Alaska!

The relationship with Yumay has been gradually growing over the year and since we are both "up or out" kind of people we figured a two week hiking trip through alaska would be pretty beneficial to our relationship... along the fact that we both like to travel!

I just forfeitted going to race in Primal Quest with team DART (Matt Hart blew out his knee and they needed a replacement fast) and kept my promise to Yumay, though she was cool enough to give me the choice, since she knows that that would be a big dream of mine! Hindsight can sometimes be a beautiful thing too and I am glad I went to Alaska!

So we set off to the Kenai Peninsula, saying in Seward and Cooper Canyon for almost a week. There we mostly hiked, and took a cruise to see sealife. It was just incredible how pristine the landscape is, even with the masses of tourists the land still very much seems untouched in most places.

Out in seward on our first day...

And on our boat cruise...

Humpback about to impress the tourists...!

The not so lucky ones....

Talk about the catch of the day!!

A nice hike at copper canyon

Marmot

The glaciers sure were impressive too..

Now Yumay is a lot of things but not the greatest most careful planner, and I lack as well in the category, so we totally underestimated the temperatures..... (yes, alaska, but its august for gods sake!)... fortunately she is a trooper and we were able to camp most of the days... as it was more fun (we usually had the whole campground to ourselves...) . We hiked several days, among them some monster hikes in cooper canyon, where we came across a gigantic cadaver (nicely cut up in 4 big pieces and wrapped with cloth) of a moose, which freaked us out a good bit, but then fortunately soon after saw the hunters, a couple from Alaska that hunts a moose per year to have meat through the winter. They had to cut it up in 6 pieces alltogether and carry it out over two days..., incredible!!

Denali National Park

One of our many campsites...

Enjoying making dinner...

I see dead moose!!

Anyhow we went up to Denali National Park as well and encountered some gigantic grizzlybears, but we were in the bus driving through the park, and were about as safe as taking a ferry ride in switzerland, however the adrenaline still pumped pretty good sitting in the bus just a few yards away from a 1000lbs grizzly!

Last but not least.. the grizzly...

Swiss Miss!

So Yumay has gotten more and more into the adventure racing vortex too.... after doing minor support at some of my race (she claims she is not a very supportive person, that more because she d rather race :). So we needed to find an appropriate race, and found it in the 6 degree of navigation organized by the Cascade Orienteering Club at St. Edwards State park. Good venue, good trail system, and I got to practice my pathetic nav skills ahead of time since I was able to get my hands on a map before. That was the easy part.
When I met Yumay she was a gym junkie, and she has slowly transitioned into an outdoorsy person, well not slowly, rapidly. But what is more amazing is that she has the aptitude for everything she does. She is a good runner, kayaker and seems to learn mountain biking at relative ease. That is except for the hard stuff. See I am a smart person when it comes to obstacles. When in doubt, get off, walk around it, and go on. Not Yumay. Which is not to say that she is not smart, as she knows the consequences when it does not pan out. She just chooses to try. Then crash. Then scream in pain. Then try. Then crash.. yes, you get it, it goes on. Scarily that will make her a better mountain biker sooner than I like it, as we guys really like to be the tough and better ones.... oh well, I m gonna have to let this one go cuz no way in hell will I transition into that trying/crashing/retrying (in pain) person... cant have it all!
So funny enough since we were doing this race together we needed to get Yumay a whole bunch of stuff.. sure we could have rented/borrowed, but I knew already we were both hooked so we needed to go do one big roundabout shopping trip. Used bike (she got a GREAT deal), paddle, PFD, the whole schabang... she noted that she is putting in a lot of investment into our relationship (thinking $$ not emotional effort, sometimes I feel like the chick in this relationship!!) and this better work out! :) Well we will find out at the race wont we?

Pre-race....

