Ups and Downs

The Wasatch 100 mile endurance run is in 7 weeks and the Speed Goat 50K is in one week.  The past 4 weeks I have tried to ramp up my miles and vert to be ready.  My main training goals have been centered around lots of mountain summits and trying to go fast. Life is busy, and I figure I got to go hard every time to  to fit in all the training.  Unfortunately the fast ups seem to all be countered with injuries and pain  

Summer Highlights thus Far:

June 8:  26.2 miles down hill

Ran the Utah Valley Marathon in 3:20.  I was shooting for a Personal Best of under 3:16, but I was stoked with how it went.  The course was fun and I would do it again. This was my 9th Marathon or Ultra race (5 marathons, three 50 milers, and one 100 miler)

June 15:  31 miles 7304 ft of vert.

Bryce Canyon National Park. The route we took went from Fary Land to Rainbow Point.  Super fun trails, amazing vistas, little water in some sections.  It took us (Spence, Annie, and I) a leisurely 8 or so hours. Izzy and Anna helped crew and did some cool hiking on their own.  Anna waited at the top of the last climb and cheered for me

June 20:  8.2 miles 3900 ft of vert.

Evening run up Kessler Peak in Big CottonWood.  Got to the top in 60 minutes then ran along the Cardiac Ridge towards Mount Superior.  The ridge is very exposed and involves lots of down climbing..ie 40 minute miles.  We bailed off the ridge down into Mill D and then back to the car just as the sun went down. Fun route.

June 24:  11 miles 4750 ft of vert.

Evening run up Baer Canyon to Francis Peak with the dog.  I pushed hard all the way up and cruised down. Round trip in 2:56. 

Different trip but same dog and summit

June 25:  11.5 miles 4759 ft of vert.

Evening run up to Ogden Peak.  Went up Beau Canyon for the first time.  Battled gut issues the whole journey.  The wild flowers blew my mind.  So pretty.  4:08 finish time. 

June 26:  5 miles 2257 ft of vert. @ altitude

Drove up to the Uintahs after work and tagged Bald Mountain and then linked it with Reids.  One of my favorite spots on Earth. Great views of Hayden's, Aggasiss, Camp Steiner, Mirror Lake, etc.  Denali came along and had fun trying to catch the Mountain Goats.  We both slid off a snow ledge between rocks and got startled but landed fine. Very technical boulder hopping the whole way up and down Reids. Then fun forest running with no trail and some fishing. Love it.  2:03 hrs 2 fish. 

July 1:  1 mile 0 vert in 5:14 min

Been eager to see how my speed has increased after the Spring Cross Country Intramural season.  Court is on crutches and wanted to beat my crutch time of 11:58. He beat it by 20 seconds.  Then Izzy raced her first mile since High School and rocked it in 7 minutes.  Then Spence and I went head to head.  Spence had never run on a track before.  He was surprised by how fast I went out.  I beat him by like 5 seconds, but am still 35 seconds off my high school time.  Funny

July 4:  5K in 19:04 min.  

Good old Centerville Freedom Run.  I wrote my splits down to go under 19 minutes, but came up just short.  3rd in my age class, and 14 overall.   Izzy rocked it in 25 minutes and my DAD did his first 5k walk ever and pushed Anna.   He said the only time he ran was on the hill when He accidentally let go of the stroller and had to run to catch it. haha. He finished 14th in his age class....out of 14..he is 64.   

July 5:  14 miles 4950 ft of vert  

Topped out on the famous Ruby Dome, a crown jewel of the  Nevada high country. Super fun trail starting out in sage brush, then aspens, then conifers and granite and pure loose boulder hopping to the top. Loved it.  I want to go back and run the whole Ruby Crest 35-40 miles.   

July 9:  15.8 miles 4800 ft of vert  

Cruised up Ben Lommond Peak after work. Last time I ran the Divide trail it was really crappy conditions.

Knocked like 30 minutes off that time. 2:49 car to car.  Lots of mountain goats up high and very hot temps.  Spence came up the next day and knocked 18 minutes off my time. Jerk.  Dude has wheels.

