Andy and I decided to make Transrockies into a looooong roadtrip to save some costs. So we’re driving back from Colorado right now. We’re in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Oregon. It’s pretty quite. We’re listening to This American Life on a podcast. I’ve had more quality alone time with Andy in the last week than I have with my family all summer. I know that’s not good, but when you run a six day stage race with one teammate you get a 2-3hr run every day with them, two 20hr drives to Colorado and back, and time during the day to hang out and relax, and you sleep in the same tent every night.

Transrockies is a unique experience that allows you to really let go of everything, lets you focus on the present, and get to know the athletes competing with you. For many of the athletes running it’s quite the life changing experience. A marathon is an experience that lasts for a couple hours, maybe 5, but after that it’s back to life as normal, you don’t get to know your fellow competitors, talk about your aches and pains, your athletic pursuits, or learn from the experience they’ve gained through athletics. Tranrockies is the kind of event that you’re immersed in for a longer period of time than just your normal marathon. You get to know your competitors intimately and in the end become lifelong friends with them. The six day stage format of Transrockies plays to my strengths as a shorter distance trail racer but what makes it a race I come back to are the people competing that become good friends by the end of the week, the staff that takes care of everything for us except the actually running, and the experience of running through some of the West’s most beautiful landscapes.

Start of Stage 1

Andy and I are currently having GORE-TEX Transrockies Run theme song withdrawal. It’s a good thing he’s got it on his iPod so we can listen do it when we need a fix. If you’ve done Transrockies then you know what I’m talking about. We hear this song every day right before the start of each stage and every night at the start of the awards ceremony. As a theme song, it’s destined to be a ranked as a B rated track in everyone’s mind, but despite this it’s actually a pretty good song. I know some, (Hal and Eric) would disagree but that’s ok. My taste in music is different. If you haven’t heard it you can download it at transrockies.com.

Stage 0 – The 20hr drive to Buena Vista with 3hrs of sleep : We rolled in to Buena Vista last Saturday around 4pm after a night of 3hrs of sleep on the road and a quick stop in Twin Lakes to watch the Leadville 100. We’d done our homework on the competition and figured the boys from Run Flagstaff would give us our greatest challenge. There was also a team from Rock Creek Racing in TN that we would keep an eye on.  You never know who’s going to show up though and usually there’s some team that we wouldn’t see coming. That’s what happened two years ago with a team from the UK.

Climb up Hope Pass on Stage 2

Packing that evening was easy this year. We were given bags that were big enough to use as a sleeping bag for both Andy, me and possibly a few other people. They were big. This poses a problem, while I can throw everything in, a bag this big when full isn’t something a 140lb runner can handle easily.

Stage 1-6 – The actual race: Buena Vista to Beaver Creek: We started each day with a great breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon or sausage and some oatmeal. Yeah, eggs, potatoes, and meat aren’t on my normal pre-race meal plan but hey, I can’t waste food that was fixed for me, plus, it was good and with three hours of running at altitudes above 8000ft I was going to need some extra calories this week. Most stages involved at least one large climb and 3000 – 4500ft of climbing a day. We covered ~117 miles over six days with 14mile being the shortest and 25miles being the longest day. I’m always pretty impressed by the field. I know not everyone is doing 100 mile weeks so for the other athletes these six days have to be tough. Doing a 100mile week isn’t easy on flat ground at sea level but to have to do it with huge climbs, on tough trails, at an altitude only a fraction of the competitors live at is asking a lot of your body. After finishing each stage it’s matter of figuring out how best to get the most relaxation time in as possible. After getting some recovery food in, stretching, an ice bath and a shower, usually I take the approach of sitting in a reclining lawn chair for a good three to five hours talking to people. Learning from them, about them, and talking about running, of course.  Then it’s dinner from Bill the Cowboy Caterer and the evening program with a recap from the day, Cynthia’s (the Gore-Tex lady) story of the day, the awards, into to tomorrow’s stage, and finally pics and video of the day’s stage. The crew does an incredible job of taking care of everything to make us as comfortable as possible and I think everyone has an incredible experience.

