M.U.T. Ultimate: A Three Part Series

Part 1: Origins

This series of posts concerns the creation, by one Mike Zargham, my roommate for 3 years at Dartmouth who not only is one of my best friends but also introduced me to a number of my other close friends, of Mike's Ultimate Team. During freshman and sophomore years at Dartmouth, while most of our Dartmouth teammates were getting to know each other, Mike was taking full advantage of the awesome ultimate social scene to get to know people on other college teams at hat tournaments, leagues, and tournament parties. Mike did such a great job of this that by sophomore summer he could assemble enough friends to form a team to attend a mixed tournament near his home town of Troy, NY, and thus was born M.U.T. in June of 2005 at Ow My Knee in Albany, NY.

The first incarnation of M.U.T. included representatives from Dartmouth, Cornell, Wellesley, Vermont, Chicago, and Amherst. Most of us were rising juniors, though some were rising sophomores or seniors. If memory serves me correctly we stumbled in our first game to a very beatable team, then lost to a good team, and then discovered we all knew how to run a sick 1-3-3 zone and hosed our next two opponents by at least 10 points each. Our first game Sunday was a similar romp, and then we lost by a respectable score in the quarters to eventual tourney champ and rising mixed power house Slow White. Equally important as our early success was the attitude we carried into our games. Everyone wore a skirt on Sunday. We played Twister during timeouts. We challenged our opponents to swords fights for the pull. We had hula hoops and a big stuffed dragon. It was more about fun than ultimate, we just happened to be good at ultimate too.

Members of that original M.U.T. team that were in attendance this past weekend at PADA MOSH include myself, Mike, Seth, Ralph, Tyke, and Fishie.

We had so much fun together that M.U.T. reconvened again that fall to play in Dartmouth's Frozen Disc of Death. I was at Geology Field Camp somewhere out west at the time so I wasn't there, but I believe results were similar with much fun being had and a similar .500 record.

With me back on campus in the winter of 2006 and dating a fellow member of M.U.T. (one of at least 7 current or former couples to be a part of M.U.T.), we pulled together a small crew to play in the indoor 4 Corners tournament in Burlington. I had completely forgotten about this until pulling my thoughts together to write on this subject, as my only memory of playing in this tournament was not doing well and getting really angry at myself for doing something stupid. But this event is important as it included an epic snowstorm drive to get to and from and marked both the first time Socks and Mackey played with M.U.T. and also the last time M.U.T. would lose a game until this past weekend in Philadelphia. Coincidence? Mackey will tell you it's not.

Lab

So I am a TA this semester, and I'm teaching intro to geology lab, i.e. Rocks for Jocks. I don't actually have any jocks in any of my 4 sections, but this did happen:

I was walking to lunch a week ago when I passed a booth set up outside an off campus bookstore/general store. There were a couple girls sitting behind a table and a few guys surrounding them and talking to them. Then I heard a girl's voice say, "hey, that's my lab instructor!"

I turned around and took off my sunglasses to look at the girl sitting at the table who had just spoken and I recognized her.
"Oh, yeah, I am your lab instructor," I said, walking up to the booth. "How's it going?"

"Good," she replied. It was at this time that the awkward outside of classroom student-teacher interaction feeling became overwhelming.

"So," I started to say, "what's with the-" I was going to say 'booth', but it was mid-sentence that I noticed the sign I was standing next to. It read

"Playboy Girls of the Pac-10 magazine signing. Meet the ASU playgirls!"

I looked at the sign. Then back at my student, sitting behind the table, pen in hand, with a guy waiting next to her holding the girls of the Pac-10 Playboy issue. I looked back at the sign. Then I looked back my student (or lab-ling, as I have taken to referring them).

"Oh," was all I managed to say.

She smiled, then asked "So, can I get an 'A' now?" A long awkward silence followed as I stood mouth slightly agape in awe of the awkwardness. Everyone in the area was starting at me, both girls, the guys waiting for autographs, and the girls' handlers/bodyguards.

"Uhhhhhhh, no comment," I said, and quickly walked away.

So yeah, I don't have any ASU athletes in my classes, but I do have a Playboy model. I think I win.

Road Trip Notes

I made it to Tempe last Sunday and am in the midst now of new graduate student orientation, unpacking, and climate shock. I knew it was going to be hot here, but I've dealt with hot before. I think it was the summer of 1998 in Oklahoma where we had 30 days in a row of 100 degree weather. But that doesn't even compare with the consistent heat of Tempe, and as always, it's the little things that get to you. Like the fact the cold tap water here is scalding. Makes sense when you think about it, but boy is it an inconvenience. If I want to drink cool water I have to make sure to keep water in the fridge, and to take a shower that's not hot, I have to wait 10 minutes for the water cool off. I still haven't touched the hot water knob on the shower.

