Leaving the east side of the Sierras and heading back to Tahoe

A wonderful nine days based out of Twin Lakes campground.

Good start to second week

A potpourri of skinning, snow, climbing, MTB, and trail running.

A great first week in the Sierrras

A great time with Danny and Mark. They fished at Twin Lakes, while I logged 12.5 hours of exercise on 119k (84k bike, 30k run, and 3.5k ski), as well as two PT stretching sessions.

Sierras Day 2

A beautiful Lake Tahoe day, overnight low of 40 degrees, clear sky, sunny, and a high of 70 degrees go. Much of the day revolved around checking gear, planning the trip to the east side, and buying food for our camp at Twin Lakes, outside Bridgeport.

In between all that, I managed to do my traditional first run, up on the old western states trail. I also managed to spend some time biking on the single speed old cruiser, which I will bring to the east side. A bit of yoga (actually PT stretches), and then instead of skiing, I headed up to a snow gully to test drive crampons and ice axe fittings. Truth be told, I never made it to the snow line as the bushwhacking was brutal, but I did manage to blow of some carbon dioxide for an hour.

We had lunch with Danny at the Bridge-tender, and hope to be on the road by 9am today.

Day 1 in the Sierras

Actually, Mark picked me up in Reno at 3pm, and we were sitting on his deck in Squaw Valley by 4:30pm. A long - but not too difficult - travel day that started at 2:45am (eastern) and I managed to stay up until 9:30pm (pacific). Pizza and wine with Mark and Liz with lots of catching up to do.

As soon as I have had the obligatory three cups of tea, I'll had out on an easy morning shakeout run on the old western states trail. Later in the morning I'll be ski touring over at Alpine Meadows which is closed.

Browsing Roper’s Climbing Guide To Yosemite



Another book - well thumbed - which I recently pulled off the Fossil Cabin shelf.  

In this fifty year old guidebook, there were more than two dozen routes that I had done; however that is not all the routes I have done in Yosemite!  That number does not include Tuolumne routes, nor does it include newer routes which were found in the more modern guidebooks. 

Of those routes, for many different reasons, the following are the most memorable:

• Reed pinnacle direct
• Moby Dick
• The Nutcracker
• Arrowhead arete
• Church bowl Terrace
• Bishops Terrace
• Bishops balcony
• Royal arches
• Washington column south face
• Monday morning slab
• Middle cathedral East buttress
• Middle cathedral north buttress

On a different note, in spite of the knee injections I managed a pretty good week of training. I logged 14.5 hours of exercise with 157 kilometers (126k bike and 31k run), with almost 3700'.  I also did one strength workout, and because of all the rain, only managed one MTB session. 

Getting ready for the Sierras

Today I am doing final tune-up workouts, packing, and driving down to the Albany airport. I fly out tomorrow morning at 5am, and arrive in Reno at 2pm. Should be some snow to ski on.

Tomorrow ZEGAMA … first of the iconic European mountain trail races

Streaming on the GTWS YouTube channel

https://www.irunfar.com/how-to-win-the-zegama-marathon-studying-race-strategy-from-the-data

Skiing The Line … the Teton Enduro Traverse

An amazing ski mountaineering route, well worth a quick read.

https://americanalpineclub.org/news/2025/5/19/the-enduro-traverse?mc_cid=5cd617c6f2&mc_eid=86a36fe15d

Skimo season is over but I am bringing skis to the Sierras

A quick video recap of Mezzalama 2025 one of the late April grand course races. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=80-2zIJ6ycQ

Browsing books at the Fossil Cabin

Given my knee injections, I needed to take it very easy the past two days. So, I grabbed this book off the shelf to thumb through.  In the 1960s and 1970s his cartoons appeared frequently in Summit, Mountain Gazette, and The British Mountain magazine, not to mention the underground, gunks based Vulgarian Digest.  He was also the illustrator for both of the Royal Robbins Rockcraft books.  He had his drawing pen on the pulse of the various trends in our climbing culture. 

