Mark Hammond

Skiing update

2009-12-20T13:24:00.001-08:00

Weber River

2009-12-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

Started out on the section just below Rockport. Air temp about 27 degrees

The river just below the dam is channeled and lined with houses. Piss poor. Very little winter habitat for the fish. Snagged one whitie. Water temp 38. 79 cfs.
The section just below Echo has been reduced to about 1 cfs. It has been that low since late October

Then tried the section just above Echo. Water temp was 32!

It was so cold that my line froze solid. Dipping it in the water made it worse cause the water was at freezing temp!

Timp Snowfield attempt

2009-11-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Zach somehow motivated me to try and slog up to the snowfield. Wind totally jacked the headwall. Wind slab on top of scary weak facets made travel in steep areas sketchy at best. We weren't moving too fast and i wanted to get back for the BYU/Utah game so we bailed midway up the headwall. Still nice to get out and observe pre-season conditions in that area. Definately not I place I will come back to for a while considering how weak the snow is.

Strawberry and LC

2009-11-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

On the way to LC I had to take advantage of some thick morning fog on the berry. Too bad I didn't get up earlier cause I only caught the tail end of it as it burned off around 11. I think the thickest morning fog occurs just before the lake freezes. Just pulled out one fish near the dam casting from shore using a big gay al. Even though fish are so close to the bank when there is fog I am accepting that it's still more effective to be in a boat casting to shore.

Then to LC. Was quite suprised at how many people were there. 2 drift boats and a fleet of toons and tubes. About 10 people there in all. Didn't see anyone catch a thing and many were starting to leave when I arrived around noon. Water temp was 36.

Caught this nice Tiger Trout on a brown articulated leech and 7 sink. Was casting to shore on the east side and using medium speed retrieve. Maybe should have slowed it down more and used the clear camo cause not much happened after that. On the way in, after only fishing for an hour, I saw quite a larger tiger trout rolling around near the shore. Judging by the water temp and others/my own success I didn't feel inclined to keep trying.
So off to chicken creek east at the Berry. Alot of people there around 330 but again nobody catching anything including myself. A dry front passed through but it wasn't windy for some reason. Just calm and relatively warm. I jetted off to Renegade for the last hour of daylight to prove my theory that Renegade Point is one of the best spots on the lake. Sure enough I pulled a fish out on big gay al and clear camo before it got dark. Seems like there is just a huge concentration of fish off that point.

Thanksgiving quickie

2009-11-26T20:29:00.000-08:00

Hit Little Dell for about an hour. Water temp was 46. Saw some pigs near the inlet but it was too clear and shallow to not spook them. Caught a decent cutt out deeper on a Big Gay Al fly and 7 sink.

Days Fork

2009-11-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

The coverage is not nearly as good as it looks. Base averages about 2 feet on prime terrain. Exits are still crap.

Zach, Zach G, Cindi, and Tyler joined me up Days Fork. Well sort of. I had to ditch them shortly after starting so I could get to work before noon. Takes about 2 hours to go up from BCC. I climbed pretty quickly until I ran out of energy drink and bonked near the top.
Hit the line in the shade.

Zach's pic of me.

The Bird again

2009-11-23T19:13:00.000-08:00

A fat crew for this morning. Frank, Rich, Tony, Jeff, Zach, and myself out to destroy the Bird. Gad Valley was open but we snuck up to the cirque to slay it before it closed. Rich measured the snow depth to be about 70 cm. There was about a foot of new on top of a scratchy facet base. Quite a suprise considering only 4 inches was forecast. Thank you lake effect.

Booting up the north chute of the cirque. Ski patrol later came through and told us they were closing the mountain that day so we just barely made it in time.

bony

Zach Clanton photos below:

Rich
Jeff

Jeff again
Rich
not sure who

ruins

ski patrol scurrying to get the mountain open

The exit was a bit bony but not too bad

Mineral Fork

2009-11-18T14:12:00.000-08:00

Near the top of Mineral Fork, aka "The Room of Doom". Zach felt the slope collapse right here.

So we dug down and were shocked to find the pack was almost 6 feet deep! Some major loading must have occured due to the toilet bowl geometery of the cirque. The northwest facing corner of the cirque was very wind scoured while the northeast facing corner that we were in was incredibly loaded from the wind swirling around. Obviously all that weight was putting the October facet/crust layers on the brink of failure. Our weight almost pushed it over the edge.

Looking at the northeast corner of the Room of Doom where we felt the slope collapse. Our pit was dug right above our tracks, about halfway up the bowl.
Met this curious little white mink on the way down.
We watched it prance around us for 5 minutes. It didn't seem to be very afraid.

