Day #10 in the Tetons

Another hot and hazy day; I suspect there must be a fire somewhere. However, we had a good day with Mark doing his longest bike ride in 5 years. We did a two hour outing, 25k from Moose to Jenny Lake and back. Heading home in about 30 hours.

Another great day

A late start - just before noon - but a great ride from Moose to Jenny Lake and back. This was Mark's longest ride in four years … 25K … yahoo!

Day #9 in the Tetons

I had a nice night; slept well, under a dark and starry sky, on a cot. Started the morning with some tea, everybody sleeping, and me starting to charge watch and iPhone with Tori's solar charger. NEED TO GET ONE FOR THESE TRIPS!

Great day - #8 - in the Tetons

Started with a great 30 minute bike ride, a wonderful hike with fantastic views, and then a good wash up in Jackson Lake.

USA SKIMO UPDATE



Hours of daylight is getting less and less by the day and the dog days of summer will soon be behind us. That can only mean one thing; winter is quickly approaching. USA Skimo staff and athletes have been hard at work this offseason working on a number of key initiatives that we hope you will be just as stoked about as we are!

The first stop of the 2025/2026 ISMF World Cup will be held at Solitude Mountain Resort in Brighton, UT on December 6th and 7th. Not only is an ISMF World Cup coming to the US for the first time in 20 years, but the outcome of the Mixed Relay will determine if the US sends athletes to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Currently, USA sits one point behind Canada with the winner securing the "Americas" continental quota.

A good first week in the Tetons

No really big days, but good time with friends and a good time to be around these big mountains of my youth. I managed 186k (165k bike and 21k run) with 4700' vertical.

Day #6 in the Tetons

A pretty casual day, catching up with Mark, Liz, John, and Karin. We did a very casual bike tour of the Colter Bay Area, which I supplemented with many laps. The visitor center had some excellent exhibits as well as a great selection of books.

A late afternoon weather alert for a significant storm which never materialized up in northern Wyoming. It did however, get us doing a flury of buttoning up the camp, as well as setting up a tent for me.

Day #5 in the Tetons

Feeling a little tired - poor sleep and pushing too hard - so it will be a partial rest day. I biked 18k, to Moose and back for ice cream. Then I packed, and spent most of the day, waiting for Mark in the library. Finished my re-read of Angels Of Light, which I am gifting to Tori, and the picked on Roger Frison-Roche's The Grand Crevasse of the shelf.

It is a wonderful library.

Day #4 in the Tetons

A few rain storms today, and a bit of an off day, but I managed an hour run, an hour of easy bouldering, and a 35 minute bike ride. (I rode to Jenny Lake to eat ice cream, but I also brought back a PBR tall boy.)

Day #3 in the Tetons

After biking the Antelope Road Loop, I stopped at Blacktail Butte to check out the climbing crag. It looked like pretty solid limestone, well bolted, but as I suspected nothing south of 5.9, and most of it looked north of 5.10.

Not exactly fossil friendly, but a nice short hike to the top of the crag, with some great views.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1979 North Ridge of Grand Teton

Today on my 40 K bike ride I noticed that there was a great view of the north side of the Grand Teton so I snapped this picture from the Snow Mountain camping zone.

I climbed this classic Alpine grade IV route with Richard Wilmot from South Africa, a climber I met in Chamonix, and then climbed in the gunks, and Yosemite.

All sorts of great memorabilia at the Climbers Ranch

DAY #2 in the Tetons

An excellent day. In the morning, a nice mountain run - Level 4 - up past Lake Taggert and Bradley. After lunch and a short nap, I biked into Jenny Lake to do three things: get an ice cream, search for Jenny Lake boulders, and bring a beer back to the Climbers Ranch. (I managed 23.6 KPH on a Schwinn clunker, so it was still cold when I got back.)

TETONS: day 1

I had a good week of training getting ready for the Tetons. I logged 16 hours, on 178k (146k bike and 32k run), with 4250' vertical. I also managed to do two modest strength sessions.

Just landed in Chicago with four hours to kill. Weather looks good in the park and I'll arrive at 4pm, hopefully catch a taxi to Moose, and then hitch a ride to the Climbers Ranch.

TETONS: day 1

I had a good week of training getting ready for the Tetons. I logged 16 hours, on 178k (146k bike and 32k run), with 4250' vertical. I also managed to do two modest strength sessions.

Just landed in Chicago with four hours to kill. Weather looks good in the park and I'll arrive at 4pm, hopefully catch a taxi to Moose, and then hitch a ride to the Climbers Ranch.

Final tuneup workouts before I head west!

Today is day six, post knee injections, and I am feeling good.

