“Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness” said Dostoevsky. It seemed very noble when I read that from the comforts of my sofa, and I memorized it. But on the muddy trail all the suffering and hurting sometimes seems not worth it. I’m not in it for the pain. In fact, I don’t like pain and I want it to stop. But I do believe that through encountering pain, you can learn and really expand yourself. So I am willing to confront it, even if, in the moment, I really question why I am putting myself through the pain.

-Ben Horne

Why do thousands of people return year after year to some of the hardest footraces on the planet? The reason is simple: because people like to challenge themselves. We have chosen to do so through the venue of mountain running, and that venue has provided incredible rewards to its practitioners for as long as people have been doing it. Long-distance running makes us happy, so we want to do it as much as possible. Simple as that. We can be confident that we’re doing the right thing because we love what we’re doing. I don’t believe any other reason to be so powerful.

-Dakota Jones

5am, East Rim Trailhead

It’s not like my first ultra experiences didn’t involve suffering… I was totally under-prepared for Tahoe, my feet were riddled with blisters after the High Sierra Camps, and Evolution was… epic to say the least. But by TNF San Francisco last December, I had begun to get the 50k distance dialed and I was able to do the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail (about 25 miles) casually a couple weeks ago. In fact, the first 50k or so of the Zion Traverse was really not that bad.

The rest of the Zoom Loco crew hadn’t showed up at the East Rim Trailhead yet by 5am, but we were worried about trying to finish not in the dark, so we started at 5:01. Julie and I made great time on the first 12 miles on the East Rim Trail, avoiding taking any wrong turns and turning our headlamps off as we were cresting the top of the first climb. The descent to Weeping Rock via Echo Canyon was fun, steep, and technical. I’m definitely impressed by those who do the traverse the other direction (West to East) and have to go up this late in their day. The road between Weeping Rock and the Grotto sped by and we met up with Luke to refill water and set off up the West Rim Trail.

The crazy switchbacks up to the Angel’s Landing junction went by super fast and we were soon in new territory (we had all hiked Angel’s Landing on a previous trips). After Wilson’s Wiggles you get a brief respite of flat and downhill before beginning the second half of the climb to the true West Rim. We passed some backpackers (including a pretty young kid, maybe 8-10 years old?) going the other direction looking remarkably peppy and relaxed. This is the point at which you start to wonder who has the better idea – we get to carry less stuff, but they can stop and rest however much they want.

Coming down into Zion Canyon just after sunrise.

We stopped to refill water at the West Rim Spring and it was good we did because we never saw the Potato Hollow Spring and apparently the Sawmill Spring was dry. Luke handled the SteriPen while Julie and I just sat and ate food. He was an awesome pacer on the 15-mile section he ran with us – taking videos, keeping up the conversation, and generally not annoying us too much. I ran out of water (but still had some Roctane) a mile or so before our “aid station” at the West Rim Trailhead, so I was definitely psyched that we’d stashed a ton of water, food, and other resupply items there on Friday. It sounded like this aid station saved a lot of other people too, including our New York trail acquaintances, who hadn’t filled water at the West Rim Spring.

At this point we had 27-28 miles under our belts and two main sections left: 9 miles on the Wildcat Canyon and Connector Trails to the Hop Valley Trailhead, then 13 miles on the Hop Valley and La Verkin Creek Trails to the finish at Lee Pass. Those sounded pretty manageable to us at the time, but we were definitely dragging by the last mile to the Hop Valley Trailhead (and bathroom!). That section of trail seemed to stay largely within a basalt layer, resulting in trail littered with sharp, pokey volcanic rocks. Normally, this is not a big deal, but once your legs have started to get tired, it gets much harder to hop over or around all these obstacles. Well I showed them (I walked around all of the stupid, stupid rocks).

Tiny Julie and Lizzy hiking up part of the West Rim Trail

I had not been expecting to see Luke again, but everyone had made it through the aid station and he had just moved the water stash to the Hop Valley Trailhead when we got there. The bathroom and the bottle of Coke Luke gave me were awesome. As were the hugs when I cried a little about how tired I was. But Julie and I had some sort of conversation here that went something like: “Well, we’re not technically injured and we’re not literally dead, so we don’t really have a good reason to stop here. I guess we should go ahead and finish.” I may also have reminded myself of one of my mantras, which is that “anyone can do a half marathon.”

That last section may have been “just a half marathon” and included a lot of flat and downhill, but it was not easy. Most of the Hop Valley Trail was either deep sand or mud or a creek crossing. Running on sand is one of my weaknesses and I was not able to muster much speed once we got down into the flat valley and didn’t have gravity helping us out as much. Near the La Verkin Trail junction, I made a pit stop in the bushes and ran into a snake in the first spot I tried. I didn’t stick around long enough to see what kind of snake it was, but it reminded me of the rattlesnakes I’ve seen in California. Disaster (narrowly) averted.

Our awesome pacer and paparazzi crew on the middle 15 miles.

We finally reached the La Verkin trail and followed it up and down some more technical sections (poor little legs were not happy about this). We came to a sign that said 6.5 miles to Lee Pass and I groaned aloud “it’s so far”. These last 6.5 miles were not going to go by as easily as the first 6.5 in the morning. On fresher legs, this section of trail would be totally cruiser. There were 2ish more miles of gently downhill and flat along La Verkin Creek before the final climb, and even the final climb was not that steep (until the last mile…). At this point my body had gone into safe mode (like when your computer doesn’t start up right) and only had a few basic functionalities:

1. Move forward. Sometimes running, mostly walking. Part of your brain begs you to stop, but if you do you receive an error message and you start moving again.
2. Drink water (difficult).
3. Eat gel or apple sauce (more difficult).
4. Calculate how much longer it will take to go the x miles remaining. This becomes increasingly alarming when a distance I normally cover in about an hour (6 miles) on our local Rancho trails could feasibly take up to three hours. THREE HOURS! I can easily run twice this distance in less time than that! I need to learn how to turn this functionality off. It is not useful.
5. Play the “avoid looking at my watch for as long as possible” game so that more distance will have gone by in between glances.

Advanced functions like taking pictures or carrying on a conversation were not feasible. We degraded further the closer we got to the finish. Julie’s asthma acted up and she started sounding like when we were on the final climb to Bishop Pass on the Evolution Loop (~12,000 ft). A hotspot on my heal had become a blister and popped with about 2 miles to go, which exponentially increased the pain it caused (which I never understand, shouldn’t it help to release the pressure?). My mental math had been off and it was 0.75 miles farther to the parking lot than I had thought. To add insult to injury, you can see the parking lot from at least a mile away. Then you go up a steep hill you think MUST lead to the parking lot, but is in fact a false summit and you still have another steep hill (which I’m sure is tiny on fresh legs) to go. We were not happy. I cried. I told Luke I wanted to die. I sat down in the car and took my shoes off and propped my throbbing feet up on the dashboard. I did not want beer, I did not want pizza. I did not have space at the moment to celebrate my achievement, I was totally wrecked.

