VINE SWINGERS MENS CLUB

2013-03-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

2013 Race Season Part I

Team Members: Dylan DeVesty
Race: KDM 3mile (Sea Bright, NJ)
Distance: 3miles
Date: March 9, 2013
Temp/Weather: low 50's + Strong N wind

KDM Race

There needs to be a first race to every season. Since I started racing, which wasn't long ago (this will be my 3rd official season), I have always started out the season with a running race. I honestly have much more passion for triathlons because of the variety of disciplines the sport has to offer, but I like the feel of seeing where I am at (training-wise) by testing the season off with a run. I have never participated in the Keith McHeffey Foundation 3 Mile run before this but it is truly an awesome event. This was the 12th annual successful run they have organized in honor of Keith. This local foundation raises money for community areas, schools/education, local disaster, and much more through a variety of charitable events. It was so much fun being part of such an awesome event that brought so much life and energy back into Sea Bright. They even threw a killer party at the end of the race with food, live music, beers and all! I also happened to pick up my first ever overall win!

Overall Results out of 274+ racers: 1st Place

Hard work truly does pay off! Thanks to all my friends and loved ones who support me and my goals! You are all my motivation! Set big goals and focus on them everyday, you can do anything you set your mind to!

Stayed tuned for more 2013 race season updates.

-Posted by Dylan DeVesty

find official results/times at: http://raceforum.com/2013/kdmoverall.htm

2012-10-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

Crawford Path to Mt. Washington
New Hampshire
White Mountains National Forest

Expedition Date: October 18th 2012

Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan Devesty

Distance: 15 miles

Summits: Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin, Monroe, Washington

Elevation Gain and loss: 8700 feet

Average Temperature: 20 degrees
Completion Time: 12 hours

The historic Crawford Path ranks as the oldest continuously used and maintained hiking trail in the Northeastern United States. Dating to 1819, the Crawford Path runs from Route 302 in the vicinity of the Crawford Hostel to the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington.

Base Camp for the weekend. It was $3 dollars a night for parking at the Crawford Connector Trail head. We arrived Friday night at 12am for a 4:30am wake up call Saturday.

Saturday morning we were on the trail by 5am. It was fully dark still so headlamps were a must, especially with all the ice we ran into rite out of the gate.

Crawford Path passes over or very near the summits of Mount Pierce, Mount Eisenhower, Mount Franklin and Mount Monroe before its terminus at the peak of Mount Washington. It also passes by the well-known Lakes of the Clouds in the vicinity of the AMC hut bearing the same name. It is the premiere hiking trail in the southern Presidentials and this path typically constitutes a significant portion of a "Presidential Traverse.

We expected some snow but nothing like this. As we gained elevation it just got deeper. We went from early Autumn in NJ to full blown Winter in NH.

7:30am 1st Summit Mt. Pierce 4312'

9:00am 2nd Summit Mt. Eisenhower 4780'

That golden line out in the horizon is the Atlantic Ocean over half the state of NH and the whole state of Maine. It caught us off guard at first and we didn't even know what it was. Soon we realized we were starring at the Atlantic Ocean. What a sight on this clear morning with the sun beaming down on us.

Squatchy footprints in the snow near the summit of Franklin. Looks like we need to call the guys from "Finding Big Foot"!

10:00am 3rd Summit Mt Franklin 5001'

11:00am 4th Summit Mt. Monroe 5372' and our first clear view of Mt. Washington's summit.

You can see down below is the Lake of the clouds Hut and the 2 frozen lakes of the clouds.

We encountered snow drifts up to 3 ft deep. Pow Pow.

The ice was bad! We had yaktrax over our boots which gave us well needed traction. Made the going slow.

The climb to our 5th summit Mt. Washington was long and tiring. We had been climbing for 6.5 hours at this point and already bagged 4 peaks. It was getting real.

Finally! 12:30pm 5th Summit Mt. Washington 6,288'

Blazer Bob tested and approved at the Summit of Mt. Washington "The Home of the Worlds Worse Weather" Yew... For Blazer Products click the link below.

Blazer All Weather Mobile Device Protection!