It worked just great. Not that we miraculously finished 1st. Nah, Eric Bone and Liz Stahl (he is the current U.S champion in orienteering, she runs faster than I can dream of) won by a landslide, but we did quite well. In a reprisal of the 24h Wenatchee race our rubber ducky boat spun like a 80's discoball, but we made it to shore eventually and probably 3rd last started passing teams again. My nav was OK given the circumstances (e.g. I suck), our trekking was good and we had a great time with no unhappy words exchanged, and finished 16th (out of 25 teams). Yumay was hooked, I had already been, but now was hooked on the idea to race more with her. It was more fun that with Jeff (sorry, no offense!), just way cooler doing this with my girlfriend, and I already knew I had a keeper but this one helped cementing it a bit. We raced as team Swiss Miss (since I am the swiss and she is the miss), and certainly going to keep that name for races to come!

24h Trioba, Cle Elum, or Burn Baby Burn!!

104 farenheit is hot.... very hot... even for Arizona or friggin Texas where a village is missing an idiot.. anyhow, but in the northwest 104 farenheit is just pure torture. And then make someone run, bike, and swim (paddle, blaeh, more later) for 24h... a recipe for disaster, ....? I would say so!


The usual pre-race motel chaos.. how do you fit 4 people, 6 tubs, 4 bikes and a whole bunch of unnecessary items into a hotel room?

Our course... yellow trek, blue swim/paddle, black bike...

Anyhow...it all started off so well. After training so much in the spring the races Jeff and I did were good, but I really wanted to race 4coed, and once we got Brook Nunn onboard we just needed a 4th, which we found in Dave Russell, an experienced racer and navigator. Once checked in, we found out that the water leg involved swimming, at least for 3 of the 4... one got to paddle the rubber ducky across the water with the packs. We shuffled, delibered, called around, and then found a way to get our hands on snorkeling gear, so we stuffed the fins deep into our packs to pull a sneaky on the other teams once we got there... but we first needed to get there and that was easier said than done.

The day started off early, as usual, 3.30 am up, 5 am bus, 6 am start. We had to first go across a big ridge and chose the shortest route across it, which was ok and 90% of the people did something similar, but hindsight being 20/20 there would have been a better way. We did not anticipate the bushwhack to be so darn gnarly but it was and took quite a toll already when three hours later we got to the water....

Bushwhack this!

Almost vertical trek up to the ridge... not for the faint of heart...

View on top was worth it though!

I was supposed to be in the boat since Jeff, Brook and Dave were all good swimmers and I sucked..... as soon as we got into the water however Jeff already cramped up and that was not a good sign. So we switched out, me in the water, doing my dog-paddle holding onto the rope while Jeff Kayaked, and Brook and Dave just outright swam across... interestingly we did get 2nd fastest time on that leg.... probably much likely due to the fins... smarts are important in AR, always.

Stunning views!

Exhillarating downhills!

Icecold footbaths!

150 foot rappell...

Getting out of the freezing water we all felt pretty terrible, but warmed up pretty quickly and once the climb started realized that that warming up process would go on and on until it passed comfortable.... at 10 it was already 90F, at 12 probably around 100F. A poor route choice, lack of water, and insufficient teamwork made it all a bit worse and all of a sudden we were trying to hold on... such it goes in AR sometimes....

Feeling strong, towing Dave who had enough time apparently to take pictures!

We lost a few hours on the long bike leg due to our problems, but did not realize that Jeff was very dehydrated and needed rest and fluids... so I pressed hard to get the big trek started.. which was a mistake. About 2h into it, after a long beautiful rappell Jeff opted to quit the race, and I hiked out with him, while Brook and Dave continued unranked.
It opened my eyes, and showed me pretty clearly where I wanted to be heading. DART was one of only four teams that finished, and they were almost three hours ahead of 2nd place. I wanted to be there. I felt great throughout the race and could have pushed much harder, it was time to look for likeminded people to give DART good competition.... but for now it was many lessons learned, and a very good, very tough course DNFed... my first, probably not last, but hopefully one of very very few....

Found a checkpoint at night....

Cycle, Run, Glissade..... Mt. Rainer!

