Prepping for Patagonia, Part 2: The Less-Technical Side

Although much of the training for this trip has been focused on technical skills, time in the gym, and dialing in the systems & gear, the rest of it was much more on the side of "Type 1 Fun". Emily and I opened up our alpine season together with our first summit of Mt. Neva in the Indian Peaks Wilderness! While mostly on trail, the final mile or so to the summit contains a beautiful, exposed, 4th class ridge to the summit. The ridge was clear of snow, but the surrounding peaks were still fairly covered, leading to some unbelievable views of the snowy peaks & lakes around. One of my favorite activities in the world is alpine running in the summer with Emily. We've been lucky enough over the past few years to explore SO many new areas together, and this summer was no different! This is another outing that might need to be an annual thing. The summit itself is great, but the hike out to it might be what really makes it special. Neva is definitely high on my list of favorite peaks in Colorado.

The first-annual Mangy Moose Beer Mile was a pretty significant event in this training program and, one could argue, one of the most beneficial. If you can consume 4 beers while sprinting a mile on homemade trails in the woods at altitude, you can probably climb Fitz Roy, right? I'd say so. For the first Ned beer mile we've ever hosted, we had a pretty epic showing. There were initial fears that not many people would participate in the "full" event, but once it came time to decide, the crew rallied. For those who don't know, a beer mile is an event where you run 1 mile, drinking a beer every quarter mile along the way. This is typically done on a track, but we thought it'd be fun to have one on the trails in Ned. As expected, the run was horrendous. We had a few pukes, a few falls, and many terrible beer-burps, but I believe everyone who started the race also finished, which is pretty impressive. After the race, the crew continued to drink & grill & dance into the night. Although the day was shockingly hot, the cold beer and post-run hose-off in the outdoor bathtub kept everyone cool. This ABSOLUTELY needs to be an annual event. Keep your eyes peeled for the 2026 invite as summer draws near.

The following weekend, my dad and I were going to be running the Leadville Heavy Half. Although listed as a "half marathon", the course is more like 15 miles. This mileage includes 3000ft of elevation gain all the way up to a ridge at 13,000ft! Dad had been training in Indy for a few months to prepare for the race, with a few trips to CO to get used to the altitude, and I had been doing the standard Boulder mix of Flatiron scrambling and alpine running to prepare. Dan & Kevin Hipskind were signed up for the full marathon as well, so we all went up to Leadville together with a big crew! This included the Hipskinds & significant others, Emily, Mom, Sarah & Anna, and Kat & Tony -- Such a blast having everyone up there together.

The race itself was fairly tough. We had both prepared pretty well, but running at altitude never really seems to get much easier. The way up to the ridge was dry, steep, and dusty, but we eventually made it there. Dad absolutely crushed it for what I believe was his longest run ever(?) and definitely his longest run at altitude! When we arrived at the aid station on top of the ridge, a mountain goat was munching on grass just behind the station -- a pretty incredible sight to see given the number of people out & about for the race that day! From the ridge, it was downhill the entire rest of the way: a very welcome feeling after 7+miles of continuous uphill. A mile or two before the finish line, Dad started getting some pretty serious cramps in his legs. We gathered what salty food and water we had left, and he ate/drank it all as quickly as he could. At this point, we were so close to the end and with no aid stations left, there wasn't much else that could be done. He powered through what seemed like VERY nasty cramps for the final stretch, making it to the finish line just in time. If this had happened much earlier, it would not have been good. We met up with everyone at the finish line, drank as much water as we could find, and wandered over to the tents for our TWO(!) free beers each and full lunch that came with signing up! Although Dad said he never wanted to do that again, I'll be interested to see if we can find another, albeit less intense, trail race for summer of 2026 :)

In mid-July, Emily and I took our annual summer mini-roadtrip. In 2023, we did our trip in Colorado and 2024 took us all the way to California. To stick with the theme of making the summer roadtrip about seeing new/different places, we decided to head up Wyoming! We started off the trip by spending a night & following day checking out the Never Summer Mountains north of Rocky Mountain NP. Although this range is super close by, neither of us had ever been and WOW had we been missing out. We did a mini-traverse of a few of the main peaks in the range. Our route took the Northeast Ridge of Static Peak to the summit, before traversing the ridge to Mt. Richthofen and descending the west side of the range. We started in the dark, watched an epic sunrise over alpine lakes, almost ran into a bull moose (terrifying) before getting up on the ridge. The rest of the day was full of loose rock, lots of laughs, and some pretty spicy glissading down the steep snowfields back to Lake Agnes. We both completely underestimated how incredible that range is & can't wait to get back there soon. After this mega run, we worked our way up towards the Snowy Mountains in southern Wyoming, which is part of the greater Medicine Bow range.

