Old Gabe 50k race

With an 8 week internship in Bozeman for the summer, I knew I’d be running on the trails in the bridger range outside of town quite a bit.  Therefore it was kind of a no-brainer to sign up for old gabe.  Plus, it encompasses most of the things I love about running – steep (11,000 vertical), exclusively singletrack, and through beautiful terrain.  On top of all that, it’s a refreshingly low key race environment and one of the most affordable races around ($50 for 50k).  All in all, highly recommended.

After a quick check-in and warmup, we were off, a combined group of nearly 100 runners for both the 25k and 50k.  It was a little strange in the initial mix-up for the few minutes of passing and getting passed, not knowing whether your fellow runners were in it for the long haul (50k) or doing the 25.  I tried to ignore it and just stick to a fairly easy pace for the initial 4mile climb.  I topped out feeling great and dropped into the snow and mud of the N facing terrain of the bostwicks.  Two muddy descents and 2 short climbs put me atop truman gulch where a newly re-routed trail apparently added a half-mile to the course (each way) which I cruised down to the truman aid station (9mi).

looking N at the course across the bostwicks a week before the race on an excellent saddle
peak to baldy mountain loop from middle cottonwood

A few minutes shy of 2 hours, I was right where I wanted to be and scarfed down some food and refilled water before starting the long climb back up Truman.  It was fun to see and cheer on fellow runners on the out-and-back format.  I set a goal of passing 5 people on this 5mile climb and succeeded, passing my 6^th on the snow just before the top with a big smile on my face, thoroughly enjoying the steep climbs and beautiful morning thus far.  I tried to cruise the big 4mile descent back to middle cottonwood without beating up the legs too much.

Jeffrey was hanging out (having done the 25k) and was nice enough to refill my bottles (thanks!) as I ate some food.  I soon exited, feeling great and ready to tackle the latter “half” of the course (the sypes portion is a few miles shorter than the truman “half”).  The sun was glaring and the heat would clearly be a factor for the remainder of the race.  I soaked my buff at the creek crossing for sypes (and all future creeks) to try to combat the heat.  I set a goal of catching 3 people on the sypes climb but only managed to reel-in and pass 2 runners before making the 3mile descent to the sypes aid (25mi).  I was feeling okay, positioned slightly behind 2 runners and anxious to give chase.  In retrospect I should have eaten more here but exited quickly. 

upper middle cottonwood drainage from the highpoint of the course (same vantage point as the prior photo)

The legs were feeling heavy on the climb back up sypes and I had to walk a good bit of runnable terrain but was otherwise moving well (I passed one runner on this climb but was unable to catch christi richards who would go on to beat the women's course record).   At the sypes/foothill junction as the trail turned downhill and with about 4miles to go, I tried to really pick up the pace but out-of-the-blue, my right hamstring cramped severely, forcing me to drop to the trail on all fours in agony.  I was able to slowly stretch and walk it off but despite the downhill grade, running wasn’t happening and I scampered along as best I could.  The final climb of the course soon began (I call it heartbreak hill), and I was moving well til my quads began to cramp, again forcing me to stretch and really slow the pace.  I couldn’t help but frequently glance at my watch, knowing my sub 7-hour goal was quickly slipping away with this new stretch and hobble pace.  I eventually crested the top of the climb, leaving a little over 2 miles of downhill trail to the finish.  The cramping only allowed walking for a few minutes but finally resided to a point where I was able to run at a moderate pace the last 1.5 miles to the finish.  Done in 7:06 for 7^th place. 

Rose: beautiful morning and pure enjoyment of the truman “half” of the course

Thorn: 2miles of major cramping and hobbling along near the end

Bud: I’d considered the HURL elkhorn 50miler in august but am excited to instead be focusing on my endless list of mountain adventures for the remainder of the summer before toeing the line at the RUT 50k in September

Thoughts: I was disappointed to have not broken 7 hours and the rough 2miles of cramping near the end but otherwise I had a great race.  Hanging out at the finish chatting with the 6 prior finishers and race directors was fun and a great example of how friendly and low-key this race is.  Don’t skimp on fueling, particularly in the last quarter of a race.