July 13:  Somewhere around 23 miles and 12000 feet of vert

Spence and I attempted to link up Lone Peak, Box Elder, and Timp with out shuttling.  The night before we climbed till dark then drove to stash water and a car in Provo Canyon. All that driving took way longer then we expected and I did not fall asleep until 2 am. When we finished climbing I really wanted to carbo load at Olive Garden but it was already closed..dope.  The next day we topped out on Lone in under 3 hours then got lost on trails down in Alpine.  It was hot, we had a long way to go, we were swacking through dense scrub oak, and needed to get to our water cache.  We got with in sight of the Trail Head and only had to jump and tall barb wire fence.... Blood.....carnage...the works. My knee flayed right open as I brought it up over the fence.   We found a near by house and they gave us some gauze and tape.  The gushing blood had stopped so we pressed on.  Up Box Elder Peak we went.  The whole way up the heat, humidity, loss of blood I suppose, and lack of sleep, was catching up to me.  And by catching up I mean it caught me, and beat the snot out of me. Total dark side of the force epic bonk.  Spence was nice enough to stop once and while and wait to see if I was dead.  I pushed on. All the way to the top of another stupid... I mean gloriously beautiful 11,000 foot peak of the Wasatch that I have never climbed. Unbonked my self ( just water and gu like you do) then pick up the pace for the 6 miles of downhill to Tibble Fork to a cold stream bath and a stashed Dr. Pepper.  It was already late and it was so much further to Timpooneke trail head than we expected so we hitched hiked all the way to our Car by Sundance.  A great day in the Mountains.  Next time I vote we drive from Trail Head to Trail Head.  All instacares were closed so I had to go to the ER.  Izzy left the little dude at my folks and met me at the ER with Jambalaya and Apple fritters in tow. Man I love her.  We had so much fun getting stitches she said it felt like a date. 

July 18:  7 miles 4000 feet of vert.

This morning Pete and I tried to go sub 2 hours on Mount Olympus  .   I wrote my splits on my arm. 1:15 up and :35 down.  Which would put me at 1:50, (with in striking distance of Spence's 1:49).  But it was not to be for me. I came through on the climb and made it to the mailbox on the summit in 1:16 hrs.  Pete was 4 minutes behind. Then I rolled my ankle on an easy section on the way down real bad and limped all the way down the mountain. Pete finished in a great time of 1:58.  Ironically my down time was also 1:16. Dang.

So now I sit here with 2 big races coming up, one in a week, and a backpacking/climbing trip in the Uintahs in 1 hour....and my ankle is swollen up like a small grapefruit.  I guess I better wrap it tight and cross my fingers. 

:(

  

Thoughts On Going Fast: Adams and Olympus West Slabs

Speed:

I am sure I am not the only one that gets a thrill out of a PR on a certain trail or gunning for a Fastest Known Time.  Having a meter stick really gets me out on to the trails more and makes me push harder and harder.  I don't believe it to be an ego thing, because I get just as excited about friends times and elite runners times. This last week I put up two PR's one of which I believe to be a FKT.  

West Slabs 

Last week the gang, Court, Spence, Pete, and I met after work at the Trail Head for the West Slabs of Mount Olympus.  This time of year is primo for speed Car2Car scrambles due to the perfect balance between minimal snow on the climb, and plenty of snow on the decent for a fast butt glissade down 2000 vertical ft of mountain via the Apollo Couloir.  Check out the pics, courtesy of Jared Campbell's blog. 

