Wow, looks like I got really behind. I'll post photos for the last month or so sometime this week I think...
Week in Review:
October 20-26
Monday, October 20th
OFF
Tuesday, October 21st
OFF
Wednesday, October 22nd
OFF
Thursday, October 23rd
PM—2.8 Miles—1:16—1,600’—1st
Spyronêtte
After the 11 hour drive from Missouri I went directly to
Chautauqua where I was suited up and on the trails in less than five minutes. My
legs felt like hell after being crammed in the Taco for so long, but they
eventually loosened up. This was a fun little race against the dwindling
sunlight. I decided to head up the 1st Flatironette, The Spy, and
the North Arête of the 1st
Flatiron. I’ll be taking a page out of Cordis’ book and refer to this route as The
1st Spyronêtte in the
future…
Friday, October 24th
AM—10 Miles—4:37—5,150’—1st
Spyronêtte, Sunset Flatironette, Stairway to Heaven, The Regency, 2nd
Flatiron
Just a fun day of scrambling whatever routes came to mind. I
intended to shimmy up the 2nd after Sunset Flatironette, but some
stomach problems led me to descend to the bathrooms where the Mesa Trail splits
off from the access trails to the 3rd Flatiron and Royal Arch. Since
I was already down at the Mesa Trail I decided to head to Skunk Canyon for an
ascent of Stairway to Heaven. On my way back to the north I decided to sneak up
The Regency real before heading back to the 2nd Flatiron for a quick
lap up the Freeway. I was pretty dehydrated when it was all said and done…
Saturday, October 25th
AM—10.5 Miles—4:58—6,150’—1st
Spyronêtte,
2nd Flatiron (x4), 1st Flatiron
Another fun day of scrambling even though it ended up being
really hot. The goal was to go for eight hours and see how much vert I could
get, but the heat was enough to make me call it at five hours. I did get in a
new route on the 1st—East Face North.
Sunday, October 26th
AM—2.8 Miles—1:18—1,600’—1st
Flatironette and 1st Flatiron
Easy ascent on really tired legs. For some reason I decided
to skimp on The Spy this morning. I had the pleasure of downclimbing to an
audience of middle-aged ladies as they gasped and made confidence boosting
comments like “I hope he doesn’t fall, I don’t want to see someone die this
morning.” They must have been shouting because I can’t hear for shit and it
sounded like they were right beside me.
Weekly Totals
Miles—26
Time—12 hours 10
minutes
Elevation Gain—14,500
feet
Week in Review:
October 13-19
Monday, October 13th
AM—3 Miles—1:25—800’—Beaver
Creek Ski Resort Hike
Easy hike with a friend.
PM—2 Miles—0:46—1,300’—2nd
Flatiron
Easy trip up the Freeway.
Tuesday, October 14th
AM—4 Miles—2:36—2,050’—Lost
Porch and Stairway to Heaven
David Ponak and I headed out from NCAR and got in a warm-up
scramble on the Lost Porch. Then we headed up Skunk Canyon to see what Stairway
to Heaven was all about. It ended up being a pretty sweet route. We had a rope
and harness in tow in case the downclimb looked less than ideal. David rapped
off and I downclimbed off the east face. The downclimb was a walk down for most
of the way until the bottom 20-30 feet, which were pretty lichen covered.
Wednesday, October 15th
AM—3 Miles—2:22—2,600’—1st
Spyronêtte, Sunset Flatironette, Jaws Bailout, and 2nd Flatiron
Fun morning of scrambling, with the notable exception of
Jaws. That lichen covered bastard left me a little terrified after almost
taking a ~50 feet slide down the face of the slab. I ended up bailing about three-quarters
of the way across it.