Snowbird Cirque

2009-11-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

We arrived in the cirque to find that the sunday crew tracked it out wall to wall

There was about 10 inches of fluff on crust. Not too bad. Zach shredding here.
A couple of twenty somethings got lost on the gate buttress, spent the night up there, and had to be air lifted out the next morning. Suckers!

Zach Clanton photo of me.

Strawberry Days

2009-11-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

More rounds at Strawberry. Took Gary Gygi and Anton Stauffer to Renegade point on 11/4. High pressure in place but full moon still affecting fish. It was a clear night so the fish were up within a few feet of the surface aggresively feeding until about 830 am (the tailing end of a full moon feeding frenzy?). I accidentally had my 7 sink instead of 3 on so I missed much of the action up top. Clear camo would have been better. Anton was fishing a 3 and was into fish sooner. However I still had a number of hookups with my pinky and the brain rig. Cast to one rise and caught a double. Many fish rising. Then Gary showed up with the big pontoon rig he rented for a few hundred bucks and we headed off to the narrows. By this time the fish were shutting down because of the full moon. We had many follows but the fish were obviously shy. Seems to me that when fish are not aggresively feeding they will be shy of brighter colors like white and pink and larger flies in general. So next time fishing a full moon or low pressure it would be best to try more natural sizes and colors and retrieve slower. We putted over to Strawberry Bay for one last effort but alas the fish were just off. Anton did get some half hearted strikes from some fish near the bank (in broad daylight no less, suprised the fish stayed that close to the bank that late in the day) Other anglers reported the fishing to be sucky. Water temp in low 40s

Strawberry River with Todd and 11/7. Would have fished the lake but low pressure moving in. Started at the section in town around 8 am. Definately fewer and smaller fish in there than ever before. Flow about 140 and fairly murky. Prince nymph and pheasant tail did the damage. Then to the upper portion. A few cars there. Water much more clear. Still very weedy. Spotted a few very large spawning browns. Water temp about 42. Larger flies were still more effective than the #20 glass bead midge I usually use there. Other anglers reported poor success. I think all of the pressure from guides and others have pushed many of the fish into the indian section.

Back to Strawberry on 11/10. Meant to leave at 4 to chase big fish at dawn but slept in. Started at Haws Point at 8. Dead. High pressure and no moon problems but there was no wind so I think the sun put them down. Nobody else catching fish. Hopped over to Renegade where I knew alot of fish were and at least I hooked some there using 5 sink and pink brain flies. Nobody else doing anything there either. Makes me wonder how good it would have been in the early morning. Probably quite good. Water temp about 41.

Tried the Strawberry River just above Starvation on 11/13 for a few hours in the evening. Cattle have ravaged the portion nearest to the lake. No fish caught. The water closer to the bridge looks better and Devin says he knows people who catch nice brows from there.

Dawn Patrol at Haw's Point with Braden on 11/20. About 4 degrees that morning. Suprisingly, not many fish near the bank, but many seen rising about 30 feet out. Moon and pressure were ideal but the fish just weren't shallow there.....

Cardiac Ridge

2009-10-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Alta

2009-10-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Rich, Frank, and I hit Baldy shoulder. About a foot of fresh with moderate wind. Zach hit Main Baldy and had no avy problems although McLean found a layer of graupel near there a week earlier. Then we hit a line near High Rustler. Not bad for only about 18 inches on the ground.

Boulder Mountain

2009-10-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

elk hunt

Deer Creek Lake
Capitol Reef
Green Lake

Paxton photo

paxton photo

So that's why they call it Boulder Mountain

Renegade

2009-10-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

10/15. finally landed a bow

The hatchery truck showed up at Renegade and so did hundreds of seagullsJose's first time lake fishing

With a high pressure in place the action was good once we found a school of fish. Used 5 sink with white bugger stripped fast

Jose used 3 sink with olive bugger

they are getting fat

Went back saturday evening 10/17 and absolutely slayed them with 7 sink and white bugger (w pink attractor fly). Lots of short strikes though. Stomach sample was green daphnia. Water temp 46. Returned 10/22 with Braden and had slow fishing due to low pressure moving in.

New route in LCC

2009-10-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

Nate's new route is along the white side of the gully. 5 pitches so far, should be 8 to the ridge.

Seen from the park and ride
Matt Lemons making sure his car is still there

Clamshell photo shoot

2009-10-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

fall evening

Nate invited me up to the Clamshell (Alta, Hellgate Cliffs) for a catalog photoshoot

The VP, Rich Morris, came along but got too cold to finish any climb

Bryants Fork

2009-10-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

An unusually intense algae bloom at Bryants Fork

it was all over the lake actually
Low pressure moving in slowed the fishing big time but still a few caught on white, red, and black buggers with 3 sink. Seems like fish prefer slower retrieve when barometer is falling.

