THE MIGHTY WASATCH: TOUCHING THE SKY

And somehow at Friday, 10 am, after countless posts on MTBR, I arrived at White Pine Touring to see this:

We had a crew of 13 untested riders anxious to begin the three days of the Mighty Wasatch. This was my gathering, and I
will selfishly admit that I concocted it according to my own ideas of what I would like a gathering to be about. Mostly it
was my own complete lack of interest in organizing anything, combined with my complete fascination for everything about
the mountains in my backyard. It turned out that the crew that showed up had similar ideas. Right from the start, we were
one big happy family. Here's the first stop at the Yurt on Park City

The pace was brisk, but not hectic, as we picked our way across Park City towards Deer Valley. Here's
Laurie from Georgia pickin' away

Eventually, after lots n lots of switchbacks, we hit the big 9000, and the top of Deer Valley,
as can be seen from Lee and JD's
discussion

Our goal was the Primitive Trail atop bald mountain, which sits high and alone at the far east terminus of the
Wasatch. At 9600 feet, all we could do was sit back, and enjoy this very cool place

Everyone just kind of chilled out (literally), and just let the place soak in. Jim gives
it a think or two

Sharon grins in glee at the prospect of a long descent back down to ``the air''

and then grins some more at being able to share this with her guy, Lee. If you have met Sharon and
Lee (I'm avoiding MTBR tags for this), you will agree that they are two truly great people, and in my
case, the best of friends. I'm so glad they were able to make it to this get together

Well, in true Wasatch tradition, there are no riding shots as we were too busy riding. Suffice it
to say, we descended back to the base via an Aspen groove tube, had beer and burgers at the pub,
headed to camp, fell asleep, got up, slogged ourselves back up another 3800 vertical feet to find
ourselves atop the Wasatch Crest.Here the gang wonders what the heck is going on...

Lee seems really confused here

Yup. Lots and lots of confusion. Sharon and Seb try to make heads or tails of it all

In fact, it took a couple of hours, and more singletrack than is legal for us to rectify
why we were doing this. Even at Dog lake, 2000 feet down, we still wondered

But then is became painfully evident (not the pain in the thighs). Somehow we had amassed the
perfect riding group. The chance of picking a dozen random folks from across the countries,
and having them spend two days riding at altitude for, oh the whole day, and having the group
chug along like a well oiled chu-chu train is almost impossible. Furthermore, for that entire
group to socially, and seamlessly click so that amongst the ``where's the fricken air'' comments
was a lot of laughs and great comradrie, was too good to be true. This was a gathering you just
can't plan

Of course the question begs: will it happen again? Well, in a word, no. Sorry folks. This was
it. Their will be other Wasatch get-togethers, but this was the Mighty Wasatch. I will not
attempt to reproduce it again. I recall sitting in the Silver Fork Lodge, after the final ride
at Solitude. The last remaining group was having natchos and beer, and were recalling the
whirlwind events of the past days. I could not have imagined that this is how it would have
turned out. I envisioned logistics, and different level groups, and organization. But none of
that happened. We were one group that just stuck together, climbed high, and in each of our own
ways, I think, touched the sky.

And like I always say, each time I come down from the mountains, a part of me stays there. The part that
counts. Thanks everyone for making the Mighty Wasatch come true.
Gazz.