Roger, Mt. Rainer, Plastic Bag

Last weekend I did a little epic training with Jeff.. camped at Paradise Campground Friday late night and then got up at 4am to cycle from Paradise down to the flats and up to Cayusse pass, very nice felt exactly like Switzerland! Once up there we turned around and cycled back down and up to Paradise again.. it was now 9.30am and we had already done 8000 feet of elevation gain and 70+ miles on the bike and then ran/hiked up to Mt. Rainer Basecamp, Camp Muir, located at 10'000 feet... I felt like a million bucks and soon ran by myself, passing Michelle and her friend who had started earlier in the day to make it up there... the basecamp was not too crowded and I found a spot to lay out in the sun and get warm and toasty... that was already worth it but what came next was an adventure I did not expect...

Jeff's buddies brought heavy duty plastic bags and the conditions were so perfect that we glissaded down from the basecamp almost all the way down to paradise.. amazing how fast and controlled we were able to go with these.. previous tracks from other glissaders had mad bobsled-type halfpipes into the snow and it was super easy getting down... an amazing day with over 10'000 feet of climb!


Warming up on the rocks at the basecamp...


Done! Roger and Jeff after a great day of training...

24 h Adventure Race Wenatchee, 2nd Pl Male Div.

So now I have the first 24h Adventure Race under my belt too, and what a race it was! Jeff and I raced as a 2M team (Team Manny's), since the woman we almost talked into doing that race with us backed out last minute, but promised to be racing the next one (her name is Brook, she looks strong!). But we had a great support team, Michelle, Jeff's wife came out there with another friend, and Yumay came out too, so at every TA we had not only extra help but also emotional support, yeehaaw!



Roger a little stressed pre-race....




Kayak dry practice pre-race....





Left!Left!Left!NO Right!Right!Right!



To the race: Started at Cashmere near Wenatchee, where we had to paddle down some pretty scary Type I/II rapids in the Sevylor Tahiti (a.k.a rubber duckies, a.k.a. the yellow death) inflatable kayaks. Question: what happens when you do a race in a sport you never practice? Answer: unless you are the biggest natural talent (not me, nor jeff), you suck!
And we did, suck and spin... we looked like we were doing a ride at disneyland, not take part in an adventure race. We spun and yelled, tried and tried, but our boat would just not go straight. That had the advantage that we were in like 10th last place after the TA to the bike, which meant we got to pass like 20 teams on the first hill.. and it was a huge hill.... like 2500 feet of climbing, and then another.



Emotional support.. the best kind!


Trek #2



We made it to the first foot TA where we saw our lovely support crew, but not for long since we were now hot in pursuit of the top teams... until we got lost. Almost forgot for a while that we were still not stellar navigators.. that did not help. After some quarrel and discontent we cound the CP and soon were trucking again. Back to the bike and off we were. From then on it was survival mode... extra shoes, 1 gallon of water, clothes, food, my pack felt like it was a million pounds. Jeff had a stomach bug and was using the trowel like it was never used before (what the f@## do we need a trowel for I asked before the race??!!, yup, for that), so that slowed us down a bit but not much. On the last trek we had no nav problems (other than that I wanted to go in the wrong direction but jeff yelled at me long enough until I got it.. sometimes I can be a bit stubborn you know :). and then it was done! 21h of racing, 5th place, 2nd in the male category, DART won in an impressive 15h... wow, we still need to learn a lot but heck did we have fun racing!


21h07min - 5th place... nice!

The end...

24h Rogaining World Championships!