Excited to be heading back to the Tetons, and see old friends, especially my buddy Mark. The goals for this trip are pretty modest: do some good trail runs and hikes, tag at least one easy summit, a bit of bouldering, and some bike riding with Mark. Also hoping to spend time between 7-9000' to get ready for the Mammoth VK in September.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: the rigid designator

Jon Waterman on the lead in February 1979, outside of Vail Colorado. Jon, Mike Young, and I spent a week climbing some of the newer test pieces … now classics done regularly.

More browsing in the Hock Alpine Library

Ain't that the truth: mountains speak to some, the sea to others, the bustling metropolis can enchant, but for Selden it's the well tended pasture.



Kilian Jornet’s next project!

In September, on foot and by bike, he will attempt to climb all 72 of the 14,000' peaks in America.

https://www.irunfar.com/kilian-jornet-states-of-elevation-2025-us-mountain-project

FOLLOWUP: The art and science of saving snow

https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2017-93/tc-2017-93.pdf

Saving snow at Mount Van Hoevenberg

https://mtvanhoevenberg.com/2025/06/26/the-art-and-science-of-saving-snow/?utm_source=Acoustic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20250804MVHAugGetYourPass%20(1)&utm_content=

Poor Air Quality continues into tomorrow

Despite that, it's been a good week. A review of my first three months of training this year has me on track to hit my primary yearly goals of 775 hours and over 200,000' vertical. My log also showed a big uptick on days on the MTB, but far off pace in terms of strength sessions.

This week - a small taper for the Stratton race - however I still managed to log 14 hours, on 143k (114k bike and 29k run), with 4,130' vertical. I also managed two strength and two stretching sessions.

Stratton Uphill Race CANCELLED because of poor air quality

PRETTY HAZY. However, the nordic Olympians led the charge fast hiking up the hill - no doubt solid Level 1 for them - while I was in solid Level 4 zone! A wonderful day, a good Q&A, and I got a t-shirt in the raffle.

Heading to Vermont for the Stratton Mountain Uphill Run

Temperatures have dropped, and the cool weather has made for great training. My training has consisted in one good uphill run a day, some strength sessions, and now that the TdF is behind us, ample time on the exercise bike to work through Band Of Brothers.

Maybe this should be on the bucket list?

The Vasaloppet Experience fasterskier.com

JMR hill run

What used to be a pretty regular training session, has gone out of fashion for me … why drive with the hilly new nordic comp trails? Still it's a great run; as per usual, my downhill time was quite a bit slower for the sake of my knees!

Stamping some of my personal alpine library books

One of my retirement projects - with gifting items to various people and organizations in mind - is to stamp all 2000+ items in my collection.  

Having almost finished my birthday climbing book gifts, I pulled this gem off the bookcase for a re-read. This was the expedition where Tasker and Boardman were killed attempting the north ridge. (Shortly before they left for Everest, Joe Tasker shared a photo and some insights with me about his climb of Dunagiri, for which I had a permit.)

BLAST FROM THE PAST … our retreat from the West Rib

In late April 1979 Mark Ewing, Mike Brochu, and Don - last minute unsuitable replacement for Pat Carr - and I headed up to Alaska to attempt an early repeat of the Cassin Ridge. It became clear that Don was way out of his element, and so we switched objectives to the West Rib. At just a bit under 15,000' our stove blew up and destroyed our tent and some of Brochu's gear, so we headed down.

On a different note, despite hot and muggy weather, as well as poor air quality, I had a good week of training. I logged 16:15 hours, on 182k (152k bike and 30k run) with just under 4400' vertical. With the Stratton Uphill Race on Sunday, I will cut back a bit this week. Also, the end of July marks the first third of my training year, so I will review the data.

A new FKT on Mont Blanc … a nice short video

https://www.planetmountain.com/en/videos/elise-poncet-sets-mont-blanc-fastest-known-time.html

First ski race in the run up to 2026 Olympics

Rollerski Season…Rolls, as Freed, Ogden Ski to Wins at Craftsbury Lost Nation Roll fasterskier.com

Good run on East MountainTrail

Nice signage from the Thursday night summer race series.

A followup article … maybe more important than the tariffs is the uncertainty

https://www.powder.com/gear/tariff-uncertainty-continues-to-roil-ski-industry-supply-chains?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=powder&utm_content=&hashed_email=d3e1750ccc9b1e465c1b40f08f02801e3dea865ffbb0f204242c79da5feb2147

Tariffs and the outdoor industry

So, this might just be a clever marketing ploy; however many niche climbing, and ski mountaineering products are made in Europe where there is a mass market for ski crampons, AT bindings, skins, and specialized ice tools.

But, maybe we are going to see the prices go up on other items like Colnalgo bikes as well as Fischer skis.

Nice day for a hike on Whiteface Ski Trails