights from filming Line of Descent you can share with our readers? We had a great time in Val d’Isere this past year. Skiing wasn’t the best but we had a great time anyways. On the last day of the trip we took to the skies and went paragliding. It was so cool to soar through the massive French Alps and feel like a bird. Who are your sponsors? K2 Skis, Spyder, Leki, HiBall Energy, Ojai Energetics, Backcountry Access and Discrete. What is your goal for this season? To keep the joy alive. I ski because it’s fun and I am blessed with an amazing lifestyle. I always want bigger cliffs, steeper lines, and better kick-turns but more than anything I want to continue to grow my gratitude for our amazing planet and this amazing life!

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Event Profiles

Featured Upcoming Events

Photo: Called To Creation

Photo: Great Trail Race

Photo: Biketoberfest Marin

October 7, Ashland OR

GREAT TRAIL RACE

October 8, Truckee to Tahoe City

BIKETOBERFEST MARIN

The 2017 California Enduro Series (CES) will culminate in style with the Ashland Mountain Challenge presented by Ashland Mountain Adventures in Ashland, OR on October 7. The CES finale’s course sends racers on Mount Ashland’s famed trails of decomposed granite. Ashland Mountain Adventures is a mountain bike shuttle service and bike rental company based on the south side of Ashland. It is run by husband and wife team “Wild Bill” Roussel and Sue O’Daly who lead trail stewardship efforts in the area. CES is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting world-class Enduro events that everyone from amateur to pro can enjoy, at a geographically diverse range of venues. californiaenduroseries.com

The Great Trail Race offers runners and mountain bikers the choice of two courses: Elite (22.25 miles of mostly single-track) and Classic (18.9 miles of mostly fire road). Classic’s moderate 2,808-foot climb over Starratt Pass and rolling 2,089-foot descent is a make-able achievement for many ages. The Elite course features a rich variety of single-track, 4,045 feet of climbing, plus short sections of fire road for easier passing. The event, like its winter cousin The Great Ski Race, is a fundraiser for Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue. The weather in early October in North Tahoe is often ideal for both racing and relaxing – sunny days, fall colors and temperatures in the 70s – without the crowds of summer. greattrailrace.com

This popular cycling festival draws over 5,000 brew and bicycle enthusiasts from Northern California and is a great way to have fun while helping a good cause. The event includes group road and mountain bike rides, mountain bike and e-bike demos, a brewfest with 35 beers from 20 west coast brewers, a bike expo with 60 exhibitors, a handmade bike show and bikes from the Marin Museum of Bicycling, live music by Panoramic Highway, The Pulsators and Tony Magee, and family activities such as bike blender, bike art and bounce house. Proceeds benefit local cycling advocacy organizations Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) and Access4Bikes (A4B) in their work to continue improving on and off-road bicycling conditions and access in Marin county. FREE Valet Bike Parking provided by MCBC. biketoberfestmarin.com.

ASHLAND MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE

Photo: Kaori Photo

Photo: Mountainfilm

October 14, Fairfax

Photo: Mermaid Run

MORRO BAY TRIATHLON

MOUNTAINFILM ON TOUR

MERMAID RUN SAN FRANCISCO

All Out Events returns with the 7th Annual Morro Bay Triathlon which offers both Olympic and Sprint distances. Racers will navigate a protected harbor with traditional swimming, bike iconic Highway 1, and run the beach and boardwalk to an epic photo finish under the Gibraltar of the Pacific: Morro Rock. Event proceeds from the Morro Bay Triathlon support local search and rescue as well as Water Run, an international charity bringing fresh water to places in need. If you don’t swim or you are a kayak/SUP enthusiast, you may substitute the swim portion of the triathlon with a paddle. Th paddle course starts and ends at Mothers Beach, touring Morro Bay clockwise with turns clearly marked with buoys. morrobaytri.com

