Transvulcania 2015

So after three flights , numerous taxis and so many buses I have lost count we finally arrived on La Palma last Tuesday. Everything I had heard about the island is true. It really is spectacular. The landscape is epic with huge volcanic mountains rising out of the water to 2400m on one side and then amazing forested areas and beaches on the other side. For being such a small island it really has everything on offer. After we finally got to our apartment we hiked up some of the final descent of the race which was conveniently at our back door to have a look. It's an awesome steep winding trail cut right into the cliff and gives spectacular views down to the beach below and up over towards the ridglines and high points of the island. This hike wet my appetite to run the Vertical KM race which was on Thursday and takes the same trail up for 6.6km. After the little recce it was bed time and much needed sleep.

Not far from El Pilar

Final descent

On Wednesday we went to scope out a small section of the course near El Pilar(km 24 of the race). After getting off the bus at the wrong stop we had to hitch a ride back where we had come from and somehow we picked up a trail to get us to El Pilar. Although we had decided to only do a short 10-15km training run that morning it ended up(due to getting lost) being 25km. Anyway it was great to finally get on the course and seeing what it had in store and to try and get used to the heat! To be honest this section was one of the very few flatter parts of the course. It was lovely trail but it really was not what the race had in store for us at the weekend.

Last minute VK entry

I woke up on Thursday and decided to go into the main town of Los Llanos and see if there was a chance I could get a VK entry for that evening. To my surprise I did. The staff were incredibly friendly and were more than happy to give me an entry for later that day. So it was a full on rest day for me until it all kicked off at 5pm down at Puerto Tazacorte. The VK starts at the beach and rises up for 1200m over 6.6km. It is steep at the start and then it mixes up with lots of little steep pitches , short down hills and short flat sections following an epic ridge line overlooking the Island. I have been up the Chamonix VK many a times but never actually raced in a VK race before. Runners set off with 30 second intervals and the winner is obviously the fastest time to the top. The elites always go at the back of the pack and the slower runners tend to take off first. Being a late entry I was 5th to set off of about 80 runners.

Near the VK start

Almost done. Started down at the sea and hour earlier!

I had no idea what to expect I just wanted to take part in it. Off I went and I ran quite comfortably up the first steep zigzags and by about 400m up I had passed all the 4 runners who took off ahead of me. Now this was a weird experience for me. Front of the pack! Now I knew fair well I wasn't gona come close to a winning time but it was rather strange knowing everyone else was then behind me. It was actually pretty hard to know if I was going fast enough or not as once out front I had nobody in front of me to get an idea of my speed. I put my head down and just told myself to keep looking forward and not let anybody past me. It worked and I ploughed on pretty strongly always keeping a little in reserve as I was worried for the Ultra in two days time. For probably the only time in my life I crossed the finish line first. It was now a waiting game to see who came in next and after a few minutes the next guy arrived and the rest started to pour in. I finished with a time of 1hr 04mins. I knew the last years winner was 52mins so I knew my time was pretty reasonable but not world beating. The winner this year managed 50 minutes but I was incredibly happy with my run and to finish 24th overall after entering that afternoon and thinking that VK races were not really for me. I felt great on it and could have given a little more. I couldn't have gone much under and hour but I think next year if I have runners ahead of me then I could up my pace a little with something to focus on.

All set

Friday was again rest day and we managed to finally sort out a way to get to the race start. Word of advice if your going to run this race then rent a car! We made the mistake of not renting one and it would have helped massively if we had. The buses to the race start leave at 3am from Los Llanos but we were in Puerto Tazacorte meaning there was no buses(obviously) at 2am to get us to our race bus. We thought about a taxi but luckily a friend of ours(Fred) was also doing the race and she had a car so she kindly came to collect us from our apartment at 2.30am. Waking up at 1.30am for a race start at 6am is NOT ideal. If I go to race again I will be getting a tent and sleeping at the race start the night before and manage to wake up at 5am and that would make a hell of a difference.

