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This morning was my 10th summit of Longs Peak so far this year, and the third this week. My previous two times up the mountain earlier in the week were both probably the toughest conditions I've experienced on the mountain. Temperatures weren't unreasonable, but on both Wednesday and Friday the mountain was completely socked in by unforecasted, heavily-snowing clouds, and whipping winds sent constant waves…

Getting up the hill this particular day wasn't going to be easy. When I awoke, the gently flaking sky seemed benign enough, but now, half-way up Green Mountain, my jacket is soaked through, I'm slogging through shin-deep powder and a raucous north wind is inducing periodic white-out conditions. Up here on the hill, the snow rate has officially crossed the line from "bucolic snow-globe scene"…

It almost always starts as little more than a twinge. You're shaking out the usual kinks in the first few minutes of an early morning run and you notice that one of those kinks takes longer to dissolve than all the others.  No matter, a couple hours later at the end of your outing, you've forgotten it even happened.  Except the next morning, maybe it…

The east face of Longs Peak presents a complex and intimidating visage.  This aspect of the peak, afterall, contains the 1700' shear wall known as the Diamond, the most important high-altitude big wall in the country from an alpine-climbing perspective.  However, lucky for unskilled climbing neophytes such as myself, there exists a relatively moderate line through this terrain that still offers some of the thrill…

Running into the tiny village of Guipry, in France’s Brittany district, on August 31, 2002, I was feeling pretty worn. It was the fourth long day of La Transe Gaule, an 18-day stage race across France. I’d run maybe 25 km already that morning, and had another 45 or so to go – a typical 70 km day. This was beginning to seem like a…

Scott Jurek is "The Man" - other ultra runners consider him the king, the top of the heap. He won the Western States 100 seven times in a row - current winners acknowledge that will never be done again. Now he has switched sports - Scott has taken that same commitment and intensity and applied it to the business of running.  He has written a…

[caption id="attachment_474" align="alignnone" width="640"] Looking east from the summit of Gannet Peak.[/caption] A year ago, to the week, I climbed the Third Flatiron in Boulder, CO for the first time.  Legendary mountaineer and guidebook author Gerry Roach stridently proclaims its standard East Face route (5.2) "the finest easy rock climb in the world".  Back in June of 2011 I had broken my leg and last…

CAPTION THIS PHOTO! We received an incredible response to that question on our Facebook Page - over 850(!) of you wrote what you thought they were thinking, over 100 people Shared it on their own FB Page, and over 20,000 people viewed the photograph and your proposed Captions, some of which were hilarious. Good job! The photo is from the Leadville 100, where Scott Jurek…

Bottles up front? As a women you may be thinking…..hmmm what about my girls? At first glance looking at the new designs of the Ultimate Direction hydration vests a female might raise an eyebrow as to how it will fit over one’s ta ta’s. Well, we thought the same thing and have designed it to accommodate many body types. Lots of runner gals of all…

[caption id="attachment_267" align="aligncenter" width="500"] 5-time Zegama champ Kilian Jornet high on the mountain. Credit: SalernoPhoto.[/caption] Last weekend I was standing around in the pouring 45F rain in the town square of Zegama in the Basque Country of northern Spain.  Montana mountain runner Mike Wolfe had just crossed the finish threshold of the Zegama-Aizkorri SkyMarathon in 14th place as the top American and was still visibly…