Crazy Peak skiing

A combination of final exams, a week in colorado, weather, and moving to bozeman for my summer internship have limited the “blog worthy” outings lately.  Plenty of 3-4 hour runs but no real full-day mountain adventures. 

top of the crazy couloir

However just as the calendar turned to June and I thought I might be done skiing for the year, the stars aligned for a high pressure system to coincide with an unexpected 3-day weekend.  After weighing a number of options, I decided to head to the Crazy mountains, excited to explore a new range.

looking NW from atop crazy peak

After a great night of sleep at the half moon campground, I hit the trail slightly before first light (should have been earlier but without a partner, its easy to hit snooze a few times).  I left the trail at the 2^nd bridge and cruised through some easy bushwhacking to the basin below crazy peak’s N face.  After stashing my shoes and putting on boots/crampons, I climbed the N face directly.  A shallow overnight freeze made for fairly slow and frustrating climbing conditions. 

From the lower N summit, a short downclimb put me atop the crazy couloir.  Having not skied in a few weeks, the steep and narrow jump-turns demanded my utmost attention.  After just a few turns, the couloir opened to a wide apron, which was disappointing since I was expecting the steep angle and soaring rock walls of the upper couloir to last for most of the run. 

crazy couloir's apron on R, moderate run I ascended on L

nice E-facing run I ascended above hidden lake

SE ridge.  all the rocky walking/scrambling today did some damage to my DyNA EVO race boots.
nothing major but also not sustainable for future use on rocky terrain.  

Despite not yet being 9am, the temps were already soaring so I skied slush down to hidden lake for a water refill.  I then skinned the prominent E-facing run looker’s L of the couloir to gain the SE ridge before scrambling a few hundred feet to the higher S summit.  I took an extended break on top to eat, relax and dry my socks and liners in the sun.  Next up was the S bowl, which held good corn up top followed by slushy skiing for over 2000ft til I ran out of snow, slightly above the unnamed lake downstream from crazy lake. 

a group of skier's on the lower N summit, directly above the snowy chimney you down climb to access the saddle 

S bowl down to unnamed lake.  a portion of crazy lake is visible on far right

such a sad sight...

The skin back up the S bowl was a real scorcher and a slow grind but I persevered.  From the summit, I was little worried about figuring out how to scramble down the broken, rocky terrain to the saddle between the summits but fortunately I found some old mountain goat tracks in the occasional snow patches which helped show me the way.  Once in the saddle, I could see the W couloir became more rock than snow after a mere few hundred feet so I was denied my goal of a 4x4 tour (ski 4 runs on the 4 aspects).  Instead I scrambled up to the N summit where I again took an extended break to dry out my socks and liners before dropping in to the N face. 

W couloir.  note all the rocks 

higher S summit from the north.  note the bootprints to traverse around the rocky tower

dropping in to the N face 

Relying on my memory from the morning’s climb, I was able to forge a route down the rocky upper portion of the face before skiing 2000+ ft. of slush down to my shoes.  A ribbon of snow in the runout zone of the N face provided a nice ski egress before a short jaunt through the woods (mostly skiing) brought me to the trail.  Given it was early June, I was pretty stoked to able to ski to within a 1000 vert of the trailhead.

rocky upper portion of the N face

a lean N face of crazy peak

Less snow coverage in the range than I had hoped for and the super warm temps. prompted me to bail on more skiing the following day and instead head back to bozeman to spend the remainder of the weekend relaxing and running.

Stats:  just shy of 9k in 10.5 hours car-car

Rose: despite the heat, an all-around great day exploring the high point of a new range on skis

Thorn: with non-ski plans in place for the next 2 weekends, my ski season is most likely over…always a tough pill to shallow

Bud: running and climbing adventures in the high country for the next few months!