Jewel trail on the backside of Mt. Washington. This was our

We took Jewell trail down from the the summit of Washington with our new found friend Paul. What a nice guy. He ended up driving us from the base of Jewell trail where he was parked to our parking lot (Base Camp) a couple miles a way. Thanks again Paul!

The view from the entrance of Mt Washington Resort. We bagged 5 peaks on this 12 hour day trip including Mt. Washington "Home of The Worlds Worse Weather." One of the hardest day trips of my life. What a day...

2012-09-12T05:50:00.003-07:00

2012 Race Season, Part III Summer Triathlons

Team Members: Dylan DeVesty
Race: Long Branch Tri Series #1
Distances: 300 yard SWIM, 11 mile BIKE, 3 mile RUN
Date: June 16, 2012
Average Temp: 80's*F

LB TRI #1

Overall Results out of 123 racers:

2nd Place Overall

1st Place Age-Group

2nd Place Overall AND won my age-group! So Stoked!!!!! This is my best overall finish in a triathon to date. Thanks Friends and Family for the Support!

Find Dylan's Official Results (Times/Splits) for LB tri #1 at: http://www.raceforum.com/2012/ssr-timing/lb1OA.htm

______________________________________________________________________________________________

LB TRI #2

Team Members: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty
Race: Long Branch Tri Series #2
Distances: 300 yard SWIM, 11 mile BIKE, 3 mile RUN
Date: July 15, 2012
Average Temp: 80's*F

Ryan DeVesty

Overall Results out of 158 racers:

10th Place Overall

3rd Place Age-Group

Dylan DeVesty

Overall Results out of 158 Racers:

5th Place Overall

1st Place Age-Group

Find Ryan and Dylan's Official Results (Times/Splits) for LB tri #2 at: http://www.raceforum.com/2012/ssr-timing/lb2oa.htm

More photos from LB tri #2:

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LB TRI #3
Team Members: Dylan DeVesty
Race: Long Branch Tri Series #3
Distances: 300 yard SWIM, 11 mile BIKE, 3 mile RUN
Date: August 18, 2012
Average Temp: 80's*F/ Windy/Rainy/Stormy

Dylan DeVesty

Overall Results Out of 135 Racers:

6th Place Overall

1st Place Age-Group

Find Dylan's Official Results (Times/Splits) for LB tri #3 at: http://raceforum.com/2012/ssr-timing/lb3overall.htm

I was a bit nervous about this race (LB tri #3) because I had pulled one of my hip flexors about 2 1/2 weeks prior and wasn't able to train the way I wanted right before the race. I had barely run or gotten on the bike in 2 weeks. I wasn't sure if I could perform well enough or if I would just end up injuring myself even more....BUT, In the begining of the summer I made it a goal of mine to win the series award for best triathlete out of the Long Branch Triathlon Series. In order to even be a contender for this award, I had to race. Considering my situation, I couldn't have been happier landing 6th place overall, and winning my age group again! Now we will have to wait until September 9th to see about the Series Award! To the ones who came out to support me in the blowin rain, THANK YOU!!!

-Posted by Dylan DeVesty

2012-09-03T20:06:00.001-07:00

2012 Race Season, Part II (Triathlon!)

Team Members: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty, Tim Chambrovich
Race: Xterra Jersey Devil Triathlon
Distances: 1/2 mile SWIM, 13 mile MOUNTAIN BIKE, 3.5 mile TRAIL RUN
Dates: April 29, 2012
Average Temp: 70*F

Tim Chambrovich

Overall Results out of 170 racers:

7th Place Overall

1st Place Age-Group!

Ryan DeVesty

Overall Results out of 170 Racers:

13th Place Overall

2nd Place Age-Group!

Dylan DeVesty

Overall Results out of 170 racers:

25th Place Overall

2nd Place Age-Group!

This was the first Xterra (off-road) Triathlon for Ryan and I. Getting to do it with our buddy Tim AND all placing top 3 in our separate age-groups was an awesome way to begin the 2012 tri season!!...and getting to camp out the night before wasn't bad either.