Climb up Right and descend Left

The Climb and the Glissade up close 

  Jared did this route in a flippin 1:01 hrs, which is the FKT. My buddy Spence had gone up a couple of days before in like 1:20 or something.  I have solo climbed the 5.4 (easy) slab a couple of times before, but both times continued on to the summit. This was my first go at a fast C2C.  Spence took off ahead early as we ran up the gully. By the time we got to the snow field and donned microspikes, he was half way up the snow.  Pete and I stayed together until the rock started and then I took off climbing as fast as I could and caught up with Court.  We both agreed that our lungs and heart were red lining harder than we had pushed em in quite some time.  But despite the cardio-respiratory pain I soaked in the loveliness of the route the whole way.  Great climbing, with awesome (yet safe) exposure.  I would climb the slabs every day if I could. Court and I made the ridge and skirted into the decent couloir (chute) with exactly 1 hr on the clock. So crazy that Campbell would have been 60 seconds to the car by now. We never saw Spence nor Pete till the car.  Glissading half out of control down the steep couley, sans ice-axe, tickled more that just my frozen buns.  By the end, my buns were so frozen I didn't even mind the rocks and cliffs as I flew over and off them.  As the snow ends and the river swacking begins. I dove, lunged, fell, and slid, through trees, off waterfalls and down cliffs for another 3 minutes; still redlining it as I tried to catch Court. As I got back on trail and bulleted to the car I thought I could catch him.  He unfortunately knows that my forte is technical down-hilll trail and went all out.  What a blast of a route.  Final times:

Spence- 1:10

Court- 1:21

Steve: 1:23

Pete: 1:50 ish

Court half way up the slab climb

Adams Canyon:

This fun trail up to a 40 foot falls is right in my backyard.  I have been hiking it often since high-school.  This summer I decided to start tracking my times and try to go fast.  The trail starts with gnarly sandy switch-backs. Then you hit the Bonneville trail and slide up into the shady canyon. 1.5 miles later you reach the falls (or the pseudo-designated big tree right before the river and wrap around to the falls.)  My last go at a fast time I did in just over 39 minutes.  This morning I left the dog behind and went all out.  23:46 min to the falls and 37:26.28 C2C. (3.5 miles and 1335 ft of vertical climbing.)  Which might be a FKT, but I doubt it, due to the fact that the Davis Cross Country runners train on these trails. And the JV squad probably goes faster than that. But at least it is a fun PR for me.

Later in the afternoon cool down ascent with the pup-head

    

Buffalo 50

After a long fun winter of ski mountaineering and ice climbing the time arrived to to lace up the Hokas and run some trails. Weather was iffy all week and Friday's snow flurries made me happy with my choice to run the Antelope Island 50 Mile Buffalo run instead of the 100 mile run.  The hardcore 100 milers braved a long cold night.  As I arrived at the starting line at 5:40 am  Speedgoat Karl had already completed the 100 miler, setting a new course record at around 14:30 hrs. Smoking fast, so quick that his first 50 mile lap/split, in 6:30, would have nearly won the 50 mile event.  Wow.

Temps were cold at the start line, but even colder due to my lack of gloves.  It was not that I was an idiot and forgot gloves, it was that I'm an idiot and dropped them in the porta jon. (Don't worry I fished them out!)  My legs and mind felt strong the first ten miles as the sun came up, despite tripping on my face twice. (Not my most coordinated morning thus far)  The field of around 120 runners spread out and I hung with a group of Davis County runners that were fun to get to know, Ryan and Derek are fast motivating guys.  I planned on keeping their 8 hr pace but couldn't hang.  Got to see some large Bison out on the slopes and on the trail, super cool.  By the time I got to the aid station at 19 miles I was starting to drag.  I lost almost 4 minutes trying to find my dumb drop bag, to stash my headlamp, and then got stuck in the starting hoard of 25K runners. aaagghh.  Once I got down on the beach I got into a groove and starting ticking off 9 minute miles.  As I neared the ranch I was struggling.   A woman had been gaining on me for miles and I was trying to stave off the charge. She passed me at the Ranch at Mile 32.5 and ended up taking 2nd for the ladies.  

Pete and me getting some grub at mile 39 ish

It was so cool running into the Ranch aid station, Anna saw me and ran straight to me screaming.  I grabbed some piping hot noodles and poured some Gatorade on em to cool em down. Then my buddy Pete and I set off.  My legs hurt so dang bad. I had energy but not the legs.  I guess just not enough long back to back training runs. I walked/jogged until I could open up again and maintain a steady run.  Pete made the torture so much more enjoyable.  I slowly picked up the pace and passed a couple of people then skipped the last aid station.  Finished in 8:20 hrs, 10 minutes faster than my last Buffalo 50. Yay. Yummy Buffalo Stew, Hug from Izzy, then quick drive to SLC for 2 NCAA Tourney Games.  Great Day.  Great Event. Thanks Dad for driving me around all day!     

