Last Couple Of Weeks

04/29/2013
Mon-AM: 2:01, 4000' ~ 1st and 5th Flatirons+Green Mt.
Ran from my doorstep up to Chat, linked up the two flatties, then headed to the summit of Green before descending down Ranger-Flag-Viewpoint. Took it easy but legs felt good considering yesterday's long run.
PM: 1:09, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Usual evening outing, but after warming up my legs felt surprisingly snappy and I scrambled the 1st in 12:30 before tagging the summit of Green in 45min from Chat.

04/30/2013
Tue-AM: 2:08, 3200' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran from home, went up Green via the First and then descended Bear Canyon. Tired morning, but by just keeping the effort mellow it was a very enjoyable outing. Good to remember I don't always need to be pushing.
PM: 1:09, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and then did the same exact run as last night, scrambling in 12:40 and getting to the summit in 44min. Gorgeous evening with the sun shining over the low clouds of the incoming storm.

05/1/2013
Wed-AM: 2:20, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran down to the Boulderado to meet the Wolfepaw for a lap over the hill in a snowstorm. Up Bear Canyon, down Ranger-Flag. 6" of fresh snow with more dumping down.

05/2/2013
Thu- off. Toe is really infected, so couldn't really even get a shoe on. Needed an easy day anyhow.

05/3/2013
Fri-AM: 2:27, 4500' ~ Bear & Green
Ran up to Chat and apparently just missed Mackey and the Paw as I caught up to them on the summit of Bear, after marching up Fern Canyon. Brilliant morning. Broke trail down Bear's West Ridge---dutifully bloodying the shins---before heading up Green and descending down Ranger-Flag.
PM: 1:16, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat, then cruised up the slab/hill with lots of energy. Yesterday's rest day put a lot of pep in my legs and the toe is much improved. Super slushy trails.

05/4/2013
Sat-AM: 2:25, 5200' ~ Bear & Green+1st Flatiron
Biked to Chat, then the usual: up Fern, back over Green, descend to the base of the First for a lap on the rock, and run back down to Chat. Trails were still full of snow/ice/slush, but it's melting quick.
PM: 1:14, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat to meet Joe. We jogged easily up to the base of the First with Geoff and Will. Had a really on-point, quick scramble and downclimb and then slipped and slid to the summit of Green with Joe. He continued on up to Gold Hill, while I ran back down to my bike at Chat.

05/5/2013
Sun-AM: 1:48, 3200' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Early lap up the slab to the top of the mountain and then descent of Bear Canyon before hustling down to the bus stop to go to DIA and Spain.

Hours: 17h57min
Vert: 35,100'

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05/6/2013
Mon - off. Travel to La  Palma

05/7/2013
Tue-AM: 1:48, 3500' ~ Transvulcania Course
Drove up to the church above Los Llanos with Tim, Cam, and Emelie and ran up the 1600'/20min of steep, cobbled switchbacks to the ridge where we intersected the race course. Tim went right while Cam and I continued climbing. Cam had done a couple hours the day before so he turned around after a bit but I continued on up to a small peak at 6500' or so before running back down to the car. Hot, dry day.

05/8/2013
Wed-AM: 0:51, 1200' ~ Tazacorte
Ran with Tim, Cam, Joe, and Martin down to the beach where Cam stayed on the roads and the rest of us climbed the 1000' or so up the steep, cobbled switchbacks that the race takes down to the beach. Hot and humid, but legs felt good.

05/9/2013
Thu-AM: 0:56, 800' ~ Sol de La Palma Rd
After going to bed with suspiciously flu-like muscle aches, I woke up feeling completely sick---terrible headache, muscle aches all over my body, sensitive skin, feverish---but tried to be positive and thought I'd go for a run to just see how things felt. Surprisingly, not too bad, as long as I didn't move my eyes around too much in my skull. However, things just got worse the rest of the day, which was pretty excruciating as most of the day was spent giving interviews to various media outlets. Those are tough enough to endure without feeling like shit, so it was a pretty rough day where all I wanted to do was just go back to bed. Turns out, fevers and full-body aches would make sleep the next three nights pretty much non-existent anyhow.

05/10-12/13
Fri/Sat/Sun - off. Flu.

Hours: 3h35
Vert: 5500'

Pretty bad trip overseas. These were my top-three highlights of the trip:

1 - This sunset from my hotel room balcony on Friday night.

2 - The half-day I spent with the good folks at BUFF in Barcelona this past Monday.

3 - Meeting and chatting with Robbie Lawless, the RunTramp; dude's a legend.

Beyond that...ugh. I haven't been more disappointed about a race experience since the WS100 was canceled in 2008 and I was fully fit and ready to go.  Not much else to say, other than, boy, I wish I had decided to duck Sage et al. before I'd embarked on the nearly 30hr of travel it took to get me from Boulder to La Palma. Seems like it would've saved me a whole lot of unnecessary hassle and stress.

Colorado's late spring snows have pushed back the timeframe for my planned Nolan's 14 attempt---probably far far into late June---and I'm struggling a bit mentally with the prospect of not competing until Speedgoat. We'll see, I'll hopefully jump in something next month, but other than WS and Hardrock, things are kinda blank until Speedgoat.

April 22 - 28

04/22/2013
Mon-AM: 2:25, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
After a very early morning (4am wake-up in Glenwood Springs), rolled into Chautauqua and hit the 1st, 4th, and 5th Flatirons before going to the top of the mountain. The blizzard hit me about half-way up the 5th, but I made it off and trudged to the summit of Green anyways.

04/23/2013
Tue-AM: 2:00, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down Gregory-Ranger from my doorstep. Truly ridiculous amounts of snow on Green with more coming down. Took me a full hour to make it up the hill from the trailhead.
PM: 1:01 ~ Creek Path
Easy jog in the evening; really tight right hamstring.

04/24/2013
Wed-AM: 1:36, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
From Chat after Buff photoshoot. Up Greg-Ranger and down Greenman-Gregory with Joel. Very tired today. Tons of snow (obviously), but it was all I could do to just stump along on the uphill. Obviously still recovering from the weekend.

04/25/2013
Thu-AM: 2:14, 4400' ~ Bear & Green
Biked to Chat, then up Fern and back over Green. Once I got in Fern it was a shirtless morning and stayed that way. Lots of postholing on the west ridge of Bear.
PM: 1:18, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
From Chat with Joel. Really really sloppy, slushy, muddy trails. Tons of fun, though.

04/26/2013
Fri-AM: 2:27, 5200' ~ Bear & Green+1st Flatiron
Biked to Chat, and then had lotsa good energy in the legs heading up Fern and coming back over Green. On the way down I couldn't resist the exemplary weather, so I tacked on a lap of the First Flatiron, too. Great run.
PM: 1:02, 2400' ~ 2 x 1st Flatiron
Joe and I headed up for a lap on the First before Joel joined us for the second lap. Dry rock, wet trails.

04/27/2013
Sat-AM: 2:50, 5300' ~ Flatiron Quinfecta
After finishing up shooting with Joel we ran over to scramble the 5th Flatiron after which Joel ran back to Chat but I continued with the 4th, 2nd, and two laps of the 1st. The descents off most of them were still very snowy and slow, postholing/bushwhacking through deep, wet snow. By time I got to the 1st I was a thirsty, bonking dude, feeling the sun on a warm spring day.

04/28/2013
Sun-AM: 7:02, 13,700' ~ 2xGreen-Walker-Eldo-Bear-Green-1st Flatiron+Green
Ran up to the Gregory parking lot and started the day off with two laps (38 and 37min) on Green, up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. Then headed out to Walker and went around the loop CCW from the Ethel Harrold TH, to connect into the Eldo Cyn trail. Took that down into Eldo Spgs and caught the Old Mesa trail taking that up to the Mesa and eventually up Fern Canyon to the summit of Bear. That was hard, but my energy was still quite high, it was just tough dealing with all the slushy ice/snow above the Nebelhorn Saddle. Cruised down Bear's west ridge and connected back up to the summit of Green...the day's vert definitely started to catch up with me on that climb. Descended the front of Green down to the base of the First Flatiron and then scrambled that (13min) before downclimbing and grunting to the top of Green one last time. The final 20min to the top of Green was pure survival. I'd hit my last gel at the base of the First and I was bonking like crazy the last 1000' to the summit. Like, losing my vision bonking. Blood sugar was seriously low. Staggered to the summit where I bumped into Colin Lantz who was so kind as to give me a GU, which pretty much saved the day. Rejuvenated by the sugar, I cruised down Ranger to Flagstaff to Viewpoint which deposited me right back where I started. Felt super solid all day with the exception of the final 1000' of the last climb of the day.