Awesome vistas from the West Rim.

However, as soon as the pain in my feet faded, it created room to appreciate all the successes, large and small, of this incredible day. Here are just a few:

• We finished in 15 hours and 17 minutes. This is, in fact, almost TWO HOURS shorter than it took us to do the Evolution Loop, which was 14 less miles. This is an unqualified success. Our time works out to an average pace of 18:39/mile, including stoppage time and Garmin calculates our average moving pace was closer to 14:21/mile. We also finished in less than 16 hours, the time cutoff for Squamish 50. This is huge for me!
• We finished in the light, without having to put our headlamps back on. We also made it back to Springdale in time to get burritos (even if we didn’t eat much of them that night).
• I had fewer blisters than at the High Sierra Camps. I think if I had worn my trail gaiters, I might not have gotten any. I had a ton of sand in my shoes and socks that I think was probably directly related to the blistering.
• My knees didn’t hurt! I’ve had huge issues with IT band and Runner’s Knee recently and to complete something like this and my major complaint at the end was that my feet ached is pretty huge.

I also learned a few more key things, which are that maybe I should try Hokas (could reduce foot pain for the latter part of Squamish 50) and that I should just not carry my camera in my front backpack pocket after the first 20 miles because I won’t use it anyways. That way I can have food up there instead.

The whole day was huge learning experience for me, but also an affirmation of my abilities. And as the moments of suffering fade into the past (even if it’s just a few days past), I realized that the suffering didn’t take away from the experience, but added to it. If we didn’t have to suffer to get to the end of our first 50 mile, would we feel like we had earned it? Would we have realized how much we are truly capable of, if we can do a tough, adventurous mountain 50 with non-ideal training?

It’s funny, because right after we finished, Julie and I both said that we would never, ever do a 100 or UTMB. They were just too hard and too far and too much suffering. But once I found some emotional distance, I realized that what I went through in Zion gives me more confidence that I could run 100 miles and even the UTMB. Some day. With much more training. Doing the Zion Traverse was a magnified version of my experience so far with the 50k distance. Yes, each step requires more time and experience to master, but I have not met my limit yet. I am not even close.

Zoom Loco Zion Traverse from Lizzy Stefurak on Vimeo.

Now that’s love. (Julie Jakoboski photo)

After the first day on this project I almost gave up. The 5th pitch was going to be too hard, too leaning, and not fun. I’m usually not one to give up so I simply delayed hiking up to the route the following day and enjoyed good company and bacon for breakfast. I got up to Liberty Cap by noon and mini-traxioned up the first three pitches. I’ve found that roped self-belay is a great way to work on routes and allows you climb partner-free. I managed to send each of the first three pitches, cleaning out dirt and moss as I went up. My “dirty direct” variation would be climbable, but I wondered if it would ever really be clean. At least the route was less dirty the higher you went and soon I was on Scarface proper.

Looking up at the first pitch.

I kept going up my fixed lines through the “crumbling empire” which had the worst rock on the route. Cool moves still existed and the vertical climbing was a nice relief after the endless laybacking on the bottom of the route. I made it to the pitch four belay, having climbed without falls and looked upon the leaning tips crack. I wasn’t even sure how to get established in the crack, but made progress by standing on the piton I had hammered in the previous day.

I saw a line of crimps on the face and figured the the climbing should be possible. A bolt would be needed so I pulled through and worked on the tips crack. A crazy idea had dawned on me the night before and I was excited to try out some magic beta. I laybacked up the offset crack for a few moves and then slotted a thin finger lock. From here I was able to mantel the offset crack and start laybacking it, walking on the two inch rail. This took me 20 feet higher and set me up for the crux off finger section.  I was shocked that I was doing so well, having fallen only a few times so far on a pitch I knew to be 5.12.  When the corner switched back around, I struggled with the nearly footless moves. The edge of the crack was sharp, which helped with the pseudo campusing and lead me to an awkward rest at a wide pod. I hung many more times in this upper section, desperately trying to work out where to put my feet.  After I reached the anchor, I knew the pitch would go!  I had found the perfect project and I had to keep trying.

The crux finger crack full of bushes.

Depending on how many consecutive weekends I could spend in the valley I would leave and strip my fixed lines, trying to keep my impact as low as possible. February and March are great months to spend in Yosemite and it was nice to enjoy the solitude.

After my first foray I came back with Steve, Jonathan and Casey on different weekends to push the high point further. I kept going ground up, but used fixed ropes to help mitigate the fact that I only had weekends to work with. By the end of March I had red-pointed the second through the seven pitches and had aided up the eighth pitch, which would be another 5.12 pitch. It was an incredible feeling to lead the crux tips crack on my first lead attempt. Lots of try hard effort went into the send and I almost fell off at the very end, pumped to the max.

The second half of March was booked but it was very exciting to have so much of the route figured out. I took time off, to go climb in Utah, and planned on finishing the route up in April when I returned.

Adding a bolt on P10 of Scarface.

Some final prep work still needed to be done to protect a few sections where pitons had be used for pro. I was in constant contact with Josh, on of the FAists, about any changes I wanted to make to the route. I wanted it to go free, but didn’t want to drastically alter the route. Even though it had been over 7 year since the first ascent, the route had not been repeated. I got everything in order the best I could and planned for a final weekend of work. The following weekend I would put in the last bolts and then go for the first free ascent. Look for a trip report soon!

Route Overview:

For the most part the climbing on Scarface is straightforward and strenuous. After a slab and cerebral opening pitch you have to climb about 70 meters of right facing dihedral. The crack is all sorts of sizes and angles and you are occasionally just laybacking a rounded edge.

Topo for the lower pitches of Scarface

The crux 5th pitch is a laser cut leaning finger crack that goes through all sizes from tips to rattly fingers and then back down.  I replaced a 1/4″  rivet on the bottom of the pitch with a new 3/8″ bolt, and added on bolt up and to the left of the crack, due to hollow rock on the right. This also should not change the aid route at all. The rightwards lean requires a good amount of power and trickery to capitalize on the infrequent rests. There is a nice 5.10 offwidth on the sixth pitch with better rock on the second half of the pitch. One new bolt was added on this pitch, early on, to protect moves getting past a few loose blocks. The aid line follows a parallel crack in this section, so this bolt doesn’t change the original route.

On the seventh pitch I bolted a new variation to the left of the original bolt latter. 5.10 slab climbing past four new bolts leads back to the original bolt later and the rest of the pitch. I removed the last “bolt” from original ladder, a 1/4″ rivet, and put in a new bomber 3/8″ bolt. The first three bolts, on the free climbing variation, are closely spaced but there is mandatory 5.10 climbing to reach the forth bolt and to regain the final bolt on aid line. Aid climbers can stick with the original rivet ladder, or climb the new variation at 5.10 C0 or 5.8 C2 with some hooking between bolts.

