Where's Karl Co-Pilot

Holla! I'm stoked cause I just found out that I'm co-pilot for the Where's Karl tour in early September. He's a big deal, and not just in Japan.

My leg of the tour will take Karl through North Carolina, Tennessee and into Georgia along the Appalachian Trail. My duties will be to blog (easy) about his progress, find food, refuel the rig, give Karl high fives and stuff like that.

My home for 7 days will be the beautifully decorated Where's Karl RV seen below.


Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the Where's Karl website to get the lowdown on Backcountry.com Athlete Karl Meltzer who is gunning for a speed record to run the entire distance of the Appalachian Trail.

Update - The Western States 100 was to be a prime training run for Karl's Appalachian Trail speed record try. Just 5 weeks until the quest begins. I'm sure he'll find something else to run in lieu of the race being canceled due to the fires in California.

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Meanwhile in Alaska...

Even though it's going to be well into the 90's today at Backcountry.com HQ (likely 100+ in the warehouse) winter is still on the brain for some of us. Got the same problem? Need more winter stoke?

Here's your stoke. If you've not checked out the latest winter stoke coming out of Alaska by Backcountry.com athlete Jeremy Jones you need to. He's been hunting the big ones in AK (like Pontoon Peak below), nailing lines that I'm sure will be unbelievable on the big screen this fall when TGR's new film is unveiled.

Read up on what Jeremy has been getting done in AK. It's worth the click.

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May 1 Powder at Alta and Snowbird

May 1 was ridiculous. 16" of new at Snowbird with Alta closed. CLOSED!?! Indeed, Alta was once again a backcountry destination with idle lifts and ghostly memories of a season now in the past.

But it isn't over just yet. Locals who had hung up skis in exchange for single track and desert destinations on mountain bikes quickly repented and converted to their former wintry ways.

I managed a few mid day laps at Snowbird, still finding untracked freshies off the mid-Baldy traverse and some lovely Tower Two goodness. As the bull-wheels came to a halt my attention turned to Alta where after putting in some effort to get up to High Eddies we were rewarded with some of the best powder turns of the season - the first dozen or so were legit mid-season face shots.



Backcountry.com athlete Sage Cattabriga-Alosa put together a little vid taken from his V.I.O. POV.1 Camera Yes, this was taken on May 1, 2008. Enjoy.

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Tower 13 - Custom Helmets for Backcountry Athletes

I'm sure you've seen the Red Bull helmets being worn by the likes of Shane McConkey, Chris Davenport, Tanner Hall and others. Like Red Bull, Backcountry.com shares a similar challenge when it sponsors athletes, that of finding some visible real estate to pimp your logo. It's nearly impossible. To remedy this we teamed up with Tower 13 to get helmets custom painted for athletes like Sage Cattabriga-Alosa and Cody Barnhill.

The process is pretty cool. The customer (in this case Sage or Cody) gives Tower 13 the design he or she wants and they do it up proper. Check out the process:




Here is what Sage's helmet came out looking like.





They even custom paint helmets and other gear for mere mortals like me (without sponsor or style) so check Tower 13 out.

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The Evils of Civilization

This just in from Inaki Ochoa who is climbing with Backcountry.com athlete Don Bowie as they attempt to summit Annapurna

My friends and I have spent the best part of the last 10 days getting our bodies definitely ready to cope with the altitude of Annapurna 1, 8.091 m. It is always a hard won process, different every time you come up here and never easy to deal with. I think we have won, once more, and now we are sitting down in base camp waiting for the right weather window that would allow us to climb all the way to the main top of this strikingly beautiful mountain.

We find ourselves healthy and motivated, balanced like gurus and spiritually cleansed after a month´s stay in base camp, surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery of this planet. It is our privilege, right, but we had to fight a lot for it.

There are some people who dare to say that the only reason we climb is to purge from our bodies the evils of civilization. It could be the case, why not. Some of these evils, like bureacracy, depression, all kinds of addictions, consumerism, loneliness or the political class that rules our western life, fortunately don´t even reach base camp. Others, like high cholesterol or sheer boredom, are about to collapse and die in the wake of the Annapurna climb. Maybe Himalayan climbing is not the healthiest activity in the world, but it does keep your priorities straight and your scale of values in order…

During the last week we have found and climbed a very safe route to the base of the South face of Annapurna, and then we have climbed twice on the face, up to 6.500 meters on the Kukuczka-Hajzer 1987 route and up to 6.800 on last year´s Tomaz Humar´s route, in this last one without even taking the rope out of the rucksack. Both lines are magnificent and safer than they might look. I have never felt such a pure and wild desire for just a summit.

