Yes she is. She was not happy to hear about the potential for winds when I mentioned it to her yesterday. She had me move my aero bars from my bike to hers...Originally Posted by calamarichris
Yes she is. She was not happy to hear about the potential for winds when I mentioned it to her yesterday. She had me move my aero bars from my bike to hers...
National park service says possible gusts to 50mph Saturday. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll only show up in the afternoon.
If I can find a bandana I'm gonna bring one to cover my mouth incase we get stuck in a sand storm. They are pretty brutal.
Friday Night...Mostly clear. Lows 47 to 52 in the mountains... Around 64 at furnace creek. South wind 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph after midnight.
Saturday...Mostly sunny and windy. Areas of blowing dust. Highs 71 to 76 in the mountains...around 95 at furnace creek. South wind 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 50 mph.
Looks like the winds start up friday night/saturday morning, so no luck for us. Bring those aerobars....could be a tough ride between the climbs.
I got the new bike built up last night, Hells gate will be its maiden voyage.
I rode from FC out to Scotty's Castle today. It was really nice 1st thing - 0800ish - and thereafter a thin layer of clouds slide in. Actually, it was timely as the temps were creeping intro the mid-80's; clouds kept the heat in check and it never went above 80°. There was a light breeze in the morning, mainly from the south, that seemed to pick up as the day progressed. By mid-afternoon is was in the 5-7 mph range, from the south. The cloud cover was also a bit thicker. As I type, it is still in the low 60's and dead calm; the cloud cover is now complete and very thick. Our local weather guessers have 4casted an increase in wind going forward. There is a HIGH wind warning in place for the CA counties of Inyo and San Bernardino, along with the NV counties of Nye, and Esmeralda. NOAA's forecast for Furnace Creek is:
Saturday: Areas of blowing dust after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. South southwest wind between 18 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Saturday Night: Areas of blowing dust before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. Breezy, with a south wind 26 to 29 mph becoming west 6 to 9 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph.
Additionally, the high wind warning can be read here:
http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigw...eather+Outlook
One thing I've learned after 9 years of desert dwelling is that the NOAA guys are pretty conservative and if it says 30 to 50 mph gusts, expect higher!
I'm spending my w/e in the garage/shop lacing up some hoops, and cleaning up todays' ride bike. Oh, and drinking some good fresh brewed Peets!
YMMV
-dg
The thing about the cold is that you can never tell how cold it is
from looking out a kitchen window. You have to dress up, get out
training and when you come back, you then know how cold it is.
-- Sean Kelly
Thanks 200miler!
According to weather.com (which is far from infallible) it looks like it's not going to get too nasty until after noon.
Ooooh, sorry, Weather-dot-com doesn't do it down here.
When I got up this morning at 0600 I took a look out my side window at my neighbor's yew trees. Their tops were bent almost parallel with the ground. Now last night, the winds were somewhat light and I thought maybe there would be some wiggle room for a ride this morning. The yew trees put paid to that idea. The winds apparently ramped up slowly and steadily over night; right now [0950], we're showing 22-25 mph with a max gust of 29.
Then I saw your post.....
Around here we rely on weatherunderground and NOAA as they have inputs from the various remote weather stations scattered around the desert. For no known reasons, weatherdotcom doesn't. These remote repeater are part of a BLM system that monitors the numerous micro-climates and are the basis for BLM's allocation of fire fighting assets. They only report real-time data so trying to forecast from them is very hit-or-miss [mostly miss on my part]
Hope you had a reasonable ride anyway!
YMMV
-dg
The thing about the cold is that you can never tell how cold it is
from looking out a kitchen window. You have to dress up, get out
training and when you come back, you then know how cold it is.
-- Sean Kelly
I'm not sure "reasonable" describes the ride. No official results have been posted yet, but from what I can tell the large majority of the field DNF'd. The winds were just too much, and getting sand blasted was the final nail in the coffin for most. Some of the ride was simply dangerous.
How I ride inside: http://jmtc.ls1howto.com/
I got the feeling that quite a few participants burned out in the first hour (pedaling directly into the wind all the way from Furnace Creek to Artist's Cutoff, then climbing 9% grade for two miles).
Many people were turning back at Hell's Gate or Daylight Pass. Lots were quitting at Beatty Junction (11 miles to the finish line) or getting pick-ups along the 11-mile stretch.
So far there were eight rides uploaded to Strava, two (you and George Vargas) managed full 100 miles, four got pick-ups somewhere between Beatty Junction and Furnace Creek, and two gave up at Beatty Junction.