Ready to go

The race starts at sea level at the lighthouse at Fuencaliente and over the next 50km slowly rises , descends and rises up to the highest point of the Islands Roque Le Mouchachas at 2400m. From there it is a quad bursting 18km 2400m descent down to Puerto Tazacorte and then the sting in the tail of a 5km 300m climb back up to Los Llanos and the finish. 73km 4000m+. I apologise now for the length of this post but I just cannot put this race report down in a short summary...

Amazing sunrise

4am at Fuencaliente. Two bloody hours before the race start. Being right on the coast and 4am it was a tad breezy and hundreds of runners were hunched behind the stone walls looking for shelter , eating breakfast and sleeping. Myself , Naila and Fred found a nice little spot and just chatted for a while before we headed down to the start line to find a spot maybe 12 rows from the front. None of us were going for a time but we had heard the race start was chaos. The race goes down to single track almost straight away and with 1800 runners on the course we just wanted to not get caught up in congestion and end up at a standstill from the word go. Obviously everyone else has the same idea! The atmosphere at the start line was amazing , huge PA system blaring out AC/DC, hundreds of very excited runners all set for an epic course it really was pretty special.

Lovely yet sandy trails

3....2....1.....Bedlam! Screaming , shouting , pushing , shoving , sprinting. It was bloody fantastic and slightly different to my usual races of 200 runners setting of chatting. We rounded the lighthouse and were soon on the single track. I opted to jump to the side of the track and just plod on up off the trail in my own space. The trail was more like a beach. Just sand , sand and more sand and went on forever. It was so so difficult to run on and really used up so much energy to try and keep a fast pace. I knew I was going out too fast but taking a glance behind me and seeing 1500+ more runners head torches chasing me up the hill made me keep moving as I just did not want to get caught up in the chaos behind. It was an awesome sight seeing all these head torches rise up out of the sea. It was a 6km climb on this horrible sand to the first mini checkpoint at the town of Los Canarios. I couldn't believe how many people were out on the streets so early to cheer us all on. I didn't take anything from the water stop here as I had only been going 50 mins and ran on through with hundreds of spectators cheering us on.

The entire start is like this

It was then on to the next water stop at km 16.5 Las Deseadas. Honestly I cannot remember this water station but I must have re-filled bottles here. We were still running on sand a lot! Already my calf's were feeling it from trying to push and get a stride on that kind of surface.  Next up was El Pilar at 24km the first real food stop and a place I had been to already with Naila a few days before. Some of the running to here was spectacular and as the sun was rising up over the clouds the rest of the course and mountain tops were popping out of this sea of cloud and it was amazing. I wish I had taken pictures but I was to busy trying to fight through the sand. It was great to run on a trail I knew and it was a lovely descent down into a packed El Pilar. I was 3hrs 16mins in. The elites ran through here an hour earlier! Insane , I genuinely do not know how. I grabbed more water here , took some salt capsules and a ton of watermelon.

Far right to low left is the final descent!

From here to El Revention(29.9km) it is a very dry dirt road. Not my favourite but the views were still amazing and it actually felt good to stretch the legs on a proper solid surface. Here I met Anna Frost(female course record holder) she was not racing as she has a bit of an injury but she was there to help out the Salomon team. She asked me how I was doing and when I replied my calf's were feeling it a bit she told me to get a move on and she came with me. She ran with me for the next few kms just chatting and giving me some gels and taking my mind off of my very tired calf's. The next 5km seemed to pass in no time. Thank you Anna that helped me a lot!

Getting a helping hand from Anna

On approaching the aid station El Revention at 29.9km there were signs everywhere warning people that the next aid station(Pic La Cruz) was 12km away and that we need to stock up on water as we were now headed out of the forested areas and there would be pretty much no shade from here to the finish. Here I got doused with buckets and buckets of water(it really was heating up) , drank god knows how much coke , re-filled bottles and ate more watermelon and I was off.

