Week Summary: Oct 22 - 28

10-22-2012
Mon-AM: 0:44, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Mellow scramble, but my peroneals/fibula acted up right at the end on the run down the hard-packed dirt back to Chautauqua.
PM: Climbing with Jenny.
Did the Owl on The Dome at the base of Boulder Canyon. Funky roof on the final pitch but overall lots of fun.

10-23-2012
Tue-AM: 0:45, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Same as yesterday morning except I descended Saddle Rock to Amphitheater, which seemed to be nicer on the fibula as it only tweaked slightly right at the end.
PM: Climbing+Gym Climbing (Eldo and Movement).
Buzz and I got on Calypso down in Eldo and after the second pitch traversed the ledge over to the bottom of the final pitch of Wind Ridge so that we could top out on Wind Tower. Fun stuff, especially the downclimb on the descent.  Immediately afterwards I met Marissa for a couple hours of climbing plastic at Movement, which was a first for me, plus pretty frustrating considering I was already pumped from the couple of hours spent on real rock beforehand.  Also, gym ratings are so bogus.

10-24-2012
Wed-AM: 0:48, 1600' ~ First Flatiron
Standard run up to the base, scramble and downclimb and run back down to Chat. Peroneals didn't hurt at all, which was nice.
PM: 1:00, 1600' ~ First Flatiron w/ Joe.
Did a casual hiking scramble of the Flattie, snuck this in right before it started raining...clouds were swirling on the summit and we got a little wet on the walk back down to the car.

10-25-2012
Thu-AM: 1:10, 1000' ~ Gold Hill
Ran in the cold, fresh snow from Joe's house.  Predictably, the fibula was totally fine for 45min but then tightened up after that. Full-on winter run here at between 8500' and 9000'.

10-26-2012
Fri-AM: 0:50, 500' ~ Gold Hill
Another snowy run from Joe's house, but this time we got above the clouds, which was as beautiful as one might expect. Fibula acted up right at the end again.  Got a crazy painful massage from Jeff Staron afterwards that left my lower leg immediately sore but hopefully did some good.

10-27-2012
Sat-AM: 1:41, 3000' ~ Flagstaff+Green Mt.
Met up with some friends to get back to the basics in the Boulder hills. Kept it super mellow all the way to the summit of Green, but it was nice to catch up with people I don't always make time to run with.  I was just testing out my peroneals, so after hitting the top of the mountain I ran back down Ranger and Gregory Canyon, pretty psyched to have no pain, just soreness from the massage yesterday.  Gorgeous day with all the snow.
PM: Climbing w/ Joe.
Did three laps on the Umbrella Tree top-rope near Crown Rocks on Flagstaff.  Was able to send the direct line, which is allegedly 5.10 but seemed a bit soft for that.

10-28-2012
Sun-AM: 1:18, 2600' ~ Green Mt.
Up Gregory Canyon and down the trail between the 1st and 2nd Flatirons for the descent.  First time I've run Gregory Canyon (and Ranger) in quite a while. Though a proper trail the whole way there are still some legitimately steep sections in there. Tough. All in all, feeling awkward and out-of-shape these days.  Ice turned much of the descent into a tentative walk without Microspikes.
PM: Climbing w/ Joe.
Parked at the Elephant Buttresses near the bottom of Boulder Canyon and just top-roped from a set of anchors on that big jumble of rock between the parking lot and the actual Buttresses. Got in a couple of laps before the sun was gone.

Hours: 8h16min
Total: 13,500'

This week started out tentatively and was turning in a depressing direction as my fibula/peroneals were still giving me a bunch of trouble, but then the massage with Jeff on Friday morning seemed to magically fix the issue and I'm now running basically as much as I want, pain-free.  Incredible.  I got in a lot of rock climbing this week, and I plan on keeping that up, but after two weeks completely off and this third week of very low volume I'm feeling pretty fat and out of shape. It was a break I needed, and my fitness should come back quickly, but maybe not as quickly as I'd like.  I'd still like to race one more time this year...

Sussing the final pitch on The Owl, Dome Rock. Photo: Jenny Jurek.

And, in the spirit of election season, a catchy little tune written by an old college friend.

Week Summary: Oct 1 - 7 (+ an off week)

10/1/2012
Mon-AM: 2:19, 3300' ~ Refugi Sant Jordi
Ran the quiet, bucolic road from our hotel (Ca l'Amgata--truly amazing hospitality; honestly, it blows my mind) ~30min to the start of the trail up the canyon to the Refugi.  Nice mellow trot up the incredibly scenic climb for the third time in the past week, and then ran the last 12K of the race course back into Baga.  Took a while for things to get loosened up at first (left achilles, mostly), but then everything felt good except for my right big toe joint/extensor on the extended downhill.  Really fun to see these mountains on a nice sunny morning instead of having them hide in the clouds.  Spent the rest of the day meeting with BUFF designers and touring the factory just outside of Barcelona. I had no idea that all of their production is right there, nothing in China. The apparel (as opposed to headwear) is manufactured in Portugal, but everything else happens there in Igualada.

10/2/2012
Tue-AM: 1:30, 1100' Basreny River out and back
Nice early 6:30am start in the dark under the very bright light of the moon before an all-day photo shoot up near Pedra Forca.  Legs felt way better than yesterday, including my toe.

10/3/2012
Wed-AM: 1:52, 1800' ~ Collserola Park/Tibidabo
Run in Collserola with Nacho and Pol from New Balance.  Really tired legs.
PM: 0:58 ~ Barcelona Beach
Ran down through the Gothic district from my hotel down to the beach and back. Tired legs and tough negotiating my way through crowds of people nearly the entire way.

10/4/2012
Thu-AM: 2:04, 4000' ~ Montserrat
Run from Montsellero with Just Sensio and Nacho.  They took me on a ~25k route of an old race course that climbs from town to the summit of the mountain and back down.  Awesome line that finishes with a really steep grunt up a canyon to the summit, complete with a couple of fixed ropes. Legs felt good and it was a ton of fun on an awesome mountain.
PM: 1:00 ~ Barcelona Beach
Much better run down along the beachfront. Found a more direct route and legs felt quite good.

10/5/2012
Fri-AM: 2:12, 1700' ~ Collserola Park/Tibidabo
Ran from the hotel up to the forest/hills/trails.  Spent some time contouring on the Carretera des Aigues where I ran into a couple of familiar faces--Richard and then later, Allesandra.  The 25min of noisy, polluted, crowded street running on Balmes on either end of the run wasn't very pleasant, but so it goes when exploring a city I suppose.

10/6/2012
Sat-AM: 2:33, 5000' ~ Montseny Traverse
With Nacho and Roberto Sancho.  Started from Coll Formic at 1100m above the town of Montseny and linked together the three main summits in the park, which included a pair of ~2000' climbs plus a couple other bumps followed by a screaming 4000' descent back down to Montseny.  The second climb was a very fun scramble up an aesthetic ridge to the summit..."La directa!"
PM: 1:01, 600' ~ Park Guell
Ran up to this iconic park where Gaudi has several impressive tile mosaics.  Legs were tired so I just stumped along through the streets and then enjoyed the art and views of the city from the park.

10/7/2012
Sun-AM: 1:40, 1500' ~ Tibidabo Cathedral
Was running by 6:40am, which isn't early but feels really early these days now that it doesn't get light until after 7:30am.  The run up Balmes to the park was interesting in that I got to see all kinds of people still out after a long night of raging. Nice run up and down the trails in the park and then back on Balmes to the hotel.  My right leg really started acting up on this run, to the point where I was definitely favoring it and limping by the end--really weird, nervy peroneal/fibular pain that shoots up and down my whole leg at odd times.  Hurts more to walk than run, and it's a really weird feeling...not usual muscular tightness/soreness at all.  Feels almost like something having to do with a nerve, not muscular.

Hours: 17h09min
Vert: 19,000'

My legs came around quite quickly after the race and my local mountain runs near Barcelona on Thursday and Saturday were of a much higher quality than I could've ever planned on my own.  Many thanks to Pol, Nacho, Just, Roberto, and Dani for all rallying and showing me the two main playgrounds near (within 45min driving) Barcelona--Montserrat and Montseny.  Both were top-notch outings that I will definitely make sure to not miss the next time I'm in Barcelona.

