training

Started the summer vacation yesterday with spectating the NORBA mountain bike nationals up at Snowmass Ski Resort. The downhill was worth watching and fun to photograph, though the chances of being hit by a flying bicycle or rider were pretty…

In 1986, Mountain Rescue Aspen leader Greg Mace died in a fall during a training climb on the Maroon Bells near Aspen. Numerous ceremonies and memorials ensued, including the naming of Greg Mace Peak in Colorado’s Elk Mountains. But one important piece was missing in the healing from this awful tragedy.

The two men (one died in the avalanche) were crampon climbing up the Cristo Couloir, a large couloir and frequent avalanche path on 14,265 feet Quandary Peak’s south face.

We’re off to do some uphilling, with a couple of new heart rate monitors (HRMs) to try and get that perfect aerobic training so we can really get strong for our dream Wasatch backcountry skiing trip in January! Hint, you can get a reasonably priced Polar heart rate monitor at Walmart — highly recommended if you feel like your fitness level has plateaued out, or you want to build super fitness without injuring yourself.

Got our latest issue of Couloir Magazine — as always it’s a stunning tribute to all we love about backcountry skiing, from deep powder to cool gear. My yearly Randonnee binding review is in this issue. It is somewhat brief, but I tried to give a good overview of the choices and attempted to be a bit more hard hitting than last year (as requested by readers), and will continue to provide extensive details here and at the Couloir website.