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.

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Posted in Running

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.

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Posted in Canyoneering

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?….?

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Posted in Running

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

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Posted in Running

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

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Posted in Running

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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Posted in Rock Climbing, Running

Posted by: runuphill | June 10, 2011

San Diego 100

Tomorrow mindy will be running her first 100 miler! You can track her at www.sandiego100.com and using the link below for our spot tracker which I’ll be wearing while I pace her for the last half. Go mindy!

Spot Tracker Link Here

Brief updates via I pad

- and, they’re off. 7:00 am

- mindy looked great at mile 13.8; 9:31 am

- classic mindy. Smiles all the way at mile 23; 11:36am

- still truckin’ along at mile 44.1; 5pm

- Mindy finishes in 29:49:10!

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Posted in Running

Posted by: runuphill | June 5, 2011

Prior 9 month re-cap

Capturing my adventures in writing (on door5) hasn’t received much priority for the prior 9 months.   But, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been having incredible adventures.  This post is being made in an effort to not lose a record of the highlights of the past 9 months of my life.

September 2010

  • Tried Wasatoja.  Made it through the run, drove up to Logan, but didn’t have it in me to start the ride.
  • Paced Chad Brackelsberg at the Bear 100.
October 2010
  • Zion with Ryan and Pat (October 9th and 10th)
    • Ran/scrambled the rarely summited South Guardian on a picture-perfect day
    • Climbed Mountain of the Sun with Ryan and Pat.
    • Check out the pics
  • Danielle and Jake get hitched (October 14th, 2010)
  • Zion with Mindy and Jim Guilkey (October 16th and 17th)
    • Mindy and Jim run the traverse together.  Longest run of Jim’s life
    • Climbed Pine Valley Peak and East/West Northgate Peaks
    • Climbed the rarely summited G2 Peak
    • Pictures
  • Coyote Moab (October 22, 23, 24th)
    • 3 stellar days with some of the most unique humans around.  Thanks Chris Scott!
    • Bowling, 50 km run with Chad and Darcy, Group run on Sunday
    • More pics, 50km movie (youtube)
November 2010
  • Rim-Rim-Rim with Jay Aldous and Karl Jarvis (November 14th, 2010)
  • Solomon Perkins is born!  Cutest kid ever.  I’m a proud uncle (November 19th, 2010)
December 2010
  • Incredible desert trip with Mindy (Christmas through New Years)
    • Ran/explored Gold Strike Canyon and enjoyed the hot pots
    • Toured Hoover Dam
    • Rode rides on top of Stratosphere
    • Death Valley
      • Visited Furnace Creek
      • Did some good Badwater training
      • Ran Corkscrew Peak
      • Ran on sand-dunes
      • Visited Mosaic Canyon
    • Bishop, CA
      • Got some great ski near North Lake
    • Great Basin National Park
      • Tried to ski Wheeler Peak, but got shut down
      • Took a tour of Lehman Caves
    • Pictures
  • Gave a presentation on Passive Solar and Efficient Home Design at work for employees to enjoy enjoy during their lunch hour.  I put a ton of effort into this and was pretty happy that folks found it interesting.

February 2011

March 2011
  • Solo trip to Zion (March 12, 13th)
    • Two stellar full-days of exploring in the south-east part of the park
    • Pics here
  • Coyote Two Moon (March 24th, 2011)
    • A fabulous and memorable run in the Ojai mountains.
    • Ran with Ty Draney nearly the entire day until they called the race off due to crazy weather
    • Mindy was running the 100km race in fine form
    • Pics here
April 2011
  • Traversary (April 23rd) – Group run of the entire Zion traverse (~50miles).  Ran it with my incredible wife who coined the name “traversary” for running the traverse on our 1-year anniversary.  Life does not get better than this!
    • Roch and Ryan also run the entire route.  Terri busts out 36 miles, and Catherine also had her longest run in a while
    • Pictures here
  • Lady Mountain (April 24th) – Ryan and I just couldn’t resist.  Lady Mountain is so good!
May 2011
  • Icebox Canyon with Ryan – Tons of exploring side canyons (May 13th, 2011)
    • One of the most special places on earth.  I’ve never seen Ryan so happy
    • Epic canyoneering/glisadding.  There aren’t too many places in the world you can do this.  simply magical
    • Pictures – Movie of glisadding (coming soon)
  • Pocatello 50, year 3
    • Despite a very sketchy forecast we lucked out and had perfect weather.
    • Runners seemed very happy with the challenging route
    • Pics – website

