Mount Shasta

Messner Couloir

I have camped at the base of this route for a total of two months over the past decades, and I have never seen, or suspected an avalanche of this magnitude. I guess this is all by way of saying, that shit happens in the mountains, and even though you believe you have accounted for all the objective dangers, you just may be deluding yourself.

Getting Fit

After a week in California - skiing and hiking - on Mount Shasta and in the Tahoe area, I have a good aerobic base. Since then I have managed to work out twice a day, usually some combination of running, rowing, yoga, or hiking with poles. (Yesterday it was laps on the biathlon trails.) Despite more aerobics, more desserts have meant that I have not lost much weight.

NYSEF Hike

Lucy, her coach, and a bunch of local, J2 nordic skiers did a big day in the mountains yesterday ... Wright, Algonguin, Iroquois, and Boundary.

WESTERN GOLD ... a new bouldering film

YOGA FOR RUNNERS

CLICK HERE

Lauren Fleshman ... Olympic Trials ... courage, adversity, resilience, and a can do attitude

Climbing in Chamonix

If you climb in Chamonix, read about climbing in Chamonix, or just dream about Cham ... One thing is always clear, the enormous size, scope, and variety of climbing is unmatched anywhere else in the world. CLICK HERE TO READ A RECENT TRIP REPORT ABOUT A ROUTE I HAD NEVER HEARD OF. Chamonix has it all ... Ice, rock, sport, trad, mixed, classics, heinous, and X-rated ... Even high quality 25 pitch climbing routes, near a hut, which nobody has heard of!

Lucy's track workout

Lucy has wanted to train more seriously for nordic skiing, and so she has been working out with the gals from the New York Ski Educational Foundation for the past month. Most of the girls are slightly older, and all have raced at the junior nationals.

Thus for the past six weeks, every other week she has gone to the track and run a 1600 meter time trial. Yesterday, after a 600 meter warm up, she ran 4 X 100 meter repeats at race pace (21-22 seconds), with a 300 meter jog recovery.

As per her time trials, they started at a 7:45 mile, dropped to a 7:15 mile, and yesterday she logged a 6:41.9 mile. She followed this with several cool down loops, some stretching, and a ten minute core workout.

I think she is good for a 6:15 or maybe even a six minute mile before the end of the summer. She has clearly also gotten stronger with her once or twice a week double pole workouts on roller skis. Needless to say ... It will be a struggle for me to keep up with her in the Loppet or Canadian Ski Marathon.

On the road to the cordillera huayhuash

On The Road Episode VII - Welcome to the Jungle from Sweetgrass Productions on Vimeo.

What was the greatest Olympic Performance Ever?

Others might pick Spitz, or Heiden, or Phelps, but Zatopek's triple gold in the 1952 Olympic long distance races, will probably never be equalled. CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE.

Summer biathlon

I took Lucy to a small running biathlon race in Albany yesterday. There were about a dozen competitors in this 6k event, with four shooting stages. The event was run relay style, in that you had three spare rounds - which needed to be hand loaded - in each shooting stage to clear your targets. As she was the youngest, she competed in the "sport category" only shooting prone at targets that were 30 instead of 50 meters away.

She only needed three spare rounds and had the fastest time of the day ... 36:34. (I did not register but ran the course for some exercise.)

Skiing in Bolivia

Back in the Adirondacks

My flight got in at 12:30 am, and I got back on campus at 2:45 am. Even on Sunday I still feel a little jet-lagged, however last evening I did a nice hike with ski poles over on the biathlon trails.

Blast from the Past ... Kieners on Longs Peak

10-15 years ago, as fossils get older, who can remember exact times and dates ... Hock, Mark, Brian, with Danny sitting it out at the camp site.

Hans Florine interview ... speed record on El Cap

CLICK HERE to read an interview on the Planet Mountain website.

Olympic Track and Field Trials are Starting

CLICK HERE TO READ A HISTORICAL ESSAY ABOUT THE OLYMPIC TRIALS.

Quote of the Week ... edmund hillary

Training: forefoot v. heel strike

CLICK HERE to read a summary of a new Harvard running study. (You may also access the full research report here as well.)