Running around Buena Vista in Stage 1

The race itself turned out to be fairly relaxing after a couple days. We had thrown down a pretty good time on day one to gain a 7min lead over Flagstaff and continued to gain a few minutes each day so that by day three we had a pretty comfortable lead. Flagstaff fought a good battle though and were great to run with. The fact that we were well trained for hills and long miles this year kept our legs feeling good day after day and allowed us to continue strong through the end of day six.  For recaps of the other days and other competitors, slideshows of pictures from each stage, and video from each stage to www.transrockies.com.

Celebration of our win with a little champagne

Stage 7 – Townsend Place Condos to The Dusty Boot… and back: The final banquet wraps up much the way most of the evening programs did but with no race the next day, the runners and staff feel the need to unwind at a local bar called the Dusty Boot. What happens at the Dusty Boot, stays at the Dusty Boot.

Stage 8 – 20hr drive home with a stop at Arches National Park for a run: The drive was pretty quiet, the run was going great until at 1:30 into the run Andy stopped running. Dehydration, due in large part to unsaid happenings at the Dusty Boot, was the culprit. My response: But dude, how can you be dehydrated, we drank a ton last night. He just stared, and started jogging again. With hurricane force winds, camping was out of the question so we finally broke down and spent $40 on a dive hotel. I wasn’t sure which used bar of soap to use in the shower or if after taking a shower my infected toe would be worse off or better.

According to Andy all I did for the team was whine and complain. Day one was my hip flexor and achilles, day 3 I tripped on a stick (but didn’t fall), and day 4 I was tired, yesterday I complained about my infected toe. That was my contribution to the team. I was so grateful to have Andy as a team mate. He led me to the finish every day…except when I was pulling his butt up every hill in the Rockies. Don’t know what I would have done without him. We are Team Montrail/Hammer Nutrition.

This is an amazing event and if you’re a trail runner, one that should fit on the calendar at least once. And I don’t recommend thinking of it as a race, because you’ll never be able to rationalize doing a $1300 race, but as an adventure vacation of a lifetime instead. That’s a lot easier to explain to the wife.

Wednesday it’s on to Slovenia for the World Mountain Running Championships. Arrive Thursday, acclimate, race Sunday (12km, 5000ft uphill), fly home Monday. It’ll be a quick trip and hopefully successful, either way, it’ll be good experience and a good test of how much my hill climbing has improved. Look for a report next week.

From Cara Marrs, Steamboat Springs Running Series organizer:

Well we are 7 races into our 2010 series and the series is going great, breaking records at almost every race so far. New for 2010 was the addition of a partially off road Duathlon in late June. The Du was a fun event for our first multi sport race. July brought us the aspen-lined singletrack of the Howelsen 8 Miler and the 9M Spring Creek Memorial Trail Run that includes a challenging steep rough 3 mile section of primitive trail, tree crossing, and bushwacking.

In keeping with the last few years both races broke runner number records and we had to cap the 9 Mile at Spring Creek for the first time. We are so happy with the way the series is going and happy to share our beautiful trails so far with runners from 20 states and 3 countries, as well as runners from all over Colorado.  Proceeds for almost all SSRS races go to local non- profits and charities so we appreciate our runners, as they help us give back to the community!

The next 2 races are close to being full and are both in the Trail Runner Magazine Trophy Series. On the 7^th we have the Mt Werner Classic, a 12 or 5 mile run up to the top of the Steamboat Ski Area and another beautiful race on the 22^nd of August with the Continental Divide 16 Miler, both of which will serve up a hefty amount of elevation gain.

After August we will look forward to the remainder of the season with 3 more trail races in September, capping off on September 18^th with the Run Rabbit Run 50M, now in the Montrail Ultra Cup Series.

