Back from the Northland

Just got back today from our trip into the Northern Selkirk Mountains in big, beautiful, British Columbia. Eight straight days of skiing glaciers, climbing mountains, endless powder turns, and eating way too much food. Every day ended with a flaming hot sauna surrounded by some of the wildest most amazing country on the continent.

We drove up to Golden B.C. spent the night and woke up the next morning to find the heliport. The helicopter transported us and our gear into the Fairy Meadows Hut. The hut was built back in the 50's as a base camp for climbing and skiing. It's been remodeled over the years and is now one of the best backcountry ski huts in Canada.

Here's the summary of the week:

It took five helicopter loads to get the whole group and gear in to the hut and then it flew away and left us in silence for 7 days. The first day we spent unpacking food and gear and made a couple of runs on the slopes right out the backdoor of the hut.

Second day: It was clear with blue skies and we made it up and over the Friendship Col and into the alpine. We skied across the Gothic ice field, up the shoulder of Sentinel Peak, made a long run off Sentinel, and then skied over to the Fria Col for views of Mount Sir Sanford the highest in the Selkirks.

Third day: It was clear again and we skied out onto the Granite Glacier and almost to its head directly beneath the high Adamant Peaks. Good snow, more crevasses, and we saw a large ice fall off of Austerity Peak? onto the glacier. Watching house sized chunks of ice rip down a mountain always makes you feel small, insignificant and fragile.

Fourth day: We skied up the Granite Glacier to Pioneer Pass and skied off an apron coming of the West Face of Sentinel Peak. Good snow and more ice falls.

Fifth day: We skied the trees and slopes around the hut. Weather started moving in.

Sixth day: It was windy with some new snow, skied up to Pioneer Pass again and skied the glacier in perfect snow conditions. Perfect day skiing in amazing terrain.

Seventh day: We tried to get over the Friendship Col and summit Sentinel, but we were turned back by unstable snow and wind loading. Skied the the slopes around the hut the rest of the day.

Eighth day: Fly day, a foot of light new snow fell overnight. We cleaned the hut, packed the gear and carried it to the helipad. We then made runs in deep snow all morning until the helicopter arrived and we flew out.

Over all we had great weather and conditions. There were only two casualties--one eye gash from jumping off a cliff and one slice across the nose by a ski edge after a face plant.

I'm trying to figure out how I can move the family up to British Columbia to spend next winter in one of the huts.

Here are a few shots I took, I will put more on later.















Headed up the Granite Glacier with the Adamants in the background











Creed skiing off the shoulder of Sentinel Peak on the Gothic icefield with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Mount Robson the highest point in the Rockies is the big peak on the left side of the photo.












Turns off of Sentinel Peak and the Gothic icefield. I think the tiny black dots are Creed, Craig and Eric















Sunny turns on the Granite Glacier beneath the "Stickle"

Valentine

This is Brian's lover, Alina. I've hacked into his blog, on this Valentines Day, to give him a virtual card. (Because I love you, and love to embarrass you.)












TUNED IN

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
George Washington Carver (1864 - 1943)

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

SUCCESSFUL

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Herman Cain

A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

PATIENT

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.
Hal Borland (1900 - 1978)

STRONG

The first prerequisite of an advanced being is a sense of humor.
Richard Bach (1936 - )

HUMOROUS

BRIGHT

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Between whom there is hearty truth, there is love; and in proportion to our truthfulness and confidence in one another, our lives are divine and miraculous, and answer to our ideal. . . . Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

What is the singing of birds, or any natural sound, compared with the voice of one we love?
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

LIVING IN MELODY

41 inches in 72 hours and other stuff

Last weekend we ended up getting 41 inches of snow in 72 hours in the La Sals and almost nothing in town, it was almost an all time record for the La Sals . The plows still have not got up to the trailhead as they are still digging Monticello out.

This has been the first weekend with the sun out and relative warmth in a while. And as much as I love deep powder and winter, a little warm sun did get me thinking about sitting on warm slickrock, green cottonwood leaves, and boats drifting down the river. But before I let myself dream to much about spring I quickly snapped out of it to start thinking about the upcoming trip to British Columbia. Once we get back from the north maybe I will start thinking about spring again.

