Elk Mountains Grand Traverse

Homie and I near the top of Aspen Mountain

I recently competed in the 40-mile Elk Mountain Grand Traverse back-country
ski race. Holy cow! This race is tough. It was eye-opening. I liken it to an ultra-marathon, where you see people who you wouldn’t think could hold a candle to you in mountain adventures, passing you. This is an event you have to learn, because pure fitness isn’t nearly enough to conquer this race. The Grand Traverse is very serious, very committing and so very different from nearly any other competition I’ve done. You have to enter this race as a team of two because of the serious nature of it. The race starts at midnight, so you get to do the first 6+ hours by headlamp. We had good snow conditions this year, but horrible wind up high. My buddy Homie and I finished in just over 15 hours (the winners were under 10 hours!) You can read lots more details here, if interested:
http://www.wwwright.com/climbing/tripreports/2009/GrandTraverse.htm

Tags: backcountry skiing, Grand Traverse, Ultras