July 1 - 7

7/1/2013
Mon-AM: 3:15, 5300' ~ Maroon Bells Traverse
From Maroon Lake, up South Maroon and down North Maroon, 3:15:37 car-to-car. Splits: Crater Lake, 17:10; S. Maroon turn-off, 36:10; ridge, 1:22:55; S. Maroon, 1:51; Saddle, 1:57:30; N. Maroon, 2:16:50; Crater Lake, 3:02. I did this once before last September, but Joel was filming on that run so there was a lot of stop-and-go and I wanted to get a true, no-stops time on the route. The descent off of North Maroon and back to the parking lot could go a lot quicker if your tolerance for kicking rocks down the mountain and elbowing past tourists after Crater Lake is a lot higher than mine. Wasn't in the mood to be an asshole, so just took it pretty casual.

7/2/2013
Tue-AM: 2:42, 4700' ~ Pyramid
From Maroon Lake, up the West Face/NW ridge and down the NE ridge (standard route). 1:47 to the summit, :55 descent. Wanted to scout this ascent for a link-up of the Bells with Pyramid, and it was classic Elk choss. After crossing West Maroon Creek the talus field and grassy rib ascent went well but then I erroneously chose a 5th Class chute instead of staying further left on the bits of grass. After emerging from that it was lots of route-finding and choss-management to finally make the summit.

7/3/2013
Wed-AM: 6:58, 8500 ~ Capitol-Snowmass Link-up
From the Snowmass Ranch TH, ran up West Snowmass Creek, bushwhacked up to Moon Lake, summited Capitol, traversed back over the Knife Edge to drop into Pierre Lakes Basin, cross the Snowmass-Capitol connecting ridge and finally ascend Snowmass' west ridge before dropping down to Snowmass Lake and running the trail back to the trailhead. Really fun day with hours of talus hopping and some good bits of scrambling.

7/4/2013
Thu-AM: 2:44, 4800' ~ Castle & Conundrum
Up Castle's NE ridge from the Ashcroft road, over to Conundrum, and back down. Tired legs from yesterday, but the mellow 4WD road was a nice change after all of yesterday's scrambling. This finished off the Elk 14ers then.

7/5/2013
Fri-AM: 2:23, 4400' ~ Oscars Pass
Up and down Bear Creek/Wasatch Saddle from the Telluride Town Park, with Joe. Since the Hardrock course is going back to its original routing this year, Joe wanted to check out the trail. It's awesome. This is the best course in the world.

7/6/2013
Sat-AM: 7:16, 10,800' ~ Grenadier Traverse (well, Arrow, Wham, & Three Trinities)
From the Molas Lake TH I enchained Arrow Peak, Vestal Peak, and the three Trinities before running back. Splits:
Animas River, :27
Elk Creek Trail beaver pond, 1:05
Vestal Creek crossing, 1:46
base of Arrow, 2:03
summit Arrow, 2:33/34
base of Wham Ridge, 3:04
summit Vestal, 3:39/40
Vestal/W. Trinity Saddle, 4:00
summit W. Trinity, 4:17/18
summit Middle Trinity, 4:44
Middle/E. Trinity Saddle, 4:49
summit E. Trinity, 4:58
Elk Creek crossing, 6:00
Elk Creek Trail (beaver pond), 6:03
Animas River, 6:34:30
Trailhead, 7:16:45
The run in on the Colorado Trail/Elk Creek Trail was on very good tread and the climbers/use trail heading up Vestal Creek was easy to find. It was a bit choppy at first negotiating a fair bit of deadfall but not too bad. The ramp up the northeast face of Arrow is super obvious and most of the way is just marching up a giant slab, turning into some minor 4th-ish class stuff at the top. About half-way up I ran into Timmy Parr, who was climbing with a partner, but I didn't chat long knowing I had a lot of vert/scrambling ahead of me. My only major mistake of the day came in my descent off Arrow. For some reason I thought the gully down its south face would be quicker than retracing my route down the ascent ramp. Oy, bad choice. The top was full of loose debris and then about 2/3rds of the way down, the gully narrowed and cliffed out. I'd already dropped about 6-700', so I was reluctant to head back up over the summit and instead decided to try out the steep, definitely 5th Class downclimb. It's hard to grade something you're on-sight downclimbing, but with the water-slick rock and in running shoes it felt like 5.5-6 for me. Definitely stressful and cruxy. With that behind me, I was good and warmed up for Wham. I suppose if I had only been interested in traversing the peaks I could've just gone up Vestal's SW ridge/face, but Wham Ridge is one of the most classic alpine routes in the state so I was psyched to drop all the way to 12,200' or so to climb its full extent. The bottom half is super mellow, fairly low-angle slab marching, but eventually the grade kicks up a bit and the terrain becomes 4th Class on solid rock. The crux was a maybe 30' crack unavoidably out on the face and massively exposed, but 5.4 sounds about right---holds were there whenever you needed them. Above that was more 4th Class with the odd easy-5th move and soon enough I was on the summit. West Trinity was the least interesting/engaging peak of the day being mostly 3rd Class but then Middle Trinity probably served up the most complexity of the day for me. I stayed right on the ridge crest for too long and eventually dropped to the south and negotiated a Broadway-like ledge that required one spicy bit of downclimbing before lots of 4th Class led to the summit. Fairly certain I did not find the easiest way up this peak. Mercifully, East Trinity was the most straightforward route-finding of the day--straight up a 3rd Class gully with a little 4th Class at the top--and only required an extra 500' or so of vert. The run back out to the car went well enough, but the nearly 2000' climb back up to the car from the Animas River was a kick to the nuts in the hot mid-day sun as I stubbornly refused to pop one final gel. Good practice to run up a climb like that late in an outing, though. Overall, one of the more satisfying runs I've had in the mountains. I suppose some day it would be worthwhile to come back and tack on Silex, Storm King, and The Guardian, but I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this outing.

