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 The inaugural Aspen Backcountry Marathon was this past Saturday. Christy and I both took part in the fledgling event that saw 240 starters, a majority of which seemed to be from out of town, an impressive number considering it’s first year status.
Kudos to Aspen’s Special Events Department for getting this one off the ground. Permit issues and liability concerns can make it nearly impossible to start new events these days, yet the surging popularity of races demands more capacity. Since many events sell out to their maximum permitted sizes, sometimes so quickly a lottery is needed to determine who gets in, new races are needed.
The good sized field started out from Wagner Park at 6am Saturday, and followed popular biking, hiking, and running trails that were carefully connected so as to make a big loop around town. It first climbed Smuggler, then cruised through Hunter Creek and Van Horn Park, along the Hobbit Trail to Four Corners and then down the Sunnyside Trail. read more>>>
 Christy, on the final descent from Buckskin Pass. On Saturday, Christy and I got out on our favorite local linkup of trails and passes, the Four Pass Loop. According to some friends who had been out there earlier in the summer, the lingering snow and high water levels, the theme of summer thus far, had made the trip pretty challenging. But it seems that summer’s persistence has finally won over spring, as we knew it eventually would, and the whole loop is now in pretty good shape. So get out there soon, because it’s already August, and there’s only about 6 good weeks before the snow starts flying up there again. read more>>>
 Still smiling. Click to enlarge. Go Christy. It’s your birthday.
Actually, if you know Christy it’s more like a birth-week, or even month-long celebration, a notion confirmed by the candles that came with the dessert at the restaurant last night, some six days after the actual date. read more>>>
 The final steps. Click any pics to enlarge. This just doesn’t seem to get any easier.
When it was all said and done, I kissed the Hardrock on Saturday, 31 hours and 55 minutes after starting the morning before, for 9th place. It was the 4th time in as many attempts to do so, yet despite the experience I’ve accumulated through those years, this time around seemed harder than usual.
I think it goes without saying it’s never easy. With all the time it takes to cover so many miles across such challenging terrain, there are countless things that can go wrong. It’s not just a test of who’s fastest on their feet through the mountains, but also, who can best manage all the issues that arise, because it throws a lot at you.
A couple days after it was done, while I was letting the post-run soreness and swelling run its course, I did an interview with Jon Maletz which I thought summed up the day well, so I figured I’d share it here. read more>>>
 Well, it's not my lucky number, but it'll do. It’s time for another lap. Hardrock starts tomorrow at six.
It’ll be my 4th time participating, and my 3rd trip in the counter-clockwise direction. That is, the race heads towards Lake City, then over Handies Peak, to Ouray, then Telluride, Ophir, and back to Silverton. Familiar as it has become, like a lot of Colorado, the San Juans are still buried in snow up high, so it makes it tough to predict how things will go. Snowy passes can be slow post-holing in the daytime heat, yet those same passes might be firm, slippery, and dangerous in the middle of the night. Of course it can also makes things faster.
Also on the “news” front, a reroute out of Telluride is reportedly adding a few miles to the course, and apparently they aren’t compensating for it by shortening the course elsewhere. I guess the thinking is that after 100 miles, what’s another three? read more>>>
 Atop Rito Alto Peak, with the Northern Sangre 14ers out to the left, and the Blanca group, in the distance behind. Looking out from the summit of Tijeras Peak the weekend prior, we wondered what the northern end of the 75-mile, snake-like ridge that makes up the Sangres was like. So we decided to make the trip down here for a second weekend in a row, to go check it out.
This time, we approached from the west, via the San Luis valley, opting to tag some summits as part of a long trail run/ hike outing. We headed up towards Rito Alto Peak, 13,794 ft., the 110th tallest mountain in the state, along the trail and past the lake that bears its name. We gained the ridge at Hermit Pass, on the spine of the Sangres. An easy hike north put us on Rito Alto’s summit, after which we descended and scampered up Hermit Peak, 13,350 ft., the adjacent peak on the ridge south of the pass. read more>>>
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