This is going to be an all time classic that I will remember for the rest of my life... in fact I think even alzheimers wont be able to take that away from me!
Met Michi (my buddy Michael Eglin from Switzerland, he s the one that got me into the crazy races about three years ago!) in Phoenix where we rented a car and drove up into the mountain boonies. We had two days go get acclimatized to the 10.000 feet of elevation (which is too little for most, unfortunately) so we drove right up to 8.000 feet and stayed at a nice motel, getting a beer at some shabby bar where come cougars (e.g. old mountain p.... yeah, that) tried to chat us up.... grosssss... one was so drunk she fell of her bar stool and could not get up anymore.....
Anyhow, the mandatory beer before the race was crossed off the list and the night after we made it up to the campground, where hundreds of campers were already getting ready for what was going to be an excellent 24h rogaining event on a new map in a very nice area. It was pretty flat up there at elevation, but nontheless there were plenty of hills to be climbed during the event. What the heck is rogaining? Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance (ROGAINE) Seriously? Seriously!
24h of running around and finding as many checkpoints (which have different valued points depending where they are and how hard they are to find). That is the layman explanation I guess......





Map distribution and getting ready...

Got one! 50 points added...


Middle of the night, tired, sweaty, feeling a bit crazy...



They came from everywhere, 30 countries, Central/Eastern Europe, Australia, NZ, etc... some super fast, many just there recreationally, or fast for their age (e.g there were over 10 superveteran teams of each member at least 55 years or older!)

Michi and I wanted to go as hard as we could, and we did. To take it upfront we finished 16th out of rougly 200 teams, not bad ey? We stared off what I thought was slow but in hindsight was way too fast... I am slowly getting the hang of not being so ancy..... oh well. Moving along through the first day, we made great leeway on our planne route and had over a quater of the maximum points in a quater of the time. Thing is noone was supposed to get them all! And noone would. In a 24h race you make or loose ground on your competition after 12h.. some will come to a crawl (like us, Michi had altitude problems and I helped him for a while but soon became too tired myself to push the team along really), some move almost as fast at night as during the day.

We had a great time though, since I dont nav there was no disagreement there, plus Michi did a phantastic job, and we just got along great the whole time. I managed to jump into a lake shortly before night broke (dumbass me thought it was a reflection... of what??), so my feet never dried and were totally blistered up after the run was over. At night I got super tired for an hour or so but then got over it once the sun came up, was happy to see that I should be able to manage that well once I did more 24h adventure races .






Done!

Not much else here, a great event, Jeff was there too with his buddy Mark and had a great time as well. Michi and I limped to the finish with 2700 points, the winners (Team Nike/Balance Bar, Mike Kloser and Michael Tobin) had 3490... not THAT much more :)

Totally fascinated by the sport, will need to learn how to navigate!

Trioba Sprint #1, or Roger's first Adventure Race!

So I am now officially an adventure racer, with a 1 of 1 record, having completed the first adventure race with Jeff Woerner and Kimberly Shavender in Ellensburg. I met Jeff at a Seattle Running Company run in early February and while running together at Cougar Mountain told him that I was thinking of doing an Adventure Race, namely the Trioba Series. Found out that he not only had done four twenty four hour adventure races last year but was also still looking for teammates. Since then we have been regularly training together pretty much every weekend, and joined many DART trainings (Dirtworld Adventure Race Team, the best and most competitive AR team in the northwest). We usually run at cougar mtn. and bike at black diamond. My technical skills still are lacking a bit on the bike but I can hang on the climbs and am faster than most on the runs. The SRC sunday runs have really helped propel my running shape into being fairly competitive. I met other great runners, Carol O'hear for excample, who finished top10 at Western States 100 miler last year, who I ran with (35miles, 6h) at tiger mtn last weekend. Anyhow, so much to tell, I ll keep it short. We got to the race start all hyper, I was a bit worried though since my really big race is next weekend, the 24h World Rogaining Championships in Arizona, so I wanted to not completely blow out my legs. Not a problem the way we navigated. After some chatting with Cyril Jay-Rayon, the captain of DART, we started off like a rocket following DART instead of actually navigating, and already we made our first mistake and completely overshot the CP. In this way it continued, we were reasonably fast but Jeff sucked at the nav and I was no better at helping him out, so all day long we kind of flailed around and eventually got done with the trekking section. Some teams we must have passed five times, while we were faster they always took the direct route until we passed them again from another direction. I am sure it was fun for them!

Pre-race... wheel's on, check!

