Quest for the Seven Summits

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Climbing Groups and Guide Services

Guide Companies:
Andean Face Local Ecuador Guide Company
International Mountain Guides
Mountain Madness Guide Company
Rainier Mountaineering Inc. Expeditions
San Juan Mountain Guides
Mountain Trip
Alaska Mountaineering School

I have used each of these guide companies at one time or another, and can vouch for their excellent service.

Message Boards:
Cascade Climbers
Summit Post
Colorado 14'ers
Mountain Project

I have been active more or less on each of these. You can find route info, friends to climb with, and gear to buy and sell on most of these if you dig in the forums.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Orizaba Summit Photo

March 5 2013 5:10 pm. Summit of Orizaba highest volcano in North America and one of the Volcanic Seven Summits.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Orizaba - the highest mountain in Mexico - GPS Track

My friend Todd and I did Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico, third highest in North America, and the highest volcano in North America, making it one of the Volcanic Seven Summits. At approximately 18,500' it's usually not a walk in the park, though we did manage to summit on our first acclimatization hike, where we planned to stop either below or above the Labyrinth. We felt so good we kept on going and hit the top at about 5:10 PM. We descended in the dark, getting lost in the Labyrinth and the cliffs below, apparently, from this Spot GPS track [SPOT Connect], going too far to climber's left of the proper track. During our "lost in the dark" phase I was pretty sure we were too far to the right. We eventually moved in the correct direction and ended up crossing a familiar line of cairns and followed them down the way we'd come up, after a lot of mental wear and tear trying hard not to fall off a cliff in the dark.

Picture above shows me climbing through the mixed rock snow ice gravel of the Labyrinth. Balanced rock above is the landmark we used for the descent in the dark, and is at the ridge where the Labyrinth trail turns and goes to the foot of the Jamapa Glacier. Here is the GPS track as waypoints, not paths, the way that SPOT uses by default from their admin page.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Utah Mount Olympus Training Run and Test

I ran up and down Mount Olympus along the Wasatch Front East of Salt Lake City this morning, and here is my training data:

Google Earth Elevation Profile - by miles

Polar Graph - by time - note steep tail = faster down

Highlight is time/lap to top from road

Steep Class 4/5 Red line to Right

If you want to read the whole story, go to my Seven Summits Quest blog.

I put my Google Earth Data below.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Utah Big Baldy Traverse Training Run - August 2

Got up this morning not sure what exactly I was going to do. I was supposed to go to work today and Friday then head to Colorado on Saturday, but the calendar was mixed up and I had to cover for a developer who will be off for the next 10 days, so I ended up off today to make up for the extra time.

I went to bed thinking I might do either Timp or Baldy. This morning Baldy won, and based on some trail runners the last time I was up with Dallin, I decided to try the traverse. I would hike up Battle Creek, to the top of Big Baldy, then down Dry Canyon and at the trailhead go North over the forks of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail back to Battle Creek.

I had no idea what that would be like on the Dry Canyon or Bonneville section, since I hadn't been on the Dry Canyon Trail without snow, having only been on it for my March attempt at the Everest Ridge of Timp. I usually run on the BST North of Battle Creek, so it would be all new for me.

This is from the Google Earth Elevation Profile, showing how it panned out. Notice how steep it is on the descent of Dry Canyon.

This image is from my Polar watch software, showing a slightly different view, based on time rather than miles.

Here's a view from the lap splits, based on grade and elevation. It doesn't show the elevation accurately, as I did not sync the altitude for the area and it guessed a few hundred feet wrong. Notice that coming down from Big Baldy to the base of Dry Canyon is really steep. Really steep.

In the Polar graph, you can see my heart rate going up and my speed going down at the same time. I really wasn't prepared for how slow it would be going down that steep trench trail at Dry Canyon, and I ran out of water as the day heated up to over 80 degrees. There's no water at any of these trailheads (with a name like Dry Canyon what do you expect?) and I had two quarts of extra in the car. I pushed for the car and ended up doing a fair amount of walking as the Bonneville connectors wove in and out of neighborhoods and private land, and eventually came out at the car.

I chugged the two quarts and weighed when I got home. Down 5 lb - if you include the 4 lb from the water I drank, I was down 9 lb when I hit the car. They'd pull you from some Ultra's for that.

Bottom line stats: nearly 4400' up and down, in 11 miles, in 3:50. Not great, but pretty good considering I don't train much in Utah right now, and it was pretty hot. Not sure, but this implies I won't be happy at a trail marathon right now.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Keystone Outback Training Run

Today I "ran" up the Outback area of Keystone Resort, up Keystone Gulch quite a ways. I drove up weaving between mountain bikers, some experienced and friendly, some not so. Testing for Elbrus Race 2012 training possibilities. I wanted to see if the switchbacks I noticed earlier in the week were potentially steep enough to be good training. I think it is a little unsteep, for the most part, with an average grade around 9% as opposed to the average grade of 27% on Elbrus. That means in general I have to go 3 times as many miles to accomplish the same vertical. In this case over 2 miles I ascended 1000'. If I were to lap it, I'd have to do 3.5 runs up and down, which would be over 7 miles up and 7 miles down, compared to the 2.5 miles on Elbrus for the same vertical as the Qualifier.

Above is the Google Earth Elevation Profile, which is based on miles. Below is the graph from Polar ProTrainer software, based on speed. Note the steep angle of the descent, which shows increased speed.

Running up I varied a bit between running averaging about a 15:00 pace, and walking at about a 19:00 pace. On the way down I managed to hit a few intervals of 7:44 to 8:12 with some lighter running at 10:11 and walking at 16:00. The curved roads caused the car to sneak up on me, which was pretty welcome at that time. It felt pretty good, and I think I'll recover nicely. Shoes and socks worked out good. A bit chilly with a mild breeze, there were threatening clouds overhead left over from the thunderstorms earlier in the day.