Lake Tahoe Basin Threatened By Caldor Fire

 https://www.adventure-journal.com/2021/08/south-lake-tahoe-under-evac-warning-as-caldor-fire-marches-closer/

The small town of Strawberry, near Lover's Leap, has been severely impacted. The Tahoe area crags will not see any climbing this Labor Day. Pray for some rain. 

Ten more days before I begin to taper …

Another good training week. With just three weeks until the 12 hour Pawling Train Run, I have only 2-3 more big days. This past week I logged 19.3 hours, 170k (105k exercise bike, 65k run), and 3300' vertical. My goal this coming week is for two six hour combo workouts (4 hour run, and 2 hour exercise bike), with my final big week doing a six hour run. 

I know the cross training has made it easier on my knees, but we will see how effective it really is on September 18th. 

Courtney Dauwalter … back-to-back UTMB wins

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=44&v=z2fRkAvAbMQ&feature=emb_title

Great Coffee Table Book … MOUNTAINEERS

I bought a used copy - almost mint condition for $7.51 - with wonderful pictures, and a text that goes from Otzi the 5000 year old iceman to Steve House, the Giri-Giri Boys, and Ueli Steck. (FYI … the black line which I enhanced is the Red Sentinel Route first climbed in 1928, and which I soloed in the 1970s.)

Francois wins his fourth UTMB

Francois approaching the finish line, running down the Main Street in Chamonix.  His time of 20:45:59 was blistering!

UTMB WEEK CONTINUES

Well, the TDS, OCC, and MCC are in the books. Live coverage of the CCC (100k) is on my screen now. (The streaming link is below.) The first finishers of the 300k PTL are in Chamonix. And finally, the flagship UTMB race starts in a few hours.

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTSngPPs7k

Checking course for the Pawling 24 Hour Trail Running Festival

I drove south four hours to do a workout on the September race course.

The loop is about 1.7 miles, with one hill to climb with 160' vertical. No problem, except when I am racing in the 12 hour division, I will go up and over the hill pictured below 20+ times. The course goes around Green Mountain Lake, and is a mix of shaded single track and golf course-like lawn.

However, yesterday it was 93 degrees with 100% humidity, so my 3.5 hour run was a bit brutal. The big plus, was stopping for a great dinner in the Saratoga area, with a college buddy.

The UTMB Week is here!

The MCC race (40k) for chamonix residents and volunteers has finished. The PTL has been going for 30 hours, and the lead team has already covered 115k of the 300k race course. (No teams have entered from America!). The TDS race starts in about 30 minutes. 

David Robert’s … climbing luminary passes away

I knew of his battle with cancer from reading Limits Of The Known.  As this essay enumerates, he was a prolific author and climber, as well as a mentor to many, and a thoughtful and reflective person. I devoured his mountaineering classics Mountain Of My Fear, and Deborah (Legends and Lore) in the early 1970s, and they had a profound impact on my climbing career.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2021/08/david-roberts-climber-celebrated-adventure-writer-passes-away-at-78/

Good weekend …

In between schmoozing with camp and school alumni (reunion), I did a three hour jog in the Moosalamoo Recreation Area (near Middlebury) on Saturday with a former student. On Sunday I logged a 5.5 hour workout with 1000' vertical and 64k (17k run and 47k on exercise bike).  

Sierra Update … the mega traverse

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web21c/newswire-musiyenko-sierra-crest-traverse

Boardman-Tasker finalists

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web20c/newswire-boardman-tasker-shortlist-2020

Nice video of the standard route on Jungfrau

Looks like it's made for old guys like me …

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fsXEgxsVb6o&feature=youtu.be

A different kind of ski movie …

The Heroes Of Telemark is a WW II drama - relatively true to life - about Norwegian partisans, who sabotage and slow down the Nazi development of an atomic bomb. (Available for free on YouTube.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=axBiR8ZipPM

Award winning outdoor books

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2021/08/5-award-winning-outdoor-books-for-your-end-of-summer-reading-pleasure/

Nice Sunday long workout and a good week of training

Sunday was a five hour workout: 60 min exercise bike warmup; a three hour hike; finishing with a 60 minute exercise bike cool down. As for this week … 18.3 hours, 190k total (bike, run, ergometer), and three decent strength workouts.

Fantastic memories of the Cordillera Blanca

Sitting down on the deck of the Fossil Cabin, I was sipping bourbon and browsing through my Alpinist collection.  The article in Alpinist 31 about Leigh Ortenburger's Andean photography brought back many fond memories. I guess the top four places for me to revisit in these twilight years would be: Zermatt, Huaraz, Chamonix, and Jackson Hole. 

Blink Ski Festival In Norway

Well the US Biathlon Team has finished their summer trials, but in Cross Country and. Biathlon, no summer rollerski races matches the field that these events draw in Norway. Take a look …

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SageXHJdc4s

Back on the starting line for the Leadville 100

Well Anton is back on the starting line next week. He has spent the last decade fighting injuries, and moving towards being a multi-sport mountain dude; but next week he will jump back into this premier ultra for the first time since 2012.  His mileage is relatively modest, but it's clear from his vertical and time in the saddle that he is pretty darn fit. 

Even though heat and humidity continues I am starting to get psyched for winter

Amazon Prime has this excellent freebie …

https://www.amazon.com/Steep-Bill-Briggs/dp/B001B7VUN2

Old guys and the need for strength training

https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/aging-athletes-power-research/

Good weekend …

Nice weather, but a bit too hot and humid for my liking. Lucy had one good race at the biathlon summer nationals, and one abysmal shooting day. (That's biathlon for you.)

I had a nice hike up Burke Mountain and look forward to skinning some laps on it, come this winter.

Biathlon Summer Nationals

This weekend I am heading over to Vermont to watch my daughter compete in, what functions as, an Olympic qualifier. She is currently ranked 9th nationally, and so is a long shot to make the team. Especially given that work demands have put a crimp in her spring training.

However, every so often things click and there is that small ray of hope. Last week while finishing a three hour run on the 1980 Olympic trails, I dropped down to the new roller ski track and range, only to watch her calmly clean all her targets on the #1 range position. (If she shoots like that, she will be in the hunt.)

QUOTE OF THE WEEK … Mike munger

Well, some friends of mine have just spent some time in the Tetons. Not only am I jealous, but I am realizing it has been ages since my last visit. So, I pulled out the issue that profiled Grand Teton and started scheming.

Towards the close of collection of essays -covering half the issue - I came across the following from Mike Munger … 

the Tetons are a magical place. If you just went there things happened. You found you could climb things you couldn't do elsewhere, that you didn't know were possible. You could meet your childhood heroes and find out they were just regular people. You could meet the love of your life. It was all there.

Ain't that the truth.

Which knot to use: prusik, auto block, or klemheist?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fdOn2futNc

YESTERDAY’S REST DAY

Sauna … the cool down… tai chi (parting horse's mane) … and a towel off with a souvenir from the Rally To Restore Sanity (organized by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert).

The postponed 2020 college graduation

Lucy had a wonderful few days re-connecting with college buddies. She had four great years … summa cum laude, phi beta kappa, ski team captain, and she went to the NCAA championships.

This week she has a biathlon training camp in Jericho, Vermont. Next Saturday and Sunday are the summer national championships.

Another good week …

Starting to gear up for the September 12 hour event, so I am going shift to three long workouts a week. This week I managed three workouts, all over four hours. In the next month, I intend to slowly bump that up to three workouts of six hours a week.