The eight pitch is 5.12 with killer fingers and off fingers laybacking for about 75 feet before a boulder problem when the crack pinches out. Originally you would have placed peckers & tomahawks in the corner but I added two bolts to protect the free climbing. This was approved by the first ascentionists and allows the whole route to go clean on aid which is a plus! This section still might be one of the aid cruxes since you will need to do some hooking or trickery to get from the second bolt back to bomber gear in the corner.

The next pitch, the ninth, is pretty low angle and there are very few holds, which makes it challenging. One bolt was added on this pitch, above a fixed rurp. The climbing is very technical with fun stemming and slab climbing. Aiding this pitch requires lots of thin cams, nuts and maybe some cam hooks. The following pitch, the 10th, has the final bolt of the route which was added where the first ascentionist used more beaks for pro. The climbing is mellow but cams and nuts would not protect this section. The final two pitches are lower angle and follow discontinuous cracks to the summit. I followed a slightly different line than the first ascentionists in the last three pitches, but there is much overlap.

Upper Pitches Topo

Pitch by Pitch Beta:

Pitch 1 – 5.11a – 90 feet – 2 bolts

Full rack to #3 camalot

From the ground climb up a series of dirty ledges until you can get established on a good foot rail. Step left to a right leaning crack, get in some gear, and stem up until the crack starts to pinch out. Make a move left with your hands on a dike feature to get to the base of a thin crack. Layback up the thin crack, passing a bolt to get established in the slabby corner. Continue laybacking past occasional pods for gear. A few hard moves getting to, and working past another bolt lead to an exciting stemming sequence and an belay at a tree on the left.

This pitch is often dirty and can be wet in the early spring. Having a nut tool to clean out the crack is a plus. The stances are pretty good, so you could still climb this even if it is a little dirty.

Pitch 2 – 5.10c/d – 175 feet

Full rack

From the belay work up the varied corner to a wide section of crack. Layback up until progress becomes very difficult, a finger sized piece goes in here. Techy moves will allow you to move right to a finger lock or wide edge that seem just out of reach. Once established on this edge you will need to go another body length before getting any more gear. It is possible to sling a big horn on the left in the middle of this runout. Good holds on the left wall, and some more laybacking, allow passage through this run-out. Keep on laybacking past a slopey section and mantel up onto a dirty ledge. There is a pink rope here for rappelling, but you should keep climbing. Fight through the tree to the best corner so far.

This rock on this second corner has good friction and you get nice finger sized slots at the start. The corner crack has some interesting geometry, which makes placing gear harder, and it helps to have many finger sized pieces. The corner gets steeper as you go higher until a short chimney section that can be avoided by stepping right. A few face moves lead to another hand sized crack. Jam and layback with feet on the right passing some sweet knobs. In a continuing trend, the layback turns slopey and harder moves lead to a good stance right below a tree.

Belay at the tree with a green rappel sling.

Pitch 3 – 5.10d – 85 feet

Full rack minus all the green alien and smaller pieces

This is the cleanest of the first three pitches. Start off with a few tricky layback moves or stem up using the large dead tree as a foot hold. Crisp finger locks lead you out right to yet another section of slopey layback (hopefully you’ve got it dialed by now). Punch it until the edge of the crack gets better and figure out how to get your self standing on the chalkstone. A couple more tricky moves, with some stemming get you to a grove of trees. Sling something for pro and keep going.  Do some easy (5.7/5.8) but unprotected face climbing on the wall to the right of the trees to get established on a big sunny ledge. Belay at two bolts.

Pitch 4 – 5.10b R – 110 feet

Full rack with including a small cam for the start.

The climbing is never particularly run out, but there are occasional places where there is loose rock and one spot with bad fall potential, thus the R rating. The climbing on the “R” section is not much harder than 5.8/5.9, just be careful with rock quality.

Start just to the right of the bolted belay with thin gear and a few mantels. Some tricky stemming gets you established on a wide ledge. Go right and up through some chossy rock to get established in a awesome left leaning hand crack. When the crack ends avoid the ledge covered in loose rock by stepping to the right. Some thin gear protects tricky moves to get into another hand crack. Fun crack and face moves get you up an over a series of ledges to a two bolt belay on a nice 3′ x 5′ ledge.

Pitch 5 – 5.12 – 110 feet – 3 bolts

My rack: 2 Red C3, 2 Green Alien, 3 Yellow Alien, 2 Grey Alien, 1 Red Alien, 2 #.5 camalot, Single Green C3,   #1. camalot  More thin gear if aiding (000 and 00 C3 useful).

The first of many stellar pitches. From the belay you can either face climb straight up past two bolts or use the ide crack out left. In both cases be careful to avoid the precarious stacked blocks above the wide crack. Traverse across the grainy rail until you reach a no-hands stance.  Thin fingers gear (green alien/Red C3) goes in the crack to your left to protect the next hard section. Face climb/layback up an semi-expando flake, 5.11, up until you get established at a good stance on a small ledge to the left of the flake.  Clip a bolt and check out the tricky traverse to the leaning tips and finger crack.

Bust out a short crimpy boulder problem, 5.11+, and make a few hard moves up the crack to get established on a huge foot rail. Recovery is key since the next ten feet are tips! Red C3/Blue Metolius seem to fit best since green aliens are too big. The crack is quite off-set so heel hooks and tricky foot work are possible. Once you pass the small bush, the crack changes corners again and gets steeper. It quickly goes to rattly fingers (.5 camalots) and the feet disappear. Luckily the crack is pretty sharp and you can get opposition with your thumb. Fight you way up the leaning crack until a hand jam pod, where you can catch a rest.

The crack thins back down to fingers, but by now you should be quite pumped and wishing a good foot would magically appear. After a few moves your prayer is answered in the way of a thin hand jam and the notion that you have almost done it. Grr your way up a few more fingerlocks and until you can reach a hand crack that takes you the rest of the way to the anchor. Belay at two bolts on a small ledge.

Pitch 6 – 5.10c/d – 165 feet – 1 bolt.

Full Rack with two each #3, #4 camalots (Very confident leaders can get away with a single #3 and #4)

Start off with enjoyable thin hands off the belay until you must switch to the left crack. The higher you go in the right crack, the longer of a reach you must make. A few steep moves lead to another thin hands to hands crack in grainy rock. Climb up until you are below some scary stacked blocks and clip a bolt on the left. Carefully mantel over the blocks, which seem pretty solid, and you will be greeted with a splitter wide crack. Fist jam up clean granite making sure to bump along your #4 camalot. Eventually you can get your right foot in the leaning crack and the difficulty eases and I leave the #4 behind. Continue up the wide crack, past a short slab.  Another #4 camalot can go in here or you can run it out until you can place a finger sized piece in a thin crack on the left. Dual cracks lead up with plentiful gear options until you pass another wide section of crack. Laybacking seems to be the best option here and eventually the crack thins to nothing. Make a hero reach from the last finger lock to a perfect jug. A few easy moves leads to a two bolt anchor on a reasonable ledge.