PM—2.5 Miles—0:51—1,500’—3rd
Flatiron Time Trial with Satan’s Minions
During my morning outing I got a text from Dave Mackey inviting
me to join the Minions on their time trial tonight. The only hesitation I had
was with the rapp off the summit since I’ve only rapped twice before in my
life. I felt like a bit of a jackass for asking one of the guys on the summit
to double check me before I began the rapp, but better safe than sorry. I didn’t
have any gloves so I wrapped the rope around my leg and took the descent pretty
slow to avoid rope burn. I was hoping to sneak in under 50 minutes, but I had
to wait for a few minutes at the summit to get a rope to rapp on.
Thursday, October 16th
PM—5.5 Miles—0:35—0’—Orrick
Roads
Felt like stretching the legs out after driving 11 hours.
Friday, October 17th
OFF
Saturday, October 18th
AM—7 Miles—0:58—0’—Orrick
Roads
Flat and boring. The usual…
Sunday, October 19th
OFF
Weekly Totals
Miles—27
Time—9 hours 35
minutes
Elevation Gain—8,250
feet
Week in Review:
October 6-12
Monday, October 6th
AM—7 Miles—3:06—3,000’—Squaw
Peak (Provo, UT)
Easy hike on tired legs. Awesome fall colors everywhere!
Tuesday, October 7th
PM—4.5 Miles—1:14—900’—Hidden
Valley (Moab, UT)
My legs are still pretty tired from the past two races. So,
I just meandered around Hidden Valley as the sun faded away.
Wednesday, October 8th
AM—7.5 Miles—2:23—2,700’—Haystack
Mountain (11,651’), Point 11,264’, Point 11,614’, and Manns Peak (12,272’)
Fun day exploring around the La Sals. I’m hoping I can sneak
in a linkup of all the 12,000+ feet peaks before snow rolls in this fall.
Thursday, October 9th
OFF
Friday, October 10th
AM—9 Miles—5:25—4,400’—Mount
Elbert (14,433’)
I met a random guy from Iowa who was trying to get up Elbert
as his first 14er. He looked lost and aimless in the limited visibility. So, I
abandoned my goal of getting up-and-down in a timely manner to drag him to the
summit and back. Really SLOW day…
Saturday, October 11th
AM—16.5 Miles—3:43—3,600’—Peak
Six (Breckenridge, CO)
A nice run with Mike Ambrose. We were both feeling a bit
beat down so we took the pace pretty easy. I think we topped out on Peak 6 (or
maybe Peak 7?) before doing an off-trail descent. We did a short loop from the
trailhead to add on a few extra miles and I ended up seeing my first moose out
in the wild.
Sunday, October 12th
AM—6.5 Miles—3:24—3,400’—Mount
Victoria and Peak One Bailout (Frisco, CO)
I got together with Mike Ambrose and one of his friends with
the intention of ascending Peak One. Once we gained the ridge we were hit with
howling winds and blinding snow. The guys bailed since they didn’t have the
clothing for pushing on. I decided to keep going and at least get Mount
Victoria. I decided to bail after Victoria since I couldn’t really see
anything. The footprints I had just made a few minutes prior were already gone.
Weekly Totals
Miles—51
Time—19 hours 17
minutes
Elevation Gain—18,000
feet
Week in Review:
September 29 – October 5
Monday, September 29th
AM—2 Miles—0:47—300’—Bonneville
Shoreline Trail (Bountiful, UT)
Easy hike with Tim with maybe a half-mile of really easy
jogging.
Tuesday, September 30th
OFF—Lounged on the
couch and watched Netflix all day
Wednesday, October 1st
AM—5
Miles—2:03—1,500’—Holbrook Canyon (Bountiful, UT)
Mellow hike up canyon with Tim. Some easy running on the way
back. My legs felt good enough that I’m debating signing up for TNF50 in Park
City this weekend.
Thursday, October 2nd
PM—3
Miles—0:38—1,000’—Lake Blanche Trail (Big Cottonwood Canyon, UT)
Really mellow run/hike on my way up to Park City.