Montrail and Mountain Hardwear President Topher Gaylord runs in the Alps with Montrail athlete Max King

Fin – Monday evening we transfered to the small town of Chatel and closer to the start of Le Tour in Morzine the next day. The mood was a little lighter Monday evening. The five of us, Topher and photographers were gone now, had a traditional French dinner. Erin and I shared a Raclette, a huge half wheel of cheese that you stick under a heat lamp and scrape huge globs of rich creamy cheese onto your plate and pair with potatoes and meat. Man that was rich. I still feel it sitting in my stomach like a rock. But it was good though.

Yellow Jersey winner Contador

Tuesday morning we drove over to the Tour start in Morzine and with some Columbia connections got a VIP entry to the village and the start line. But not before almost nailing Lance when he pulled out of a parking lot as we were driving in to park. Lance, if you read this, be more careful man. It wasn’t that close but he was right in front of the van. We were given access to the start line where they were introducing all the riders so we got some good shots and a great experience. It was pretty cool. The tour is a huge production. Miles of fencing, tents, stages, buses, team cars, helicopters, dozens of police, hundreds of volunteers and this was just the start line. And then as soon as the riders are gone, the crowds disappear in an instant, and it all comes down. Amazing to watch. We hung out at a pizza joint and watched the tour before having to get back to Geneva.

When you spend a few days together with people you get to know them pretty well, but when you throw a few people into an experience like this that tests limits, patience, and organization you get an intimate picture of your compatriots. Through time spent on the trail you can get to know someone’s personality, time spent around a dinner table you get stories and a picture of their life.  Physically demanding situations serve up an interesting social dynamic between the participants. It’s cool to watch and experience. Thursday morning I had never met these people before, now I know Brian likes trains, Lisa is closterphobic, Leslie does just about every sport known to man, Erin is cool under pressure and really likes French cheese, Topher’s switch is permanently “on” and takes the hard way, that’s just part of the experience in a trip like this.

Dinner with the gang after the Tour
Viva le Tour du Mont Blanc

Here are some gear reviews from the equipment I used while on the trip.
Fluid 10 – the fluid 10 is a small lightweight running pack that has a large central pocket, water bladder pocket, sinch cord, water bottle pockets on both sides, and waist strap pockets for gels…or a camera. This is the pack I used for the majority of the miles on the trip. It performed really well. I carried a jacket, a long sleeve shirt, food, camera and a water bottle. I was typically just carrying one water bottle because of the abundance of fresh water on the route and used the pocket on the side. With just one water bottle the pack didn’t feel lopsided like some might. I had it sinched down pretty tight and the shoulder straps were soft, comfortable and wide enough that they didn’t chafe my neck. Actually I didn’t have any chafing anywhere even wearing the pack with no shirt. Even had two of these packs on for quite a bit of the trail, just one over the other, and that worked out pretty well too. The pack is unusually spacious for it’s size. I have a camelbak I use that is similar in size but the Fluid 10 can carry more stuff. My one beef with it was trying to retrieve my water bottle without taking the pack off. It was pretty much impossible. The few times I ma

naged to get it out and back in I tweaked my shoulder out and had to take some time to work out the cramp. Not ideal. Running with it was a breeze however and there was minimal bouncing and no chafing.

Fluid waist pack – I tried to run with the new Fluid Waist Pack for a good section of the second day but it was lighter than Scott’s camera equipment so I was saddled with that for the remainder of the trail except for when we were shooting photos. During that it was great. Didn’t bounce with a full water bottle, had a few pouches for food and a mesh pocket that held a lightweight jacket easily which would be great for longer runs in the mountains where the weather is variable. I’ll probably use it for Transrockies where I want to go super lightweight but still have to carry a little water, jacket, tights, hat and gloves.
Geist – Still in love with the Geist series. The jacket is my fav. I don’t usually go anywhere without it and I even got to test it out on a stormy section of the second day. It kept me warm and dry in a light rain and felt at home under a pack without pulling and riding around under the pack. The best fitting, lightweight breathable running jacket I’ve ever tried.