7/7/2013
Sun-AM: 2:03, 4500' ~ Handies
Up and down from Grouse Gulch. Nice mellow outing on tired legs. The 500' drop into American Basin is always a little less fun (as a climb) on the way back down.

Hours: 27h21min
Vert: 43,000'

A fun week exploring the Elk Range that was punctuated with the particularly satisfying traverse of the Grenadiers, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. This week I'll be pacing Joe at the Hardrock 100 on Friday, with hopefully a couple other San Juan adventures thrown in.

Looking at the traverse over to North Maroon Peak, Monday morning.

Goat on the summit of Pyramid Tue morning with the next day's objectives on the horizon--Snowmass & Capitol.

Vestal and Arrow Peaks as seen from the approach up the Elk Creek drainage Saturday morning.

Arrow Peak's NE face, the morning's first objective.

Vestal Peak's famed Wham Ridge (north face). Can't believe this one came out blurry. Dammit.

Starting up the iconic face.

Approaching the crux on the ridge.

Summit of Vestal, with Arrow behind.

Next up, West Trinity.

Looking back west along the line-up of five peaks, after having summited and mostly descended East Trinity.

Vestal and Arrow Peaks, from the northeast.

June 10 - 16

6/10/2013
Mon-AM: 2:33, 4300' ~ Huron
From Rockdale, ran the road up to Winfield and then over to the west side of Huron before heading to its summit. Climb was pretty standard, but the real fun came on the descent. Usually the drop down to Clohesy Lake (east side of the peak) is a fairly nasty scree/cobbles/talus/boulder chute, but today it was still all snow and was in perfect condition for a long, steep, run-out glissade that dropped over 1000' of vert. Awesome. Found the goat path down to the lake and ran the 4wd road back down to Rockdale to complete the loop. Proper mountain run. Legs were a little tired from yesterday's long outing, but not bad at all.

6/11/2013
Tue-AM: 2:22, 5300' ~ Princeton
Up and down Grouse Canyon. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite runs in the Sawatch. Proper goat path up the canyon, perfect footing for the march to the ridge at 13k' and then an engaging scramble/talus hop to the summit. Doesn't get much better. Seemed to be a bunch of smoke/haze in the air today, though. Legs had a bunch of energy despite waking up feeling groggy.

6/12/2013
Wed-AM: 3:14, 6000' ~ Princeton
Parked at the S. Cottonwood TH on the CT (8900'--this is the low point of the entire Nolan's route) and took the CT 4.5mi over to Maxwell Gulch to head up the mountain. Came back the same way. Definitely an out-of-character run for me since it started with 46min of flattish running (only 1000' of elevation gain total, more with the rollers), but once you get over to Maxwell Gulch things get interesting. Had no trouble finding the old trail on the northern side of the basin and took that up to ~10,500' where I broke left to bushwhack through the aspens in the avalanche gulley. After only about 4min of 'swhacking, though, I was on fairly open tundra/talus and marching uphill unimpeded to Princeton's NE ridge. From there it's just an extended talus scramble to the summit. CT to the summit was 1h16 (for 4300' vert), so it's actually a very comparable climb to any other 14er in the Sawatch, but just starts with the 1hr+/7mi contour on the CT from Yale's Avalanche Gulch TH. Definitely the longest sustained running on the whole route. Took 40min to descend from the summit back to the CT; feeling really good about doing this route in the dark now, think I have it dialed.

6/13/2013
Thu-AM: 2:11, 5000' ~ Yale
Up and down NE Ridge/North Face from N. Cottonwood Creek TH. After what felt like a fiasco last Sunday afternoon, I knew I had to get back here to find the best line up this side of the mountain. Took exactly 15min to jog from the TH to where a bridge crosses back over to the north side of Cottonwood Creek. An avalanche gulley empties directly onto the trail right here, but I felt like I wanted to be in the next gulley to the west. Traversing/'swhacking over to that gulley through the forest proved to be surprisingly easy and within 10min I even found a (very steep) elk path heading up the left margin of the avy gulley. I crossed over to the righthand side when things looked good and then it was just a simple march up very good tundra and talus (and past airplane wreckage) to the ridge saddle at ~12,600' or so. Took 42min to get from the bridge to the ridge. From there I contoured below the ridge (and Pt 13105 that I'd actually summited on Sunday) on the left into the basin below Yale's north face and ascended directly up the center of this face to the summit. The last couple hundred feet of vert was kicking steps in steep snow, but it'd only taken 1h12 to get from the creek to the summit, so I was feeling really good about my newly scouted line. The descent was even more fun, glissading directly off the summit and contouring over to drop into the very steep avy gulley that deposited me right back at the bridge/trail 33min after leaving the summit. Really glad I went back to take another look at this side of the mountain.
PM: 0:58, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
From Chat; really good run. A PR for ascending Green via scrambling the First (39:35 at Green summit; 10:55 to base of First, 11:15 scramble, 2:05 downclimb), and then I think maybe a PR for descending Greenman-SR-Amphi in dry (non-snow) conditions (15:55 from summit to Baseline trail junction) before realizing that I had a shot at breaking an hour for the Chat-to-Chat roundtrip, so I picked it up on the run back across the meadow for a 58:54. Funny thing was I didn't even start picking it up on the descent until about half-way down Greenman (wasn't planning on going all-out on the descent), but maybe sometimes you just need to wait for the flow to come to you. Was feeling a little extra motivation in the first place because I was trying to squeeze the run in before an appointment, thus no pause on the summit.