Friday, October 3rd
OFF—Lazy day in Park
City
Saturday, October 4th
AM—50
Miles—10:24—13,500’—TNF EC 50 Miler (Park City, UT)
My legs felt a lot better than I expected, but they were
still pretty tired. I kept the effort mellow all day until the last twelve
miles or so. Then I picked up the pace the last 4-5 miles. With a little under
two miles to go I started running 5:30 pace or faster trying to catch the guy
in front of me. I closed the gap considerably, but he still finished four
seconds in front of me. I would have been reallllly happy to sneak in under ten
hours, but it just wasn’t happening this soon after The Bear 100. I’ll likely
return to this race next year since it’s a gorgeous course that’s nearly 100%
runnable on fresh legs.
Sunday, October 5th
OFF—Drank beer and
ate pizza
Weekly Totals
Miles—60
Time—13 hours 52
minutes
Elevation Gain—16,300
feet
Week in Review:
September 22-28
Monday, September 22nd
AM—4
Miles—2:45—1,700’—Clayton Peak (10,721’) near Brighton, UT
An easy hike up and down with Adele from Guardsman Pass. It
actually felt really nice to just go at an easy pace with good company. Looked
like it was trying to rain all day, but we managed to stay dry.
PM—Climbing at
Momentum Climbing Gym in SLC—I hadn’t climbed anything harder than 5.9 in a
while. So, I was pleased to shimmy up some 10.d’s without much effort. I’ve
definitely lost all climbing endurance I had back in June. It didn’t take long
for me to be wiped out…
Tuesday, September 23rd
AM—10.5
Miles—2:02—2,000’—Pinebrook Peak
Easy shakeout run on some cruiser singletrack. Fall colors
everywhere!
Wednesday, September 24th
OFF—Climbing in Rock
Canyon near Provo, UT—Intended to climb the 5.9 PG-13 sport route Red Dwarf,
but accidentally hopped between it and the nearby 5.8 trad route Leave It to
Beaver. Oops…Climbing slabs in the dark is interesting to say the least.
Thursday, September 25th
PM—2
Miles—0:15—300’—Roads near Bear Lake Condo
Easy shakeout run to celebrate finishing packing my drop
bags.
Friday, September 26th
All Day—100
Miles—29:12—22,500’—The Bear 100 Mile Endurance Run
Well, my first stop on the 100 Mile DNF Redemption Tour was a success (sort of)! I dropped at
mile 62 of The Bear last year. Quitting wasn’t really an option this year since
I was determined to finally get a Hardrock qualifier.
The day started off unbelievably hot—almost 70 at the 6am
start—and would top out somewhere in the mid-to-upper 80’s. After being in the
Colorado High Country all summer these temperatures are just too hot for me.
Though the ultimate goal was to just finish, I did initially
have hopes of sneaking in between 23-24 hours. Those hopes faded somewhere
around 40 miles into the day. The heat took its toll on me and I just couldn’t eat
much of anything. I was incredibly nauseous and on the verge of throwing up
during most of the daylight hours. Simply thinking of food caused me to throw
up a little on more than one occasion. Temple Fork aid station (around mile 45)
had ice-cold lemonade, which sounded delicious. So, I filled both of my
handhelds with it and took off down the road only to soon realize that every
time I drank the lemonade I’d throw up. I ended up pushing on to Tony Grove
(mile 52) without drinking or eating anything for about six miles. I was pretty
wrecked upon arrival at Tony Grove…
When night finally fell I was hoping for a relief in the
temperature, but it stayed fairly warm until after midnight. A long-sleeve
Smartwool shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the front unzipped halfway was
sufficient until it started to rain. I was actually looking forward to the
storm rolling in since I wanted to finally be able to put on my rain jacket and
leave it on for good. Yes, the rain did turn the trails/roads into a muddy
mess, but I don’t think it was nearly as bad as people have made it out to be.