Pitch 7 – 5.10d – 90 feet – 6 bolts

Bring the nuts, Purple and Green C3, and doubles of Green Alien to #1.  Single #2,#3,#4 camalots.

Start climbing up the wide crack until you can see a line of three bolts with black hangers. The original line continues further up the wide crack  before cutting left on a ladder with mix of rivets and 1/4 inch bolts. The free line joins the aid ladder at the last bolt (which was upgraded to 3/8″).

Climb a series of small ledges angling up and to the left past the three bolts. A combination of mantels and  trickery will get you to the highest foot rail. Make a long reach to clip a bolt (the 4th) and get established on the slab. The holds get progressively better and you work back to the right to another bolt (which is the end of the aid ladder). From here follow the bottom of a flake to the left via underclings. Gear in a crack to the right can protect a hard reach to thin seams/crimps on the face.  The flake you are climbing gets steeper and eventually a series of good fingerlocks leads to a two bolt belay at an ok stance.

Pitch 8 – 5.12 – 90 feet – 2 bolts

Triples of fingers sized gear are essential for this pitch.  Make sure to bring a single #.75,  #2 and #3 camalot.

Steep fingerlocks off the belay lead to a tricky bulge and a good stance. Continue layabacking up the stellar corner passing an occasional wider section. Make sure to milk the rests before the crack runs out and there is a bolt. Make a hard move to good hold on the face, or do some ninza stemming. Clip a second bolt, move the good hold and reach to the left for some more face holds. Once you get your feet situated you can reach left to a flake system which will take you back into the main corner. When the corner crack pinches out make use of the thin finger crack on the left and execute a final tricky sequence. Move carefully past a loose tooth and traverse right to a nice sloping ledge with two bolts.

Lizzy mini-traxions the balancey 9th pitch

Pitch 9 – 5.11a – 70 feet – 1 bolt

Bring the nuts and all the small cams. Nothing bigger than a .75 camalot is needed.

From the belay work up the thin corner until you can clip a bolt on the left wall. Balance/slab climb with difficulty, until you can make use of a thin crack on the left wall. Follow this as it becomes a finger crack and then pinches out. A few tricky moves are requires until the crack becomes usable again. Keep stemming up the golden rock until you can move left to ledgy terrain.    Belay on a sloping ledge with two bolts.

Pitch 10 – 5.10a/b – 120 feet – 1 bolt

Full Rack

From the belay climb the dirty wide hands crack until you get to a lose block. Step left and climb up to the obvious left leaning roof. Climb this, extending all your pieces, and pull around past a small stump. Layback and jam up an easy crack until you can reach a dirty ledge. Reach high for a small flake and make a committing move on to the face. Follow the seam to an obvious wide pod, which takes a #3 camalot. Continue up the seam at 5.10, nuts useful, until you reach a ledge covered in manzanita.  Continue straight up various low angle cracks and aim for a shiny bolt.  Climb on the right side of the bolt via fun easy stemming up to a good rail. A few more easy moves lead to a ledge.

Belay to the right of a tree with red bark on a ledge with hand sized gear in a flake. This is about 20′ above the bolt and below a chimney like feature.

Pitch 11 – 5.10a/b – 100 feet

Full Rack

Climb up past a few loose rocks until you can step left towards a “chimney”. From the ledge, next to the short chimney, you can see a thin flake on the right . Follow this, which becomes a fun hand crack until the flake pinches out. Step left to an obvious crack in a corner. Climb this crack until it too runs out past a tricky section of laybacking. Face climb up, past occasional cracks towards a clump of manzanita bushes. Climb past these on the right side, on a series of rails and edges until you can reach a large tree on the right.  This pitch is pretty wandering so make sure to extend your gear!

Belay at the tree.

Pitch 12 – 5.10a – 200+ feet

Full Rack

From the belay trend left along a nice low angle crack system. After about 40 feet the crack pitches out and you will need to step left to a hidden flake, follow this up passing a short roof and head towards some small trees.  Follow the past of least resistance as you head towards the summit. It seems best to follow the left leaning  gulley/crack system towards a fairly large trees. This pitch is low angle and has some moss. Tread carefully.

Belay at a nice tree, that may or may not have tons of ants…

There is still about 200-300 feet of easy scrambling to the summit. Its best to un-rope at the big tree and work your way up the manzanita and slabs.

Scarface – Full Photo Topo

I’m still pretty new to this whole ultra thing. It was not very long ago that I had never run farther than 18 miles and was just starting to consider the idea of running farther, particularly to enable me to do the more spectacular Sierra loops (many are 40+ miles) as runs (rather than backpacks. I am not good at carrying a heavy backpack.)

In fact, it was around Thanksgiving 2011, when I was in Bishop with Luke – he climbed, and I studied for my upcoming Quals exam in the Looney Bean every day. Evenings around the campfire, my burnt-out brain escaped to dreaming up future adventures. The one on my mind then was the Evolution Loop, which I had first discovered in September when SK and I ran an out-and-back to Bishop Pass. The full 56-mile loop was way longer than anything I had ever done and I wasn’t really sure it was a good idea, or whether I should even be thinking about it, but I couldn’t help myself, I was drawn to it.

We happened to be sharing the Thanksgiving week with our friends Ben and Konstantin. I think Ben was the first person I’d talked to about the Evolution run who hadn’t just brushed it off as a totally crazy and unreasonable idea. In fact, he was psyched about it too. That was really all I needed for the seed to take root and the next summer saw me suffer through my first ultra and the shortened (but not much easier) version of the Evolution Loop. But we never had a chance to talk about it more, or finish plotting getting together a bunch of people to run the full version because Ben died in a climbing accident in Peru last summer.

The Zion Traverse follow the yellow route across the whole park.

I didn’t really know Ben well, but he continues to be an inspiration to me. Ultra-running (particularly outside of races) has been really transformative experience for me over the past year and a half, and I’m only just starting to scratch the surface of what I am capable of. When Luke told me that a bunch of friends of Ben were planning to converge on Zion in May to run the Zion Traverse (among other activities), I knew I could not say no.

The Zion Traverse is a ~50 mile point-to-point route running diagonally across Zion NP, linking the East Rim Trail to the West Rim Trail to a few other trails, ending at Lee’s Pass in the park’s NW corner. It includes running down into and then back out of Zion Canyon. It is incredibly scenic. This is the kind of adventure run I live for and, although I may not be optimally prepared (I took the first 2 months of the year off running to heal a nagging knee issue), sometimes the best experiences happen when success is not 100% certain, when you are able to see what you are truly capable of.