So off to Pic La Cruz at km 43 or so we thought! From here the course changes from lovely forests , sand and smooth trails to rocky , fairly technical with a load of climbing and descending. The going started to get tough here as the heat was really coming down on us. I was doing well with water and was only sipping to try and conserve as much as I could. I had started to eat a Mule Bar and also some gels so I was getting food in me. The course here is amazing and it was mind blowing looking behind and seeing all these runners on the narrow trails cut into the side of the mountains and running along the ridge lines. I was loving it but I was getting very hot and could feel my mouth drying out very quickly even immediately after drinking. Everyone started to slow here. I passed a small checkpoint at 38.5km called Pic La Nieve but it was only a place your timing chip got scanned , no water , no food. Every other year this has been a water stop but due to various reasons they took it away this year which was a BIG BIG mistake. I was still okay on water levels here , I mean it was very hot and slow work but I was managing and I knew from here it was about 4km to the aid station. Well things got a lot tougher. This section went on for what felt like forever. Up , down and over small hills again and again and again. Still no aid station. I actually wondered if I had somehow passed it! Lot's of spectators were giving their own coke cans and water to runners who were clearly in dire need of hydration. Some runners were even turning around and heading back down. It was really really hot and we were up on trails completely exposed to the baking sun. I don't mean to moan here. We all knew this was a hard race and it was going to be hot but this aid station was just never arriving. I had left the last aid station with a litre and a half of water and I was now down to about 100ml. I kept it for as long as I could and finally when I seen Pic La Cruz I drank the remainder. I have NEVER been so happy to get to water in my life. I stood under the hose for a few minutes to cool off and then re-filled bottles(2 x 500ml) , grabbed an extra 500ml bottle of powerade to take with me and ate more watermelon. From here I could see Los Muchachos at km 50. It really didn't look that far away. According to the race map it was meant to be 7km but it looked and felt like about 4! I know these are small numbers but on courses like this with so many small ups and downs it really feels a lot further than if it was a flat road. After the race the organisers did put out a notice apologising for taking away the aid station at Pic La Nieve and that they had made a mistake and the 12km to the checkpoint was more like 17km! A few medics did say that if the weather was 2 or 3c warmer then some people would have been seriously unwell , apparently lot's of runners they had to tend to at Pic La Cruz were borderline to going to hospital. I know some people might think that this is partly the runners fault for not drinking enough and this may be correct however getting an aid station wrong by 5km and also cutting one out at the hottest part of the course is pretty bad. This is the only criticism I would give to this race. Everything else was spot on.

Anyway the trail to Muchachos was again spectacular but I was fighting quite hard here to move at a decent pace so I took zero pictures. I arrived at the aid station and was very very happy. Km 50. Now a big descent and I was almost finish. I sat here for maybe 5 minutes to again re fuel. I looked over at the pasta plates but I just did not have the appetite for food like that in this heat so it was sweets and watermelon again. I looked at my watch for the first time of the race and noticed I was 7hrs 47mins in. I then thought to myself that if I just got moving then I could do this descent and final small climb and probably get a 10hr 30mins finish or at slowest 10hrs 45mins.

Almost at 50km

I left Muchachos feeling not too bad. My legs were actually pretty strong. I had a slight problem with my right knee but it was manageable. If that was my only problem then I was going to be happy the rest of the way down. Now the last descent is not a full on descent like the course profile shows. Yeah it does descend all the way back to the sea from 2400m but there is a few little flats and small climbs in there as well. Not like earlier in the race but enough to make you work. I was going well for the next 5km and then BOOOOOMM. I was floored. My knee started to hurt a bit more so I sat down for a few minutes to give it a rest and then the next minute I just couldn't get myself back up. My legs had seized and were starting to cramp badly. Everywhere! I started to get worried here , I had gone from going for 10hrs 30mins to actually wondering if I could get down at all. I had drank what I thought was enough and had taken salt to offset the cramps but I think the long section without an aid station just caught up with me here and my god did it floor me. I managed to get myself moving but it was a real struggle. Quads , calf’s , hamstrings even my arms were cramping. It was that bad. People were now passing me constantly and I went from feeling strong to being helpless and struggling down the mountain. The descent to Puerto Tazacorte at 68.4km was brutal. Mainly due to the cramps and the fact I constantly felt I was going to pass out. I had to fight so so hard to just stay upright and to make matters worse it wasn't getting any cooler in fact descending to the beach it was getting hotter and hotter. The black volcanic rocks underfoot were like radiators cooking me from below and the sun baking down above. It was pretty damn hard to keep moving. I stumbled into the aid station 10hrs 29mins into the race. That was the end of that goal. The next one was just to finish. The cut off time was a long way off. 17hrs is the limit so I was nowhere near that even if I walked backwards for the last 5km uphill I would make that time but I was genuinely worried my body might just collapse and not even let me finish.