I didn't stick around for long after getting back to Furnace Creek at 2:20, but I don't think that anyone had finished by that time, and I only saw maybe five or six people still pedaling as I drove north on the 190. It will be interesting to see what official results look like.
Fewf! That was a novel experience!
My power meter's battery finally kicked the bucket, so I didn't have the reassuring Avg Watts to help me through those hairy crosswinds. I'm proud to say I was one of the few that made it out to Rhyolite and back over Daylight Pass, but my ride came to an end at 89.9 miles at Beatty Junction. The mighty Jmx finished it though and I saw him riding into those 50mph* sustained headwinds about five miles ahead of me. That's what I get for drinking too much on Friday night and bragging about how hard I was going to crush him! haha
Got blown off into the rocks by a harsh gust when I thought I heard a car approaching from the rear. Got both feet down before toppling into the rocks, but then I couldn't get started again. The crosswind kept lifting my bike up every time I tried to put my leg back over it. I tried holding down the seat tube, but finally got rolling again by checking for auto traffic (there's no way I could have heard anyone coming) and pointing my bike directly into the wind. And this was my 20+ pound steel Schwinn with low-profile wheels!
Had a fun time with Idoru & his frau, and Jmx. Fun crew.
And by coincidence it turned out EugeneK was in the same truck that brought me back to Furnace Creek. haha
Rode for a time with this hard lady named Debra. We talked for a short while in the early going, but pretty soon it was just too windy to hear each other.
Chris & the volunteers were doing their best to warn people about the busy highway and the gusty crosswinds possibly blowing them into the paths of fast-moving vehicles, but I didn't need the safety excuse. It's fun to exert (even overexert) yourself, but I do this for fun, not for cocktail party bragging rights.
So many neat folks there this weekend. A few of them recognized my jersey and introduced themselves.
Chris Kostman shook my hand afterward and said with a smirk, "How'd it go?"
"It was um... memorable."
We shared a pizza pie by the pool afterward, but the blowing dust was making a mudhole out of that beautiful pool. The American & California flags were flapped to shreds by the wind, and I could tell I was inhaling a lot of the ambient dust out there, so I went back to the cabin and fell asleep watching "Kelly's Heroes" (what an idiotic movie.)
Too bad Hagar wasn't there this weekend. (Idoru: I finally remembered the name of the guy whose voice sounded like Mike Tyson with a German accent, but who looked like Sergei Velov from "American Flyers" is Hagar.) I hope you guys had a pleasant ride this morning. The wind was howling again this morning at Stovepipe Wells, only in the opposite direction! God it felt good to get out of that windy, dusty valley this morning. My ears, nose, and eyes are still full of sand-dust. Took a few pictures this morning when I was able to get my camera working again. Will post up whatever turns out.
Which way did you go back, Jmx? I missed you at breakfast this morning, but forgot to tell you last night to check the Adventurecorps recommended route through Trona. It's much more pleasant (and I believe quicker) than the Vegas-baby route we took home after the Spring Double.
Only 4 weeks until l'Etape! Got some training and abstaining to do!
*It was a sustained 50mph wind, not "gusts up to 50". As soon as Stan brought me back, I jumped in my pickup to rescue any other riders who didn't have a ride. Once I got underway, I put my truck in neutral and just let the wind push it. It sustained my pickup at 45 mph for several minutes (at least 3 miles), and when I opened my window to feel the wind, it was going a few noticeable MPH faster than 45.
If you're interested, these are times of the people who made it to Rhyolite and uploaded rides to Strava:
People who turned back at Daylight Pass:Code:Artist Drive CP Hell's Gate (out) Daylight Pass (out) Daylight Pass (back) Beatty Junction Furnace Creek Clark Wallace 1:02 2:51 3:36 5:02 6:07 - George Vargas 0:59 2:55 3:55 5:12 6:14 8:02 Jon M 1:02 2:49 3:39 5:18 6:31 8:22 John Johnson ?:?? ?:?? 3:55 5:45 6:53 - Pois Rouge 1:05 3:06 4:08 6:00 7:12 - Kevin Parks 1:14 3:13 4:06 6:06 7:30 9:13 Tante T 1:24 3:41 4:52 6:57 - -
Turned back at Hell's Gate:Code:Artist Drive CP Hell's Gate (out) Daylight Pass Beatty Junction Glenn Wenig 1:09 3:20 4:16 5:18 C Hutton 1:15 3:26 4:33 6:01 Stephen Aiello 1:11 3:26 4:35 6:01 Mark Epstein 1:11 3:31 4:44 6:02 Eugene K 1:27 4:03 5:31 6:59
Those who didn't get over Daylight Pass in ~5:00 were turned around by Adventurecorps. I summited in 5:30. There were ten or so people still climbing behind me. (Including one girl that made it all the way to the top on a fixed-gear bike. I have no idea who she is, but it was pretty impressive.)Code:Artist Drive CP Hell's Gate Beatty Junction Greyson Quarles 1:31 4:27 5:37 Robert Sexton 1:28 4:24 5:59 Mark Bagnola 1:29 4:29 5:58 Dan Finch 1:28 4:32 5:55
Last edited by eugenek; 04-04-12 at 03:35 PM.
