As a climber I’m always looking for ways to tackle those inspiring and often blank walls I find myself drawn to. It could be a variation to a contrivance I want to try when I’m out with my friends drinking PBR’s on the weekend, or it could be the international dream project. After returning from Mallorca at the end of 2007 and being a little disappointed with my climbing there, I decided to start training with Athletik Spesifik. I was already pretty satisfied with my climbing ability but I wanted to see if I could squeeze the lemon any harder. Seven months later I went to Rocklands and had a great trip, having successfully elevated my climbing to my next personal level.

The value of training in a program like this is different for everyone. In my case, I already had the discipline and work ethic, just not the guidance. Dave’s approach to training helps you put your effort where it pays dividends in climbing. He mixes it up, keeps it interesting, and Dave is a real hawk-eye when it comes to form and safety.

If you live in the Denver / Boulder area I would consider giving his program a look. Taking revenge on your project from last season is sweet, sweet nectar indeed.

Editor’s note: The Jackson Hole version is called Mountain Athlete with Rob Shaul. Before trying a session, I wrote it off as a distraction from mountain pursuits, not a complement. Now, I’m trying to figure out how to strike a deal so I can go to the ass kicking hour-sessions twice a week.

Cloudveil Athlete Chuck Fryberger is in Europe promoting his climbing film Pure.

It wasn’t supposed to work out this way. “It” being me in Cheyenne with my road bike and gale force winds and Jackson enjoying blue skies and a foot of fresh snow.

I don’t mind giving up a weekend of great skiing to get in my first outdoor road rides of the season. But I haven’t gotten any road rides in. What have I got? The longest 26 minutes and 33 seconds of my life. On what very well might be the world’s oldest elliptical machine in the basement of the place I’m staying.

It hasn’t been for lack of trying though.

Last Wednesday, when I was getting all excited to ride outside for the first time since November 28, the weather channel neglected to mention Cheyenne was set for several days of winds – and we’re talking steady gales here, not gusts – in the neighborhood of 135 miles per hour. (Note: This is just my amateur guesstimate based purely on television footage I’ve seen of hurricane winds.)

But I thought I could take them on. My first full day in town, fortified with the best green chili burrito I’ve ever had (if you’re ever in Cheyenne don’t miss it: Luxury Diner, 1401 W. Lincolnway), I drove out past the strip mall hell that has unfortunately become Cheyenne’s main drag. I found Horse Creek Road, which trusted sources said I could count on for a 60 mile out-and-back ride. Arriving there, I could see why it got five stars on mapmyride.com. There was a big shoulder and little traffic. But, what was this? The wind was batting my parked car – a 3,000-some pound GMC Savana – around like a toy.

I opened the side door from the inside, pushed my bike out, and then followed myself. A battalion of tumbleweeds came at me. I stood my ground, locking, and shutting the door. I noticed Horse Creek headed directly into the wind. “Wind is the best training partner,” I told myself. I maneuvered my bike onto the shoulder. I got on. I clipped in. I pedaled. Or rather, I tried to pedal. I clicked into my easiest gear faster than you can say “I can’t believe I gave up face shots for this.” I was in a gear I don’t even need when riding up Teton Pass. But there I was in my 34/27. On a totally flat road.

I got moving. 5.1 miles per hour. One hundred feet up the road, the wind ripped the sunglasses from my face. 4.5 miles per hour. I collected them and continued on. Aberrant gusts from the sides first pushed me one way – into the dirt – and then the other – into the road. 4.9 miles per hour. It was like I was practicing my standing stop. At .2 of a mile (notice that decimal point), I decided I didn’t need to be this stubborn and turned around.

Without a single pedal stroke, I headed back to the van at a brisk 15 miles an hour. Wait, 17 miles an hour. And then, just as I drew even with the van, 18.2 miles an hour.

Enter the elliptical machine. And bitterness that I traded a weekend of powder for the possibility of riding my road bike outside.

I’ve been in Wyoming long enough to know you shouldn’t shoot to do any sport that doesn’t involve snow (or ice) in February. A few too many mind-numbing workouts on the indoor bike trainer can make you think crazy, though.

There had still better be some great snow when I get home.

When not breaking endurance records, freelance writer and über athlete Dina Mishev blogs on Fleece Fashionista.