Mountainfilm on Tour brings a selection of culturally rich, adventure-packed and incredibly inspiring documentary films curated from the Mountainfilm festival held every Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, CO. The tour visits Santa Cruz at the Rio Theatre with films that explore themes connected to Mountainfilm’s mission: using the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world. ASJ is proud to sponsor the Santa Cruz screening. For tickets and information visit riotheatre.com. See the link below for more information including the full list of tour locations and dates. mountainfilm.org/tour/upcoming.com

Soak in the best views of San Francisco with the Mermaid Run. Distances to choose from include the Sirena 10-mile, a 10k and 5k, and the Mermaid Dash for girls. Courses include classic views of San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge, and San Francisco skyline. Register early to guarantee your spot at the start line. Can’t make it to the race but you still want to join in the fun? Check out the event’s Virtual Mermaid run options. Mermaids receive a stylish race shirt, finisher necklace, and medal. For more information, visit mermaidseries.com

November 5 , Morro Bay

November 11, Santa Cruz

SNOWBOMB SKI & SNOWBOARD FESTIVAL

October 28-29, Santa Clara • November 4-5, San Francisco • November 11-12, Sacramento The three-event SnowBomb festival’s goal is simple: To help people ski and snowboard more often. Snowbomb kicked off 16 years ago with the “SnowBomb Card” and has since evolved to offer tens of thousands of people a more affordable way to the slopes in a variety of ways. Snowbomb is committed to getting folks out skiing and snowboarding more often by sourcing deals for its members. Admission includes complimentary lift tickets and passes, access to exhibitors and sponsors such as premier ski resorts and leading ski/snowboard manufacturers, and beer and wine sampling (where available). Use promo code “ASJ” for 50% off all tickets. snowbomb.com 24 ASJ — Oct/Nov 2017

November 12, San Francisco

WARREN MILLER FILM TOUR: “LINE OF DESCENT” The lineage of mountain lifestyle continues in Warren Miller Entertainment’s 68th full-length feature film, Line of Descent, presented by Volkswagen. In this year’s film, WME travels the globe, by land, air, and sea, exploring the ties that bind ski culture. Ride along on a cinematic journey as we travel near and far, descending some of the world’s deepest lines in Jackson Hole, Silverton, the French Alps, Montana, New Zealand, British Columbia and beyond. Tickets are now on sale nationally (at participating theater box offices, local retailers, the Warren Miller group ticket office and online). skinet.com/warrenmiller

MARKETPLACE

Adventure Events Calendar Upcoming events, trips and classes

Visit us online for a full listing of upcoming California events. Go to AdventureSportsJournal.com and click on the EVENTS button. Make sure to confirm event dates and details with event producers.

Adventure Racing

Miscellaneous, cont.

Running, con

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

21 — Dawn to Dusk / San Luis Obispo / 12 Hour / alloutadventureseries.com

NOVEMBER

November 11 — Mountainfilm on Tour / Santa Cruz / http://www. brownpapertickets.com/event/3067647

11-12 — Gold Rush 30 hour Challenge / NorCal / GoldRushAR.com

Paddling

Biking

Sea Kayaking and Stand Up Paddle Boarding /Santa Cruz / We offer the highest quality sea kayaking and standup paddle boarding instruction taught by friendly ACA- trained instructors / KayakConnection.com / 831.479.1121

OCTOBER 7 — Ashland Mountain Challenge / Lithia Park in Ashland / Finale of the California Enduro Series / CaliforniaEnduroSeries.com 7-8 — Grinduro / Quincy / MTB Enduro with a gravel grinder-style road race / SierraTrails.org

OCTOBER 7 — Sierra Showdown Paddling Challenge / South Lake Tahoe / 5 mi, 8mi, Big Blue Waterman, kids’ race / LakeTahoePaddling.com

15 — TBF MTB 50-Miler / Granite Bay, Folsom Lake SRA / TBFracing.com

Running

21 — Solvang Autumn Double Century / Solvang / 194 miles with about 11,500′ of climbing / PlanetUltra.com