Shorts – I used the lightweight Refueler Advance Short. The fabric is a nice light fabric that doesn’t inhibit movement at all, which is crucial for running. The thing I still don’t care for is the waist band. It’s comfortable but I have to tie the drawstring to keep them up. They just feel loose when I’m used to having elastic waist bands. If you can look past that, they are a great running short and have a couple little zip pockets that have come in handy for holding a gel here and there.
Shirts – I used several shirts on the trip. The wicked lite tank and tee, Elmoro zip tee, and the Singlet coming out. One thing I have to say is that the fit of all the mountain hardwear tops are spot on for me and are the best fitting most comfortable shirts I have. Why? because when I’m running I like a shirt that has a close athletic fit and doesn’t flap all over the place but at the same time I don’t want to feel like I’m being smothered by a boa constrictor.

Shoes -  Montrails of course. I did two days in the yet-to-be released Rogue Racer which performed flawlessly on all trails from buffed single track to rocky double track. At 8.5 oz I was feeling light on my feet all day. The third day I decided to give the new Badrocks a try on th

e super rugged and rocky Bovine climb. Honestly, I did it for a little extra protection because I’d been having a bit of a nerve issue in my foot and I was expecting to notice the extra weight of the shoes. I wasn’t too optimistic that I would appreciate having an extra 2 oz and a lot more shoe on my feet. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and don’t remember even noticing which shoes I was wearing that third day. It was nice to have that bit of extra underfoot protection and flying up the last climb of the day I didn’t notice that I had a different shoe on than normal. So, good shoe, yup.

Poles – Like I said you have to have poles for racing over here. Note to self though, don’t get the ones that have anti-shock springs in them, they’re just annoying.

Lastly, I need to say thanks to everyone involved. Erin for the impeccable organization and interpreting. We would have been totally lost without her. Topher for the invite and a trail buddy along the way. Scott and Seb for the amazing camara work. And Brian, Lisa, and Leslie for the companionship along the trail and for putting up with a high maintenance athlete. You know how we are.

Day 3 – Ok, last day, felt good. Started out the day in a beautiful spot, amazing Swiss Breakfast, and sunrise over the mountains. Does it get any better than this?  I felt for Erin this morning. Today is a logistical challenge with portering everyone around to different locations. First Topher and I had to get an early start to avoid getting in at 7pm again like the last two days. Scott needed to get photos on the first leg and 3rd leg today.  We had a nice 3 mile flat section to start out on so Erin dropped Scott off at the start of the climb then shuttle him from the end of section 1 to section 3 while going back to pick up the others so they could do sections 2 an 3, then go around to the finish to meet us at the top of the last climb just because it’s one of the most beautiful spots on the course. Each section has one big climb of 2500-3000ft. All of them steep. Both Topher and I were fatigued and knew that it would be a tough one. Today we had a deadline of sorts, so no dilly dallying at stops. He had a meeting in Chamonix at 4pm with a retailer. Always “on”, always committed. So that’s the day in a nutshell.

Section of the Bovine trail

Our first climb was the Bovine, a tough technical climb that involves big steps and lots of boulders. The photography on this section should look pretty cool, in your face, gritty. We climbed up and over, nothing remarkable…except every corner, every mile, every step of this trail is paradise. There isn’t a section of this course that isn’t just incredibly spectacular from the high mountain passes with immense panoramas over multiple countries, wooded tracks winding through deep alpine forests, luminescent rivers of glacial silt flowing through valleys, backdrops of larger than life glaciers that are begging you to  reach out and touch, quaint villages that belong only in fairy tales of youth or another time altogether, scenes of mountain huts that can only exist in an artist’s mind and created on canvas, brutal climbs and even harsher downhills.  I hope the experience from the past few days is starting to come across or at least peaking your interest as a trail running must do.
The second climb of the day up the Catogne was the toughest. A non-technical grunt of a climb it was the steepest sustained climb we’ve had. Hiking all the way and steep. The others had left about 10-15min prior to Topher and I arriving at the bottom in the town of Trient. We were pushing to catch Brian, Lisa and Leslie before the top and we just caught them. They were moving pretty well too. Then it was down the other side to Vallorcine and the final climb up to Tete aux Vents.