As for my knees it's early days, but I seem to be getting some immediate pain relief … Hope it takes me through the Sierras.

New ski record on Mont Blanc

A great short video. 



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ILvQ8-YSHRg

College reunion

Last year was my 50th college reunion - the biggie - but this year was the big reunion for some of my slightly younger buddies. So, this past weekend I had a good time reconnecting with some guys that I haven't seen in over 60 years.

On a different note, despite reunion events, I managed a good week of training. I logged just under 15 hours, on 186k (160k bike and 26k run), with just over 4100' vertical.

2026 World Cup Finals coming to Lake Placid



Longest MTB ride in this young season

Felt good, wonderful time with Ted, and many excellent views. Hoping to do a metric century on the MTB at the Prouty in July.

More hiking and mountain biking …

With the return of nice weather; however I pushed things a little too hard, and have a slight hamstring pull.

Lactic Acid … what you know and don’t know

Quite a bit of this is a recycling of the early chapters of his book Endure.  That said, it is interesting stuff, and while he ties it in to the recently popular use of baking soda to enhance performance … he doesn't really give it a thumbs up or down. Worth reading.

https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/lactic-acid-muscle-fatigue/

Two modest runs and two modest MTB rides today

YAHOO: Another Spectacular Day

Last week was a wet one, and while I made the best of it, I was disappointed to only get out on the MTB twice. That said, it was a productive week of training, as I start to get ready for my trip to the east side of the Sierras.

I logged 15:18 hours, on 163k (128k bike and 35k run), with 4405' vertical, and one strength workout. This week will be drier and warmer, so I anticipate more time on the MTB, and am also looking at seeing old friends at the college reunion.

Mother’s Day

YAHOO … finally a spectacularly beautiful day.

I took Selden and Alison out to the Grand Adirondack Hotel for a big breakfast. Then came home for an easy run, before I met Lindsay Putnam - former NCS teacher - for a 25k gravel ride. After which, I had a short cool down run with Stash.

Sitting inside, waiting for Selden to finish mowing the pasture. Then it will be time for some bubbly prosecco.

Mountains And Painters

I just pulled this interesting anthology off my shelf; published in 1966, I opened it to one of the final essays, written in 1928 by Katherine Chorley. It's been ages since I have dipped into this collection of climbing literature.

An engaging article, whose thesis is that JMW Turner came the nearest to depicting on canvas what it actually feels like to be among mountain landscape. Of course, after that article I re-read an all-time classic by Tom Patey, about the first ascent of Zero Gully on Ben Nevis.

THE HUT TRAVERSE In Winter … a new FKT

A short film, well worth viewing.

 https://youtu.be/_q7S2SH0v-8?si=olzALREg3LkBat0T

Selden’s morning chores

Just a few of her chores include: moving the electric fences so the sheep have fresh grass to feed on. Replacing divots that were torn up from this winter's snow plowing. Finally, making sure that all the chickens and geese get back in the barn.




The US Biathlon Team is back on snow

Starting their Olympic training out in Bend, Oregon.  This is the usual place where the biathlon and nordic teams conduct their first on-snow camp. It has consistently good snow in May, as well as great opportunities for dryland training in the afternoon.

Slowly increasing the running volume

Also, focusing on increasing the vertical as well.

The week that spanned two training years

As a nordic ski racer, your official training year starts on May 1st, with April having been spent recovering and transitioning. May 1st came in the middle of the week this year, and this also happens to be my first week without skiing since late October.

Now that my ski season has finally ended, it's all about running, hiking, biking, and maybe some climbing. So, this week - logged on spreadsheets for two different training years - was an excellent start to the new season. I managed just under 16 hours, with 189k (161k bike and 28k run), on 4360' of vertical gain.

My goals for the coming year start with maintaining a foundation of 750 hours of training, 200,000' of climbing, 115 days on snow, and 75 strength sessions.