What weekend in Death Valley huh? Great hanging out with Calimarichris and JmX. For me, it was blast (literally) viewing the event as a volunteer. I estimate about 115 started (2 waves of roughly 40 riders, a third wave of about 20, and a few late-comers rolled out around 7AM). After working the rollout, I had breakfast with the wife of one of the riders, then headed out in the X5 towards Artist Drive. I pulled over just in time to see JmX fly past like a man on a mission. A minute or so later, I saw Calimarichris fly past. I got photos of both.
I then turned around and headed towards the Beatty cutoff, and drove past the "race" leaders. Watched George Vargas get dropped early on the climb towards Hell's Gate by the rider in 2nd position. It was quite an experience to watch the race unfold right in front of me. I drove ahead of all the riders to get some good shots of them climbing past me.
I finished out the rest of the day working at the Hell's Gate checkpoint, mostly helping fill up water bottles and scooping Heed (the least number of people touching the water spigot and scoopers, is imperative). Waited for my wife and friends to come through was great. Pretty early on, we were instructed to encourage riders to opt for turning around at Hell's Gate. Later, about 11AM this instruction turned into "turn every rider back at this point". Most riders were ok with this, but a few riders were clearly disappointed, and may have sneaked by and continued up to Daylight Pass. They were also being turned back at Daylight Pass.
The winds were howling at Hell's Gate; looking down at the valley floor, I could see nothing but what looked like a fog. Which turned out to be a huge dust storm. From the start, I knew the descent was going to be hair-raising. And as I watch riders approaching from Daylight Pass, I could see that most of them were getting tossed left and right. Those with the lightest bikes were complaining the loudest, and I could see why. One front-runner was riding with what looked like 60mm deep dish rims. He could not hold a straight line as he descended away from the checkpoint. Later on the flat section just before Furnace Creek, I saw him again just fighting to stay upright.
A day of volunteering ended with me hauling 4 bikes and one rider (a FC 508 veteran), back to the starting line. After dropping off the bikes and refueling, I headed back to the Beatty Junction to see if anyone else needed rides. By that point (roughly 3PM), only 4-5 riders were still on the course. The rest had already been picked up.
Pictures to be posted soon!
Yeah, our ride was great. I first have to say that I haven't ridden with my wife in months. She really surprised me how smooth and powerful she is on the bike. Something about her preparing for Hells Gate, and actually riding it has changed her. I let her pull me practically all 25 miles of climbing up to Dante's View. (Its easier for two riders to stick together if the slower one leads). The first 12 miles is an easy, but sustained climb. The last 13 miles up the Dante's View get progressively steeper with 13% grade for the last 1/4 mile. We had a huge tailwind pushing us for most of the ascent, but when the road turned and the winds became crosswinds, I was really worried about the descent. Seems we didn't learn our lesson from Saturday. Regardless, we continued on and reached a very cold summit wearing only single layers.
The descent brought goosebumps about an inch tall. It was that cold. I was expecting a warm day, so I wasn't even wearing gloves. My fingers and toes went numb, but as we dropped in elevation I began to warm up. Yoana again pulled in front, dropped onto her aero bars and pulled us into FC going well over 20mph directly into the wind (gravity assisted of course, but regardless...). So, yeah, it was a great ride on Sunday. Nothing closely resembling the carnage we saw on Saturday, but still pretty windy.
Hey Eugenek, thanks for posting splits. How'd you calculate them? Manually? If you have an automated way (using the Strava API) Chris Kostman would be very interested. I'm surprised more haven't uploaded yet. They really poured in after the Spring century/double.
If you guys can believe it this century was easier than the Spring century 2011. That one took me 11 hours, 30-50mph headwind both ways (what a poorly timed cold front that was).