OCTOBER

21 — The Hammer Road Rally / Friant / 3 routes / BikeMonkey.net 21-22 — 2-day Core Fundamentals / Palo Alto / 1 or 2 day option, tacking technical terrain on day 2 / ASingleTrackMind. 21-22 — Bike MS: Bay to Bay / Irvine to San Diego / 1 or 2 days and 4 routes to choose from / BikeMS.org 28 — SLO Gran Fondo / Avila Beach / 3 routes through coastal and wine country / SLOGranFondo.com

NOVEMBER 11 — 1-day MTB Clinic – Core Fundamentals / Sonoma / 7.5 hrs, set curriculum to master and improve your bike skills. / ASingleTrackMind. 12 — 1-day MTB Clinic – Core Fundamentals / Oakland / 7.5 hrs, set curriculum to master and improve your bike skills. / ASingleTrackMind. 10-12 — DG Ghilotti Cup/Santa Rosa Cup / Santa Rosa / 3-Day Cyclocross Tournament / BikeMonkey.net

Miscellaneous Ski & Snowboard Festivals / San Jose, San Francisco & Sacramento / See event profile opposite page & ad on page 23. snowbom.com Warren Miller Film Festivals / See event profile opposite page and ad on page 21 / warrenmiller.com

1 — Urban Cow Half Marathon, Relay & 5K Run/Walk / Sacramento / UrbanCowHalfMarathon.com

24 — Black Mountain Friday Trail Run / Sloan Canyon, Henderson, NV / Escape the crowds and #optoutside / DesertDash.com

DECEMBER 2 — Death Valley Trail Marathon and Half Marathon / Beatty, NV / EnviroSports.com 3 — California International Marathon / Folsom / #1 Boston Qualifier, Spectacular State Capitol Finish / RunCIM.org

DECEMBER 9 — 30th Annual Hark the Herald Half Marathon & 10K / Angel Island, San Francisco / Hilly loop / EnviroSports. com 10 — Jingle Bell Rock 5K / Santa Cruz / Plus kids’ 1K; Bring a toy for Toys for Tots, go for a walk or run along the San Lorenzo River Levee / FinishLineProduction.com

7 — Skyline to the Sea Marathon & 50K / Santa Cruz / PCTrailRuns.com 7-8 — Bizz Johnson 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon, 50K / Susanville / Run through scenic Lassen National Forest / CoastalTrailRuns.com 8 — Great Trail Race / Truckee, Tahoe City / Bike or run / GreatTrailRace.com 22 — Folsom Blues Breakout Half Marathon / Folsom / Plus 5K and kids’ 1K / FolsomBluesHalf.org

NOVEMBER TBD — The 420 Games Las Vegas / TBD / Run, ride, skate, or bike and forge a new respect for cannabis users; music concert, beer tasting, cannabis education / 420games.org 4 — Trail of Glory Trail Run / Cottonwood Valley, Las Vegas, NV / Run just below the beautiful cliff faces of Red Rock Canyon; Marathon, 30K, Half Marathon, 8K / DesertDash.com 12 — T9 Mermaid Run San Francisco / 5K, 10K, & Sirena10mi / MermaidSeries.com 11 — Pacific Grove Lighthouse 5K and By-the-Bay 3K Monterey Bay / bsim.org 12 — Big Sur Half Marathon / Monterey Bay / bsim.org

Learn the skills of a pro from a pro!

MTB Skills Coaching Certified IMBA ICP 1,2,3 & Betterride Certified. 3000 plus hours of professional coaching.