I took this photo yesterday from up on Poison Spider Mesa, it is hard to take a bad photo of the La Sals, but I really like this perspective with all the Navajo sandstone fins in the foreground. The fins are in the "Behind the Rocks" Wilderness Study Area (WSA). A very hard area to get around in even though it is right next to town. Between the mesa top and the fins is where the Colorado flows. The big peaks in the back are Tukinikivatz (supposedly a Ute word meaning where the sun lingers last, which it does) and Mellenthin (named after an early Forest Ranger shot by a draft dodger hiding out on the mountain). The ski shots from my last post were taken between the two high peaks on Laurel Ridge.
















MLK day we hiked back up to the tunnel in the unnamed side canyon of Courthouse Wash . The kids now call it the "Worm Hole". It is an interesting natural formation.

The mighty Colorado frozen over a couple of weeks ago. People have been walking across it to access climbs on the other side of the river. Hard to belive that is the same river we float and swim in all summer in the blistering heat.

La Sal Face Shots

We are providing a Level I Avalanche Class this weekend in the La Sals so I was out playing in the snow today. We were forecast to get 3-4 inches last night but ended up closer to 18 inches of super nice niceness (as Todd would say ). The skiing was superb.

The class headed into the hills, yes we even let snowboarders come. We are equal opportunity




















and Dave skiing the goods

Hap, Hap, Happy Birthday to my Luvva

Happy Birthday Alina,
I tried to post this on the Wild Murdocks Blog but it would not let me so this will have to do.
I just wanted to wish you Happy Birthday and let you know how much I love an appreciate you (in as public a forum as possible). You are the greatest companion and friend I could ever ask for and my life (and many others) are full because of you. Thanks for all you do.

Bikes and Rock Art

Anyone who knows me knows that I have long made fun of mountain bikers/sprocket heads. However, mainly to get in shape for our upcoming British Columbia ski trip, I started biking some of the trails and have actually really started to enjoy it. I will not be purchasing any spandex or Lycra in the near future, and I would much rather be skiing, rafting, hiking or on the back of a horse, but I now know why so many people come here with bikes strapped on top of their vehicles. The best part is that I am usually so worried about dieing or breaking my neck, that I don't even realize how much of a work out it is.


Tyler crossing frozen Kane Creek on the Amasa Back Trail





















River on the Bar M Trail at the very head of Courthouse Wash.





















The Owl Man Panel. The Man in the panel is about five feet tall. All panels have a story behind them, but this is one where you just know there is some significant event being portrayed. You can also see the Birthing Panel from this site and several other significant rock art sites.

Ancient Turns

This is where it all began. Pure Skiing. Climbing mountains and skiing back down. No lifts, no motors, just some sticks strapped on your feet, some snow, and a mountain.

South Mountain Epic

The La Sals have been getting hit by some big storms and the white stuff is piling up. So, we headed down to check the snow pack and stability on South Mountain which you can only ski in good snow years. One of the forecasters, several volunteers, and myself headed to the backside of the La Sals with trucks, chains, snowmobiles and skis. We drove the truck until it got hopelessly stuck, unloaded the snowmobiles and headed towards La Sal Pass until even they got stuck in the incredibly deep snow. We then threw our skis on and headed towards top of the East Ridge of South Mountain. We did not go all the way to the top as the snow was showing some signs of instability and the top of the run was getting steeper. The skiing was incredible over what is normally a huge talus slope but is now buried deep in Utah cold smoke.

Happy New Year!

We are still up Utah County visiting the Grandparents. Christmas was great for the Murdock Family (I am sure Alina will post details when we get back to the homestead in Moab). We got to see lots of family including Toady and Ashli from Belize.

We skied (and yes, snowmobiled, although I won't admit it) up to the Castle Peak Yurt in the Western Uintas for a night and got dumped on with some amazingly dry and light snow, but since a snowmobiler was killed by an avalanche two days before in the same area, we stayed off of anything steep and just toured and explored the area around the yurt. We all had a great time, no details will be provided on topics of discussion at the Yurt. What's said at the Yurt, stays at the Yurt, at least I hope.