The transformative joy of running. Here, at the summit of Haleakala on Maui.

That was a very long introduction to get to the point of saying: Julie and I will be running the Zion Traverse this Saturday (May 11), starting at ~5am Mountain Time. As with Evolution, we’ll be carrying my inReach satellite messenger, which will send tracking points every 10 minutes to my personal tracking site: https://share.delorme.com/ElizabethStefurak

So if you want to follow along our progress, check it out on Saturday! I may do a couple test points on Friday to make sure everything is working.

At Indian Creek you run into a whole lot of different types of routes, but the dichotomy for me splits the routes into difficulty based on endurance/pump versus a hard-to-jam size.  On this trip I spent a good amount of time working on finger stacking, a weakness of mine. I get perfect finger stacks in a .75 camalot crack, with difficulty increasing as the crack shrinks to .5 camalots. The other thing that I learned on this trip was that I have no clue how to use my feet when the crack is smaller that a .75 (green) camalot.

I was lucky enough to get spend two weeks out in Indian Creek so far this year. The first week was with the UC Berkeley crew of Jonathan, Casey, Jessica, Alix, and Ben. The latter four drove out separately and I picked Jonathan up in Vegas before driving through the night to “the creek”. Perhaps it was Love Muffin breakfast burritos or the psyche to be back at the creek, but we started the trip with a bang.

The first three days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) held the coldest temps of the trip. It was a big change, on the second half of the trip, when we had to seek shade in the 70+ degree weather. It was great time to be in the desert since there was another crew from Planet Granite along with a smattering of friends from San Diego and else were. Eileen, Terri, and Leo showed up mid week to fill up our “party site”. We had many late nights at the camp fire telling stories and remarking that the climbing community was so small. It seemed that I knew half of the other people in Creek Pasture during that first week.

Casey at the crux of King Cat. Photo by Jessica Wan

We started at the cold Pistol Whipped, where I was happy to send Sig Sauer on my birthday.  Day One was a learning day as people got used to the sandy rock and tried hard in the cold weather. My hands were numb often and we decided on the warmer Cat Wall for Day Two. Weather improved and it was pleasant when the arctic winds were not blowing. Highlights included Johnny Cat, King Cat and Bad Cat.

Trying hard at the crux of Bad Cat. Photo by Jessica Wan

After the Cat Wall I was totally wrecked and decided on an “active” rest day. Scarface was the group choice and I was happy chill out somewhere I’d been many times before. I didn’t lead much, but did redpoint Big Guy, which had nearly induced vomiting on my first attempt five years prior. My favorite route of the day was Desert Vuarnet which Casey onsighted. I think it is an overlooked route and I was psyched to do it on TR.

Big Guy, Photo by Jessica Wan

Before the much needed rest day I was determined to do a first ascent.  Jonathan and I loaded bags with heavy hardware and trudged up the long approach to Sacred Cow. The route I had seen two years before was still sans anchor and I set about climbing it, ground up. Sandstone face climbing makes for a dicey experience, but I was able to get a few bolts in and finally make it up to laser cut splitter. I put in the anchor, fixed a rope and we made our way to Moab.

In some ways it was a release to finally bolt the line that had been calling to me for the last few years. The upper crack, as I suspected was of 5 star quality and quite difficult. The opening face climbing was very doable and much more technical than I expected. I would come back to it later but for now the focus was on our upcoming day at Optimator.

At Indian Creek size matters, and we learned that Jonathan was quite good at the .5 -> .75 Camalot size. I’m a fan of yellow alien/.4 camalot cracks and was really excited for Jonathan to play rope gun and lead Optimator, 5.13-. He made a valiant attempt, with numerous falls on the sustained .75 camalot crack. Placing gear added significant difficulty since stances were few and far between. In one of my better performances, I gave everything I had on top rope,  and flashed Optimator for my first of the grade.

Casey cruxing on Double Bock at the Optimator Wall

The hot weather had really taken it out of me, but we decided to go to Battle of the Bulge the following day. I correctly remembered that it had morning shade, but had forgotten how fast the sun comes around the corner. This was our first day seeing a bunch of other parties, but we still managed to get on all of our goal routes. For me the day was all about Ruby’s Cafe. I wasn’t sure that I had the guns to send, but I wanted to give it another effort. I played the game of telling everyone it was my project, so that I had an extra bit of encouragement to try it. I was pretty nervous and was unsure if I would even get as high as my previous attempt.

Jonathan enjoys the Big Baby at Battle of the Bulge Buttress.

By the time I was warmed up the sun was already on the Ruby’s Cafe, but now I was brimming with psyche and set off, sprinting up the crack. I took an overabundant supply of yellow aliens making sure I wouldn’t run out like last time. The changing corners went by quickly, as I climbed confidently above my gear and soon enough made it to the midway rest.

I executed the shuffle across the first roof, pasting my feet high and managed to snag the jug, flag through, and slam in the kneebar.  Looking up I could see the anchor above the final roof. Two more pieces went in as my calf grew more and more pumped. It was go time and Casey and Ben provided much needed encouragement. I passed the roof and got into the green aliens. I stalled, thinking about placing a piece, but knew I had to keep climbing. A few more moves and somehow I was clipping the anchor. I had climbed Ruby’s Cafe!

In some ways, my trip ended when I sent Ruby’s Cafe. I’m not sure it is the hardest route I’ve climbed, and it certainly didn’t take very many tries, but it was oh so significant. In the way that I finally climbed Equinox, so many years ago, I had succeeded in reaching a lofty goal that I was not even sure was achievable. Landmark climbs, like Ruby’s Cafe, are few and far between but count in ways that are hard to describe.

Sacred Cow Wall Project.

At this point in the trip I was ready for another rest day so when the crew went to Reservoir Wall, I slept in. I hiked out alone to Sacred Cow at noon and put in some burns on my new project. It was nails hard and I could barely even do the moves.  After about five or six attempts on the mini-traxion I managed a one hang, shocked that I didn’t fall off my nemesis size. I added another bolt, pulled the rope, and red tagged the route, for my return with Lizzy.

The final day, before the Planet Granite and Berkley groups had to leave, I was still completely exhausted. I had climbed each of the past seven days, but was curious to join Eliot and Doug out at The Wall. They had been projecting Learning To Fly and I was curious to try one of the hardest finger cracks at the creek. I climbed with Brian, a friend of Alix and we had a blast doing new to us routes at The Wall. I tried Learning to Fly briefly, but my body was in no condition for the brutal one arm lock offs required for the route. The climb was almost all yellow alien/.4 camalots but the crack was overhung and had zero feet in the crux section.

