Crested Butte another 14'er and more racing

Well the travelling around hasn't stopped at all and on Thursday we headed down to Crested Butte for a few days to check out the trails there. It's a pretty long drive(5hrs) from Denver but totally worth it.As we left Gunnison and were only 30 minutes from CB I was wondering when the Mountains would start. The Gunnison area is pretty flat but eventually Mount Crested Butte came into site and what a site it is and from then on more and more Mountains just appear like out of nowhere.

Looking down at Copper Lake on
way up to East Maroon Pass

Crested Butte is a pretty small and old cowboy town and I thought it was great. A few miles up the road is the ski area called Mount Crested Butte which sits just below the Mountain of the same name just to confuse matters. We arrived around midday and went straight for a run up to East Maroon Pass. It ended up being a 20km round trip with about 800m of ascent and it was great. Great little trails that just climbed most of the way up to Copper Lake. Like every other Mountain Lake in this state it was an awesome place. From there it was a little hike further up to the pass which had an epic view out towards the Maroon Bell mountains and all the way down to Aspen on the other side. The clouds were building up by this point so it was time to head down and as usual I didn't hang around on the descent and was back at the car pretty quickly.

East Maroon Pass 11'800ft

So on Friday I decided to get up at 5.30am and go for a run up to the summit of Mount Crested Butte via the guides ridge. I was recommended this little route by a friend from Chamonix. The climbing really is not difficult at all but it was very alpine like albeit way too short. The morning started at 2708m in Crested Butte with a 5km up hill run to the bottom of the Mountain and from there it was a long long zig zag up the pistes to the top of the Silver Queen Chairlift at 3600m. I could have taken the chairlift up but that would really have been cheating and way too Chamonix of me and leaving so early meant I had the whole morning to myself. From the top of the chairlift I cut out right through some trees to be brought out on a massive boulder field.

Out on the boulder field with the route pretty
obvious to see running up the the skyline from right to left

It looked like a much longer traverse over to the start than it turned out to be. I was there in no time and started on up the ridge. I am always a bit hesitant on new easy climbs as in Chamonix it is very easy to get caught out with people saying things are easy when they ain't for an average climber like me so here I was still a bit unsure how it was going to be but I did trust Jeff who had recommended it to me as an easy wee solo. I could go on and on about how good it turned out to be. It really was not hard at all with some moves of maybe french 4c/5a dependent on the way I went. It was just super super fun with some great exposure and amazing grippy rock.

So much fun

I was on the summit in no time at all and was greeted with a pretty impressive view of the town below and I had the whole place to myself. I had made it to the top from town in 2hrs 10mins. I soaked in the view and peace and quiet for about 20 minutes then decided it was so good that I would do it again so I ran down the normal summit trail to the top of the chairlift again and traversed over the boulders and climbed the ridge once more having even more fun as I now knew the moves and that I could run a lot of the exposed stuff.

I ran up from the town below

End of the Guide Ridge

The final section of the ridge to the summit

It was then time to head down and I blast down the dirt road then I took a turn off along a little single track which ended up being heaven. It was a super narrow trail weaving it's was through a forest of Aspen trees and it was total bliss for ages.

There is something amazing about running through Aspens
weird I know but it is amazing.

I arrived back at the hostel having done 28km in just under 4 hours. The whole morning is right up there as one of my  favourite runs of the whole trip so far. I could spend a lifetime in Crested Butte. The following day (Saturday) I was feeling a little sluggish but before we left for Denver I managed to get out for a little 7km run on the other side of town through yet more Aspens. I must admit I was pretty slow and didn't feel very fresh after the previous days run but I just had to get out and make the most of the time I had.  I headed off to pick up a rental car when we got back to Denver and on Sunday morning headed off to do another race.