I think the mud at the Black Hills 50 I ran earlier this summer was
considerably worse. The mud also provided a couple of amusing shit show
descents, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe it’s because these descents
perfectly coincided with moments in the race where my legs felt quite peppy?
Regardless, I had a blast cruising down the mud, glissading here-and-there,
falling several times, and basically just running like a little kid with a big
smile on my face.
For some reason, I decided to go at this race alone—no crew,
no pacers—but as Chris Gerber said, “No crew, no pacers, no problems.” A
hundred miles is a long ways to cover, especially when you’re alone for 75% or
more of it. Once the heat had its way with me the thought of quitting was in my
head up to the point I reached Beaver Creek aid station at mile 85—about a 50
mile stretch where I didn’t want to go any longer. I was lucky enough to see
familiar faces in all of the right places.
The generosity of others started before race day with my
buddy Phil delivering a brand new pair of New Balance Leadville 1210’s to my
hotel. Phil would be present at aid stations throughout the day and was always
cheering me on.
I rolled into Right Hand Fork aid station (mile 37) when
things were starting to fall apart and heard a voice yell my name. I was
excited to see Darcy Piceu and she seemed equally excited to take on crewing
duties for me. Darcy is not only one of the best ultrarunners around, but she’s
also one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. So, seeing her at RH Fork was
much welcomed.
About fifteen miles later I rolled into Tony Grove (mile 52)
ready to drop. The heat beat the hell out of me and I hadn’t drank/ate anything
in several hours. To make things worse, I was charged by a goddamn cow during
the descent to Tony Grove. Luckily, I saw Meghan Hicks (who had just finished
Tour de Geants). She jumped into crewing for me and said everything I needed to
hear to keep pushing onward rather than drop. When Bryon Powell rolled in she
took care of crewing him, but my buddy Robbie Pike was right there to take care
of me in her absence. I made a half-joking comment (well, actually I think I
wasn’t serious at all when I made the comment) about needing a beer and Robbie
was back in less than a minute with a beer in my hand. This guy is good. No,
this guy is great. Hopefully I get into Hardrock next year and am lucky enough
to fully utilize him as a crew and pacer.
Towards the end of the race I fell back from the familiar
faces and went through a few aid stations without friends there to remove the
thoughts of dropping from my head. Surprisingly, it became easier to convince
myself to keep trudging along as the miles slowly crept by. I reached Beaver
Creek Campground (Mile 85) in my most physically miserable state since earlier
in the heat of the day. The skies opened a few miles before reaching the aid
station. Though I had on my rain jacket, the rain began so abruptly that I
wasn’t able to get on my rain pants soon enough. Since my jacket was on over my
UD race vest that had my pants I decided to wait until the aid station to put
on my pants. My legs ended up soaked and freezing, but it was better than
having my entire body soaked and cold. I spent a considerable amount of time
warming up and putting on more clothes at this aid station. Here, I met Erin
Gibbs for the first time. She was staying in the same condo as me, but our
paths hadn’t crossed yet. It was great to have her there with some words of
encouragement.
When I finally left Beaver Creek CG I couldn’t really muster
anything beyond the pace that’s just slightly faster than a death march. Near
the top of the ascent I saw a few guys gaining on me. At the crest of the hill
I began a painfully slow shuffle downhill to try holding them off. When they
passed I realized it was Eric Lee and his runner, which motivated me a little
more to see if my legs had anything left in them. I was able to pick up my
cadence a bit and keep up with them. Eventually, I was able to turn my legs
over even more and drop them on the way to Ranger Dip aid (mile 92).
While rolling into Ranger Dip I was greeted by Meghan again.
We both had puzzled looks on our faces when we saw each other. I was wondering
when I passed Bryon since he passed me at Tony Grove and she seemed surprised
that I hadn’t dropped or wasn’t just death marching in to barely beat the
cutoff. Meghan jogged into the aid station with me and was kind enough to crew
me one more time. I shed my rain jacket and pants since I was starting to get
hot, downed a couple of breakfast burritos, and chatted for a few minutes.