Last week ended on a bit of a down note, though.  On my last run in Barcelona (Sunday morning) before catching a plane (and enduring 30hr of transit) to Cape Town, SA my right leg started acting up in a really weird way...not sure how to describe it except it feels like my peroneals/fibula, but it doesn't feel muscular at all.  Much more nervy.

I thought a day of rest whilst traveling would help set it right, but on my first attempt at a jog in Tonaika Forest in Cape Town on Tuesday morning it worsened and I had to walk back to the car after only 20min.  The wonderful folks at New Balance in SA got me right in for an appointment with a physio at the Sports Science Institute that afternoon, though, and it seems I aggravated a nerve (the sural nerve?) and it needs a few days of rest to quiet down.  This all meant that I had to miss the Otter Run and came back to Boulder a couple of days early, which was obviously a bit of a bummer, but I'm also happy to be back and look forward to getting back into a regular daily routine and getting fully healthy.  I'm taking this ill-timed niggle as an opportunity to rest for a week or two and recharge the batteries before hopefully getting in a nice block of training before the TNF50 Champs in San Fran on December 1st, which I'm looking ahead to with a lot more confidence after my run at Cavalls.

On Montserrat with Just. Photo: Nacho Puig.

Summit of Montserrat on Thursday morning, a 1000m climb up and out of the clouds. Photo: Nacho Puig.

La Sagrada Familia--Guadi's vision still being constructed nearly 100 years after his death.

Barcelona at dusk as seen from Park Guell. Mediterranean Sea in the distance.

On the first summit of the day at Montseny outside of Barcelona, looking at the next peak in the distance.

Final scramble to the summit of the second peak in Montseny.

Roberto reaching the summit after the scramble.  Pyrenees on the horizon.

Chapman's Peak overlook at sunset, near Hout Bay in Cape Town.

Camps Bay from the summit of Table Mountain.

Cape Town.

Week Summary: Sept 24 - 30

9/24/2012
Mon- off, traveling to Spain.

9/25/2012
Tue-AM: 1:34, 3500' ~ Pedra Forca
Drove with Dakota, Frosty, and Nuria to the foot of Pedra Forca near Baga (the start/finish town for Cavalls del Vent), which is a very dramatic rabbit-eared shape mountain whose base we run along during the race.  Ran to the summit--including some fun, optional scrambling on the excellent limestone--before descending between the rabbit ears on some not-optimal scree.  Really nice introduction to the Pyrenees.


9/26/2012
Wed-AM: 1:20, 2700' ~ Refugi Sant Jordi
Ran from approximately km67 to km78 on the Cavalls course with Phillip Reiter, Emelie, and Frosty, which included the last two major climbs of the loop--a 600m (2000') run up a gorgeous canyon to the Refugi and then a small descent followed by a 200m (700') bop up to the final pass with incredible views of the cliff faces on the south side of the range.  Gloomy, humid conditions and all in all it was a gorgeous morning out. The first climb felt quite gradual, but the final bop will definitely have some hiking in it come race day. Really seems like it will be a mint course, judging from this small taste.

9/27/2012
Thu-AM: 1:27, 2200' ~ Queralt Monastery
Ran up to the monastery on the mountains above Berga from the house and back down. Really nice mountains behind town with lots of trails, wish I could explore more.

9/28/2012
Fri-AM: 0:34, 800' ~ Queralt Monastery
Drove up to the monastery with Anna and Dakota and went for a short, flattish out-and-back. Cool, gloomy day. Would be good weather for tomorrow, but it's supposed to rain all day, which is fine, too.

9/29/2012
Sat-AM: 8:49, 19,600' ~ Cavalls del Vent 84K
2nd place, 7min behind Kilian. Both of us were under Miguel Heras' previous course record. Really cool to have Dakota round out the podium.  Pretty crazy bad weather conditions...only 183 of the 900 starters finished, many succumbing to hypothermia.

9/30/2012
Sun-PM: off.  Wanna make sure I recover, but things feel fine except for my big toe joints. Weird.

Hours: 13h44min
Vert: 28,800'

Taper week in Spain leading up to Cavalls del Vent.  Not much else to say; the race went well.

The view from our house in Berga, at the foot of the Pyrenees.

Berga, from the Queralt Monastery high on the mountain.

Pedra Forca (Forked Rock?) outside of Baga.

Summit of Pedra Forca with Dakota, Frosty, Nuria and a Catalonian flag.

Week Summary: Sept 17 - 23

09/17/2012
Mon-AM: 3:23, 7000' ~ Grand Teton (13,770')
Not many mountains are more inspiring than this one. Driving in early in the morning over from Dubois there was a crazy amount of smoke settled in the valley and I could barely see the peaks most of the way, but once I got there...man, such proud summits. I'd heard there was some ice in the chimneys on the Owen-Spalding route, but conditions seemed perfect, so I figured I'd go give it a shot, even if I was turned around only a few hundred feet from the top.  Had pretty decent legs on the run up Garnet Canyon and the climb from the Lower Saddle to the Upper Saddle felt shorter than I remembered from July.  It was cold and blustery on the OS, though, and once in the chimneys there was indeed some ice, not to mention cold rubber that didn't seem to want to stick to the rock as well as I remembered, nor gloved hands that wanted to grip very well either.  I passed a couple of roped-up parties, but had the summit to myself, which was really nice. The descent went well and I mostly just enjoyed being in one of the more special ranges in the country.  Lost probably 6-7min roundtrip due to the ice in the chimneys, but I ascended in 2:08 and descended in 1:15.

9/18/2012
Tue-AM: 8:46, 8700' ~ Gannet Peak (13,804')
One of my favorite days in the mountains this season. New FKT.

9/19/2012
Wed-AM: 2:05, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
After getting up at 5:00am to finish the final 3hr+ drive home from WY, I went straight to Chat and got on the rocks.  My legs were surprisingly minimally affected by yesterday's effort, so on my jog out of the parking lot I decided to hit all three flatirons.  The First went well with a reasonably quick 12:45 scramble and 3min downclimb. On the descent to the base of the Second I could definitely feel all of yesterday's boulder-hopping, but the scramble went well in 11:30.  More boulder-hopping over to the base of the Third, and I laced that in an only-10sec-off-PR 7:30 before a quick 5:50 downclimb. The march to the summit of Green was a bit of a slog, but I held it together and back down at Chat in 1:57 I rounded out the day's time with a mile of barefoot on the lawn there. Awesome morning.
PM: 1:18, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
I was feeling lazy and just kept the whole outing leisurely with a 16:30 scramble and a mellow effort on the rest of the mountain. Amazing sunset from the top of Green, though.

9/20/2012
Thu-AM: 4:37, 6500' ~ Audubon (13,233'), Paiute (13,088'), Toll (12,979'), Pawnee (12,943'), Shoshoni (12,967'), Apache (13,441'), Navajo (13,409')
Started from the Long Lake TH with Joe. Ran the 6min on road over to the Audubon TH and headed up the mountain. The pace seemed pretty mellow, but I could tell my legs were still pretty haggard from the past three days. I was really uncoordinated on the ridge traverse of boulder hopping from Audubon to Paiute, but seemed to find some dexterity on the descent down to the north ridge of Toll.  Mount Toll was awesome.  Joe and I located the sneaky ramp on the west side which ends in an even sneakier, exposed, cruxy step-across.  It doesn't look like it's going to go, but it does!  Which would become a theme of the day.  Pawnee was a simple talus walk-up, as was Shoshoni, but then the real fun began as we engaged the airy, sometimes loose 4th Class ledges of The Chessmen that guard the traverse over to Apache.  This section was magnificent, high above Isabelle Glacier and despite my low energy we were having an awesome day out.  The final climb from Dicker's Peck to the summit of Navajo looked quite intimidating, but for seemingly the dozenth time all day, once on the face it was actually very fun 4th Class with enjoyable route-finding and an impressive summit. From there we dropped into Airplane Gully (a plane crashed in there in 1943, there is still wreckage) and made our way back down to Lake Isabelle and the trail back to the car.  Awesome day out on some of the most fun, inspiring terrain anywhere.

9/21/2012
Fri-AM: 2:02, 3200' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran from Eben G. Fine Park up to Chat, scrambled the Third easy in 8:55, downclimbed the SW Chimney and tagged the summit of Green before descending Bear Canyon back to Chautauqua.  This has to be my favorite easy day loop, such a fun variety of terrain from flat running, to scrambling, to steep hiking, to fast descending through the canyon.

