The Stawesome Chief Sampler
On a whim I decided to call our exploratory trail run around the Stawamus Chief in Squamish the “Stawesome Chief Sampler” as it’s Awesome and samples some of the best trails in this small Provincial Park. We did a loop, checking out all 3 summits of “The Chief” as well as some lesser known viewpoints and airy hangouts. We don’t like to give too much away in our reports, so that you can discover these places for yourself, but I will supply this picture of our GPS track to get you started. Our route heads up, steeply, from the Mamquam Road, takes a lesser known trail up the back of the 3rd peak of the Chief, which features some interesting rope pulls and Via Ferrata, it then drops down before ascending again to a lookout and airy dropoff down into the North Gully of the Chief, from here you descend again before ascending to the 2nd Peak, which we crossed over and dropped off on the common ascent trail to the South, from here we joined up with the 1st Peak trail and took it to the top. We did some exploration up here to search for a viewpoint we’d heard about that looks directly down the face of the Chief. We found it! Definitely not a place for the faint of heart. From here it was a glorious trail run down the popular main Chief trail and then a mellow run along the “Apron Connector” trail, which passes below all 3 summits of the Chief that we’d just been standing on. Awesome! If you don’t know “The Chief” then just check out the photos below to get inspired to explore your local trails. Drop off before 2nd peak En route to the 2nd summit Viewpoint en route to 2nd peak To cool off we ended this adventure with some cliff jumping nearby at Brohm Lake. If you are lucky enough to live near this awesome BC Park, then DO. THIS. LOOP. So scenic, either as a lazy hike or fast and light trail run....
Buckin Hell Race Recap
Once again I had a serious case of FOMO and signed up for another Coast Mountain Trail Series race about 4 days before the event. I had a few friends doing it and one friend, Adam, was volunteering. This one was called Buckin Hell. It was full of technical trail that ran from Deep Cove to the Seymour Lookout and back down again. There was a 15km & 21km option. I had already decided to run the 47km Squamish 50 Orientation run the very next day and thought adding the 21km race the day before would make for a great training weekend. To my surprise and delight Leigh decided that since I had a weekend full of running,he would get in on the action too and signed himself up for the 15km race. Finish line smiles! Photo credit: Sarah Stepec And we’re off! Photo credit: Brian McCurdy Beautiful day for a race. Photo Credit: Brian McCurdy No point getting bogged down in the details of the race, other than to say this was a hard, beautiful, hilly, flowy and technical course. Yes it was all of those things! Having run in the area on previous training runs, I knew that it was going to be alot of uphill at the start. I didn’t want to start out too fast for fear that I would burn out too quickly. Also in the back of my mind I knew that I had a big run ahead of me the next day There was a strong field of women runners that day. Kim Magnus (1st) & Ellie Greenwood (2nd) created a huge gap between second and third place. Me and my friend Chloe Gendron ran together for much of the race, vying for 3rd and 4th position. I knew from the start if I kept Chloe in my sights I would be finishing up front, so I did the best I could to stick close to her. Leigh looking strong on the descent. Photo Credit: Brian McCurdy Keep pushing. Photo Credit: Brian McCurdy Leigh on a technical section. Photo Credit: Brian McCurdy I was fighting to hold my position on the last big uphill section. I wasn’t sure where I was in the race until I saw the leading women Kim & Ellie racing down the hill. Chloe broke away from me on the climb, but I could see her ahead and then it was just me! I was in fourth place, so close to podium finish but it wasn’t going to happen this time. I struggled to the top of the hill, with a mix of power hiking and running, downed...
Survival of the Fittest - Race Recap
Beautiful view at the top of the Gondola. Post-race hike. Racing mindset is something that I have been trying to work on recently. Just gathering information from awesome running friends I have met over the last few years, learning what they do and focusing on working on my mental strength. I have said in previous posts that I don’t race often and I signed up for this race last minute, 2 nights before race day actually. I had a few friends running and was having a serious case of “fear of missing out” so decided to join in on the fun. I chose the 18km option which had a challenging 1000m elevation gain thrown in. This race, Survival of the Fittest, is part of the Coast Mountain Trail Series and if you know anything about this race series, you will know that they put you to the test! Everything for me is training for the Squamish 50 mile that I will be racing in August. I view everything like part of a training run and try to train my body to run tired most of the time. My reasoning behind this is that I want to prepare for the worst out there. I know that the worst I will feel training is probably the best I may feel at a low point during race day, so I need to be able to push through those moments. The day before Survival of the Fittest, I got up at 5am, ran to the First Peak of the The Chief, and then did a set of small hill repeats on my lunch break at work.I was going to do the Sea to Summit trail that evening with Leigh, but he convinced me to taper that evening…hahaha tapering the night before a race! My fellow crazy running buddy, Adam, stayed over at our place, since he was also running the 18km race.. It was nice to have a partner in crime to bounce pre-race jitter energy off of. I woke up feeling tried, pretty much as usual and on schedule, but after a coffee and oatmeal was feeling more race ready. I didn’t do a huge amount of research into the course, as I live in Squamish and know most of the trails in the area. The only thing I did check was the elevation profile which was 1000m over the 18km course. This seemed like it would be a challenge but definitely doable. When they made the call to get to the starting line, Gary (the race director) said everyone wanting to run fast and finish first needed to get up to...
