Jon Nichol Bloog

2009-02-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

Some skiing pics i took. This is about it for my meaningful contributions to my own blog. Maybe one day I will be more on top of it.

Skiers are Kristin (Photo 1 and 2) and Jeff (Photo 3) Campbell

Liar Liar

2008-07-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

So I know I said this post would be about the Southern Utah trip but I went climbing today and liked a couple of pictures a lot so I thought I would post them here.

We are in American Fork Canyon

Sorry to those who were there and who are not pictured. Sometimes with photographs that is just the way it goes.
Climb On!

Post or else....

2008-07-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

The wait is over! I have posted again.
Here is what i am up to. I ride my bike to school everyday and then ride my bike in the opposite direction to go to work. Here is what happens when that goes wrong....

I guess it doesn't look that bad. I just got a flat going around a corner and fell off of my bicycle.
I am not fully ready to make a big long post about my life other than i go to school go to work and play whenever i get a minute. I will prepare though and my next post will be about my big adventure in southern Utah with my roommate Jonathan C.

Day Two and Three

2008-04-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

Kurt leading the feild just to get us started. He won this race. Here is how the rest of the weekend went down:

Day Two(Saturday): An early rise at 5:30 to get breakfast and then to the race to register and warm up. Alan fed us really well and we ended up going through 40 lbs. of bananas throughout the weekend. Alan although a little crazy was very generous and kind to help us out in all the ways he did. Of course Men's C rides first in the cold because nobody like us. We went off at 8:00 am. Lets just say i was nervous. I couldn't calm down all morning. i tried warming up on the trainer with the ipod but was just racing inside all morning. We finally got on the road and i just tried to keep up the whole time. The pack wa together until the first climb when CSU got to the front and set a fast pace and split the group. I would liketo think i could have stayed with them but i just got caught between two other riders and the gap just got bigger and bigger. I found a teammate and pulled him up a bit on the climb. He got past me but couldn't make it across the gap either. So i was left out in no mans land for about 6 miles. It was painful because we had a strong head wind a couple climbs and then a long false flat. On the flase flat i grouped up with a Mesa State College guy to try and catch a Colorado School of Mines guy 200 meters infront of us. Just after we caught him he fell off but we got caught by two Denver Unuversity riders and some other guy. I rode with them pulling here and there until i started pulling into a big head wind and they decided they didn't want to ride with me anymore so they attacked and i just waited for the other guy to match. He kind of did but not enough to catch them. On the second to last climb i was catching then all but the top screw in my water bottle cage fell out and so i almost lost my bottle and i couldn't get the bottom screw out while riding. So i had a dangling cage and every few turns on the crank it would catch my chain. All in all it slowed me down a bit but i didn't get caught by anyone behind me so i guess it was all the same. Final Standing: 21st, 15 minutes down or something.
Later that day was the Team Time Trial. We fielded a team of three because our forth, Clark, crashed out of the Road Race and had to get stitches in two of his fingers. Eric and I were both new to racing and Joel is coming off an injury and didn't have the legs to really crank it up on the TTT. But we finished ahead of one team and got Third.
We went out to dinner and then went to bed.
Tyler ended up winning this sprint for fourth during the Road Race.

Day Three(Sunday): Another early morning, awake by 5:45 and drive to Fruita. Again the Men's C division went first again and it was a bit cold. Eric had to go home early so it was just Joel and I in the Crit. We had a two lap clinic where we worked on cornering and closing gaps. Funny thing those were the two things I was nervous about going intothis. Unfortunatly the clinic didn't help. Right out of the gate we approached the first turn and i got cut off and locked up my back wheel. I stayed upright but lost my position completely. Well i knew that CSU was going to set a hard pace from the start so i tried to keep up with that but ended up in no mans land. I don't think anyone made it up to that group for the rest of the race. I ended up getting caught by the chase group and stayed with them for the remainder. I finished three seconds down on that group only cause i was dead tired and didn't feel like sprinting to the finish for 22nd place so i ended up in 23rd. We watched the girls kill it in their race and then the B division guys did really well also getting 1st, 6th and 7th. We went to lunch at a local pizza shop and headed home. I took some pictures and here they are.
Here is Dave during the Men's B Crit. After a Third place finish in the Road Race and going on a solo breakaway for a lap during the same race he said he didn't really have the legs to place well in the crit. I guess 6th just isn't good enough for this guy.

Here we have Sarah and Zoey respectivly. They are both Nordic Ski Racers for the U and did really well in the 90km Nationals Race. Zoey went on to win this Crit.