Another October powder day at Alta

2009-10-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

z
Baldy Shoulder

Kevin

Me. z

Strawberry and the River

2009-10-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Horse Creek at dawn. Water temp 54. There are not alot of fish up shallow yet.

With the elk and duck hunt going on it sounded like World War 3 when the sun came up. Duck hunter and his decoys in this photo.

Strawberry River. Solid fish as usual caught on #22 glass bead baetis midge fly. Nice baetis hatch came off (it was cloudy). Only a few cars and one guide from Trout Bum. Water temp 54 and flow around 110?. Still quite mossy and not alot of fish in the upper section yet.

Butt Trumpet

2009-10-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

First Ski Day of Season

2009-10-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

About a foot of snow fell at Alta. That's enough to get out.

Gunsight. Clanton photo

Clanton photo

Bishop and Yosemite

2009-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Island Park trip

2009-09-07T14:57:00.000-07:00

Started out fishing the main stem of the Snake around Idaho Falls. The state record 26 pound rainbow was recently pulled from the river just above American Falls. We fished two spots. The first one was at the put-in for boats that were floating the section just above the lake. Only caught a few bows here so we moved upriver to Firth. There we caught more stocker bows in fast, well oxygenated water but nothing impressive- one bigger fish sighted though. Water temp around 64 I think.

Next stop was the Teton River. We fished where a few guide boats were pulling out. Water temp around 63. Nothing really hatching and the stomach sample had only little black snails. The cutts in this river are totally covered in little black spots that come from a harmless parasite.
Then to Coffepot Rapids on the Henrys. We fished the far side and found zillions of little stocker and wild bows. Devin fished behind me and still caugth plenty more: proof of the effectiveness of French nymphing. He also hooked one kokanee and one 20 inch bow.

Box Canyon also only produced little bows and some nice whitefish. Much of the water looks the same so it's hard to pick out good holding areas. Flows were around 600 which apparently isn't ideal because I'm told its much better at 900 or at 300. For some reason the big fish can be very elusive here, maybe because they can spread out well at this flow. Maybe the warmer water from the Buffalo played a part in putting the bigger fish down. But I'm told when this river is hot it's really hot.

We stayed at Scott's trailer near Island Park reservoir and took his boat out Labor Day morning. Motored over to the "Thumb" bay. The cabin in the background is owned by the Trude family which is where the Trude line of flies came from. Despite the water temp being about 64 there were plenty of fish up very shallow. Devin absolutely railed on the big bows using the Loch technique: 3 fly tag rig, all tungsten beads, flashy green #10 "Pops" bugger being the main attraction. He used a 3 sink then switched to a 7 for the "pulling lures" technique. This involves placing a flashy orange "blob" attractor fly in the middle and retrieving as fast as possible. Plently of fish fell for the blob. I got my butt kicked cause I tried to stick with bigger flies.

An unusually friendly moose just chilling by the trailer

Then off to Red Rock Creek - headwaters of the Beaverhead. We came expecting easy fishing for grayling but were shocked to find the fish concentrated in only a few holes and very unresponsive to our flies. Absolutely nothing hatching and very low, clear water Devin was smart enough to try nymphing some #12 olive beadhead buggers which had enough movement to provoke strikes. Stomach sample only had water boatmen.

Luckily we found a large deep hole where the majority of fish in that section were hiding from ospreys. Many of the fish had scars from osprey attacks. The water was just deep enough for the fish to let their guard down and take our flies - but Devin's buggers still outproduced my prince and pheasant tail nymphs. We caught around a dozen fish out of there- whities, brookies, and of course some large grayling with one pushing 17 inches. There was one 20+ inch cutt in the pool that kept chasing our hooked fish and Devin even hook it with his second fly.

This was one of the most educational trips I have ever been on.

Strawberry River & Middle Provo

2009-08-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Fished the Strawberry River with Kyle, Scooter, and Jared Hart

Dry dropper rig produced some fish. There really isn't much good holding water in that section.

Stomach sample from the Middle. Decent pmd hatch but I still nailed them on a prince nymph/ caddis pupa czech rig. Flows around 300 cfs. Lower is at 500 still!

Kings Peak

2009-08-28T19:22:00.001-07:00

August skiing: Timp snowfield

2009-08-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

The quest for year-round skiing in Utah continues with an August jaunt to Timp

Nice place for a nap

Still plenty of snow due to a good snow season and a cool summer.

