Hyalite Cirque Traverse attempt

Well, the ridge traverse is still there....
For two weekends in September J and I attempted to traverse from Mt. Blackmore to Hyalite Peak along a beautifully sculpted, horribly loose, knife edge at times ridge. Snow in September foiled our plans two weekends in a row, and the optimal season is only getting shorter. We may have one more go at it, but until then here are some photos of our attempt at this 18 mile, 6800' gain and 6500' loss run with some class 4 (possibly 5th class) climbing. A beautifil ridge indeed particularly in the cool, crisp fall air.


The route follows the ridge J is gazing longingly at and drops down the other side of the peak.





A great little section with some exposure on both sides of the ridge just before the valley inversion rose and engulfed the mountains as well.

These are just some of the photos/views we had before the low lying fog and clouds raced up every valley bringing with it some precip and providing lovely 30ft. visibility....Next time.

Geek post, nothing more

It's geek season here. E is knee deep in thesis panic and J is chest deep in mathola. D is teaching his usual philosophy courses as well. So here's a good quote for the day:

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -Carl Sagan

Le Detour et le Tour

J is for "Just follow the f'n course, jackass (even it you don't know where it is)".

Well, J is finally done cryin'. No point, and it dehydrates you anyways. The good thing about losing the lead and not even seeing anyone pass you is that you never get that sinking feeling as someone pulls away from you. See, there's a silver lining to every cloud.... Enough about the detour, though. The Cascade Crest is a wonderful race, on a wonderful course, with a great race director and awesome volunteers (ravi's at mile 81 rocked, James!).

The Tour (du Mont Blanc, that is) is going on this weekend. Esteemed BUC members N and M will toeing the starting line. Get ready for some wild running in one of the coolest ranges, and even wilder course cutting by those spandex-wearing, pole-toting Euros. Allez!

Getting Lost and Aunt Bursa

Note: Don't get lost when you are leading a 100 mile race around mile 75 because you probably won't win.

BUC member J thought he could still beat the field while taking a 45 minute detour and a 7 minute nap at Cascade Crest 100 this past weekend. Almost, but not quite. J was looking strong and had a 20 minute lead over the next runner at mile 68 when he and his pacer, fellow BUC member D, decided to challenge themselves a bit more by running more miles. Just goes to show that you never know what may happen at a 100 miler. Seriously, though, strong work to J for not dropping out after this setback, and digging deep after getting lost to finish in a very respectable 21:47. Nice job!!! I'll leave the true race report to J himself after he gets done crying over 4th place. He's great at descriptive text (see previous post). Congrats to Tom Ederer from Seattle and Suzanna Bon from Sonoma, CA who ran for the win at the 2008 Cascade Crest 100. Full results.

Speaking of crying...BUC member E didn't even try to run over 33 miles at this race because he was too busy dropping out and whining about his little IT band issues. Turns out Aunt Bursa is the real culprit of his issues. Inflammation of the bursa between the major trochanter and the ilio-tibial band (basically the fluid sac over the pointy part on your hip and under the IT band) caused huge pain while running during the race. Everything was feeling great until I started feeling pain around mile 25 and every foot strike (specifically downhill) caused a most unpleasant pain around the hip with lovely painful twinges on the lateral part of the knee. Rather than risk further injury by grunting through 67 more miles, I decided to call it a day so that I can run more and drink cold beer and sleep. Tough and disappointing decision considering how ready I felt, but, after a PT session this afternoon and prescription stretching with the 'ole foam roller, things look promising for getting back to it real soon.

Finally, HUGE thanks to BUC member D "Never Stops Running" D. D ran the El Vaquero Loco 50k last weekend with a great time of 6:43, paced J for 47 miles this weekend, and is probably running the 2008 Madison Marathon (in Montana) next weekend. Full schedule for D this fall. He proved to be a great crew and pacer (except for getting lost...no pacer guilt, D) and provided great books on CD for the drive.

E-horn

E is for Elkhorn as BUC member E takes the win at the Elkhorn 50 miler.

Some success in the BUC cirlces!

Star BUC member N is a new national champ at 100 miles, and honorary member M (who used to live in Bozeman but now resides a bit northwest of here) took the male honors at the the 100 mile champs in Tahoe. Go BUC!

Temps are hot here (for Montana). Snow is finally in full retreat. Finally runs can head far into the hills. (See previous post.) Our three months of summer are quite a treat.

On a technical note, mileage postings have been sporadic lately, in part because our mileage-increasing-machine (aka Tony) has been out of commission. Sounds like he'll be that way for awhile. (Who would have guessed that consistent 200+ mile weeks could cause injuries?!)

So I've devised a new geek-inspired formula to record our mileage, m:

m = E/(c^2),

where E = estimated weekly average of all Bozeman Ultra Crew members, and c = (e/pi) ~ 0.865.

That puts last week's collective mileage at 80. (Not that anyone cares.)

Dog Days of Summer

No weekly mileage this week. Not because we haven't been running, but because our mileage-increaser has not been posting. What's the point of listing mileage if you can't lie about it a bit.

Meet another proud BUC member, D. He enjoys rough trails, heel injuries, and nihilism. He's also a huge Rambo fan (see photo below).

Not only does J enjoy long walks on the beach and cheetos before a race, but once in awhile he takes his dog R running. Mostly it consists of R running ahead and then waiting, and then waiting some more. Finally, when he's had enough we head back to the car. Here is R waiting.
Back to work.