Thoughts: the scrambling between the 2 summits is slow and non-trivial, there appears to be an abundance of great looking ski terrain in the Crazies, a return trip is certainly warranted ideally in early spring once you could drive within a mile or 2 of the trailhead  

Holland Peak to Holland Lake Ski Traverse

After a solid few hours of sleep at the trailhead, the usual trio of Brian, Jeffrey and I set out from the cooney lookout/holland peak TH at 5am, excited for a day of skiing adventure along the swan crest.  Our destination was holland lake, where we had dropped a vehicle the previous evening. 

jeffrey on the swan crest, holland peak in the distance

The climbers trail up to rumble lakes is steep and direct and we soon found ourselves at the lower lake, admiring the pink alpenglow on the missions across the valley.  We opted to forgo the buried summer trail to the upper lake and instead boot up the L of two N facing couloirs from the lake to the ridge.  

picture doesn't do it justice.  alpenglow on the missions

lower rumble lake - we gained the ridge via looker's L couloir 

A remaining short climb put us in the sun on the crest of the range where we transitioned and skied a short run E to the bottom of holland’s SE face, so as to avoid the nasty glide cracks that form along the summer S ridge route.  A straightforward boot up the SE face put us on top, which I was excited to visit with skis for my first time. 

brian on the ridge

nasty glide cracks/debris just off holland's S ridge, easily bypassed to the E

skiing holland's SE face (photo: brian)

We were a little early for corn but the face skied well and from the bottom, we made a long sidehill traverse to the S to gain a small but obvious break in the lower E ridge of Buck Mt.  I slapped on skins for the first time of the day and Brian lead the way wrapping around onto the SE face of Buck and up to the summit.  We skied the SE face in good corn conditions down to upper terrace lake and discussed our next move.  We opted to bypass the next highpoint of the crest on the E side and re-gained the crest slightly N of pt. 8450 before trending S to the summit.

a nice depiction of how small and insignificant we are in the mountains.
brian and jeffrey below the N face of buck mt.  

brian leading the charge down buck's SE face

NE face of pt. 8450 - we skied the open portion on looker's R

jeffrey dropping in and headed to woodward lake

With adequate time for another long run, we decided to ski the aesthetic NE face of pt. 8450 to woodward lake.  The upper half skied well however the latter thousand feet to the lake was heavy mush and a real workout on my skinny skis.  After an exciting but successful water refill (another great use for the whippet), we climbed W to the obvious break in the cliffs before making a long traverse to the S above necklace lakes and ultimately back onto the ridgecrest to the holland lookout.   

closing in on the holland lookout (photo: brian)

We skied down the W ridge before nosing our way into the SW bowl and continuing down til we ran out of snow, luckily a mere 10ft from the summer trail.  We transitioned to shoes and embarked on a surprisingly fun 3ish mile run down the trail.  Despite having to drive N back to cooney lookout to get my truck, our early start and strong pace throughout the day put us back in town in time for dinner. 

view from the highway - holland is 2nd from L and holland lookout is far R 

rough breakdown of our route

Thoughts: I seem to easily forget how great the skiing is in the swan.  although the drive and access is a little more than many bitterroot/rattlesnake/mission options, it’s certainly worth skiing in the swan once or twice per season.  there is a lot of good ski terrain around lower and upper rumble lakes with easy access via the bushwhack-free climbers trail 

Stats: approx. 17mi/11k vert in 11:20 point-point

Splits: 4:15 holland, 5:45 buck, 7:30 pt. 8450, 9:45 lookout, 11:20 holland lake TH

Rose: the remoteness and beauty of skiing in the bob marshall wilderness  

Thorn: knowing this is likely one of my last ski outings of the season

Bud: I’ve done holland peak and a holland lake to sunday mt. traverse in the summer but am excited to return this summer for the full smith creek pass to sunday mt. outing (30+mi/14k vert) 

Big St Joe to Lolo Peak ski traverse

With good stability and perfect high pressure conditions, I was fortunate to join forces with Brian for a go at the bass creek to lolo peak ski traverse.  Brian had done it two years previously but bypassed the major peaks so our hope was to hit the major highpoints and ski some new runs along the way. 

