Zion Maximization

Friday: 

I hoofed it up to Willard Falls and watched Jack be nimble on the first pitch of fat ice.  We swapped pitches twice more ending the route with a sweet easy WI3/4 section on great ice.  Even placed a BD goldilocks (#2) cam on pitch 2 and found my slings from last winter on a tree belay….

Saturday:
Took off on the Chinle Trail from Springdale with Pete, Court, and Spence dog. Destination Kinesava then West Temple summits. Super rare summits for anyone to attempt and not really any trail. After .5 miles we left the Chinle and headed up a random wash, then up a ridge with a some what navigable trail. Once up we cut towards the Cowboy Ridge and scrambled up on the blocks. The ridge continues up up up on narrow blocks and cliffs, past a few short class 5 sections, including a sweet 30 foot hand crack. Court and Spence soloed everything and I hauled up Pete on belay. Once on top of the ridge we ran over and up Kinesava. Great views, Great Summit. Next we continued the link-up by dropping down off the east side in a gully for 1000 feet then back up onto the SW Ridge of West Temple. Summited the 7800 ft peak (Tallest in Zion) in about 5.5 hours 6000 vert. Great Views. We then reversed the ridge using the rope at one spot to assist descent. Made in down off the ridge and ran a view miles across the desert back to the car. I beat Spence to the car by .0045 seconds. Something like 8.5 Hours 14 miles and 7000' of Vert

Sunday:

Got charged at Church in Springdale, both cell phone and soul.  Ate a monster hoagie in the parking lot then drove out to Wildcat Ridge. Tagged Pine Valley Peak then meandered down to the start of the Subway.  Really enjoyed going slow and taking in the brisk air. 

Monday:

Started up the Overlook Trail after the tunnels towards East Temple peak.  A rare desert gem that few ever summit. We ran up left across sweet red slabs.  Then followed the herds of desert sheep higher and higher.  The route then drops down a huge gully then climbs a sketchy crappy gram cracker rock surface for 1000 feet.  Pete decided he had had enough of the steep bad rock. Spence and I pressed higher past some airy scary traverses to a ramp 200 ft below the summit.   3 pitches of bolted slab halted our climb.  I will cruise up easy class 5 but definitely not down climbable for us.  We headed back down. Smart move. With lots of sun left we went up to Keyhole slot canyon and did a fast lap through the icey slot.  18 minutes of out of control awesomeness. Breaking through ice, swimming in freezing water, running, and flying down cliffs. I enjoyed it so much I did it again with a cool dude that stopped on the road to see what we were up to.  15:30 the second time through.



LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEO of Ridge Scramble

Are These Times Contagious.

Collective Soul's "I've never been this bored before, I've got a long way to run" have to be the most hilarious lyrics to first hit my ears at the start of any run.  With my tunes on shuffle at the start of the News Years Revolution Run, I chuckled out loud from the coincidence.  The gist of the event is to run around a 440 meter indoor track for 5 hours with 400 other people... and rack up as many laps as you can. Three days ago I had never heard of such an event around here.  Also having recently been mega-inspired by Zach Bitter's amazing 100 mile record on a track, I convinced my wife Izzy to join me for the torturous fun. 

Going into the run my entire mindset centered on how good of a training it would be, especially because my legs were trashed from running everyday during the week.  Including 4 summit climbs (9850 ft of vert) and some quad screaming powder turns the night before. 

The mundane nature of running in a circle for 5 hrs actually really intrigued me.  I like numbers, splits, and pace charts.  That said, the only goal in my head was to run the whole 5 hours.  At times swerving through traffic on the track annoyed me a little, but not too much. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting other people, chatting with my wife, and watching other folks running their guts out. At the 1 hour mark my total laps hit 25 then I walked a little and ate fruit and energy gels.  I could tell lots of other folks were running faster than me but I was not paying that much attention, yet.  I did not really count laps till the end nor did I have a watch on.  If you asked a volunteer your laps they would write it on a white board the next time you came around.  The board also listed the top 3 runners, my race bib number never appeared.  Running in a loop makes it real easy to hydrate and eat. I grabbed a water bottle for a lap here and there or grabbed things from my duffle on the bleachers once or twice. 

 Mid way through, my legs started dragging, but after eating and walking a bit I sped back up. At the two hour mark my total laps hit 50 and then 75 laps at the 3 hour mark. I am learning all this in hind site.  (I knew I was at 91 3.5 hours in but other than that I just ran.) At the 4 hour mark I hit 100 and then hit 126 (34 miles) as time expired. Crazy how consistent it ended up.  A lot of the fast dudes at the first slowed down towards the end and for some reason my legs felt great the whole way. I learned as we gathered up our stuff that I was first for the Men and second overall.  A super talented lady did 127 laps!  Speaking of ladies, Izzy ran hard for 50 laps then walked the rest. For a total of around 19 miles! Double the distance she has ever run before! 

