G & T 24

G & T 24


I might as well start calling this the wind and snow challenge. This week did not look good as we had a nice storm on Monday-Tuesday and another coming in Wednesday night through the weekend. My only hope seemed to be an early run on Wednesday and hope for the best. I got to Bakerville around 6:30 when it was still a bit dark, but the winds were already howling. I got going as soon as possible, hoping that as the sun rose things would improve. There was about 3-6 inches of new snow on the road, which was totally untracked. I guess I'd have the mountain to myself again. Things started to get nasty as I ascended through the willows after the summer trailhead, with blowing snow, wind gusts, and some cold temps. I really had to dig deep to convince myself to keep going. Sometimes it gets a bit better when you get past the turnoff to the Kelso ridge as the route hugs a ridge for a bit. I don't think I looked up for this entire section, just kept my head down to protect my face from the biting wind and snow. On the upper face the wind calmed a bit, but there were still ferocious gusts that would almost knock me flat. Finally, a quick tag of Grays, a photo, and.... boom, a huge gust came, knocking me over resulting in a smashed camera. Damn, and I had just gotten it a couple months ago. I think the saddle between Grays and Torreys is one of the worst places in the world - no shelter and just unrelenting wind. A slog up Torreys and then it was time to get out of there. Ugh.

 Don't be fooled by this photo, it looks nice, but it was not...

Full Skyline

Full Skyline


Cruzed the Skyline traverse with William again. Such a good line, with several climbs and descents. I always find it hard to re-start my heart rate coming off of one of the descents and into the next climb. This traverse works that weakness really well. We made good time up to SoBo and then over to Bear, as the peaks were quiet and empty. Put in a solid effort up to Green, where we ran into Scott Jurek. Really great guy - chatted, exchanged trail beta, etc. After the uninspiring summit of Flag, we ran into Kendrick on the backside. Obviously our motivation was waning as we again stopped and talked. By the time we got over to Sanitas, it was hot and every person in Boulder and their dog were out. We tried to cruz up, but there were so many people we just sorta had to go with the flow. I can see Kendrick's argument for doing the traverse the other direction, as you end away from the crowds. However, putting in Sanitas and its stair-step climbing at the end adds a little kick. Stopped taking photos after Bear for some reason...

 William cruzing through the burn zone...

 Bear from SoBo...

 The Divide...

G & T 23 and Deer Creek

G & T 23 and Deer Creek

I ran the Deer Creek half marathon course on Wednesday, thinking that it would be fairly melted out. Little did I know, but it was one giant icy bobsled route. I didn't bring any traction, so I had to go a bit slow, but the course is really great. A solid climb at the start, and then nice rolling terrain for the rest of the time, with a fast downhill in the last two miles. At 13+ miles and 3,000+ feet of gain, it runs a lot faster then other similar trails in the area, especially those in the Boulder area. Not sure why, but it has a really nice flow almost the entire time.

Number 23 in the G & T challenge today. Started off cold and really windy. On the ridges there were times when I really had to go on all fours to keep from being blown off. By the time I was coming back down, however, things seemed to be calming down and warming up. Early starts may not be the best in winter - but you do get the entire basin to yourself which will never happen in summer.

Planning on doing the Leadville Snowshoe Marathon next Saturday as long as the roads are good and I can get up there in my car with summer tires. Should be fun - never been in a snowshoe race. I'm looking at it as a great 26 mile run at 10,000' and not really a race.

Morning Runs

Morning Runs

There is really only one reason to get up before the sun rises to run early in the morning, and that is to catch the sunrise. I have a good route that runs into Bear Creek State Park where I do 1 minute and 2 minute fartleks on a section of closed, flat road. It works perfectly, as the road is almost perfectly flat, no cars, and I can run all out in short efforts. My distance per time increases as the sun comes up, and I'm usually treated to an amazing sunrise.

I like this shot, I could be in Africa or somewhere...

SoBo, Bear, Green, Bear, SoBo

SoBo, Bear, Green, Bear, SoBo

Great day on the trails with William. After yesterday, I wasn't too sure how I would feel, but I was able to keep on trucking which was a pleasant surprise. Shadow was a bit dicey, but not too bad, while the rest of the route is good to go. No traction necessary. This is such a great route - you get a solid vertical k in the first climb, with the rest of the route being very runable. Fair number of runners out this morning - the training season has begun!

