Kicking off Engle Portal Blog - 2014 Rock Climbing Sabbatical
This is my first blog entry for my sabbatical, so I have a little catching up to do.
Rock Climbing at Massacre Rocks, Idaho (Dec 29, 2013)
At end of December and 2013 and just after I quit my job, I had a great, relaxing holiday with the family and friends. On Dec 29th, I climbed at Massacre Rocks during unseasonally warm weather with my wife Linda, my daughter Kira, Nick Vitali and many others:
Nick Vitale on Coyote Bait (5.11b), Rural Wall, Massacre Rocks
Rock Climbing at Massacre Rocks, Idaho (Jan 2, 2014)
January 2014 was off to a great start with another really nice day at Massacre Rocks on Jan 2nd. It was Nick Vitale, his son Tevis, Chris Barnes, and a bunch of dogs. It was probably about 30 F out in the open but we were in t-shirts against the sheltered, sun soaked dark brown cliffs.
Mike Engle on a new (ish) 5.8 on All American Wall, Massacre Rocks
The rest of January - ugh!
After the good times and fun start of the year, it went downhill quickly after that as I got the flu and was sick for most of January.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Jan 30 - Feb 2, 2014
Things got better in February, I had a reservation for a winter trip to Yellowstone with Linda and good friends, John and Eliza Schmidt. It was our first winter experience at Yellowstone and we took a snow coach to the Snowlodge at Old Faithful. We cross-country ski toured from the continental divide back to Old Faithful on the first day and ski toured around the geyser basin the next day. The trip had nice winter weather, great snow, and fun activities; all spent with good friends.
Linda Engle, John Schmidt, Eliza Schmidt, and Mike Engle on the Continental Divide, Yellowstone National Park
Old Faithful @ Yellowstone National Park
Pebble Creek Ski Area Back Country, Idaho (Feb 4, 2014)
A few days after being in Yellowstone Nick Vitale and I had great powder skiing in the Pebble Creek Ski Area backcounty. We did 3 laps on the backside with soft, consistent and relatively deep powder. Really good day.
Nick Vitale, Pebble Creek Ski Area Back Country, Idaho
Bonneville Yurt, Pebble Creek Ski Area Back Country, Idaho (Feb 7 - 9, 2014)
On the following weekend, Feb 7, 8, 9, 2014, I reserved the Bonneville Yurt in the Caribou National Forest backcountry behind Pebble Creek ski area. Despite moderate avalanche conditions for the area, John Schmidt and I skied to Bonneville Yurt on Friday afternoon. We rode the chairlift at Pebble to the top. From there, it was about a 1/4 mile and 500 foot vertical skin track to the top of the ridge and then a long 1 1/2 mile and 1,800 foot descent to yurt. We were able to avoid most potential avalanche terrain by sticking to the trees on our descent. Despite the heavy packs, we had the best skiing of the weekend with consistent and creamy powder. Here's John ripping it up with a 35 lb pack.
John Schmidt, Pebble Creek Ski Area Back Country, Idaho
Friday night saw stormy conditions and while we hiked for turns on Saturday, we found breakable crust and increased avalanche concern. The pit we dug confirmed the suspected conditions and we managed only one run in the trees with crappy snow before calling it a day. Saturday night it stormed again with wind, snow, and rain! Rain at 7,250' in elevation in February!! Highly unusual.
John Schmidt and the Bonneville Yurt, Pebble Creek Ski Area Back Country, Idaho
Sunday was a long day of breaking trail through crusty snow with heavy packs to get back to Pebble Creek. At the top of the ridge above Pebble Creek Ski area before the final descent back to the car I made a really stupid maneuver to put on my skis on. With my heavy pack already on and one foot in my ski and the other one in a deep post hole, I managed to sprain my wrist while pushing off a ski pole and trying to stand up onto my ski. Jury is still out on how bad. For sure I'm down for a couple weeks and it could be more. Waiting to hear from a doctor tomorrow.
Feb 12, 2014
Right now, I'm nursing my wrist back to health, looking forward to more local back country skiing as soon as possible, and I am beginning planning climbing trips to the desert southwest in later winter or early spring.