6/14/2013
Fri-AM: 2:58, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up Kieners, down Cables. 1:55 to the summit, which was only a couple minutes slower than when I went up the Cables last week. It always surprises me how quick a route Kieners can be in the right conditions. I was feeling great on the run up to Chasm Lake despite carrying crampons and an axe on my back. The scramble up Glacier Rib (left of Lambs Slide) was a little bit more methodical than usual because there were patches of snow to dodge, but when I got the axe out to cross Lambs Slide the snow was surprisingly kickable, even in the shade. The first crux on Broadway was still snow, so I was careful on this small downclimb/traverse, and then there was a little more snow to cross at the top of the Yellow Bowl/Alexanders. From there, it was essentially dry to the base of Kieners. The chimneys were all wet but there was only snow/ice at the top of the Bombay Chimney. On the 4th Class section up to the Staircase I stayed a lot farther right (toward the edge) than usual so as to skip the snow, but soon enough I was on the summit. The North Face proved to be, by far, the crux of the outing. I stubbornly didn't put on my crampons on the summit, so I lost a lot of time pussyfooting down the kicked steps in the snow above the Cables dihedral. When I got there it became very obvious that I wasn't going to downclimb the upper part without some metal on my feet, so I finally stopped and put on my crampons and then carefully downclimbed over the snow/ice/rock. If I'd had a rope I probably would've just rappelled the upper part and never messed with the crampons.The snow below the Cables was in terrible condition--crusty, and punching through to my knee with basically every step, super frustrating. Finally made it down to dry rock for the always enjoyable cruise back down to the trailhead.

6/15/2013
Sat-AM: 2:31, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up and down the Cables for 2013 ascent #15. Woke up groggy and unmotivated---almost decided to just head up to Chautauqua to scramble some flatties---but that would have meant running right away, whereas running Longs would give me a 45min drive to wake up, drink some coffee, and feel like a human. By time I got to the trailhead, of course, I was in olympic form, ready to take on the day. Back at the hut, not feeling very brave, I had packed my vest with a 6mm rap cord and a harness (along with crampons, axe, and gloves), planning to rappel the top half of the Cables on the descent but in the parking lot, brimming with confidence, I thought better of that and took them out. Ah, the games we play. Legs were surprisingly poppy heading up the hill for the second day in a row, and by time I got to treeline I was undecided as to whether I would head back up Kieners or take the Cables. Eventually, I decided to just do the Cables. It's funny; in my head, in the current conditions, I feel like the Cables are actually technically a little more difficult than anything I encountered on Kieners yesterday, but the amount of time that one is in a precarious position (just a couple of minutes on the Cables) is SO MUCH less than on Kieners (things are at least moderately technical for almost an hour). The climb up the Cables went really well, but I'm ready for that chunk of alpine ice on the top half of the dihedral to fall/melt out already. The descent of the north face--while soft in the hot sun--went way better than yesterday wearing crampons this time, and the downclimb was, of course, no problem. Happy I didn't bring the rope. And then it was just the usual run back down to the trailhead. Quick and efficient.

6/16/2013
Sun-AM: 7:19, 14,500' ~ Princeton, Antero, Tabeguache, Shavano
Started from the Avalanche Gulch TH on the Colorado Trail at the base of Yale, with Joe. Finished at the Blank Cabin TH on the east slopes of Shavano where Joe's wife, Deanne, graciously picked us up. Joe and I did some actual running today---1:04 to go the ~7mi on the Colorado Trail from the Avy Gulch TH to Maxwell Gulch on Princeton. Once there, the marching commenced and I hit the summit at 2:24 into the day. I was surprisingly quick down Princeton's talusy SW ridge to Grouse Canyon, but just wasn't really in a groove yet...feeling drowsy and unmotivated. Once I hit Rd 292 at the bottom and started running over to Alpine, though, that all changed and I had tons of energy, running every step of the Baldwin Gulch Road on Antero to 11k' (shortly after the creek crossing) where I tried out a new, super-direct line that goes up the ridge straight to the summit. Not sure why other Nolan's folks have never mentioned this as it by far makes the most sense and has solid footing the entire way. Summited at 5:03 and didn't even pause as it was time to get off the high ridges with weather moving in quickly from the west/north. It only took me 29min to get from the summit of Antero down to Brown's Creek at 11,200' where I took a 30min break waiting out the storm that was passing through. I had a bit of a picnic here---drank four bottles of water, ate 3 gels in a row, dumped rocks out of my shoes, hunkered down in my jacket under a fir tree staying out of the rain---and when things seemed to be clearing I headed up the gulch to the Tab/Shav saddle. Another fast-moving storm cell was coming in as I made my way up, but this one turned out to be snow and a lot of it. By time I hit the saddle at 13,500' I had broken into blue skies and was surprised how close the summit of Tabeguache was, only taking 51min from the creek---I was mentally prepared for a much longer climb. Did the short bop over to Shavano and ran the trail all the way down to the Blank Cabin TH, this being my first time ever on the mountain, managing a 56min descent from the summit of Tabeguache. The trail seems like it takes a direct-enough line from the summit of Shavano to the TH. Finished with the legs still feeling really good, plenty of run left in them. 10 gels.