-Posted by Dylan DeVesty

2012 Race Season, Part I

2012-04-26T13:19:00.001-07:00

Team Members: Dylan DeVesty
# of Races: 2
Distances: 5k & 4Mile
Dates: February & April 2012
Average Temp: 45* F

Long Branch 4 Mile Beach Run

Feb. 26, 2012

Overall Results Out of 204 Racers: 5th Place Overall. Time: 28:28.6

1st Place Age-Group

Bayonne Run Like Hell-th 5k

April 1, 2012

Overall Results Out of 227 Racers: 5th Place Overall (again). Time: 18:45.1

3rd Place Age-Group

Thats the season update so far. Next up for Team VineSwinegrs: Xterra JerseyDevil Triathlon in Barnegat, NJ this sunday April 29, 2012. Keep posted to see how Team Members Ryan & Dylan DeVesty and Tim Chambrovich perform in the Xterra Mountain Tri. YUP! Mountain Tri. Thats a Lake swim, Mountain bike, Trail run. Wee HOOOOOO

2011 Tri Season Break Down!

2011-11-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

Tri Season: May-Aug
Team: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty, Evan Pescatore, Cara Pescatore, Tim Chvichambrovich
Distance: Short Course (400 yard swim, 10.5 mile bike, 3.5 mile run)
Elevation Gain and loss: Sea Level
Average Temperature: 75 degrees
Completion time: Summer

Sandy Hookers 1st Summer Series Triathlon June 18th

2011 Long Branch NJ.

Overall Results out of 300 racers: Dylan 8th Time: 1:00:01

New Jersey Pride Triathlon in Asbury Park NJ. July 9th

2011

Overall Results out of 300+ racers: Ryan DeVesty 5th Time: 57:32:8

Sandy Hookers 2nd Tri of the Summer Series July 17th 2011 Long Branch NJ.

Photo finish for Dylan gassing it up across the finish line! Way to push it Dyl!

Overall Results out of 350+ racers: Cara Pescatore finishes a strong 48th Time: 1:06:58:8! Dylan DeVesty 5th Time: 57:22;1, Tim Chambrovich 2nd Time: 53:52:8, Ryan DeVesty 6th Time: 57:29:3

DQ Events Belmar Triathlon for Autism July 31 2011

FAST FAST FAST RACE

Overall Results out of 300 racers: Relay team Evan Pescatore (swim), Matt Boyle (bike), Ryan DeVesty (run) 12th place

Lake George @ Morther Bunch Island and Black Mt. Summit

2011-10-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

Expedition Date: September 9th-11th 2011
Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty, Elizabeth York, Saidet Saldutti
Distance: 10 miles on canoe and 6 miles hiking
Summits: 1
Elevation Gain and loss: 6,000 feet
Average Temperature: 60 degrees
Completion time: 72 hours

So it begins! Our first expedition to Lake George NY. We rented canoes and took off into the unknown. Our first order of business was to paddle over to the ranger station island sign in. We picked up a map to help us navigate to Mother Bunch Island, which we will call home for the next 3 days.

Ok, so as you can see this was a trip for the girlfriends, and if you didn't know Sai and Liz, they are both terrified of spiders. Take a look at this 7 inch monster dock spider that says hello at our first stop. I actually thought it was a crab when we first rolled up, but then I saw the hair and said sh*t that's a spider! The girls freaked!

We signed in at the Ranger island grabbed a map... we were on our way. The winds were calm and the sky was blue, it was gorgeous out here! Not knowing really how far or long it would take us to get to our island, we paddled on guessing which island was ours.

2 hours into our canoe, we came across Mother Bunch Island! It was beautiful! We had a private dock, rock beach, 2 tent platforms and 1 outhouse. The water was crystal clear and all I could think about, now that we found our island, was fishing. Fall comes early in the adirondacks, so the smallies should be biting!

Camp was nice and warm on the south end of the island, so that's where we cooked food and hung out most of the trip. The above picture shows our rocky beach were we swam and bathed.

The sunsets were unreal! It felt like we were the only 4 out on the lake. Once the sun fell behind those mountains though, it got dark quick.