Erin and Scott on the trail

Unfortunately, coming down to Vallorcine Topher’s quad tightened up and began to give him problems. He decided to forgo a 3mile flat section to take some time to work it out but to no avail. We began the climb up to Tete aux Vents but he realized that his quad would slow him down. One thing I’ve learned about Topher over the last three days is that he doesn’t take the easy way out. The motto for the trip became “the hard way”. If there was a fork in the trail, we took the hard way. Topher and I share some of the same ideals such as this. I’ve always been enamored by the hard way even if sometimes I feel like I don’t live up to my own expectations. It’s the romantic in me again. You can learn a lot about a person by which path they choose, you can learn a lot about yourself if you test your limits. It causes you to look inside and see if you’re really as strong as your mind thinks you are. It tests your tenacity when it’s tough to press on. The only way to train yourself, to get tougher is to take the hard way and push and test your limits. Spending a few days with Topher putting our bodies through physical duress I learned a lot about him and he learned a lot about me. I appreciate what came out of our relationship on the trail and that his choice in life is “the hard way”.

With the photographers Scott and Seb waiting at the top already, I went ahead with a push to the top. Final climb of the day, of the trip, might as well blow it out if I could. So I pushed hard, ran as much as I could and thought of how I might feel racing the distance I had covered in the last three days. Questions arose. I felt good on this climb after 30 miles a day for the past three days, but I’d had two nights sleep with full meals during that time as well and as you know it’s amazing what a night of sleep can do for recovery. Could I do it? Could I run the UTMB? Covering over 100 miles, 9500m of accent in 20 hours. I don’t know if I could. Obviously it would be prudent to try an easier 100 miler first or the CCC (Courmayeur – Champex- Chamonix) 98km race first. But I don’t know, it’s just something I’ll have to find out. I ran most of the climb and was spent by the top, we shot some video for about 30-45min then Scott and I wandered down the trail to look for a few good shots. Two hours later we finished up. The blazing high alpine sun had wiped me out, I felt just baked, dehydration was setting in, I was glad the day was about over. Just one little 3000ft decent to go and I would be back in Chamonix. Down I went. Glad to be about finished but at the same time wishing it didn’t have to end. Glad I was shaded again by the alpine conifers, but sad that I was decending to civilization and a van that would take us out of this spectacular setting.

La Floria hut on the side of a mountain - beautiful spot for lunch

Trail looking toward Mt Blanc

Day 2 – Stiff but not sore. Amazing. Thought for sure after that decent yesterday I would be. We got outta Dodge, I mean Courmayer, around 8:30 after another amazing meal. Everything is so authentic here, well duh right.  Toph and I pushed hard up the first climb right out of Courmayeur with Scott trailing. This morning I was trying out Lisa’s poles, or sticks as they call them here. They’re basically essential gear for this terrain and everyone here uses them. I’ve always wondered why they’ve barely caught on in the US and we trail runners kind of mock the Euro’s for using them, but mock no more will I. I see why they are necessary. These trails are so steep they aren’t really runnable for any extended run of more than like 1 mile. Our first climb out of town was about 2500-3000ft in 3 miles. Yeah, I could run it but I wouldn’t be running the next 25 after that. I’d be trying to find my collapsed lungs on the side of the trail and reviewing my breakfast in the most unpleasant way. The sticks do help on these trails and I definitely saved my legs a bit using them on this climb while keeping up with Topher. Guess I need to start XC skiing in the winter more to work on those lats.

From the top of the climb we had a beautiful fairly flat traverse of about 10miles where we did all of our photography and video for the day. We worked with Scott getting shots in a few locations down the trail before running into the Bonati Hut where we met up with Sebastian and Fred for some filming and interviews. It’s hard to get a bad shot in a location like this. Lush green hills full of wildflowers, glacial rivers rushing down the hillsides, and picturesque stables high above the Val de Aosta floor made for some incredible scenery. I think the shots we got today will make up an amazing experience for viewers. Check out the video at Mountain Hardware in a few weeks. I’ll post a link to it on this blog when it’s up and keep an eye out for photos in PR stuff next year.