Hours: 24h11min
Vert: 48,100'

After this week, I'm feeling really ready for Nolan's and am targeting an attempt for the 24th or 25th, depending on weather, starting at 2am from the Leadville Fish Hatchery. Right now, it looks like it will be the 24th, which coincides nicely with a full moon. It's been a blast learning everything I can about the Sawatch, but post-Nolan's I'm also definitely looking forward to spending the rest of my summer pursuing objectives in other mountain ranges. The Sangres, Elks, Tetons, San Juans, and Indian Peaks in particular. I'm feeling about as fit as I ever have right now, so am mostly just curious to see if I have the discipline and stubbornness and luck to fulfill my potential on the Sawatch 14ers next week.

Marmot's-eye view of the march to the summit of yet another Sawatch 14er.

What Nolan's mostly consists of--scrambling up talus slopes. Summit of Yale w/ Columbia and Harvard behind.

Looking back across to a duo on the entry crux to Broadway on Friday morning.

Broadway.

Seriously good.

June 3 - 9

6/3/2013
Mon-AM: 2:37, 6000' ~ Belford & Oxford
From the Missouri Gulch TH, out and back to Oxford, via Belford. Felt like I was still carrying some heaviness in the legs from Saturday's big run, so just cruised up and down the hills. Feeling weak above 13k' again on Belford, so I almost didn't make the run over to Oxford, but was really glad I did as I felt surprisingly strong on the pair of 700' climbs before the descent off Belford back down to the trailhead.

6/4/2013
Tue-AM: 2:24, 5300' ~ Mt. Princeton
Up and down Grouse Canyon. More Nolan's 14 scouting, this will be the descent I take off Princeton in the middle of the night, which is kinda too bad because it's a simply awesome line. Parked just off of FS Rd 292 and marched up the canyon, surprised to find an obvious use trail all the way to treeline. Gained Princeton's southwest ridge right around 13k' (right where it changes from a fairly mellow, grassy shoulder to a proper technical ridge) and enjoyed another 30min of jogging/scrambling to the summit of Princeton. Discovered that there is no skipping unranked Pt 13971 on the east side--it's a fairly dramatic drop-off there--ah well, it's only an extra 100' or so of elevation gain. After reaching the summit in 1:35, the descent was one of the more fun lines I've experienced in the Sawatch, starting with the 24min of rock-hopping back along the ridge and then plummeting back down through Grouse Canyon; the footing just feels really good from the ridge all the way back down to the road. I think I dropped the 1500' from the ridge to treeline in only 6min, sans snow. Hopefully Joe's Ferei light will make this section feel like daylight during the attempt. I was also very pleased to see that I felt fully recovered from Saturday's long run. Lots of energy, even above 13k', way more than the last couple days.

6/5/2013
Wed-AM: 2:27, 5000' ~ Mt. Antero
Up and down from Baldwin Gulch. Ran the road up to the gulley at 12,000' or so, which, with its current snowpack, made for an extremely expedient path up through all the road switchbacks on that shoulder. Not sure how well this gulley will go once the snow melts out, though. After ~1k' of vert I left the snow and headed straight up the talus, shooting for the saddle/ridge just south of Antero's summit. Didn't pick a great line (should've been further left) so I had to cross some unpleasant ball-bearing-scree-on-hardpack slopes before taking the ridge to the summit (1:36). It still seems to me that a better line up this mountain would be to gain the rib at ~10,900' (just after crossing Baldwin Creek) that goes directly to Antero's summit. Will have to check this out, but it might just be a bunch of loose scree, which would make it terrible. On the summit, I was very disappointed that I'd decided not to bring the camera today as there was an epic inversion layer of clouds off to the east. Descended via the road so that I could get a gander at the traverse over into the Browns Creek Basin (which separates Antero and Tab/Shav)...looks to be a suitable, slightly grassy rib to ascend between the Tab/Shav saddle and the summit of Tabeguache. We shall see. Once I got to the snow-gulley at 13k' I just flew back down that to the road.
PM: 1:34, 4000' ~ Decalibron
Parked maybe a half mile below Kite Lake at 11,500' or so, still a couple of snow drifts remaining that would take 4wd to bust through. Jogged a few minutes up to the usual parking lot and started my watch at the trailhead kiosk, thinking I'd give the circuit a solid effort despite this morning's outing and the fact that 4pm snow conditions were predictably horrible, i.e. lots of plunging in and tons of mud and running water. Took me a minute for my legs to get going (and by a minute, I mean, like, 30min), but once I got on the solid talus I was climbing pretty well and tagged the summit of Democrat at exactly 38min flat. This can definitely go a few minutes faster sans snow. The snow descent back to the saddle (43:40) was non-ideal, lots of knee-deep plunging, and then a ridiculously strong wind threw me around on the grunt up to Bross (1:01:05); I almost gave up trying to go hard right then because of the wind and because snow was preventing me from taking the best lines on the ridge. Ran hard over to Lincoln (1:07:05), though, which is really hard to do above 14k', and then tried to keep up the intensity over to Bross, too, but snow stymied a lot of my effort, and I was beginning to fade energy-wise, too. Tagged the summit of Bross at 1:21:55 and then threw myself down the 2k' of vert back to the trailhead, dropping the first 1000' on nice scree in only 5min and then taking another 7+ to descend the last 1k' and posthole/plunge back across the stream just before the trailhead for a total time of 1:34:43. I guess it's at least a standard for other people to chase now if so inclined, but in dry conditions (or firmer snow) I think I could definitely take it under 1h30. Especially with fresher legs.