I also am pointing towards 4-6 races or special endurance events. These would probably include some of the following: Baxter Mountain 3.5mile race, Prouty 50 mile (or perhaps a metric century) the SMS Stratton Mountain Uphill, Climb to the Top of Vermont race, two nordic ADK Tour du Ski events, and the 24 hour skimo at Mount Abrams. Finally, hoping to tag some modest alpine summits in the Sierras, Rockies, or maybe Europe.

Excellent Essay … the importance of intention and attention

From 2005-2015 Anton was one of the best ultra-marathoners in the world. Injury and subsequent inability to run high mileage weeks led him to become a multi-sport athlete. Combining rock climbing, cycling, trail running, backcountry skiing in extended - often weeks long adventures - is now his preferred jam. Well written, and touching on many things personal and existential. ENJOY.

https://antonkrupicka.substack.com/p/snow-shovels-and-singlespeeds

Short reflections on my 2024-2025 season

As is often the case, many ups and downs, with a mixture of pleasant surprises as well as disappointments. (I was tempted to write "bitter disappointments," but I realize that in your 70s if you are injury free, putting on a race bib, and still having adventures … count your lucky stars.)

On the positive side of the ledger, I met or exceeded three major goals: overall volume of training, total number of days on snow, and logging adventures in Sierras, Tetons, Switzerland, and Norway.  Adding to this, I logged my longest MTB ride ever(67k). Strava verified that the 41k I skied in the Birken was the longest in over a decade.  Moreover, I finished third in my age group in the very competitive - gut busting - Broken Arrow VK. 

I wished I logged more vertical, stretched more frequently, and did more strength sessions. I also wish that I did more than four races, but my beefed up travel seemed to preclude more racing. 

For comparison, enclosed below are my reflections on the 2023-2024 season.

New training season started on May 1st

Given my background as a nordic racer, as tradition demands, yesterday was my first day of the 2025-2026 training and racing season. I had a good start to the new season logging 152 minutes, on 30k (25k MTB and exercise bike, 5k run), with 1,115' vertical.

The top level statistical summary for the 2024-2025 training year is as follows: 767 hours, 174,240' of vertical climbing, 117 days on snow, 249 combined days hiking or running, 274 days exercise biking and MTB, 75 days of stretching or yoga, and 60 strength sessions. 

Well, almost all of my exercise stats for the year were in the proverbial ballpark, with the exception of vertical ascent which fell quite short. No doubt, this was the result of doing more nordic "track" skiing and less skimo, as I prepared for the Birken in Norway, last March. 

How Vail Destroyed Skiing

An excellent twenty minute video.



https://youtu.be/0bfD4NiiMfo?si=Yp7odAjvF-P49O5y

GREAT ADIRONDACK TRAIL RUN



The15 Steepest Mountains In The World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nLV9oLBJU

A good recovery week

A week full of rain, some sunny days, snow squalls, and the real arrival of spring.

Given the previous week I was pretty tired - ramping up seasonal transitions too quickly - I decided I needed to dial it back this week. In the name of recovery, I vowed no more than an hour in the morning, and another in the afternoon.

So, the volume was 12 hours, on 115k (81k bike, 27k run, 7k ski), with 3100' vertical. I managed one strength workout and had my first two modest MTB rides of the season.

Heading out for a warmup jog as the snow squall starts

Amazing 77 year old runner

Snowiest parts of the Adirondacks

Another sign of spring

I saw this on a run this morning, convincing me that spring has finally come to the Adirondacks!

Orthopedic consult and rail trail jog

I had a good chat with Dr. Byrne, who 15 years ago 'scoped my right knee. After checking me out, looking at the pictures, and hearing how things have gone since then he said, "well your knees are ripe for surgery, but mentally you're not there yet. So, let me get you in as soon as possible, and I'll inject some gel, which will help you out."

Afterwards, I spent 40 minutes on a leisurely rail trail cruise (picture below), and followed it up a strength session focused on my knee PT exercises. This is an easy recovery week - keeping volume at or below two hours a day - so I'll bike up a portion of the Whiteface toll road.