N face of big st joe

We dropped a vehicle at the mill creek TH and continued down to the bass creek TH, finding it full of cars when we pulled in at about 3:50am.  As we were gearing up and about to depart, 10+ folks with headlamps came down the trail, carrying a litter.  Fortunately it was just training for the local Search and Rescue but we were sure surprised by the early (or late night?) hour of their training.  After exchanging a few words with them, we started up the trail in shoes, running the flats and hiking the steeper sections of trail.  We opted to keep our feet dry by taking the summer trail on the N side of the creek and made good time up to pinball meadow and the bottom of big st. joe’s SE bowl as the sun was rising.  After a quick break and water top-off, we started up the climber’s R side of the drainage, reaching snowline in about a thousand vert.  With a strong overnight freeze, we opted to keep hiking a ways before transitioning to boots/skis and continuing up to big st. joe’s summit. 

exiting big st. joe's SE bowl

big st. joe (photo: brian)

Next up was skiing the moderate and often wind-hammered N face, a run neither of us had skied.  We picked our way through some rocks and skied some windboard before reaching decent powder conditions midway down, followed later by horrendous breakable crust (I crashed twice on my 74mm underfoot skis) as we skied 3000ft down to sweeney creek (S fork).  We transitioned at the creek before starting the big climb up the aesthetic S gully of the E pyramid butte, skinning the apron and lower portion, booting through the debris and bed surface where it had naturally slid and skinning the upper stretch.  I had done a pyramid butte to sweeney loop a few years ago in summer so I was excited to visit for my first time on skis.  From the top, we skied the E face and were pleasantly surprised to find great powder skiing down to the N fork of sweeney creek.  

a look back at big st. joe 

looking N to sweeney lake with lolo peak in the distance 

E pyramid butte powder

cold N facing powder above sweeney creek

We continued N to saddle 8776 and fortunately the climb wasn’t nearly as hot as I feared, given the strong sun and warming temps.  From there we skied more mellow powder N to one horse lake where we found a nice shady nook to eat and transition. We then made the typical climb to the N past reed lake to the N summit of lolo peak, still moving at a good clip despite already having 10k under our legs. 

next stop one horse lake.  lolo peak in the distance (photo: brian)

E face of E pyramid butte

more powder on N lolo peak

although we were the only folks out there, I still like to stack our tracks
and leave an aesthetic mark on the mountain (photo: brian)

The theme of the tour seemed to be warm but not too warm S aspect climbs and good powder skiing down N aspects and the N gully of lolo peak delivered the goods, perhaps the best skiing of the day.  From lantern lake, we skied another 500 or so feet to the N before making a short final climb up onto lantern ridge, ripping skins and cruising NW in hunt of the summer trail.  We stumbled across it surprisingly quick and skied down til we ran out of snow.  We then transitioned back to running shoes and ran the bulk of the 4miles and 3000ft down to the car, periodically interrupted by downfall across the trail.  All in all an excellent day out in the mountains.

a few miles of this at the end of the day (photo: brian)

the route

Stats:  approx. 23mi/12k vert in just over 12 hours car-car

Splits: approx. big st. joe 4 hrs, E pyramid butte 6 hrs, N lolo peak 9:30, mill creek TH 12 hrs

Rose: moving through the mountains fluidly and easily with a strong partner, gorgeous weather and (mostly) great skiing

Thorn: dehydrated and tired on the run down the trail at the end of the day

Bud: despite the current heat wave, hopefully getting in a few more great ski tours before the snow is gone 

Thoughts: although it is fairly long, this is an outstanding tour that is highly recommended to strong backcountry skiers, the car shuttle is surprisingly quick (just under an hour from town to deposit a rig at mill creek TH and get to bass creek TH), a similar outing in the summer could be fun – start with the 3 joe traverse, then from stormy joe trend N on the ridge all the way to lolo peak, dropping off once or twice as needed for water, and again ending at the mill creek TH)