6/6/2013
Thu-AM: 2:27, 4500' ~ Torreys & Grays
Parked at the 1.4mi/private property sign, like usual. Took the Dead Dog couloir up Torreys and felt like I was kinda pushing my luck with snow conditions, leaving the truck at ~6:15am, getting to the base a little after 7am and summiting at ~7:45am (1:16 from the trailhead). About a third of the way up a single fist-sized rock came whizzing by really close, but that was it for the whole route. That made me really glad to be wearing a helmet, though. Super warm on the climb, that chute is like a reflective solar oven with the rising sun. Legs were definitely slow and tired from yesterday's efforts. Left my Kahtoola crampons on for the quick drop and climb over to Grays (snow the whole way), but after that things had softened up just enough to make running shoes sufficient for the descent back to the car. Total time trailhead-to-trailhead was 1:58. Way more snow on these peaks than in the Sawatch.
PM: 1:07, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Typical afternoon outing: biked to Chat, scrambled the rock on the way to the summit of Green, descended the front. Notably, I had one of my faster efforts to the base of the rock (low-11min) without really trying---I could really feel the extra oxygen compared to what I've been breathing for most of the past two weeks. It also felt (comparatively) humid; I was sweating buckets.

6/7/2013
Fri-AM: 4:16, 4500' ~ Keyhole Ridge (Longs Peak)
This wasn't really four hours of running. More like 2h30. Planned on summiting Longs via the 5.6 Keyhole Ridge and descending the Cables, but Joe and I were chased off the ridge about half-way up. Ran at a casual pace to the Keyhole with a 7.7x37m rope in my pack and some stoppers and four cams in Joe's pack. Got there in less than 90min where we opted just kick steps in our running shoes across the snowfield leading to the 3rd Class ramp that goes to the False Keyhole. This ended up being a bit spicier than I anticipated as the snow as very soft and only a small margin of moss/loose rock was bare right on the extremely exposed edge of the ledge. We scrambled this carefully before roping up for a very easy pitch of climbing up to the escape saddle just before the first tower. Conditions were still brilliant, so we were quite jolly pitching out the easy rock that leads up the tower. There was still some snow on a lot of things, though, so we were happy to be roped up for the on-sight. Less than a pitch from the top of the tower, though, it was clear the weather was going to get nasty very quickly and we heard several rolls of thunder, which was more than a little unnerving. I refuse to mess with lightning, and we were in an extremely exposed position on a knife ridge near 13,700'. So, I quickly lowered Joe then rappelled/downclimbed off a pair of stoppers before scrambling back over to the escape saddle by which time the wind was raging and it was snowing hard. Another bank of clouds was moving in fast from the west so we scrambled west back down to the Keyhole and called it a day, running back down to the trailhead through drizzle.

6/8/2013
Sat-AM: 2:52, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up and down the North Face. After yesterday's failure to summit, and anticipating tomorrow's long outing, I opted to just cruise up and down the shortest line on the peak. There were crazy winds in the parking lot, but above treeline it turned out to be just a standard breezy day. Didn't even put crampons on until I was half-way up the Cables dihedral, and then on the way down I didn't even get out my rap cord or harness. Still a ton of snow above the Cables, but way less than last week. Great run, can't wait to start hitting this mountain in just shoes and shorts again; it's getting there.