The drive out here was nice. I stopped by the Guadalupe Mountains to say hi, and also stopped by Saguaro National Park to get the most out of the last month of my National Parks Pass. The visit to Saguaro led to one of the funnier conversations I've had with my parents recently:

Me: I'm probably going to stop by Saguaro National Park tomorrow
My Dad: Where's that?
Me: Near Tucson
My Dad: It is? I'm not seeing it on the map.
Me: Yeah, it's right in Tucson.
My Dad: That's odd, all I'm seeing is something called Sa-gu-ro.
Me: That's it Dad, it's pronounced "Sawaro".

Sigh.

I spent at least half my drive making it through Texas, which allowed me to observe the three annoying habits of Texas drivers:
1) Texas drivers rarely drive slow, but when they do, they make sure to do it in the farthest left lane available to them.
2) When you attempt to pass a Texas driver, it reminds them that no one is allowed to drive faster than they are, and they speed up to make sure you don't pass and then proceed to return to their preferred speed
3) The preferred vehicle for a Texas driver is a Dodge, Chevy, or Ford truck large enough to steamroll a Prius. The preferred passing location of a Texas driver in this type of
vehicle is a double yellow on an uphill.

Electric Peak

Finally finished the video about the 4th of July backpacking/skiing trip I went on.

My next 10 Days

Moving from Yellowstone to Arizona in a hurry, but making sure I use my National Parks pass in the process. New student orientation starts August 9th.

Monitor Peak

Monitor Peak is in Montana, a few miles north of Gardiner. It's prominently visible from Mammoth but is less noticeable than it's taller neighbor to the southwest, Sheep Mountain. I saw Monitor Peak every day pretty much the last two summers, but never really was aware of it until I realized there was a trail going all the way around it. In an 18 mile day I could hike up the southwest valley, around the north side of the peak, then down the eastern valley. It would be a short off trail tundra walk to the summit from a saddle to get amazing 360 views of the Absaroka Mountains.

Or so I thought. This isn't a common hike at all, so there's very little information about the mountain. So boy was I surprised when I got up to the tundra and saw that the very top of the peak looked like this:



I've never been so close to the top of the mountain only to turn back. I investigated the base of the summit block and found a way to start up.

Then I saw this:

and my ascent was over. I could probably have climbed up that, but I didn't like my odds of getting down. Definitely class 4, maybe 5.0, and I don't do that solo when the consequence of a fall is 40 feet of air to jagged rocks on the side of a mountain 8 miles from the nearest trailhead. I could've thrown a rock onto the summit from where I turned back.

Still, if the summit had been more accessible and I had made it to the top, this hike would've been much less of an adventure. It's one thing to go hiking and find great views and solitude, it is another to push yourself to a point where you find your limit, and return safely knowing you made the right decision. I enjoy mountains that I can climb, I respect mountains that I can't.

Wildlife

So Yellowstone is known as THE place in the country to see wildlife in its natural habitat, and last year I thought I was pretty lucky in terms of seeing stuff. Multiple grizzlies, a wolf pack, moose, etc.

Aside from the wolves, this summer summer has completely eclipsed last summer in terms of animals. The bears are especially out in force this year. I've seen multiple bears all four weekends I've been in the park so far, though luckily I've been able to continue my streak of never having seen a bear while on foot. A coyote while biking to Lone Star Geyser last summer is the only predator I've seen outside of my car.

I saw 3 grizzlies in one afternoon without even trying. On the day I went skiing in the Beartooths (i.e. not trying to see wildlife, just driving across the park) I saw elk, bull elk, bison, bighorn sheep, coyote, pronghorn, deer, marmot, pika, moose, 3 different black bears, and a grizzly bear. I even saw the grizzly chase one of the black bears.

My parents managed to see multiple bears both days they were in the park last week, again without really trying to see wildlife. They were either just driving to Mammoth or driving to the trailheads for our hikes. I've been taking advantage of finally having a camera with a working zoom lens. It even takes HD video, a feature I will be showing off in future posts with a couple ski videos I made.

In other news my job here continues to go well, and I am finally going to get paid tomorrow. The delay is because it took forever for my background check to go through. Actually, I still doubt it has, I only got cleared because I cleared the FBI criminal record check. So if you still have a form from the government asking about me, please say nice things and return it promptly.