G & T 22

G & T 22

Another fine run up the mountain today. Just me and some goats this morning. I've been thinking about style lately, and how it pertains to running. I come from a climbing background, where the style of the ascent is a big component of the overall climb. There is the style that the first ascentist put up the route in (siege style, solo, super light and fast, no hang-dogging, onsight, etc.) and there are the subsequent styles that others who repeat the route follow. In climbing, the style that a route was put up in says a lot about that person, the purity of the line, their effort and how they think the route should be climbed. They opened up the possibility of the route and they did so in a certain fashion. I really like that aspect of climbing, and I have been thinking about how it might apply to running. In running, a route is not so much opened up, but it is certainly done for a first time. Likewise, a runner can chose how they wish to approach a particular route, project, race, etc. Some like to go in groups, others go solo. Some meticulously plan out every detail, get all of the beta they can on the course, watch videos, talk to those who have run the course, and so forth. Others run routes totally blind, throwing themselves out there and trying to hold it together. With this Grays and Torreys challenge, I have been thinking about style somewhat, especially in terms of this winter. The run is not hard per se, but I have chosen to go about it in a certain style - all running. That is, I still try and run the peaks each week, as opposed to hiking or skimo or winter trench busting. This style forces one to approach the peaks differently. Skimo allows for a lot more gear, and also the ability to potentially deal with harsher weather. Same goes for hiking. Running, on the other hand, seems to keep the gear to a minimum. I'm still heading up in running shoes, running jacket, etc. This forces me to keep moving - if I stop, I will freeze. I have no insulating layers, no extra stuff, and so on. It is a style thing, ala climbing. I don't think it is better then any other way to climb the peaks, but I do think it is important to note. Heading out each time knowing that all I have is what I am wearing, and that if the winds or snow get too much, things could get nasty, causes one to think. It is a style choice, and I find it interesting. I've seen some discussion in terms of style concerning the use of "mules," or with Nolans and similar types of runs, aid, pacers, wizard sticks, crew. However, beyond these few examples, I have not run across many discussions of style when it pertains to running. I wonder if others have these thoughts and apply them to their running? I'd assume they do, but I just don't know.

G & T 21

G & T 21


Another fine day on the mountain. Lots of fresh new snow, which required breaking trail from the summer trailhead all the way past the big sign and beyond. Made for a slightly slower round trip time, but was well worth the effort as the light early in the morning was quite nice.

 Tried to capture the early morning light...

 Top of Grays...

 Looking over at Torreys...

 Top of Torreys... another 500 feet and I would have been up above the clouds...

Morning Run

Morning Run

First time back on my "home run" since the mountain lion encounter. I ran in the light this time. The elk herd was there, although I didn't see any of the big bulls this time.

Snow Slog - SoBo, Bear, Green

Snow Slog - SoBo, Bear, Green

I had planned on running the SoBo > Bear > Green > Bear > SoBo with William today, as he had never done the Skyline run. However, with the snow, we had to change up our plans a bit. We started out from the S. Table trailhead right before 8:00am and there was already 4 inches or more on the trails. We cruzed up Homestead, which had two sets of tracks before we turned and went up Shadow Canyon. No one had been up Shadow yet, and so that turned into a fun session of power hiking in 4-6 inches as we tried to not slide all over the rocks and still stay on the trail. Near the saddle, I saw some bits of blue sky and thought that the storm was breaking up, but I was dead wrong. After sliding our way to the top of SoBo, we cruzed down and made our way over to Bear. Again, no tracks on Bear. The storm at this point decided to pick up steam, and as we went down the West Ridge, the snow really started dumping. We were still in positive spirits, but we were both questioning whether we wanted to go down Shadow. We broke trail up Bear Green all the way, and not until hitting the Ranger trail did we see another set of tracks since the Mesa trail early on. There were two sets - one I figured was Jeff's, and the other was from someone we ran into near the top of Green who was on his way down. The storm was really dumping now, and so we decided to go back down Bear Green and then down Bear Canyon to the Mesa trail. Coming back down, there were sections that had at least a foot of snow or more, as we broke trail down Bear Canyon until near the bottom when we ran into one runner and a couple hikers. I was psyched to finally run into people so that we didn't have to continue to break trail. We turned, and then followed the Mesa trail along until reaching the new Upper Big Bluestem trail, which we opted to go down to check it out. It was fun, fast, and smooth. I think the new re-route is very well done. Finally, after a couple hours of slogging through too much snow, we made it back to the car. Not the best day perhaps for an intro to the Skyline, but I was sure to point out that the next time he does it, it will be easier!

 Moving up Shadow with the least amount of snow of the day...

 Looking west from the top of SoBo...

 Looking north from SoBo...

 The trail down Bear's West Ridge...

Top of Green...