8-24-2011 Running the Pfeifferhorn

Pretty good crew at "track practice" today.  We had a group of six leave together to run/hike the Pfeifferhorn followed by three others an hour later.  Weather wasn't too warm, the company was good, lighting was golden, what else could we ask for? Jared and I were 1:22 to the top which felt nice and steady.  We might have to give a time trail effort once my work schedule relaxes... A couple newcomers came which was good!  A few pictures.

Jimmy leading the first wave

Jared, flowers, Red Pine Lake

Jared on the Ridge

Nick and Jared on top

Shaneen and Mike, first time on the Pfeiff!

8-21-2011 Running the Owen Spalding, The Grand Teton

Recent speedy ascents of the Grand by Brian Harder and Brandon French got me excited to get up to Jackson again and give it a go.  Andy and I both had Sunday free so off we went.  We started the day staring at lightning and rainbows as we drove to Lupine Meadows.  The mix of sun and rain almost had us bailing and taking pictures of rainbows all day.  Instead, we decided to have a go up to the Lower Saddle and turn around if we saw more storm clouds.  

UP

The run to the meadows went quickly, 47 min.  We backed it off a bit from there and hiked most of the way to the Lower Saddle, jogging whatever flat we found, 1:40.  Looking west off the Lower Saddle I think we were both hoping for storms so we could end the suffering a bit early, all we saw was sun.  At that point Andy was feeling pretty blown but our only option was to finish.  Route finding to the upper saddle was a bit tricky, not hard to find but I'm not sure we took the fastest way.  We ended up scrambling a good portion of it instead of running.  Entering the Owen Spalding we decided to climb slow since we were tired and I hadn't been there before.  It was straight forward although we did take one wrong turn at the top that cost us a few minutes.  Summit 2:35.  We ate a gu and turned back without even looking around.    

DOWN

Down climbing the OS went smoother that I expected and before I knew it we were trying to find the fastest way to the Lower Saddle again.  I think we took a pretty good line but probably could have been better.  From there we pussy footed around on the snow for a while before committing to running down the lower angle portion just off the head wall, another few minutes wasted.  Heading toward the headwall above the meadows my adductors cramped like crazy, I think it was from all the down climbing.  I had to sit there and stretch for a few minutes before it let up, I thought I might be done for the day.  Luckily I could run fine, it would only cramp if I squatted down while jumping from boulder to boulder.  Meanwhile, Andy kept running and twisted his ankle for the first and second time of the day.  I caught up around the meadows and we ran together from there on out, Andy only rolled his ankle one more time for a total of 3 on the day.  

THOUGHTS

It will go faster.  I've heard people doubt the speed record of 3:06 but I think it's reasonable.  REALLY fast but I have no reason to think it's impossible.  We ran for a total of 4:11 with 38 minutes of non-moving/climbing time, making a total of 3:33 actual running time.  The non-running time was drinking, eating, climbing, cramping and rolling ankles.  I think we could cut that by 10 mins or so if we were a little more efficient, climbed faster and a bit luckier (more coordinated, ankles).  We could be fitter.  I think we're in pretty good running shape but aren't really used to running up hill.  A little more specific training would go a long way.  This was a fun game in the winter, turns out it's fun in the summer as well.  Round 2, soon...  Click the view details tab for splits and what not.

Happy?

Lunch brought to us by Amanda and Jessie and cold lake water afterwards was GREAT!!!

8-13-2011 Gold Face, The Grand Teton

Jimmy and I both had the weekend off and we thought a little run up to the Tetons was needed.  Neither of us had been on the Lower Exum so we decided to have a look and climb a variation called the Gold Face.  We think we climbed it but there's no way to be sure, our topo was pretty crappy.  Whatever we did was pretty steep and on mostly gold rock, I'm going to call it the Gold Face.  The approach went smoothly and we were sitting at the Lower saddle in just over 3 hours.  From there it's a short scramble to the base of the Lower Exum.  We took the first 2 pitches of the LE and then traversed into the Gold Face variation.  