I am super glad to see my body hold up through the week and feel extra confident I can knock off some goals for the year. Namely, sub 8 hours at  the Buffalo 50 Miler, sub 3:10 marathon, complete another 100 Miler, and summit 100 mountains in 2014.  Oh and one more thing I won a pair of Altra shoes for taking first. 

Hmm is there room in the closet next to my Sportiva, Nike, Motrail, Hokas, and Peral Izumis.  I am curious to see how they compare and which ones to get??

       

Just another Saturday in the Mountains

Stumbling and crawling through icy water in my ski boots was not exactly how I envisioned my Saturday to go.  I wanted to get lots of miles in, either on skis or on foot, or both.  My running/ski buddies all got up super early and I missed out on a Little Dell  to Big Mtn run and a Kessler East Couloir ski tour.  So around 10 am I was on my way up the Great Western Trail from Fernwood in Layton with my skis on my back.  I figured it would be tracked out a lot of the way and then I would throw the skis on.  A fresh dusting of snow made the crusty trail a lot nicer. It also allowed for visibility of all all the night time creatures. (Small rabbit, larger rabbit, and a cat print a lot bigger than the rabbit prints...)

 The last boot holes ended, with a smiley face drawn in the snow, at around 7500 feet where I doffed the Sportiva Evo hiking boots and donned the Scarpa Maestrale ski boots and BD skis.  It was fun cruising up the fresh powder.  Right near the top a storm moved in and visibility went to 20 yards.  I somehow managed to make my way to the Chinscraper bowl by sensing the feel of the land. I felt like I was in a haunted winter wonderland as I moved through the snow crusted pines.  The cornice at the top was tricky, but with a little sweat I pulled on to the ridge.  I continued south hugging the ridge in the white-out conditions.  Several times I found myself on false summits overlooking monster cliffs, before I crested onto a hill and saw the Thurston summit plaque.  

The wind was blowing so hard that my hands instantly froze as I snapped some photos and pulled out some icy jerky to gnaw on. I started to ski down and south but got snarled in a maze of boulders, I cliffed out and finally said screw it and headed west while I still had some concept of which way west was.  I got some decent ski turns in, but mostly the snow was crusty ice. I never even took my skins off I felt so insecure with all the boulders and ice. The slope choked into a gully with thick scrub oak and an icy stream.  I figured I must be in the Adams drainage so I climbed up to where I thought the cabin and trail should be. I even recognized the cliffs above the cabin. Then I let doubt sucker me.  I could hear gun shots from the Wasatch shooting range so I reckoned that I must be one more drainage south.  I headed back down to the stream and stopped looking for the cabin/trail. The swacking got so bad that I could hardly move.  The slopes and scrub oak choked all movement down to the stream.  After a real short conversation in my head I came to the only logical conclusion.  With my skis under my arms I jumped into the stream.  The ski boots had been rubbing bad for miles and I had monster blisters on each arch. The icy water penetrated instantly and stung the raw blisters.  My snow pants quickly shredded on sharp ice and branches and one foot turned into a 15 pound slushy ice mass.  I crawled stumbled and clawed on for over a mile! At times I could get out of the stream for a some waist deep post holing but soon the slopes would choke me right back into the stream.  Several times I fell head first into the stream and once nearly slipped under an ice bridge and off a small falls.  My body became completely sapped of energy but I stumbled on. I knew I had to follow the stream out. Luckily I spied some tracks and followed them up and over a cliff. A trail!!  My spirits instantly soared as I reconnected to humanity and out of the icy glacial hell. The trail soon crested another steep cliff and down a slotted gully.  I'll take steep cliffs over ice water any day.  I climbed down and down, tossing my skis as I dropped bigger sections.  Near the bottom I saw this awesome huge water fall.  I literally thought I had discovered this new awesome waterfall for a total of 9 seconds before I realized where I was. In Adams Drainage all along.  I stripped down to my sort of dry shorts and and threw on my hiking boots and took off down the trail.  With skis back on my back I cruised the extremely familiar trail for another 1.5 miles before reaching the Bonneville shoreline.  Another 1.5 miles and I was at the car as the last light of the day disappeared into total blackness. It is funny to think how much worse the swacking would have been if I was in a different drainage with out an eventual trailing leading out. Crazy.  Next time I will bite the bullet and get up early and go with friends.    