9/22/2012
Sat-AM: 2:06, 3200' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat and then to the base of the Third, scrambled it in 8:35, downclimbed, grunted to the summit of Green and descended Bear Canyon again. The downclimb took 5min longer than yesterday because of the complete lack of sticky rubber on my shoes.  More exemplary fall weather, though.
PM: 1:05, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Awesome evening out on the hill where I PRed to the top of the First (22:32) by taking it easy to the base (11:42) and then PRing on the actual scramble (10:50 East Face). Did the downclimb in my usual careful 3:50 and then continued on to the summit of Green before running back down the front back to Chat.

9/23/2012
Sun-AM: 2:14, 4700' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat and then laced together the first three Flatirons in sequential order. I was feeling quite on point with the scrambling today and had East Face splits of 12:35, 11:10, and 7:55 for the First, Second, and Third, respectively. I still need to try Buzz's route on the Third of not crossing over the gulley at the beginning.  It does seem like it would be a lot faster. Continued on to the summit of Green after the Third before running back down to the Creek. Awesome last morning on the mountain for a few weeks.

Hours: 27h36min
Vert: 43,800'

This was the last week of hard training before heading overseas for Cavalls del Vent and the Otter Run, but I hardly viewed it that way.  Instead, I was just trying to cram in as much autumnal fun as I could knowing that conditions will likely have changed drastically in the high country by time I get back in mid-October.  So it goes, though, and I'm actually really looking forward to the change in seasons. CdV should be a ton of fun as I expect there to be a group of at least five really solid competitors going for it at the front of the pack (Kilian and Miguel, Dakota and myself, and Tofol Castaner), plus probably plenty of other legit but lesser-known Euros.  I'm excited for what is billed as a very tough course and my introduction to European mountain racing.

The Black Dike and Upper Exum Ridge (leading to the Grand Teton summit), as seen from the Lower Saddle.

Looking south from the summit of the Grand on Monday morning.

The view looking east from the summit of Gannet Peak.

On the summit of Shoshoni, considering my immediate future: Apache (center) and Navajo (far left). Photo: Joe Grant.

Week Summary: Sept 10 - 16

9/10/2012
Mon-AM: 3:55, 5500 ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Oy, quite the day on the hill with Joel. I wanted to show Joel the Kieners Route with the exhilarating and airy position you achieve on the Broadway traverse but with the Lambs Slide snow being in horrible late-season shape we decided to gain access to Broadway via Alexander's Chimney--an alleged 5.5 mixed route just to the right of Lambs Slide.  All in all, it was a terrible idea.  We started by gingerly climbing the Mills Glacier to the base of the wall, which was basically a conglomerate slab pitch of ice. Once on the wall there were some 4th Class slabs/cracks (definitely found some 5th Class in there, unfortunately) to get to the base of the chimney, which we then started up.  Being in the shade, and being September, the first pitch up to the chockstone held significant ice with more water running down.  We made it up, but it was sphincter-tightening to say the least. After spending some time re-warming ourselves on a sunny ledge we traversed over to a steep, left-facing dihedral with insane exposure. This was even more intimidating and took a couple tries. Above there was some easier terrain that led into the "Yellow Bowl" and a final left-facing dihedral that again was steep and hand-jammy.  More cruxing.  Reaching Broadway was never so wonderful.  After making the summit, Joel and I descended the North Face down to the top of the Cables Route, which we found, of course, to be completely iced in.  This 5.4 downclimb is usually almost brainless, but especially after our already hair-raising morning we had no nerves left to deal with the ice and trudged the 500' back to the summit to descend the standard Keyhole Route.

9/11/2012
Tue-AM: 1:05, 2800' ~ Green Mt.
Did a headlamp ascent via the 3rd access route before spending all day in the Indian Peaks near Isabelle Lake for an Ultimate Direction photo/film shoot.
PM: 1:06, 3200' ~ Second Flatiron+Third Flatiron Minions Gathering
What a blast. Some friends were going to be putting in a hard car-to-car effort on the Third Flatiron, so I warmed up by first doing a quick lap on the Second.  After a little delay we headed up Bluebell Road and charged to the base of the rock.  I got there first (14:22) with Dave maybe 30sec back and Matt and Stefan in close pursuit.  I was moving well on the rock but was basically too anaerobic to go any harder and Stefan caught me right after the Kiddy Kar Ledge with Dave stepping on to the summit right behind me (22:22).  There were three rap ropes fixed on the top, so we all dropped off the back but Dave and I proceeded to get tangled and lost a bunch of time...it took me a full 3min to rap the 200' to the ground (25:34).  After I finally got off the line, though, it was wing-suit time and I took off down through the boulderfield catching Dave and then Stefan down in the trees.  From there it was just an incredibly painful sprint back down to Chat for a 33:48 finishing time, a minute ahead of Dave.  Dave has the record at 33:17, and I like to think I would've been close without the tangling on the rappel, but that's all part of the fun!

9/12/2012
Wed-AM: 2:17, 5300' ~ 2xGreen Mt.
Up and down the standard frontside route the first lap and then up the front and down the back on the second lap.  34min laps were slowed by the insistently falling rain making all of the rocks slick.  Felt like a very Fall day, that's for sure.  Good to get some consistent running in with solid vertical.
PM: 1:02, 2800' ~ Green Mt.
Up 3rd access and down front.  The continuing-to-fall rain and low clouds prevented any scrambling (wet rock), so just went for another lap on the hill, but a bit steeper line this time.

9/13/2012
Thu-AM: 2:18, 5300' ~ 2xGreen Mt.
Two more laps on the mountain, but this time up the back and down the front for each. Managed 37min and 36min efforts this time on the slightly longer/more runnable Gregory-Ranger ascents.  Been a long time since I've done running repeats on Green, so these last two mornings have been really good.
PM: 1:03, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
I was a in a bit of a hurry to get this in before the Reel Rock Film World Premiere, so had some extra incentive to get up the hill quick and ended up scrambling the First Flatiron in a PR 11:25, which was fun, before continuing on to the summit of the mountain.

9/14/2012
Fri-AM: 2:39, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Got an early start up the hill and because I knew the Cables Route was iced in I used a combo of the Reveley Route up to the Boulder Field and the standard Keyhole route above there.  Descended the same way.  Didn't have particularly peppy legs after all the vert the last few days, but I did enjoy perfectly still, crisp conditions on the summit.  A small bit of snow and ice to deal with in the Trough and on the Homestretch.
PM: off - driving to Wyoming.

9/15/2012
Sat-AM: 2:51, 4400' ~ Arrow Mt (11,678')
Started from the Trail Lakes TH outside of Dubois, WY, which is ~20min from my sister's house and also the start of the Glacier Trail, one of the standard (extremely long) approaches to Gannet Peak, Wyoming's highest peak at 13,804' (the Grand Teton is 13,770').  The run in up Bomber Basin was quite flat, and the mountain itself was fairly unimpressive, but the views of the Wind River peaks and glaciers surrounding Gannet were totally worth it, even with all the smoke in the air.

9/16/2012
Sun-AM: 1:41, 3700' ~ Whiskey Mt (11,2xx')
A different trail/mountain from the same trailhead as yesterday.  This one was mercifully more steep and direct, though, and I was on top of the hill in just a few minutes over an hour.  There was so much smoke in the air, though, that my throat hurt. First easy-ish day I've taken in quite some time, but it was deliberate, as I'm planning on ticking probably Wyoming's two proudest peaks over the next two days: the Grand Teton on Monday and Gannet Peak on Tuesday.

Hours: 19h57min
Vert: 41,000'

This was a fun, varied week, with a couple tags of Longs, an incredibly painful sprint up and down the Third Flatiron on Tuesday, running laps of Green mid-week and then getting up to some new mountains by the end of the week.  I was pretty tired by the end of the week, but my multiple laps on Green have started re-building some confidence in my fitness and I'm really starting to look forward to Cavalls del Vent in a couple of weeks.  A big part of me is at least as inspired by getting out for as many mountain adventures as possible before the weather really turns.

About 20' below Broadway on Longs Peak. Final crux crack. Chasm Lake 1500' below... Photo: Joel Wolpert.

