Weekly Newsletter: February, 19th-25th, 2024

We missed skiing with our friends Chris and Doug this year. 😔 Hopefully we will be able to go on a ski trip with them next year. This week was a wild ride of winter storms and bluebird skies. It was also another big training week for Keith. 🥵

Check out our new posts and videos 🆕 🎥 📝

Two-Week Road Trip Through Oregon with Friends: Part 6

A summary of our Oregon road trip. Highlights of the coast, Northern California, and interior Oregon. This is part 6 of the multi-part series.

Keith and LindseyLindsey Huster

Missing our ski friends this year ⛷️ 😔

Our friends, Chris and Doug, opted to travel to Taos Ski Valley this year rather than once again visit Snowbird. This change was due to a number of factors including a massive price hike in the vacation package that they have been booking for the past few years. Unfortunately, this meant that we wouldn't get to see them this year.

Chris and Doug must have had a great time in Taos! They are already talking about going back next year. Hopefully, we will be able to work out vacation schedules so that we can all meet up next year.

Dinner at The Great Greek 🇬🇷 🧆

For date night this week, we visited The Great Greek in Pleasant Grove, UT. This is a simple, counter-serve restaurant but the food is amazing! This was definitely one of the top Greek restaurants that we have eaten at.

Lindsey ordered the Souvlaki Plate with grilled shrimp and rice. Keith also ordered the Souvlaki Plate but with grilled lamb and feta fries. Both of our meals were incredibly flavorful and perfectly cooked. We somehow managed to save room for dessert so we ordered and shared the Dessert Sampler. It was even better than we expected!

Winter and spring skiing in the same week ❄️ ☀️

On Monday, we experienced some of Utah's world-class powder while skiing at Snowbird. We missed the actual storm but high-winds were continually buffing the slopes back to pristine conditions. This made for some fast and fantastic ripping down what are typically very bumpy runs. Our friend Brandon even caught a quick clip and Keith skiing down a tree-lined mini chute.

The following weekend was a completely different experience. Temps soared into the mid-40°F (4.4°C) on the mountain which created spring-like skiing conditions. We both enjoyed the beautiful bluebird sky and groomed corduroy runs.

New camera gear! 📷 🤩

Keith has been wavering back and forth about whether or not to take camera gear on his attempt at the 2024 Tour Divide race. After discussing this in great depth, we decided that it would be worth the added weight and complexity to have the memories of this once in a lifetime trip recorded.

One of the concerns with bringing our current GoPro Hero 10 is that it would be difficult to control the bike while trying to move the camera around to capture different angles. Leaving the camera in a fixed location for a month's worth of riding would result in incredibly boring footage. To resolve this issue, we decided to order an Insta360 X3 360° camera.

Insta 360 X3 360° Camera

• NEW ERA 360 ACTION CAMERA: Insta360 X3 combines 5.7k 360 with all the power of a 4K action camera. Unbelievable potential!
• 5.7K 360 CAPTURE & REFRAMING: Insta360 X3 captures 360 Active HDR video, with all the benefits of a traditional action camera. Choose your favorite angle after the fact with easy reframing in the AI-powered Insta360 app.
• 4K WIDE-ANGLE SHOTS: Shoot wide-angle footage in maximum resolution with 4K30fps or a super-wide 170° field of view with 2.7K60fps MaxView.
• KEEP FOOTAGE STABLE & LEVEL: FlowState Stabilization and Horizon Lock algorithms work together to deliver incredibly smooth videos.
• EPIC THIRD-PERSON VIEWS: Our 360-degree camera makes the Invisible Selfie Stick disappear from your shots for impossible third-person perspectives. Now capable of shooting up to 60fps with Me Mode.

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The goal with the Insta360 X3 is to allow for the camera to be mounted in a fixed position on the bike yet capture Keith's entire surroundings. This will, hopefully, eliminate the need for Keith to focus on moving and/or pointing the camera while riding. This will also give us the flexibility to reframe (i.e. select the viewpoint) during editing so that the video can focus on the most beautiful and exhilarating moments of this adventure.

Tour Divide training update 🛞 🏔️

Keith performed some much needed bike maintenance this week. First, he replaced his Continental Race King V2 rear tire which was on its last leg. he also replaced his chain which was well beyond the wear indicator. Unfortunately, Keith found that he would also need to replace his GX Eagle Cassette since a few of the gears on his current cassette would not accept the new chain. So, Keith ordered a new cassette and temporarily reinstalled the old chain.

As for actual training, Keith kicked off the week with a brutal Zwift route called Accelerate to Elevate. This route includes three timed sprints with 20+ miles (32.2 kilometers) of riding before finishing at the massive Alpe du Zwift climb.

Keith then decided to really push his physical limits this weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday, we skied for 3-4 hours in the morning and then Keith went on a fully-loaded training ride in the afternoon.

Saturday's ride was a bit of an adventure. Keith had planned to ride up the Provo River Parkway trail to a local hill climb up South Fork road. Unfortunately, the bike trail to the climb was completely frozen over which made it nearly impossible to pedal. Even walking on the trail was difficult. This did provide Keith with about a mile (1.6 kilometers) of hike a bike practice though. Even with these difficulties, Keith still managed to ride 39 miles (62.8 kilometers) with 804 feet (245 meters) of climbing.

On Sunday, Keith decided to avoid the snow and headed north towards Lehi along the Murdock Canal Trail system. The trail was packed full of people enjoying the unusually warm weather. Keith followed his typical route up to American Fork Canyon then across to Lehi, UT before finally returning home. During this ride, Keith covered 52.5 miles (84.5 kilometers) with over 1,280 feet (390 meters) of climbing.

All in all, Keith rode 125.8 miles (202.5 kilometers) and climbed just shy of 5,900 feet (1,798 meters). It's hard to believe that most of this mileage was immediately following a morning of big mountain skiing at Snowbird. 🤪

Upcoming posts and videos 👷‍ 👷‍♀️️

Keith is still trying to find time to work on the Las Vegas posts. Hopefully, he will be able to find some time this coming week to work on them. Lindsey has started taking a look back at some of our prior trips and adventures that we haven't yet shared. She is currently working on a few videos and blog posts from our friend Yi's visit last year.

We hope that you are enjoying our newsletters. What do you think about our decision to purchase a 360° camera? Do you have any tips or tricks for using this type of camera? Let us know in the comments section below.👇 💬