Shedhorn Skimo Race Recap

Imagine the RUT 25k course but with the added fun of skiing and you more or less get the Shedhorn Skimo race, now in its 2^nd year at Big Sky Resort.  I had a poor race last year so was excited to return for this beast of a course (18mi and 9k vert).

second climb to the summit (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

An extended spell of high pressure leading up to the race had created “slide for life” ice conditions in the big couloir (heard over the patroller’s radio shortly before the start) so racers were required to carry either a whippet or an ice axe for the race.  The hope was that subsequent descents would soften under the strong sun before racers arrived. 

unknown racer in the big couloir (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

After the initial mix-up off the line, I found myself in 12^th place on the initial cat-track climb.  I edged past Meredith and Michela and two guys as the course deposited us on a steeper groomer.  I reached the bottom of the bonecrusher bootpack shortly after Case, quickly transitioned and gave chase.  Fortunately the winds were mild (in contrast to last year’s 40+ mph) and I maintained position, reaching the summit still in 8^th place.  After a mandatory 2min break at the summit aid station (to space out skier’s in the big couloir), I cruised down the ridge and dropped in.  It was certainly icy but within my comfort level to ski without use of the fixed line they had in place, so I made chatterly jump turns down the whole thing (read: not pretty but skiing nonetheless), passing Case as he sideslipped along. 

elliott and teague on bonecrusher (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

racers on the parachute boot pack (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

I caught up to Jeffrey at the next climb below parachute, had a quick transition and started up just ahead of him.  This short climb was a welcome sight in comparison to the 3600ft beast of a first climb and I dropped into three forks just as Jeffrey and Case were arriving.  Variable conditions, including some powder were found before reaching the transition and slapping on skins for the climb to an aid station atop six-shooter lift before continuing up the headwaters.  I elected to skin the entire way to the top of parachute but I’m not sure if it was any faster than transitioning to boot the portion that is normally bootpacked by resort skiers.  Case arrived as I was ripping my 2^nd skin and Jeffrey was close behind so I kept pushing hard, skiing sloppy corn down parachute before bombing across the bowl and making the long but flat climb along the middle road to shedhorn grill aid station.  I elected just to carry my skis and walk/run this mini-climb and could tell of those in front of me, all disciplines had been tried – skating, skinning and booting. 

case and jeffrey on headwaters, I am slightly out of frame ahead (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

patrollers at the top of parachute, big couloir is the prominent
run down lone peak (photo: myke hermsmeyer)

I cruised the short ski down to the dakota lift, before slapping skins on and beginning the long (2600ft) climb back to the summit.  With blue skies and warm temps, the snow was getting soft and heavy and the skin to the base of the fixed lines through the kircher cliffs seemed to drag on for a long time (with Case and Jeffrey still close behind).  The jugging and scrambling up the cliffs was a fun change of pace from the prior slogging however the third and final portion of fixed lines and just beyond featured waist deep wallowing in isothermic snow which was a major mental lowpoint of the day.  I finally arrived at the top of the mandatory booting section and was incredibly excited to transition back to skinning.  A glance at my watch showed another 1500ft to the summit and I knew it was going to be a serious grind, made all the more difficult by the glaring sun and my black race suit.  This was the climb that crushed me last year so I just put my head down and kept moving and fueling. 

I eventually arrived on the summit, hurting but in good spirits, indulged in some coke at the aid station and dropped in to liberty bowl.  The slushy conditions and small moguls were absolutely brutal on my quivering quads and I had to briefly stop midway down to let the burn momentarily subside.  I continued down to the bottom of shedhorn before slapping on skins for the final time and grinding up the short final climb and skating down the slow and slushy ever so slightly downhill cat track to the finish. 

results

I thought I was in 6^th but a broken boot and resulting DNF by crazy fast Tom Goth put me in 5^th place at the 4:45 mark.  My goal time was sub 5 hours so I was very happy with my race.  Relaxing in the sun with a beer in hand cheering on other finishers ensued. 