Happy? Honestly I was!

Again I got covered in buckets of water , re-filled bottles yet again and I was off to Los Llanos and the finish. The next km or two was up a dried out riverbed and more bloody sand. I stumbled up here as best I could. It was then onto some winding cobbled roads as I climbed up to the town. I was completely exhausted and I was really really pushing to move up this climb. Strangely I had lot's of power in my legs but the cramps and what felt like my entire body was completely beat up. It's so hard to describe as I say I felt strong in the legs but I struggled to move all sounds like it shouldn't make sense. I finally made it onto the road in Los Llanos and started to get cheered on and greeted by everybody. It was just 2km to the finish. The final stretch on the road was tough but with so many people out in the bars and on the road shaking your hand and patting your back it helps so so much to get you moving and forget your about to pass out. I even stopped and old lady here and asked her if I could have her can of coke she was drinking and she gladly gave it to me. Thank You!

Now there's a struggling face

The finish line straight was packed with spectators and it was a pretty special feeling..I think. I can't really remember. I crossed the line in 11hrs 25mins 196th/1800. I then turned and headed straight to the paddling pools and just lay there in the cool water. I was destroyed. Naila who had unfortunately quit the race around km 41 due to the heat and other problems was there to greet me and after taking one look at me she felt the need to tell me how terrible I looked. Thanks for that!

Did that actually happen?!

I have so much more to tell about this incredible race so I will put up another post about it next week. That was Transvuclania. A truly epic course and the hardest I have ever fought to just finish a race. I am very happy with having completed this and a strong VK so early in the season and I am only going to build on this and get stronger. Thank you to the beautiful island of La Palma and all those people who cheered me on , shook my hand and threw buckets of water over me. It was one hell of a race.

Winters Over...Hello Transvulcania

Well that's me officially marked the end of my winter season with a cracking couple of days with friends doing Gran Paradiso yet again to finish off the season. With only a fraction of the powder days I had last season this winter has mainly been touring and fitness and its been brilliant to focus on something other than using the lifts all the time and lapping the pistes just for the sake of it. I like my skiing but I really am preferring to just get out for tours in places old and new no matter what condition the snow is in. I really have enjoyed the past 6 months but I am thoroughly ready for summer to get going now.

Brilliant spring snow on the Paradiso descent

Hut to ourselves , Brilliant.

The past month I have been running regularly to and from work(18km total) and on days off I have managed 25km , 30km and 25km on my longer runs and added in 1000m-1400m of ascent on these days so I feel okay but not quite ready for 73km. I am definitely in way better shape than I was last year at this time but this is a much harder race than I trained for this time last year.

View from 4000m , breathtaking.

So all eyes are now on La Palma and Transvulcania. The journey for us (myself and Naila) to get there starts on Sunday and after 3 flights we will arrive there on Tuesday. I cannot wait to get on that island and just experience the whole race weekend of what is the must do race at the start of the running season. How will I do on race day? I really have no idea and that's the truth. Yeah for sure I have had a vastly different winter season than I have ever had and I am hoping that this will help with keeping me strong during the race but I just really don't have a clue what to expect. The climbing sections should go rather well , the flats will hopefully work out. I am mostly worried about the heat and the last descent. If I am lucky and the temperature doesn't hit the mid-high 30s then I reckon I will do okay I just need to be smart with my hydration and eating and it should see me through. The final descent however is meant to be an absolute killer. It's 2400m straight down for the last 20km and yes some people might think nothing of that but coming 50km and then having a quad bursting descent like that is going to be a real killer and I haven't heard anybody who has run the race before say this section wasn't brutal.