Longs Peak summit with the Loft in the background. Photo: Joel Wolpert.

Week Summary: Sept 3 - 9

9/3/2012

Mon-AM: 2:02, 4000' ~ S. & N. Arapaho Peaks (13,397' & 13,502')

Slept at the 4th of July TH and took the standard avy gulley up to the ridge, hitting the south summit in 59:40 and making the traverse over to N. Arap in exactly 15min.  Both peaks were swirling in clouds and quite chilly with the strong west wind. Picked a good line on the way back down and generally had a lot of energy in the legs, which was nice after yesterday's slogging.

PM: 1:08, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.

Scrambled the First in 12:40 with a 4:15 downclimb...the wind was really howling up there which always makes the downclimb feel a lot sketchier.  Descended via NE ridge-SR-Amp.

9/4/2012

Tue-AM: 2:01, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Tweaked it this morning to go 3rd-2nd-1st instead of the usual order.  I feel like going in descending order might be slightly faster for me.  Was psyched to get up the First in 13:05 with a 2:43 PR downclimb despite being in running shoes.  My climbing PR is a minute faster, but I was using approach shoe rubber.  Super dehydrated by the top of the First, so the trip to the summit of Green was a real slog.  Descended Greenman to Gregory which was a nice variation that I haven't hit in a long time.
PM: 1:19, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Got a relatively late start--7pm--so ended up descending mostly in the dark, which slowed things considerably.  New-ish shoes didn't seem to be sticking very well on the rock, so I only managed a 15:15 scramble of the First.  Funny, a week ago that would've been over a minute PR, so obviously can't complain too much. Incredible sunset.

9/5/2012

Wed-AM: 1:18, 3000' ~ Third Flatiron+Green Mt.
Early morning because Joel wanted to catch the sunrise from the summit of the Third (lazy 9:30 scramble of the face). Kind of a sluggish downclimb, then marched to the top of Green before heading back down to Chat.
PM: 2:06, 4500' ~ Torreys (14,267') & Grays (14,270') Peaks
Took advantage of the impeccable fall weather and tagged this duo in the evening, heading up the Kelso Ridge to the summit of Torreys.  Started from my usual spot on the road at the beginning of the private property. Legs were really poppy at first but then I really struggled up Grays.

9/6/2012

Thu-AM: 2:21, 4500' ~ Mt. Elbert (14,433')
My 23rd summit of the state's high point.  Jogged around to the backside of the mountain for an ascent of the West ridge and then descended the standard NE ridge.  Things were OK for 45min or so, but the 3000' in barely a mile up the back of the mountain was a monumental struggle; zero energy. Was extremely relieved to make it to the summit. Spent most of the rest of the day napping and eating food.

9/7/2012

Fri-AM: 3:41, 7200' ~ Guanella Pass to Loveland Pass Traverse
This ~14mi line tags six summits: Square Top Mt (13,794'), Mt. Argentine (13,7xx'), Mt. Edwards (13,850'), Grays Peak (14,270'), Torreys Peak (14,267') & Grizzly Peak (13427'). It's an obvious line that I'd never thought of (indeed, I'd never even been to Guanella Pass before), and was motivated to get out by Ben Clark, who had clearly had this on his tick-list for a while and was interested in getting some footage.  We woke on Guanella Pass to sub-freezing temps and fresh snow on the surrounding peaks.  I very nearly wore tights and would've been a bit more comfortable all day if I had. Ended up in shorts, a long-sleeve, jacket, and gloves.  The summit of Square Top was completely enshrouded in clouds and we had no views to the extent that we first tried descending to the west-southwest and encountered incredibly high cliffs.  Soon enough we found the correct northerly ridge and made a treacherous snow-slick talus descent before climbing to Argentine. Somewhere around Argentine Pass the clouds finally lifted a couple hundred feet and we were able to enjoy some of the incredibly big views up there. Edwards was an easy slog with some nice ridge running between there and Grays.  I waited a long time on Grays for Ben and hunkered down in the talus as a squall of graupel/sleet blew through.  Shortly after that I decided it was time to get warm and I blitzed Torreys and Grizzly before rolling on the CDT back down to our shuttle car at Loveland Pass.  Fun day and some new peaks.

Square Top - ~:58
Argentine Peak - ?? (fog)
Argentine Pass - 1:40
Edwards - 1:59:45
Grays - 2:30:45
Torreys - 2:44:45
Grizzly - 3:12:15 

9/8/2012

Sat-AM: 3:07, 5200' ~ Maroon Bells Traverse (14,156' & 14,014')
Slept at the Maroon Lake parking lot/TH and started from there in the morning.  Headed up West Maroon Creek first, meeting up with Joel at Crater Lake, and we took the South Ridge route up Maroon Peak. The 2800' of ascent from the valley to the ridge was some of the most enjoyable trail I've been on all summer--perfect footing, lovely grassy meadow, and a wonderfully steep hiking grade. There was some route-finding issues now and then on the technical stuff leading to the summit, but all in all it wasn't a very complicated mountain.  There was a mountain goat w/ a baby on top, though, and that was awesome.  Joel did some filming on this ascent that took some extra time (and that I didn't include in the running time).  The traverse from Maroon over to North Maroon definitely got my attention, though. The descent down to the saddle between the two (top of the Bell Cord Couloir) was quick but sketchy with loose choss on top of slabs.  From there, the route stays either right on the ridge or makes short traverses on ledges to the left, but more than once I wasted time attempting to traverse on sketchy ledges to the right because I wasn't sure what line was most efficient.  There were maybe two short dihedral/chimneys that required a couple of 5th Class moves, but overall it was pretty straightforward.  I will say I was glad to be traversing from south to north, as downclimbing a couple of those moves would've been slightly tricky. The north summit was a party, so I got out of there pretty quick and began the loose descent down the mountain's north ridge/east face.  Eventually the route turned into a pretty defined path and it was awesome cruising down the mountain on such a direct route.  Hooked back into the Buckskin Pass trail, took it down to Crater Lake and ran back to the Maroon Lake TH for a time of 3:07:58, not including the filming with Joel on the first peak.  Would love to come back and make a clean, no-stops run of this loop, it's a gem despite the loose rock.  With a more focused effort and now with some route-finding knowledge, I think it could definitely go under 3hr.

Splits:
Crater Lake - 18:55
East Slope turn-off - 39:25
South Ridge - 1:22:00
Maroon summit - 1:44:50
Saddle - 1:50:55
N. Maroon summit - 2:10:45
Rock glacier exit - 2:39:15
Buckskin Pass Tr - 2:49:00
Crater Lake - 2:55:25
Parking Lot - 3:07:58

9/9/2012

Sun-AM: 3:38, 5400' ~ Capitol Peak (14,130')
Slept at the Capitol Creek TH and started from there. Legs were a bit weak/tired this morning, but the Capitol Ditch trail is enjoyably flat for quite some time so I was able to slowly find a rhythm after a bit. Things were straightforward up to Capitol Lake at 11,500, but I was psyched to finally start gaining some elevation with the grunt up to the Daly saddle at 12,500'.  From here the route crosses over to the east side of the ridge and I stayed quite a bit higher than what is probably generally recommended, traversing through some brief, loose 4th Class terrain as I angled up towards K2, the small summit that signals the start of the ridge to Capitol itself.  The ridge over to Capitol ended up being more engaging and fun than scary, and with surprisingly solid rock given the crappy stuff that exists all around it. Route-finding from K2 back to the Daly saddle was easier on the way back and then it was just a matter of keeping a solid pace on the flats and rollers on the way back to the TH.  Incredible weather this weekend in the Elk Range, with plenty of leaves changing, too.  CO autumn at its finest.

Splits:
Capitol Creek crossing - 30:30
Fence - 41:xx
Capitol Lake - 1:08
Daly saddle - 1:22:50
K2 - 1:49:20
Capitol summit - 2:08:40
K2 - 2:26
Daly saddle - 2:47:50
Capitol Lake - 2:53:30
Fence - 3:09
Capitol Creek - 3:16:20
Trailhead - 3:38:22

Hours: 22h41min
Vert: 44,300'

Kind of a weird week. My energy has been all over the place, probably from getting after it too quickly after Leadville, but it's really difficult when the mountains are right there, the weather is perfect, and snow is coming soon.  Some days I feel really fit, and other days I feel burnt out and needing a bit of a break.  We'll see.  I was really happy with my weekend in the Elks, though.  The rock there is pretty scary bad, but the scenery is off-the-charts.  I'd like to get back some time and link-up the Bells with Pyramid...I could've made that happen with some planning on Saturday, but I didn't know how difficult the Bells would or wouldn't be, so didn't want to bite off more than I could chew.  A more likely ambition would be to tackle the never (?) repeated traverse of the Elk 14ers that Neal Beidleman and partner put down back in the 1990s.  Nothing wrong with leaving some projects for the future...