We watched a little girl slip and tumble down the snowfield for a few hundred feet. Looked intense

Dan's pond skimming attempt

A little trip to Bear Lake on the 14th-15th for a ward campout. A cold front moved through with soaking rain and snow above 10,000 ft! So much for wakeboarding. We tried to check out Minitonka Cave but there was a 4 hour wait so we just chowed down at Merlin's burger pit.

The lake was quite chilly

another summer update

2009-08-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Family vacation was in Panguitch this year. Panguitch happens to mean "big fish". Puuurfect.

Dawn patrolled Panguitch lake on July 31 and August 1. Started out on the east shore and measured the water temp at 65: too warm.

So I headed over to the west end and bingo, I find the inlet and crowds of anglers. Water temp was 62. It's quite shallow and weedy for a long ways out from the inlet but judging by the concentrations of boats there must be a decent channel. I ignored it and headed for deep sea.
As soon as I got to the drop off I was into fish with a 5 sink. Using Tom's purple bugger and a canadian brown leech behind it. All fish caught on the purple bugger. Fast retrive didn't seem to matter. Tried a 3 fly rig but it didn't seem to work any better. After 2 mornings of fishing I concluded that the shallower weedy areas and deep water produced equally well for me. Bottom line: 62 degrees is still cool enough for the fish to feed in littoral zone (just as I saw in Canada). In fact, I may have done better if I had stuck to the littoral zone with a 2 sink. I watched some other pontooners in the shallows having decent success, sometimes fast. The bait and hardware folks were pulling fish occasionally from all depths. Those on the shore got skunked from what I saw.
Average fish size was about 18 inches! That explains the heavy crowds. Very fat and healthy fish. I hear this fishery has just come back from chub problems. Hopefully the bait dudes can exercise a bit of self control and not fish the place out this year (cause the regs have been loosened to 4 fish).

I brought a nice one back to camp and the kids went nuts! It's not often I bring fish home so it was quite the treat for them (although only a few tasted it). Here Blake is playing with its eye.

Off to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Looking south from Rainbow Point to the Grand Staircase monument
The rim stretching northward
poser

Table Cliff and the Aquarius Plateau to the east. Mom strolls along.

frolicking

The family photo project

grungy pool at the KOA

The annual talent show

weird

The 11000 foot Table Cliff seen from Highway 12. Quite an amazing drive

Looking back west to Table Cliff. Driving on the "hogback" spine to Boulder. The Escalante River drains through here.

South slope of the Boulder Mountains

Aspen groves on the south slope of the Boulder Mt.

Looking southeast from Boulder Mt. to the canyons of Capitol Reef. This view is what makes Highway 12 so impressive.

Henry Mts and Capitol Reef to the east. Photo taken near the top of the pass, elevation around 9600 ft.

North slope of Boulder Mt.

Snowfield on the pipeline apron at Snowbird on July 22. A decent summer ski run.

Took a little detour on my way back from the July 24-26 Missouri trip. This is a boulder field just east of Butte on I-90

Limestone cliffs along the Boulder River

Paradise Valley and the Yellowstone River.

Mammoth

Yellowstone River

Tower Falls

Yellowstone River gorge to the east

Yellowstone River

Buffalo jam in the Hayden Valley

Hayden Valley

Yellowstone Lake

Bald eagle and the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake

new forest

Jackson Lake

Mt. Moran

The big breast

Braden hooks a fish at high banks on July 29. Water temp: 52. Level is still quite high (can't find the exact measurment online)

Bouldering championships on top of the Shiloh parking lot. July 22

Portia Menlove

Sierra Blair-Coyle

Bouldering comp

Braden playing a fish

Crows at Bryce

Fishing up north

2009-08-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Back to my favorite river up north. Fished it on the 24th & 25th of July. Had so much fun that
I came back with my brother on August 7th & 8th. Flow was around 4500 cfs. Water temp was about 58 near the dam and 61 a mile downriver. The moss grew somewhat between the first and second trip but was not significant problem. Moderate crowds (around 10 cars in the lot at most, guide boats were much more numerous during the first trip).

The green spotted torpedo

As usual, many of these fish put up incredibly powerful fights. One of them was so powerful it just snapped my hook in half! Several others managed to bend my hooks. Average fish size was 20 inches with 23-25 inchers being hooked on a regular basis. Needless to say, we were constantly having fish take us into our backing and running after them downriver (if they didn't already spit the hook by doing huge jumps). Two of them were into my backing in about 10 seconds! Very intense fishing to say the least.

Hook snapped in half

The caddis hatch was very strong during the July trip. Every night we had the glorious sensation of being covered with caddis. The hatch was much less intense in August.