Hours: 23h55min
Vert: 44,500'

I spent the first half of the week recovering from the lack of sleep and long outings down in Arizona last week, but the second half of the week was super quality. Of course, the suddenly spring-like weather helped things, too.  I'm very pleased with today's final really long run before Transvulcania. I'm starting to feel quite fit and can't wait to line up with the crazy stacked field in La Palma in two weeks.

April 15 - 21

4/15/2013
Mon-AM: 2:02, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Up Gregory-Ranger, down Greenman-Gregory from my doorstep. Woke to rain turning to snow and by time I got to the trailhead it was really dumping. ~4" fresh on the summit with plenty more coming down. Man, I'm ready for summer.

4/16/2013
Tue-AM: 2:11, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat to meet Dakota and Jurker for a run up and down Green. Up Greg-Ranger, down the front. We were slogging up through about a foot of fresh snow, but otherwise it was a very calm, pleasant morning, if cloudy.
PM: 1:00 ~ Creek Path
Cruisy 8+ miles out and back east from Eben G. Fine park. Surprisingly fun to get out and just roll along at a comfy low-7s pace, something I don't do very often anymore.

4/17/2013
Wed-AM: 2:14, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat and then over on the Mesa to go up Bear Canyon to the summit. Descended the front. Pretty nasty weather day, with a rain/sleet/snow mix and a 1/4" of ice covering everything, which wasn't a whole lot of fun to break through for the first 90min getting to the summit.
PM: 1:01 ~ Creek Path
Same run as yesterday, but today it was cold(er) and snowing and my legs were quite tired.

4/18/2013
Thu-AM: 1:01, 500' ~ Gold Hill
Early morning jog with Joe in 0F temps. Tons of snow up there. Legs were tired.
PM: 1:18, 3000' ~ Incline/Rocky Mt.
Stopped off in Manitou on our way to the Grand Canyon and got in a lap on the Incline in a snowstorm. 23:25 ascent for me, not great, but good enough on tired legs. Continued on up to the summit of the mountain in ankle-deep snow before descending Barr back down to Soda Springs Park.

4/19/2013
Fri-AM: 0:16, 500' ~ Durango
Got up in the +10F weather and started out on a jog with Joe before being doubled over with abdominal pains. Hobbled back to the Roost while he finished up his run.
PM: 1:03, 500' ~ Tusayan, AZ
Easy but brisk out and back on a FS road just outside town. Shirtless in the sun!

4/20/2013
Sat-AM: 6:59, 11,500' ~ Grand Canyon Double Crossing
Used the standard South-North Kaibab route and clocked a 6:59:24 roundtrip, which was a 17min PR for me and I think ~30sec under Mackey's previously 2nd-fastest time (but still 6min short of Dakota's FKT). I didn't know if I was going to go particularly quick today, but thought I'd just see how the legs were feeling. After getting down to the river pretty quickly (despite being slowed a minute or two by a descending mule train), I decided to keep going steady and see how things shook out. Felt pretty solid all the way to the North Rim, hiking a fair bit above the Supai Tunnel, but then on the way back down I was definitely already getting pretty tired by time I made it back to the residence water spigot. Things got progressively worse on the run back to Phantom Ranch (stiff, achey, tired legs), but I pounded three bottles of water there (spending 4min at the spigot) and then climbed quite strongly all the way to Tip-Off, but above there things got pretty weak/queasy as I ran out of water about half-way up. At Tip-Off I thought there was a really good chance I could still get Dakota's record--even take 5min or so off of it--but in the end I was just psyched to sneak in under 7hr. Great run, and a good confidence boost going into TV, as I know I still have a lot of running fitness to gain. Had another 12min of running on the day, getting to and from the South Rim. Splits: River, :46; Phantom Ranch, :53-54; Cottonwood, 1:54; Residence, 2:09-10; Bridge, 2:42; Supai Tunnel, 2:56; North Rim, 3:22; Supai Tunnel, 3:35; Bridge, 3:43?; Residence, 4:04-6; Cottonwood, 4:16; Phantom, 5:08-12; River, 5:19; Tip-Off, 5:49; Skeleton Pt, 6:14; Cedar Ridge, 6:37; South Rim, 6:59:24.

4/21/2013
Sun-AM: 3:25, 4500' ~ New Hance to river and back
Joe and I parked at the totally stealth "trailhead" on Hwy 64 (just west of the Moran Pt turn-off) and after much grumbling and groaning about various sorenesses and lack of sleep, stumbled off into the woods towards the Rim. This trail is an awesome, true goat route and about as technical as a trail can be while still being a trail. Eventually dropped into Red Canyon via some buffed singletrack and ran the ~3mi of wash down to the Colorado River. Took a quick dip in the green-hued waters, put the shoes back on and ran back up the wash. Chugged and filled our bottles at the top of the wash and then went into grunt mode to get back up to the rim. Choppy, technical and hot, but all in all an awesome way to get some secluded (we saw four people, one of which was a ranger) Canyon time before hitting the road back home. We didn't get driving until 2pm or so, hit Glenwood Springs right around midnight where we crashed out in a rest area until 4am, and then got up and drove the rest of the way back to Boulder, including some heinous, pre-dawn blizzard conditions on Vail Pass.

Hours: 22h40min
Vert: 30,500'

Not as much vert this week because of all the snow on the trails, but I did get in 135mi or so, buoyed by the big run on Saturday and the flat doubles earlier in the week. The Grand Canyon was as great as usual, and I was excited to feel as strong as I ever have (this being my third R2R2R) on the final climb up South Kaibab, but that vertical mile was still the crusher of dreams that it always is. If I'm going to go for time the next time I do it, I'll probably stash a bottle at Skeleton Point on the way down. The problem is I've never done a Double Crossing with explicit intentions of running hard, I always just wait to see how the legs are feeling. So, I pay for the non-committal attitude. The Canyon is always such a breathtaking and inspirational place, I can't wait to get back and explore more non-corridor routes, maybe this fall.

My Czech roots love the fact that he used the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on this whole album.

April 8 - 14

04-08-2013
Mon-AM: 2:39, 6000' ~ Flatiron Quartet+Green+1st Flatiron
Biked to Chat and headed up with the intention of doing a bunch of scrambling before it started snowing in the evening. After climbing the First and Second Flatirons I was on a really good pace but then had to drop down to the Royal Arch trail and take it over Sentinel Pass to the 4th and 5th Flatirons (the 3rd is closed). These went well, too, and after the 4th I went to the top of Green where I bumped into GZ and we chatted amicably for a few minutes enjoying the beautiful morning. Finally motivated to get moving again, and on the way down I tacked on another high-intensity lap of the First (and its 700' of vert...always tough at the end of a long outing). Great run.
PM: 1:09, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and headed up the hill with an eye to the sky, expecting it to start raining at any moment, but it never did. Good scramble, solid effort up the hill, and then a pretty mellow downhill (24min back down to Chat), taking it easy on my knee (which actually seems to be a combo of peroneals and IT band tugging on the fibular head).

04-09-2013
Tue-AM: 1:58, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Woke to dumping snow, so ran to the trailhead and went up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. ~6" of fresh snow with more coming down.

04-10-2013
Wed-AM: 2:11, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Same as yesterday except I went up the front and down the back and there was a ton more snow, making it quite the slog. Well over a foot on the summit. Cold morning, too, with temps in the single digits and high humidity.
PM: 1:01, 500' ~ Sanitas Valley-Red Rocks
Very easy jog in the chilly evening with Jocelyn. Been a really long time since I've been on these flattish but nice trails.

