Keystone Gulch Training Run

Did an awesome training run of ten miles on the access road behind Keystone Mountain Resort on July 2.

This is the Google Earth File:

---

---

If you want to read more about it, see an elevation profile, and a flat map, check out my other Blog Here.

Elbrus Race 2010 - Looking Back from 2012

It's been two years now, and I've been avoiding looking back at this for a number of reasons, and have just reread some of my old posts since I put up a story and links on my other Seven Summits Quest Blog. I have been thinking on and off about this for the last couple years, and mostly stifling my own feelings about it, but now I've begun seriously thinking about doing it again this year, which stirred the pot.

I think first I'll clear up some of my previous intentional obfuscations.

1. One of the people there, supposedly a well-known climber in their own country (which I know to be true since another climber from that country met them warmly in a strange coincidental meeting) appeared to require a great deal of assistance of a general nature. Like how to wear socks. Seriously about that bad. For some ridiculous reason I ended up being the sock instructor so to speak, and general living coach. I have since pretty much stopped that on a non-professional basis. This is what I referred to as "babysitting" in an old post.

2. Like I had mentioned before about food, and group endeavors, I did end up on another group endeavor, and ended up with what was later diagnosed as an inflamed gall bladder most likely caused by having a fatty diet with coconut milk in a casserole. The normal USA way to eat on a glacier expedition requires a lot of fatty meals to help you stay warm. I suspect it's also because most "normal" USA climbers eat that way anyway, and it helps them feel more like home in the wild. I'm not sure what to do about this. Most of the foreign expedition food I've eaten was a lot lower in fat. The Russian food was awesome. The Argentinian food was awesome, but way too much meat. The Kili food was barely tolerable, and I did end up with diarrhea on summit eve. The problem with these is that as a training athlete, I've got an eating schedule that doesn't jibe with the Euro plan of donuts and tea at 10:00 AM. Sliced meat and cheese on pastry sometime between 1:00 and 4:00 PM, and then 5,000 calories of full-on meal at 10:00 PM. If you eat on that plan expect to have a tough time acclimatizing and training and making any kind of progress.

3. Russians in the barrels partying all night, then getting dressed to leave, then canceling the snowcats, then getting dressed to leave, then deciding to just stay put. Good night sleep, right? Also, inviting all your friends from among what passes for sponsored climbers there to sit and eat and not announcing dinner until they've finished with their portions. Not too bad, except they bring the food up the tram in measured portions according to who paid to be fed. The last two days up there those who paid got very slim pickings. 

4. It's my understanding that the Redfox Elbrus Race in May is in the official Skyrunning Series, so anyone wanting to set a record, and sneak in a ringer, should be doing it during that race, since it's sanctioned and they won't recognize your record in this race in the Autumn, even if it is 10 minutes faster than the amazing record they just announced recently.

So do I want to do it again? There is a part of me that really does. I love the mountain and the people. I love going uphill at a speed that I feel for me is very fast, though I know among these elite athletes I'm just a tired old snail of a man. I wandered around lost after my massive failure last time. I know it was just a weird set of circumstances, and whether it was the exposure to bronchitis, the dysentery, the 3 hours of sleep the two nights in the Barrels with the Russians, the hassles over begging for water, or some combination, at some level I failed. I beat myself up over it for a long time. 

Maybe I still am.

Personal Record on Quandary - Fast Ascent and Descent

On Monday, June 25 I went to the Quandary trailhead and boogied up in 1:33, hung out for about ten minutes to eat, drink and take pics, then down in 1:26. It was freaking amazing and I feel great about it. I was wearing my Fuji Racers, and they did really good in all the terrain I was on.

If I were training for Elbrus Race again, I'd call this a really good training session.

My Google Earth KMZ file for this run:

Correction: I have discovered that although the fastest ascent time previously was 1:35, which doesn't affect this 1:33 ascent, my fastest previous descent time was 1:10, so this is not a descent record.
I did stop a few times to talk to people on the way down, but admittedly not 16 minutes worth, so alas, I'll have to work harder next time.

Above is the elevation profile for this run from Google Earth. I have a few other thoughts, a map, and a photo at my other Blog Here

Fast Hike of Horseshoe Basin in Colorado

On Saturday, June 23, I went up from the Peru Creek parking West of Montezuma Colorado, and did most of this run/walk. It was a 15 mile round trip hike in just under 6 hours. The section above Gray's Lake (about mile 7) was very technical and not really good for my running shoes. Really slow going up and then back down to about mile 9. Overall an excellent training hike for moving fast on dirt, gravel and rocks.

Picture with Gray's Peak above me showing hard ground to left ridge.

This is the Google Earth track from my hike.

Look on my other Blog Here for more details.

Half Dome Ascent in Google Earth

This is from my recent ascent with a friend of the Cables Route on Half Dome - this is a classic Yosemite climb. I did most of my writing about it on my other Blog Here.

Catching Up - October 6, 2011

It's been a while. I had to spend a few months recovering. During that I got into running a bit more, and while I'm way heavier than the average "runner" it seemed I could plod along at my little 12:00 pace for hours and hours, so I did a 10k and half on the road, and a 10k, half and full marathon on trails. Beat the heck out of me, and took a month to heal from the marathon. So maybe I am just heavy and slow and need to drop that for a while and get back to hiking.

Had another discussion with my "work boss" and I guess now we're down to counting minutes - which sucks in planning trips to foreign countries. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you ... ;)

Goal0 Denali Equipment Report

Before I went to Denali in early May, I dropped by the office of Goal0 (pronounced like Goal Zero) to grab a Guide10 Kit - that's the Guide10 charger, and the Nomad7 with charging port.

I spent a few days doing some oddball testing, including charging and discharging the battery pack out in the yard and on the hood of my car, with a couple of mp3 players, a droid phone, a usb-charging camera, a kindle and a droid tablet. Seemed to do well, lots of power.

When I got to basecamp at 7200' I pulled out the Nomad7 and did a quick refresh charge on the Guide10 in case a storm came in and I needed a few days worth of power.

I had put some 2mm nylon cord in the little loops (previous to this trip) to make this easier.

Here it is with the mountains behind in cloud - even then the charge light was on.

After the Guide10 was full I recharged my mp3 player with my audio books on it after listening to it on the plane. Wanted it full in case there was a storm and we were tent-bound for a few days.

Busy base camp on Denali.

Here it's on the tent at the camp below Kahiltna Pass at about 10,000' on Denali, charging a guide's iPod. I had a lot of positive input from a lot of climbers and guides on this trip. For one thing, I discovered that many thought it was "Goal Oh" so I fixed that ;) We hauled about 140 lb of gear each on these sleds and in backpacks. Light weight and durability are key features here.

Later, when I was brought down being sick, one of the kind volunteers asked if he could charge his iPod Classic while waiting for the plane, so I let him hook it up resting on my duffelbag.

Thoughts:

1. light, easy to travel
2. worked good in the type of light here (thin clouds to blazing blue sky)
3. angle not extremely important
4. durable, handled packing well
5. plenty of power over the week - no worries about it if I'd stayed the whole three weeks
6. very reasonable price for what you get

Suggestions:

1. the thin plastic face can scratch - when it's open please be careful
2. be sure the usb/charger plug is on tight and dry
3. use the velcro pocket for your device/battery pack - don't let it hang by the cord

One wild thought - the Nomad7 was the perfect size to protect my Kindle in the bags/packs while traveling.