HURL 53miler race report

With great excitement and some nervousness for my first 50miler, I found myself running in the chilly morning air by headlamp out of the Willard Creek trailhead in the Elkhorn Mountains outside of Helena.  Having never ran further than ~34miles, my race plan for the day was a conservative start for the initial 30miles and 8000vert to the town of Elkhorn.  For these 6 and a half hours, I was feeling great, enjoying the surprisingly cool overcast conditions as the miles clicked by at an easy pace, hiking most of the climbs and slowly moving up through the field from approximately 13^th to 8^th place. 

I switched to fresh shoes/socks and stuffed my face at the Elkhorn aid station, excited for the big 3000ft climb ahead.  After a few minutes of hiking, there was a mile or so stretch of flat road running that took me by surprise, and having just eaten a ton of food, my stomach took a nasty turn from totally fine to super upset in a matter of minutes.  What would ensue was nearly 3 hours of GI issues and some nausea that slowed me way down, forcing me to lay down on the side of the trail several times, able to eat little to no calories.  I was feeling a little better by the aid station at mile 36 and was able to stomach some salty foods. 

By aid at mile 42 my stomach was mostly settled and back to normal so I was able to mentally switch gears from simply “keep moving” to actually pushing hard/racing.  In doing so I was able to catch and pass a few racers that had overtaken me when I was hurting and moving slow.  I reached the aid station at mile 46 feeling the best I had in several hours and pushed hard on the remaining ~7 miles (mostly downhill) to the finish.  I was behind schedule with what I had told my mom for anticipated finishing time so it was a great surprise to see her cheering about a mile before the finish.  I ended up 8^th overall in 13:08, well behind my race goals of sub 12 hours and top 5 male.  Oh well.  I was excited to have finished so strong, rather than limping (figuratively) across the line.

start/finish area - great low-key race environment

low quality picture before they took the banner down

strawberry lookout the next day

My mom and I had a great evening cheering on other finishers and camping that night.  Hot sunny conditions ensued on Sunday but we got in a nice bike ride together to Strawberry Lookout before parting ways and heading home.

Stats: about 53miles and 13,500 vert in 13:08

Rose: closing strong on my first 50miler

Thorn: my ~3 hours of GI problems and ensuing snail’s pace

Bud:  this was a big boost in confidence for me to tackle longer outings in the future (teton crest trail in a day, gannett peak in a day, etc) 

Chouinard Ridge - middle teton

A week after climbing full exum, I found myself back in garnet canyon, headed solo up the south fork to the south side of the middle teton.  

standard middle teton view from the garnet trail

As I hiked past several people and small groups also headed for the middle, I hoped no one would blindly follow me, assuming I was headed for the standard SW couloir route.  Instead I deviated to the bottom of continuous snow below the ellingwood couloir, where I put on microspikes and slowly kicked switchbacks up the semi-steep snow to reach the base of the chouinard ridge.  

from L to S - chouinard ridge, chouinard couloir, SE buttress, ellingwood couloir

I spent a solid 15 minutes on a large ledge below the route to dry out shoes/socks and refuel.  Above me lay over 1500 vertical feet of scrambling, reportedly up to 5.4 in difficulty.  I was stoked.  I slowly worked my way up the broad ridge, enjoying the solid rock and choose-your-own-adventure wide array of route options/difficulty.  

bottom of chouinard ridge

the SE buttress (III 5.7) looks worthy of a return trip

midway up the route

Route finding was fairly straight forward but there were a few steep sections where I had to downclimb and look around to find a more reasonable route.  I was surprised to find myself feeling a little relieved as the difficulty eased off and the route more-or-less deposited me in the upper SW couloir about a hundred feet below the summit.  I arrived on the summit about 5 hours into the day and enjoyed another long break of food, views and the company of those that had come up the SW couloir. 

upper portion of route

the crux of the way i went

the GFT

iceflow lake to the west 

I then descended the SW couloir and rock hopped and boot skied the snow patches of the south fork down to the meadows.   Despite hiking the entirely of the egress to the trailhead, I still had to pass and dodge countless hikers along the way.  A stark contrast to the solitude of the chouinard ridge but a small price to pay for playing in such an incredible mountain range.

Stats: roughly 13mi/6k vert/scrambling up to 5.4 in a leisurely 8.5 hours roundtrip

Rose: routefinding on the fly on very good rock

Thorn: crowds on the lower trail on the way down

Bud: the adjacent SE buttress with a partner and a rope

Thoughts: while I would definitely recommend this route to others, its worth noting that there is mandatory exposed 5.4/5 climbing (particularly on upper half) and is more routefinding intensive and committing than the CMC route on moran.  Also – descending the south fork of garnet is MUCH nicer the more snow there is

Exum Ridge

With Bria out of town and no local climbing partners yet, I responded to a partner posting on MP of someone looking for an exum ridge partner.  I met Nico for dinner in Jackson the night before our climb.  He was from Germany, in the midst of a month long US climbing trip and had never been to the tetons before.  The following day we had a blast climbing the full exum ridge together in perfect weather – a spectacular introduction to the tetons for Nico! 

classic view from the lower saddle

nico following the black face pitch

golden stair 

friction pitch

looking down the V pitch

We swung leads on the lower exum (III 5.7) with me lucking out and getting to lead the stellar black face pitch.  We simuled and soloed the bulk of the upper exum (II 5.5) but pitched out the friction pitch.  Although I had climbed the upper exum previously, I had apparently bypassed the friction and V-pitches since both were new to me this time around – go figure.  There was a line at both rappels but we eventually made it down to the upper saddle and continued down to the car, arriving a bit before dark.  A long but outstanding day.

teton shadows above bradley lake on the hike down

Rose: the exposed jug-hauling on the black face pitch

Thorn: crowds – at the base of the route and the rappels

Bud: this was my third time up the grand by a different route but there are still several more I’m looking forward to climbing