Alisha is Dave's wife and loves to climb. She doesn't love the Crit style so much but she still puts the hammer down.

And their off...

2008-03-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well i began my official racing career this weekend. I raced my bicycle on the roads near Grand Junction Colorado in the Mesa State Collegiate race. Since so many of the pro riders have funny blogs about the goings on in their peleton i thought i would enlighten you on the over serious over zealous world of Men's C collegiate racing. We are the bottom of the bottom. No one looks up to us and yet we keep riding. We dream of one day riding at the next level and slowly we climb our way out of obscurity. I am breaking this into two different posts because there is just so much to say.
Day One(Friday): School, then work, then rush to pick up the bike and luggage, then to meet the team to drive to Grand Junction. After being delayed multiple times we finally got on the road only to hit traffic from a crash in Orem. Oh how i hate Happy Valley. We ate dinner in Provo and waited out the traffic. Finished up the drive and got to Alan's house at around 11:00 pm. Alan was our host for the weekend. Sleep finally.

California, Tour of

2008-03-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

Well i went to the Tour of California and Saw some bike racing. This here is George Hincapie winner of the final stage. He did not win the overall race though, that was Mr. Leiphiemer. Poor Levi as of this point will not be riding in the Tour de France but I don't feel too bad for him. I went to California to see the boys of Kelly Benefit Strategies-Medifast Team ride. They were a late wild card entry into America's premier event for bike racing. A bunch of Pro Tour teams were there and the field was stacked but these boys were up to the challenge. They rode well and we got to cheer them on along the way. The Alps it is not, but we still wrote on the road.
Jenni the Rents(super cool slang for Parents BTW (not so super cool slang for "by the way")) and I travelled about the coast seeing some cool spots in Cali like Solvang and the Pacific Coast Highway. The PCH is cool cause you drive for hours and on't get sick of being in the car unless you have to sit next to Jenni the whole time!! Not really we all had a good time. The second to last day finished in with a three lap circut and we stood at the 1 km to go marker.
The boys in green did good but not really "in the money" as they say. The Last few pictures are Reid in the TT Bryce "the Byrd" Mead and the three true icons of cycling Phil, Paul and Bobke

I Ski

2008-02-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

Here is Jonathan skiing at Alta. There are a few aspects to this photograph that I like. What i am trying to do is never take an ordinary "magazine" picture. I really feel like anyone could take most of those pictures. Where I am playing right now in my pictures is a contrast in light and shadow. More to come with that in mind but this one is really just a show of the way light falls on snow. Never any harsh lines but rather the smoothest transitions. Jonathan on the other hand is disrupting that and his shadow is harsh and distinct. Somehow he is at home in the snow though. ALmost as if the snow has welcomed him in to shake things up.

Indian Creek

2007-11-14T01:52:00.000-08:00

One of God's greatest creations in Utah!! There are very few places in the world that compare to Utah and this is one reason why. Indian Creek has some beautiful landscapes and some world-class crack climbing. Nothing seems as pure as climbing a sheer face using nothing but a little crack two inches wide.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Climbers are Jeff Campbell, Kristen Campbell, Jonathan Campbell, Scott Walsh, Andrew Strong and myself.

Movie Time

2007-11-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

Well my desire to make a movie still burns bright even two years after I was a flim major. So for now you will just have to imagine what my movie would be like from the pictures I post. I live an adventure rich life, and for that I am thankful, but I think that these things would be interesting to document with video. I feel I am a pretty savy filmmaker even though my first film has yet to be produced. I don't even have a videocamera. I am not going to let this stop me. I will beg, borrow and/or, if it comes to it, steal a camera from someone. My plan is to record my many adventures. This weekend is a trip to some of God's greatest creations in Indian Creek. For those of you who don't know about the increadible "Creek" it is some of the premier crack climbing in the world. There are few places like the creek and it is here in our Utah backyard. We have been working hard preparing to go training and working out. Now this Thursday night we will depart and climb all day Friday. I will find a camera and start the filming process which is only part of the overall production. You can expect a film out by 2010.

Here are some picturs from my last trip to Montana. As soon as we get back I will post some from Indian Creek as production stills from the production of my "Yet to Be Titled" movie.

Some explaination for these pictures:
We went to Montana and Idaho fishing on the Madison River. It was beautiful there and I loved every minute of it even though I only caught a couple really small fish on our last day. We fished between the lakes and at Two Dollar bridge. We kept one to eat as you can see. MmmmmmmMmmmmMm that was some good fish.