Final push at Mile 49

Oh how swell the Swell.

Mexican Mountain Road, Looking out over the Swell

  I know of no better way to officially shake off the snow drifts of winter than to head to the desert.  In previous years that has always involved a Moab tower, or two, and some fine Indian Creek Crack Climbing.  This year, thanks to Court, we scraped the skin off our knuckles and elbows in the little known Splitter Crack Paradise known as the Buckhorn Wash of the San Rafael Swell.

The quick approach

Fellow desert rats, Pete, Court, and Dan came along to pay homage to the warm sandstone.  We tossed our 3 double racks of BD Camolots into the Elantra in SLC at 10 am and arrived at the Dyllan wall before 1 pm.  No hoards of gente lined up at the cracks and great camping abounded.  No other climbers anywhere.  25 minute approach up to the wall and Dan lifted off on a great corner climb, Blowin’ In the Wind 5.10b.  We all TRrd it as we slowly remembered how to jam and smear again.  Court of course sans tape on the hands. I liberally taped over all of my gym gobies.  We all admired the super thin splitter, Idiot in the Wind, but decided we’ll save it for Spence. Next court fired the first pitch of Isis which is sandbagged at 5.9.  We had all heard the the Swell would feel almost a full grade harder than the creek and we all agreed.  As the sun lowered I lead the huge 5.10 Bob Can’t climb.  By far the most varied and full body work-out of any Trad lead I have done.  Super thin hands off the deck with crimps for feet, to a ledge.  Then wide had with flaring crack at the feet were I slipped off once. Then perfect goldilocks #2 hands for 20 feet to a awkward wide hands for quite a ways.  It finishes with Thin .4 fingers in a body flare that ate me alive.  So so fun.  I placed 19 cams and it took two ropes to get down. What a great climb.  Everybody TRrd as the sun went down then we scampered back to camp.  Then I cooked my New York Steak on the end of a stick over our cozy fire.  Dan kept the conversation going tell pretty late as we discussed modernism, post-modernism, and the apparent lack of a place in the world (yet wonderful serenity)  for single jobless dirtbaggers….( like Court)

The adjacent route with sweet thin finger crack

Pete Marilyn Monroe'n it on Blowin' In the Wind

Luckily it was a little overcast in the morning so we could sleep in longer then we drove down and hi the Private pizza wall.  Climbed 4 more routes there.  The super fun Private Pizza 5.10 and Cheek full of Redman 5.10. Court led the scary moving pillar start to Teeter Tooter 5.10X. Though, it appeared much tamer than in the past, due to Court shoving a rock under the 4 Ton pillar to keep it from toppling.  After the thin fingers you stand on the tower and do thin hands that gets steeper and steeper. On Top Rope I realized that liebacking was 10 times easier and did 3 laps on it.  A couple of other parties showed up later in the day and an elderly couple watched us in awe from there shady lawn chairs in front of their 5^th Wheeler.  Other than that pretty much to ourselves.  On the way out we stopped at one more route that Court eyed on the way in. Another great corner with a fun pod in the middle that fit a #5 perfect.   Left at 3pm and got back to SLC just before 5 pm so Pete could “see about a girl” or go to the Temple or some “lame” excuse.   

The X rated pillar rockin route

Court teetered above the Teeter Totter

Grand White Goblin

Though not as scary as the Great White Goblin from the Hobbit, skiing up Gobblers Knob and running up Grandeur peak in winter, still packs a tough one armed punch.

