***UTMB has been canceled due to severe weather and a mud slide across the course.  Press conference in 1 hour.  Updates coming. – as of 1:30pm  PST

The 165km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, or UTMB, is about to start in France and we’ll be following along as Montrail athlete Geoff Roes takes a crack at the challenge.

Thus far Geoff has enjoyed his time in France, which has included catching up with friends, running the last 10 miles of the course, and passing a drug test administered by the race officials.  Bryon Powell of irunfar.com caught up with Geoff for a quick interview as well.

Follow along with the race at the official site or with Bryon on his IRunFar twitter account as well as on his website.

The race will start at 9:30am PT, 12:30pm ET in the USA.  Good luck to all the runners!

First and foremost, the 2010/2011 Montrail Ultra Cup series kicked off in Willamette Pass, Oregon with the Where’s Waldo 100km.  The race was won by Timothy Olson of Ashland, Oregon in a time of 9:25:04.  Last season’s female Ultra Cup champion Meghan Arbogast is at it again, as she runs to the win at Waldo in a time of 10:52:50.  Montrail athlete Erik Skaden took 4th place overall.  Congratulations to all the runners who finished.  Western States 100 auto-entry spots were awarded to Timothy Olson, Dan Omstead, Amy Sproston and Jenny Capel for their top finishes at Waldo.  Next up, Run Rabbit Run 50 in Steamboat, CO on 9/18/10

In Colorado, the Transrockies stage race kicked off Sunday morning, with the first leg being 20.6 miles of relatively flat terrain (2700 feet of climbing).  Veteran competitors Max King and Andy Martin, comprising Team Montrail-Hammer Nutrition, went on to win the first stage in a time of 2:26:03, putting a 7-minute gap on the field.  Keep up with the race here.

Montrail ultrarunning superstar Gary Robbins completed his Conquer the Coasts project by running the East Coast Trail (220 km) in Canada in a record time of 35 hours, 17 minutes.  He now owns the speed record for both the West Coast Trail (70km) and the East Coast Trail.  Congratulations Gary!

Read Gary’s Blog for the full story.

Did you race this weekend?  Or maybe you just went out and challenged yourself?  Where were you?  How’d it go?

Big-ups to our Canadian friend Gary Robbins for his new speed record on the West Coast Trail in Canada.  Gary knocked 5 minutes off the old record and ran the 80km trail in 10:08:50

Gary and a park ranger, post run

Gary said logistically, this one was a nightmare, and very challenging.  But he pulled it together and challenged himself and came out triumphant.  Success!

Check out Gary’s blog for more info and for some videos and photos.

Gary will go after the East Coast Trail speed record in a few weeks.  That one is 220km and will be a serious test of will and endurance.

Canadian Montrail athlete Ellie Greenwood continues her streak of wins this year with another big one on Saturday.  Ellie ran The North Face’s Canadian Death Race, a 125km grueling foot race with over 17,000 feet of elevation gain, and finished 1st place female with a new course record time of 13:28:39!!  She broke the old record by roughly 50 minutes.

Ellie ran her first ever 100km earlier this year and won the race outright.  This time she’s showed again how strong she is at the longer distance and bigger hills.  Ellie’s having an incredible year, including 5 wins at distances ranging from half marathon to 125km.  Congratulations Ellie!!

Watch for a race report on Ellie’s blog.

Congratulations to Dakota Jones.  The kid can flat out run!  19 years old and with two major 50 mile victories already this year, Dakota raced the White River 50 on Saturday, which hosted this year’s USATF 50 mile championship.  In an absolutely stacked field, Dakota put his talents on demonstration en route to a second place finish in a time of 6:49.  Anton Krupicka won the race with a new course record time of 6:25.  Greg Crowther took 3rd place with Scott Jurek in 4th.

Congratulations Dakota in another impressive performance!!

With a smoking fast course record time of 16:44:21 on Saturday at the Burning River 100 in Ohio, Annette Bednosky was crowned the USATF 100 mile female champion and caps off a big month in a big way.

A month ago, in late June, Annette finished 7th at Western States 100, and at one point at the Michigan Bluff aid station, was overheard saying, “you know, I’m just not a 100 mile runner.  But I’m still having fun!”

Now one month later, she’s at it again.  Congratulations Annette, 2010 USATF 100 Mile Female Champion!!

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.