Well, I'm thinking about starting this blogging business up again, however coming at it from more of a training point of view this time. As the snow starts to cover the mountains I've been living in for over a year, I am setting my sights on some lofty goals. All of which are centered around ski mountaineering racing (ski mo racing). If you don't know what this is (because very few people do, even here) it is this: Put skins (let you travel uphill on snow) on your skis, run up a snow covered mountain, take skins off, blast down said mountain, repeat. Last spring roomie Scott and I were introduced to this sport at the 5 peaks ski mo race here in Breck. It was 4 accents, equalling around 8500ft of vert. Both of us were very rookie. I, for one, was wearing a bike jersey, my relatively ginormous backcountry ski pack, using womens skis that were light in the ski world, but ridiculously heavy in the ski mo world, and a pair of rental boots that weighed a bit less then my own pair. And besides making crucial newbie mistakes, like letting our food freeze, and wearing rental boots (I had huge blisters for the last 3 hours of a 4.5 hour race), we had a blast and managed to not do horribly. I should also mention that my training was basically my winter of backcountry skiing. Trudging slowly up a skin track or through powder on a heavy set up. Scott had a few days on his, i'm gonna call it mid weight set up too (super light compared to a normal BC set up) but also never really trained to go fast. Basically what I'm getting at, is I got the itch...we both did. Here is a video of the five peaks in Breck, Scott and I make an appearance at 0:12 (you get to see my awesome set up) and again seeing scott cruising a 1:49 and my amazing duct taped water bottle holster at 1:54!

There are a few reasons why I'm gonna focus on ski mo racing this year. The first comes from my abysmal performance at the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs 50 miler in may. With the record snow fall, it was really hard to get a good ultra marathon base. I had to drive and hour and half at the least to find some good dry trails and on my wage as a liftie, it didn't happen too often. I did do alot of snow shoe running, but i just wasn't getting the volume (perhaps my refusal to run on paved roads was a bit stubborn). In what I hope is a correct prediction, training for ski mo racing is going to be great cross training for long distance trail running. It is considerably less impact letting me get more vert per day then running, i'll be doing a lot of vert and I think that it should be very beneficial for my climbing and descending legs once the snow melts, and you don't really get to go 60 mph snow shoeing. Another reason I wanna focus on it is because I think I can do well. I'm a strong aggressive skier and apparently that can be a real advantage in the sport (or rather a disadvantage if you aren't good) and I'm no stranger to clocking 10,000 ft of climbing in a day or getting after it for more than 6 hours. I will also be one of the youngest guys competing. Turns out, most 23 year olds (in Breck anyway) wouldn't be caught dead in lyrca, unless of course it was under 3 layers of tall tees and and a extra long hoodie, as they waddle to the bars so their jeans don't fall off. Basically saying that I'm hoping to get some sort of sponsorship out of this winter.
So this blog, for the time being, is going to be a look into a very inexperienced yet hopeful and motivated ski mo athlete's quest to wow some people and himself. I have no coach, only a few friends who dabble in the sport, and basically only my past experience in highly competitive endurance sports (if I can even call collegiate xc an endurance sport anymore) as a reference for training. It will be quite the experiment. But if it means I get to be outside enjoying this magical place, I am more then willing to get a little dirty figuring things out. Real training (I've been running and skinning) will start just as soon as Mtn Outfitters receives the bindings I ordered which should be by the end of the week. My basic plan is to spend the first month and a half to two months just getting out there and spending time on my skis logging alot of vert. Then I'll starting adding some threshold workouts as well as fast interval training to get that turnover better. And of course I'll be doing some long days hopefully once a week. I'll be tracking my training with my Garmin, mostly to see how much vert I'm doing, I'd like to see how much I put in this season on skis and possibly make a goal to work for.

