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...
Neal Beidleman traversing snow to the entrance of the Grassy Gullies This is a quickie, both in the day and the write-up. Here’s the debrief: Neal had the morning free and wanted to go do something fun. I’ll be at Hardrock next week and was looking for more than a routine trail run. Very direct and in parts runable, we both agreed a fast lap on North Maroon’s Grassy Gully...
Hitting the trail for a quick jaunt up towards Buckskin Pass on Saturday was our first visit to the area since ski season. Some useful route beta for the Maroon Bells area was learned. Here’s the report: Buckskin Pass and the Four Pass Loop The only news from down low is that as you pass the wilderness boundary sign there are four new trail washouts from the recent rain. Higher...
Nearing the “Narrows” aid station, near mile 15 Christy and I have run the San Juan Solstice 50 two times now and decided we wanted to try something new. So in place of the Lake City, Colorado race, with it’s huge vertical gains and high elevations, we ventured to a different 50 miler we had long heard of, in northern Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. The Bighorn Wild & Scenic race weekend...
Running Midway Pass a 19 mile route from Independence Pass to Hunter Creek.
Well at least that’s my strategy when Christy and I line up at the start for the Steamboat Marathon this Sunday. I don’t have a choice. After a great spring almost entirely dedicated to skiing, and with the approaching calendar stacked with some pretty tough running races– the Bighorn 50 is in two weeks and Hardrock is a few weeks later just to name two– I need to get some...
A powder day on Mount Yale!
Dirk, Christy and I agreed- if we didn’t see a sleeping bag for a few weeks, we’d be just fine. I say that because when you consider the different camps on the mountain, and their varying levels of comfort (or lack thereof), well, it’s just great to be home. Having a toilet is nice, too. Let’s review. Basecamp ~15,000 ft. Pros- Flat, grassy and dry with direct sun from 7:30am to 5:30pm....
We met in Aspen in 2000 and have been happily stuck in the rockies ever since, getting out in the mountains every day we can, in every season and by all means possible. Read More