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Posted in Yearly Recap

Posted by: runuphill | June 5, 2011

Olympus West Slabs

Goat on Mt. Olympus West Slabs

I absolutely love the Wasatch Mountains in the spring!  The weather has finally turned and the relentless grip of winter has eased.  With a successful Pocatello 50 behind me it’s time to do what I love and try to get fit while exploring a mountain landscape than changes by the minute as temperatures increase and snow melts rapidly.

Mount Olympus West Slabs - with Apollo Couloir descent

Probably THE best short journey in the Wasatch is a run up the West Slabs of Olympus.  It has it all: singletrack, bushwhacking, boulder hopping, a steep snow-field, 1,000′ of 5.5, a brief ridge running section, an unbelievably good glissade dropping nearly 1,900′, and a canyoneering-like river gully descent at the bottom of the Apollo Chute.  It is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re comfortable scrambling up easy 5th class quartzite and managing moderately steep snow this is about as good as it gets.  The snow-field decent is so good right now that I’m going to try and do it every single day until it’s gone….. and it’s going fast.

Yesterday (6/4/2011) I had been having an incredible day running trails and I wanted to finish it off with this route.    Ryan and I had done the route the prior day so I knew exactly what the conditions were like.  I ran into a large party on my way up the snow-field (Zeus Chute) as I approached the slabs.  The gully is chock-full of snow right now, more so than I’ve ever seen before in June.  The large group had started early in the AM and it looked like a guided group, probably Exum.  They looked at me like I was crazy in my shorts and running shoes.  I thought to myself that they were crazy spoiling such a perfect mountain experience as they schlepped 60 lbs of crap with them.  Ice axes, crampons, big boots, hundreds of feet of rope, and packs big enough for an everest expedition.  It was 6:30 PM and I was just starting the route; light, simple, and with as few man-made items between me and the ground I was travelling as possible.  Exactly how I like it.

Close-up of the West Slabs ascent and Apollo Couloir descent

I quickly hit the rock and looked down at where they were on the snow-field, about in the middle.  I had a strange surge of adrenaline and I made it my goal to summit and descend the Apollo Couloir before they got to their car.  I made good time up the slabs as the route was fresh on my mind from the prior day.  The ridge was perfect, and no rattle snakes at all, a rare thing in June.  Without losing a step I jumped onto my favorite snow field and only a few minutes later was at the bottom of it, some 1,900 vertical feet later.  Yesterday Ryan had pointed out that the descent was so fast that you have to equalize your ear pressure while glissading.  yee haw.

At the end of the glissade is the river gully section, which I  love!  I caught and passed the party on the trail out.  1:10 car-to-car.  I was giddy all evening.  The perfect Wasatch experience and finish to an already amazing day.  Life is grand.

Addendum:

On 6/5/2011 I returned and pulled off a 1:01 car-to-car.

Apollo Couloir. Oh so good right now.

12 Comments

Posted in Running, Scrambling

Posted by: runuphill | September 12, 2010

Wasatoja 2010 Recap

Vicki, Ryan, Mindy, and Me at the end of Lotoja, which Ryan finished

Short Version:

  • I have the most amazing wife, family, and friends that anybody could ever ask for.
  • I am incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity in life to explore the natural world and physical possibilities.
  • I didn’t complete my Wasatoja objective, but had a darn good time trying.

Slightly Longer Version: “Wasatoja is no gimme”

I knew from the get-go that in order to make this silly “double” happen everything had to go near-perfect.  In fact, it was this logistical challenge that made the challenge so appealing to me.  Sadly, the run was somewhat of a disaster for me and I ended up not even starting Lotoja.

Read More…

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Posted in Biking, Running

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