Fresh snow on Bierdstadt and Evans Friday morning, from Guanella Pass.

Ridge traverse over to N. Maroon Peak as seen from Maroon Peak.

Looking back down to Maroon Lake. Photo: Joel Wolpert.

Capitol Peak sunset on Saturday evening.

Summit ridge of Capitol, including the knife edge.

Week Summary: Aug 27 - Sept 2

8/27/2012
Mon-AM: 2:12, 3500' ~ 3rd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Up the Third and down Bear Canyon from the creek. Nice easy run. Easy scramble of the Third in 11min w/ a 10min downclimb and then coming down the canyon was a blast after not running that trail in a long while.  Nice to get in some sustained running. Legs feeling good.
PM: 1:00 ~ Creek Path+Kitt barefoot
Ran down to Kitt, did 2.5mi of barefoot and ran back. Legs felt good.

8/28/2012
Tue-AM: 2:15, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Really solid morning for me with PRs on the climbs and downclimbs of each Flattie.  16:30 up the First, 3:50 downclimb; 11:20 up the Second (downclimb is trivial); 7:20 up the Third, 5:50 downclimb. Some days the shoes just seem to stick better than others, haha.  Started at finished at Eben G. Fine Park.
PM: 1:28, 3000' ~ Fourth Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran from Chat and up the Royal Arch Trail to scope the Fourth with Joel. At first we got on the wrong rock, but after we found the right start, it was a lot of fun.  The Fourth is really three separate pieces of rock. The first section was my favorite--solid conglomerate, spicy angle with significant exposure, just enough techiness to keep one's attention. The second piece was a little dicy as we didn't get into the gash soon enough and ended up sweating through an exposed hand traverse.  Route-finding mistake. The final chunk mostly required negotiating an off-width crack and lots of trees/shrubbery.  Stepping off the top was also a touch trickier than I imagined.  This Flatiron lacks the clean aesthetic of the First and Third, but the summit is very close to the actual summit of Green Mt, so we ran up there quick to catch an incredible pink/blue sunset before making it back down to Chat just as the light really ran out.

8/29/2012
Wed-AM: 2:04, 4500' ~ Torreys (14,267') & Grays (14,270') Peaks
Slept at the trailhead last night and then headed up this morning after giving Joel a headstart.  He met me on the Kelso Ridge, where we had to negotiate quite a queue on the very short section of knife-edge ridge.  Weather this morning was very fall-like--overcast and cool. Legs felt good.
PM: 1:00, 500' ~ Mineral Belt+barefoot
Cruised around on Leadville's bike path before doing a couple miles of barefoot. Crazy good sunset.

8/30/2012
Thu-AM: 2:33, 5500' ~ Missouri Mt. & Mt. Belford (14,067' & 14,197')
Got an early start so that Joel would have good light for filming up on the ridge. First time I've approached Missouri from the Missouri Gulch TH, and it's a nice climb up to the ridge. Took my now-standard traverse on the southerly side of the East ridge to reach Elkhead Pass, but by staying as high as possible and actually getting back on the East ridge well before the pass, I was able to move more quickly than usual. Almost little bits of use trail in there, even.  Only 18min from the Missouri summit to the pass and then another 19min to the Belford summit.  Really fun descent from Belford back down to the TH in 32min. Really enjoying the transition of seasons; with pockets of golden aspen and the crisper mornings, it's beginning to feel a lot like fall.
PM: 1:02, 500' ~ Boulevard out 'n back (Leadville)
Tired legs felt better at the end. Raining.

8/31/2012
Fri-AM: 1:51, 3500' ~ Quandary Peak (14,265')
Tired, so took it easy up and down after a 17min flattish warm-up on the road.
PM: 1:05, 3000' ~ First Flatiron+Green Mt.
Really fun evening on the mountain.  My legs were bricks this morning but had some solid pep this evening and I set a PR to the top of the First Flatiron (23:24) before downclimbing the SW face and continuing on to the summit of Green Mt. On the way back down the hill I passed by the base of the First downclimb so I could get a split from there back down to Chautauqua and ended up with a 9:16 descent.  Adding together the 11:20 it took me to get to the base (no warm-up), the 12:04 scramble of the East Face and the 3:10 downclimb, that would equate to a 35:50 car-to-car on the First.  I'll have to try it soon with a warm-up (so I can run faster on the approach) and get a true car-to-car time.

9/1/2012
Sat-AM: 6:17, 12,000' ~ Glacier Gorge Traverse, RMNP
One of the most fun days I've had in the mountains this summer.

9/2/2012
Sun-AM: 2:13, 4000' ~ 2nd+3rd Flatirons+Green Mt.
Started from Chautauqua and ran to the base of the Second, climbed it, stumbled down the boulder field over to the east bench of the Third, climbed it, and then continued on to the summit of Green before running back to Chat via Bear Canyon and the Mesa trail .  Legs were obviously pretty worked from yesterday, so I just jogged along most of the morning, trying not to catch a toe and face-plant.
PM: 1:05 ~ Creek Path+barefoot
Jogged over to Kitt Field, did some barefoot, and jogged back.

Hours: 26h05
Vert: 44,200'

The legs seemed to have mostly recovered from Leadville, so I was able to get some good mountain time this week.  The seasons are gradually changing in the mountains, though, with crisper mornings and yellower leaves all acting as reminders that summer doesn't last forever and soon enough getting into the high country will become a much more complicated endeavor.  I was very excited to have snuck in the Glacier Gorge Traverse still this season, though, and am already looking forward to hitting it again next year.

Left to Right: Pagoda, Spearhead, Arrowhead/McHenry's, Powell on the rim of the Glacier Gorge.

Week Summary: Aug 20 - 26

8/20/2012
Mon-off.

8/21/2012
Tue-AM: 1:11, 1500' ~ Second Flatiron
Incredibly slow stroll up to the base of the 2nd, crawled up the rock (Freeway), and then limped back down to Chautauqua at a very very easy walk. Tired, tight legs still, but nice to get out and move them around a little.

8/22/2012
Wed-AM: 1:29, 1500' ~ First Flatiron
Hiked up to the base of the First with only a tiny bit of running mixed in, scrambled the East Face in a very fatigued and casual 35min, did the downclimb in 9min and then hiked slowly back down to Chautauqua as the quads were pretty worked after all the muscle tension required on the climb.  A couple desperate moves up there in my burnt shoes.
PM: 0:26 ~ Creek Path+barefoot
Very very easy run with Jocelyn with ~10min of barefoot on the grass in the middle.  Medial knee/adductor attachment flared up a little bit, which is typical for me after a 100mi race.

8/22/2012
Thu-AM: 1:29, 2700' ~ 2nd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Went with Buzz, Anna, and Joel from Chat. Actually ran up to the base, so the legs are coming around.  Casual on the rock itself as Buzz showed me the route to actually get on the east face of the Pullman Car (the 2nd's summit block) and gain the true summit.  Not too tricky, and the downclimb is simple, too, but there are a few feet of 5.6 or so to gain the Car's south face.  Continued on to the top of the mountain and the legs continued to feel good, but my quads were still dead/twingy/tight on the descent of Ranger and Gregory.

8/23/2012
Fri-AM: 1:33, 3500' ~ 2nd+3rd Flatirons+Green Mt.
Fun link-up this morning with Joel in tow. Jogged up to the base of the 2nd, scrambled it fully to its summit in 11:30, downclimbed the west face and then dropped down the boulder field to the south to the East Bench of the Third where a half a dozen dudes with ropes and full racks looked like they were gearing up for war.  Joel and I scooted past and I proceeded to PR with an 8:14 scramble to the summit (40:49 total from Chautauqua).  The downclimb of the SW Chimney was a PR for me too at 9min (Joel is a pretty accomplished climber, so has zero problem keeping up) before hunching over and grunting to the summit of Green itself. Beautiful on top with finally a day w/o much haze or smoke.  Descended the frontside of the mountain back to Chat (quads are still a bit battered). Back at the parking lot I was disappointed that we hadn't begun the morning with a scramble of the First in order to complete the full link-up.  Tomorrow.