6/9/2013
Sun-AM: 8:21, 17,000' ~ Missouri, Belford, Oxford, Harvard, Columbia, Yale
Pretty epic run. Started with Joe from Rockdale, ran the 4wd road up to Clohesy Lake and started the Nolan's 14 line. Misouri, Belford, and Oxford are all cruises, but then the drop into the Pine Creek drainage marks the beginning of basically all off-trail running for the rest of the day. Nailed the descent to Pine Creek and the march up Harvard and then was psyched to complete the traverse to Columbia via Rabbit Ridge instead of doing the usual drop to 12,800' on the east side. Staying on the ridge necessitates a fair bit of 4th Class and low-5th Class scrambling with a short, maybe 20ft crux downclimb that allegedly goes at 5.7. It was a vertical crack, but it felt easier than that to me, considering I was on-sight, solo, in running shoes, at ~13k' after almost 5hr of running. The descent south off of Columbia marked the beginning of new territory for me and it went pretty well as I found a pretty good line in the trees, aiming for the base of a giant avalanche chute on the south side of N. Cottonwood Creek that would take me up to Yale's northeast ridge. This felt like bumbling wreckage through heinous bushwhacking on extremely steep terrain and even a few cliffy outcroppings, but eventually--after much swearing and cursing--I found myself postholing near treeline and then it was just the endless ridge leading to Yale's summit. Once on the summit I didn't think I could stomach anymore bushwhacking, so I started out planning on just taking the east ridge down to the Colorado Trail, but a couple of perfectly glissade-able snow slopes lured me into the Avalanche Gulch basin between Yale and Mascot Peak and even though there was some more bushwhacking around 10,800' or so through many many downed trees I kinda hit the line perfectly and was down at the Avalanche Gulch trailhead only 49min after leaving Yale's summit and with legs that still felt like they had a ton of run left in them. 10 gels. Joe had a few navigational issues (as is wont to happen when traveling all day off-trail) and came in four hours later, thankfully before a headlamp was needed.

Hours: 28h25min
Vert: 54,300'

Obviously, a great week up high. Yesterday's run has me seriously reconsidering my Nolan's plan. Given how hideous the route-finding is in the North Cottonwood Creek drainage between Columbia and Yale, I think I want to do my best to hit this in the daylight, so will probably end up starting from the Fish Hatchery at 2 or 3am instead of my initially-planned 5am/first light start. A start in the dark will also help ensure that I take it easy for the first couple peaks. Other than that, Sunday's run was great. Depending on what the sky is doing at the time, I'm pretty sure I'll take the more technical Rabbit Ridge between Harvard and Columbia, purely for aesthetic reasons as I was only a minute or two slower on it Sunday than when I dropped to the east when linking them up last summer. Also, energy-wise I felt very solid yesterday and finished the run remarkably fresh, which is, of course, a boost to the confidence.

The final ridge leading to Princeton's summit from the SW. Taken just below Pt 13971.

Dropping down Princeton's SW ridge, the nearly vertical mile climb to Antero looms straight ahead.

Dead Dog Couloir (center-right) offers 1500' of 45-50 degree snow climbing to the summit of Torreys (14,267').

Nearly to the top of Dead Dog.

No summit of Torreys is complete without standing atop Grays (14,270') as well.

Longs Peak summit #13 for the year on Saturday.

May 27 - June 2

5/27/2013
Mon-AM: 2:03, 5000' ~ Mt. Elbert
Up and down the NE ridge. Did the roundtrip from TH to summit and back in a few minutes under 2hr, but got in some extra time/vert on the corniced southwest ridge as Joel was waiting for me up there so he could do some filming. Brilliant morning on the hill.
PM: 1:06, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran from Chat with Joel, who joined me to the top of the First. With Joel initially nipping at my heels I tagged a snappy 12:30 scramble on the slab before downclimbing and heading to the top of the mountain alone. So awesome to see the transformation of Boulder from spring to summer in the past week I've been away.

5/28/2013
Tue-AM: 3:53, 5000' ~ Longs Peak
Up via Lambs Slide and Clarks Arrow, down the North Face. Got a 5am start from the trailhead, giving Joel a 45min head-start. There wasn't much snow until Chasm Lake, but all of the snow was in excellent condition, consolidated and frozen, accepting Khatoola crampons quite well. Lambs Slide and Keplinger's Couloir/The Homestretch were classic snow marches in perfect conditions, nary a breath of breeze all day. The descent of the North Face down to the top of the Cables was by far the spiciest terrain of the day. Descending such steep snow facing in was tedious and required focus. Rapped the top half of the Cables and downclimbed the bottom half before running down the apron of snow below there, removing crampons, and enjoying a smooth run back down to the cars. Back below Mt. Lady Washington, the now slightly softer snow conditions were ideal for descending fast. Really good to be back on the mountain after not being up there since early April. #12 of the year.
PM: 1:06, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat, 12:25 scramble, then to the top of the mountain and descent of the front. Had a bunch of energy in my legs, which was nice.

5/29/2013
Wed-AM: 2:01, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Ugh, one of those rough days. The string of early mornings and big days of vert caught up to me, plus motivation was severely affected by the cold rain falling. Eventually stumbled out the door, though, and jogged up and down the mountain at the easiest effort possible. Up Gregory-Greenman, down Ranger-Red Lion-Creek Path. The rain eventually stopped and I was treated with a lot of magical clouds sweeping around the summits.

5/30/2013
Thu-AM: 2:17, 5700' ~ Flatiron Quinfecta+Green Mt.
Got a late start because Joel and I drove up toward Ned, headed for the high country before realizing that, yes indeed, the weather forecast wasn't lying and the Divide held truly apocalypse conditions (snowing, hurricane winds). So we headed to Chat for some flatties, instead. After some stop-and-go, leap-frogging each other on the First, we ran into Dakota on the summit and had a long, casual conversation in the sun. From there, though, I continued on alone and clocked some of my best splits ever in linking some Flatirons together; legs felt really strong. Yesterday's easy day did a lot of good.
PM: 1:05, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Really good pep in the legs tonight, and I made it to the summit of Green from Chat in 42min, which has to be a PR or close to it for ascending via the First Flatiron. Good downhill, too.

