On my visit to Wiegele a year previous, I saw the somewhat famous silver buckle presented to a guest who'd logged a million feet. Applause and envious looks were the norm from the customers. 1,000,000 feet of powder is lot of turns and even more money. I'm not sure what impressed the customers more - the turns or the means that provided them. It requires a healthy bank account and moderate fitness.
A million self powered requires super human fitness and unrelenting tenacity focused on the goal. It's safe to say Greg has a lot more fun on the way down compared to the silver buckle club member. While the heli guest was stacking turns and following the instructions of a guide, Greg is a guide. Having followed his exploits via his blog over the past few seasons, he goes where few dream of treading.
Prior to a trip to the Revelstoke area in the late winter of 2007, I emailed him and asked if I could join him on a lap. I knew I lacked the stamina for one of his by now routine 10,000 foot outings, but I thought that I could try to keep up for a 2-3,000 foot lap. Being a small footnote in his push for a million would have been neat. Greg was kind enough to accept my self invite, but I chickened out. I still regret it.
I did set a goal of doing a 10,000 foot day. It kept me pushing in the winter, running in the summer and hitting the gym three times a week. It even got me into a couple of Pilates classes. It's hard to find people committed to big days and it's often too easy to quit because your touring partners are quitting. Recently through this blog and splitboardlife.com I've come across a couple of people who have pushed me this season. Thank you to Eric (7,000 feet in Hakuba Japan), Shane (7,500 feet in Roger's Pass) and Troy (a weak showing on my part in the early season - 3,500 feet in the Crowsnest Pass)
Shane, Troy and I made plans for Tuesday, March 24th for an attempt on 10K. It was only after I got the idea of inviting Greg Hill along, that I realized the 24th was 2 years to the day after I'd bailed on a lap with him. I was bummed when Shane bailed for a job interview and stoked when Greg replied that he was considering making a lap, or maybe even hanging out for the whole day. In the end he didn't make it, but his influence was all over this day. I've been on quite a few skin tracks this winter with over 50 days in now, and everywhere I go, I seem to hear about Greg's exploits. They might not always know his name, or the full story, but the legend is out there. He continues to motivate and inspire myself and everyone else in the snow sliding community that walk up to slide down.
We'd been hoping to make laps in the Connaught drainage. It's got big laps available and is the perfect staircase. Up, up and up without much in the way of benches. It's also a non-permitted, always open area, so an early start would be easy. Around the time that Troy and I were driving through Golden and the temperature gauge on the truck said something like +12C, we got a bad feeling. Driving up to Roger's from Golden saw dust in the air from vehicle traffic, remnants of big wet slides and all the other signs of spring. Connaught is largely south facing and making your way up the drainage involves tip toeing under massive slide paths. We went to bed with plans of Loop Brook if the permit was available or Asulkan if it wasn't. Loop Brook is an much shorter walk in and although it passes under some slide paths, generally feels a bit safer to me than the walk through the mouse trap.
We were in the info centre when it opened. Permits came in a bit late, but Loop Brook was open. We were joined by a couple of Troy's old mountain biking friends - Ricky and Marty. Troy had previously mentioned that he used to be a "competitive cross country mountain biker", but I didn't really realize the significance of what this meant until the three old friends started talking. World cups, shaved legs, races in Europe, winters off work to ride bikes every day, single digit body fat and VO2 maxes approaching 3 digits....
We were geared up and skinning by 7:30 am. I carried close to 10lbs in fluids with me. I don't think my pack has ever been this heavy. Nearing the notch, we came across the remnants of a massive wet slide. It filled the gully and required a boot pack to get around it. Once above the notch and on the uphill side of the slide, we were greeted with a nice northerly aspect. The skin track works its way through a forest before topping out on a moraine. Visibility was poor and snow fell for most of the day. There are a couple benches on the way up, but it's a pretty good pitch overall. The ride down varied from terrific powder up top in the open parts, to decent powder in the trees, to icy/crusty/crap from the tree bombs in the trees. Today wasn't about the down though, it was about the up and crossing a goal off the list. That we had some good turns was just icing on the cake.
The trio of mountain bikers frequently fell into their habit of forming a breakaway pack. Each time they tried, I persevered and kept slogging away. Sooner or later, I'd always look up and there they were..... waiting for me. Ricky and Marty are training for the upcoming bike racing season. The day before they went for a 4 hour cross country skate ski and covered 60km and something like 4,000 feet up. I think they and Troy probably had a lot more than 10K in them. Having a group of much stronger climbers to chase certainly helped. I stuck with my game plan and plugged away.
10,000 is a big number, requiring a combination of determination and fitness. Depending on whether you trust the Suunto watch or the Garmin GPS, I wound up with 10,250 (Suunto) or 10,867 (Garmin). Google Earth data from the GPS is here. Watching the number on the Suunto flip over from 9990 to 10000 was an emotional moment for me. It's the culmination of every day I spent on the skin track this winter. Every lunge or squat in the gym, every mindless mile running with the dog in the off season.
So now what? Winter is winding down around here. Without the luxury of mountains and snow in my backyard, I have a hard time making the daily 3-4 hour drive for corn. Slush just doesn't inspire me. Call me a powder snob, but I prefer powder connoisseur. I have 51 days on the splitter and 166,190 feet up. 10,000 is just a number and now that I've done it once, will I do it again? Yes I will! I would love to have a 10K day on one of those bottomless days. I will train harder this summer. Run more. Start biking (look for me on the world cup tour? haha) Geography is my enemy and an accommodating family my ally. I would love 100+ days on the snow, but I don't think it's feasible. I do believe that I can get the daily average up though. 5,000 now seems easy. What could I do if 5,000 was easy in December? 50 x 5 = quarter million. It's a nice big round number. If I wind up in South America and/or New Zealand this summer, does that count towards this season or next season?
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