By the way, don´t let anybody fool you; we are not climbing the East Ridge of this mountain, as some internet sites report with misguiding interest, but the immense south face, one of the highest on earth. We will only access the East Ridge at 7.500 meters of altitude (so quite high, let´s say). How do we get from the glacier, barely at 4.000m. to that same ridge at 7.500m.? Yes, you got my point, we have no wings… It is truth that we are not climbing the center of the wall just down the main summit, but we need nobody to put our climb down as if we were peak baggers just collecting another “normal route”. Hum, not our thing, at least not this time.

Everything is ready and the dance will start soon, we hope. The dream wants to be lived, and the only thing you can do for us is send energy, pray if you know how to and maybe turn off the computer and go for a nice walk, run, climb or ride, just to shake off those unfriendly evils of our modern society… I will tell you what happened, as soon as I know.

Check out Don's website to see how climb pans out.

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Being Inspired by Karl

Some things inspire action, others inspire awe. For me, the simple video below and what Karl Meltzer is setting out to do does both.



To say that Karl Meltzer is a "freak" (I mean that in the best of senses - the same way Michael Jordan was a freak) may begin to scratch the surface. As a competitive trail runner, perhaps greatest ever to lace up shoes and set out on a mountain trail, he is in a league of his own.

To be in awe of him and what he has accomplished should come as no surprise. The fact that he's doing this at 40 blows my mind.

But to be inspired by it? Watching it makes me want to get out there and run, reminding me of something Karl's running buddy Scott Mason once told me when he and I were out on a trail run. Upon urging me to repeat an 8 mile loop that we had just finished he said:

"You'd be surprised what the human body can endure if you'll only give it the chance. Problem is most people don't get that far with themselves."

I think Scott was spot on. Of this run Karl said:

"Never before have I set a challenge for myself like this one,” said Karl Meltzer. “I always thought 100 miles at a time was enough, but 2,174 miles should raise the bar a bit."

So it goes that on Aug. 5, 2008, the 40-year-old winner of 49 ultra-distance mountain races (including 23 hundred milers) will begin his attempt to break the record for running the entire length of the Appalachian Trail, end-to-end.

That is 2,174 miles in 47 days, and that (for the mathematically challenged among us) is an average of more than 46 miles per day – over some of the gnarliest terrain and during the most sweltering, most bug-filled season on the Eastern Seaboard.

Follow along when the adventure begins at WheresKarl.com, check it.

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Nick Devore Kills a binding mount in Jackson Freesking Open

I had to watch it twice. Nick Devore, Backcountry.com athlete and a crazy sick tele skier stomped a nice clean air and then basically pointed it to the bottom during the superfinals run of the Jackson Freeskiing Open. As he entered the finish area his ski popped off.

But it's not what you think. His Black Diamond telemark binding was still attached to his foot! He had basically skied most of the run with a binding that was about to pull off of the ski. Given the steepness of the venue and the conditions it's no wonder the other competitors and the event announcers were so blown away.

The other competitor's facial expression in the video is priceless. Check it out:



Here's what Nick had to say about the run:

I dropped into my superfinals run, made some turns through the upper moguls and then cut left, droping my first air, I stomped it and hit my second air and droped my knee to make a turn and shut some speed down and there was no tension from my binding, it felt like my binding had gone into walk mode or just broken, so with little time to react I aired my last clif and straightlined toward the finish, I was going super fast and almost exploded multiple times but some how held it together and turned enough to make it through the finish line...

Check out the rest of the story from Nick Devore's blog.

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Drew Tabke takes second in World Freeride Finale

Backcountry.com ski athlete Drew Tabke unleashed on the Euro's at the Nissan Freeride World Tour 2008 finale recently held in Verbier, Switzerland to take home second place. The terrain in Verbier looks a notch above that what the kids at Snowbird were skiing for the US Nationals.

Check out his final run in the video below. (He's got the blue pants) I still don't know how he held that 360 together to land it. Might be the most unintentially tweaked out fugly 360 I've ever seen landed. A true testament to his athletic ability to pull that one off.

Congrats Drew!

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VIO POV video with Sage Cattabriga-Alosa

The desire for helmet and POV (point of view) video footage has gone through the roof lately. Just about every action sports video including mountain bike, mbx, skateboard, ski, kite-boarding, and others include some sort of POV footage that puts you and me in the cockpit.

Of all the cameras out there the V.I.O. POV.1 Camera Package is the mac-daddy. It shoots at a 720 x 480 resolution at 30fps.

Backcountry.com teamed up with V.I.O. and Teton Gravity Research to put together a quick little sampler that shows Backcountry.com Athlete Sage Cattabriga-Alosa ripping big lines in Alaska with the POV. Check it out.



Sage wrote the following gear review for the V.I.O POV.1:

I've been using this pov set up for a while now and I love it, its easy to use, waterproof, durable and captures your unique perspective. It uses AA batteries and I found that re-chargeable last way longer and you don't have to throw anything away. the quality is better than ever and the wireless remote is super handy and easy to use. I carry the unit in my pocket so a back pack isn't necessary all the time. 2 gig card gives you 90min of rec time which Ive yet to max out in a big day.