As I prepare to escape the Hole for law school and a more intellectual path, I am struck by a phenomenon that so many Jacksonites have felt over the years: the skiing in these mountains has a gravitational pull comparable to that of our Sun. The sad state of the snowpack this winter has certainly made it easier to think about leaving and locking myself in a library, and after discovering this little marvel there is nothing holding me back.

I mean, skiing has so many risks – ACL tears, frostbite, avalanches, out of control skiers, long lift lines, getting turtled in the backcountry, scary gondola towers, expensive gear, a 300-inch winter and crowded parking lots.

With this new machine, I can avoid all these risks and be the skier I always knew I could be.** Without people in my way, unpredictable weather and expensive gear, I would have been Bode Miller.

And now I can be both badass on the slopes and in the courtroom.

I can wear a suit to workout in or tennis shoes that match my new machine.

And, while it’s about as expensive as a season pass to Jackson Hole, the lifetime use, the comfort and the stories that will emerge from this machine that I can tell my law buddies in the bar will far outweigh staying in this place with majestic, cold mountains and beautiful shiny new tram cars.

One day, maybe I could even take my inside skiing skills abroad to the what looks like the best place to ski indoors: The Desert. But, that’s for another post.

**According to the German Pro-Idee site, the ski simulator was designed with the help of ski instructors, sport scientists and physical therapists. The device simulates near accurate motions exactly similar to the real sport. It will “vibrate, rotate, tilt – exactly like a real ski descent.” Even the set of ski poles is an integral part of the simulation. With the Alpine Ski Racing 2007 software, you can ski in 32 different races at 18 different venues, including Beaver Creek and Chamonix. You can try six different races in three different divisions at three different levels. The money you save on plane fares, equipment and lessons alone should motivate you to buy this wonder machine. It’s like Wii for the hardcore.

Peter Griffin lives on a couch near Snow King.

As Jess McMillan trains by chopping wood, skiing in other countries and doing pilates and dryland training, others take a different approach. Backbone Media’s Ian Anderson’s tells more ….

From Ian:
Our boy Len Zanni from Big Agnes/Honey Stinger had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to race with Lance Armstrong this summer at the 12 Hours of Snowmass race. Len is a typical Roaring Fork Valley sandbagger, so you’d never know it from talking to him that he’s one of the best cyclists in the Valley, if not the state.

At the Snowmass race, Len held his own, riding laps just a couple minutes slower than Lance and helping their three-man team to victory.

As winter sets in here and the snow starts to fly, Len and I have been trying to squeeze in as much riding as we can, unlike the rest of the Backbone crew, which is solely focused on skiing now.

Len and I were plotting our winter training yesterday, talking about getting in one road ride per week, with lots of gym time and skate skiing to maintain fitness. Then I stumbled across Lance’s winter training plan as explained by Chris Carmichael on Bicycling.com.

Lance’s Training Outline
2 x per week 5-5.5 hrs endurance pace
2 x per week 3-4 hrs endurance pace with 2 x 20minutes at just below LT pace (380-400watts)
1 x per week Tuesday-night ride
1 x per week 3-4 hrs with 2 sets of 4 x 20seconds max effort x 40 seconds recovery
1 x per week–day of for travel, rest.

Uhh yeah, Len, you’re going to have a tough time keeping up with Lance next year.

With 16 days until Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opens, Cloudveil ambassador Jess McMillan is training, training, training and blogging, blogging, blogging.

She’ll be in Jackson for the mountain’s Nov. 29 opening and here through December before she leaves for Russia in mid-January, taking the first step in her path toward reclaiming her 2007 championship crown from the International Freeskiing Association.

The 30-year-old, who learned how to ski through Wilson Elementary School’s winter sports program and won state skiing titles at Jackson Hole high school, is chopping wood in Wyoming, skiing powder in Argentina and even turning some tricks at the Olympic splash pool in Salt Lake to prepare for this year’s competition roster. Read more here about last year’s experiences that inspired her to hit the ground harder this year.

The latest from McMillan’s blog highlights the Wild Card pics for the Sochi, Russa competition in January. Russia is the first stop on the Freeride World Tour, a different, but equally badass competition series from the International Freeskiing Association Tour (mentioned above).

When you go out to the Village, watch out for the blond streak zooming past you in her Volkl Kuros and Cloudveil coat.

From Jess:
The Freeride World Tour just announced the Wild Cards for Sochi, Russia. Congratulations to everyone who received a wild card. The FWT is an amazing tour. I am really excited to see more women on the tour this year. I think having more women will push all of us to ski our very best and bring the level of competition to a new height. Can’t wait to see you in Russia.