5/31/2013
Fri-AM: 0:58, 1800' ~ First Flatiron
Got up really early for some filming in good light on the First with Joel. Really windy on the arete and downclimb, though. Ran back down to the hut after we were finished. Had planned a peak in the high country in the evening, but the hurricane winds persisted up there so I decided to just save the energy for tomorrow's outing.

6/1/2013
Sat-AM: 7:41, 13,500' ~ Massive, Elbert, La Plata
First three peaks of Nolan's 14. I started from Halfmoon for logistical reasons and to hopefully save some postholing below treeline (if I'd started from Fish Hatchery), but because of the extensive snowfield on Massive's upper face I ended up reaching the summit in a similar time that it usually takes me to summit from Fish Hatchery (1:46). Immediately turned and started descending Massive's SW slopes, which started dodgy but then turned into an incredible 2500' drop completely on perfect, steep snow that took something like 12min. It was awesome. Too early in the morning for glissading, but running was probably even faster, if harder on the ol' quads. Somewhere in this plummet, however, I lost my 8oz Hydrapak flask, which had been my only water-carrying device for the day. Bummer. I spent a lot of time drinking at streams before the monster climb up Elbert's west ridge, but apparently it wasn't enough as I was really fading toward the top and had even mostly resolved to bail at the summit (3:55) and just descend back to Halfmoon. Luckily, Joel was up there for a couple minutes of film and was in a particularly cheery mood after PRing up the NE ridge; his mood was infectious, and, even more importantly, he gave me a bottle to complete the rest of the run with. The descent off Elbert past the Golden Fleece mine and down Echo Canyon was particularly fast with snow every step of the way until the mine, and by time I started up La Plata (trailhead at 5:04) my energy seemed to be at an all-day high. Things were really good on the LP climb until I got above 12k' or so...where the altitude proceeded to smack me hard. The final 1500' to the summit was a total, staggering horror show on an endless, baking hot reflective snowfield. I had plenty of gels and water, so that, along with the splitting headache I had seemed to indicate that it was just all the time above treeline finally catching up with me. It's still early in the acclimation process for me. Fortunately, there was another perfect snow descent off of La Plata, too---this with some of the best glissading of my life---and despite what felt like days of thrashing around in the hip-deep snow/willows/water just above treeline I was down in Winfield less than an hour after leaving LP's summit. Awesome day, but my fitness---both mental and physical, specifically my altitude acclimation---still has a ways to come before I attempt Nolan's later in the month.

6/2/2013
Sun-AM: 2:07, 4500' ~ Mt. Elbert
Up and down the NE ridge. Jogged about a mile on the road to wake up the legs before starting up the hill. Gorgeous day, perfect conditions, the snow is shrinking quick. Legs were tired, but not terrible.
PM: 1:01, 600' ~ East Leadville
Easy shake-out jog in the evening.

Hours: 25h18min
Vert: 48,100'

This felt like the first week of proper summer running. A few 14ers, some flatties, all of it really enjoyable. As expected, the first real foray onto a chunk of the Nolan's line was sobering in its difficulty. What a monster route. I spent a lot of Saturday relearning techniques of not looking too far into the future, remaining in the moment, staying concerned only with the task at hand. Something like Nolan's is impossible to complete if you get too far ahead of yourself mentally.

Sunrise over Twin Sisters Tuesday morning.

Snow beta shot on the condition of the East Face. Flying Dutchman and the Notch both look good still.

Joel marching up toward the base of Lambs Slide.

Joel on upper Lambs Slide, well above Broadway.

Joel crossing the saddle between the Lambs Slide and Flying Dutchman couloirs.

Joel slogging up the Homestretch. Three 14ers in four days for a West Virginia boy.

Obligatory summit shot with the 'tinger.

The North Face descent above the Cables was uncommonly steep, but very good snow.

Summit ridge of Mt. Elbert on Sunday morning.

May 20 - 26

5/20/2013
Mon-AM: 3:32, 8000' ~ Pikes Peak
Up and down the big hill again, from Manitou. Climbed about 90sec faster than a couple days ago and felt a lot better above treeline, which was probably mental. Started snowing above 11k' or so, but it never really got too nasty until the last 500' of vert below the summit. Still comfortable enough in running shorts and a jacket.

5/21/2013
Tue-AM: 2:05, 3200' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Got up early and scrambled my 100th lifetime ascent of the First before descending Bear Canyon. Spent the rest of the day driving to Nebraska.

5/22/2013
Wed-AM: 1:48, 1300' ~ Niobrara State Park+Ethiopian Trail
Started in town with Joel in a light drizzle. Ran out to the State Park, did my usual 5mi loop through the park, then ran home via the "Ethiopian Trail" (named for the opening scene in the Haile Gebreselassie film "Endurance"), which is an old pasture double-track that climbs out of the Missouri River valley up to my family's farm. Mostly steady cruising, but this was a 16mi run, the miles rack up quickly here.
PM: 0:52 ~ Run into Town
Ran 7mi back into town via the Ethiopian Trail with Joel to pick up my truck from the mechanic. Several squalls of rain along the way.