Swim OCTOBER TBD — South Shore Lake Tahoe Open Water Swim / Lake Tahoe / 1/2mi, 1.2mi, 2.4mi / TahoeSwimming.com 8 — San Diego Sharkfest Swim / San Diego Harbor / 1mi open water swim / SharkFestSwim.com 21 — Golden Gate Bridge Swim / San Francisco / 3K open water swim from Golden Gate Bridge south tower to Finger Point Rock / WaterWorldSwim.com

asingletrackmind.com • (209) 662-5392

Guided Global adventure travel Ski . Snowboard . Mountain bike . road bike . YoGa

2018 WINTER TRIPS

Triathlon/Duathlon OCTOBER 7 — T9 Mermaid Triathlon & Duathlon / Capitola / International Tri, Sprint Tri, Sprint Du / MermaidSeries.com 15 — XTERRA SuperKid Triathlon and Splash & Dash / Santa Cruz / Ages 7-15 / FinishLineProduction.com

FURANO NISEKO OTARU PRIVATE SNOWCAT TRIPS

ALPS

ALAGNA, ITALY ENGELBERG , SWITZERLAND ANDERMATT, SWITZERLAND ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND CHAMONIX, FRANCE MURREN-JUNGRFRAU, SWITZERLAND

NOVEMBER 5 — Morro Bay Triathlon / Coleman Park, Morro Bay / Olympic and Sprint / Beautiful coastal route; option to substitute swim with kayak or SUP / MorroBayTri.com

View & list events for free on our website at adventuresportsjournal.com f

JAPAN

www.LeGrandAdventureTours.com 1-844-LE-GRAND

www. advent ur espor t sjour nal. com

Gear We Love

Goodies for your active lifestyle 1

1. Columbia Montrail Trans Alps F.K.T. II Ladies, if you spend any time running on trails, consider buying these shoes. The Trans Alps F.K.T. [Fastest Known Time] II trail running shoe from the Columbia Montrail collection has a full-length FluidFoam™ midsole that provides cushioning, flexibility, and support for longer runs. This shoe is also outfitted with a brand-new abrasion and water resistant forefoot shield for extra protection. The lightweight, seamless upper with ripstop reinforcement makes this shoe very light and durable, and the aggressive tread provides great traction and speed to help you make it to the top. Overall these are super tough and ultra comfortable shoes that are suitable for rugged trail running. columbia.com MSRP: $130 2. Slumberjack Nightfall 3 Tent The Slumberjack Nightfall 3 Tent offers a ton of value for backpackers. For less than $200 this tent has all the features you need. The tent can be pitched in the rain thanks to the external pitch pole architecture and remain dry on the inside. The walls of the tent are almost vertical, offering copious amounts of interior space. When summer comes and you’d like to keep things mobile and fast, leave the inner tent body behind and pitch a super-light and compact shelter. You can also use your trekking poles to create a front porch out of the vestibule, which is great for sunny days. The poles on the Nightfall 3 are made of lightweight aluminum and the material is 40D polyester with No-See-Um mesh. This versatile and compact three-person tent will suit your outdoor shelter needs extremely well. slumberjack.com MSRP: $169.99 26 ASJ — Oct/Novt 2017

3. Thermarest Ultralight Cot If you like to sleep under the stars while camping or backpacking but have a hard time getting comfortable on a pad, then the Thermarest cot is for you. At under three pounds, the award-winning UltraLite Cot is lighter and packs smaller than any other cot on the market. The BowFrame™ patented technology eliminates painful crossbars, squeaky joints and broken hardware that can be found on other cots. Thermarest has revamped the feet and upgraded the carry-bag to make the UltraLite even more compact. So whether you’re fishing, backpacking, kayaking, or riding a motorcycle across the country, this is the cot you need for superior off-theground comfort. Once you sleep on a cot it will be hard to go back to a traditional sleeping pad. thermarest.com MSRP: $219.95 - $239.95 4. HydraPak Stow (500ML, 1L) HydraPak makes awesome flexible water bottles and their technology is incorporated into many of the top hydration systems on the market. We are excited about HydraPak’s new Stow (available in two sizes, 500ML or 1L), because it’s shaped like a flask instead of a cylinder. That means you can shove it in your jacket or ski pants, and it won’t protrude unnecessarily when full of water. The flat design means you can also throw it on top of an SUP and not worry about it rolling off. The Stow’s bail handle makes it easy to carry and also attach to your pack. This soft bottle is 100% BPA & PVC free, and 80% lighter than most hard bottles. Basically the Stow is a lightweight and flexible bottle that is durable and can be easily taken on any adventure. Look for the Stow this spring. hydrapak.com MSRP: $14 & $17