8/24/2012
Sat-AM: 2:35, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat with Joel and then headed up the First Flatiron (slow 25:50 ascent...had to wait for one party, plus I had some route/hold-finding issues on the thin stuff), down to the base of the Second, climbed Free For All (12:40 climbing split) , boulder-hopped down and over to the base of the Third, climbed the Third (7:55 PR climbing split), downclimbed the SW Chimney and then headed up to the summit of Green before descending back to Chautauqua and running back down to the creek.  Awesome morning, with the Chat-to-Chat Trifecta+Green Link-up being done in 2:09:40.
PM: 1:04, 500' ~ Creek Path+2mi barefoot
Jogged over to Kitt Field, did some barefootin', and then jogged up to Chautauqua before heading back down to the creek.  Gorgeous summer evening and the legs actually felt quite good.

8/25/2012
Sun-AM: 2:26, 4500' ~ Flatiron Trifecta+Green Mt.
Ran up to Chat and then the base of the First with tired legs. Scrambled First in 22min, quick 4min downclimb, scrambled Second in 12:45, descended to the East Bench of the Third and scrambled it in a PR 7:35 before downclimbing in 7min and continuing on to the summit of Green. Legs were pretty tapped this morning, but I was psyched to feel much more confident on the couple tricky sections of the First and to PR on the Third.  Still need to get over and check out the Fourth and Fifth.

Hours: 9h47min
Vert: 18,700'

Nice recovery week.  The ol' pins have come around pretty well. I'm not sore at all any more, just still feeling a little weak and a bit battered in the quads, hence no running this evening.  I was very excited to link up the Flatirons Trifecta today and yesterday and will probably hit that once more tomorrow before retreating back to the high hills for some more altitude time before the weather starts shutting it down for the season.  I still have a couple of high-altitude exploits (hopefully a Glacier Gorge Traverse in RMNP and a couple trips up the Grand Teton) planned before I head over to Spain, so I want to keep in touch with my acclimatization just a little bit longer.

Buzz leading the way to the base of the Pullman Car on the Second Flatiron. Photo: Anna Frost.

Sussing the route up the Second Flatiron with Joel and Buzz. Photo: Anna Frost.

First Green summit in a while on Thursday morning. Photo: Anna Frost.

More irresistibly catchy Little Dragon.

Week Summary: Aug 13 - 19

8/13/2012
Mon-AM: 0:54 ~ Turquoise Lake Trail
Easy, flat run w/ Frosty.

8/14/2012
Tue-AM: 1:00, 300' ~ Hagerman Pass Rd
Easy taper run.

8/15/2012
Wed-AM: 0:52, 300' ~ Turquoise Lake Trail
Another easy run out to Tabor Boat Ramp and back from below the lake.

8/16/2012
Thu-AM: 0:53, 300' ~ Turquoise Lake Trail
Ditto, but this time with my friend Martin.

8/17/2012
Fri-AM: 0:38, 200' ~ Boulevard
Easy loop with Frosty.

8/18/2012
Sat- Leadville 100 in 17:21:09, 17,400'
4th place.

8/19/2012
Sun - off.

Hours: 21h38min
Vert: 18,500'

Not much to say, except I'm glad to have finished Leadville and hopefully the recovery goes smoothly and quickly so I can get back to fun stuff again before the high country starts getting snow.

And this.  This is good. Both bands courtesy of Sweden.

In my head the entire race:

Week Summary: Aug 6 - 12

8/6/2012
Mon-AM: 4:01, 8000' ~ Pikes Peak Marathon Course+ (14,115')
Parked at Memorial Park in Manitou Springs and ran to the summit of Pikes Peak in 2:32:58 from the starting line.  My legs felt okay for a while, but the last couple of miles seemed to really be a struggle despite the very shallow grade and what I consider to be very good altitude acclimation at this point.  Overall, my climbing legs were just sluggish this morning, probably from the late evening ascent of Cameron Cone last night. Stopped the watch and took a quick break on the summit to grab a drink of water in the tourist-swarmed summit gift shop.  Frosty was still running up and was planning on hitching back down to the start, so I thought I'd give the descent a little gas and race her back to the bottom.  Really surprised to get back down to Barr Camp in only 36:50 and then eased the effort on the smooth track below there for a 1:20:50 descent back to the finish line in downtown Manitou, so a 3:53 PPM not counting the break on the summit.  Jogged around some and then headed back over to Memorial where I met Anna just seconds after her ride from the summit dropped her off. Good timing.

8/7/2012
Tue-AM: 1:32, 3500' ~ 3rd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Ran from Chat to the East Bench of the Third where I scrambled the standard East Face to the summit, then downclimbed the Southwest Chimney before continuing on to the summit of Green. Met Anna there and ran back down with a couple of short side trips for some scrambling on Jaws and the 2nd Flatiron.  Looks like a long outing but 21min of that was spent downclimbing off of the Third.
PM: 2:05, 4500' ~ Torreys & Grays Peaks (14,267' & 14,270')
Nice evening jog up the peaks, via the Kelso Ridge. Super idyllic conditions on the summits--calm, clear, warm with pleasing light.  It's nice doing these mountains in the evening as the usual crowds are non-existent.

8/8/2012
Wed-AM: 2:17, 4500' ~ Mt. Elbert (14,433')
Up the West Ridge and down the NE Ridge. Remarkably crowded summit this morning, so I was really glad I took the backside route (which I've never seen another human on).
PM: 1:01, 500' ~ Boulevard+barefoot turf
Nice evening shake-out on the start/end of the LT100 course plus 15min barefootin' and striders on the turf field. Some nice pep in the legs.

8/9/2012
Thu-AM: 2:28, 5300' ~ Mt. Elbert (14,433')
Up and down the Black Cloud trail. This route was a really nice surprise--excellent, proper-steep trail from the highway to reach Elbert's SE ridge at 13.5k', and then a very scenic run up the ridge to the summit, bopping over 14,134' South Elbert along the way. The climb offers nothing in the way of a warm-up, so the start was a bit rough, but overall I felt very good. Trailhead is at 9700', but the 200+' double-bop over South Elbert adds the extra vert.
PM: 1:00, 500' ~ East Leadville+barefoot
Jogged around on the east side of town before finishing up with 17min of barefoot down on the turf, including half a dozen striders.

8/10/2012
Fri-AM: 2:37, 5000' ~ Mt. Massive (14,421')
Up and down the East Ridge from Fish Hatchery. Legs were feeling good up and down, this is quickest I've done this run.
PM: 2:00, 4500' ~ 3rd-2nd-1st Flatirons-Green Mt. Link-up
One of the most fun outings I've had this summer.

8/11/2012
Sat-AM: 2:27, 5000' ~ Longs Peak (14,255')
Up and down the North Face (Cables) from the East TH. Up in 1:29:55, down in 48:47. Even though I got to the TH at 7:00am, being a Saturday morning the lot was already completely full with cars parked over a half a mile down the road. This gave me a few minutes of warm-up and cooldown, which was nice.  Legs felt quite good on the run up, but once I popped out of the trees at Battle Mt I was buffeted with a heinous headwind that would toss me about and periodically stop me in my tracks all the way until Chasm View.  Definitely lost a few minutes to the wind as I couldn't run nearly as much as I normally would.  Cutting over the north shoulder of Mt. Lady Washington I also lost a couple minutes by traversing too high and remaining in slow talus/boulders (not wanting to lose any elevation) instead of crossing the more runnable terrain down in the basin.  Despite all the cars in the parking lot, I encountered my only other compatriots of the day on the section of technical climbing on the Cables--a roped-up couple.  The 5.4 corner went quickly and 9min later I was standing on the completely clagged-in summit. On the Cables downclimb I re-passed the couple who was now rappelling (slowly--apparently w/o tagging the summit?!?!) before cutting back over the shoulder of MLW and taking the Jim Grove and Reveley Routes back down to the car. Footwork and energy were excellent on the downhill.