The Curse of West Coast Living
Ok so it’s not so much a curse as a stress. But let me be clear that there is good stress and bad stress. You know like worrying you won’t have the money to pay rent for the month, that would be a bad stress. The stress I am talking about is GOOD stress. The kind of stress that puts a constant pressure on you to make the most of your time. Living in a temperate climate like the West Coast breeds this type of good stress. The weather is pretty mild all of the time, especially in comparison to other parts of the country, mostly when it comes to a typical Canadian winter. Now don’t get me wrong living on the West Coast comes with it’s own set of weather difficulties, like torrential rain that lasts for weeks which can then lead to puddles on the trail that are ready to swallow a human whole. Oh and we even get frost in the mornings and a few times a year we may even get a dump of snow. But I am going to go out on a limb here and say that my chilly brethren in other parts of the country may have it slightly tougher than we do. They do, after all, have to put up with bone crushing cold and hurricane force blizzards. At least they have a good excuse to stay inside, when they choose to do so. Me, well I don’t really have any excuse. I live in a part of the country that affords me good weather most of the year. My only excuse for not getting out would be my own laziness. And as laziness is a quality that I very much detest, I don’t want to fall prey to it’s charm. I mean come on I really only have to deal with rain, umm pretty harmless water droplets falling from the sky, and perhaps having to splash through water which will in turn splash onto my shoes…GASP!! So I end up with wet feet and muddy pants…that seems pretty mild compared to frozen noses and frost-bitten toes and fingers. So for now, living on the West Coast, makes me stressed. Stressed to make the most the every single moment I can, because I don’t have any valid excuses. All I can do is tip my hat to my much hardier neighbors who deal with REAL Canadian weather and go grab my running shoes because I’m not going to let a forecast for rain this weekend stop me from getting out! If you happen to read this and are in fact one of the hardier...
“Déjame Vivir” Review
“Déjame Vivir” or, translated into english “Let me live” is the second installment in the “Summits of my life” series about Kilian Jornet. Kilian has been a household name in Ultrarunning in Europe for a while now but I only found out about him last year when I started seeing trailers for the first installment of his “Summits of my life” series, called “A fine line” bubbling to the top of my news feed. It instantly grabbed my attention because here was a guy, wearing basic running clothes, bouncing along precipitous ridge crests with ease without any of the modern accoutrements that mountain goers use, such as crampons, ice axes, helmets, etc. There was something mesmerizing about the purity of an individual, unencumbered, moving swiftly over technical terrain that drew me in and made me take note of this person. “Déjame Vivir” covers Kilians exploits in 2013, centering mostly on his goal to break the speed record on the Matterhorn. Were the first installment “A fine line” introduced Kilian and explained his upbringing and motivations, this second installment does an excellent job of filling out the details about what keeps him driven now and how he lives day to day. What the viewer learns is that Kilian is not a man driven by ego or competition or fame but by a childlike curiosity to simply explore. To simply be in the mountains and see what can be accomplished with the human body. We are introduced to his circle of friends, his girlfriend, the equally talented Emelie Forsberg and close friend, the 22 year old, Mathéo Jacquemoud, who has the face of a 12 year old but the Ski Mountaineering skills of a veteran. Mathéo also has a hilarious Grandmother who downplays his skyrunning as “going for a walk with friends”. Throughout the documentary we are given a brief overview of the history of Skyrunning in Europe, Kilians interest in it and the exploits of one Bruno Brunod, the athlete who originally set the speed record on the Matterhorn. Kilian admired Brunos achievements from a young age and wishes to repeat them himself. The culmination of Kilians year of racing, skyrunning and training on the Matterhorn is his attempt to beat Brunos record in the last act. The footage is simply amazing and Kilians POV video from running along the knife edge ridge towards the summit is dizzying. I don’t believe I blinked once while watching Kilian descend from the summit in an almost free fall along the fixed ropes on the route. The documentary left me wanting more and inspired me to push myself further and expect more from...
