Five of us hit the river last weekend. Jann “take me to the deepest snow” Stoeckl collects some prewinter face shots. Even though the Gunny Gorge is in close proximity to Aspen and that when put together, our group has logged some considerable miles on the waters of Colorado, Utah and beyond, only one in the group, Tim, had completed this run before. So armed with five inflatable kayaks and...
**Update- She’s finished, around 25:40 smiling, 7th woman overall. **Update- Christy’s doing great, left Twin Lakes Aid station at 6:10 pm, 40 miles to go–ahead of schedule!! On a late August morning back in 2002, Christy and I trudged up the road towards Leadville. After tagging along with my friend and his crew for much of the day, my friend dropped from the race, leaving me without support. Christy was...
Originally planned as a birthday outing that was tabled when work interfered, Christy, Dirk and I rescheduled the day jaunt up Capitol Peak one week later. A blessing in disguise, the delay put us on the route with just one other party as opposed to the relative mob-scene that reportedly overran the peak the weekend prior. After a 5AM departure from the trailhead we were up at Capitol Lake in...
The scene at the dam. The Leadville 100 mountain bike race was on Saturday. Always preceding the 100 mile run by a week, and with Christy and I registered for that race, I thought the best thing I can do in the time remaining is rest. So I headed over to Twin Lakes for the morning to watch the field come through. Being close to town there is always a...
Two Christy’s? Can the world handle that? Actually she was caught in two shots that made up this panorama, approaching the top of Willow Pass. On Sunday, my 37th birthday, Christy and I ran a trail linkup that started at Maroon Lake and finished with a beer and pizza at the Snowmass Mall. Rather than find ourselves in yet another grand birthday outing that’s both physically strenuous and technically elaborate,...
Dennis Scholl and I made it to the top of the 14,018 foot peak, the first time for the Miami based art collector, winemaker, philanthropist and Colorado peak bagger
Around mile 12, Christy heads down the road to the Printer Boy Aid station. This was the clearest view of Mount Elbert as weather moved in later and hung around all day. Despite the worst weather in weeks, Sunday’s 2nd Annual Leadville Silver Rush 50 miler will go in the books as another “good day” for Christy and Kathy Fry. Rain at the start thankfully passed as the gun went...
The race was awesome. Reflecting on it briefly here, a few things stick out– I improved on my prior 2007 time, cutting off 1:16, with a good amount of credit due to meeting my goal of getting through aids stops faster. A crash in the early parts slowed me down for a bit, a simplified strategy for food and fluids worked better than my mixed menu last time and the...
You’re only considered to have finished when you kiss the rock. The Hardrock 100 starts tomorrow at 6am, and with any luck could be over sometime Saturday. How will it go? Well, there’s so much to this race, so many variables and unknowns that it’s impossible to say for sure, until it’s over. So I have to fall back on the cliche for my answer– it’s hard telling, not knowing....
Summit #93 for Christy, looking out towards Mount Champion A couple of weekends ago Christy and I climbed Casco Peak and French Mountain, 13,904 feet and 13,940 feet respectively, and in doing so put Christy just five peaks shy of reaching the summit of the 100 tallest peaks in Colorado. LaPlata Peak, 14,336 feet, the North Face couloirs still holding plenty of snow and the long Ellingwood Ridge climbs to...