A big thanks to the Big Sky ski patrol for all their hard work on putting together this great race and to Myke Hermsmeyer for taking lots of great pictures.

Rose: putting together a strong (for me) performance

Thorn: hurting big time on the 2^nd climb to the summit

Bud: investing in race skis and some skimo specific training next fall and seeing where that can take me next season

Thoughts:  this is a challenging and awesome course worthy of a much larger turnout than 24 racers, skiing off lone peak (shedhorn) is much more fun than running talus down (rut)

Rattlesnake Traverse on skis

Despite having a race (shedhorn) in 2 days, I couldn’t resist the lure of great weather and stability for a long day in the mountains.  With temps forecasted to reach 80 in the valley, I opted for the predominately N-facing rattlesnake traverse, so as to avoid dealing with rapidly warming solar aspects under the strong sun.

looking N from stuart peak

After stashing a bike at snowbowl, I left the ravine trailhead on foot slightly after 6, excited for the day ahead.  Six miles of hiking finally brought me to snowline (6100ft) where I transitioned and continued up to stuart peak.  I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple old skintracks converging on the summit.  Its definitely a good push to access stuart from any direction and was great to see evidence of folks getting after it.  The N face looked icy, so I locked my toes and dropped in directly from the summit.  It was firm but manageable and I skied down to upper twin lake, before making the short climb N to eagle point.  I next skied the eagle chute N down to roosevelt lake, which was even icier but as a remote, aesthetic line I hadn’t skied before, I was stoked regardless. 

nearing the top of stuart via the S ridge 

looking NW to murphy, burgundy and point six

N face of stuart from twin lakes

eagle chute

a look back at eagle point, the eagle chute is on looker's R

Next up was the long climb trending NW back to the ridgeline S of mosquito and on to the summit. I skied the R-hand portion of the N face, which was again, super icy.  I had hoped the warm temps during the day would soften the N faces a bit but I had no such luck.  I took a long break in the sun at glacier lake to eat, relax and dry out my saturated skins. 

from mosquito, looking S back to eagle point (center) and stuart (far R)

N face of mosquito to glacier lake

N face of mosquito, 5 prominent lines marked, anyone know names of these?

N face sanders

looking back up sander's N face/couloir

From there I continued N to sanders, where I dropped in to the N face.  The upper face was soft (gets sun) but the lower couloir (shaded) was the iciest of the day.  I made the short climb to the saddle W of sanders and due to wet slide concerns on the S gully of murphy, elected to bypass murphy and head straight to point six.  The usual ski/slog across the grant creek basin (and a much needed water re-fill) put me atop point six under the intense afternoon sun.  I opted out of jenny bowl due to mega-slushy conditions and wet-slide concerns so cruised down the S ridge and made the mini climb to snowbowl before bombing down a slushy paradise.  The easy bike shuttle went quick, and I got some great looks as I rode by folks dressed in my race suit with skis/boots/poles on my back on a 70 degree bluebird afternoon.   I wish I had a picture.  

On a gear related note, I carried ski crampons and a whippet but neither were necessary.  Also, this was my first real tour (other than racing and snowbowl/point six training) on my race boots and skinny skis (DyNA EVO and 167 broad peaks) as well as race pack and 2-piece race suit and it all worked wonderfully.  I’m excited for some big tours this spring in a fast and light style made possible by such equipment.      

Stats: about 9600 vert in 9 hours car-to-bike

Splits: approx. 3:15 stuart, 5:15 mosquito, 6:15 sanders, 8:15 point six

Rose: beautiful day in the mountains on this classic missoula area tour

Thorn: skiing ice all day, having to bypass murphy

Bud: bigger and bolder ski traverses in a fast & light style

Thoughts: with conditions allowing safe passage down S aspects in the afternoon, it would be great to ski NW off W sanders peak down to upper finley lake, climb the NW ridge of murphy, and then ski the S faces of murphy, burgundy and jenny bowl at the end of the tour (would make for a more logical and complete traverse and 12k day)