Check out Sage using the V.I.O. POV.1 while riding his mountain bike this past fall. Just as impressive...if not more. You decide.

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Chris Davenport Launches a 14'ers Forum

Chris Davenport, a new member of the Backcountry.com athlete team and most recently known for his accomplishment of skiing all 54 of Colorado's peaks that are over 14,000' in one calendar year, launched a forum this past week called skithe14ersforum.com. It's purpose is that it will become a repository for ski accomplishments and beta on the 14'ers of Colorado.

Although the site shares info from his original site Skithe14ers.com where he kept track of the peaks skied during his quest, the two sites are independent of each other and not linked back and forth.

I'm reminded of a time 2 years ago when Davenport had just skied the Landry Line on Pyramid Peak and there was some purported controversy after other skiers repeated the line the following week. After a fair amount of armchair quarterbacking on various forums like TGR he said something to the point that there is enough good climbing and skiing in Colorado for a lifetime of skiers to get after so people should stop bitching and celebrate the accomplishments of others and share information about skiing these great peaks.

I was impressed by that statement in lieu of the uproar and so it doesn't surprise me that he's launched this site. Like other forums it's going to take time and acceptance for others to participate.

If you've tagged some of the 14'ers recently I'd hope you'll log in and post a trip report.

Each Range has it's sub-forum with each of the 54 peaks having dedicated forums for threads about that specific peak.

For now it's mostly a re-purposing of Chris' original trip reports. Like for example this original post on Skithe14ers.com about Snowmass and this sub category for Snowmass where the first post is Chris' report without as many photos.

--photos from Skithe14ers.com

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Iditarod 2008 Dog Sled Race - Part 1

This post is from Joe Runyan, Backcountry.com sponsored athlete.

Rachael Scdoris and I are training our teams of sled dogs and preparing sleds and gear for Iditarod 2008. Although I have known Rachael’s father for years and met Rachael when she was three months old, how it happened that Rachael, age 22, and I, age 59, are entering as two teams that will travel together is one of those chance convergences on the trail of life that deserves an explanation.

Rachael is legally blind, the result of a rare genetic circumstance that leaves her color blind and severely limited in most light conditions. On snow in bright sun, her vision is a total wash and she wears very dark glasses to avoid severe headaches. I don’t know all the exact details but I do know from being with her that things getter better in the low light of early morning and evening where she is aware of forms or points of light from a bright moon or a headlamp. For sure, she can not see a fork in the trail on snow covered tundra or discern the trail in a blowing snow storm. That’s where I serve some kind of purpose as her trail partner and “visual guide” for the 2008 Iditarod.

At any rate, after a philosophical battle with a number of sled dog race entities, including the Iditarod, she was able to persuade organizers that she could finish the trail and take more than adequately take care of the dogs, a major concern of critics who doubted her competency. On her eighteenth birthday she began entering three to four hundred mile events that would qualify her to run the Iditarod. Her only request was that she be allowed to have someone on a snowmachine travel ahead on the trail to advise her of really dicey trail situations. Other than that, she was quite prepared to take care of the dogs, drive the team she had trained, and execute all the animal husbandry chores it takes to maintain a team of sixteen sled dogs. She quickly satisfied Iditarod requirements by finishing two qualifier events and gaining recommendations from the race organizers.

After considerable wrangling, some of it very boring, and enduring some outrageous and pathetic commentaries in the Alaska press which questioned her ability to travel the Iditarod trail with a severe sight disability, Rachael received the go-ahead from the Iditarod Trail Board of Directors in 2005. Iditarod allowed her the accommodation of a “sight guide,” but specified that she had to complete the race like any other musher without any outside assistance. The “sight guide” would be another team and musher traveling with Rachael and her team. Rachael of course accepted. The deal was fair enough.

Rachael entered the 2005 Iditarod, made it over the Alaska Range---the toughest part of the trail---but scratched at about mile 600 on the 1100 mile trail with a team of sick sled dogs. Learning from this experience, she entered again with Timmy Osmar, a top Iditarod competitor, as her “sight guide” and finished the 2006 Iditarod.

I should mention that she is in awesome physical shape, works out big-time with weights and running, is a master of training sled dogs, and definitely understands the simple concept of work. She and her father, Jerry Scdoris, operate a sled dog concession at the Mt. Bachelor ski resort in Bend, Oregon, and maintain a kennel of 100 sled dogs. She is the real deal.

To track Rachel and Joe's progress, check out the Iditarod site.

Right now Rachel and Joe are in 63rd out of 83 still in the race, pretty awesome tracking system!

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