04-11-2013
Thu-AM: 2:22, 4400' ~ Bear & Green
From Chat ran up Fern Canyon---which was kind of a slog with all the snow---and then broke trail all the way down the West Ridge and up to the to summit of Green. Trail is packing in nicely on the front of Green, though. All of this snow is going to melt very quickly, definitely be able to do some scrambling this weekend I think.
PM: 1:25, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Well, turns out I was able to get in some scrambling sooner than anticipated. Biked up to Chat even though it was sort of randomly sprinkling and ran up to the base of the First. I could see that there were a couple ice/snow patches in key spots up high, but the real issue was the water running down the face on the thin stuff right before it gets steeper and juggier. I just tip-toed my way through here, smearing on many a wet foot-hold, but everything went well. Up high I had to take the standard route onto the arete instead of my usual shortcut under the Ear because there was a giant curtain of icicles still hanging off of the flake. Lots of snow on the arete itself, but I could mostly navigate around. Slow 19min ascent, then. Postholed up to the summit of Green and then splashed down through the very soft and deep slush. Classic spring conditions.

04-12-2013
Fri-AM: 2:00, 4400' ~ Bear & Green
Biked to Chat and did the exact same run as yesterday morning except that with some aggressively-lugged shoes (custom 110s) I was able to do the whole run sans Microspikes, which was really nice. Fern was in way better shape, but no one else had been down the West Ridge of Bear or up the connector to Green since I ran it yesterday morning. Really fun run, but I was bonking hard at some points, like, losing vision bonking. It happens.
PM: 1:17, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Went at mid-day and caught a gorgeous window of hot sun. Wet shoes made the first couple minutes of the scramble slow, but eventually I got going and was a bit surprised to see two other roped parties on the face. I actually tried to go under the Ear again but a big chunk of ice thwarted me so I just bopped up to the arete like last night. Sloppy, slushy, slippy snow for the rest of the outing.

04-13-2013
Sat-AM: 5:21, 8200' ~ Green-Walker-Eldo-Green
Met Scott and ran up to the Gregory trailhead. Ran up Green via Gregory-Ranger then headed out to Walker Ranch for a lap before running down through Eldorado Canyon and up on the Old Mesa trail. Jurker headed home from there while I went back up Green via Bear Canyon to tack on an extra 2k' climb and push the day's outing up to 35mi. First long run I've done in a very long time and it went quite well. Despite the big week of volume and vert I felt strong on all the climbs and really enjoyed just getting out and cruising consistently for a full morning (as opposed to breaking it up with scrambling or hiking).
PM: Climbing w/ jLu in Eldorado Canyon.

04-14-2013
Sun-AM: 2:11, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat, but even that did little to get my legs warmed up; it was a proper stumble over the mountain today. So I just went easy. But the ice on Greenman (fresh stuff from overnight, not frozen slush) got me on the way down and things in general just felt like wreckage. Nice to get out as always but kind of a relief to get back to Chautauqua, too.

Hours: 23h34min
Vert: 43,000'

Really solid week despite the big dump of snow in the first half of the week. Another month of weeks like this and I think I'll be ready for a good one at Transvulcania. Starting to get really excited about the racing season, feel like I've got fresh legs and a good level of basic fitness to build on.

Here's a post I did over on the Swiftwick Blog explaining how my relationship with them came to be.

Flatties 1, 2 & 3 in the fresh snow Wednesday morning.

Backside of the First Flatiron, from Saddle Rock trail.

Upper Greenman.

Green summit.

Longs (and Meeker, Pagoda and Chiefs Head): my favorite mountain.

April 1 - 7

4/1/2013
Mon-AM: 1:53, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta (1,4,5) + Green Mt.
From Chat, enchained the 1st, 5th, and 4th Flatirons before heading to the top of the mountain. My scrambling was really on point this morning, both on the faces and on the downclimbs. Nothing like moving quickly and efficiently over moderate rock, I love it.
PM: 1:04, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Another great evening run. There was a slight amount of sprinkling going on at the trailhead, so I headed to the base of the First with some urgency, not wanting to get caught in the middle of the face on wet, slick rock. As a result, ended up getting to the base in 11min and then charging up the face in 11-flat, which is only 10 seconds off my PR scramble. Downclimbed in 2min and kept working hard to the top of the hill, ascending into falling, big, floppy flakes of snow. Snappy downhill, too.

4/2/2013
Tue-AM: 2:01, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta (1,4,5) + Green Mt.
From Chat, same exact outing as yesterday morning except that this morning I was slower, mostly due to very low clouds that were covering the flatties and making the rock wet/slippery. Rubber was not sticking. When I topped the First, the clouds were still lower than its summit and I was treated to one of the more epic views I've seen in Boulder in a while---clouds at my feet and snow-encrusted trees on the slopes above me. The rest of the run was stuck in the clouds, though.

4/3/2013
Wed-AM: 0:25, 500' ~ East Longs Trail
Oy, rough morning. I've been fighting off a head cold for the last few days and it finally caught up to me. Drove all the way to the Longs Peak trailhead, but was struggling to keep it together and stay awake so should've known better. Trudged out of the parking lot and was hoping that I could just snap out of my funk but after only 15min on the trail I knew there was just no way I was going to slog up the mountain...sleepy, weak, super tired. Running back downhill to the trailhead was almost too much effort. Drove home, slept another 4hr, was in a daze the rest of the day, and went to bed super early.

4/4/2013
Thu-AM: 4:18, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up Martha's/Cables, down Cables. Exciting morning on the mountain.
PM: 1:17, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Gorgeous day, so I went to Chat in the evening for a quick scramble and summit. My avalanche-battered lateral right knee was definitely touchy out of the parking lot but mostly disappeared on the uphill. Cruised the First but then on the march to the top of Green I could feel that my tweaked left foot was quite painful. I knew I'd twisted it pretty badly during the morning's shenanigans but I guess I was just more focused on my knee. I thought the run down would be horrible, but the foot was just tolerable. However, within minutes of finishing the run I couldn't even weight my foot anymore, and I spent the rest of the evening hardly able to stand and about 99% convinced that it was broken.

4/5/2013
Fri-PM: 1:12, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Took the morning off because I was afraid my foot was broken, but after a short walk it seemed to be miraculously healed. Cautiously headed out in the afternoon for a scramble and run then, and the foot was fine. My knee still hurt, but mostly just on flats and gradual downhills (steep downhills it's fine).

4/6/2013
Sat-AM: 2:52, 6500' ~ Flatiron Quinfecta+Green+1st Flatiron
Awesome morning. Was up with the sun and biked up to Chat to rack up some vert. Scrambled flatties 1,2,5,5,4 feeling strong and scrambling really well. Super efficient. Went to the top of Green then and on the way down was so psyched with the nice weather that I figured, what the heck, one more lap on the First was worthwhile. In the 2hrs since I'd been there the east face had gone from being vacant to passing five roped up parties...such is a Saturday morning on one of the more iconic formations in the country. Right knee is still janky.
PM: 2hr?, 1700' ~ First Flatiron
Casual hiking/soloing with Jesse and Kaley. It was Kaley's first time soloing the First. I was elated to score a #1 and #0.5 cam under a flake about 500' up, but, of course, they belonged to the next roped party that we passed a few hundred feet more up the face. How do you just forget $130 worth of climbing gear?