Alina skiing out of the Uintas



Alina and myself at the Castle Peak Yurt, I am not sure when the last time was that we actually went on a trip together without kids.

We also got some good skiing in the Wasatch, mostly in the vicinity of Mill D North Fork. Creed, Toad and myself skied a bunch of different shots in very good conditions. Living in Belize did not affect Todds ability to ski as you can see in the photo. You rock Todd! He was a little slower on the uptrack though.

I also took the boys up to Heber Valley to see where Joseph Stacy Murdock is buried and see where their roots are. Prenetta's name is on the left side of the monument, which for you non-Murdocks is the Native American wife (Shoshone or Ute) that our lineage comes from. We also got to see Tom Tabby's (a young Ute Indian) grave, where Joseph buried him with a Christian burial and then Tom's Father slit the throat of the boy's favorite horse and burned them both according to Ute custom. The best of both worlds.

Solstice Petroglyphs

River, a few friends, and I, went up to a Solstice Panel at sunrise the morning after Solstice. We found out about the site last year but had not been able to find it. The petroglyph panel is in a remote part of Arches NP and seems to have figures that are aligned with both the Summer and Winter Solstices and both Equinoxes. Several large circles (suns?) align perfectly with the shadow cast by a nearby rock. As the shadow moves it highlights different portions of the panel. There are many such sites around the the Southwest (and World). Many, like the Great Houses and Kivas in Chaco Canyon, are very elaboratley aligned with numerous celestial occurrances. I love the fact that ancient peoples were in tune enough with their surroundings that they observed subtle changes and pattens in their environment and celebrated them. We need to be more in tune with what is going on around us. Turn your TV off and go outside and notice the stars, where they are and how they move in relation to where you live.


The first photo (above) shows one of the large circles as it sits perfectly in a small indentation in the shadow.



About an hour later the circle on the bottom lines up with the shadow.











At one point the two large bighorn are perfectly standing on the shadow line and appear to be walking up the shadow. Some of the other bighorn in the upper left corner of the photo line up with the shadow on the Summer Solstice. On the Spring Equinox a spot of light comes through a gap in the rocks and points right at several of the figures on the panel. Nobody will ever know what the panel means of how it was used but it appears to be more than coincidence that so much of it is coordinated with the Solstice and Equinox.

Climbing Wall Street

The boys get out half day on Mondays, and I am taking some time off for the Holidays, so I spent half the day buiding shelves for the new closet and then when the boys got out of school we went down the Potash road to "Wall Street" to climb. It always amazes me how natural climbing comes to kids, they scramble right up cracks and ledges like monkeys. One of these days I'll have to start to practice some of the more traditional sports with the boys so they at least know the difference between a football and a basketball. Like River said "I don't really like sports with balls".

First Turns of the Season

I added John Muir to the quotes board today. John Muir, another visionary and wilderness saint. He lived a very interesting life, born in Scotland, came to America, invented lots of crazy contraptions, lost sight in an eye from a machinery accident, walked across America, fell in love with the Sierra Nevada, hiked with Teddy Roosevelt and dedicated his life to protecting wild places. His ideas were ahead of his time. One thing that I loved about John is that he would climb into trees during storms so he could feel the storms power. Not a reccomended practice.


Winter is officially started (even though we are a few days before Solstice) now that the first turns of the year were made high in the Sierra La Sal. I got out with the avalanche forecasters today to check snow stability and look for any recent avalanche activity after our last round of storms. We skiied up Laurel Ridge and down in to Gold Basin in perfect snow conditions just as the sun was setting in the far West behind the Henrys. The sunset was incredible as there was somewhat of an inversion in the valley, and only the tallest of the sandstone pinnacles were poking through the clouds. I think it is hard to find a place with better sunsets than the La Sals.

Slickrock Shadows

This is one of our favorite places to go hiking when we have only an hour or so of daylight left. We usually pick a different fin of Navajo Sandstone every time we go here and see how far along it's spine we can walk. We have never seen anybody in this part of the desert, which is always nice. On this hike last week we were on a fin just as the sun was going down and it cast our shadows onto the next fin over, so the boys of course had to put on a show.

more November

I thought I would throw a little scripture on the quotes board, (it being the Sabbath). Another important lesson from the scriptures.



