Posted by: runuphill | April 30, 2012

Zion Adventures – Kolob, Willis, Chasm, Beartrap

April 21 & 22, 2012 : Yet another spectacular weekend in Zion.  Mindy/Sarah/Buzz run the Zion traverse (or at least most of it for Buzz and Mindy. Sarah did the entire route) while Ryan and I do what we enjoy most… exploring technical rarely traveled terrain in the park.  Ryan and I made the journey to a rarely (if ever?) visited location for a unique view of the second longest natural arch in the world (at 287′) on Saturday:

A rare view of Kolob Arch.

Sunday Ryan and I did a ~25 mile lollipop loop I’ve been obsessing over for a year starting at Lee’s Pass, cruising down to LaVerkin Creek, up Willis Creek (which was INCREDIBLE), climbing to the rarely visited Chasm Lake, and thrashing over to the head of Beartrap Canyon. We made a quick descent of this recently (2011) flash-flood ravaged canyon and then ran back to the car.  Honestly this route defined a near-perfect Zion adventure in my opinion.  A few pics here from the weekend here.

After 18 hours (over Sat & Sun) the skin on my feet, which I destroyed during Barkley, finally gave up…

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Posted by: runuphill | April 13, 2012

Barkley Marathons – 2012

Showing up for Barkley 2012

Short Story :

  • I am thrilled to have dragged myself to the finish line after 5 laps at the infamous Barkley Marathons.
  • I met and ran with many incredible and inspirational people.
  • This course is as hard as they say it is.
  • On the final lap 5, due to some extreme foot pain (skin) and sleep deprivation I experienced an incredible distillation of my physical and mental self down to a few basic senses and thoughts, which was both an educational and beautiful experience.
  • I became the 11th person to finish in a time of 56 hours.

Long Story :

Being completely honest I have long put the Barkley Marathons into a category of races that I had no desire to do.  Others in this category are Badwater and the long list of new ultras that are repetitive loop courses and/or mostly flat.  I was simply not interested.  Barkley seemed silly, miserable, pointless and when compared to the spectacular mountain and desert terrain I have easy access to living in Utah I simply said, why?  However, Barkley stood out like a black sheep among the others in the list.  It is far from being flat (with 59,000′ of up!) and it takes place in surprisingly rugged and, come to find out, very beautiful mountains.  Also, several folks I really look up (Blake Wood, Jim Nelson, and others) appear to have been captivated by it so I’ll admit, deep inside I’ve been interested.  About a year ago, in a conversation with my good buddy Ryan McD, we posed the silly question, “if you had to do either Barkley or Badwater, which would it be?”  Without hesitation I said Barkley, while Ryan confidently opted for Badwater.  Very interesting….

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Posted by: runuphill | February 27, 2012

Coming Up for Air – A Fund-raiser for Breathe Utah

Me on top of Grandeur Peak, Feb. 2012

3/4/2012 UpdateSuccess!  Yesterday’s adventure was incredible with unbelievable support from family, friends, and the local community.  We exceeded our original goal for the fund-raiser by over $1,500 (raising 4,000 total)!  Thanks to all who came out and participated in the event.  Salt Lake Tribune Article – Channel 2 News Coverage (soon) – X96 Radio From Hell! (scroll to 19:30)Random Pictures from the day

7PM 3/2/2012 UpdateDespite the fresh new snow, we’re still ON!  Come rally at 6AM to help break trail for this fun event.  Our sponsors (Black Diamond, Gregory, Liberty Mountain, Knead-a-Massage) have donated prizes, which a few lucky (randomly chosen) pledge-makers will receive.  Hope to see you bright and early.

Pretty funny screenshot of SPOT tracker page here.

  1. Start : 06:00, Finish : 08:07
  2. Start : 08:09, Finish : 09:57
  3. Start : 10:00, Finish : 11:45
  4. Start : 11:55, Finish : 01:43
  5. Start : 01:53, Finish : 03:50
  6. Start : 04:07, Finish : 06:05
  7. Start : 06:15, Finish : 08:15
  8. Start : 08:24, Finish : 10:29
  9. Start : 10:40, Finish : 01:05
  10. Start : 01:18, Finish : 03:31, Elapsed Time : 21 hr 31 min
Posted by: runuphill | February 26, 2012

Bridge-Jenny Loop – Zion National Park

Me and Ryan on the beautiful Marble Ridge

On February 25th, 2012 Ryan McDermott, Ben Lewis and I did a great loop starting/ending just east of the tunnel in Zion National Park.  I was psyched to summit Bridge Mountain, run Marble Ridge, and hit the “Jenny Peaks”.  I was operating at about -6dB due to an unfortunate sickness I had acquired several days before so I was fortunate to have friends that were okay with a more leisurely pace.   Bridge Mountain is a spectacular and rarely submitted peak and for good reason.  The route I chose doesn’t look very probably (as seen through a runner’s lens) from any vantage point and in reality it “barely” goes.  It is indeed “a rugged run by running standards”.  All other sides of the peak are well guarded making it a very special experience on top.  I scared a mom and baby sheep right on the summit and they sprinted off on unbelievably technical terrain at a blazing pace.  They make us humans look silly on chossy Zion terrain, I’ve got a lot to learn…..  A few pics below and a full gallery of our adventure here.  Ben’s write-up here.