Rainy Arizona

On the last day of March I took a much needed rest day and drove to Vegas to meet up with Steve for the next leg of my trip. I’ve already detailed my trip to Red Rocks and will soon have a trip report about climbing Shune’s Buttress and Monkeyfinger in Zion. After a fun run on my last day in Zion, I headed back to Vegas to pick Lizzy up from the airport. The weather had been quite stormy and I hit a pretty wild rain storm driving through the VRG.  In no time Lizzy had arrived and we were en route to Utah. With midnight quickly approaching and snow in the forecast, we decided to spend the night in Zion where Steve still had a campsite.

The final five days at Indian Creek seemed to go by quickly with a mix of bad weather and tired muscles. At this point I had recovered physical energy from two consecutive rest days, but my lead head was shot. I put in five lead burns on Surf and Turf, my new route at Sacred Cow, but couldn’t commit to the insecure moves. It is problematic for me to climb high above my gear with no concept of when I’ll be able to place again.

New Route in the making!

Lizzy and I checked out a few new crags with trips to the Fin and the Cliffs of Insanity. I also went back to Scarface to redpoint Desert Vuarnet, which is WAY harder on lead. We had much less of an agenda than my first week and got to spend more time relaxing.

The final day Lizzy and I worked on the stellar Broken Brain. This climb is mostly hands until a very tricky finale. The headwall, shown below, goes from #2 camalots to .75′s and is quite offset. This means a good left hand at the end but a horrible right finger stack. I fell twice from the very top, just before the thank god hand jam at the lip. Like in most years it was nearly impossible to give a solid effort since my body was so run-down and my mind unwilling to keep trying hard. I am quick to forget how much psyche maters and that time needs to be put into mental recovery as well as physical.

Lizzy on the steep headwall of Broken Brain.

I really enjoyed my time at the creek, but as always tried to do too much in a short amount of time. More FULL rest days, and perhaps a few mellow days of easier fun routes would be the better way to spend the trip. I was very cool to spend more time trying my nemesis size (Surf and Turf). The best part was getting to spend time with all of the different people. Too many names to list, but I really had a blast!

I’ve added route lists to many Indian Creek posts since grading is so subjective. A snapshot of the routes from this trip. Funny that this time I felt Johnny Cat was harder than King Cat, the opposite of the last time I tried them.

Routes from the trip in order of my perceived difficulty (regardless of grade):

• Learning to Fly – 5.13 Hangs
• Optimator – 5.13- TR Flash
• Surf and Turf – 5.12+  Hangs
• Ruby’s Cafe – 5.13- Redpoint
• Bad Cat – 5.12 Hangs
• Broken Brain – 5.12  1 Hang
• Nukanator – 5.12- Hangs
• Baroque -  5.12 Onsight
• Desert Varnet – 5.12-  Redpoint
• Double Bock – 5.12 Flash W/ Preplaced Gear
• Sig Sauer – 5.12-  Flash
• Heat Searcher – 5.11+ Onsight
• Johnny Cat – 5.11+ TR Send
• King Cat – 5.11+ TR Send
• Goodby Cruel World – 5.12- Onsight
• Rump Roast II – 5.11 – Redpoint
• Pigs on a Wing – 5.11 TR Flash
• Double Trouble – 5.11 – Onsight
• Big Guy – 5.11- Redpoint
• Karin’s Corner 5.11- Flash W/ Preplaced Gear
• The Feltcher 5.11- Onsight
• Brown on Butter 5.11- Redpoint
• Sorrow 5.11- Onsight

One stronghold of “adventure” routes is the Challenger Wall in Pine Creek Canyon. The climbs on this wall were established more than two decades ago by a group of hard men who took boldness seriously. In modern terms this means running it out and avoiding bolts by any means necessary.

Jet Stream and Challenger Wall Overview. From MountainProject.com

My introduction to this area was Adventure Punks, a five pitch 5.10d with an implied R rating. Having come off a solid week of climbing in Indian Creek I knew that my fitness was solid and I would just have to kept the mental demons under wraps. I often joke that I’m no mental warrior, but my greatest strength is doing moves, even when runout, that I have utter confidence in. Once I’m convinced I know what to do, I have the ability to execute. In these situations I rarely, if ever, fall off.

With this in mind I set off up Adventure Punks, moving with calculated confidence on the un-protected 5.9 slab at the start. The rest of the pitch fell in to place with a smattering of marginal to bomber gear. For the most part it was a do-not-fall pitch, but 5.10b is well within my ability.

Next up was perhaps the sportiest section, above the pitch one belay.  The climbing was stimulating and the gear occasional but solid. You would be taking long falls, but perhaps the climbing was not as serious as the first pitch. The route continued in this fashion for the first four pitches, with a mix of face and crack climbing on excellent varnished sandstone. The fourth pitch, with a steep feeling finger crack, deposited you at the base of a long off-width.

The fifth and final pitch is the crux of the route and was climbed hard-man style before there were any big cams. It was the definitive crux of the route for me, with a hard section of squeeze chimney about halfway up. Pushing a #6 camalot made this part safe, but I almost slid out, having climbed that section with the “wrong” side in. I can’t imagine doing the pitch without any wide gear, big props to the first ascentionists!

We rapped the route, replacing some old slings at the top anchor with ASCA rap rings. It was really nice that the route had recently been cleaned up courtesy of some Las Vegas locals and the ASCA. Having two solid bolts at each belay was a nice way to relax after pushing my mental limits while climbing each pitch.

Adventure Punks was a great mental warm-up that reacquainted me with the Red Rock sandstone. The next day we decided to kick it up an notch and climb Drifting on the Jet Stream Wall, another place I’d yet to visit.

Scenic approach to the Jet Stream Wall

When I was getting ready for Drifting, I was slightly nervous. 5.11c could be challenging and a friend, who is a Vegas local, had told me the route might be more like 5.12 and bold! All of these things embodied the experience I was looking for. Drifting would be a solid challenge and a good way to test both my fitness and mental strength.  We took the strenuous approach up the Olive Oil descent, but the second half of the hike was beautiful. An exposed ridge brought us above the Jet Stream Wall and the “trail” dropped down through a scrappy forest of pine and manzanita. The wall itself was a blank and endless expanse of varnish. It was tricky to try to figure out the line of the route, an opposite experience to the natural weakness we climbed on Adventure Punks.

Drifting goes up the center of the wall through the red rock roof.

I knew Drifting, which has a healthy number of bolts would have more face climbing than I had done in a while. I was happy to have gotten some beta from Mountain Project that allowed me to take a selective rack on each pitch. Even the full rack, a touch more than a single set of cams, was nice and light. I needed every advantage I could get since the route would put up quite a fight for this wanna-be onsighter.