5. Lowa Men’s Aerox Hiking Shoe These days hiking shoes look more like running shoes ... and that’s a good thing! Twenty years ago hiking in the Sierra was all about big leather boots with Vibram soles. These days most people prefer lightweight shoes for short to medium hikes. The Lowa Aerox is our favorite shoe for short to medium hikes or backpacking with a fairly light pack. They are breathable, waterproof and lightweight and they have all the features we like in a trail shoe starting with Lowa’s direct injection ventilation system and a stable outsole. If you are tired of heavy leather boots that are overkill for shorter hikes, try the Lowa Aerox. You won’t be disappointed. lowaboots.com MSRP: $219.95 6. Seal Line Discovery Deck Dry Bag Seal Line is the name we trust when it comes to dry bags. Made of ultradurable materials, the versatile Discovery waterproof dry bag features welded construction for lasting performance, plus an updated closure that makes it easy to achieve a tight, protective seal for excellent fortification against water, from day floats to overland expeditions. The bag has an air purging port that allows for easy purging of excess air in the bag. The best part about this dry bag is the large adjustable carry strap that allows you to throw it over your shoulder for easy carrying or a great way to anchor the bag to the deck of your kayak or SUP. The Discovery Deck Dry Bags come in a variety of colors and sizes. seallinegear.com MSRP: $49.95-$79.95 7. G-Form Elite Knee Guard We like G-Form pads for mountain biking because they are comfortable to wear and they are easy to pull on. You

can wear these handy kneepads over clothing or directly on your bare knees if you like to wear shorts while riding. The Elite Knee Guards are CE 1621 Level 1 certified, the highest standard for motorcycle armor, and that’s what makes them so perfect for mountain biking. The top and bottom silicone gripper bands make sure the pads stay in place, while the technical mesh back panel helps with breathability and moisture wicking. If you like to drop in on steep trails, don’t forget your G-Form pads. g-form.com MSRP: $99.99 8. nuun Performance Hydration The new Performance Hydration, designed for endurance activities, steps away from the traditional tablets nuun is widely known for and instead comes in a powder form. Each serving of nuun’s Performance Hydration packs in 15 grams of carbs and 60 calories per serving. The ratio of carbs to water is formulated to optimize the body’s absorption of fluid, during activities lasting longer then 90 minutes. nuun developed this product for three years and it is verified nonGMO, gluten free, and vegan meaning you’re only putting the best in your body so that you can get the best out. nuun’s Performance Hydration has a light flavor, keeping it palatable while you’re exerting yourself, but doesn’t leave you feeling like you need to chase with a full bottle of water after. nuun’s Performance Hydration is perfect for die hard athletes and weekend warriors alike, if you’re looking for a hydration powder that isn’t loaded with sugars and fake ingredients to make it taste good be sure to check out nuun’s Performance Hydration for your next ride, hike, or run! nuunlife.com MSRP: $20 for one pouch containing 32 servings

HYDRATION, TRANSFORMED

The great outdoors just got greater. The Seeker™ is HydraPak’s ultra-light, durable water storage system for camping, backpacking, you name it. It packs down to the size of a fist, attaches to your pack or hangs from a tree. You can freeze it to use as an ice pack or fill it with hot water to keep you warm. Katadyn® BeFree™ filtration compatible.

Find one at a dealer near you hydrapak.com

TESTED TOUGH WHERE WE PREFER TRAILS OVER TREADMILLS.

The Trans Alps™ F.K.T.™ II is our fastest mountain running shoe. It’s lightweight durable construction with exceptional cushioning, support and aggressive traction. Outfitted with a brand-new abrasion and water-resistant forefoot shield, it’s trail performance built for velocity, rugged terrain and your fastest known time.

TRANS ALPS™ F.K.T.™ II