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Posted by: runuphill | November 22, 2011

Zion – November 2011

Fred, Ryan, Chad, Jared, Krissy, Emily in Zion

It had been far too long since I’d been to Zion or done a run of any substantial length.  This Summer and Fall Mindy and I have spent nearly every spare moment planning and building our new home.  Built on passive solar design principles and employing an impressive 8kW PhotoVoltaic (PV) array to harvest all the energy required to run it, our house has blossomed into something we are both very happy with and proud of.  More details on this in the coming weeks as we wrap it up and move in…..

Fred, me, and Krissy on East Northgate Peak

After a Summer and Fall of being a rather unreliable partner I was thrilled to finally be breaking free to make a weekend trip happen.  I was bummed that Mindy couldn’t make it, but also excited about meeting up with friends Krissy Moehl, Chad Brackelsberg, Emily Mitzel, Ryan McDermott, and Fred Marmsater.  Krissy and I ran the traverse together from Lees Pass to the East entrance with an excellent side excursion to the East Northgate Peak.  The home project had taken precedence over training and consequently I was going into this in perhaps the lowest level of fitness I’d been in for quite some time.  I knew this was going to hurt!  Fortunately Krissy was very kind and patient with me and we found ourselves laughing and shuffling along the traverse with near perfect weather.  We crossed paths with Chad and Emily who were going in the opposite direction and we eventually all met up in Springdale for dinner.

Emily and Chad on Crawford Arch

Sunday I took the entire group out to Crawford Arch, one of the most incredible places in Zion.

What a great weekend.  The beauty of Zion and the important role of good friends was the theme for this trip.

A few pics here.  Hopefully I’ll get some of Fred’s soon.

Krissy’s write-up.

Posted by: runuphill | November 1, 2011

Zironman 2011

Final rappel of Imlay Canyon into the Narrows, part of the Zironman Traverse

Read Buzz’s belated write-up of the Zironman “Fun Run” 2011, a stellar journey that he, Ryan McD and I did back in June, 2011.

Posted by: runuphill | September 23, 2011

Pacing Mindy at the Bear 100

Mindy had an excellent run at the 2011 Bear 100, her second race of this length.  She appeared to get stronger and stronger until the finish line.  I joined her through the night and Vanessa (my sister) ran the final 7 miles where Mindy reportedly hit the turbo button.  She was so fast on this final leg that I missed her at the finish line!

She finished somewhere under 28 hrs.  Perhaps someday the Bear100 website will post ordered results?….?

Posted by: runuphill | September 9, 2011

Wasatch 100 – 2011

This year’s Wasatch 100 was an interesting experiment as I was greatly under-prepared.  The few runs that I had done, however, were of high quality, so this would be a study in how “quality not quantity” training would work out on a tough 100 miler.  With no expectations I had an extremely fun and stress-free run from start to end.  Mindy joined me for the final 25 miles, which was a treat.  I managed to pull off a 21:50, which I was very happy with.

http://wasatch100.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:2011-wasatch-100-finishers&catid=2:results&Itemid=5

Posted by: runuphill | August 21, 2011

Wind River Crestline Route – Round 2

The view from Knapsack Col, looking east at Mount Helen. Mile 20.

At 3:15AM on August 21st, 2011, Ty Draney and I finished a stellar ~75-80 mile adventure run from Green River Lakes to Big Sandy in the Wind River Mountains.  I am in awe, yet again, with the beauty of this spectacular range.  The original intended route is something I call  the Crestline Route.  This very rugged route involves a fair bit of off-trail travel, boulder hopping, snow travel, stream crossings, oh and seemingly never-ending rocky trails too!  A lightning/rain storm rolled in around 9PM and blasted us for an hour or two so causing us to make an impromptu bivy.  We deviated from the intended route for the last ~30 miles because we were running behind schedule and instead opted for the Fremont trail (also the Continental Divide Trail) back to Big Sandy.  Ty and I made a great team pulling each other through the highs and lows of this 21hr adventure.

Click here for more pictures

Ty’s write-up

The unbelievably pristine Wall Lake

Posted by: runuphill | August 5, 2011

West Slabs of Mt. Olympus – a true mountain run

Entertaining video, edited by Ryan McDermott.  June was awesome in the Wasatch!

 

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