Splits:
Goblin - 12:56
Battle Mt Trail - 27:00
Granite Pass Trail - 45:13
Chasm View - 1:17:00
Top of Cables - 1:20:54
Summit - 1:29:55
Top of Cables - 1:36:05
Chasm View - 1:39:50
MLW Shoulder - 1:52:15
GP Trail - 1:56:45
Battle Mt Trail - 2:05:45
Goblin - 2:12:45
Pavement - 2:18:42

PM: 1:30, 3000' ~ 3rd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Scrambled the Third and continued on to the summit of Green before descending Gman-NE Ridge-Saddle Rock. Did the scramble in 10:36--wasn't feeling super 'on' today, especially on the downclimb--so abandoned any plans of hitting the Second and/or First, too. Trails have taken a real hit this summer; lots of water run-off damage, wonder if OSMP has any plans to do anything about that. Runners in Boulder would be ready to volunteer in a second if just given the opportunity.

8/12/2012
Sun-AM: 2:12, 4500' ~ La Plata Peak (14,336')
Up and down the standard NW Ridge. Easy the whole time, testing out a footwear option for the race next weekend (RC1600, 5oz racing flat). Think I might use them, but would like just a touch more traction on sandy/gritty sections of trail as there was a little slippage. Overall, a super-dialed in shoe, though. Last summit I'll see before the LT100; it's been an awesome summer for sure.

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

Really fun week with a good mix of flat running (the most I've done all summer), peak-bagging, and scrambling.  Did my only longish run way at the beginning of the week and my legs are definitely itching to go long again, so after a week of nothing more than short, flat jogging I'm sure I'll be ready to go for the Leadville 100 this weekend.  It's going to be really fun to race 100mi again for the first time in 18 months, but there's definitely a part of me that can't help but feel that next weekend pretty much marks the end of the summer.  A few aspen leaves have already started draining their chlorophyll and I'm sure I'll need a couple super-mellow weeks post-Leadville before my legs are ready for any significant adventuring again.  I'll probably spend a lot of that time scrambling in the Flatirons, but definitely hope to tag a few more high-country summits, too, before I head to Europe the middle of next month.

• A post I recently published over on the UD Blog.

Flatiron Trifecta + Green Mt.

Three hunks of rock on the face of Green Mt.

Since the Third Flatiron opened for business on August 1st (after it's annual six-month closure for raptor nesting), I've been excited to get back on it.  Back on January 30th and 31st (the last two days it was open) I climbed it each day for good measure--the first day, soloing in rock shoes, with Buzz belaying me as I tried the Southwest Chimney downclimb; the second day, I went out by myself, soloed in rock shoes again (in a then-PR 26min), and rappelled the three pitches off the south side of the summit.

Rappelling off the Third back in January. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

I felt really good about that fully solo summit then, but definitely dreamed of a day where I could just run to the base of the 1000' slab, solo it in my running shoes, downclimb it, and continue on to the summit of Green.  After a lot of scrambling in the following months, I did just that this past Tuesday morning.  I was a bit nervous about the downclimb as I'd only seen it once ever--and that was on belay and six months ago--but to my surprise the entire thing was way, way more moderate than I'd remembered.  And I more than cut my PR in half, without trying at all, clocking an 11:34 scramble of the standard East Face. The downclimb was a bit more involved at 21min, but I was excited to have completed it at all.

After spending the rest of the week tagging Sawatch 14ers, I found myself back in Boulder Friday evening, and--after a summit of 14,421' Mt. Massive in the morning--thought it would be fun to maybe link up the Third, Second, and First Flatirons.  I didn't really think I would tack on the First at the end as I'd never climbed it in running shoes before and I wasn't willing to carry rock shoes with me through the ascents of the Third and Second (I wanted to climb them in descending sequential order as the descent trails make more sense in that direction, in my opinion), but the thought of soloing it in running shoes definitely sat way back in the recesses of my mind.

After starting my watch at the Chautauqua trashcan, I started off up the hill and within a few minutes could tell my legs felt good.  I put in a solid but not all-out effort to the East Bench of the Third (14:53) and immediately stepped on to the face, feeling more secure and confident than usual.  I worked steadily up the route, and basically ran up the final crux 5.2 slab to hit the summit in 24:09 for a 2min+ PR of 9:16.  I immediately started the downclimb and was way more comfortable than on Tuesday morning, touching down on the ground almost exactly 12min later.

The mighty Third, last winter.

The run down the trail through the boulder field to the base of the Second was easy and I started up the face at 43:18--there was a pair of climbers roping up at the base, but I never even broke stride just running straight up on to the face.  Unfortunately, as I've never even been on Free For All--the standard  5.6 East Face route for the Second that includes climbing the Pullman Car summit block--I stuck to my usual 4th Class Freeway route, taking rock all the way and stepping onto the trail at 51:35.

I was feeling really good on the rock, so on the way down the trail to the bottom of the First Flatiron, I decided to forgo climbing the 5.4 Bakers Way route and instead do the standard 5.6 East Face route all the way from the bottom.  I stepped onto the face at 56:58, and--much to my surprise--had zero difficulty with the slabby, thin first 200' or so of climbing.  I'd only ever done this in rock shoes, so this was hugely confidence inducing and when I hit the summit in 1:14:16, my climbing time of 17:18 was 11min faster than my previous PR.  The downclimb that usually takes me 9-10min passed in only 5:45, and from there I decided I'd do a quick tag of the summit of Green Mt. as well.

When I hit the top at 1:37:07 I knew it'd be close in order to get back to Chautauqua in under 2hr, so I gave it a little gas on the descent, reaching the Baseline Trail junction in 1:52:53 (15:46 descent) and then finally returning to the Chat trashcan at 1:56:28, for a 19:21 descent from the summit, both of which have to be dry trail PRs for me.  This route is probably no more than 7mi total, but it packs in 4500' of vertical gain---such is the nature of scrambling I suppose.  This outing has me excited to spend some time post-LT100 really dialing in the First and Third East Face routes and maybe even taking a shot at Dave Mackey's venerable Chat-to-Chat speed records on those rocks.

Week Summary: July 30 - Aug 5

07/30/2012
Mon-AM: 3:20, 6200' ~ Middle Teton (12,804')
Started from Lupine Meadows. I was planning on summiting the Grand Teton but at the Meadows backcountry campsites I mistakenly climbed to the pass between the South and Middle Teton instead of to the Lower Saddle of the Grand. Climbed over the snow field and then up the last 1500' or so to the summit via the SW couloir, mostly easy Class 3.  Awesome view of the Grand from the top, and a satisfying consolation summit. Descended the same way, glissading a significant and steep snowfield back down to the Meadows. Ran into Kilian and Seb heading up to the Grand, just before I got back to the Lupine Meadows TH. Funnily enough, they ended up taking the same wrong turn as me (but didn't climb as high) even after I told them to stay right of Spaulding Falls.

07/31/2012
Tue-AM: 3:23, 7000' ~ Grand Teton (13,770')
Finally got up this most iconic and worthy of peaks. Man, it's a beauty. Kilian and I kept a solid pace up; we decided to not take any water-carrying options, so I was excited that there was still a decent trickle coming down the route between the Lower and Upper Saddles. Seemed like there were quite a few people on the mountain, which made route-finding a bit easier in the gully and on the Owen Spalding itself. The O-S felt quite a bit less technical and exposed than I was led to believe in reading trip reports, and the downclimbing was quite simple, too, with just a couple slow moves in the chimneys.  On the way down, Kiki and I kept a steady pace but weren't killing it by any means. Did a short glissade from the headwall down to the Moraine, but it seemed hardly worth it in terms of time--there's just not much snow left up there right now. We took the climber's trail both up and down and didn't count the ~5min we spent on the summit in our running time. Awesome peak that I'd love to come back and hit a few days in a row in order to really get the route dialed.