When the snow starts falling in Jackson Hole, it is high time for the “crazies” to hit the thinly coated slopes of Teton Pass in search of knee injury adventure.
On one hand, it is hard to fault someone for having irrepressible motivation such that they will risk their season for dirty turns. But on the other hand, such risk lends itself easily to criticism by those who think that turns through brushy, rocky minefields are not worthwhile.
The Resolution: taking that motivation and applying it to something other than the low-hanging fruit.

There are plenty of lines to ski with minimal risk at this time of year; however, one has to go farther, using more energy, to find them. There are a handful of lines in the Tetons on which one can find mid-season conditions in early November. The road is closed at Bradley/Taggart and there isn’t enough snow to skin the normal winter approaches, but that just gives you an excuse to make it a multi-sport day: hop on the mountain bike and pedal your skis farther into the park.

Two ski partners and I did just that last Wednesday. After pedaling through an inch of snow and slush, which unfortunately feels like sand under the tires, we left the road, stashed the bikes and began post-holing a certain canyon’s summer trail.

Picture this: A maze of talus and boulders in which there was just enough snow to cover both flat boulders and gaping death holes that would swallow your entire body and break all four limbs. This led to a very slow and gingerly walk probing with poles, testing every foot hold and still sliding into some of the mini crevasses occasionally.

What in summer or winter would take about 15 minutes to negotiate, took us about an hour and a half. This section was, by far, the crux of the 12-hour car-to-car day.

After a climb made difficult by the worsening storm conditions, we reached the top of the couloir. While the run was not a long one, the turns exceeded all expectations, with thigh deep powder and dropped-knee face shots on November 5!

I don’t mention any formations or lines here because 1) I don’t want to direct someone to an area they aren’t familiar with and 2) I don’t want to direct the masses to one spot, which inevitably happens when they know it has been explored. I post this because I am happy to share with those who have an adventurous spirit and motivation to get away from the road. Those who are willing to be on the move for 12 hours simply for the workout, adventure, and 25 turns in bottomless powder, know that there are rewards to be found out there.
I don’t post pictures of the turns because, frankly, we were too cold and tired to take the camera out for shots in near white-out conditions.

The slog was arduous to say the least, but isn’t that what most of us in this valley crave (to varying degrees) anyway? The trail might not be broken for you and you might not be able to ski your way to the valley floor (in fact you might have to break trail on both the way up and down), but the satisfaction of hiking or biking back to the car and realizing that you had the entire range to yourselves is well worth the travail. Days like these feel like the anti-Teton Pass vibe: the valley is not overpopulated and these mountains are not skied out.

Peter Griffin lives in a rent-free gnome shack in Wilson.

With ice forming in the mountains and down jackets emerging from storage, we thought JedZilla’s post on telemarking would be perfect. Only about three months until Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opens for the 2008/2009 winter season. It’s time to get stoked!

Dr. Paré’s Telemark Training and Timing Tips from Jed Zilla on Vimeo

The close of the Summer Olympics and the advent of cooler weather here in Missoula got me thinking of the timing equipment used at our weekly telemark ski races.

The Trail Head shop where I work in on occasion has been doing the Telemark race series for 25 consecutive years. I would say it is more of a beer drinking social that involves two competitive runs on an under lit course in the middle of winter. Go to: www.telerace.blogspot.com to see more photos and information. The races are held at Snowbowl Ski Area for about six Thursday evenings running from late January to March.

The timing equipment provided by Snowbowl is well….dated. I think Nixon was in office when this system was considered State of the Art. It is a cross between Apollo moon mission and Soviet cold war technology. The only person who has the knowledge (I should say intimate knowledge) is the reclusive Dr. Paré.

Dr. Paré is only seen in the winter on the slopes of western Montana ski areas or in the intermountain west backcountry. He is an expert on training and telemark equipment as well as timing for tele racing.
I have spent many long hours compiling the results of each weeks race and Dr. Paré always comes through during each event. I have heard that he has a twin or doppelganger that is only seen in the summers in and around the rivers of the west or swinging a hammer on any number of construction sites. It’s rumored that he also goes by “Karl,” but I don’t think I know or have ever heard Dr. Paré’s first name.

I have some video footage that should help all folks who want to improve their telemark racing skills for the upcoming season. Enjoy what Dr. Paré has to offer and get ready for the snow to fly!

JedZilla lives, works, fathers and husbands in Missoula.