Double Crown Weekend - White and Red

2 days in the sun, 2 ways to play.  One day in white, the other in red.  Packing the truck with skis and mountain bike is always a special feeling....the anticipation for adventure can be overwhelming...best to let it wash over you and try to remember, 2 ways, 2 days....White and Red.

Day 1:  Beard Canyon Traverse with North Cleaver Group as the objective.......

Day 2:  Sedona......

Mike and Rhonda's at 6am for Biscuits and Gravy, Potatos and Eggs.....plenty of left overs to make a lunch burrito as we pack it all away.............

Split's new Splitboard....all nice and shiny...........

The warm glow on the horizon gives way to a dry approach....this mild winter is forcing us higher and farther in search of protected powder on sheltered north aspects.....

We make quick work of the dry approach, stashing shoes and trading them in for boots and skins.  As we move up into lower Beard Canyon, we move from the shadows.....

....and turn a corner into the light of the face of Beard and the summit of Humphreys.

Looking back from where we came, we are slowed at the lower choke on Beard; a frozen waterfall coated in spindrift.

After 5 minutes of clearing loose spindrift from rock, a bit of dry tooling and other creative use of my whippet, I top out on the crux and pledge to buy a second whippet.  Here, Split is thinking the same thing........

With a little help from an anchor above, we continue on.

Cresting at the Beard Headwall, we observed the Beard choke to be nothing more than a three-tiered cliff-band in this low snow year.  We continued climbing to the southwest up a steep apron filled with mature timber.  Upon toping out, I made a few turns on firm whipped cream snow, then slashing a traverse over to the south to join Split on the Cleaver ridge to scout Cleaver South.  View looking east to the painted desert.

A Medusa like tree caught my attention, as Split poked around in the south facing corn.......

Views to the south show a bony Fremont on the horizon, and the couloirs of Core Ridge North filled in to varying degrees.......indirect observation tells me these are all wind hammered and would be survival skiing at best.

Making a decision to turn back to the north in search of protected wind-blown, we manage to find some cream cheese in spots, interspersed with chalky wind slab.....

The runout to the vehicle was uneventful, finishing up in the fading light of sunset....our trip of 10.5hrs in search of powder was not in vain...but all agreed that until more snow falls....the allure of better stoke down south would be time better spent......and this dude abides......

Meeting up in Sedona on a windy Sunday morning; Dara, JMoney and myself went for a 3.5hr ride.  Any ride I have with JMoney is usually an exercise in hanging onto his rear wheel.  This day, he'd get a taste of his own medicine with Dara leading the tour.  Few pics were taken since I spent most of the ride managing my HRmax....but lunch afforded a break.....

.....as did a switchback that demanded a session or two.....

.....the second time was the charm.