Eventually, I headed up to tackle the last climb of the day—about a 600’ ascent
over a half-mile, I think.
I could definitely smell the barn at this point and my legs
seemed to sense the end being near. So, I proceeded to cruise up this short
grunt of an ascent. Once I topped out I noticed two runners just below me and
caught up to them rather quickly. The runners were Gerbster and Kari. I
remember Kari making a comment that led me to believe her legs were rather
shot.
Near the beginning of the long descent into Fish Haven the
skies opened up again and it rained for the rest of the race. So, I could
either tip-toe through the mud and prolong the misery of being cold and wet
without rain gear or I could run hard and get the damn thing over. I chose to
run hard (well, run as hard as I could 90+ miles into the day). This entire descent
was a muddy shit show, which ended up being extremely enjoyable on my newly
revived legs. I proceeded to glissade, zig-zag, and belly flop my way down the
muddy trails/roads and even passed 3-4 other people in the process. Once I hit
the dirt road leading into Fish Haven I tried running even harder to make sure
no one would pass me in the final stretch. These two miles on the road seemed
to drag on-and-on…
After 29 hours and 12 minutes I finally crossed the finish
line. Not exactly what I set out to do, but I finished and got my Hardrock 100
qualifier…
Saturday, September 27th
Still Running The
Bear…
Sunday, September 28th
OFF—My legs were
a little sore, but not too bad. Later in the day I had to fight the urge to
run. Fortunately, it was raining and that discouraged me from putting on the
shorts and shoes…
Weekly Totals
Miles—116.5
Time—34 hours 15
minutes
Elevation Gain—26,500
feet
Week in Review:
September 15-21
Monday, September 15th
AM—3
Miles—2:06—2,400’—2nd Flatiron (x3)
My legs felt pretty shaky this morning. So, I decided to
stick to the Freeway route for a few laps rather than commit to having to
downclimb off the 3rd or anything like that. On my first lap, I saw
a guy way to the right of the slab who said he was bailing since he didn’t know
the route. I invited him to follow me and proceeded to show him the correct
path. So, the first lap up was a bit slow, but enjoyable since I had company
along the way. After parting ways with Sam I continued to do two more laps on
the
Freeway—11:30 and 9:35.
Tuesday, September 16th
AM—5
Miles—2:08—3,200’—2nd Flatiron Time Trial, 1st
Flatironette, 2nd Flatiron
I took off from Chautauqua with intentions of doing some
sort of linkup; figuring I’d hit the 2nd first as a warmup. I wasn’t
lacking energy, but for some reason my legs just felt really heavy this
morning. As I neared the base of the 2nd I realized that I was going
to PR my approach to the slab. I reached the base in 10:59 and ran straight
onto the rock without hesitation. My scrambling felt pretty good the entire way
and I eventually reached the walk-off in 20:36 (9:37 split). So, I decided to
run back to the Chautauqua trailhead in an effort to beat my previous PR of
34:28. After 13:20 of descending I made it back to the trailhead with a
roundtrip time of 33:57. I spent about ten minutes chugging water before
heading back up to tag the 1st Flatironette and getting in another
lap on the Freeway. I managed to shimmy up the Freeway in 8:41 this time
(another new PR). I’m pretty optimistic that I’ll be able to shave off some
more time on some of these routes as soon as temperatures begin to drop.
Wednesday, September 17th
PM—4 Miles—1:14—2,400’—Green
Mountain
A nice late afternoon trip up Green with Jeff. I always
enjoy joining JV for a run because it’s almost always a guarantee that we’ll
ascend/descend via some non-standard route. Today we ascended via the social
trail behind the 3rd and descended some trails around the NE Ridge
before coming out behind the 1st and following the main access trail
back to the parking lot. I’ve descended this route with Jeff before and love
it—short, steep, and direct.
