The ski to mountain running transition

With Lucy home, and me having made the transition from skis to trail running, Stash is getting a ton of exercise. Today he did a 6k run with me on the biathlon trails, and yesterday he ran up Hurricane Mountain, the long way, with Lucy.

Everest without oxygen ... 40 years ago

Forty years ago last week, this dynamic alpine duo, were the first to climb Everest without oxygen.  This proved to be the literal and metaphoric high point of their partnership, which dissolved after this ascent. 

http://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/alpinism/reinhold-messner-and-peter-habeler-40-years-ago-everest-without-supplementary-oxygen.html

Quote of the Week ... David Brooks

"You know you're in a Latte Town,"  Brooks observed,  "when you can hop right off a bike path, browse in a used bookstore with shelves and shelves of tomes on Marxism the owner can no longer get rid of, and then drink coffee at a place with a punnish name...before sauntering through an African drum store or a feminist lingerie shop."

So, I think Lake Placid doe not quite fit the bill, but Middlebury and Stowe certainly do.  Plattsburgh doesn't but Burlington does, and of course, Boulder and Aspen are the archetypes. 

Read a great little article that fleshed out this concept of Latte Town, populated by Bobos (the Bourgeois Bohemian). 

http://mountainjournal.org/do-you-live-in-a-western-latte-town

A Teton Picnic ...

A grand total of 63.6 miles, as you are biking from town, swimming across Jenny Lake, and running up Teewinot.  You have to eat a donut on the summit - that's the Picnic - and then you head back to town. A wonderful little video, documenting one women's journey. 

https://www.rei.com/blog/climb/rei-presents-a-walk-in-the-park?doing_wp_cron=1526042235.4588379859924316406250

A beautiful day for a hike before dinner

Free spirit and mountain running machine ... Rory Bosio

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TgyOQK9gX8E

Training to be an alpinist ...

At some point during your career as an alpinist it always involves some running for the aerobic base. During my years, I have run road marathons; given up running to save my knees and focus on nordic specific training, and also started running mountain trails again. Thru my live hate relationship with running I have always followed the sport: from Jim Ryun to Kilian Journey and from Tommie Smith to Shalane Flanagan. 

Every Tuesday this great blog is published, take a look ...

https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=66f8a94cca1680365596e7db8&id=5bb5b87eaa

North Face of the Matterhorn ... unfortunately it seems like this long held dream will have to wait for my next reincarnation.

Ever since I started to climb in the early 1970s, this route has been on my bucket list. After reading a story about the Schmidt brothers climb in 1931, I was hooked.  Toni and Fran's cycled  600 kilometers - with all their gear - climbed the face in two days, and then cycled back to Munich.  

Ever since my first view of the North Face, on my way to climb the Dent d'Herens, I put it on my hit list. In the mid-1970s the Mountain Equipment ad with a picture of Dougal Haston's winter bivy on the face entranced me. I remember writing Tobin Sorensen, just back from soloing it in winter, and he wrote something like ... "a piece of cake as long as you are comfortable on unprotectable 5.7 rock."  I have headed there a couple of times, but never got further than sniffing around the bottom.

Starting to do some easy runs on the biathlon side of MVH

Except at higher elevations, the snow is gone, and spring has come to the Adirondacks. The crags are wet, streams are swollen, but some of the nordic trails are starting to dry out for running.

The toughest trek in the world is in Bhutan

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/04/snowman-trek-movie-bhutan-culture-spd/

A historical badass!

About every other week, the Adventure Journal website profiles an explorer/adventurer ... often people like this whom you have never heard of.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2018/05/historical-badass-explorer-alexandra-david-neel-2/

Patagonia v. Trump with a nod to Chouinard

I think this may be the first link ever on this blog for Gentleman's Quarterly. 

https://www.gq.com/story/patagonia-versus-donald-trump

A brilliant time lapse video of the Everest region

I have grown accustomed to the reality, that I am not going to visit the Himalayan mountains in this life-time.  Given that, this short video might be the next best thing ...

https://vimeo.com/261660348

Steve Magness, co-author of Peak Performance

A great blog to follow ... the link below to a March entry mentions everything that ought to be in a coach's library.

https://www.highperformancewest.com/blog/2018/3/4/a-year-of-books-recommended-by-steve-magness

Ueli Steck book review

https://gripped.com/news/ueli-swiss-machine-steck-died-one-year-ago-today/

Nordic trails are groomed

I got home too late to ski today; but we got a foot of heavy wet snow yesterday and they rolled about 15k. I will be out there tomorrow.

West Mountain Hike

Coming home from the board meeting in Manhattan, I stopped off at Glens Falls for a little exercise.

Re-reading Rebuffat's Men and the Matterhorn

I just re-read Alpinist #16 in which there was an extended essay about the history of climbing on the Matterhorn. Now it's on to this famous coffee table book. Zermatt ...  here I come on June 25th. Enclosed below is a notable artist rendition of the tragic first ascent accident. 

A single malt and climbing trip ...

How about a summer or winter climbing trip combined with some distillery visits on rest days?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/travel/islay-scotland-whisky-alfred-barnard.html?hpw&rref=travel&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Spring skiing

A great day in the mountains! I skied to Indian Falls, while buddies skinned up Marcy ... I had to get back to work.

Heading to Zermatt this summer ...

