Making It Better - Gear mods for the obsessed

Disassembling the Petzl QuarkDane Burns is a machinist with an unquenchable thirst for cold and scary alpine and ice climbing. He writes about it frequently on his blog, www.coldthistle.blogspot.com. Bloggers in the climbing world seem to find each other with some regularity. I read Dane and he reads me. Not too long ago, he commented about my Petzl Quark ice tools which he noticed in some pictures of me climbing the Black Ice Couloir. He implied that my set-up was less than ideal and he could offer me an upgrade of his own creation. Cool.

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Time to Get Fit

Hill bounding hurtsHere in Jackson we're having one of the best autumns in recent memory. Week after week of splitter blue skies and warm temps nearly make me forget that the ski season is almost upon us. But changing colors and cool mornings lately are reminding me that early season preparation needs to begin in order to be ready to skimo race in January.

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Death Canyon to String Lake Trail Run

Dropping off Hurricane Pass into the South Fork of Cascade CanyonThis past Saturday I ventured out onto one of the area's classic trail loops, the Death Canyon to the South Fork of Cascade Canyon. This run climbs over 6,000 vertical feet in about 24 miles. It travels from the White Grass trailhead, past the Phelps Lake overlook, up to the Death Canyon patrol cabin, hangs a right up to Static Peak divide, summiting Static Peak, then down across the basin on the west side of the range, into Alaska Basin, over Hurricane Pass and finally down the South and Main Cascade drainages to the String Lake parking lot. We traversed an amazing amount of alpine terrain on mostly runnable trails.

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Expectation and Commitment

The morning's breakfast offering - Broad Fork TwinLast week I traveled to the Wasatch to join the irrepressible Andy Dorais for an attempt at the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Link-up (WURL).  Since it had only been completed twice but attempted many times I knew we were in for something hard. On the other hand, knowing the fastest time was just shy of 18 hours, I figured we had as good a chance as any at not only completing it but, perhaps, even vying for the record. Ah, the arrogance of ignorance.

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Running Different

Luke Nelson running the way it should be doneBarefoot running. It conjures images of loin-cloth-clad indigenous people running effortlessly through the wilderness and drinking from streams on the fly. Their feet have never been shod and their soles bare the leathery skin to prove it. They run smoothly over varied terrain with an efficient stride honed from a life-time of practice.

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