Also went on a hike to Pine Creek Lake near Livingston this past weekend. One of my top five glacial valleys ever. The other four would probably be Zermatt, Cascade Canyon/Solitude Lake in the Tetons, Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park, and Cascade Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Boulder, CO.

Speaking of Top 5's, Electric Peak two weekends ago is probably in my top 5 favorite mountain climbs ever. Other 4 would be Longs Peak, Crestone Needle, Schwarzhorn near Grindelwald, Switzerland, and der Shlern in the Italian Dolomites.

I Must Be Crazy

To avoid the 4th of July crowds this weekend in Yellowstone I'm going on a backpacking trip with some co-workers to climb Electric Peak.

That's not the crazy part.

The crazy part is that while looking at the peak a few days ago I saw a large snowfield on the north face near the summit. I'm going to bring my skis and try to ski that thing. Meaning I'm hauling my gear 10 miles and 4,000 vertical to get there. That's the crazy part. We'll see how it goes. Best case scenario I get 1,000 vert of skiing in on the 4th of July.

Last Hurrah

Last Friday I went skiing in the Beartooth Mountains of Wyoming. It was my 101st ski day for the 09-10 season. It took 2.5 hours to drive there from Mammoth and find a good place to make some turns, but it was worth it. I ended up skiing what is locally known as the Gardner Chutes and one of the more popular places to ski on the pass. I took 4 runs, each somewhere between 500 and 700 vertical. It took me about 30 minutes to hike back up after each run and about 1 minute to ski down. The conditions were at best thick potatoes, but it was boot deep, untracked, steep, and mid-June. I'll take it. I'm tempted to go again, but the drive is just a little too far and the conditions just a little too poor to really justify it. So instead I think I'll stick to exploring Yellowstone further and trying to find some summer.

Also in the area was a crew from Toy Soldier Productions, a Montana-based ski film company. They were in the middle of building a huge kicker next to the slopes I was skiing on. Unfortunately the jump was so big they couldn't finish it in a day, so I didn't get to see them session it. From watching the trailer on their website I missed out too, those guys are sic. If the Beartooth session makes the movie trailer, I'm likely buying their film: Come Find Us.

This coming weekend I'll be taking Roo out for its 1st birthday celebratory drive- a tour of the remnants of the Island Park caldera in Idaho that was created by the eruption of Yellowstone volcano 1.3 million years ago. I put over 23,000 miles on Roo in its first year. Not bad.

Blog Fail

So yeah, about this winter, it happened. I wrote nothing on here about it. I thought about doing so a lot, but usually decided not to because the stories I wanted to tell might have incriminated either myself or my employer. Well, maybe not incriminate, but give light to things that really shouldn't be just floating around on the internet. Can't be too careful with that internet. There are photos from the winter up on Facebook at least, and I'll post a favorite here as well.

Of course, I still did a lot of normal, fun things this winter too, but by December blogging had more or less been removed from my mental checklist of things to do when really bored. I went on a hut trip, played a lot of indoor soccer, skied 100 days, and went backcountry skiing around Vail. If blogspot lets me, I'll post the video I made about this winter (it's long).

And now comes the self-promise to post more, as this is a really good way to keep in touch with a lot of friends, mostly through uploading these posts as notes on Facebook, though recently I've been using my Facebook status for that purpose since I know not near as many people read the notes. Still, this definitely remains the forum of choice for details.

Speaking of details, here's what I'll be up to in the coming months and what my future posts will about (or what a long-distant future post will be aplogizing for not covering).

June & July: Back in Yellowstone working as a geologist. Going to finish the project I started last summer and hopefully get a journal article out of it. Watching the world cup and maybe even winning a league basketball game this year (which will probably only happen if the team that always wins lets me play for them).

August and every month after that for the foreseeable future: Graduate school at Arizona State to get my Ph.D. T.A.'ing, doing research, and trying to work in as much ultimate, soccer, hiking, and skiing as my schedule allows.



That's me and my awesome skis, Rossignol Phantom SC97's. Unfortunately I broke them about a week after I took that photo. Fortunately, I got them waranteed and have already received my new replacements, 2010-2011 Rossignol S97's. Sweet.

I broke 3 pairs of skis this winter: the Rossignols (cracked sidewall from cliff hucking), Atomic Tele Skis (too weak for my weight and skiing style, I ripped the binding off mid-turn), and Rossignol SC 80's (hit a rock at A-Basin in May a week after buying these as used demo skis from the shop I worked at). I replaced the tele skis with Dynastar Mythic Riders, which rock. I'm hoping to get a mismatched pair to replace the 80 I destroyed, fingers are crossed.