Pre race chat with Cyril from DART

Truckin towards the finish...

On the bike Jeff blew up a bit since he tried a new drink, yup, never try anything race day of if you have not used it many times in training, lesson learned! That mattered very little compared to the two extra misses we had on the nav., so we finished somewhere in the bottom 2/3 at the end. All in all not the greatest race but one under the belt and a lot learned. Woohoo this is my sport!

Good/Bad Luck on Mt. Adams

Holy of all swiss cows! This past weekend my german buddy Rainer convinced me to climb Mt. Adams. Good idea, we re both in shape, he's climbed it before, the weather was ok, we had a 3 day weekend (of which we only needed to spend 2 days, up and down quick)... so nothing really spoke agains it.


Drove down there in one go and were able to still climb up to about 300 meters from the termed "Lunch Counter", a flat-ish area at around 9'000 feet where people camp when the weather allows. Well we never even got there. Up around 8'000 feet it started storming (it already looked worse than predicted all day) and by the time we got close the wind was blowing icicles sideways onto our face such that we decided to camp for the night. We chose what we thought was a good protective area, a flat patch just besides a protective ridge.

Digging our campsite...

In the tent at night.. rainer likes his sleeping bag...

Took this at 3.am while shoveling snow off the tent..

On the way down....

Mistake. The wind picked up even more, right over the ridge, and carried more and more snow over it which started to cover up our tent. More and more. By now it was night and we could not sleep in a full blown strom on the mountain. We had to get out of the tent alternatively every 30 minutes and shovel the tent free.... that we did until late in the morning. No way getting off the mountain until it calmed down. Eventually the tent sort of collapsed and started ripping apart, and it was time to try to crawl down the mountain. Huge wind gusts, hail, not a fun outing. We made it down even though it was complete whiteout... a bit lucky since I met up with a rather big snow track that was half overblown. ..... at the end we were wet, cold, tired and had just had to leave the tent (rainer's 500$ expedition tent) behind. Tough luck, but we were happy to be back safe and a bit freaked out..

Volcano 1, Underprepared Foreginers 0


On the way going there....

Same place, on the way back....

Lake Serene, or how to toughen up your Girlfriend

So I have been living in Seattle for a few months now and I am really happy with the choice of moving here. Three months in a nutshell. Work is ok, getting used to a 8-5 day again and doing reserach, good people to work with, not so interesting work at the moment. Started running more since Michi and I signed up to be doing the World Rogaining Championships in May, woohoo! Should be fun. Anyhow, joined Attackpoint www.attackpoint.org which is a great program to track my training and progress. So about 4h after i arrived at the airport I met Yumay at my friend Rainer's appartment (I stayed with him in the beginning) and we hit it off right away, and been together since. She is fit but only because she works out in the Gym, and has no real experience (at all) in anything outdoorsy except skiing. So we decided anyways to go do a hike, and man can that turn out ugly when expectations are unmet, on either side (do I speak of experience ya think!!??).

Anyhow me being an airhead I figured hey lets go to Lake Serene, a great mountain lake I had been to twice... kind of forgetting that it was March and there was still a TON of snow. Forgetting about this we drove out there and started hiking, she in sneakers! She is a chronic underpreparer I found out over time. It looked like a fine day, a little cloudy but good otherwise, and I was impressed by Yumay's speed up the hill. Shortly before we reached the last hill I knew we were in trouble. Snow was on the ground and became more and more by every foot we climbed, and soon we were potholing through a foot of snow. It was trecherous to walk on the planks that were set up, and Yumay wiped out twice and got some really nasty bruises. Without a whine or whimper she took it (heck I d have whined to kingdom come), and on we went. At the top we were wet and cold, so we took a few quick pics and off we went. Down was worse, tired legs and slippery snow, yeehaw, the wiping out continued. Back at the car Yumay was excited about the trip and told me she wanted to do another one next weekend... whoa, Girlfriend 101 passed, Grade A+, next week will be 102 and I am sure I can find a tougher hike :)