Right away the route was interesting, with the first pitch starting 80 feet up under a small roof. Some third class ledges lead you there and the route did not wait to deliver inobvious cruxy climbing. I was only at the second bolt and I’d been stalling for over five minutes. I tried to figure out what constitutes a “hold” and where I need to go. As I commited to upward progress, each bolt I clipped was a small victory.  I stalled out again below a challenging sequence, psyched to have figured out a nearly hands free rest. I needed to have power to waste and I went for it, full on 5.11 crimping with the bolt below my feet. Magically, the holds, which seemed to point the wrong way, worked perfectly as I got my feet high on perfect sandstone edges. I kept up the dancing routine, savoring the hidden jugs and amazing varnished crimps and make it to the belay.

Steve on the first pitch of Drifting

Starting off the second pitch, I had confidence. I ran it out to the second bolt, finding great edges and stances. The next 15 feet followed a varnished edge that undulates up the face, forming a type of flake against the softer white sandstone. There were just enough slots and crimps along the edge allow for passage upwards. Having clipped the final bolt on this section, my forearms wanted to explode. I climbed and down climbed twice, trying to figure out the right sequence. Finally I committed and pushed my feet hard against the soft white rock, praying for them not to slip. Luckily I got the sequence right and reach the big crimp I had been staring at longingly. As the climbing ease,s you run it out a touch on good holds until you make it to a nice varnished crack. I learned on Adventure Punks that it is important to put in gear when you can and I fired in a couple of pieces. I followed this routine for the next thirty feet, getting in gear when the crack opened up, and face climbing quickly between the stances.

Another party at the end of the tips laybacking on Pitch 2. Photo from MountainProject.com

The next section of pitch two was perhaps the mental crux of the route. The climbing was never hard, but you go for a little journey away from your gear. In many ways, I’m glad there is not a bolt in this section. If you have sent the route to this point you are physically capable of doing the moves. As I ventured 5, 10, and then 15 feet away from my last piece, I made sure to test all of the sandstone crimps before committing fully. Eventually, I wiggled in some gear and made it to the lone bolt that protects the final crux, a short thin 5.11 traverse.

Having gotten fully pumped on the first two pitches, I was properly warmed-up for the next pitches. The third and fourth pitches flowed well with lots of thin balance moves and exciting positions. Some airy laybacking on pitch four brought us to a small stance under the large roof. In some ways this bit of climbing makes you feel like a hero as you pull over the massive roof on solid holds with heaps of exposure. Above the roof we were greeted with slabby crimping up softer red rock with a smattering of varnish. This pitch really backs off in difficulty, after the roof, until the final moves to the belay, where you climb into black varnished rock that last until the end of the climb.

Post crux on the second pitch.

The final pitch of Drifting is full value and perhaps easier for taller people. Unlike the larger holds on the previous pitches, the crux on this pitch is finding which holds are usable and figuring out where to go next. It was a good fight for me as the pump level went back up through the delicate yet powerful crimp sequences. The pitch was sustained the whole way and only after I finally clipped the anchor could I relax.

Climbing Drifting was one of the best days I have had in recent years on a multi-pitch. It is rare for me to get to onsight a long route at my limit and this route pushed me both mentally and physically. The climbing provided a perfect challenge and I really enjoyed leading all the pitches. What a good time! You can easily rappel the route with a single 70m rope. The rappels are close so do watch your ends. We replaced tat on one of the anchors with rappel rings courtesy of the ASCA. The Pitch 5 anchor could still use some ASCA or rebolting love. See mountainproject.com for details.

Now that I’ve seen the Jet Stream Wall I’m psyched to return to try the namesake route next time I am in Vegas! There are also tons of other routes on the Challenger wall to test me and push me to grow my mental strength.

Enjoy,

Luke

I should start with the caveat that Montrail shoes and my feet get along really well. Everyone’s feet are different, everyone needs something different from their shoes, but if you’re open to experimentation and/or you have a good history with Montrail shoes, you should definitely give the Rogue Flys a try.

Rogue Flys ready to go for an afternoon run at Rancho San Antonio

Most of my running is on trails and most of my favorite running is on technical mountain trails. My go-to shoes are the Montrail Mountain Masochist, which are fairly cushioned and supportive. I’ve been curious to try some lighter-weight shoes, but without going “minimalist”. I’m sure that minimalist shoes work great for some people, but my personal strategy is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and I have no desire to risk injury to try something I don’t need. But lightweight and minimalist don’t have to be the same thing, and the Rogue Fly is a great example of that.

The Rogue Flys are definitely light (6.6 oz for Women’s size 8). When I put them on the first time, they felt so much lighter than my usual Mountain Masochists that my feet practically levitated off the ground of their own accord. My stride was naturally snappier and faster when I ran in them. I liked them so much that I decided to wear them when I ran a half marathon trail race up and down Mount Diablo, and this is where I discovered a flaw. Ever since a nasty case of ITBS a couple years ago, I’ve been messing with (both intentionally and unintentionally) my downhill stride. I had figured out that over-striding on downhills was causing my IT band to flare up, so I stopped doing that. But, of course, at that point in time I had swung to another extreme and had picked up the tendency to lean too far back and land on my heels while running downhill. There are certainly other issues with this, but the Rogue Flys exacerbated the heel-striking problem because I couldn’t lace them tight enough around my foot to prevent my heel from sliding forward as I landed on it. I always pre-lube my feet, but I developed some not particularly awesome blisters on THE BOTTOMS OF MY HEELS (the Diablo course loses over 3000ft of elevation in less than 7 miles). NOT COOL.

Side-by-side comparison of Rogue Flys, slightly different tongue designs apparent (photos from amazon)

Clearly part of this issue was technique, but even after the initial blisters heeled and I worked on my form (don’t lean back, land midfoot… maybe how I originally ran downhill?), I still had heel friction issues with the original Rogue Flys. It didn’t keep me from wearing them (a testament to how awesome they are), but it did limit me to running shorter distances (say 10 miles or less), since there is inherently less downhill and therefore less opportunity to have heel friction.

I considered just punching an additional lace hole to try to fix the problem, but Montrail actually fixed it for me. They came out with a new color (grey and hot pink… they are awesome) and I bought them, even with the heel issues, because they are just that good, folks. Well, it turns out that they made a small tweak in this new version, moving the loop that you thread the laces through on the tongue further up the tongue and slightly to the outside of the center of the tongue. On my first pair, I had noticed that the tongue seemed to slip to the side a little, but I hadn’t connected the dots between this and my heel slippage problem. However, the new design is MUCH better at keeping the tongue in place, which is, in turn, very good at preventing the heel issue. If you have low volume feet, I’d definitely say you should get the newer grey/pink color, rather than the initial red/yellow. They’re currently not sold as different versions, but they are different in a small but crucial way. They show the models all the same on the Montrail website (with the original lace design), but on the Amazon page, you can see that the the loop is at the 3rd grommet on the red/yellow version, the 4th grommet on the green/grey version, and the 5th grommet on the grey/pink version. It’s definitely odd that Montrail doesn’t say anything about these slightly different versions, but to me, the fact that the loop got moved in each subsequent iteration (the red/yellow was the first color available, then green/grey, then grey/pink) says they were aware of the issue and worked to address it. Why they don’t take credit for it is a mystery to me.