Home, sweet home! Which we shared with a Northeastern flying squirrel. I didn't even know they existed in these parts of the world. I think his nest was under our tent platform. I only caught a quick glimpse of him, but we all heard his chatter through the night.

Fire wood was like non existent. We had to canoe to all the nearby islands and fill both canoes with whatever wood we could find. If you don't have fire, you pretty much go to bed as soon as the sun goes down... which isn't very fun. Dylan, our head chef, cooked dinner both nights.

....Getting back to fishing. Early the first morning, Liz and I caught a hand full of smallies each. It was fun to say the least. In the picture above Liz is holding up one she got on a wacky worm. Way to go Liz!

The picture below is the side of Black Mt. which we decided to summit last minute Saturday afternoon. What we didn't realize, was that the trail head was a 2.5 mile canoe from our island. The wind was blowing hard out of the north by the time we headed out for the trail head. This worked to our favor on the way there, but I soon started to worry about the way back... especially after a difficult and exhausting hike to the summit. Mind you, we were also cutting it close with day light.

Black Mt. trail head and boat dock area.

There was heady fungi every where. Must have been the season. The trail crossed a few streams. This spot was cool with a little bridge, so we decided to snap a quick group photo. I set my camera on a rock and switched the timer on not knowing Dyl's head would be blocked by a tree. Sorry Dyl!

We made the summit in just under 2 hours. This was good timing, which we knew we needed in order to find our way back to the island before dark. Unfortunately, you can't see our island from this below picture, but you can see the group of islands that were about a mile north of ours. Vermont is in the direction I'm pointing at the very Nothern tip of the lake. This was Elizabeth's first summit of any mountain yewww!

Finding our way back became easier then we ever expected. On our hike down Black Mt., we met a very nice couple who was worried about us getting back to camp before dark. They decided to give us a lift and toe our canoes, as you can see below. This saved us at least 2 hours of paddling against the wind back to our island. Thanks so much to Kevin, a local science teacher, and his wife for hooking us up!

What nice people live in the Adirondacks. Thanks again to Kevin and his wife. You guys saved us.

Nap time for everyone after a long day of fishing, canoeing, hiking/climbing and wood gathering. Some how Liz still looks like a rock star.

What a beautiful night! We had the fire going as the sun was setting and the colors in the sky were just exploding. Dylan was cooking up a storm for dinner and even made us a perfectly executed dehydrated cheesecake for dessert! Damn, that thing was good. You can see it below chilling in a bowl of cold lake water. It even had a graham cracker crust!

Things that entertain you in the woods! lol This stick had oils in it which made it the perfect torch as you can see. Dyl having a little to much fun with that one. It was cold the second night.. we all needed jackets to stay warm and it was only September.

Sunday morning came and we are all packed up and ready to say good by to our Island. We got an early start because the sky was gray and none of us knew if the weather would hold out. Bye bye Mother Bunch Island... see you next year!

The canoe back to the car took almost 2 hours with the wind at our back. We took it slow and soaked in every last minute of Lake George.

Once we reach the Marina, we packed the car - garbage and all - and took off for the nearest diner! What a great trip. 100% success rate! I would say smiles all around, but in this pic Dly looks a bit angry. lol Ease up my boy. Till our next adventure!

Night Mt Bike Session "Secret Location"

2011-08-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

Expedition Date: July 20th

Crew: Ryan DeVesty, Morgan Kavanaugh

Distance: 10 miles

Summits: 0

Elevation Gain and loss: Couple hundred feet

Average Temperature: 80 degrees
Completion Time: 2 hours

Don't try this without professional help.

Lights and gear are ready. Lets get some. First night ride of the summer. Yewww!

1 Watt bike light plus head lamps equals night time fun on wheels! For advanced humans only.

Morgan starts the ride in front and navigates us through the darkness. This was definitely one of the raddest things I've done all summer! Cant wait to go again. Watch out for the eyes in the darkness!

New Blance, Reach The Beach Relay a 200 mile Race!