Today's adventures got started last night with Spence shuttling a car to Porters TH up Millcreek Canyon. This morning Pete, Court, and I met at Spence's house then began up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Bulters TH. Conditions were very icy on the south facing slopes as we cruised up through the crisp forest. Nice sunny temps merged with a fast pace to create a stellar morning. Right up to were Pete's binding broke off his ski. Dope. Were were two thirds of the way up Gobblers where he turned and post holed and sledded on his behind back tot the car. Not a great morning for Pete. We continued up and summited in under 3 hours total and eagerly basked in the sun. The shady North Face made for great skiing up high, then a gully swack, finished off my 2 miles of icy crowded trail going way to fast.






View from Gobblers of Kessler Peak. The left line in God's Lawn mower, which I skied 2 weeks ago.










Mount Raymound










Pete right before his ski broke










Spence tackling the first of many cornices on the summit ridge.




On the way home I remembered that SLC ultra athlete Jared Campbell was having his annual "run as many times up Grandeur Peak as you can in one day" to create awareness for clean air and raise $. So, I stopped and ran up the west face of Grandeur 2.2 miles to the top with 3300 feet of vertical gain, ie super steep. Amazing that Jared was shooting for 12 accents of the peak today! If my day was like unto a big fat white goblin then he is up against Sauron riding a Balrog. He should be on his last couple of climbs as I type this. The run up took 1 hr 15 minutes (2.1 miles, 3300 vert.) The run/slide down took 29 minutes. Then I got to spend the whole after noon and evening with Izzy and A at the children museum. Great Saturday.






View from Grandeur, source door5.com




Total stats for the day.

About 13 miles and 6900 vert

Ouray, Willard and Joe

OURAY:

2 weeks ago Court joined Izzy and Anna and I for a weekend trip to Ouray Colorado.  We drove down early on a Friday and made it into town with time to climb.  Izzy and Anna hung out at the hotel while Court and I learned what all the Ouray hype is all about. Holy Cow. Wow! So imagine a mile long narrow gorge that is over 100 feet deep in the one of the prettiest spots in the Rockies. Then install hundreds of shower heads along one side and freeze. Waalah! Result = better ice climbing than even the the holi-deck on the Enterprise could generate.  I'll let the pics say the rest.

Most routes we top-roped off trees, but that does not mean they were mild in any way.

After climbing we hit the awesome hot springs in town.

Viewing areas on the other side of the gorge where Izzy took some sweet pics of us climbing

  

 My New Friends Willard and Joe:

On Wednesday after work I met Court in Layton and we cruised down to Willard for an evening gulley scramble.  The hike up was 1.3 miles of tracked snow, 28 degrees temps, and overcast skies.

Approach up to the WI 3 falls

Cool Cave by the base of the route

Court topping out the first pitch. Lots of snow on the route

Great Tree Belay

The top pitch. The ice was steep and fat. By the time I cleaned we had to flip on our lamps for the walk off

After cutting our teeth on low angle gullies and farmed ice we felt ready for a Utah Classic Destination, Joes Valley Reservoir.  Joes is huge bouldering mecca, evidenced by the bouldering guide books at the local gas station, but we came for the ice flows that are on their way off the Wasatch Platea down into the San Rafael Swell.  The short drive from SLC makes for an awesome all dayer or overnighter.

We first climbed CCC falls. 2 pitches of WI3 and WI4.  Then the Dead Bolt gulley which had 2 pitches of WI3 and a half mile of bouldering. Then we cruised over to the WI5 Dorncicle main event. Court sent it in style and I followed on brittle ice that turned to soft sticky ice up in the sun. Lovely.
On the way home we pulled off the road after Price, and I lead the WI4 Dirtcicle (Pricicle)

Court rockin the "alpine sit start." typical of the half mile of ice bouldering between pitches up Deadbolt

The Dorncicle WI5

The Dorncicle WI5

The Dorncicle WI5

The Dorncicle WI5

Pic off Mountainproject of the Pricicle

The Pricicle (Dirtcicle) WI4. Great way to break up the drive and round out a day at Joes

    

Stats for OURAY:
12 hours of driving.  11 pitches of Ice (most on TR, but very long route)

Stats for Joes:
6 hours of driving. 6 pitches of ice (all on lead)