Used a #14 orange scud for an attractor. Then a #14-16 tan pupa or olive larva. Most fish were taken on the pupa or larva. Here are some stomach samples I took with a #14 fly added for scale. The fish were really chomping on the tan pupa. Some pmd nymphs were found in other samples

Only caught one brown the whole time

Some bait fishing fags left evidence of their tactics. Wonder how many fish were killed by that corn?

Hey bait fishermen, ever notice that fly fishermen catch 10 times more fish than you? And we don't even cheat.

Can't get enough of those trout colors

As usual, nobody is around when I land big fish so I have to settle for rod shots

fat lard trout. typical.

26 incher

P.S. A cold front moved through during the August trip and there was a dusting of snow on the high peaks. Unreal. Jake was climbing the Grand during the snowstorm

Update: various activities

2009-07-19T17:21:00.001-07:00

Some of the stuff I've been doing for the past few weeks:

Hit LCC with Paxton and threw down some of the classic routes: Mexican Crack, Pentapitch, and Sasquatch. Amazing cracks! Too bad I forgot my camera cause there were some great pics to be had.

Ferguson Canyon

Choss Garden, BCC. My brother bolted a new .12a called "Mellow Gold". It's a rather sucky approach and sketchy belay ledge but the climbing is good.
Upper Broads. Might hit one of those chutes in August.

Garrett on a nice 10b warm up

Climbing at Parley's Canyon. The noise from the freeway makes communicating with your belayer hard. Pretty interesting slab routes though.

Water is still quite high on the Lower so the fish are spread out. However the water clarity and temp are ideal so once you find fish it's easy.

After helping set up for the OR show I did a little night jog up Grandeur Peak.

This is what happens you take a night shot without a tripod.

July 4 skiing: Bald Mountain, High Uintas

2009-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Balloon from the Freedom Fest getting ready to land near Park City

No snow in the parking lot. Hmmmmm.
Trial Lake over there I think.

suprisingly firm snow

Atop Bald Mountain looking west

east to Hayden Peak

high elevation fireworks show

The northeast chute of Bald Mountain had just patches of snow. Doh! So we settled for some snow fields on the west side

Intersting 3 class scramble in ski boots. Not recommended

it was very nice skiing!!

looping back to the car just a storm rolls in around noon

Here's a little video to sum it all up. Music by none other than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Lower Provo

2009-07-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Excellent fishing with #20 sow and #18 wood duck special. 16 fish in 2 hours. Flows were still a bit higher than ideal but should perfect within a week or so. However, the side channel at the campground is amazing with higher flows.

Stomach pump: the fish are gorging on sows. One pmd nymph here also.

The rubber hatch is in its prime. Thankfully fish don't seem to care. Some of the rubber duns ain't too bad lookin' either :)

British Columbia

2009-06-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

The first night of our rather short Canada road trip was spent at this luxurious camp in Oregon. A sign in the grungy bathroom said "No haircutting". Is all of Oregon that weird?

One of the huge Washington volcanoes can be seen the distance (Rainier?) Sweet coastline approaching Squamish

The Chief. The Squamish climbers' pride and joy. Good times to be had here.

Absolutey spectacular mountains near Squamish. Summit elevations around 8000 feet, but rising straight from the ocean!

My bro and I

Any steelhead in there right now?

camerman Todd

Not sure what kind of rock it was. Quality area and we barely scratched the surface. Didn't even get to the bouldering around The Chief.

Some of the climbs got real tricky at the end

Whistler Blackcomb. A huge tram now spans that canyon to connect the two resorts

Some impressively large chutes near Whistler. This one looked to be about 5000 vert and consistently steep!

Brit's first time fishing. Unfortunately she got skunked

mmmmmmm

Todd had a nice one slam his bugger at night

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle looking for a fish snack. Most anglers had a pram like in this photo. They anchored on the shoals and had two rods: one for indicator fishing and one for stripping nymphs

fish on!

Excellent fighting fish and phenomenal jumpers! This one took a black bugger trolled on a clear camo. The vast majority of fish were found on the shoals, about 7 feet deep. Water temp: 61.

Stomach sample: brown chironomids, olive damsel nymph, and something weird.

Roche Lake was reportedly good in the morning, but since my source told me morning fishing wasn't good I slept in and missed it. Doh! The most successful fishermen were using olive & black or brown & silver chironomids. Some used indicators while the guy who was really knocking em' was using a #6 sink and slowly hand twisting up. A crowd of boats was following the chironomid hatch as it popped up in different parts of the lake. I was able to find a nice pod of fish thanks to the finder but couldn't seem to find any fly that worked consistenly. Large black buggers, chironomids of different colors (black w/ maroon rib and brown w/ silver rib), and scuds worked. Most fish were about 16 feet deep. Water temp: 62 One friendly canadian told me he did really well on a flashy scud fished on a 2 or 3 sink. He also mentioned he once did well at Island Lake letting a backswimmer pattern sink to about 40 feet and having fish slam it near the bottom.