4/7/2013
Sun-AM: 2:55, 4000' ~ Chasm View (13,100')
Bugger. First time I've been skunked on Longs. Spooked by Thursday's mishap, I got an early (for me) start of 6:00am at the trailhead where the wind was already ripping. It's often windiest during the hour or so surrounding sunrise, so I remained confident in the forecasted (and typical) 20-25mph winds up high, but that would not be the case. The minute I passed treeline, life became a miserable struggle. Epic blowing snow, snail-like forward/uphill progress. This stuff is basically de rigueur on Longs, so I tried to stay optimistic. It took forever to clear Mt. Lady Washington's north ridge (ok, ~20min longer than usual) and when I did, conditions somehow intensified. Like, doubly so. Forward progress across the Boulderfield toward Chasm View and the Cables was mostly accomplished on all fours and I dreaded lifting my head amongst the maelstrom just to keep a bearing on where I was going. Which was often futile anyhow because the status quo was a hurricane white-out. Climbing the Cables in this was out of the question, and I knew things would only be worse on the west side of the Keyhole. Groveled my way to the snow apron below the Cables at ~13,100' before finally deciding to turn around. Unfortunately, things were just as bad on the way down until I got to treeline when it turned into an idyllic, mostly calm, gorgeous spring day. Things were so mellow and sunny at the trailhead that I almost couldn't believe I'd bailed. But then I looked back up toward the summit, saw the mountain still completely obscured in a wall of white, and was fine with my decision. I guess that's sort of the point of this whole Longs thing. If I weren't going for a bunch of summits I probably wouldn't have even headed up at all this morning, let alone gotten to 13k'. If you get out enough, you're bound to hit some non-ideal days.
PM: 1:07, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Quick evening lap on the hill, in what is becoming a nice trend of second-run-of-the-day-high-energy. Locked up the bike and felt relatively peppy right out of the gate. Felt like I was really going for it on the east face of the First, but couldn't quite duck under 12min (12:05 scramble) hitting the summit in 23min. Once I was on the arete there was a very strong wind that also slowed the downclimb. Felt strong on the rest of the outing, but my right knee/fibula/peroneals are still pretty touchy from Thursday.

Hours: 20h04min
Vert: 38,700'

Kind of a weird week. Basically took a day off right in the middle of the week, and then had another easy day on Friday, but still hit some solid volume, so things are looking good. Starting to feel fit for the first time since last October, which is always nice. Super tough week up on Longs...barely made it out of the parking lot on Wednesday, bit of a calamity on Thursday, and then turned back high on the mountain on Sunday. Good chance I won't even make any attempts this coming week considering the buckets of snow we're supposed to get over the next 48hrs. I'm going to take that as an opportunity to test the shin with a few outings of more continuous running this week.  Maybe--gasp--even a proper long (4hr+) run?!

The east face of Longs as seen from Mt. Lady Washington.

Dreamweaver couloir on Mt Meeker (left) and the Loft.

The Flying Dutchman couloir is looking nice.

Sunrise over the Twin Sisters on Sunday morning.

March 25 - 31

03-25-2013
Mon-AM: 2:07, 4400' ~ Bear & Green
Started from Chautauqua with Joel and ran the Mesa over to Bear and then up it via Fern. Fern trail conditions were mostly excellently-packed, but only a couple people had been down the West Ridge. From Bear Canyon we blazed through shin-deep snow (with Joel bonking like a champ) up to Green before descending the front. Really nice outing in all the glorious snow but with comfortable temps.

03-26-2013
Tue-AM: 1:07, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
From Chautauqua, ran up and down the front with Joel. My shin was a little touchy, but the snow-packed trail was in perfect condition.

03-27-2013
Wed-AM: 6:30, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Up and down the Cables. Started from the trailhead at 6am with Joel. We wanted an early start to ostensibly capture alpenglow on the Diamond, but the clouds had different ideas. Joel still got some shots with great light above treeline, but there was a ton of blowing snow and the mountain itself was completely socked in all day, so not many epic views. Joel on-sight soloed the Cables (because he wanted to shoot me from above), which was especially notable considering his oxygen-depleted state and the near-constant spindrift. Above there I endured exhausting, hip-deep trail breaking to reach the summit. Of my eight Longs summits so far this year, this one had the most snow, by far. The round-trip would've been a couple hours faster without all the camera-work.

03-28-2013
Thu-AM: 1:34, 4000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green+1st Flatiron
Cruised up to the flattie starting from Chautauqua and found it in surprisingly dry conditions (there were still some wet spots, but not as much as I expected) considering how much snow is still on the ground. Scrambled it in 15:05 and then slogged up to the summit of Green before descending to the base and scrambling it again in 12:25 with a 2:05 downclimb. That's the fastest I've scrambled the First since last fall, and a 40sec PR on the downclimb. Really fun morning on the hill.
PM: Climbing with jLu at Animal World in Boulder Canyon. A rare afternoon mostly clipping bolts.

03-29-2013
Fri-AM: 3:53, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up and down the Cables with Joe. I had a bunch of energy this morning for some reason...part of which, I suspect, was due to the new 6mm x 35m string I had in my pack for rappeling. Which is substantially lighter than the 7.8mm cord I used to carry. Anyways, the trail was excellently packed, but when we got to treeline it was snowing fairly hard and would stay that way the entire rest of the day, sometimes snowing really hard. When we got to the Cables, the dihedral had way more snow than just two days ago, which made it the most secure-feeling it's been all winter soloing it. We didn't spend much time on the summit as a nasty wind was blowing tons of snow around (really this was the case for a lot of the day), so made quick work of the North Face before running back down to the car amidst really heavy snowfall. Of course, there was sun at the parking lot.
PM: Climbing with Buzz on the 3rd and 2nd Elephant Buttresses. Got in four pitches.

03-30-2013
Sat-AM: 2:19, 4500' ~ 1st+2nd+5th Flatirons+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat, then scrambled the flatties. First flatiron link-up that I've done in a while. The slab on the left side of the Pullman Car on the 2nd was really wet, but some judicious stemming got me through. The morning's sun and warm temps got to me a bit, though, and sitting on the summit of the 5th while drinking from the pothole up there I decided I didn't have the juice to tack on the 4th as well before heading to the summit of Green. I also wasn't very excited about the certain post-holing on the descent on the south side of the 5th.

03-31-2013
Sun-AM: 3:25, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up and down the Cables, solo. Moved well up to the boulderfield, picking a good line across the tundra. There was a nasty wind above treeline, but nothing atypical or unreasonable and it died almost completely except for a few gusts once I got onto the boulderfield. The Cables climb went very quickly as a bunch of snow was packed into the corner, but then I slogged for days up the rest of the north face to the summit...lots and lots of postholing/trailbreaking. The summit was exceedingly pleasant; I didn't even need to put on my puffy jacket. The downhill went very quickly. I plunged back down to the Cables in 6min, didn't even bother to get out my harness and rap cord and instead just downclimbed the whole thing in less than 5min before taking off my crampons, stripping down to only a short-sleeve t-shirt, and running back to the trailhead. The whole descent took me 0:58.
PM: 1:03, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Couldn't resist the 70F weather, so biked up to Chat for a scramble and a summit. One of those glorious outings where the legs just never really get tired, felt very strong on the uphill and descended the front back to Chat in only 21min.

Hours: 21h53min
Vert: 33,600'

Wow, this turned into a really good week of mountains. I had a little scare with the shin again on Tuesday, but my avoidance of extended flat running since then seems to have kept it happy. It felt 100% today. Weeks like this get me very very excited for racing and summer and adventures in the high peaks. Just have to remain patient and not do anything silly so I can stay healthy.

Joe rappels through spindrift on the Cables route on Longs Peak on Friday morning.

Joe at Chasm View.

Looking back toward the Twin Sisters from above treeline on Longs this morning.

Keyhole moonset.

Crossing the Boulderfield after tagging the summit this morning.

March 18 - 24

03/18/2013
Mon-AM: 0:53, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Biked to Chat, hiked up to the First, scrambled it, and hiked back down. Cold, breezy day, especially up on the rock. Just taking it easy on the shin.

03/19/2013
Tue-AM: 0:53, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Exact same outing as yesterday. Bike, hike, scramble, hike, bike.  Not as cold, though.