The Arapahoe Basin Summit Challenge is a very very small local race in the A-Basin Ski resort. I had originally wanted to do the Copper Mountain Vertical KM on the same day but they wanted 70 bucks to enter whereas A-Basin was only 20 so kind of a no-brainer. This was the 3rd year of the race and it is pretty small. It is only 7.5km and climbs 600m(roughly) to the top of the resort but it was just amazing. There was a decent turnout of around 50 for my race(Summit Division) and around 30 for the smaller Mountain Division which goes halfway up. I just love little local races and find the atmosphere just so friendly and everyone is out for a laugh and everyone is just so happy and chatty to each other. Anyway the race starts at just under 11'000ft and rises up to just over 12'500ft. I really did not know what to expect of a fast uphill race as i have never ran anything this short on trails and pretty much all climbing. I chose to start from the back of the pack and kind of regret that decision now.

A-Basin - The race starts from below the chairlift on the right
and heads way over left then back right to the high point on the
right hand side then follows a ridge to the top between the snow patches then descends
for a KM to the top of the chair where the finish line was.

So off we went and I started off pretty slowly with the front guys especially one of them sprinting off up (the previous 2yrs winner) at a frightening pace. I just put my head down and kept my heart rate low and plodded on up feeling good. Before I knew it I had passed a fair few people and could only see 6 more in front of me. We hit the top of the chairlift after coming up some truly great single track and then had a very steep climb up onto the ridge which was pathless. I passed another 2 people here and just kept plodding on up by this point breathing very very heavily. Now I had decided that I would not let anyone pass me and I had my eye on the guy in 3rd but by the time I had decided this it was too late. 1st place was way too far ahead but if I had thought earlier and actually went full gas from the start I am sure I would have snatched 2nd. Anyway once at the very top it was a km of descent and I knew nobody would catch up with me on that and I flew down here always gaining on 3rd and 2nd but I had just left it too late and finished in 47mins with 3rd 30 seconds in front and 2nd another 40 seconds ahead of that and 1st was a total of 3 mins ahead. I had such a fun time on this short race. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did but it was all on brilliant trails and sometimes no trails and the view running along the summit ridge was amazing. A totally brilliant morning but I should have just went out full steam ahead. Next time.

I spent the night up in that area and had big plans for the next day. I wanted to another 14er but didn't want to do a normal crowded route so I choose to do Torrey Peak from Loveland Pass. Torreys Peak sits at 14'327ft. The route from Loveland Pass is an out and back of 10 miles on some trails , scree and pathless terrain. It never drops below 12'000ft and has about 1600m of total ascent so a good workout. Sorry for the mix of Ft , Mtrs etc...... can't decide what to use.

Torreys is the peak in the distance on the left

I left the car just before 6am and even as I started running I could feel the altitude. I ran a short way of the first climb and then resorted to power walking all the up hills. The flats and downs I ran. There was so many little climbs and descents and then eventually got to the bottom of the first climb up Grizzly Peak. This peak lies at 13'000ft and I felt pretty good going up here.The next ridge section was a dream to run and then it was a pathless descent to an amazing high meadow which I ran across to the bottom of the final climb up Torreys.

The pathless terrain before the climb up Torreys

Now the climb up Torreys is not actually that long in terms of metres but my god it was tough. It is around 700m up but it is all on scree or very very loose trails with rotten loose rocks everywhere. I never actually stopped on the way up but it was slow going all the way to the summit.

Struggling to breath on the way up Scree hell

Leaving so early meant I had the summit to myself and I sat here a while enjoying the views. I had made it out in 2hrs and my plan was to try bet back in 2hrs or less but it was still a long tough way back. I descended the scree field in no time and the climb back up Grizzly went pretty sweet as well. The top ridge being a highlight.

Heading back over Grizzly Peak

It was then a steep descent off Grizzly and loads of rolling terrain all the way back. I was pretty tired at the end but had managed to do the return in 1hr 30mins which I was pretty damn surprised at. All in all a brilliant morning out running at a constantly high altitude but it wasn't easy.

Torreys 14'327ft

There was no time to rest and the next morning(Tuesday) I went with Kim to run the local Bergen Peak. It's a great little loop close to Denver and I smashed out the 15km with 500m of ascent in 1hr 35mins and was super happy with that given what I had done the past few days. Today was a rest day and actually the only day in my 4 weeks of being here that it has rained all day so I have been quite content with doing nothing. I am now all set to head off to Steamboat Springs in the morning for 3 days to go and check out as much of the Run Rabbit Run course as I can.