Down the trail we met up with Erin and the gang for delicious Italian potato and rosemary pizza and Coke. It was nice that we were taking it slow and relaxing a bit between sections so that we could enjoy the finer foods of the region. That wouldn’t go over too well in a race but for this, it made the whole experience just that much more enjoyable to be able to fully experience the culture of the region. After all, we had to fuel up, we had another 3000ft climb to the highest point on the course, the Col du Ferret. In the interest of time and getting in before dark, Topher and I pushed on pretty hard as the others were going to skip the last 10miles. All told we shot photos and video for 4hrs today. That adds a lot of time on the feet and Topher and I definitely were feeling it in the final miles today. We cruised down the climb, stopped for an apple torte in La Poule, pushed on to La Fouly where we stopped for an ice cream, I had a Shrek Popscicle, it was delicious. It’s amazing how good something like that can taste after 20 hard miles and about 8hrs on your feet. One final climb of about 2000ft up to Lac Champex and we were home for the night.

Lac Champex is an interesting little town geographically. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. It’s set in a Col or mountain saddle and while one side slides away gently the other is a straight up cliff face. The latter is the side our hotel was on. Literally. Probably the sweetest hotel location I’ve seen. 2000ft above the valley the yard of the small inn went right to the edge. Awesome. We all sat down to a delicious homemade dinner by the owner, another friend of Topher’s, watched the final of the World Cup, and went to bed.

Day 1 – Knowing how capable and tough Topher is I still thought he was crazy when I heard his plan was to arrive in Chamonix at 11pm the night before we were to start our adventure. The crew picked him up at his hotel at 7am looking fresh as a daisy… or the president of a world wide brand that needs to be “on” 24/7. I liked his enthusiam. As most of you know, running is unique in that it gives back more energy to the body than it takes out, but Topher is unique. There are few people that I’ve met that  can maintain that kind of spark through situations with obvious fatigue. This morning was no exception. We had an hour drive around to Les Contamines but got started on the trail by 9am. Traveling quickly we crossed the valley and made our way up to tree line around 6,000ft up though the dense alpine forest. One up to the bowl below the Col we were greeted with green European pastures, sweeping views of the valley we climbed up from, and a few homes dotting the hillsides the trail passes by. We’d climbed about 1500ft and still had about 2500 to go before the top but we were fresh this morning and traveling well. Putting our heads down (metaphorically of course, I couldn’t take my eyes off the vast mountain hillsides and expansive views) we crested the top, took some pics, and headed down the other side.

One aspect of the European trails that was evident pretty quickly was they never choose the easiest path just the shortest path. Just like the trail up the mountain, the trail going down was straight down, none of this wishy-washy switchbacky stuff, the trail gets to where it needs to be in a straight line. They decided to forgo saving joints for saving a bit of time when they made the trails here. Needless to say we made pretty quick work of a 2500ft decent. Topher and I hit the hut at the bottom and while he ordered some butter sandwiches with a little ham and cheese, I went back up to make sure the others were on the right track. As the token sponsored athlete I assumed the responsibility of keeping track of everyone and making sure they had what they needed and remained in good spirits.  The last thing you want is for someone writing a story about their experience to have a bad one to write about. Keeping a positive feel and outlook to the adventure makes a huge difference in the perception of the trip in the days and weeks afterward. Of course adventures like this are supposed to be difficult, a chance to challenge yourself, and find your limits while keeping it enjoyable and rewarding for everyone involved. And you  don’t want to lose anyone, that will definitely put a damper on the trip.
The way Erin had the trip set up was that she would meet us at two designated locations that she could get to during the day, effectively splitting each day roughly into thirds so that the journalists and photographer could hop on and off as they wished. Thirty miles is tough for anyone to do on any terrain and the mountains, rough trails, and heat made these thirty miles especially challenging. After coming down the Col de la Seine Topher and I dropped off Brian, Scott, and Lisa and picked up Leslie for the final 8-9miles up and over our third climb of the day and down 3000ft into Courmayer. Topher and I were feeling the time on our feet at this point just as the others were but we were in it for the long haul. Leslie was awesome heading up the 2500ft climb as the weather moved in and we made quick work of a beautiful, but brutal final climb. Because of the hot weather, the thunderheads moved in covered the tops of the peaks with a mysterious thick grey mist and cast a damp shadow on the landscape. The feeling of running to the distant sound of thunder is reminiscent of a grand expedition, a mission even, that must be accomplished at all cost. It takes on an air of melancholy urgency.  It always puts me in the scene of an adventure movie and inspires me to a greater effort. Yeah, I guess it’s the romantic in me.