03/20/2013
Wed-AM: 1:03, 1600' ~ 1st and 2nd Flatiron
Biked to Chat, hiked up and scrambled the 1st, but then instead of just hiking back down to Chat I downclimbed the 2nd, which is something I've always wanted to do as a test for linking all the flatties together as quickly as possible. It was interesting, but not something that really appeals to me aesthetically.
PM: 3hr?, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Went up the 1st in the afternoon with Joe and Geoff. I was really just tagging along for the fun of it while Joe did the grunt work of dragging the rope up and setting up anchors for Geoff who was climbing it for the first time, on belay. Pitching it out with a rope makes you realize just how big a formation it is. Fun afternoon hanging out on the rock, though.

03/21/2013
Thu-AM: 0:48, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Biked to Chat, ran to the base, scrambled it, and ran down. Which was a notable improvement in the shin after limiting myself to hiking all week. This was my 60th ascent ever of the First Flatiron, 59 of those occurring since last July.

03/22/2013
Fri-AM: 1:51, 4000' ~ 5th Flatiron & 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chautauqua and ran up to the base of the 5th Flatiron. There was quite a bit of snow at the base, but really well consolidated so I didn't have any issues getting on the face. I haven't been on the 5th in almost two months, so some of the sequences felt a little rusty, but the arete finish on that rock is by far the finest of any of the flatties, I think. After downclimbing, I picked my way to the top of the mountain...still haven't found a super-efficient route for that but it's getting there. After tagging the summit I ran down to the base of the 1st and then scrambled that--I was starting to feel the duration and accumulated vert of the outing by time I got to the top. Downclimbed and ran back down to Chat. Shin was pain-free, but about an hour of this was steep hiking/scrambling, not running.

03/23/2013
Sat-AM: 2:17, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran from my apartment with Joel, met Jurker, and headed up to the Gregory lot in a snowstorm, where we headed up and down the front of the mountain in a ton of fresh snow. Close to knee-deep on the upper parts of the mountain. Cold and humid and snowy on the run home.

03/24/2013
Sun-AM: 1:56, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Same run as yesterday, with Joel again. Trail still had very loose footing; put in a casual effort on the uphill.

Hours: 10h41min
Vert: 18,000'

I was happy with this week because I think I did a good job of managing the niggle in my shin and was able to keep getting out in the mountains without making it worse. By the end of the week it was feeling a lot better. The weekend's snow was a bit of a bummer after the extended warm weather we had before that. I definitely have spring fever.

This week's shin issues have made me realize that I'm going to have to be conservative with the running for a few weeks, much like last summer where I focused on vertical and steep hiking/scrambling for a long time before the shin was strong enough to do consistent, sustained running. This is fine fitness-wise as long as my races have suitable amounts of vertical, but not so great in a proper running race (see: Leadville 100 last year). So, Transvulcania will be interesting, but given my results at Cavalls del Vent last fall (the TV field this year will have most of the same European players) I'm confident that this kind of preparation will still be effective, the most important thing being arriving at the starting line healthy.

I've been really digging this song lately, and really, the whole album (which you can stream at bandcamp):

Atop the Fourth Elephant Buttress in Boulder Canyon. Photo: Jenny Jurek.

On the Dome in Boulder Canyon. Photo: Jenny Jurek.

Slogging up Green on Saturday with Scott and Joel. Photo: Scott Jurek.

March 11 - 17

03-11-2013
Mon-AM: 2:09, 4000' ~ Bear & Green
Biked to Chautauqua then ran the Mesa over to Fern. The bottom half of Fern was in really good shape but above the saddle was mostly wallowing through drifts. Trail was packed well over to Green then and I descended Greenman-Saddle Rock-Amphi in a sprightly 16:25, not really pushing it, just taking advantage of the nicely packed conditions. Afterwards, climbed a quick lap on the Dome in Boulder Canyon with Joe before the wind and Joe's understandable unwillingness to be tough again just yet made us call it a day.
PM: 1:08, 3000' ~ 2nd Flatiron+Green
Biked up to Chat and cruised up and down the front of the mountain.  I was testing out some new rubber on some NB protos, so stuck to the less-committing slopes of the 2nd Flatiron rather than the much more tenuous 1st Flatiron. About half-way up the mountain I ascended into a snowing cloud that I was able to escape on the run back down to Chat but by time I got back home it was snowing pretty well in town.

03-12-2013
Tue-AM: 1:56, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Woke to 3-4" of fresh snow, so ran from my doorstep up the front of Green and down Ranger-Gregory. Tired legs, definitely still adjusting to the increased volume.
PM: 1:08, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
From Chat, went up and down the 1st/2nd Access route. Took poles, and while they weren't needed on the exquisitely packed trail to the 1st saddle, they were nice to have in the post-holing above there. Theatrical evening scene on the summit with a setting sun shining dramatically through low-hanging cloud layers.

03-13-2013
Wed-AM: 3:39, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Up and down the Cables for Longs summit #7 of 2013. On the pre-dawn drive to the trailhead the wind was blowing really hard--same in the parking lot--so I was kind of dreading the march up the hill. There was a lot of new snow below treeline so I wore crampons and took poles, which helped a bit, especially since I was breaking trail. The wind was definitely blowing up on the tundra but it wasn't impossible and once I got to the Boulderfield it wasn't bad at all. Tons of spindrift was coming down the north face, though, which made things fun, and then the summit (2:27 up) was stuck in a cloud so I didn't get any views. Of course, things warmed-up on the downhill (1:12 descent) and overall I was psyched to have gotten in a fun summit when conditions weren't seeming very good early in the morning. For most of the climb I was feeling like the altitude wasn't really affecting me, but then the last 1000' sucked as much as usual, taking the usual full 15min to get from the top of the Cables to the summit.

03-14-2013
Thu-AM: 2:02, 4000' ~ Bear & Green
Biked to Chat, then ran over on the Mesa and up Fern to the summit of Bear, over to the summit of Green, then down the front back to Chat. Didn't take spikes with me but the warm temps meant that my hyper-lugged 110s gripped reasonably well in the snow all morning.
PM1: Climbing w/ Joe. My first time up the uber-classic Yellow Spur in Eldorado Canyon.
PM2: 1:19, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green
Biked to Chat, ran up to the base and scrambled the First, downclimbed and continued on to the summit of Green in dwindling light. Turned on my headlamp for the descent. Really nice to spend basically the whole day outside from sun-up to sun-down in perfect weather.

03-15-2013
Fri-AM: 0:42, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
From Chautauqua, just cruised an easy lap on the First before meeting Jenny to go climbing. Moved well on the rock, but took it easy on the approach and descent, trying to be nice to my slightly sore shin. I guess you can just never assume old injuries are gone for good.
PM: Climbing with Jenny. Went to the Elephant Buttresses for a couple quick ascents of the Third and Fourth Buttresses. Fun to see improvement and lead routes that I had trouble following just a couple months ago.

03-16-2013
Sat - nothing. Taking the weekend off in order to be careful with my shin. After suffering through almost 18 months of issues with it before last summer, I'm pretty wary.

03-17-2013
Sun- 0. The wind deterred me from even getting on any rock. But the shin is definitely improving.

Hours: 14h03min
Vert: 26,600'

Was feeling really solid all week, with great weather the second half of the week, but then it finished off a little frustrating with an old, nagging, niggle kicking back up a bit. I have lots of experience with the shin pain, though, so am hopeful that I can treat it right and not have it jeopardize too much mountain time. It's a good reminder, though, that I need to remain patient and vigilant as I ramp up the training volume.  Can't neglect any link in the chain.

It is spring. Summit of Green Mountain.

Rime ice on the Diamond and the north face of Longs on Wednesday.

Last bit of the Yellow Spur on Thursday, Eldorado Canyon. Photo: Joe Grant.

March 4 - 10

3/4/2013
Mon-AM: 1:34, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Started from the library and ran up the front and then down Ranger to Flagstaff to Eben G. Fine and back to the library. The trails were pretty much bulletproof ice which was sort of frustrating, but my hip was 100%. Top of Green was in a cloud.

3/5/2013
Tue-AM: 1:31, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Started from the library again, but went up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. Felt good.

