INTRODUCTION
Anyone who is familiar with
the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run knows it is one of the most rugged and
challenging courses of it's kind in the world. Based in the steep and expansive
San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado, the loop-course begins and ends in
Silverton, and touches on three complexes along the way, those being: Lake
City, Ouray, Telluride. At an average elevation of over 11,000' and a total
elevation change of 68,000', the amount of climbing and descending at altitude
is enough to cause one to pause and wonder .. well, why not ski it?
And so, when good friends
Jason Schlarb and Scott Simmons approached me in November 2015 about their
dream to ski the entirety of the course in calendar winter in a fast and light
“ultra-skimo” approach, I didn't hesitate to say yes. For those that may not be
familiar with skimo, it's short for ski mountaineering and what defines the
style is an emphasis on minimalist and lightweight alpine-touring ski gear,
allowing one to move quickly and efficiently through the mountains in winter.
The team consists of
mountain-endurance athletes Jason Schlarb, Scott Simmons, and myself, and
videographer and all-around ski hustler Noah Howell from Salt Lake City, UT. We
plan a potential start date of March 17th, pending our weather
window holds up and avalanche danger remains low. Scott and I are just
returning from France where we competed in a grueling four day ski
mountaineering race called the Pierra Menta. Upon arriving back in Carbondale,
CO on the evening of the 15th, I get some much needed sleep and head
down to Durango the next afternoon. We will have a 3:45AM wake-up the next
morning.
DAY 1
At 6:15AM, we are off and
walking from Silverton. Our day will consist of 29 miles and 10,000' of vert,
and our checkpoint will be the Sherman town site at the base of Cataract Gulch,
where our friends “Mad Dog” Craig and Amanda Caldon are settled with camp set
up for us. Our spirits are high and our sights set higher, so after paralleling
the Animas River for a few miles, we begin the 4,000' climb up Little Giant
Basin. We top out and begin the descent into Dives Basin. The bottom half gets
a little tricky, as the east-facing slope is steep with spotty coverage, but we
somehow manage to send a line into Cunningham Gulch with little issue. The
climb to Stony Pass proves a bit more troublesome than expected, as Scott finds
some rotten snow that collapses underneath his weight, causing him to fall into
a small rock cavern. He is ok, and we continue on, knowing we are a bit behind
schedule with a lot of ground to still cover.
Topping out on Stony Pass, we
take in the expansive views to the south of the vast Weminuche Wilderness, and
eye up our line to the saddle that will allow us access to the West Fork of
Pole Creek. The sun arches overhead as we continue gliding over the firm snow
on our speedy Hagan skis, and soon we are dropping into the long, gradual
descent that will spit us out at the confluence with Pole Creek, deep in the
wild and rugged terrain of the San Juan Mountains. Things get interesting here,
and we lose some time to navigational error, but after realizing our mistake,
we are back on track and heading upstream in a northeasterly direction toward
the saddle situated on the Continental Divide, where we will make our final
descent into Cataract Gulch.
Darkness is upon us, and we
are trashed. What we thought would be an eight to ten hour day is turning into
a fifteen-hour slog. The final descent to our camp is hairy and technical,
requiring the last bits of our focus and energy. We are dropping off pillows,
narrowly avoiding falling into the creek, crashing through stands of willows,
and speed checking the final single track luge course, all under the dim light
of our headlamps. Finally, we hear the hooting and hollering of our team at the
camp. We roll in beat and exhausted. Craig and Amanda are ready for us, having
a spread of delicious food and drink available, and we sit ourselves by the
fire as they grill steaks and asparagus and serve hot tomato bisque soup with
bread and butter. It's all so glorious, the company, the fire, and the food.
Soon, we aren't able to take another bite and crawl into our Big Agnes tents
and sleeping bags, and fall into a deep sleep.
DAY 2
After a short picnic,
courtesy our wonderful crew chief Hannah Green, we begin the long, gradual
climb to the saddle just west of Engineer Mountain. We top out in the soft
light of late evening, and know we are in for another hairy descent in the
dark. We send the upper half of the Bear Creek drainage with little issue, but
the bottom half is where we face challenges.