2011-07-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

Expedition Date: May 21st-22nd

Crew: Ryan DeVesty, Jim, Andrew, Justin, Peter, and Hector

Distance: 200 miles

Summits:0

Elevation Gain and loss: unknown but extremely hilly

Average Temperature: 50-70 degrees
Completion Time: 25 hours
Place: 8th Overall out of 160 Teams, 3rd Overall out of Ultra Teams

Let the story begin. So I received an email that was forwarded to me from my girlfriend Elizabeth's best friend Kira on Sunday May 15th asking for my contact information. Kinda weird, but ok. Elizabeth soon filled me in that a man named Hector, that I briefly met at a NJ Winter Trail Series race, was wondering if I would be interested in joining his Ultra Team for a 200 mile relay race. Soon after I was filled in, my phone rang and who was on the other line - Hector. After receiving all his information I told him I was very interested, but I would have to talk to my loved ones and get back to him. 2 hours later I had spoken to my family and Elizabeth when I had decided to commit and take part in this epic challenge. I had to immediately prepare for this race considering we were leaving Thursday morning for Massachusetts and it was Sunday late afternoon.

I had been training through the winter for my summer tri season, but when an IT Band injury in February hit me, I took a few months off. It was in May when I had slowly started to get back into my running and biking routines feeling about 75% healthy at best. Now, in just 5 days, I will be running my longest mileage to date. What was I thinking? I just locked myself into a 200 mile relay blowout of a race, with my 6 legs totaling up to 34 miles. This soon started to make me very nervous considering I had never run a half or whole marathon. The rest of my team had planned and trained for almost a year and were very prepared. You can see our team vans below on the wet gray Massachusetts morning when we started the race.

Team Photo at Wachusett Mountain before our 2:30pm start time. The 160 teams started in 10 team increments, 30 minutes apart. Our team went off in the second to last wave of teams who were all ranked the fasted. You can see Hector below started us off.

My 3rd leg started and night began to fall. All dusk through dawn legs have mandatory headlamps, 2 blinkers and a reflective vest. Let me give you a brief breakdown on how this race works. As you race your leg your teammates have to drive the van while reading directions and navigating to the next transition zone. We had 3 team members in each van and continued to leap frog each other as everyone ran their legs.

15 hours into this epic race we found our selves in a state park where teams were tryin to get any rest they could. I don't think I slept throughout the whole race. I felt sick most of the time just knowing I had to run again. It started to become literally torture around my 4th leg. I needed to eat for fuel but didn't have an appetite in the slightest. I hardly ate at all during the 25 hour race span.

Night turns into day and there's only 2 legs left for each of our team members. I kept having to talk to myself to push through and just get it done. My muscles were fully torn apart by now. I had taken 4 ibuprofen and coated my legs twice with icy hot right before my last leg. I can honestly say I didn't know what pain was till this race. Its amazing what you can put your body through if you focus and stay motivated.

In the end we all pushed ourselves to the limit and came together for an 8th overall win and 3rd overall out of ultra teams. Finishing in 25 hours with a 7:30 pace throughout the whole 200 miles. We also were the 25th team to cross the finish line which means we passed some 140 teams from start to finish. Wachusett Mountain to Westport Beach, what an amazing experience! These guys are the real deal and I'm honored I got to be apart of it.

New Balance Reach the Beach Relay

TEAM VINE SWINGER'S GEAR PICKS OF THE TRIP!
Look for the Asics Men's Gel-Noosa Tri 6 Running!

Mt. Marcy, High Peaks-Adirondacks, NY

2011-02-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: Presidents Day weekend- February 19-21 2011

Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Jeremy Herman, Ryan Devesty

Distance: 20 miles

Summits:1

Elevation Gain and loss: 6,000 feet

Average Temperature: 15 degrees
Completion Time: 3 days

We had been preparing and discussing this trip for weeks, so our stoke-a-meters were mad amped. Many plans had been kicked around, but when the dust settled we planned to set up a base camp and summit Mt. Marcy, then snowboard down. We also planned an optional summit of Mt. Colden via the Trap Dike route.

This was the first true winter camping experience for the Brothers DeVesty and my first true winter alpine ascent. We geared up like never before for this trip, grabbing all sorts of new and borrowed toys.