This blog also might include a sub blog entitled "Bro Diaries" A look into the phenomenon of 'Being a Bro' from the perspective of an active young gentlemen from the inside of this otherwise lazy and ridiculous age demographic. I already have plenty of stories for this sub blog, from the ridiculous attire this community comes up with, to the comments I hear on the bus or at work. Here's a teaser: "I like disk golf, but man its just alot of hiking around, not a big fan of that" Awesome. Stay tuned for an in depth look to the a people whos only contribution to society is supporting ma and pop tall tee shops and local bars. Am I being elitist? Yes. OH! just remembered a conversation I overheard of a Snowboard instructor explaining to his student what "steeze" means. Gotta love Breck.

Well off to go run, got turned around by ski patrol this morning skinning up breck and therefore did not get the workout I intended. Dumb.


If you want more info on ski mo racing go here.

Two hundred and fifty-eight

I've come up with my race schedule for the year, and i'm pumped. Mostly because it will give me something to work for. Going to work as the sun rises and getting home as the sun sets makes it hard to get myself out there especially after a long day of standing in the cold dealing with some less than competent people. But, i've discovered the benefit of skiing/skinning in an out of work. I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen yesterday morning as skinned down the street on my way to a trail. An amazing way to wake up. And when frustration sets in when i'm dealing with people who can't get on a lift moving at a snails pace, I can either look up from my office to see the view of 10 to 15 peaks on the continental divide, or remember moments like yesterday morning. Anyway, here is the schedule:

Feb. 6: Gold Rush 7k Snowshoe Race, Frisco CO

March. 6: Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championships 10k, Beaver Creek CO

May 21: Jemez Mountain Trail 50 Mile, Los Alamos, NM

June 18: San Juan Solstice 50 mile Run, Lake City CO

July 8: Full pacing (~58 miles) of the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run, Silverton CO

August 20: Leadville Trail 100 Mile Run, Leadville CO (if i can afford the entrance fee)

There might be some local trail races scattered in there just for fun, and i intend to try and get some sponsors....hopefully.

His Newest Adventure

He just wrote a few sentences in an attempt to update his blog, but it was crap. Instead he called his talented author friend to write another one for him since the last one was awesome. To put it plainly and probably really understating it, his last week was chaotic. There were tens of thousands of people in town (apparently around 100,000). All the out-of-towners still didn't seem to dilute the bro take over and he was starting to get fed up. One of the days he worked (YES HE HAS A JOB) it was sub zero all day. He had found out that week that some law offices don't close for MLK day...dumb. One bitter sweet moment to save him from this week were his multiple skype sessions most notably the one with his family at 6:30 on christmas morning. Jelly Bellies and a stocking, and a christmas cracker and getting to see his beautiful family (obviously this is a pretty strong word for some of his 19 year old brothers) almost made him feel at home, but not really.


It kinda seems like this guy just keeps complaining, but really that isn't what this blog is about. It is about how all those frustrations melted away with two clicks of his boots into his bindings. But this wasn't any normal set of clicks, it was the clicks that signal the start of an adventure. Finally the stars aligned, and by stars he means his and his roommates schedules, and they had the time to do some backcountry. Detracting a little from the bad ass-ness of the adventure was the ski lift ride up to the top so they could get to the backcountry gate. But getting away from that first paragraph and into the untracked, beautiful, empty, slightly windy, raw, and dangerous wilderness was all the bad ass-ness he needed. The effort coupled with the constant awareness of the avalanche terrain around him let his worries anxieties and frustrations fall away fall from the sky in fresh snow that he was about to destroy. It was yet again another of those awesome moments where there were many factors that could make someone grumpy, strong cold winds, almost zero visibility yet there was a large smile in his face the entire 2000 foot hike to just below the summit of Peak 6 (some unstable looking snow denied their summit attempt).
The skiing wasn't amazing, he could't see 10 feet in front of him and the snow went from wind slab to deep powder every 10 feet or so, but boy was it the most fun he had had on skis yet this season. Scott saying, "Man we need to do this more often" seemed to sum up their morning. There is nothing like earning your turns.

To cap off this awesome day he just found out that while law offices might not close for MLK day, they sometimes let off their employees. And as he tells his author that this should suffice for the blog, he can't help but think to himself, Everything is Promising.