Soon-to-be hot off the press, and just in time for the holidays. Earlier today I was given the opportunity to pore over a proof of the much anticipated new book, Fifty Classic Ski Descents in North America, and it looks awesome. The 200+ page, large format book, a collaboration by Chris Davenport, Art Burrows and Penn Newhard, just gets better and better with every passing page. According to the press...
Island Lake and Ice Lakes Basin – just another one of the awesome views out there on the course. Click any photo to enlarge. The 2010 Hardrock 100 is done and now, a week later, I’m still trying to put it all together. In the days that followed, as I embraced my “recovery”, mostly in the form of sitting on the couch and watching repeats of the days Tour de...
The snow is just about gone from Bell Mountain, which as unscientific as it may sound, pretty accurately predicts when the creeks and rivers around Aspen are nearing peak flow. This morning it was verified. The Monday morning run up Hunter Creek was more challenging than usual. At 7am it’s pretty cold and when I asked Christy to run through a second time to get a better photo she, not...
So far, so good. Joey and Sean descend into the White Canyon near Hite crossing, Utah, upstream of the swimming slots known as “The Black Hole.” The Black Hole. It sounds scary, right? Well, if claustrophobia, freezing cold water and flash floods get you nervous then this slot canyon run probably isn’t best for you. But if you’ve got a good wetsuit, booties and a perfect weather forecast then a...
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...
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...
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...
If the set goal for the day was to ski good snow we would have been let down. Instead, Christy, Tim and I went to Hayden on Sunday and filed it under the category of “getting out for some adventure” rather than “epic backcountry day”– and that small label change made it appealing. After all, when I was up here last Tuesday the snow left much to be desired and...
A mid winter ski descent of the 14er Mount Sherman.
I think the photo annual is my favorite issue of a magazine. So it was pretty cool when Christy thumbed through the latest Rock & Ice – The Photo Issue, and stumbled across a familiar image in the ‘Everyman’s Exposed’ section. After a quick doubletake, she tossed the magazine over to me and there was the shot, of Camp 2.7 and the mushroom ridge on Ama Dablam. I had totally forgotten submitting the...