Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Around Mt. Falcon, Stretching, Everest, And Videos

Around Mt. Falcon, Stretching, Everest, and Videos


Ran around Mt. Falcon early this morning. I really enjoy doing the outer loop of the peak from the bottom lot - up Turkey Trot, then up to Meadow, Old Ute, Devil's Elbow, Parmalee, Tower, and then back down. The route tags the high points and takes you out to Devil's Elbow for a nice view south on a trail not many travel. Ran into tons of wild turkey tracks today, with only a fleeting glimpse of one turkey in the woods. I think the loop is around 13 miles and 3,000' of gain, which is basically the same as the loop I ran Monday. Need to find one with a few extra miles on it to get into the neighborhood of 16-18 miles.



The New York Times had a post on "reasons not to stretch" which was being passed around FB by some runner friends. I commented that the two articles discussed in the post really argue for not doing greater then 45 second static stretches prior to workouts, and not necessarily to not stretch. Here are the two articles (here and here). I do some 10-20 second "stretches"/poses prior to my runs, along with some leg swings, back cracks, etc. (but really I just warm up as I go), and every night I try and do a 20 minute routine of more static (greater then 30 second) stretching which I believe helps with injury prevention and relaxation. My problem with the NYT article is that it just uses the word "stretching" without any qualifications. The studies themselves make these qualifications, but most people don't read the actual studies. I guess everyone, even the NYT, is looking for clickbait headlines.

I put up a post one of the bouldering areas Tara and I developed over the past 4 years called The Titans just outside of the Indian Peaks on the west side of the Divide. I back dated it and kept it fairly vague so that the area retains it's adventuring feel.

I won't get into the whole Everest thing, as it has been out of control for years now and I have no desire to climb the peak, at least not using expedition style means. However, I like to honor the early pioneers, and on this day in 1983 Swiss alpinist and mountaineer Edouard Wyss-Dunant passed away. I mention him because he led the 1952 Swiss expedition to Everest that was responsible for opening up the Khumbu Icefall (the location of this years tragic avalanche). This is now the standard route on Everest, but back then it was an unprecedented success to just get through the Khumbu and make it to the South Col. He also was a doctor and coined the term "the death zone" which is anything above 8,000m. Here is a video on the expedition with cool historical footage:


Finally, Salomon has released their final episode of Season 3 on Emelie Forsberg. Another great piece of eye candy for sure!



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