The Rapture

The V Couloir, Prospector Mountain, GTNPWinter continues to be a non-starter for 2015 in Alaska. Ice climbing and obsessing over the condition of my ski quiver has done little to placate my need for fresh snow and fun skiing. Of all the places south of AK, the Tetons have faired the best in terms of snow pack. So, it was with this in mind I scheduled a two-week vacation and headed to my favorite ski range. I also decided to have a look in the central mountains of British Columbia and I scheduled the second week as a hut trip in the Selkirks.

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2014 Alyeska Climbathon

The end of the summer has been busy with work and moving into a condo I decided to purchase. I know. That sounds crazy. Many felt I would never stay in Alaska, being perpetually homesick for the Tetons. But I spend at least 50 hours a week at my job and I tend to like this one so I think I’ll stay for a bit. I’m not one to plan too far into the future but I decided that having my own place to base from makes sense. The other thing I noticed is that if I don’t go back to Jackson too often, I forget how great it is.

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2014 Mount Marathon Race Report

Eric Strabel cruising to his 3rd MMR victory, 2014It’s been three weeks since MMR. I’ve never felt so relieved to have an event behind me. Not that the experience was a bad one - far from it. But I’ve rarely experienced so much anticipation and, in a way, anxiety prior to a race. I think it was the unknown of the all out downhill portion of the course and the significant possibility of bodily injury with such an effort that caused a lot of the ruckus in my head. It seemed that nary a night passed that I didn’t think about some aspect of the race as I tried to fall asleep. And my sleep is the first thing that got better on the night of July 4^th.

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Mount Marathon Preview

Well, 10 weeks of focused preparation have lead to this event. Tomorrow I get to lay it all out there and answer a few questions I've had about how this will go for me. It's hard to describe to outsiders the atmosphere of the weeks of leading up to Mt. Marathon and the general vibe in the community of Seward during this event. In South Central Alaska, there really is no other event that generates as much buzz and media attention as MMR. It's really something. And to think I have the good fortune to experience it for the first time as a competitor is pretty cool. It's certainly going to suck for part of it but if I can make down in one piece and pull off a decent performance along the way, I'm going to be pretty psyched.

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Col du Cristaux

Col du Cristaux is in the far left cornerI came to Chamonix 3 weeks ago with a calm mind and no firm objectives. Over the years I’ve learned that the quickest way to a humbling beatdown is to show up at a new area with all guns blazing. Sure, the truly gifted and unfathomably talented (think Alex Honnold climbing anywhere in the world) can get away with it but most of us need to wade in from the shallow end.

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