The Snowy Mountains were equally shocking to us in that we had NO IDEA HOW COOL THEY WERE! This range is also only ~2-2.5hrs away from Boulder and we knew nothing about it. We were both pretty tired from our Never Summer run and wanted to save some energy for what was ahead (The Winds!), so our time in the Snowies was very laid back. We wandered around Lake Marie, practiced hand stands in a nice patch of grass, cooked a huge dinner at the picnic area, and found a perfect dock to set our chairs on to read & bask in the sun. Next time we'll have to explore a bit more, but for a first trip, we were perfectly content with a relaxing lake-front recovery day. When we'd had enough of the hanging out & eating, we hopped back in the truck to head for Lander and eventually the Big Sandy Trailhead: the entrance into the Wind River Range in western Wyoming! A few summers prior, I spent a while in the Winds with Isaac on a climbing trip and I was so so excited to get back.

We drove to Wild Iris, near Lander, that evening and spent the following day climbing incredible sport routes right next to our campsite. Wild Iris is one of my favorite climbing destinations in the world. Such a laid back feel, perfect rock, and a really fun style of climbing. Emily seemed equally stoked and we vowed to get another day of climbing in here before going back to Boulder. That evening, we started to drive towards the Big Sandy trailhead and our entrance into the Wind River Range. After the long drive down 30+ miles of dirt roads, we finally made it to Big Sandy and lucked out finding an open car camping site right next to the trailhead! Score. We had big plans for the next day, so after some wandering around in the river & packing for the next day, we hit the hay.

This next day might have been my favorite mountain running day of all time. We mapped out a loop a massive loop that I thought would be fun: 20 or so miles in total, looping through the Deep Lake Cirque to the summit of East Temple peak, and back down through the valley of lakes to the west. We started right around sunrise in brutally cold conditions. Luckily we warmed up quickly as we cruised through the miles towards Big Sandy Lake. Neither of us had been to the Deep lake Cirque, so it was prety adventurous from Big Sandy Lake onward. We weaved our way through the valley and past many lakes until East Temple was finally in view. The inital, jaw-dropping view of East Temple from Deep Lake was truly incredible. Wildflowers in full bloom, clear blue skies, and total silence as we sat on the shore of the lake looking at the peak we were supposed to head up (the pointy one left of center in the photo below with the big plateau on its right shoulder).

We worked our way around Deep Lake to the start of the East Ridge, which we intended to take to the summit. We couldn't find much info about people summitting the peak this way, but the topographic maps & elevation lines made it seem like it wouldn't be too bad, so we went for it. It was definitely a scrambly and exposed way up, but 100% worth the adventure. The weather was perfect when we hit the summit. A bit windy, but the sun was out and no afternoon storms on the horizon! So we sat around for a while eating snacks, taking photos, and exploring the summit plateau before starting the LONG descent back to the trailhead. Emily was feeling much better than I was (she's frickin fit) and led us out of the Winds at a blistering pace. I was completely smoked by the time we were back at the car... We lounged in the sun for a bit at the car before heading back towards the Lander area. The next day, we did some more climbing in Wild Iris and had a classic burger-beer combo at the Lander Bar before working our way back towards home. After each of these road trips, we always wish they would last a few days (or weeks) longer. Driving around the western U.S. is just too much damn fun.

Some of the other alpine running highlights of the summer were a long run in the James Peak Wilderness with Deirdre and a Longs Peak hot lap with Emily! Deirdre had an ambitious goal to run 28 miles in the mountains for her birthday while she was visiting Colorado. Although we didn't end up getting to the full 28 miles, we had an incredibly fun day out exploring an entirely new area, getting (sort of) lost, and seeing like 15 new alpine lakes. I think she was a little sad to not hit the goal, but it was a pretty damn good day regardless. Emily had wanted to try for a fast Longs Peak lap before summer was over, and the following weekend looked perfect for it! We took all of the short cuts that we could, Cables Route to the summit, and brought very little in the way of food & water because she wanted to rip it... and she went SUB-4 HOURS! For arguably one of the most difficut 14ers in the state! It was epic. The uphill was pretty brutal, but we made it to the summit in good time and then she absolutely took off on the descent. Such a blast trying to follower her down the weaving shortcut trails at full speed.

Although the labelling of this section as "Prepping for Patagonia" is a bit of a joke, since it doesn't really involve technical climbing, gear, ropes, etc., I think these other parts of life really did contribute towards feeling ready for this trip. Spending time outside in the mountains in any capacity makes me feel so much mental clarity, lower stress, and a deep satisfaction that contributes towards feeling more content & satisfied with all other aspects of life. And when I feel good overall, it makes it much easier to spend those more focused times on the real "training" components, which could otherwise feel like a chore. All of these mountain activites of course contribute to overall fitness, but I think the greatest benefit is simply how much fun it is to experience such incredible scenery with the people you care about. So, as much as I enjoyed training for this trip, I think the unofficial training days like these were some of the most worthwhile days along the way.