The decent into Courmayer is a brutal one, but first we had to rendezvous with with Jockomo. You know the characters in movies that play the supporting role of the unique old friend with lots of fantastic history behind him, this is Jockomo. An old friend of Tophers from the race, he stops by his small but quaint lodge at the top of the Courmayeur pass about once a year during his training pilgrimage. He was kind enough to treat us to the freshest marinara pasta this side of Tuscany and a shot of Jagermeister, because what run isn’t complete with out a little Jager, mmm. And talk about a character, Jockomo’s lodge is a hodge podge of memorabilia from his life in the mountains, Photos, posters, and other items cover the walls to make his hut one of the most memorable on the tour. A picture of Jockomo racing his motorcycle is pinned up next to one of him riding horses next to a poster of him during a speed record attempt on skis. This is of course punctuated by the occasional poster of a scantily clad woman in a thong bikini like an old auto garage or man cave, because, after all, he is Italian, right?

Another bone jarring, joint smashing, quad destroying decent to Courmayeur would lead us to our Italian hotel and a gorgeous dinner that wouldn’t be complete without Italian wine and Caprese salad. Thus ends day one. Yeah, I’m beat but taking stock of my condition I’m in good shape for what tomorrow brings. Good night.

Prologue – In true European tour form, our first full day in the Alps today (Friday) was a kind of prologue day.  After sleeping late to acclimate to the new time zone Erin, Brian, Leslie, and I took the tram up to the Aiguille du Midi at over 12,000ft where we were treated to spectacular views of the Chamonix Valley, the peaks around Mont Blanc, and a history on the climbing tradition in the mountains. How many places have you seen that goes from 3500ft to more than 12,000ft inside of about a mile or two. The steepness and vertical gain of these mountains is what is makes them so spectacular and impressive by the numbers.

We took the tram back down to mid mountain where we could catch a trail that traverses over to the Mer de Glace.  Before setting out we sat down on a rock for a traditional French picnic with salami, local cheese, French wine, and freshly baked bread. The plan was to run the 3-4mile traverse to the glacier and I figured a large lunch with some spicy salami might make the run more interesting. It was a beautiful warm cloudless day with a light breeze.

Brian and I set off down the granite strewn boulder trail at a comfortable pace and we would meet back up with Erin and Leslie at the Inn at the Mer de Glace. It was hard to keep my eyes on the trail with the views I was surrounded by but I managed not to sprain an ankle. It was amazing to me how many people were up in the mountains and hiking. We passed probably 40 people or more in a 3 mile section.

Brian and I arrived to a beautiful overlook of the Mer de Glace (sea of ice for those of you that don’t speak French, I don’t either). We hopped down the trail after a few pictures and ended up at one of the many refuges (kind of a lodge or hut with an Alps feel) in the trail network. This one was pretty large with an inn and a train station for the cog rail way that comes up 3000ft from Chamonix. Brian and I sat down for a beer on the outdoor patio to enjoy just being in the mountains on such a great day. And that we did, with the train rolling by every 20min or so, the aesthetics of the inn and patio with fellow hikers, alpine breezes in the pines and firs, and the glacier sitting below it is hard not to sit back, relax, and think to yourself, there’s really no place I’d rather be. It’s hard to put words to how being in the mountains in a setting like this can make you feel. As they say, a pictures worth a thousand words, and a picture never does it justice. So I would suggest ya’ll just experience it for yourself sometime.
To tune the legs for the next couple days in the mountains I decided to work the quads on the downhill back to Chamonix, so that’s what I did. It was a wake up call to how the mountains would test me over the next few days.