3/6/2013
Wed-AM: 3:54, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
          Up and down the Cables. Really good day on the mountain. Was on the trail shortly after 7am and made the right decision to take poles this time. It's sort of awkward because it would be good to wear KTS crampons below treeline, then Microspikes across the tundra and Boulderfield and then back to crampons for the technical bit up and down the North Face, but I always start out in Microspikes below treeline even though they don't offer quite enough bite. Anyway.
          Made good time up to treeline but then lost a bunch of time wallowing around in the drifted snow right at treeline and in various spots across the tundra. I will pick a much better line next time. Only a few big gusts of wind as I came over the shoulder of Mt. Lady Washington and onto the Boulderfield and it was downright warm if you were in the sun. The climb up the Cables went really well. The first crux at the base of the dihedral is non-existent right now because of all the snow piled up at the base. But it was difficult wading through that. Above there I was able to feel really solid the whole way and even questioned why I brought a rope for the rappel, but I'm glad I did. No reason to go out and take unnecessary risks.
          Topped out after 2:32, spent a couple minutes eating a gel and taking a couple pics before heading back down. The rappel went well with the 30m rope. It leaves you a few feet short of the second eyebolt, but the angle there is mellow enough that it's not a big deal to just lean into the wall and set up the second rappel, which is quite short down to the snow apron. As I started running down the boulders below the Cables a large party of climbers started trickling uphill, which sort of surprised me. No less than four of them were wearing La Sportiva Spantiks. Which is a crazy 7000m double-boot that costs $750. Maybe they were training for something, but I was sure comfy enough in my 8oz New Balance 110 Winter's (with KTS Steel crampons). The rest of the run was uneventful but so warm that I stripped down to my short-sleeve shirt well before treeline.
PM: 0:49, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Was excited by the nearly +60F day, so got out for a cruiser lap on the First at sunset. In retrospect, I probably should've waited one more day before climbing it as there ended up being a lot of water running down the face and lots of snow on ledges and in cracks. This made it a touch more adventurous than I'd bargained for in a few spots, but it worked out. Due to the wet conditions, the scramble took me a full 20min.

3/7/2013
Thu-AM: 1:48, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Met Jurker at the library and headed up Gregory-Ranger and down Greenman-Flagstaff. Lots and lots of ice. Almost too much. Nice warm morning, though. Afterwards, simul-climbed a quick lap on the Dome in Boulder Canyon with jLu to complete the Team Jurker morning. Acupuncture in the afternoon.
PM: 1:16, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat, ran up through the heinous mud and slush and ice, and scrambled the First before heading up to the top of Green right at sunset. The First was quite a bit more dry than yesterday, only a couple wet spots. Descended the front.

3/8/2013
Fri-AM: 3:22, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
          Up and down the Cables. I wanted to get in another lap on the big mountain before the storm this weekend, and I was treated with a winter car-to-car PR and nearly perfect weather conditions. The trail below treeline was packed out pretty much perfectly and I (finally) wisely just followed the packed track up past treeline instead of trying to blaze the shortcut that was packed in earlier this winter. This got me to treeline 6min faster than usual. Across the tundra up to the Boulderfield I also did my best job yet picking an as-snowless-as-possible line and enjoyed essentially completely calm conditions before making it to Chasm View in 1:49 where I stopped to put on a couple extra layers and my crampons (the lower cardiac output of technical climbing always requires a little more insulation to stay warm).

          The Cables dihedral went quickly (~5min climbing time), and then I enjoyed a packed trench through most of the 3rd Class terrain to the summit, courtesy, I'm sure, of the Southern Adventist mountaineering class I ran into on Wednesday. I was at the summit at 2:14 and only took a couple minutes to hit a gel, sign the register, put on my harness, and snap a couple pics. It only took me 6min to descend back to the top of the Cables where I rappelled the first 50' (I have a 100' rope) and then I decided to just downclimb the bottom half, which felt totally secure and definitely saved me a couple of minutes. I was back at Chasm View at 2:30 total time where I removed my crampons and ran all the way back down to the trailhead sans metal traction, hitting treeline at 3:09 and completing the full descent in 1:08. Really fun morning.
PM: 1:14, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
The rain/snow showed up later than I thought it would, so I biked up to Chat to sneak in one more lap on the First and Green Mountain. Rock was the driest it's been all week, so I cruised up it in 14min before marching through the slush to the top of the mountain. Only bummer was that when I got back down to Chat my bike had a flat, making for a long, chilly walk home. I could've run it, but I didn't want to push things after already putting in such a big day.

3/9/2013
Sat-AM: 1:58, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
From my apartment up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. Started out in lightly falling snow but by time I was on the trails it was a full-on blizzard with rapidly accumulating snow. Heavy, wet, slushy spring-time snow. Which didn't help things with my super-tired legs, but good to get out and tag the summit in the winter conditions.

3/10/2013
Sun-AM: 1:55, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran from my doorstep, up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. The trails were packed out but generally punchy and unconsolidated, making for inefficient footing and slow times. Gorgeous morning, though.

Hours: 19h21min
Vert: 32,600'

I think I can finally feel some fitness returning to my legs and lungs. It's definitely spring-time now, so my return to health is happily coinciding with my competitive juices starting to flow again.  I need to start gradually building up the running legs, so will probably add a weekly long run (as opposed to a long hike/slog/scramble/14er summit) from here on out. We'll see how that goes, it's certainly been a while since that's been a regular part of my weekly regimen.

Also, I've got a new post over on the UD Blog.

Mt. Meeker, from the summit of Longs Peak.

The north face of Longs pierces an azure sky on Wednesday.

Summit of Longs, Wednesday. Mummy Range on the right skyline.

The Longs-Arapaho traverse (L.A. Freeway) stretches out behind me.

Chasm Lake and Peacock Pool 2000' below, from the summit of Longs.

Feb 25 - March 3

2/25/2013
Mon-AM: 1:21, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
From Chat, went up and down the front. Slow ascent with lots of loose footing in all the new snow.

2/26/2013
Tue-AM: 1:17, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Exact same run as yesterday except that it was dumping snow again this morning and I went up with poles, which made a big difference in uphill efficiency with the still poor footing. Got acupuncture afterwards.

2/27/2013
Wed-AM: 1:14, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Same run again but slightly better trail conditions so I climbed a couple minutes faster. Warm, sunny morning had me in a short-sleeve shirt.

2/28/2013
Thu-AM: 5:24, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Oy. Long, tough day on the hill. Left the parking lot knowing it would be cold and breezy (-30F windchills), but was still hoping to get up and down via the Cables in 3h30 or so. Within 10min or so I knew I should've brought my trekking poles for uphill efficiency---the shortcuts were still covered in fresh snow and above treeline there were lots of deep drifts to wallow through---but so it goes.
                    Once past Jim's Grove the blowing snow became pretty out of hand and I began wishing I had goggles. This only got worse once I popped over the ridge onto the Boulderfield and I eventually decided that soloing up the Cables sounded pretty sketchy in such high winds. So I headed to the Keyhole, but just past the other side a particularly obnoxious gust of wind tore my sunglasses right from my face and flung them somewhere far down the snowy slope, never to be seen again. Dammit. I decided to try on-sighting the Northwest Gulley, hoping that getting in the chute would shield me from the hurricane a bit, but about half-way up the spindrift was insane and it was all I could do to keep my eyes from freezing shut. I had fleeting thoughts of even completely bailing at this point, but with only ~1000' of vertical left I was loathe to give up now.
                    So I meticulously backtracked down the 4th Class terrain to the standard Keyhole Route and took that over to the Trough and up to the Narrows and the Homestretch. The Narrows surprised me with how much snow there was in a couple spots---much more and I don't think I would've been too happy to be soloing it. Crampons and axe were definitely mandatory, and the Homestretch was a total snow climb as well. Finally made the summit after a very hard-fought 3:28, threw on the puffy, sucked down a gel, and descended the North Face via the Cables rappel. Rappeling that line, I definitely kicked myself for not just ascending the North Face because it seemed to be oddly (relatively) sheltered from the wind there, and there was so much snow in the crux dihedral that it would've been quite easy to climb.
                    Felt like I spent quite a bit of time bumbling with the rope and my crampons, but I finally got into a stilted rhythm stumbling my way back across the Boulderfield and down to treeline where I again wallowed around in the snow way too much looking for the easiest line down. Below treeline I finally got back on packed trail and made it back to the parking lot about two hours later than I'd planned. Oh well, any time I can stand on top of Longs, it's a good day; I love that mountain.