Snow Bear 2013: 99.9 Miles of Pain and 0.1 Miles of Transcendent Bliss that made it all worth it.

A few miles back, on a steep rocky downhill, I rolled my ankle in the dim light. It felt okay later, but it gave me a scare.  At the next river crossing my hood slipped over my headlight, as I hopped from one slippery rock to the next, both of my shoes completely submerged into the icy cold Logan River.  Then around mile 60, as the temperatures dropped further below freezing, my headlamp batteries started to fade. I thought to myself. “It was going to be a long, long night.”   

I decided to run the Bear 100 race 3 weeks ago, after getting super dehydrated and full on heat exhaustion at the Wasatch 100 the weekend prior.  It’s funny how karma works, from crazy hot to unseasonably cold and snowy.  The pre-race meeting in Amalga Utah was cold and rainy. The race-start up dry canyon was also very cold.  My only game plan going into the race was to go slow, survive, enjoy the trails and breathtaking scenery, and finish.  I knew pieces of the 100 mile course fairly well from my college days at USU, and was stoked to link them all up in one jaunt from Logan to Bear Lake.  The first big climb up and out of Dry Canyon turned into an amazingly surreal, somewhat spiritual, and extremely snowy run.   I loved it.  The fiery red, yellow, and oranges, back splashed with the green pine, fresh white snow, and damp icy clouds enveloped me inside and out as the race passed the 10 mile mark. 

I kept up a good fast hike on the climbs and ran the down hills as fast as I could.  At times the weather flirted with heavy snow or rain and remained consistently cold.  I enjoyed running with and talking to other runners throughout the first half of the run and even saw the sun for maybe 4 minutes.  At mile 37, as I cruised down a rocky canyon I saw a guy in denim sitting on some boulders.  My dad, Jim, had hiked up the trail a good ways to see me.  As I hit the aid station I was greeted with a hug and kiss from Anna and Izzy.  I felt pretty good. Legs sore but moving. Body temps regulating ok. But very soon felt super tired.  Going uphill in the midafternoon I really really felt like curling up in a ball and sleeping.  I dug an energy gel with caffeine out of my pocket and downed it with some ibuprofen.  Wow. The chemicals kicked in quick and I picked up the pace and no longer felt like falling over. Before the half way point I got to see the family again at Temple Fork, Mile 45. My stomach was feeling great and I was eating solid food as much as possible.

The next section of trail, up Blind Hollow, was by far the worst section of trail and the most frustrating part of the day. Cows had totally destroyed the trail into a sloppy muddy quagmire.  Literally 2 steps forward and one step back, for miles. Luckily a buddy, Matt Van Horn, was there to help keep the cursing to a minimum.   My super light Hoka shoes were heavier than my steel toed Dr. Martins with all the mud stuck on em.   Not until Tony Grove did the trail improve enough that I could open up and run.  Again I ran into my dad up in the forest hiking up to meet me.  After eating lots of food and getting my spirits lifted by friends and family, Pete and I headed into the sunset.  I was super glad Pete and Nick had been able to come up and help me. Both are funny guys that could tell lots of stories, which for me is great for getting my mind off the pain and dreariness of the run.  The scenery above Tony Grove and into White Pine just blew me away.  My body felt good and I was staying up on water and salt. As long as I could keep the nozzle of my water hose from icing over, I would be okay on hydration.    

We pressed on through the night. Stumbled, climbed, ran, tripped, got soaked feet in the river, climbed up more hills, thought we were lost, stumbled, and finally made it to Mile 75, The Beaver Lodge.  As the “race” wore on I started spending more and more time at aid stations.  I was eating lots of solid food and it got harder to leave the warmth every time.  After spending way too much time in the lodge, Nick took over pacing and we headed off at around 2 in the morning.  The next big snowy climb took every atom of will power I had to hike up.  My steps started faltering and Nick kept asking if I was okay.  I continued pushing and struggling to keep my eyes open. After what seemed like an eternity I surprisingly awoke after walking right into an icy puddle and then saw a heavenly fire at the aid station, Mile 81.  It took awhile to regroup, warm up, and wake up. Then we hobbled off again into the cold windy night.  So glad Nick had a 4 hr energy thingy to help keep my eyes open.  On the next big snowy climb, after the Mile 85 aid station, I couldn’t take another step and laid down on the snow in a ball and told Nick to wake me up in 5 minutes.  Which he did. I shook awake and started pounding up the hill again. 