This upcoming trip reminded me of a Disney movie as a kid. The movie is based on the book BANNER IN THE SKY by James Ramsey Ullman. It is a fictional narrative that follows the first ascent of the Matterhorn, more or less. Filmed in Zermatt and Chamonix, the well travelled climber will recognize that the striking granite means we are in Chamonix and the gneiss means we are back in Zermatt. FYI ... famous French guide Gaston Rebuffat arranged all the climbing scenes.

https://www.amazon.com/Third-Man-On-The-Mountain/dp/B003Y0B19W

Definitely feeling like spring ...

Easy hike with Stash and a nice view of Cascade.

Are you strong enough for alpine climbing?

As always Uphill Athlete is a go-to website for training ideas if you rock climb, ice climb, alpine climb, ski, or trail run in the mountains. This excellent article talks about assessing two key strength areas ...

https://www.uphillathlete.com/kis-strength-mountain/

MOUNTAIN ... trailer for the Australian award winning video

This movie has not had its American premiere, although I am sure a screening will happen soon.  The movie can be streamed from Amazon UK. Please take a couple minutes to watch the trailer …

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SyrPAeV93Q8

The Inferno Race and the baddest dude ever!

This is the time of year for eastern die-hards to strap their skis on the pack and hike up to Tuckerman's Ravine.  It is also the time to pay homage to the Inferno Race, and to perhaps the greatest ski run ever.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2018/04/historical-badass-skier-toni-matt-2/

Not too shabby for April 20th

Into the Whiteout ...

A wonderful essay by Kelly Cordes, which reminded me of my winter trip to Scotland in the late 1970s with Jon Waterman and Jim Balog.

Mountain Running

  

http://tv.salomon.com/story/ss18#overlay

Spring trail running in the Adirondacks

Let's make one thing clear: I have not put my skis away.

That said I have started a partial transition ... running 2-3 times a week. In most years - certainly this year - it really is not possible to run trails in April, however there are lots of dirt roads, including one 200 yards from my driveway.

Stash and I had a nice short jog on snow, patches of ice, mud, dirt, through puddles and small streams ... April in the Adirondacks.

Leaving the wasatch ...

Headed down the canyon at 6:45 am, what a glorious view of the south ridge and south face of superior last evening.

The wastch mountains are awesome ...

A superb last day at Alta. I rode the lifts until 1 pm and then I skinned up the auto road.

30 inches in the past 33 hours

Full on winter weather, but this afternoon will be spring conditions, and tomorrow will be the wild party atmosphere of closing day. I will miss this annual alumni event when I retire.

Two days skiing at Alta and it hasn't stopped snowing!

Only intermittent views of Devils Castle because of this big storm. Lots of control work but gated areas still closed.

The Matterhorn ...

This summer while in Zermatt we will not be climbing the Matterhorn.  However it will dominate our view from town; it will often be front and center in our views from the huts, and so I thought you might enjoy this one minute video. 

Kilian Jornet is an alpinist, a mountain runner, and ski mountaineering racer. He holds the record for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest, as well as the fastest round trip run up the Matterhorn and back to town ... under three hours ... mind boggling.

Enjoy!

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

Quote of the week ... Arthur C. Clarke

From the Forward to the novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey: "But the barriers of distance are crumbling; one day we shall meet our equals, or our masters, among the stars."

I was a space geek enchanted with Sputnik, Project Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. This led me to consume sci-fi novels, and eventually to pay far too much money to see Stanley Kubrick's, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the first weekend it opened for a limited run in one theater in Manhattan.  I probably remember that showing more vividly than anything else that happened that year ... assassinations of MLK and RFK, Chicago riots, Nixon's election, and my lacrosse team making it to the North Shore Finals.   This is the year of the 50th anniversary, and no doubt when it is reissued in May I will see it again. (Just as I am now re-reading the novel.) 

Back at the Alta Lodge ...

For our annual alumni ski reunion. The front is moving in, precipitation started as rain, then hail, and now with temperature dropping it is snow. We may get 1-2' in the next 24 hours.

An ode to the Alps, to Chamonix, to Patagonia, and to living in the mountains

I offer this link not to plug their products, not wanting to be crass or consumer oriented ... but because this short video does has spectacular footage, and is well worth viewing.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhm11rLhSCQ&ebc=ANyPxKreoBLZv8ZirbOF7svrER8Jag8XI2wG3uVMWQNEvBRNtz-iWLMtinuoK4IPwcooR9d-V2-5D6hx9LYmiPUSZom-Ghyuqg&time_continue=390

David Hochschartner (Hock)

Executive Director

North Country School

Camp Treetops

Round Lake Campus

Still skiing but ...

getting psyched about running in the mountains again.

http://tv.salomon.com/story/ss18#overlay

Early morning skin up Whiteface

QUOTE OF THE WEEK ... ed abbey

Edward Abbey said there are three types of people: there are mountain people, there are desert people, and there are river rats.

Enjoy a favorite Edward Abbey quote.

Was this the most gnarly route of all?

https://www.patagonia.com/blog/2017/11/first-ascent-of-the-hummingbird-ridge-1965/

Another early season run with my dog ...

Stash has started to get the hang of it; when the red leash comes out he sits, and knows the run is over and it's time to get back in the car. An easy run, on some hilly dirt roads; I think we are going to get 3-5 inches of new snow.