Anyway, gotta be more prepared and have more time to figure out these Kamloops lakes. Some seriously big fish and good times to be had here. Hopefully I'll get to hit Dragon Lake one day.

Strawberry with Kyle

2009-06-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

I planned on spending all Saturday tying flies for Canada but Kyle wanted to fish and I couldn't refuse. So we got up at 4 and hit the berry (Horse Creek again). Kyle got one soon on a renegade trolling out in the middle, but that was it for him. He somehow managed to fill his waders with frigid lake water (50 degrees) so he quit early.

I didn't do much better. Should have focused on shallow water using damsels, midges, and scuds but I had this craving to just go troll big flies in deep water like a jackass. Hey, sometimes it works really well. Sometimes...

And what a fine chub I dredged out of the depths. Just jigging that conehead bugger right on the bottom about 20 feet deep. Are the trash fish coming back???

After seeing a decent chironomid hatch I had enough sense to fish shallow water a bit before leaving. Picked up two fish quickly just trolling a chironomid pattern (#14, maroon rib, black flash, black bead) through the littoral zone. Wanted to fish more (and fish the chironomid properly) but Kyle wanted out. Pumped one fish- a damsel nymph and some chironomids

Wanting to end the day on a better note, I somehow convinced Kyle to let me check out a small lake nearby for a half hour. Not enough time to figure it out but was impressed by the number of scuds I saw in the shallows - some clinging to my boots. I'll be back to that place in the fall....

Triple Combo day

2009-06-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Started out the marathon day with some fishing at Strawberry. Slept in my car so I could be on the water at 5 a.m. and fished till 7 a.m.. The lake is now totally full, in fact the main trail at Horse Creek is covered. The fishing was a bit spotty-which is about what I'd expect considering the water temp is 44. Cutthroats would not chase my fly but would gulp it as soon as it hit the water. The rainbows did chase and hit hard when I was stripping it fast. 12 inch bows fought harder than 17 inch cutts.

Then it was off to Alta to ski Sugarloaf. I was supposed to catch up to some friends who started an hour earlier but later found out they went to the Devil's Castle/Sugarloaf saddle whereas I followed the Sugarloaf lift.
Timp. The Grunge Couloir is that little slit that comes off the North Summit. The top angle is 62 degrees! It almost doesn't look filled in right now but hard to tell. If I can motivate someone to go maybe I'll do it this month.
Looking down from Sugarloaf. Cecret Lake is finally starting to thaw.
Mineral Basin and Pittsburgh Lake

It was really nice corn skiing!

A look back at Sugarloaf and some nice tracks on the shoulder.

I wanted to go climb in American Fork Canyon in the evening but storm clouds rolled in. So instead I climbed at Momentum with my brother Todd (and I didn't care to take gym climbing pics). Here are the boots of the day.

Main Baldy Chute

2009-06-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Utah white gold melting away

We don't need no stinkin' ski lift!
Baldy shoulder. Where's the crowds?
Skins never cease to amaze me. They can stick to just about any type of snow and hold on pretty steep angles.
Garrett multi-tasking: talking on his cell phone and mountaineering

American Fork Twins

Little Chute looking nasty

The ridge traverse from Superior to Twin Peaks is supposedly 5th class. Family fun!

dropping Main Baldy

Is the black stuff residue from avy control bombs??

Aside from the peppering of rocks and sun cups it was nice riding

Can you spot the butterfly on Superior?

Backcountry Ski Videos

2009-06-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

I put together quite a few videos of my tours throughout the season so here they are. Still some footage I have yet to aquire before I produce the season review video.

Back to Colorado

2009-05-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

The fishing was so much fun last week I just had to come back with my brother to prove it to him. Still plenty of snowmelt left to fill the reservoir.

Running at 700 cfs. An unbelievable number of huge fish can be seen in this photo. All totally off limits by decree of the Federal Government.
Several years ago a huge avalanche came down this path and blew a bunch of huge fish out of the river. Witnesses claim to have seen 10+ pound fish dead on the highway.

More than a few fish survived it though :)

whip out the trusty stomach pump

Pumped a ton of mysis, one baetis nymph, and one scud.

Back to the car to make some imitations.

Disgusting Dinty Moore soup. Even the animals don't deserve that kind of nastiness.

