Norfolk Cyclocross

So there I was, sitting in a lawn chair, in the back of a speeding van, drinking coffee. Just me, the chair, a blue bristled broom and Mark's CX bike.

I hitched a ride in the Sprinter to hightail it up to Norfolk for the day. None of the rear seats were in it, so I sat in a lawn chair Mark provided. Fast forward a few hours.

The rain was spitting on arrival at Skyview. But the precip eventually fizzled out and the day turned dandy. There would be no epic muddy cross photos this weekend. I scoured the course and with some assistance found the what seemed to be the best spots to capture the essense of the race.

I again ran into trouble with my Pocketwizards not firing, but made the best out of the situation. I mainly used a Canon 580ex hooked Quantum pack that was being fired remotely via Pocketwizard. The I had a SB80DX on slave providing any necessary fill. -- It ends up being a crap shoot with the Pocketwizards. I don't know whether it's a cable issue or the remotes them selves. If I didn't know better, I'd think they only work line of sight. Which is contrary to their 1600ft range max and ability to transmit to each through/around obstacles. Unfortunately that does not seem to be the case with mine.

Whether it's my own smarts, or dumb luck, my chosen exposure without the flashes is conveniently still bright enough for the images to be used without the aid of artificial lighting. That works out.

Enough babbling.

:::::: Photo Highlights

:::::: Full Gallery

Platte River Dirt Pedaling

Ever since I was a boy, I always wanted to be a Goodfella.

(Restart)

I have always wanted to get out and shoot some mountain biking photography. I don't know why I just finally got around to it, but I did yesterday while out at Platte River with Paul. He was in town, just having finished XC Nationals for his college racing team and my schedule was open.

It dawned on me that I had not rode out there for probably 4 or more years. And while riding, I came to find out that the last time I had rode there, I had ridden everything backwards. Oh, I'd never seen any of the rock sections of the trails too. Neat!

After a few laps of Paul taking it easy on me, we went back to the car and I grabbed my F-Stop pack full of gear. Riding with 35 pounds on my back is something I have grown accustomed to, but it's even harder riding trails and steel inclines. England (Me) Prevailed. Lighting for speed and exposure is a challenge, but overcast conditions played heavily to my favor and I took some decent stuff for the first time out.

I wanted to keep this short, so I will stop there. The gallery is only about a 1/4th of the images I edited down to. I guess I will post the rest later?

::::: The Off Road Gallery ::::::

Props to Paul for playing mountain biker for me. Go Mars Hill! Home of the fighting Martians! Darirsly Fesadia Garampadilla! (That's their war cry)

Chrome and Coffee (Beer)

The ever so cool, ever so tank-like, and ever so functional Chrome Bags brought itself to Omaha with the large thanks going to the good guys at Bike Masters for setting it up. We met at the always good Blue Line, but I didn't have a lick of coffee. I think I drank a diminishing drip of it for about 4 hours earlier in the day, so I figured I should steer clear and find beer. The crowd was full of pedal power and I didn't see a crying eye in the bunch.

The 2010 product line was shown, questions were answered, and raffles were raffled.

This guy I know (me) was there and took a couple of pretty pointless pictures. But without hesitation, I post them for the good of the good. Yay!

Images from Chrome and Coffee

2009 24hhh

One week ago today I was enjoying the autumnal temperatures of a quiet evening at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. The rock, healing, after it's beating by worn hands and Stealth rubber for the last 24 hours solid; the chalk dust still settling- debris of a painful one-day war with gravity.

Now, 37 gigabytes of pixelicious images later I bring my gallery of the (Offical Website) 2009 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell. As any previous year, I have mixed feelings with my outcome of capture. But as Andy Chasteen says every year, "This one was the best one yet." I'll just have to agree with the guy, I mean, did you see his hair cut. That's legit.

This year proved to be very special for it's own particular reasons: from the fatigued dead points captured in 1/4000th of a second during the pristine sun drenched daytime, to watching time slow into star trails. Her majesty, the night sky, romantically danced above sandstone walls during 25 minute exposures embraced among the crystal twinkling eyes and kisses from lips of the chilled night. I enjoyed it as if it was a dream, struggling for control and only hoping to remember all that has happened before I have to wake up and return to life.

I felt the fight between the desire for it to last forever, and the want for it to end. And now that it is over? I can only dream about going back, wondering how I could ever want the event to untie it's knots and coil up for another year. I can only dream as I scroll through images of tenuous positions, vivid smiles, and blurred movement. I can only dream of going back to the rock, the chime of hardware and the flip of my shutter trying in desperation to capture all that is Hell.

Enjoy

L

:: 2009 24HHH Galleries

Ascending Fixed Lines: Vulnerable to the Core

Last year right before the 24HHH comp I purchased an 8mm static line for ascending, photographing, and getting myself around during the comp. The only problem was the rope was too short and I found myself having to to multiple raps or down climbing in order to get off cliffs.

So this year, in order to better prep myself, I ordered a spool of 9mm Static from Mammut. I cut it into a 70m and a 30m rope. This, I figured would be ideal for just about anything I would encounter. the 70m could get me down from anything and the 30m would work well for fixing single lines to shoot.

I really wanted to shoot Love Slave during the comp, so in the later evening, I scrambled some low 5th class and fixed the 30m to a tree and rapped over the edge to set up for the next climber to do the route.

I was satisfied with the position, the rope was on a rolling edge with not sharp angles. I set up a strobe on a stand that I would trigger remotely via Pocket Wizards.

I started jugging with a set of Jumars and a single aider. The route is only about 30 feet tall but I while ascending the rope, I noticed some heavy fraying up above. Thinking it was just fuzz, I continued to jug to where I wanted to be and shoot the climber on the route as he sent the climb. Looking up again at where the rope was running over the rock, now closer, I could tell that things were not looking great on the rope. I decided to not wait for someone else to come along to climb the route and tried to determine if I should rappel down then go around and climb back up to get my gear or just finish ascending.

Figuring that I was already 25 feet off the ground in some questionable situation, I said F-It and slowly finished ascending the rope and got my weight off of it. -- I mean why not, the rope didn't snap yet, right?

I definitely didn't like what I found upon unweighting the rope. With only 30 feet of jugging, the rope had completely worth through the sheath with the core exposed all the way around. Yay!

Mammut Performance Static 9mm

So my question is this: What was my error?? OR Mammut sheaths only tough enough for grade school dodge ball or perhaps a feisty makeout session on a gravel parking lot? What gives?

Setting up over a rolling edge on the line? Was it a problem with my ascending rig? Does God like to play mind games with me? In the thought of rigging, the only thing I could think of was since I was using only one aider step, was I bouncing more than I should have been - of course causing more rubbing? - I have been in very similar situations with my 8mm line, and the outcome is much better with almost no sign of wear on the rope.

Well, since I didn't fall yet, and I was still on a cliff; I used the line to rappel back to the bottom anyway! I accepted failure and possibilities cataclysm earlier in the day - so why not.

I am questioning whether I should use the good 70m line I have left. I know Mammut makes some killer equipment, but rubbing to the core on a 9mm line in 30 feet isn't exactly making me want to rub bellies.

Images from my week at Horseshoe and 24HHH to follow soon.