Josiah Middaugh and Keri Nelson won the men’s and women’s 10K at the Jeremy Wright North American Snowshoe Championships in Beaver Creek on Sunday. Middaugh, who won the U.S. championships in New York the day before (yes, it’s confusing), smoked the 10K course in 47:45. Simon Escorcia and Kelly Escorcia took the 5K titles. More than 300 people entered the various races.
More results after the jump. … Continue Reading
1,500 vertical feet X 20 laps = ouch.
Michael Hagen completed an even 20 laps of the one-mile, 1,500-vertical-foot course at the Endurance Challenge at Sunlight Mountain, a 12-hour suffer-fest at the ski resort near Glenwood Springs. Hagen needed 11 hours 43 minutes to wrap up his 30,000-vertical-foot workout on February 28.
Meanwhile, Eva Hagen won the women’s solo division with 15 laps, or ca. 22,500 vertical feet. Not a bad day out for the husband and wife from Colorado Springs, each of whom won $2,000 for their victories. Competing as a team, the Hagens placed third in the duo category at the 24 Hours of Sunlight in 2009. … Continue Reading
Courtesy of Vail Athletic Club
Josiah Middaugh of Edwards won the Vail Winter Uphill race, posting a time of 37:42 for the two-mile, 2,000-vertical-foot course. Middaugh, a top-ranked off-road triathlon racer and past national champion in snowshoeing, had knee surgery in early November and obviously is doing well in recovery. Anita Ortiz, a multi-time national mountain running champion, was the fastest woman up the course, finishing in fourth overall with a time of 42:30. Ortiz was last year’s USATF ultra runner of the year in the master’s division.
Click here to see all the results (box in lower left of the page) and photos from the Vail Winter Uphill.
Pete Swenson and Monique Merrill were fastest up and down (and up and down, and up and down, and up and down) Monarch Mountain in Saturday’s Race the Divide, the third of six races in the 2010 Colorado Ski Mountaineering Cup. The “race” course did four laps (red, orange, yellow, and then blue on the map), totaling about 3,500 vertical feet, and three racers finished this delightful tour in under an hour and a half.
Visit the website of Salida Mountain Sports, presenting sponsor of the race, to see the full results.
Trail through the Buffalo Creek burn area.
A brand-new trail ultra is planned for the Buffalo Creek area this summer. The North Fork 50 Mile/50K Trail Race will start at Jeffco’s Pine Valley Ranch Park, along the banks of the North Fork of the South Platte River, and climb into Pike National Forest along trails best known for their superb mountain biking. All of the run will be on single-track and double-track trails. Although some of the course passes through areas burned by the Buffalo Creek fire—and thus this could be a sunny, hot race—the area is still beautiful and the trails are smooth and excellent for running. A welcome addition to the midsummer schedule!
Steve Bremner on a winter solstice run.
Steve Bremner from Manitou Springs likely set the speed record for the winter ascent of Pikes Peak on January 12, running up the 14,115-foot peak in 3:21:55, from the Barr Trailhead to the summit. Bremner ran down the cog railway to Mountain View, traversed to Barr Camp, and then continued down the Barr Trail, for a round-trip time of 5:35:25, also likely a winter record. … Continue Reading
Photographer James Beissel sent us this fantastic dawn-patrol shot of the full moon setting over South and North Arapaho in the Indian Peaks, shot from Flagstaff Mountain. Said Beissel: ”The first full moon of the New Year is often called the Wolf Moon. The name comes from Native American culture, in which it was associated with [...]
By Bob Berwyn
Stakeholders in the San Luis Valley have taken a giant step toward protecting Great Sand Dunes National Park from mining, energy development, and water exports. Lexam Explorations has agreed to sell its mineral rights if a $9.7 million deal can be finalized by May.
Great Sand Dunes National Park was created by Congress [...]
Jason Haas, who’s working on a new guidebook to South Platte rock climbs, has just redpointed what’s likely the Platte’s hardest pitch, a roof seam that’s protected with removable pro and might be 5.14a. The new route, Comprometido, took about a year and a half to complete. Here, Haas tells the story.
While researching routes [...]
Let’s say you’d like to try some sport-mixed routes, but you aren’t into fruit boots and cranking figure-nines. Until recently, your options have been limited at East Vail, the mecca of modern mixed climbing. But this season, several new climbs have been added to the Firehouse West and Spiral Staircase areas, and at M6 to [...]
On Saturday, Andy Grauch and Chris Sheridan completed a wild line on the south face of Mt. Otis in Rocky Mountain National Park—almost certainly a new route. Chockstones of Unusual Size (C.O.U.S.) is a three-pitch route (plus snow slogging) that surmounts two stupendous blocks by tricky dry tooling: III M6/7. We asked Andy Grauch to [...]
Kevin Landolt is a skier/climber/student, based in Fort Collins, who writes the fun Alpine Ambition blog for the Mountain Shop. Here, Kevin describes a favorite midwinter ski tour near Cameron Pass offering a little of everything.
Trailhead: Lake Agnes Road, 2.5 miles west of Cameron Pass
Tour Distance: 7.3 miles
Total Vert: ca. 2,900′
Season: Midwinter to spring; two [...]
Two of the wildest and most difficult water-ice pitches in the state are in plain view from Highway 50, en route to Ouray and Telluride from points north, plunging down the sheer face of Grand Mesa. Yet few people notice them, and far fewer have climbed them. The routes are tough, to be sure, but [...]
Mt. Bancroft’s rocky east ridge is a terrific mountaineering adventure for Front Range climbers, beginning less than an hour from Denver. The 13,250-foot peak is relatively close to the road, and avalanche danger can be easily managed, making this perhaps the most accessible technical winter summit on the entire Front Range. The east ridge offers [...]
Michael Barton of Mountain Goat Ski Guides in Silverton offers up this classic route off Red Mountain Pass. It’s more of an early-spring route than a midwinter tour, but now you can put it on the hit list. How good is this route? Says Barton: It’s out of my permit boundary, so I don’t [...]
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