Summit of Gran Serre with Rob

Time wise I can't get my head around what I will run. I think the cut off is 17 or 19 hours. The only thing I am confident in is that I should not scrape through the finish line with ten minutes to spare. Long distance races are so hard to predict a time as the courses vary so much. I have ran this distance in 7hrs , 9hrs , 11hrs and 16hrs! All on vastly different courses. If I had to put down an estimate then it must be between 10-13hrs but really who knows. I could run a blinder and get sub 10 or have a horrid time and run 15hrs. I would honestly love to run it 12-13hrs and feel bloody great for all of it than run 10-11hrs and feel destroyed and finished. I want to enjoy this race and just soak in the whole day. There is 2000 runners on this course , if there was only 200 then definitely I would love to try and get a high placing but realistically given the absolutely stacked elite field in this race I will come nowhere close to the top section. That's not to say I wouldn't love to come in in the top 20 but really folks there ain't a chance. It's the first race this season and I really really don't want it to end the same way and in the same pain as last years first race in Scotland when it got so painful I really wasn't enjoying being out there and I don't do these races for that kind of suffering any more. Granted loads of people love the pain or should I say they pretend to love soaking in the pain but do they really?? Come on. We are out there(most of us) to enjoy the day and we ain't really racing. Sometimes I don't get the point in racing when your in the middle of the pack as coming 300 or 500 in a race with 2000 runners what's really the difference if you can finish a bit slower and really really enjoy yourself. Maybe I just don't have much of a competitive fighting spirit these days but on big fields of runners I just have no interest in fighting with thousands of other people on the trail. Now on the other hand the VK's , Tromso , The Rut and The Bear are going to be completely different , smaller fields of runners , epic technical courses , now we are talking but for this one coming up next week let's just enjoy and finish. If however something over winter really has worked wonders then I will just be running how I feel and I really really do hope I feel good...really good.

High above Contamines

Lycra ALERT! Col Du Bonhomme

So I am now just resting and doing the odd bit of running before Sundays departure. I am just back from having a few days in Scotland to sort a couple of things out. The weather didn't really play ball but I did have one nice morning running in Arrochar. I parked at the Cobbler car park but ran up the valley towards Loch Sloy in glorious sunshine and from there blasted up Ben Vane , down a very steep pathless north side then straight up the south slope of Ben Ime to be greeted by horrendous winds , bitter cold and hail. It was a rapid descent down to the saddle between The Cobbler and Ben Narnain from which I opted not to suffer more in the hail by hauling myself up to the summit so I decided best to just blast back down the normal trail and back to the car. 23km and 1300m in just shy of 2hrs 45mins.

Morning was lovely. Ben Van on right , Ben Ime in distance straight ahead

Ben Ime summit was rather different

I have added yet another race to my summer plans. The Dolomites Vertical KM in July. I have never been to the Dolomites and since Woody is heading over to run the skyrace and I noticed there was places left on the VK I thought why not just go and support her and also have a little race whilst I am there. I must say I don't think VK's are my strong point in running but now I am doing 3 this summer so I guess I will need to do the Tromso one as well so I can possibly get a VK Skyrunning ranking...but only if I finish the races in decent positions(I believe top 40!) which could be rather difficult but it will be fun trying anyway.

It's time to pack as little as possible so I can board my Ryan Air flights with just hand luggage and not get stung with some ridiculous charge for my bag being 1cm too long or 10g overweight. That airline really is a bloody joke but there was no alternative as I ain't really that good a swimmer.

Only the essentials

I am not taking my computer to La Palma so I don't think I will manage a blog update before the race. I will try if I can to stick up a few words with my bib number and the tracking site along with some pictures of the Island via my phone but don't pin your hopes on it working. Transvulcania 2015 here we go................

The Runner Returns

Well it's been a rather long time since my last post but that's not to say I haven't been up to anything. In fact I don't really know where to start with what I have been up to.

Val Veny , Italy

I really want to keep this blog away from turning into a skiing blog over winter but it's kinda hard to do considering it's mainly what I do for 5-6 months. This winter really has had a different feel to it for me. I have had some great normal downhill days and when I have used the lifts it's been for powder. Other than that all I have done is tour and it's been excellent.