O blessed sunrise.  Around the time the sun came up I got the first glimpse of Bear Lake. It had been a super tough night and the deep blue of the Lake and the warming sun filled my soul. I pressed on up the steepest hill of the whole 100 miles and then started running the last downhill as fast as my legs could go.  I flew past many runners who grumbled to Nick as he flagged behind trying to keep up.  The closer to the Lake I got the faster I ran. With fiery orange and yellow aspen forests all around me I kept going faster and faster.   With a mile to go and still flying down the hill I started tearing up with joy and gratitude. So glad to have a body that lets me do what I love, so glad to have great friends and family, so glad to be able to enjoy such amazing mountains and so glad to be DONE.  Nick and I crossed the Finish at 9:33 after running for 27:33 hrs.  Overall it was a very difficult run in very difficult conditions. I Loved it.

Stats: 100 Miles, 21,986 ft of vertical gain, 27.51 hrs

Food eaten:  Around 15 energy gels, 50 little goldfish crackers, 5 ginger chews, 2 bananas, 4-5 cups of broth, 3 cups of chicken noodle soup, 3 grilled cheese sandwiches, 2 brownies, 4 slices of zucchini bread, 2 egg sausage burritos, 4 slices of bacon, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 3 fruit twists, lots of coke and ginger ale, 4 potatoes, a Monster and one 4 hr energy drink, and a bowl of chili.          

Drying my running shorts hours before the race in the motel 8 after using them in the hot tub

                      

More Hell than Heaven

Going into this years Wasatch100 Mile Endurance Run I felt pretty good.  My training was not quite up to where I wish it was, due partly to injuries, but overall ready to crank out the 100 miles across the mountains.  I finished last year in a little over 28 hours and felt I could at least do that well again or better if I ran smart and flew through aid stations. I spent 1 hr 40 min at aid stations last year. 

Pre-Race:

All summer I have not really stressed for this thing, that is is right up until the week of the race.   The day before, I played a little Frisbee golf and realized how dang hot it was going to be the next day.  That eve I  attended a fun pre-race-BBQ with other runners at the William's and met my pacer Aaron.  Go VHS!.  There are some real strong runners that live around here.  Cool to meet and talk to Davy Crocket a little, he is a local legend and nice guy to talk with.  My buddy Spence stayed at my house and we got up at 4:15 (=mucho sleep).  Sooo  glad I live so close to the start line.  I let Izzy and and little Anan sleep and Spence and I walked over to the main road by my house and thumbed a ride to the start line. Oh ya, and the car that stopped and gave us a ride was Nick Clark, who went on to win the race that day.

Race:

Long story short.  I DNF’d. (Did Not Finish)

 I rocked the first half and by mile 54 I was almost an hour ahead of my goal splits.  I felt good through the extreme heat all morning, other than some leg cramping, and Aaron and I rocked the hottest section.  I felt prime going into the cool Lambs Canyon with my buddy Court by my side to keep me company till Brighton.   Out of nowhere came the onset of extreme nausea and stomach cramps.  I puked everything inside of me and felt super weak.  After going up and over into Millcreek Canyon the nausea remained and the stomach cramps turned into bad diarrhea.  I trudged on and on and on all night through hellish sickness hoping it would go away. The more I walked the sicker I felt.  The more I tried to run the weaker I felt.  The more I hiked the more I hoped it would pass and I could start to recover.  I laid down many times, stumbled and screamed, and just felt sicker.  Somehow, mostly due to Court’s patience, I made it to Brighton Mile 75, with almost zero running.  The doc there got me sipping V8 and OJ.  I laid there for an hour in the lodge hoping the stomach cramps would go away, but they did not. I dropped out at 4 am.  Miles 50-75 took almost longer than miles 0-50.

After much thinking I have decided that the cause was simple, not enough water and salt.  I was drinking tons and eating SCaps, but I guess it was not enough.  I do not believe nutrition had much to do with the GI failure.  I got low blood salt which led to blood leaving the GI area resulting in Ischemic colitis.  I was taking at SCap every hour, I should have done 2 per hour.  I was not peeing enough. I should have taken more time at aid stations and drank more.  Simple. 

Izzy and I drove to the finish the next day, after crashing on Pete’s couch, it was fun seeing the last few finish. Good job to all my friends that finished.  Especially to Spence who is a beast and charged all the way to the end for a 20^th place finish in 25:32 hrs.  He trained like a mad man and ran a great race.  Thanks to Aaron, Court, and Pete for pacing.  Sorry Pete I could not show you the last 25 miles.

Post Race:

My legs feel good, I really only ran 50-60 miles, so I signed up for
 the Bear 100 Miler in 3 weeks.  Yes I have an ego and hate to fail, but I also just really want to finish a 100 miler this year, I love the Mountains by Logan in the Autumn, and Izzy said
 go for it.

START LINE

Getting Baked

LAMBS before the crash