The others took the unique cog rail down and we met back for dinner in Chamonix with Fred (the MHW dude from Annecy), Sebastian (a local mountain guide and our videographer on Sun and Mon), and Scott (our photographer that would make the whole trip with us).  We talked logistics after a beautiful French meal and went over the maps with our route and the gear we would need. Then it was to bed with anticipation of what the next few days held during our run around the rooftop of Europe, around Mont Blanc.

Check out more pics on my Facebook page. And check out our route around the mountain at http://www.ultratrailmb.com/page/64/Visitez%20le%20Tour%20du%20Mont-Blanc.html.

Wow, guess where I am. It’s stunningly beautiful beyond your(my) imagination. I’m surrounded by grand mountains, quaint chalets and an absurdly amazing trail network that surpasses just about everything I have ever seen. If you’ve every been to Chamonix, France before you know what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t I suggest that if you like mountains and trail running, or are just an outdoor freak  in general that you drop in for a visit at some point in life because pictures truly do not do the Alps justice. It is more spectacular than I could have imagined from any picture I would ever see. I’ve included a few pictures from the valley just for kicks anyway though.
The reason I’m here and blogging it up is that Mountain Hardwear has invited me to Chamonix and Mont Blanc for a media trip/training adventure with Topher Gaylord and a few awesome magazine editors. With Topher’s new position at Mountain Hardwear and his connection to the UTMB race here in late August MHW put together this trip as a get to know Topher. So that’s what we’re going to do for the next couple of days. The plan is a three day training block for Topher’s upcoming UTMB race over 75miles of the trail. Since we just arrived today, tomorrow is an acclimation day of some hiking and running. Saturday the real fun begins. We’ll be traveling to Les Contamines and starting our 49km run at that point to Courmayeur in Italy. Day two will be 47km from Courmayeur to Champex in Switzerland and the final day is about 45km from Champex back to Chamonix.  I’ll be keeping a blog going on how the trip is going and all the grand adventures as we traverse mountain trails in France, Italy, and Switzerland.
I’ve only been here a few hours and already am having the trip of a lifetime. Delicious French food, homemade candy, spectacular scenery, beautiful Swiss (I guess technically they’re French) Chalets, an awesome trail run in the mountains, and now I’m doing a little work on the computer while admiring the warm summer mountain air with an amazing view of the high peaks. Training has never been so sweet. Ok, gotta sleep. More later.

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Chamonix

Montrail is proud to announce that the Wasatch Wobble will be back again for the 15th running of this fun 5k trail run.  The Wasatch Wobble takes place during the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, UT.

What:  15th annual Wasatch Wobble 5k – Badrock Battle

Where:  Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  Start is just north of Red Butte Gardens, Salt Lake City

When:  August 5th, 2010 at 6:45am

Why:  All proceeds from registration are donated to the Conservation Alliance

Who: Event is only open to Outdoor Retailer trade show attendees

Theme:  Superhero!!  Badrock Battle is a nod to the new Spring 2011 trail running shoe from Montrail, the Badrock, as well as Badrock the superhero.  Dress up in Superhero costume for a chance to win the costume contest.

Registration:  Stop by the Montrail booth #25001 on Tuesday or Wednesday, August 3rd or 4th, to register and receive your runner goodie bag!!

Co-Sponsors:  Mountain Hardwear, nuun, Nathan Sports, Tech4O, Darn Tough, Jetboil, Clif Bar and Trail Runner Magazine

Prizes:  Grand prizes will be awarded to the best Superhero costumes.  Other prizes will go to 1st place male and female finisher, Most Push-Ups, Largest Rock Carried Across the Finish Line, and other Superhero related course challenges that will be implemented.

Transportation: Don’t drive, take a bus.  Buses stage at the Salt Palace East Entrance at 5:45am and depart at 6am sharp.  Buses will return runners upon completion of the race, around 7:45am