The winning patterns

Todd hooks into a massive bow. Looked to be around 9-11 pounds. I almost netted it before it took off down the rapids and broke off. Todd said he needed counseling after that.
Don't worry Todd, there's plenty more fish in the river.

brilliant red spots

brilliant red stripe
There was a ton of fish visible in the upper river thanks to the high flows.

The upper river was very crowded on Saturday (no suprise). I didn't see many large fish in the lower section except for one pod of 6-9 pounders. Hooked 3 of them. One snapped me off with one jump. The other 2 ran across river and wrapped around boulders. Soooo frustrating. Evening fishing in the rain using mysis patterns was incredibly fast. Just about EDC. However every fish over 8 pounds managed to spit the hook or do some ridiculous move to break me off. I was using 5x on size 20 and 18 flies. I have only used 6x on previous trips because of how wary the fish are but I went with 5x this time because of the high flows. I guess 4x was necessary to land the pigs but I couldn't bring myself to tie 4x on #18-20 flies (especially on such a technical river). At least we landed some decent sized fish.

Never have I fought fish so powerful. The 9 pounder I got last week didn't fight as hard as some 5 pounders I hooked on this trip. I simply cannot believe how strong the fish were this time considering the water temp was only 41 (1 degree higher than last week). I think they fought harder than anything I've hooked on the Missouri, Big Horn, San Juan, Beaverhead, North Platte, or Frying Pan. I suppose the fact that they were absolutely GORGING on mysis being flushed out with the high flows had something to do with it. Amazing how those shrimp make the fish super colorful and powerful.

last week's fish

Timpanogos Cave & bouldering

2009-05-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

Always a blast to hang out with my siblings and zillions of nieces and nephews.

My nephews Luke and Daniel trekking through the rock fall danger zone as designated by the red stripe
Box Elder area
They say the water is perfectly pure
Stunning

The Heart

These will join in just a quick couple thousand years

Psycho looking helectites

Did some night bouldering at the Campus Boulder (Lisa Falls area, LCC)

Skiing the Obelisk

2009-05-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

The objective: First I planned on skiing the north face of Nebo. While driving over the point of the mountain at 7:30 a.m. I saw Nebo was already covered by storm clouds coming in on the southwest flow. Because lower Little Cottonwood doesn't get the southwest flow as much I thought I could climb North Thunder Mountain and ski the Needle before it got too bad . Wish there was snow at the trailhead.

The bottom of Scotties
Little Pine. What an amazing chute- when it's filled in that is...
absolutely nasty snow down low
melting...melting!
lush spring green
sun cups on west aspect

Can't get enough Pfiefferhorn pics- seems like all my TRs have one

The Obelisk: a V0 boulder problem? I imagine standing on top would be tricky :)

There she is: The Hypodermic Needle. Looks even more defined in the spring.

I was hoping the weathermen would be wrong about the forecasted rain and lightning- but no. Better get the freak outta here! Dang, I really really wanted to check the Needle off my list.

It was easy to trigger shallow sluffs on the east face of the Obelisk. Not sure what the temp was up there but the valley reached 78 for a high. Clouds overnight and throughout the day definately helped keep the snow too warm. A.k.a. greenhouse effect

The sluff erased my track in the chute but you can see it left of the debris on the apron

It started raining as soon as I reached the parking lot. Definately wouldn't want to be in a 50 degree chute while its raining. Frustrating that I didn't reach my goal but glad I got out cause I almost decided to waste the day by going to a movie or something.

Colorado fishing

2009-05-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Flow: 500 cfs

Water temp: 40 degrees

Stomach sample: #18 & 22 baetis nymphs

Big fish were just beginning to move onto the flats so there wasn't a high concentration of them for sight fishing.

Parking lot was full-even on a weekday.

This pig measured 26.5" long and 16" girth!
Caught it on a #20 tan midge larva

photoshop cleaned this pic up nicely
Other flies that produced were red midge larva, mercer micro mayfly, olive pheasant tail, and sowbug (all in the #20-22 range). Mysis patterns became very effective in the evening. I'm guessing it's because the fish are more easily fooled by our rather opaque imitations of translucent mysis when the light is low. Or maybe more mysis are sucked through the dam during the evening?

Strawberry: Horse Creek

2009-05-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

Fished from 6-7:30 a.m.. Water temp 46 degrees. Seems like the fish are starting to spread out more, I guess cause turnover is coming. Nothing big again, just average size cutts. Had a few take the ridiculous looking attractor fly (orange head and rainbow body)- over my favorite olive leech trailer. Action seems to be faster on steeper banks as opposed to the longer shallows.

Zion: Angel's Landing

2009-05-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

National Park or Amusement Park?