Easy hike and yoga in Tahoe

While Danny went to field day at the end of the school year, Liz went off to work, and Tori and Greg slept in, I did a casual two hour session at Alpine Meadows ... great view of the lake and sub-alpine flowers.

Heading back to the Bay Area via Tahoe

A quick visit with Danny and the Ewing clan ... A little hike and a little rock climb.

Another Great Day On Shasta

Yesterday I did a couple of laps from Panther Meadows to the base of Sargents Ridge. I head back this morning for a short ski, then I hop in the car to drive to Tahoe and see that famous fossil, THE GREY FOX ... Danny Hyde. I have skied three different areas in my five days here: Avalanche Gulch, Green Butte, and Powder Bowl. THIS IS DEFINITELY WORTH A RETURN TRIP.

Honnold and Ueli couldn't but Honnold and Florine do!

Alex Honnold and Hans Florine break the 31 pitch speed record on the Nose by 13 minutes. CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT IT AT THE ALPINIST WEBSITE.

Avalanche on Denali

Four Japanese climbers are presumed dead after they were caught and buried in an avalanche on Motorcycle Hill. I think this may have been the first - ever recorded - avalanche activity in that area. I have been over that 11,000' terrain 4-5 times, and while it is a pain in the ass to carry a heavy load through it, I never really considered it a particularly dangerous spot ... I guess you can never really tell.CLICK HERE TO READ MSNBC COVERAGE.

Alpine Touring Boots

In the next few months the new boots will arrive in stores, magazines will have ads screaming at you, and places like Off Piste (thanks for the photo) will ply you with reviews. I have to tell you, this trip to Shasta has confirmed my love for the Dynafit TLT 5 series.

Another great warmup on Shasta

I had some school business to attend to in Ashland so I had a shorter day today ... 2.5 hours, 2000', and some nice turns in Avalanche Gulch.

Alex Honnold's Solos Make The New York Times

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

What has revolutionized your ski mountaineering?

CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM THE SKINTRACK WEBSITE.

Joan Benoit-Samuelson

I Have not seen the movie, however the trailer looks quite appealing. I do remember her 1984 Olympic gold effort vividly. Moreover, breaking three hours in the marathon in five different decades is pretty amazing, not to mention narrowly missing to qualify for the 2012 Olympic marathon trials when your 53 ... She is obviously pretty burly!

Great Day On Shasta

I got in late last night, so no alpine start for me. I hiked for 40 minutes to get to the snow, slapped on my skins for the next two hours. The descent on soft snow was enjoyable and quite casual, even for me. I logged about 3K of climbing and was out for four hours. Oh, did I forget to mention, it was blue sky and sunny all day long.

Ski touring in June .. yahoo!

I have about a one mile hike before I hit snow.

Ring of Fire ... ski mountaineering on volcanoes

As I head out to drive to Mount Shasta, I thought it appropriate to read the recent POWDER MAGAZINE summary of the trip that skied all the Cascade volcanoes.CLICK HERE

After Pre and the men of Oregon ... there were the fast women

Climbing accidents in the Canadian Rockies

CLICK HERE to read an excellent article from GRIPPED ... You can not eliminate accidents but you can learn something from them.

New women's speed record on the Nose

These are some burly gals ... Jes and Quinn after their 10 hour 19 minute blast.

Moonflower Buttress Soloed?

The word at Cold Thistle Alpinism is that Colin Haley has soloed the Bibler-Klewin route on Mount Hunter. (The Bible-Klewin route is on the left and the Backes-Twight route on the right.)

Awesome iPhone App ... Sprint Timer

Today was a very busy day, trying to catch up on work, and start the packing process for my trip to California. I managed a 30 minute session on the rowing machine in the morning and three miles of barefoot running and some yoga on the grass around the track in the afternoon. (Lucy did some roller skiing and as you can see, in just a couple of weeks has dropped her mile time by over 30 seconds.)

Monday is going to be a long day ... up at 4am to do some paperwork, meetings at school, hop in the car at 1:00 pm, and arrive SFO at 10:30, rent a car, and probably get to bed around midnight.

Finally, this is an awesome app, and will be very useful hand timing intervals this winter with the ski team.