Splits:
Valley Trail junction - 16:55
Boulders (Platform) - 42:25
Meadows sign - 48:40?
Moraine - 1:13
Lower Saddle - 1:28
Upper Saddle - 1:54
Belly Roll - 1:55:30
Summit - 2:05:10
Upper Saddle - 2:16
Lower Saddle - 2:32
Meadows - 2:52
Boulders (Platform) - 2:57:45
Valley Trail - 3:11:40
Lupine Meadows - 3:23:05

Kilian can do this fast, for sure. He was thinking maybe 1:50 up and 1:10 down. That seems reasonable to me (for him), but I think he could probably descend even a bit faster (even w/o snow) and take the thing into the exciting sub-3hr realm.  Rested, focused, and with a few more times up and down the mountain, I think I could take my uphill under 2hr and be in the 1:10-12 range on an all-out descent, which would put me within reach of Bryce Thatcher's 3:07 record (during which he had a 1:53 ascent, which is extremely impressive to me). But, seriously, who cares when it's pretty obvious Kilian can go far faster?  Personal challenges are always still fun, I suppose.

08/01/2012
Wed-AM: 2:00, 3500' ~ 2xSnow King, Jackson WY
After some sunrise film and photo shooting with Seb and Kilian, we drove into town (because some electrical storms were moving through the mountains) and I did a couple of laps on the ski hill--one kilometer straight up the face under the main chairlift with 1600' climbing: 19:55 lap 1 and 19:50 lap 2. Really fun with the super direct line and the solid footing. Contemplated a third lap, but finished up with 17min barefoot on a grass field instead, that included 8xstrides. Good to get the legs turning over a little.
PM: 2:51, 4500' ~ West Slabs Mt. Olympus Traverse, SLC, UT
Holy moly, what carnage. After driving back to SLC all day we finally left the TH for the West Slabs at 8pm.  Anna drove around to the true Olympus TH in order to summit from that side, the trail I expected to descend.  Scrambled the Slabs and was surprised to find that they were easier than pretty much anything in the Flatirons.  Really fun line w/ a bunch of exposure but I'm not sure it ever exceeds 4th Class.

Once on the ridge I was a bit disheartened at how far away the true summit of Olympus looked--and that there was a lot of scrambly, choppy terrain between me and it, and that the light was rapidly disappearing (but the sunset over the lake was incredible)--but I just kept moving quickly, tagged the North Summit and then spent a lot of time on what was definitely the technical crux of the route--a short section of downclimb to the saddle between the North and South summits.  As I made the final scramble up to the South summit I was psyched because even with the low light I thought it would be easy to just follow the standard Olympus trail back down to Wasatch Blvd.

Well, of course, I couldn't find the trail off of the summit.  I ended up dropping off of the peak too far east and was soon bushwhacking down a choked, steep couloir/drainage with zero trail in near total darkness w/o a headlamp. Stupid.  A few hundred feet below the summit, I heard some yells from up and to my left (I was descending down/south) and the shouting voice asked if I was Search and Rescue.  Haha, no.  Then he asked if I was lost, too.  I replied, not yet, really, and that I was just going to descend this drainage to the bottom of the canyon and walk my way out the canyon west back towards the city and that I could call someone to come find him when I got out if he liked.  He said he'd tried to do that but had came to a cliff and hiked back up to the top and that he'd already called S&R and a helicopter was on the way.  Holy cow, I didn't want to be part of that mess.  Then he asked where I was going to sleep that night.  I replied, um, my bed?  Definitely not on the mountain.  Then I kept 'schwacking down through the dark thicket.

It took a long-ass time, but eventually I was close to the bottom and started contouring my way west through even thicker 'schwacking.  After much cursing and frustration and bruised/scraped shins I finally popped out onto a ridge that seemed to offer a more clear path at ~7000'.  I also found a cairn and could just maybe make out what seemed to be a faint trail heading down the ridge.  Just then I heard shouts from above for "Scott" and saw a couple of headlamps flashing about.  I shouted up that I wasn't Scott, but was wondering if these guys were on the trail.  It turned out to be three S&R folks looking for the lost hiker (he'd been out since 5am!).  I chatted with them for about 15min about my interaction with the lost dude and where I thought he'd been when he was shouting at me.  One of the guys was kind enough to let me borrow a headlamp to run the primitive Hughes Canyon trail back down to the neighborhoods with, which took me about 15min when I finally got going.  Way way way easier than thrashing around in that canyon in the dark for what probably would've been another hour.  Back at the TH, I had to have a little final debriefing with S&R (they'd located Scott high on the mountain) before Frosty and I were allowed to go on our way.  Odd evening on the mountain, that's for sure.

08/02/2012
Thu-AM: 1:36, 4500' ~ Mt. Olympus (9026')
Up and down the standard trail from Wasatch Blvd. 1:01:05 to the summit; it'd be fun to take this one under an hour. Good solid grunt.  A bit tired from the late night last night.

08/03/2012
Fri-AM: 2:07, 5000' ~ West Slabs Mt. Olympus Traverse
Parked at the TH on Wasatch Blvd, ran the 3mi of streets over to the West Slabs TH, and did the loop that I'd planned to do Wednesday evening. Lots of fun in the daylight, it took me 41min to get from the cul de sac TH to the summit of the Slabs, another 28min to tag both the North and South Summits, and then 34min to run down the trail back to the Roost. Nice to do this awesome loop in a quick, clean fashion.
PM: 1:05, 1500' ~ Treadmill Uphill Challenge+barefootin'
Did an 11min warm-up jog before hopping on the treadmill for 15min at a 15% grade vs. Luke Nelson. Ended up with 1.50mi to his 1.51mi.  Had a hard time finding any will to really hurt, but basically I saved too much for the end in order to surpass him.  Afterwards, ran up to the Capitol building for a couple of barefoot laps on the nice grass there--2mi/16min total sans-shoe running.

08/04/2012
Sat-AM: 2:34, 5700' ~ Twin Peaks (11,330' & 11,328'), SLC
Parked at the Broads Fork TH at 6200' in Big Cottonwood Cyn and went up. I got a little confused around the pond area at ~8200' before deciding to just keep heading up the valley and then climbed directly to the summit of the East Twin (1:32 from the TH) over some disappointingly chossy 3rd and 4th Class terrain (the standard route goes to the saddle further to the east before climbing to the summit). Made the quick 3min bop over to the West Twin before coming back and descending back to the trailhead via the slightly less steep standard route. Pretty cool to have such big vert so close to an urban center. Back to CO in the evening.

08/05/2012
Sun-AM: 1:09, 1000' ~ Mack Ridge (McInnis Canyon), Fruita CO
Ran from the start of the Desert Rats races (where we slept last night) and did an easy run up and back on Mack Ridge to shake out the legs before driving all day.
PM: 1:57, 4500' ~ Cameron Cone (10,707')
Really great run up this convenient peak in Manitou. Some clouds rolled in to cool things off a bit and my legs felt really good on this grunt of a climb.  Never felt stressed; so much fun to have my legs back.  Ended up doing 1:01 from Hydro St to the summit--this can definitely go under an hour pretty easily with a little focus. Really fun :35 descent back to Hydro before jogging back down to the car at Memorial Park.

Hours: 22h02min
Vert: 43,400'

A really busy, dis-jointed week with lots of travel and lots of glad-handing, but I still managed to get in some good summits, I think.  Today (Monday) I did my last long run before Leadville, and it was a classic--the Pikes Peak Marathon course down in Manitou.  My climbing legs were disappointing on the way up despite feeling so good on Camerons Cone last night (I probably left a lot of this morning's run on the Cone last night, but so it goes), so I stumped to the top in an uninspired 2:32:58 from the starting line.  After stopping the watch and wading through the masses of tourists on the summit to get a drink of water, I set off back down the hill with more intention than usual as I was casually racing Frosty back to the bottom (who was planning on hitching down after her run up).  Ended up descending back to the finish line in 1:20:50, which was a total surprise to me as I think I've run harder down Longs Peak a few times earlier this summer chasing Kieners FKTs and I know I ran way harder down the last 5mi of Speedgoat last weekend.  As luck would have it, I jogged back into Memorial Park just as Anna's ride was dropping her off.  Good timing.  For some reason I almost never feel very good running up Pikes Peak--the very shallow grade just doesn't seem to suit me and I probably need to do some focused hillwork to improve on it--but today's downhill gives me confidence that hopefully sometime in the next year or two I could still remain relatively competitive when I give the Marathon a go.

Middle Teton, with the prominent black dike.

The Grand from the summit of Middle Teton.

Doesn't get much better than the Grand Teton and a double rainbow. Photo: Seb Montaz.

Looking down the West Slabs of Mt. Olympus, SLC.

Twin Peaks, SLC.