3/1/2013
Fri-AM: 1:16, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Up Gregory-Ranger and down the front, from Chautauqua. Legs were tired from yesterday but it felt good to get out and do some running on the way up instead of the hiking that typically occurs when going up the front. Trail conditions are really good (packed snow) right now except for all the drifting from last night.
PM: 1000', Climbing in Eldo with Dakota
Really debated on whether we should pay to get into Eldo if there wasn't going to be anything dry to climb. Despite there still being a ton of snow almost everywhere (including the 500' of vert on the approach) the rock itself was 99% dry. Dakota led up the first long pitch of the Green Spur, and then from the Red Ledge we went up pitches 3-6 of Rewritten. Another stellar day in the canyon. A little chilly on the rock, but not bad.

3/2/2013
Sat-AM: 1:12, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Really nice run from Chat up the back and down the front. Trail is in great snow shape.
PM: 500', Climbing in Eldo with Jon and Jenny.

3/3/2013
Sun-AM: 3:57, 5300' ~ Torreys (14,267') & Grays (14,270') Peaks
Parked at Bakerville and ran up the road to the trailhead. Took Kelso Ridge up Torreys before tagging Grays and heading back down. The main trail was decently packed but heavily drifted in some spots. Once I was on the ridge I enjoyed a totally unexpected reprieve from the wind until I was right below the summit. The traverse between the two peaks was super windy and by far the most unpleasant part of the day. Didn't see anyone else out there until I was running back down the road to the highway.
PM: 0:31 ~ Runners Roost Denver group run
First completely flat miles I've done in a long time, so it was nice to start working those back in. Hip was 100% and there was loads of pizza and beer afterwards, so it was a fun evening.

Hours: 16h12min
Vert: 25,300'

It feels like I've finally really turned the corner with my hip flexor.  I've run every day for three full weeks now, and my pair of forays into the high country last week have registered zero negative effects, so things are really looking up.  Having said that, I decided over a week ago to not make the trip down to New Zealand for the Tarawera 100K in 10 days, and despite my hip showing significant improvement I know it was the right choice. I've done no long runs of any type since December and don't have any desire to travel all that way to muddle through 62 miles with poor fitness and a very likely chance of re-injuring myself. Depending on how things go over the next few weeks, I could see myself joining the fun at Lake Sonoma next month, however. We'll see. Transvulcania is a race that I'm very excited about and I don't want to jeopardize my preparation for that...or all the necessary groundwork that needs to be laid now in order to reach the goals I have for this summer.

Unpleasant conditions on Longs last Thursday. Looking up the North Face, which I just rappelled.

Summit of Longs Peak.

Torreys Peak on Sunday. Kelso Ridge is the right skyline.

Nearly to the summit, looking back down Kelso Ridge.

Grays Peak, from Kelso Ridge.

Could use a drummer, but otherwise not bad.

Feb 11 - 24

2/11/2013
Mon-AM: 1:06, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and went up and down the front. Psyched to finally have the hip back to feeling in fine fiddle. Determined to stay smart with it this time around.

2/12/2013
Tue-AM: 1:40, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and met Jurker, Rickey, and his friend Bryce for a run up Bear Canyon and then down the front of the mountain. Apprehensive about the longer distance on my hip but Rickey needed the relative flat of the Mesa trail to loosen up his achilles at the start.
PM: Climbing with Joe at Animal World, Boulder Canyon after acupuncture at mid-day.

2/13/2013
Wed-AM: 1:05, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and went up and down the front of the mountain. Finally starting to feel some strength on the hill again.

2/14/2013
Thu-AM: 1:04, 2700' ~ 2nd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and scrambled the Freeway on the 2nd on the way to the summit.

2/15/2013
Fri-AM: 1:16, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and went up and down the front. Didn't wear Microspikes, but it would've been helpful in the 2-3" of fresh snow, which definitely slowed progress.

2/16/2013
Sat-AM: 1:13, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and went up Gregory-Ranger and down the front. My first time running up the backside in a really long time, but it was good to start working on that uphill running rhythm again.

2/17/2013
Sun-AM: 1:11, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chat and went up and down the front. Tired this morning.
PM: 1500', Climbing in Eldo Canyon with Buzz.
Really fun afternoon. When I got to Buzz's he asked if I'd brought my rope---inexplicably, I hadn't, I just assumed he would have one.  Well, it turns out all of Buzz's ropes are totally non-standard (short, skinny, static) so we ended up taking his only lead rope, which was only 30m long because he normally uses it for simul-climbing.  In the end, this led to a little more adventurous afternoon in the canyon. When we got to the base of Rewritten/Zot on the Redgarden wall there was (understandably) a line to get on the route, so Buzz instead carefully led up the West Chimney (directly to the right of Rewritten). I took the next pitch up to the Red Ledge and then we traversed over and simul-climbed Swanson's Arete to the top of the Lumpe Tower, which was a total blast. Definitely solo-able material.

In classic Buzz fashion, getting down was a touch trickier. Our short rope made the standard rappels impossible and we both wanted to avoid downclimbing all the way down the East Slabs as we hoped to get in another route before the sun set.  This led to Buzz belaying me as I led a wildly-exposed but reasonably juggy down-traverse pitch before belaying Buzz past the difficulties.

After the quick 4th Class descent back down the west side of the ridge we found Rewritten to be open and I convinced Buzz that we had plenty of time to get up it before running out of light.  I led the first run-out pitch, but was forced to belay Buzz up the crux a little short of the usual ledge because of our short rope. From there we simul-climbed up to the 4th pitch where I then led the uber-classic hand-traverse and finger crack before we simulclimbed the last two pitches to the summit. Ended up getting back to the base of the climb just as the sun was setting in perfect timing.

Hours: 10h43min
Vert: 20,500'

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2/18/2013
Mon-AM: 1:14, 2800' ~ 2nd & 1st Flatirons
Biked to Chat and ran up to the base of the First. The bottom 30-40' were covered in ice and snow, including my usual entrance onto the rock. Above there, things looked good. I spent a lot of time looking for an alternate way onto the rock and even started up on a small lie-back feature slightly farther north on the base before backing down as I wasn't willing to commit to the slabby section above it that would connect me into my usual line.  Ran over and scrambled the 2nd Flatiron as a consolation, even though there was still some snow and ice in the gulley leading to the climb onto the Pullman Car.  On the run down from the summit of the 2nd you go right by the base of the 1st and when I got there I decided, screw it, I'm gonna give it another go. Funny how much easier some rock moves feel once you're warmed up and in the flow. The lie-back and the slab went with zero issue but above there I had to improvise a few other moves because of snow and ice still lingering on some cracks/ledges. There was a BD stopper stuck in the perfect finger-lock hold underneath the Ear chimney move, so I resolved to come back the next day with a nut tool to retrieve the booty.

2/19/2013
Tue-AM: 1:20, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran to the base, scrambled in 16min, downclimbed in 3min, and then continued on to the summit of Green. Strategically brought a nut tool with me and was able to get the stopper from under the Ear. Acupuncture in the afternoon.

2/20/2013
Wed-AM: 1:20, 3000' ~ 1st Flatiron+Green Mt.
Was able to sneak in just under 15min on the scramble today and then on the way down descended Greenman to Gregory (kind of the longest way down the mountain), just to get a little extra running in. Cold morning, could tell it was going to snow, so I was psyched to get in one last ascent of the First for a while. Hip has been feeling quite good.

2/21/2013
Thu-AM: 1:54, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Lots of new snow this morning, so I ran to the Gregory trailhead where I met Gavin, Skurka, and Jeff for a lap up and down the frontside. Jeff broke trail all the way up, which was nice of him.