Biathlon training

Yesterday I drove Lucy to an all-day biathlon clinic in Old Forge. Former Olympic coach Art Stegen and the top NY masters biathlete Sean Halligan were on hand to instruct this shooting clinic. The instruction focused on range procedure, position, sight alignment, and combination training. (I spent two hours doing laps up McCauley Mountain Ski Area.)

Afterwards we drove to Union College to attend my nephew's graduation dinner. A long day, as we hoped in the car at 6:30 am and got home at midnight.

The American Alpine Club Library

CLICK HERE to read about the American Alpine Club Library. It sounds like an amazing place. I used to visit it often in the late 1970s when it was in Manhattan.

The Art Of The Bivy

CLICK HERE to read the American Alpine Institute blog post ... there are only three ways to go!

Blast From The Past ... LeConte Memorial Boulder

This picture of some climbers sitting out the rain brought back fond memories ... In the mid to late 1970s I had several extended stays in The Valley with Mark. The first came in the Fall after we had met and climbed together briefly in Chamonix. I was climbing with Richard Wilmott from South Africa. Mark eventually did a Grade VI on the North Face of Half Dome, Richard and I did a Grade V on Middle Cathedral. The next excursion was a few years later with Michael Franklin, when we had an ill-fated attempt on Washington Column. A few years after that Mark and I were again on the South Face of the Column, all was cruisy, we had just about finished all the aid climbing and we bailed, because as I had talked him into going back to Denali, and he only had two weeks before he had to teach a course at Sierra College.

In all these cases, because I am hopeless with mechanical devices, I spent hours and hours, doing countless laps on the bolt ladder on this boulder ... Hauling from a hanging stance, jumaring, stepping up into the top step of the etrier ... I learned it all here!

Before I hang up the rack, I am still hoping to do the West Face of Leaning Tower, and no doubt I will be back at LeConte Memorial Boulder to freshen up my technique.

Lucy dryland training

For the past couple of weeks Lucy has bee training twice a week with a bunch of elite juniors from the New York Ski Educational Foundation. Yesterday was her first day out on rollerskis. She skied the 10k - relatively flat - River Road. Of course as they other kids have been roller skiing for several seasons it was a challenge to keep up with the pack! The picture is from the end of the workout, as they are waiting for some of the older girls who went out for another interval.

Heading to Bachelor and Shasta

As you can see from the webcam, there is still plenty of snow! I am heading West next week, and after some business in the Bay Area, it's off to do a little ski mountaineering. This morning I pulled out the Dynafit boots and did a 45 minutes hike to reacquaint the feet to the TLT-5.

Honnold Solos Yosemite Triple Crown in 18 Hours

CLICK HERE to read an interview with Alex Honnold, where he talks about his recent fast solo ascents of Watkins, El Cap, and Half Dome.

Minimalist Running

CLICK HERE to read the extended essay about all aspects of minimalist running from the 2010 RUNNER'S WORLD article.

A Long Day

Yesterday I was out the door at 4:45 am heading for Manhattan, as I had an important lunch meeting. I snapped this photograph at 8:45 pm on my return home ... dusk on the Eastern cirque of Giant from the Ausable Club.

Selden's 53rd Birthday

Slings and webbing don't last forever

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Click here to read the data from the Black Diamond Quality Control Lab.

The Perfect Runner

iPhone Apps For Avalanche Forecasting

I now have two highly useful applications on my iPhone, one by Mammut that has links to all the forecasting centers in the world, and Avy Lab which is made for collecting and analyzing snow pit data. Click here to read an intriguing article on the SKI THEORY WEBSITE about digital tools for the ski mountaineer.

American Alpine Club History

Click here to read the text of a recent speech delivered by the Honorary President William Lowell Powell.

El Presidente comes to the Adirondacks in five weeks

Soon after the July 4th celebrations, Liz, Tory, Greg and Mark will journey to the fabled six million acre Adirondack Park. There will be barn chores to do, saunas to fire up, crags to climb, trails to hike, cold lakes to wade into, and single malt to be sampled. Hopefully the weather will be as nice as it was last evening during the intermission of our end of year production, THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE.

BURNING CALORIES ... walking or running what's the difference

Click here to read Amby Burfoot's column from Runner's World magazine.