Jimmy scrambling toward the base of the Lower Exum

After the fun first 2 pitches of the LE, route finding was a little questionable. We had the topo form the Ortenburger/Jackson guidebook and think we were pretty much on but there were a lot different options and we couldn't tell which one was correct. I know we hit certain key features of the route like the "steep black roof" but linking the features was a choose your own adventure type of climb with multiple options, pretty fun. What really threw us off was hitting the Golden Staircase a pitch earlier then expected.  Not sure how that happend but we must have belayed in the middle of a few pitches, oh well. I think after every pitch one of us said something like, "wow, that was pretty good."  The rest of the shots are of Jimmy.

Jimmy's butt, Pitch 4, more Gold Face above

Route finding

Gold Face

 The Gold Face puts you out right at the base of the Upper Exum.  A quick run up that had us eating and napping on the summit under a sunny windless sky.  We had plans for another day in the park but we were pretty tired and my feet were pretty blistered, a lot of Diet Mountain Dew and long drive home in the middle of the night sounded better.

Golden Staircase

V-pitch

Summit naps!

8-6-2011 Jupiter Steeplechase

David, Andy and I all went into this race with pretty high expectations.  Andy ran well last weekend, David was 2nd at this race last year, I felt like I was in pretty good form.  Ideally we would have had a Sugar House sweep! We knew that wouldn't happen the second we got to registration and saw the rest of the field, stacked (well, as stacked as a small local trail run can be).  This was the last event of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup and the OR show was in town which contributed to the quality of the field.

The Up
The race is an out and back.  Up for the first 8 miles (3000 feet) and then back. The up was more exciting then I could have hoped for.  Running felt pretty flat (me, not the course) from the start.  David got out quick and I decided to hang back a bit.  I ran a few hundred meters behind him for the first couple miles and once that got boring I bridged the gap so we could run together.  Turns out I ran a little too hard to catch him and felt pretty awful as I pulled up.  I said hi and immediately slowed to try and recover a bit, I felt lame.  A mile or two later Luke Nelson passed me.  Shortly after he went around a turn I saw him sprinting back down the road yelling "MOOSE!  Turn around, a mother moose is charging me!"  Glad to have an excuse to turn around and run down hill I did.  Bernie was behind me and I yelled at him to turn around too.  He didn't.  He kept running up and once the moose charged around the corner Bernie bent over and picked a few rocks up.  The moose stopped and ran away. At least someone in the group wasn't scared. The rest of the up was slow and hard. I topped out with Jason right behind Bernie and Luke.  David a few hundred meters ahead.

The Down
The down also had moments of excitement.  Not sure if I've ever taken a fall while running but I've made fun of my friends who have.  Now they can make fun of me.  For some reason I didn't see a switch back until I was right on it and I kind of ran off the trail and fell to my hands.  Once again, lame.  To make matters even worse Luke and Bernie beat me to the top and were running the down a lot harder than I wanted to. Meaning, they left me.  A few miles from the finish I passed David just standing in the middle of the trail.  Apparently he just fell for the second time and was trying to make sure everything worked.  From there out the running was uneventful.

Thoughts
I was 5th in 1:57 or 1:58, David 6th a few minutes back, and Andy was another few back.  I can't speak for the others but I didn't compete very well.  A race never feels that good when you let the competition beat you and you don't even respond.  When Luke passed me I didn't even try to go.  I just wanted to play it conservatively.  When the moose incident happend and I found myself 25 meters down trail from Luke and Bernie, I didn't really push to catch up and run with them, I just stayed back, conservative.  On the down I didn't try to bridge the small gap and go with Luke and Bernie.  One fun thing about races is competing with others.  Oh well, next time.  Milliseconds.com did a great job with results (sarcasm).  They only missed 20% (myself and David included) of all the guys' times.

Paddle boarding at Deer Creek afterwards found David and I falling some more... Also, don't swim with a phone in your pocket.

Derkas goes down for the 3rd time

Gate Boulders, Sugar House Track Club, Demolition Derby

Neil of 5.14 Cherry Red fame is in town from Indiana to go to the OR show and represent Hoosier Heights and Evolv.  We got out for a bit at the Gate Boulders, turns out bouldering's hard on the fingers/skin. Chris Sharma happend to be at the Gate Boulders too, kind of cool. No pics, felt lame to ask...

SHTC is going strong, daily runs.  Today we were 6 deep running repeats (4x5min) at the park.  Props to Matt and Jared for racing to the park directly from work and still going hard.  

Demolition Derby= ridiculous.  

Neil warming up on Standard Overhang

Heber's finest in action