5/23/2013
Thu-AM: 2:22, 1500' ~ Liska Loop
Cranked out this super-classic, hilly 22mi loop that used to be my staple long run when I lived at home.  After getting the legs going with a couple of 7min miles I settled into low-6min pace, suffered through a bonk the last 4mi or so, but still finished things off with a 5:40 final mile. I was never very stressed cardiovascularly, but my legs just aren't very used to turning over that quickly for that long anymore. I'm pretty sure I'd have a really hard time breaking 5min for a single mile right now. Great run.

5/24/2013
Fri-AM: 1:07, 500' ~ Pastures
Sunrise run with Joel before hitting the road back to Colorado. Adductors and soleus were tight from yesterday's outing.

5/25/2013
Sat-AM: 2:07, 4500' ~ Mt. Elbert
Up and down NE ridge. So great to be back up in the Sawatch! Snow on the route was much more manageable than I had anticipated, which got me really excited for all the great running to be done this summer. Windshirt was sufficient on the summit, it was basically summer conditions. Felt really strong on the whole climb, which was nice since the last time I was up here in November I was super weak above treeline. I was just beat-down by that point last fall.
PM: 1:01, 600' ~ Boulevard, Leadville
Easy jog out and back on the Boulevard (Leadville 100 race course) in the evening. Legs felt solid.

5/26/2013
Sun-AM: 2:24, 4500' ~ Mt. Elbert
Up the West ridge and down the NE ridge. Struggled through some snow between 11k' and treeline, but nothing horribly frustrating. Above treeline, the fell lugs on my custom winter 110s were indispensable on the frozen snow. The 3000' grunt in a little more than a mile on the west ridge delivered the usual beat-down, however. Gorgeous morning.
PM: 1:05, 1500' ~ 5th St Leadville
Out and back up the hill east of town in beautiful evening light. Easy jog to 11,600', legs felt good.

Hours: 18h24min
Vert: 25,700'

Low vert and (relatively) low hours but I think it was somewhere around 120-125mi, so pretty solid. Really fun week with the mix of flattish, faster running back in Nebraska and the return to the high country for the summer. Super psyched to be regularly getting back above treeline, and can't wait to get the Nolan's 14 line dialed back in over the coming weeks. Definitely the focus for the next month.

Summit of Elbert Sunday morning.

May 13 - 19

5/13/13
Mon - off. Launch of BUFF Signature Collection in Barcelona. After another nearly sleepless night, I went for a stroll down Las Ramblas in the morning from my hotel and had to stop and get a coffee and a croissant on the way back in order to make it back to the hotel. Feeling really really weak but finally no more fevers and muscle aches.

5/14/13
Tue - off. All day travel back to Boulder from Barcelona.

5/15/13
Wed-AM: 1:35, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
From my house, descent down Flagstaff. Oy. Thought things were feeling ok, but then about half-way up the rock I got super weak and had to take a minute before slogging through the rest of the run. Really weak after the first 30min or so. So good to be back in Colorado, though. The weather is gorgeous and I just love being here at home.

5/16/13
Thu-AM: 2:00, 3200' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
From my house, descent down Bear Canyon. Felt quite a bit better today, but still not quite 100%. Always fun to just cruise easy down through Bear Canyon, too.

5/17/13
Fri-AM: 2:10, 5000' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
From my house, scrambled the 1st, 5th, and 4th flatties before going to the top of the mountain and descending Flagstaff back to my house. Finally feeling close to 100% again in terms of energy. Really fun morning on the mountain, always a pleasure to get in a few thousand feet of scrambling. Not much else I'd rather be doing while waiting for the high country to start melting out a bit.

5/18/13
Sat-AM: 3:34, 8000' ~ Pikes Peak (14,115')
Parked in downtown Manitou with Joe (who had dog, so was only going up Cameron Cone) and ran up the big hill. From Hydro Street (after all my years living in COS and running with MC it became habit to time from there) it was 2:19 to the summit and 0:56 for the descent back to Hydro. (Obviously, I wasn't going the standard route.) Felt really solid climbing today, only wavering the last 1000' or so. First 14er in over a month, though, so altitude weakness is to be expected. Let gravity take over on the descent, clocking a number of sub-6 miles. Per usual, there's way less snow down in the Pikes Peak region than up here on the northern Front Range. Granted, I was on the southern slopes of the mountain, but there was basically no snow below 12k' or so, and above there it was well-consolidated, perfect for kicking steps. Mostly overcast day, but I was shirtless all the way to the summit, and only put it on for the descent above treeline. Great day.

5/19/13
Sun-AM: 2:06, 3200' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
From my house, went easy on the uphill and then descended Bear Canyon, enjoying the smooth trail on my tired legs.
PM: 1:05, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
From Chat, cruised up the slab with a light sprinkling of rain part-way up and then had good energy in my legs to the top of the hill. Descent down the front. #99 lifetime ascent of the First Flatiron, all but one of those coming since last July.

Hours: 12h30min
Vert: 26,400'

Took me until Friday to get my legs back under me after being sick and re-adjusting from the overseas travel. The second half of the week was super solid, though, and after hitting Pikes on Saturday I'm really excited to spend a good chunk of time at altitude. Which I will do, starting next weekend when I get back from Nebraska. Bring on summer!

Against all odds, Joe actually turned me on to these guys:

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'

---------------------------------------------

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.