When everyone came down for the Folk Festival we also climbed Elephant Butte (which Alina and Ty already posted on their blogs). It was a fun, easy climb. The scariest part of the climb was the kit fox we accidentally trapped on the top of the climb that almost ran over Creed's head. The fox actually ran straight down the cliff in the background of the photo that we rappelled down. Sorry fox. There were a lot of interesting names written in the summit register (a lot of local old timers), and the views were amazing of the entire Moab area.


Every place we have lived as soon as they find out I work for the BLM or Forest Service they throw me into the Scout program. If you know me, you know how I feel about Scouts (the uniforms are a bit militaristic and most Scout groups practice outdoor skills that are about 50 years out of date i.e. cutting down live trees, burning garbage, killing everything that moves, etc...). But I do enjoy getting the boys out into the wild and having them get around on their own two feet, away from cell phones and X boxes. Moab is a great place to be Scoutmaster (actually assistant to the Regional Scoutmaster), with unlimited places to get Scouts into fatal situations. We took them out in November and rode the entire Slickrock trail (12 miles). There is a shorter Practice Loop but the boys were determined that we take them on the long trail. We had several near death experiences and a little blood but everyone survived. Lesson learned: make sure kids know how to use hand brakes before heading out on a bike with 1000+ foot drops. The photo shows a couple of scouts above the Colorado River.


I really like this photo of the Porcupine Rim. I took it one day while doing fieldwork, surveying an illegal trail. The rim starts in the La Sals and runs all the way down to the River. The little burg of Castle Valley can be seen in the distance at the base of the cliffs.

November

I can't believe November is behind us already (and how little snow we have on the mountain). You've probably noticed how fancy I am getting with the new "Wild Quotes" sidebar on the blog. I was going to put a bunch of my favorite wild oriented quotes on, but I think I will just put them on one at a time (I don't want to overwhelm my vast audience). The first quote is from one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Aldo Leopold, from his book "A Sand County Almanac" (one of the holiest in the canon of wilderness scripture). If you have not read it you need to. Aldo was one of the first to really outline the idea of including the Earth and it's communities into our idea of ethics. Aldo was a true visionary and I like that he did not always fit the mold of the tree-hugging environmentalist. He was an avid hunter and understood the connection between predator and prey, death and rebirth. I also like that he changed his thinking over the course of his life from killing wolves (just because that was the thing to do back then), to realizing their importance in the overall system. More on Aldo to come.


I had to make one last trip up to our Warner Lake Campground this month to close everything up and take some photos of some of the facilities needing repairs. I took this photo from the cabin looking out across the lake to the central part of the La Sal Range.



On Veterans Day I drove up the Sand Flats Road behind the house, and hiked up Mill Creek. I found Otho Natural Bridge (actually an Arch) up one of the side canyons. I only saw one other person in the canyon, it was nice to be alone.

When I spoke to Todd on the phone over Thanksgiving he made me promise to keep the "Turkey Freeze Out" tradition alive. So Tyler and I headed down to the desert to freeze in memory of our tropics bound brother. We went into Horseshoe Canyon and Blue John (see Ty's blog for more photos). I had never been into the Great Gallery in Horsehoe Canyon and was very impressed. The whole panel is maybe 100 yards long and most of the figures are 6 to 7 feet tall. I really like this particular figure because he was drawn alongside the existing crack/corner on the rock wall and he has two animals inside him that are obviously talking to each other. These particular pictographs are estimated to be 2 to 8 thousand years old. Amazing to think these figures were put on this rock face possibly 6 thousand years before Christ was born.

The whole family came down to the annual Moab Folk Fest at the first of the month and we got to experience some great music. The festival is in its fifth year and keeps getting bigger. We got to see one of my all time favorites, Peter Rowan, sing and yodel "Land of the Navajo". We also got out and did some hiking. I took my Dad and Tyler up to an old Indian/stock trail I found in an unnamed canyon that cuts across a cliff face and accesses some very old pictographs. This photo is of Tyler and Dad traversing the ledge/trail on the way back down. My Dad can still pretty much get anywhere as long as he has his ski pole and a shoulder.

The last day of November we drove up to Geyser Pass and cut down a Christmas tree.