DAY 3
I wake up feeling like a sack
of potatoes. The respiratory infection I brought back from my last few days in
France hasn't cleared up, even after being on my feet for thirty hours the last
two days. Weird. My feet are in rough shape, as I have rashes and blisters
spread across my skin. I tell the team I'm considering dropping here, as I have
little motivation to continue the second half of the tour. Jason persuades me
to press on, driving home the point that today is the shortest of the four, at
17 miles and 5,500' of vert. I'll make it to Telluride and assess from there, I
decide. We gear up and get going.
We get some much-needed relief
from our ski boots as we walk the dry Camp Bird Road in our shoes. I'm feeling
dizzy and foggy, but manage to chat a bit with the team as the minutes tick by.
Upon reaching our turn off for Governor Basin, we transition and wax our skins
before setting off. It's another few thousand feet of climbing to Virginus
Pass, also known as Kroeger's Canteen. I'm moving slow, but my head starts to
clear as we climb higher. I set the final, zigzagging skin track to our high
point, and we are stoked to top out with just a 4500' descent between Telluride
and us. Spirits are high and we have fun descending in the warm afternoon
light, knowing we'll be in town before dark. Holly and Quinn Simmons meet us
along the trail where we transition to shoes and walk the remaining bit into
Telluride. A quick hot tub soak and Mexican food dinner do us right. We go to
sleep content.
DAY 4
I sleep fitfully,
flip-flopping in my head whether I will join the team in the morning, and I
wake up feeling haggard. Against my better judgment I decide to continue on, as
it's the last day of the tour, and would be silly to bail at this point. We
have 28 miles and 10,000' of vert to negotiate before we arrive in Silverton.
And so, we begin the 4,500' climb to Oscar's Pass a bit after 6 AM, our
Ultimate Direction packs full of delicious food Holly and Hannah so graciously
put together for us, and our heads full of equal parts hope and trepidation.
As we glide along the
hard-packed Bear Creek Trail, I begin to feel nauseous. I'm over-heating and my
head is spinning. I pull over, and let the team pass, telling them I'm all
right. I have a hunch that I will feel better once we warm up and start
climbing high into the beautiful basins above Telluride. I catch up, and start
to feel better. We climb higher and higher and crest the saddle to Bridal Veil
Basin, and then it's a quick skirt around to Oscar's Pass. We are making good
time, and everyone is feeling fairly spry. We hoot and holler as we drop down
to the Ophir valley below. It's going to be a good day, we think.
We are psyched to top out,
knowing we have just one more big climb to complete the loop to Silverton. What
seemed so unreachable and unattainable the other day is now palpable. With high
spirits, we drop into Island Lake Basin and descend, too far though, missing
our traverse route. We decide to drop all the way to South Mineral Creek road
and skin up to where Hannah Green and Ben Brashear are waiting for us, another
afternoon picnic to be had among friends.
After gorging on cookies,
churros and strawberries, we say goodbye and take off into the woods, aiming
for the high reaches of Porcupine Creek. Progress is slow due to our skins
clumping with snow, so we stop to wax them and continue on. The high basin of
Porcupine Creek is beautiful, with big boulders strewn about and the evening
light softening the edges of all that we see. We pass over the saddle and make
our way around Cataract Creek Basin, equally as beautiful and impressive. With
one final push remaining to top us out over Putnam Basin, Scott, Jason and I
charge ahead, working hard to make ourselves earn it. Noah is not far behind,
working equally as hard and soon enough, there we are, on the top of the world,
our world, with epic views of the dramatic Grenadiers and Animas River Valley
before us. It's truly an impressive sight.
We bomb down into Putnam
Basin, staying high while keeping our speed up. Halfway down the drainage, we
cross the creek and follow a track that leads us down and out. It's a fantastic
last descent, with zero issues and all smiles. We finally make it to Mineral
Creek, which we cross in our ski boots and then swap for our Altra Superiors,
hearing the last few miles of trail into Silverton are dry and walk able.
Turns out, we could have
skied 90% of those last few miles, and so we cap off the tour with a bit of
annoying post-holing. As we approach the edge of Silverton, no one talks and it
seems as though we are all processing the last four days, quietly and
contemplatively, knowing full well the struggle was real but absolutely worth
it. We kiss the Hardrock and take some photos, eager to devour the burger,
fries and beer Hannah has waiting for us. We've come full circle to Silverton
on skis via the Hardrock 100 course, and now it's time to rest.
Thanks to all those that made
this journey possible. We couldn't have done it without you!
