Summer of 24’ Meet the Minotaur Skyrace, Borah peak Speed Record, Bitterroot Grand Traverse (High Five).

Over the years, I have developed a skill set that allows me to move effectively over challenging, and sometimes unknown terrain. No year reflected that ability better than 2024. To highlight this, I want to focus on three different examples where these skills came into play, (1) Meet the Minotaur Skyrace where I took close 2nd place, (2) my Borah Peak onsite Speed Record, and (3) an onsite of the Bitterroot Grand Traverse where I completed the route in 7 hours and 27 minutes. 

First the Minotaur; this is an extremely demanding Skyrace that is known for its steep descents and climbs, ridgeline running and even some scrambling. This race started my career as a Skyrunner, and helped prepare me for racing in Europe where Skyrunning originated. Specific training for this race began in late May, when I headed down to train in the remote town of Silverton, CO, situated in the heart of the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado. I was camping at 10,500ft off of Molas Pass, and for several weeks I explored the San Juans, where I got rained on, snowed on, and generally froze my butt off in the early season of the Colorado high country. This trip served multiple purposes, mainly to get fit, but to also reintroduce myself to running in the big Mountains. In a given week I would train around 18-20 hours, and if I had to guess, 75-80% of those hours were off trail, bushwhacking and scree hopping. This made training slow and unsexy, but the end result was my best performance at Meet the Minotaur, running a 10 minute PR on that course and finishing 2 minutes behind 2x Olympian in Nordic Skiing, Scott Patterson. The training I implemented in Colorado helped prepare me for the challenging and technical terrain that runners face when lining up for the Minotaur Skyrace, and even though I had spent little time above zone 2 (5 zone scale), the strength I built over those few weeks, and the years of training under my belt led to a successful race, and the foundation to continue training and building into the rest of the season.

A few weeks later, I wrapped up camping in CO and headed back to Missoula, but not before stopping along the way to climb some classics. I headed North, and stopped in the Tetons to climb the Grand, a remarkable experience always! I then headed to the Lost River Range in Idaho, where I had set my sights on attempting the Speed Record on Idaho's tallest Summit, Mount Borah. The previous record had stood for years, and I wanted to test myself on a route that I had heard so much about. Borah is a steep and technical Mountain, one that requires a lot of fitness and a bit of recklessness on the descent. There is some 3rd/4th class scrambling on “Chicken Out Ridge” which I knew I was prepared for, both mentally and physically. I was well acclimated after spending the last 2 months above 10,000ft while training in Leadville, CO, and my desire to push hard in the mountains was at a high for the season. Although I had never seen the mountain up close, I knew I had the ability to piece it together as I went, and ultimately broke the previous record by 10 minutes. 

I woke up the morning of the attempt after a restless night of sleep, caused by a mouse that had been running around my truck all night long. Regardless, I woke up excited and downed a few cups of coffee before driving over to the trailhead. It was warm at 9am when I got to the trailhead of Borah, but I knew that once I got up above the treeline things would be cool enough to justify my relatively late start. I briefly warmed up, no more than 10 minutes and felt eager to go. I set off at a reasonable clip, hitting the first mile within a few seconds of Cody Lind’s time from 2022 and maintained a steady jog up until 11,000ft, where the technical sections slowed my progress and demanded more thoughtful movement. After reaching the final 1000ft, I had a quick glance at my watch, and to my surprise I was well ahead of pace to break the record. After reaching the summit, I immediately turned around, and let the fun begin. Descending the entire mountain with all my remaining energy.

The Last piece of the puzzle for the summer, a challenging route in the Bitterroot range of SouthWest Montana, the Bitterroot Grand Traverse, also known as the High Five. It climbs 5 prominent peaks, 4 of which require tricky 4th and 5th class route finding that can lead to frustrating dead ends, and a very healthy amount of Montana's finest bushwacking. By the numbers this route doesn’t sound too arduous, ~17-18 miles and 9,000ft of climbing, but the real challenge is in sticking to the best lines . The entrance and the exit require a lot of dense shwacking, and without previous knowledge can lead to frustrating cliff outs, dense willows and river beds that seem impossible to cross. The route also stays above treeline during all five summits, meaning there is no water and no shade until descending back down into the basin. At this point in the summer, after many successful long outings in the mountains, and plenty of time spent solo, I felt ready for almost anything this route could throw at me. But most importantly, I was seeking the adventure of the route. After 7 hours and 30 minutes, I arrived back at my car, beaten and bruised, but extremely satisfied. 

While these three things happened within 6 weeks of one another, the time and effort to successfully complete them in the style that I did took over 5 years of focused and intentional training. To compete at a high level and to have the confidence to “go for it” in unknown terrain is a challenge, but one that can be built up over time. Which includes time spent outside, time spent sitting and observing is never time wasted, because it allows you to connect with nature in a deeper and more impactful way. To move fast through the mountains is a privilege, and takes years of hard work, but at the end of the day, the joy comes from just being there amongst the mountains, seeing valleys and rivers blend together in blissful harmony. To truly enjoy the natural world is as important to performance as training hard.