Cosmiques lap with old friends Rob and Kerr

So the past month has consisted of a lot of ski touring days and now the running season is upon us the trail shoes have been out and are going to stay out now for quite a number of months. I will let my pictures do the talking with regards to ski touring and focus a little more on how the legs are ticking over on the trails.

Out in Switzerland with Ben and Fin

So at the end of last summer I really didn't want to stop running for a full winter. I was the strongest I had ever been and was worried all that running fitness was just going to disappear. With Transvulcania only just over 5 weeks away I was getting a bit worried as just to what kind of running shape I was going to be in when I started back again. I have been out on some very short leg stretches over the season but not many. I have done so much ski touring with days ranging from short easy 1000m days to long 30km 2700m days and I think it's helped me a lot. When I starting hitting the trails a couple of weeks ago I knew it was going to be tough. As it usually does every April it takes a while for me to find my stride again but it has been much smoother and less painful than ever before. Normally it takes me a good 3+ weeks to find some kind of rhythm with my pace , climbing and descending but in all honesty so far all is going pretty good.

Scrambling up VERY loose rock with Naila at Col Terrasse

I am for sure a long long way off of 70km+ distances at the moment but I am feeling damn great when I am out running anything from my flattish 10kms to longer 20kms with 1000m+ climbing. Yeah for sure I am still a little rusty on my fast descents but that will come pretty soon I reckon. As usual I have no training plan to stick to. They are just not for me. I do what my body feels like doing. I guess plenty of people out there will tell me it would help to get a proper plan sorted but I prefer to do what I want and when I want. I really think I got my training spot on last summer just doing what I felt was right and that gives me an excellent starting point to build on this year. I don't have to look at a piece of paper to tell me what I should be doing or to motivate me.

Col Terrasse just up and slightly right of my head

I am just happy to finish these longer races of 80km and more but this year I have chosen a lot of much shorter distances around the marathon mark or less and most of them are pretty technical which will hopefully suit me considering where I train. On races like the Cerdanya Marathon , Cham VK , The Rut , Lone Peak VK and Tromso I am going to give them a bloody good go. Transvulcania and The Bear are the exceptions. Transvulcania is my first race and I will just be really happy to run in that race with some friends and test my recovery and enjoy the sunshine. The Bear philosophy will be much like RRR(I hope) where I will just go out and see how I feel and if I somehow feel strong after halfway then who knows but definitely for The Bear 100 the goal again is to finish and finish as strong as I can. It's a long way off for me to start feeling confident about my 3rd 100 miler after just a few weeks back on the trails.

More playing above Loriaz Chalets

So April is going to be a month of running. Probably 4 days a week minimum with some days doing two runs , one in the morning to work and one in evening home both times up and over via the Merlet Park. My days off will be ski touring and running but I will be having one full rest day a week. Tapering is a thing that to be totally honest I don't do much , isn't it really just a fancy word for rest? Well anyway probably the week running up to Transvulcania I will ease right off and maybe only go out for 3 days that week and all will be very short outings. I will aim for a long run of 40km within the next 10 days and that will be my longest run before going to La Palma.

Trail Running around sunny Lake Annecy!

So it will probably be another little update in a couple of weeks. It's raining/snowing a lot here at the moment so it means the late season touring could be great. As long as it rains up to 2000m from now on and the trails stay clear to run then I am happy with that.

So we went to ski a nice little couloir
near Morzine and just before the entrance
we found this lovely dog on top of the mountain!
The crazy idiot had walked up there through
deep snow that morning so we called the owner and rescued the
pup who seemed to enjoy running after us through the powder

Spring Like

A long settled spell with plenty of sunshine has graced the Alps recently so it's been pretty easy to get out the door and enjoy the almost spring like conditions. Again the downhill skis have been put away and the touring kit has been out as well as the crampons which is rather odd for me these days.

The Berard Valley

Given the high pressure and a quiet Aiguille Du Midi lift I managed to get some Cosmiques Arete laps in on my lunch breaks , once alone in an hour and the following day with Guillem taking it easy but still managing to stop and waste plenty of time enjoying the views just below the little wall move. It was great to be back up the midi doing some very chilled out climbing on the arete which only had a couple of people on it but were easily passed. The legs were feeling good but having not been at altitude since Colorado in the summer my lungs were feeling it a little on the first push up to the abseil but thereafter all was good. Probably the best way to spend a lunch break anywhere in the world I reckon.