We jam packed our vehicle the night before the trip and left bright and early at 5AM on Saturday morning. The trip up was great and went very quickly. We were talking this expedition up the entire way and were so excited we had some trouble finding the trailhead. Ryan also got a little too excited and slammed the car into a huge snowbank before we got there. We were absolutely frothing by the time we finally got to our jumping off point.

As we unpacked the car and prepped in the trailhead lodge, we encountered a local hero who was picking apart everything we were doing. After listening to this guy tell us everything we were about to do wrong, the team morale was totally wavering. We dropped our ambitious goals and left the harnesses, ropes and technical ascent gear in the car so we could focus on Marcy.

After finally getting the enormous bags on our backs, we started on our journey. The hike in was short but difficult with all the gear on. Ryan found it a little difficult to walk in his ginormous snowshoes and gear. He ended up taking two headers into the woods. He got the hang of it shortly after and we cruised the rest of the hike.

We found a nice tent site a mile or so past Marcy Dam. It looked like we were the first to use the site this winter. We had to completely pack it out with our snowshoes and dig our kitchen. After making our little nook into a completely bomber campsite, we took a break and soon turned into human popsicles.

The first lesson we learned this trip is to never stop moving. We decided to take a hike to warm up and we headed over to avalanche lake. It was a fun little trip to keep us busy and we were able to check out the Trap Dike route that we were scoping before the trip. We went back to camp, cooked dinner and went to bed.

We woke up to a perfect blue bird day, although it was absolutely freezing. After cooking breakfast, we threw on our summit packs and boards and headed out to bag Marcy.

The hike to Marcy was gorgeous. The sun was reflecting off of everything and the air was crisp and fresh, just like the snow under our feet. As we neared the summit the trees became shorter and our views became clearer. We had our eyes on the prize. We threw on the crampons just before breaking the tree line and went straight up for the summit. It was extremely windy and cold on the summit, but you could see everything. After snapping some summit pics, we dropped off the far side for our snowboard descent.

We rode the hiking trail down and were beelining through the trees. It was totally cramped and insane. We rode down to the four corners and hiked out. On the way back Ryan and Dylan made the best use of their boards and were sledding down the mountain. As we neared our camp, they strapped on their boards and were ripping down the trails in the dark.

After getting back to camp, we cooked a quick meal and went to bed. The next morning we decided to hike back up a little ways and get some last turns before heading home. We warmed up and had some fun before having breakfast and breaking down camp.

On the way out we figured out a more efficient way to lug our gear. By strapping our big packs to our snowboards we could drag the gear as a sled. The ingenious idea saved our backs and cut our hike time in half.

Overall we had a lot of fun and learned a lot about ourselves. It was a great experience and a building block in our adventure experience. Get Some!

TEAM VINE SWINGER'S GEAR PICKS OF THE TRIP!

Posted By, Jeremy Herman

3rd NJ Winter Trail Series Race @ Lewis Morris Park NJ

2011-02-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

Race Date: Feb. 5th
Team: Ryan DeVesty, Dylan DeVesty
Distance: 5 Mile and 10 Mile Course
Completion time: varies

With weather giving us the worst conditions possible, we showed up for our 3rd trail race of the 2010/2011 winter season. The trails were covered in a snow/ice mixture (a solid inch of ice that was covering several inches of snow). Breaking through this ice happened more often than not, was horrible on the ankles, and made the yaktrax slip to the side of our shoes several times making it necessary for timely adjustments.

I participated in the 5 mile race consisting of roughly 80+ runners and finished in 2nd place overall. Ryan participated in the 10mile race consisting of roughly 70+ runners and finished in 4th place overall. I was completely toast after my race! I was awarded with a pint glass (w/ the nj trail series logo on it) and headed straight to the cooler to reward myself with a victory beer out of my new glass while I waited for my brother to finish his race. And for Ryan, doing the 10mile course, was wayyyyy more shot than I was. Im sure his legs will be feeling that race for a while...Anywho, I am stoked on both of our performances. The 4th and final race of the NJ Winter Trail Series hosted at Lewis-Morris Park is on February 26th and has 5k, 10k, and half marathon (13.1miles) options.