Latest version of the Rogue Fly in PINK! (Photo from Montrail.com)

Especially with this change, the Rogues are absolutely my go-to shoe for shorter runs. Sadly, I don’t think they’ll start coming with me on long Sierra runs any time soon because they just don’t offer enough protection from technical trails and they’re not super heavily lugged, so wouldn’t provide great traction in particularly gnarly trail conditions. But it is very refreshing to run in a lighter-weight shoe when appropriate and I think it definitely helps me turn up the speed on those shorter runs, which helps me from just plodding through everything at all-day mountain adventure run pace.

The sole of the current pink Rogue Fly. (Photo from RunningWarehouse.com)

And there you have it, a really sweet piece of gear that comes with my stamp of approval. If you had any different (or similar, anyone else with those heel slippage issues?) experiences, please feel free to share in the comments.

DISCLAIMER: I bought these shoes of my own accord and reviewed them because they work great for me.

The majority of my time was spent at Indian Creek with a few days in Zion, climbing longer routes. Between my weeks in Utah, I spent two days in Las Vegas and climbed Drifting, one of the best routes I have done in Red Rocks.

Rapping down the last pitch of Drifting

A big theme of this trip was giving back. It was great to show friends around on their first trip to Indian Creek and clean old webbing off a number of anchors. I have long wondered about a good way to contribute back to the climbing community and I get a lot of satisfaction from replacing old bolts, cutting off faded webbing and generally making anchors safer.

A clean anchor!

Over the three week trip my various partners and I replaced and updated hardware on over a dozen routes, including four multipitches. A good percentage of the hardware was supplied by the ASCA for fixing up routes, with additional chain and quick-links coming from the “Stefurak Gear Fund”.

Before

After!

The ugliest anchors of the trip were found on Shune’s Buttress in Zion. On the seven pitches there is a full garbage bag worth of old slings and cordage of various age. We we only had time and hardware to clean up the first four pitches, but I plan to go back and do some more maintenance on the route when I return to Zion in May.

Steve leads the offwidth on Shune’s Buttress

I think Shune’s Buttress is a high quality climb, with excellent cracks, and barely any bad rock. The anchors should be up to par, and I got in touch with the first ascentionist about relocating some aging belays and replacing some of the bolts on the route. There is no reason a classic, such as Shune’s, should have 1/4″ hardware, ratty slings and spinner bolts.

Old cord and webbing removed from Shune’s Buttress!

I’ll be writing blogs about Zion, Red Rocks and Indian Creek in the coming months to recap some of the highlights of my trip.

- Luke

Also a round of thanks to John Wilder and Sam Lightner for providing me with ASCA hardware and getting me up to speed with the best bolting practices for sandstone (versus the more familiar Yosemite Granite).

It was time for a run.

My competitive nature can sometimes get the best of me when I climb, but when I go run it can help me channel my frustration. I’ve tried other social sites that allow you to track your running, but Strava is the best and most fun by far. Sometimes when you know that a certain segment of trail in your regular routine has a Strava leaderboard, it gives you the little push you need to run just a little bit faster. This particular day, it was one of my favorite descents at Rancho, the 0.6 mile Lower Wildcat trail. I had been in the top 10 on the leaderboard before and I thought I could improve. And I had a lot of frustration to exorcise.

I guess I was right because I ran practically a full minute/mile faster than my previous best and set a new women’s CR on that Strava segment. It was like each footstep and each exhale were pushing the toxins out of my mind and body. By the time I got back to the car, I was like a new person.

Generating some endorphins on the Long Ridge Trail in March

It’s pretty amazing how endorphins can turn your whole day around. It’s like a chemical reaction where stress and anxiety are transformed, with the help of a little sweat and a few miles, into a feeling of fulfillment and well-being.

What are you waiting for, go out and give yourself the gift of endorphins! (and join Strava, it’s really awesome)

Enjoying an early season run in Yosemite

This can make it hard when I to explain to my dedicated climber friends why I spend all this time out running. I miss climbing days and can end up much more tired than if I had just stayed home.

One of the things I seek, both in running and in climbing, is the state of flow. Most are familiar with the runner’s high, but even beyond that is the feeling of running fast without working hard. The 5-star runs can be the most gratifying when I know that miles I have run are paying off in pure enjoyment.

Some days I want to feel the burning in my chest as I try to keep up the pace. Other times I just want to be out on a pretty trail enjoying nature and a sunny day.

I also run to get away, from the stress of everyday life, from a sport like climbing where there can be serious consequences, and sometimes from myself. In this way running is my meditation, it helps me re-center and reduces the chaos in my life.

I do not run for any single one of these reasons. It is the whole experience, the hard runs and the joyous ones. All of them compel me to get outside and put in the miles.

I think this video shows the importance of running as an escape. Some times we need to to find peace (and silence) from the noises of the urban jungle.

Silence from Duct Tape then Beer on Vimeo.

Enjoy,

Luke

Every year I take a look at my big list of walls and routes I want to check out in Yosemite. Liberty Cap had been on my mind and the south-facing aspect, ideal for a winter project, pushed it to the top of the list. I was able to get in touch with Josh Mucci, who had done a number of first ascents on Liberty Cap, and figured out a good first objective. When my efforts on Liberty Cap are all finished up, I will write another post with more photos and some specific beta.

One of the best parts of this project so far has been the out-pouring of support. Friends have been helping hump loads, clean dirt, drill bolts and figure out beta. Many different partners on different days have helped push the free route up over the half way point. Each of the first seven pitches have been climbed cleanly and I have redpointed six of those pitches. Some unknowns still remain and it has been interesting climbing ground-up.

Trying to free climb an aid line is an interesting challenge that is full of surprises and excitement. I have really enjoyed figured out each pitch and taking steps towards a much bigger goal. All the little victories have made the whole process much more manageable. Both Josh and Steve have been helping out with beta and are psyched to see action on one of their routes, since many of their Liberty Cap aid lines are unrepeated. It has been a great project so far and while it’s still unfinished I wanted to share some photos.

Enjoy!

Luke mini-traxioning the first pitch.

Steve laybacking up the killer second pitch. Great rock quality with an extra helping of dirt.

Steve figures out the crux section on the third pitch.

Checking out the crux finger crack.

Past the cruxy face traverse on Pitch 5.

Enjoying sunny weather on the P6 offwidth.

Casey lower down pitch 6

Casey is always psyched!

Thanks for all the help and support!

- Luke