Mountain Monkey: Big Mountain Runs

Quick Highlights from the last few weekend Runs and Climbs.

Speed Goat 50K: (torture in my own back yard)

-32ish miles, 12,000 feet of awesome steep uphill running

-Elite international field to ogle at including: Frosty, Sage, Ellie, and Luke

-Amazing single track down into Mineral Fork with flowers galore, followed by a head first tumble on steep scree while trying to pass people that suck at downhill. Ouch. Irony

-Hung with court for a bit then dropped him, waited with Izzy, Spence, and Anna at the finish for Court who hung on and finished despite major bonking and lack of sleep from just driving across the country.

-Fun vibe, cool swag, tons of stellar volunteers.

-I took it slow at first. Maybe 230^th up the first climb out of 375. Then went on to pass a hundred people the rest of the day. 8:19 hrs.

Telluride Mountain Run: (Mini-Hardrock)

-40ish miles, 14,000 feet of awesome steep uphill running and 14,000 feet of steep knee pounding decent.

-Wild flowers like you can’t begin to fathom in splendor gasping up to 13,000 foot passes. <-(plural)

-Court and I took 24^th and 25^th out of 56 finishers in 10.5 hours. Spence crushed it and took 8^th ,2 hours faster than me. I think 20 did not start or did not finish.

-Telluride offers easy camping (if you are early), Frisbee golf, FREE gondolas, easy access via ferrata, and down hill Mtn Bike Trails, and easy access sport climbing next to huge flippin waterfall.

-Negatives: Only saw/ate overly expensive hippie food in town and the race did not give out shirts. Lame.

Tetons

-Friday: Court and I left SLC at 6am, started up the Grand Teton at 11:20 am, Got slammed by a storm up high. Court summited in 3 hrs and went 5:03 round trip. I turned around 10 minutes from the top, due to strong electrical activity and the severe wet storm setting in. (not a good combo when solo climbing with 3000 ft of exposure) Went 5:30 round trip. (15 miles 7,000 ft of vert.) A lovely afternoon.

-Saturday: Slept in then hopped in our rented canoe at String Lake then paddled for an hour to and across Leigh Lake to the base of CMC route on Mount Moran. Got lost, due to lack research on our part and bad beta. We got back on trail and cruised up through the alpine wonderland to a sub-summit called the Drizzlepuss, which must be navigated by sketchy down climbing past rappel anchors. Then onto the main slab of rock for 2000 feet of fun low angle climbing. Clouds and wind loomed near but stayed at bay. Made it back to the canoe and back across the lakes, 8.5 hrs round trip. (14 miles 6,000 feet of vert)