2010/2011 winter trail race standings thus far:

Race #1:
Dylan(5k): 3rd place overall 21:35
Ryan(10k): 2nd place overall 43:40

Race#2:
Dylan(5mile): 4th place overall 46:11
Ryan(10mile): 9th place overall 1:35:12

Race#3:
Dylan(5mile): 2nd place overall 46:55
Ryan(10mile): 4th place overall 1:34:25

-Posted by Dylan.

Colorado Heli Boarding Trip

2011-01-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: Jan. 4th-11th 2011
Crew: Ryan DeVesty, Evan Pescatore, Sal Martelli, Matt Arentsen
Distance: The State of Colorado
Summits: 5
Elevation Gain and loss: to much to count
Completion time: 7 days

The Start of it all. Denver Colorado on our way to Arapahoe Basin Ski & Snowboard Area. The first of 5 mountains we plan on riding within the next 7 days.

Abasin's summit 11,000 ft. This gives you 2,270 ft of vertical skiing area.

Next stop on the Colorado tour Silverton Mt. in the San Juan Mountains. This Mountain rage is extremely rugged and located in the southwestern part of Colorado. Its an old mining town surrounded by 14,000ft mountains as far as you can see. What you see in the picture below is Silverton's base camp resort. In this tent you sign your life away to go ride the lines of your life!

In the picture above you see people waiting on line for the rentals which were handed out in that school bus buried in 9 ft of snow. You also can see the Heli in the background which for a small fee you can be dropped on any of these peaks below and more. This place was the real deal. I had never seen or ridden anything like it up to this point. These slopes were only for experts! The pitch was anywhere from 40 to 50 degrees.

Hiking was a big part of the day. You would take the super sketchy 2 person chair lift from 10,000ft to 12,000ft then hike up depending on your riding level. The summit was about a 45 minute hike from the lift which topped you off at 13,500ft of elevation. The air was thinner up there and made everything more difficult. Once you picked your line you would stop hiking take a 10 minute break and descend the ride of your life!

If you look close directly in the center of the picture below you will see the Heli dropping our friend Sal off on that peak. This was our second day at Silverton Mt. and we all decided to go Heli Boarding. The Trip just kept getting better and better. What an EPIC mountain.

After our totally mental Heli drop we decided to take a monster hike to the summit and find some gnarly chute to drop into. These hikes were taxing on our legs and just straight scary at times where you knew that if you fell over the rocks it wasn't gonna be good. Just take a look at the photo below. One step to the right is a free fall to a most certain death. At the same time, looking out at the mountains in the distance gave you a view of a life time.

Ouray Colorado: Home of the Craziest Ice Climbing I've ever seen. These guys and girls were ice picking their hearts out on 300ft ice waterfalls. We happened to be just passing through on our way to Aspen, so we stopped for a few photos.

In the picture below I captured a guy tight roping over this monster gorge as ice climbers below him are making their way to the top. I mean c'mon, really people?

Aspen Snowmass Resort and Ski area and our 3rd mountain on the list. This mountain has to be one of the largest as far as ski able acres in the country. It snowed like 6 inches over night so we got pretty ridiculous conditions all day. As it continued to snow all day and into the night.

As you can see we got puked on all night with snow accumulating about a foot or more. We really couldn't have asked for better conditions the whole time we were there. It was either blue bird perfection or snowing which both were fine with me.

So we were off to Aspen Mt for a morning of ridding fresh pow pow in the glades. We only road Aspen for the morning hours getting about 3 runs in before heading to Highlands for the remainder of the day.

Highlands and the famous Highlands Bowl! So at this point I thought we had road the most difficult and demanding terrain at Silverton Mt. I quickly found out I was wrong. 2 lifts later and we were standing at 10,000ft elevation and in for an hour hike up to Highland Bowl at 12,300 ft.

Above is a sink hole. One of many I saw on the hike up to the Highland Bowl summit.

The summit at Highland Bowl was Spectacular. We decided to ride "G8" down the Bowl which was the longest most technical decent. What a ride it was and what a trip! This one was for the record books! Trying to make the Silverton Heli a once a year thing!

