off to the mountains

Nora and I are heading to Vail in a couple of hours to spend the weekend enjoying some fresh powder and the Winter Mountain Games.  We are both racing in the snowshoe event tonight and tomorrow Nora is going to give me my first xc skiiing lesson. 








Also, I got my race # and confirmation for NOLA.  Pretty sure I won't make my predicted time, but the race is just 2 weeks away and the taper is on.

Summer is the time to be in the mountains

Within a couple hours of school getting out for summer, Micah, Maddie, Shadow and I were heading for the mountains, specifically Vail, Colorado and the Teva Mountain Games.  We spent the weekend camping with good friends, running, hiking, climbing, SUPing, slack lining, getting muddy, cheering, telling stories around the campfire, singing happy birthday (to Chris), roasting marshmallows and checking out all the fun outdoor sports stuff on display around Vail Village.  This was our 4th Summer TMG and we had as good a time as ever.

Our campsite on Homestake Road

Micah in Gear Town

Maddie, testing out the stand up paddle-board (SUP)

showing off her amazing balance on the slackline

Mud Run             Photo by Chris Hinds

 

an after dinner climb above the campsite with Alistair, Maddie, Mike, Nick and Shadow

After the games in Vail ended, Mike and I headed up to Leadville for one more mountain adventure.  We camped Sunday night on Halfmoon Creek and woke up early Monday to attempt the Halfmoon Half Pipe.  This is the name given to climbing Colorado's two highest mountains, Elbert and Massive in one day.  The run up Massive was great.  Beautiful trail, perfect weather and awesome views from the top.  The run back down went well too.  We stopped at the campsite for some lunch and resupplying and then headed for Elbert.  We missed the trailhead and put in 3-4 extra miles on the road before we started the tougher climb of the day to the highest point in all Colorado.  I was feeling pretty worn down already as we started up the immediately steep climb on the Colorado Trail and by the time we hit treeline, I was toast.  The weather made a turn for the worst at about the same time.  Dark clouds gathered to the sorth and the wind got nasty.  Mike pushed ahead as I was moving very slowly, but I kept moving determined to get to the top.  Steep trail turned in to talus slope as I climbed on and then finally after one too many false summits, I hit the top.  I sat behind a pile of rocks which provided some protection from the fierce winds, ate a Snickers bar, took a few pictures and admired the view of surrounding mountains then got up and headed back down.  It was an 11 hour, 27 mile, 9800 feet of climbing day and I was about as tired as I have ever been.  Another great day in the mountains.

On the way up Massive

top of Elbert

a friend I met at the top of Elbert - I think he was eyeing my Snickers bar

Summer's coming and the Teva Mountain Games

School is out on May 26 (only 10 school days left- not that I'm counting) and the weekend after that will be our first family camping trip of the year.  Ean, Micah, Maddie, Shadow and I are headed out to the Teva Mountain Games in Vail from June 3-5.  This will be our 3rd trip to Teva and it has become one of our favorite events of the year.  Last year we found a great camping spot just outside of Vail between Minturn and Leadville, so we'll camp there and spend all day Saturday and Sunday in Vail Village enjoying the festivities.  The events include kayaking, climbing, road and mountain biking, fly fishing, dog diving, road running, trail running, music and just about every outdoor sports company you can think of giving demos and giving away free stuff. 

Last year Ean and Maddie ran the mud run which is a crazy spactacle of costumes, water and of course lots of mud.  This year they decided to stay a bit cleaner and run the Rocky Dog Trail 5K with Shadow.  Micah has expressed some interest in possibly doing the Juniors edition of the Cross Country Mountain Bike race which consists of a fairly technical 7 mile loop on the ski hill.  I will again be running the 10K Spring Runoff Trail Race which is actully closer to 6.5 miles and it goes up and down the Vail slopes 4 times on very steep trails.  It is a fun race which usually brings out some top gun trail runners like Matt Carpenter and Ricky Gates.  I am hoping my higher training volume and the next three weeks of more time in the hills will help me run much faster than the 1:10 that I ran last year.

This will be our first of several trips to the mountains this summer to camp, run and enjoy the many great things about living in the Rockies.