Lunch canteen view

Works been pretty busy and having just the one day off a week has meant less up hill training at Les Houches but I have still managed some pretty decent tours on my days off. I headed up Mont Buet leaving the car around 6am. The plan was to try and traverse back to my house in Les Houches but the weather didn't look too tempting from the summit so I just did the usual ski tour up and down Buet. It's still a reasonable 1700m climb from car to summit. The final 300m or so on Buet somehow always seem to nail me. Even in summer when running up I always feel properly drained on the last stretch to the summit. It is not exactly high at 3100m well not high considering what's around but something always happens to me up there and I find it pretty hard on the last stretch. Anyway I was still 3hrs 30mins car to car and given most of the snow on the descent was horrible I was pretty happy with that. I then got home had some food and went for a skin up Les Houches with Guillem who was on his lunch break. Probably the slowest and worst I have ever felt on the climb up there but I did finish the day having done nearly 3000m of up hill work.

Summit of Mt Buet looking to the Mont Blanc Massif

So the sun keep shining and on my next day off it was looking all too good for a bash at going from Les Houches to the hamlet of Buet over the Aiguille Rouge. I drove up to Flatiere at 1300m and left the car at 7am. I headed up onto Aiguilette Des Houches at 2300m just as the sun peaked over the Dru which was pretty special. I then skied down a couple of hundred metres , skins on again and up to Brevent I went. From here a skied over to Col Brevent and headed down the backside skiing some really nice snow until I got down to the bridge where you cross in summer to get to Refuge Anternne. I stayed on the right bank of the gorge and skinned up towards the Chalets de Villy. Skinning up this valley which is one of my favourite summer runs was amazing. Nobody else around and the sun blazing down was excellent and I was loving it.

Sunrise on Aiguilette Des Houches

I stopped here for about 20 minutes just to enjoy the views and having a look around at the abundance of other tours around here to do in spring. It was then up to Col Salenton at around 2500m and down to Buet to meet Guillem who had kindly come to pick me up on his lunch. Probably my favourite ski tour I have done here with my first Paradiso mission coming a close second. It wasn't the best snow ever especially coming down off Salenton but the whole day and weather was just great. It was 30km with about 2500m of ascent and I was done in 5hrs 34mins. The snow is coming back this week but all I can think of is more long tours in spring like this one.

Deserted

Nearly at Col Salenton

I have managed one run this month! One lunch I went for 12km to Lavancher and back. Nothing amazing but I felt good. Lungs were going well but the legs felt a little tight. Normal I guess for this time of year but I really do need to start getting more runs in especially next month with Transvulcania only just over 2 months away. I am getting more and more excited for summer and back to the trails and races. Every time I look at my race schedule I have a double take. I honestly am unsure how I am going to afford it all but if it means living on pasta and tomato sauce all summer then so be it.

Trails running well to Lavancher

Transvulcania(Canary Islands) , The Rut(Montana) , Tromso(Norway) and The Bear(Utah) are huge races for me. All four of them I would love to do pretty well in , which is a new feeling for me as normally I just want to finish. It's going to be great getting to see new places. The past two years my focus has always been on my hundred miler and just to get it finished and that will never change. My main goal this year is still The Bear 100 however having also entered the other epic races I feel pretty driven to really give them a good go this season and just see what I can do. It's still in the back of my mind that I am only doing one 50 miler this year before my hundred and I am still unsure if it is a good idea to have it 4 months before my hundred , I would prefer it to have been 2 months. I did have the chance to run one in July but I really want to run The Rut and Tromso so I decided to do races I really want to run rather than just enter another 50 just for the sake of it. Who knows if this will work but I feel I know what I have to do to be successful in completing the Bear in September.

Anyway enough of this running chat for now , I am off for some Les Houches laps........