First Team Workout @ Hartshorne woods December 26th

2010-12-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: Dec. 26th 2010
Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Jeremy Herman, Ryan Devesty
Dogs: Kali
Distance: 6 miles
Completion time: 1:09 hours

Vine Swingers had it's first team workout today and we couldn't have asked for more difficult conditions. Just driving to Hartshorne was a journey. With at least 2 inches on the trails we took off running Grand Tour to Laural Ridge then down to Butter Milk Valley parking area. We call it "The Killer Loop" it's about 6 miles on black diamond trails.

Even with the BLIZZARD conditions and our frozen faces we had a blast. We took it slow and just enjoyed the winter wonderland around us. Kali girl may have been MVP of the run. She was so happy to be in the snow it motivated all of us. We are truly lucky to have this county park in our backyard. What an ideal first training session for Team Vine Swingers.

Burroughs Range Trail NY

2010-12-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: Oct. 8th-10th 2010
Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Cara pescatore, Jeremy Herman, Ryan Devesty
Dogs: Kali
Distance: 17 miles Lots of climbing (we added and extra 7 mile loop)
Summits: 3
Elevation Gain and loss: 12,000 feet
Completion time: 40 hours

We left NJ Friday night and arrived at Woodland Valley Campgrounds around 1am Saturday morning. On are way down the never ending road to Woodland Valley we were lucky enough to see a BIG black bear cross the road just a few feet from our car. It was awesome! Now kinda scared we decide to set up a lean-to off my car and get a few hours rest before the sun comes up.

Burroughs Range consists of 3 summits. East to west first comes Cornell Mt. (3790ft) then Wittenburg Mt. (3870ft) and finally Slide Mt. (4180).

Saturday we hiked/canyoneered 10 miles. The day was so strenuous we finished our whole water supply. At this point we decided to set up camp before it got dark. We passed multiple natural springs but they were all dried up. After camp was set up Jay and Cara hiked to one last natural spring a mile away and it paid off. There was water and they filled all are bottles back up. Now we had water for dinner and breakfast plus all day tomorrow, which made all of us very happy. Its easy to get grumpy in the woods especially when you have no water. Being out here really makes you appreciate the small things in life. I love it. Get out there people.

http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Slide_MT_Wilderness_0000.asp

Devil's Path NY

2010-12-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: November 8th-10th 2010
Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Evan pescatore, Kane Dalaney, Ryan Devesty
Dogs: Kali, Jameson
Distance: 24 miles 9 of which are climbing
Summits: 5
Elevation Gain and loss: 18,000 feet
Completion time: 42 hours

It all began Friday night Nov. 8th at 8:30pm on Prediger Road trail head. This night we summated Indian Head Mt. at around 12:30am and continued to Jimmy Dolan's Notch 4.5 miles from are start. Once we made it to Jimmy Dolan's Notch we set up camp for the night. This was around 1-2am with below freezing conditions. What a first night! At this point we new this trip wasn't gonna be easy...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Path_%28hiking_trail%29

Mt. Washington NH

2010-12-12T14:02:00.000-08:00

Expedition Date: October 9th-10th 2010

Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Ryan DeVesty

Distance: 8 miles

Summits: 1

Elevation Gain and loss: 6,288 feet

Completion time: 36 hours

Dylan and I half way up Mt Washington at the half way house. That's Tuckerman's behind us and the summit is off in the far upper right corner. We made the Summit the day before this photo was taken around 2:30pm in blizzard conditions. 60-70 MPH winds with snow and ice covering everything. It was no joke. Sunday the day this photo was taken the weather was clear and sunny. You could see the summit from hermits lake shelters which was just an amazing sight. What a great weekend expedition!

http://www.mountwashington.org/

Lean-to #2 @ Hermit Lake Shelters. What a relief to drop are 45lb packs and set up camp. At this point we unloaded to repacked are small summit packs with just enough water and head back out for a light weight summit.

It took us 2 hours to reach the summit from Hermits Lake Shelters, which is the half way mark up the mountain. What a reward to finally see the summit sign through the blinding snow and wind. Most unpredictable weather in the world! If you live on the east coast Mt. Washington summit is a must! Get Some...