Thursday, September 18th
AM—4
Miles—2:44—2,900’—1st Flatironette, The Spy, 1st
Flatiron, 2nd Flatiron, and 3rd Flatiron
This was a fun morning out on the slabs. I started out by
tackling the 400-foot South Ridge of the 1st Flatironette. I hopped
off the summit, descended a little ways, and found a short climb up to the East
Ridge of The Spy. Joining The Spy from this point makes for a short scramble
(maybe 200 feet?), but it’s a fun, exposed scramble to the top. The ridge keeps
narrowing as you ascend and eventually you’re confronted with a rather steep
bulge with thin holds. After hopping off the summit I hiked up a few hundred
feet to the notch that provides access to the 1st Flatiron’s North
Arete route and proceeded to follow the Arete to the summit. This is a fun,
aesthetic little route that puts you in a few spectacular positions. It’s short
and sweet. From the summit I was faced with doing the downclimb solo for my
first time. I’ve only done the downclimb twice and both times were with someone
who knows the route rather well. To me, it’s a pretty straightforward downclimb
until you get to the last 10-20 feet where you have to pick your line back to
solid ground. I spent a few minutes figuring out this line before committing to
any moves. This was an enjoyable (though, round-a-bout) way of reaching the 1st
Flatiron’s summit. I’m still hesitant to try the East Face Direct route on the
1st by myself since it has a few twists and turns in it. The route
already goes at 5.6, which makes me think that the climbing could potentially
get quite harder if I ventured too far off route. Once back on the ground I
descended the access trail and got in a quick trip up the 2nd
Flatiron’s Freeway route. This time I descended to the East Bench of the 3rd.
The classic Standard East Face route on the 3rd seemed like a great
way to end the day. I was beginning to feel pretty dehydrated and thirsty, but figured
I could sneak this one in somewhat quickly. I passed 3-4 roped parties en route
to the summit and chatted with them for a few minutes here-and-there. After
20’ish minutes I was sitting on the summit soaking up the sun and views. My
last major task of the day was getting down the SW Chimney route. This would
only be my third time doing this downclimb. I definitely still have a lot of
figuring out to do on this one. Its crux is noticeably harder and more exposed than
that of the 1st. The past two times I’ve spent probably fifteen
minutes or so standing at the top of the chimney trying to figure out how to
get past the chockstone and down into the first two moves or so. Once past
this, the rest of the downclimb is quite easy. I’ll get it figured out
eventually...
Friday, September 19th
PM—3
Miles—1:38—2,100’—1st Flatironette, The Spy, 1st
Flatiron, 2nd Flatiron
Same outing as yesterday minus the 3rd Flatiron.
Yesterday, I had the North Arete of the 1st all to myself. Today, I
had to dodge three roped parties and wait on one of them for 5-10 minutes to
get up the 5.4 crux section of the route. I was in a nice flat area that
allowed me to sit down and take in the views while waiting. So, it wasn’t a bad
place to linger around for a few minutes. I’ve noticed over the past two days
that the rubber on my re-soled shoes is starting to lose its stickiness. The
dots on the forefoot are completely worn down and the rubber is actually
starting to rub off and leave black crap all over my hands when I touch it. It
might be close to time to retire this pair?
Saturday, September 20th
PM—3
Miles—2:12—2,200’—1st Flatironette, The Spy, 1st
Flatiron, Pullman Car, 2nd Flatiron
Fun last minute outing with Cordis. I had a few friends from
New Mexico in town so I had spent the better part of the day drinking beer.
This was my first time scrambling in the Flatirons while slightly inebriated,
but it was quite enjoyable. A little liquid courage never hurts. Now, I think I
understand why all of the pioneer climbers in Yosemite, Eldo, etc. were all
tripping on acid during their climbs…
Sunday, September 21st
OFF—Driving to Park
City, Utah
Weekly Totals
Miles—21.5
Time—12 hours 06
minutes
Elevation Gain—15,200
feet
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