2/22/2013
Fri-AM: 1:46, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran to Gregory to go up and down the front. Lots of new snow on the mountain but the trail is starting to get established.

2/23/2013
Sat-AM: 1:12, 2700' ~ Green Mt.
Biked to Chautauqua and ran up and down the front. Trying to remain conservative with the hip.

2/23/2013
Sun-AM: 1:57, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ran to Gregory and went up and down the front right in the thick of the snowstorm. Probably close to a foot of new snow up top. Hip seemed 100%.

Hours: 10h43min
Vert: 20,500'

Injuries are a funny thing.  I've run every day for over two weeks now, but I still don't have 100% confidence in my hip. But it's never really hurt, either. I'm hoping that with continued vigilance, diligence with my exercises, and acupuncture, I'll gradually get there.

These last few days of snow in Colorado have seen me using some new tactics for getting up the hill, notably a pair of trekking poles and some of Kahtoola's new K10 crampons. We haven't had much snow all winter, so this might seem like overkill, but when the footing is deep, unstable, and loose the combination of these two things definitely makes the uphill a lot more efficient.  When I first saw the K10's I wasn't convinced of their utility.  They only have 3/4" teeth (compared to the full inch on Kahtoola's KTS Steel model), but now I see that they're a much more durable (made from a steel alloy) but only slightly heavier alternative to Kahtoola's aluminum crampon.  And the buckling system is very clean and simple.  Who knows how much more snow we'll get down here in Boulder this season (I stick to the KTS Steel with the 1" teeth for the high country), but I've been enjoying the K10's extra bite this past week when Microspikes have been pretty ineffective.

In The High Country

Last July, I got an email from Joel Wolpert about filming me on some of the mountains I was running up at the time.  I'd first met Joel in November 2010, when he contacted me about making a short film for Running Times about running in the winter.

Our subsequent actual face-to-face meeting was quite odd.  I was out for a typical jog up Green Mountain when I came upon Joel about halfway up the hill, at the junction of the Saddle Rock and Greenman trails. He was wearing a plaid shirt, a blaze orange trucker's hat, and had a camera tripod slung over one shoulder, which---given the rest of his outfit---from 100 yards out I thought might actually be a rifle.  He introduced himself, though---"I thought I might find you up here"---and after doing some filming with him the next day and seeing the final result, I was impressed with what he could do with just a camera, a tripod, a rented steadi-cam, and his running fitness (even with low-altitude, West Virginia lungs).

So, when he called me up in July, I was happy to work with him again, knowing that he had the vision and ability to produce something beyond the standard mountain porn.  What sets Joel apart---and what I think will be apparent in the final product---is his impressive commitment to the craft. Eventually, Joel was able to russle up some backers---including support from my personal sponsors, Ultimate Direction and New Balance---but before any of that happened, Joel simply packed up his aging Subaru wagon in mid-August and sight unseen drove half-way across the country to meet up with me in Leadville for the 100 mile race.

Post-Leadville 100, we spent virtually every day of the next month together, each of us living out of our respective vehicles as I bounced back and forth between Boulder and the state's high mountain ranges, chasing as many summits and scrambles as I could before the weather turned and I had to fly off to Spain for a race. A family man, Joel committed to my itinerant summer lifestyle of 14er summits, mountain stream baths, Flatiron scrambles, trailhead sleeping, and coffeeshop internet-snaking. Don't worry, it's not as romantic as it might sound to some, but it does let me see a lot of mountaintops.

Lots of people can wield a camera, a few more can work some magic in the editing room.  Not very many possess those skills while also being able to keep up on pre-dawn 14er missions and 5th Class scrambles with a 1000'+ of exposure, clinging ropeless to the rock with one hand and pointing the camera with the other. And then keep it up for a month, also dealing with my at-times obsessive and uncompromising personality. Without getting paid.

Obviously, I have a bias, but I'm excited to see what Joel comes up with this time around.

Jan 21 - 27

01-21-2013
Mon-AM: 2:06, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Ended up being pretty tired, so after hitting the first three Flatirons I just slogged to the top of Green instead of scrambling the last two as well. Tired legs. Appt at Peak Performance Acupuncture in the afternoon.

01-22-2013
Tue-AM: 5:47, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Up Kieners down Cables with Joe. Really good outing. Got to Chasm Lake in 1:14 and the entry to Broadway at 1:48 or so. Waited for Joe at the ledge before the first crux even though we both felt really comfortable today, like we could've soloed it.  Roped up and I led as we simul-climbed across Broadway and up the Crux Cracks before packing the rope and marching up to the Diamond Step and the summit. Really nice kicked-in steps in the upper snowfield, made things easy. Got to the summit at 4:12 where we didn't spend too much time before rappeling the North Face and then running back down to the trailhead via the Jim Grove trail.  Lots of wind between treeline and Chasm on the way up and then on the Boulderfield on the way down; otherwise, a perfect day.

01-23-2013
Wed-AM: 2:05, 4500' ~ Odd Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Starting from Chautauqua, scrambled the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Flatirons before heading up to the summit of Green.  This is a really nice two hour outing because it links up the best Flatirons with the most sustained and quality climbing, and the off-trail connections between each of these flatirons are really logical. Tired legs after yesterday's long effort.
PM: Climbing, w/ Joe. 4th Elephant Buttress in Boulder Canyon, Northwest Face.

01-24-2013
Thu-AM: 2:01, 4500' ~ Odd Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Same exact run/scramble as yesterday, except that I had a lot more energy. Would've done the full Quinfecta, but wanted to be a little rested for another run up Longs tomorrow. Acupuncture afterwards.
PM: Climbing, w/ Joe. Dome in Boulder Canyon. East of the Sun and East Slab.  By the time we climbed the East Slab the sun was down and the moon was high.

01-25-2013
Fri-AM: 4:56, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Up Kieners, down Cables. With Joe. Not too windy, but kind of a chilly day with misty clouds blowing across the upper reaches of the mountain. Simul-climbed Broadway and the Crux Cracks again, but we're getting it quite dialed in, so it goes really quickly. The snow on upper Kieners was, unfortunately, a bit drifted so that our kicked steps from Tuesday were pretty much gone, which made this section much harder work. 3:37 to the summit and a 1:19 descent.

01-26-2013
Sat-AM: 2:04, 4500' ~ Odd Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Nice warm morning, but I was moving slowly on the talus with tired legs and an ankle I rolled on yesterday's descent. Felt good on the scrambles, though.

01-27-2013
Sun-AM: 2:01, 3000' ~ 3rd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Easy run from my doorstep. Thought the rock was going to be wet after the rain (!) last night, but it was drying quickly in the rising sun and I didn't have any issues, even without sticky rubber. Descended Ranger to Gregory.  Good to test the hip with some more sustained running, but it is still tight/twingy.

Hours: 21hr
Vert: 31,000'

Similar to when I did the Kieners Route on Longs Peak for the first time this past summer, it's been hard to stay away from it this past week after notching my first winter ascent.  It's just such a nice line on the mountain that is technical and exposed enough to keep things interesting but not too scary or difficult.  So, three trips up Longs in eight days.  In between I've been getting in as much scrambling as possible, trying to maximize this warm January weather and take things a little easier on my hip flexor.  In the coming weeks I'll probably branch out to a couple other 14ers (but Longs is so close and so much fun!), and hopefully start incorporating more sustained running into the routine as the hip allows.  Gotta start preparing for the flat profile of the Tarawera 100K at some point with longer continuous runs, but I need to be mindful of whether my legs will hold up to that.

Summit of Longs Peak. Photo: Joe Grant (and that's proper film, not Instagram :)

Joe (the tiny speck) at the bottom of Lambs Slide.

Joe on the entry to Broadway. Upper Lambs Slide behind.

Broadway and the Lower East Face. Photo: Joe Grant.

Joe just above the crux of the Broadway traverse.

Joe on upper Kieners after the Crux Cracks.

Steep snow.

North Face of Longs (Cables route is just to the right of the Diamond).