Nice to hang out a bit with Calamari and Idoru. Maybe we need a ride report thread to post the pics/results in whenever those are available. I sure looked ridiculous
The girl on the fixed gear is Deanna Adams. We met her on Friday night during rider check-in. She's actually quite an accomplished cyclist. Finished FC508 once (out of 3 attempts) and has completed the Tour Divide. She has a race resume that would put most of us to shame:
http://ultrarunbikevegan.blogspot.com/
http://deannadares.blogspot.com/
http://www.xo-1.org/2009/06/deanna-a...ur-divide.html
Last edited by idoru2005; 04-02-12 at 11:35 AM.
Manually. Writing a script for 6 people would have been overkill. Besides, I did not realize there was an API. But it looks simple enough. Maybe I'll have time to look at it closer next weekend.
No new results were uploaded since yesterday evening, in fact, one of the guys in the list took down his ride. Maybe they are all too ashamed?
I can't believe it.If you guys can believe it this century was easier than the Spring century 2011. That one took me 11 hours, 30-50mph headwind both ways (what a poorly timed cold front that was).
Congrats to all for just surviving! Handling the gusty conditions in DV are real test of bike skills.
In the FWIW column, the local weather guessers announced this afternoon that southern NV, along with Inyo and northern San Berdoo counties, had a 60 hour stretch where the winds never went below 20 mph! In all the time I've lived here I've never experienced that before. All the local weather stations - public and private- showed long periods of time with steady state winds in the mid/high 30's, with a couple of incidences of gusts maxing out at 48 mph. There may have been very localized micro burst winds above that which were not recorded due to their location. We also experience down burst winds off the mountain ranges when the conditions are just so; sometimes referred to as katabatic winds.
I *ALMOST* went for a ride Sunday am. When I went out at 0-dark-30 to get e newspaper, it was dead calm, but only 48°. Came home, made some coffee and started throwing things together for a junket. By 0830, the winds were whipping, AGAIN! More FWIW, it was the same today, wind speeds in the high 20's/low 30's, but with temps only into the low 60's; a ± 20° drop from Friday/Saturday!
FIE!
YMMV
-dg
The thing about the cold is that you can never tell how cold it is
from looking out a kitchen window. You have to dress up, get out
training and when you come back, you then know how cold it is.
-- Sean Kelly
That chick was hard f'ing core. Thanks for linking her blog, I had a chance to read a bit today during some downtime.
Hrm, maybe you shouldn't believe it after all. George Vargas posted today that he thinks this years HGH was worse than last years spring event, so I'll defer to his judgement. I guess it was just the fact I was much weaker last year.
It's been four days and there's still no official report from AdventureCorps, is that normal?
It was wednesday when the results were posted for the spring double, so hopefully he gets them up tonight.
I very much preferred the chip timed events with splits from last year. Results were up the same night of the event and accurate to the second.
I had to ask the lady at the finish to give me a time, because she simply assumed I didn't do the full course when I showed up. If I'd walked away I'd be showing up as a DNF. With the wind situation things got a bit sloppy at the finish this year.
How I ride inside: http://jmtc.ls1howto.com/
Results and pictures!
http://www.adventurecorps.com/hgh/2012/2012results.html
Nine people completed the full route. George Vargas #1, Jon M #4.
I was surprised to see GV as #1. There were at least two guys on the road ahead of him. Terry (Chesapeake Bay Retriver) Lentz, was riding in first position since Artist Palette, apparently sagged a ride to the finish line to get his car in order to look for his companions. One of which I sagged back to the Furnace Creek along with 3 bikes (Louise Comar, herself a multiple 508 veteran). I'm not sure what happened to the guy running in 2nd, but on his return back through Hell's Gate his legs were cramping, so it's likely he DNFed as well.
According to my splits, that would be Clark Wallace, and he bailed at Beatty Junction http://app.strava.com/rides/6164543#
I'm guessing Clark Wallace was #2, and he gave up at mile 90. He's up on strava and stole both George and I's KOM's. Doh!
Clark Wallace, that would be him alright. The guy was a beast (of course everyone who finished that event is a beast!) When he was cramping at Hells Gate, I handed him some TUMS. He was like " what's that for", I said "it will help your cramps, take a handful and eat them like M&Ms". He then popped about 10 in his dry mouth all at once!!! My eyes about popped out of my head! What I meant was take them one at a time. At any rate, I think it helped because he was back on the bike within 5 minutes.
That makes sense. At the start of the climb near Beatty pass, was when I saw him pull ahead of George. By Hell's Gate, there was already several minutes gap.I'm guessing Clark Wallace was #2, and he gave up at mile 90. He's up on strava and stole both George and I's KOM's. Doh!
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