The Pow was fun...now let's Tour

Well the snow finally decided to fall in abundance at the tail end of January so the skinny skis went away for a little while and made way for some brilliant pow skiing. A trip to Alagna in Italy was well worthwhile as well as a jaunt over to the tiny Champex(still my favourite place to go for pow tree skiing) and also the usual trips up to the midi mid station(Plan D'Aiguille) the scene of the best skiing I have ever had when last season myself , Lorne and Graham pretty much lived up there for weeks skiing untracked powder day after day. The excitement of the fresh snow has slowly eased off and I now find myself back on the rando(ski touring) set up.

Ahhh Powder

And a bit of a navigation error with Stokes!

Dont' you just hate queues on pow days?
Yeah us too, that's why we ski Plan D'Aiguille. No hassle at all.

The rando fitness seems to taking shape and I am pretty effortlessly blasting out Les Houches climbs and Brevent home run ascents in reasonable enough times and more importantly not really feeling it in my legs once at the top. I ain't really one for number crunching but here goes... I am usually up the Brevent home run in 45-47mins but I have never really given it a proper all out go to see just how quick I can get up it. Les Houches I can do the climb(880m) and descent in a total of 1hr 4mins sticking to the piste and not taking the forest track which is actually in great condition right now if you want a more scenic way up and also if your going up during daylight hours to avoid the skiers coming down. I usually head up Les Houches in the evenings after work so just stick to the piste which on the way down if it has just been groomed is an absolute joy for descending with the headtorch on.

More Horrendous powder queues at Champex

Loriaz Chalets

I have also been up to the Loriaz chalets yet again. I love this area as it's always really quiet and safe to go alone so it's a place I frequent often this season on bad weather days. It's a really mellow skin all the way up and I can crack out a pretty good near jog on the skis for most of this ascent.

Watching the World Skimo Champs in Verbier.
Very very impressive stuff at the sprints.

Myself and Graham had a great lunch break the other day and managed a fairly rapid Crochue Berard Traverse from Flegere to Buet in 1hr 14mins. Timed from Floria drag lift to Grahams car which we had stashed the night before in Buet. The Crochue Berard is a very easy but a nice beginners ski tour in the Aiguille Rouge which I have done too many times to remember over the years. I wouldn't do this kind of tour now on my days off as I prefer to do bigger things but cracking it out during work lunch hours isn't really too bad! The Aiguille Rouge is a place I have explored a lot over the years in the summer when out running and now I have my very light touring set up I am all ready for stable weather to now go and explore more of it on my skis.

Some/most days I like to cruise but occasionally I get
the urge to have a bloody good go at it. Today was
one of those days.

I love the midi side of the Cham valley but the Aiguille Rouge is so often overlooked by those who want the steep and the dangerous which is fine by me as it means the Rouge is nice and quiet if you pick the none popular tours. I quite like the no glaciers , no seracs , no crevasses aspect of the Rouge. The only real danger up in there is the Avalanche risk that you get anywhere and is all part of skiing. Nobody is invincible no matter how much you know about avalanches but I just find the Rouge so much less hassle to go away for a day touring. I will still be going up the midi this season for sure but at the moment I just want long link ups in the Aiguille Rouges so long as the weather allows.

WARNING! Tights.

I stuck on my trail shoes the other night and actually went out for a bit of a leg stretch. Nothing major. Just an out and back by the river from my house to Cham. It's about 16km and all went fine. The track isn't great right now with lot's of refrozen footsteps to concentrate on but it will soon flatten out. It was nice to get back out for a little run and I felt pretty damn good on it.

What do you do when you
destroy 3 pairs of Salomon Sense in a summer...well
you get 3 more. All set for summer 2015 now.

For me the real Chamonix running comes in summer once most of the snow clears and you can get up high and across the awesome ridges that surround the place. Winter running here is fine and running through powder can be quite fun but skiing powder is way way better. I guess I will be out running a bit more often from now on and maybe from March get the trail shoes on way more in prep for Transvulcania in May but at the moment I really think the touring legs are keeping me strong.

February is a bit of a hectic time with work and with only one day off a week this month I will be making the most of that one day. Fingers crossed for sunshine as I want some BIG tours!