Prickly Pear Cactus

If only all peaks had a paved trail. I suppose the escalator for this hike is coming soon

Uber crowded. An accident waiting to happen

The top

Great White Throne

rabies

Don't EVER do this hike in shoes like these. That was spicy!

Falling is not advised here

Angel's Landing has quite an impressive wall. My bro climbed it once.

Strawberry: Horse Creek

2009-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Back to Horse Creek for an evening assault. Fished from 8 - 9:30 p.m.. Water temp 47 degrees. More short striking this time. Two fly rigs again proved better. Even with a floating line I was still snagging lots because of how shallow I was fishing. The fishing was good but not as good as early morning.

Wyoming bunny blasting

2009-05-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Some potgut and jackrabbit population control was needed near Kemmerer, Wyoming. What a fine way to bond with the Bishopric, all of whom are gun fanatics.

High Uintas
Horny Toad

Afterwards I went climbing at the Challenge Buttress, BCC, for a Liberty Mountain company party. It's a hard life :)

Strawberry: Horse Creek

2009-05-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Fished Horse Creek from 6:00-8:30 a.m.. Water temp 44 degrees. Very fast fishing until the sun peeked over the ridge around 7:30. Before the sun appeared it was easy to see many cutts cruising close to the bank. Suprisingly, I didn't hook anything near the inlet (but I did spook one large fish inches from the bank). I've caught more rainbows here than anywhere else. Lake is now completely ice free.

Green River

2009-05-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Never seen the Green so green. Moderate crowds on the A section. We tried to sight fish but 46 degree water temp limited the number of fish in the shallows. Fish seem to spook easier when water is cold. Slower and deeper water water was key.

Suprised by how much moss there was for early May. Pretty though.
#20 Olive scud worked but #20 pheasant tail worked even better
The average fish size in the A section continues to drop. I think it's partly due to overstocking rainbows but drought is certainly another factor.

Graduation

2009-05-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Graduated from the U!

Goofy: Melinda, my mom, and I are looking at one camera while Derek, Tricia, and Grandma are looking at another

Celebrated by eating at the pricey Tiburon restaurant. Best meal ever for me. Tricia liked it too.

Night Bouldering: Secret Garden, LCC

2009-05-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

Strawberry: Haws Point

2009-05-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Used #4 egg sucking leach for attractor trailed by #8 peacock bugger which caught all the fish
As expected, I hooked most fish at the ice edge
This one gave me an excellent fight!

crawfish-underwater shot

All the bays are clear of ice now but the main body is still capped

rednecks

Never seen the water so clear at the Berry. Sight fishing was really fun, like bone fishing but much colder.

The fish fought well considering the water temp was only 38 degrees. Solid takes, none of the short striking business. Hooked 8 and landed 6. Fished for 2 hours from 8:30 to 10:30. There was a large snowdrift blocking the haws point road at the turnoff so I had to do the 15 minute walk in.

Little Dell

2009-05-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Tried night fishing Little Dell. It's completely full and about 50 degrees. A bit too cold for night fishing to be effective.

Strawberry ice-off

2009-05-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

Fished chicken creek west at Strawberry with Todd from 1:30 to 4:30. About 8 fish caught on green buggers and #12 black AP nymphs. Two fly rigs seemed to produce better than one fly. Slow retrieval was key. The bite seemed to shut off around 3:30 possibly due to frontal passage? Todd used a clear camo intermediate which was sinking a bit too fast for how shallow we were fishing. I used a true intermediate which worked better but a floating line is perhaps the best for how slow we had to retrieve for those sluggish fish. The ice has pulled back about 30 to 100 feet in many spots. Reasonably crowded for a Saturday.

East Ridge of Timpanogos

2009-04-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

Left home at 3:30, started walking at 5.

Fly on the mountain

LCC Ridgeline

The saddle

Traverse route to southeast summit

A bit steep. An ice axe brings comfort here

Looking down the west face into Provo. Tempting

Southeast summit elevation

Corn!!!
Hello BYU

ridge on this line

Cliffy

Stewart Falls

Loop trail back to Aspen Grove

Elk Point slide path has produced some HUGE slides recently

The incredible power of avalanches

Time for a burger

That was fun! The longest continually steep ski run in the state.

The Scythe

2009-04-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Skied The Scythe with Garrett this morning. Wanted to hit Main Baldy Chute but some other dudes said they were hitting it when we pulled in to Alta at 6 a.m.. The upper ramp of The Scythe sluffed out on me but the lower chute was fine. About 10 inches of fluff on a spongy base. East facing aspect was getting really heavy around 9:30. Exited down Patsy Marley.

The top

Some other guys in the cirque