2011 Race Prep

With the Classic just a few weeks away, if you are planning to do the race, you should be mostly prepared by now.  Your physical training should be done and you should rest as much as possible the last couple weeks.  Short runs and hikes and very mild exercise should be your goal.  Aim for as little stress as possible. 

I’m not the race director so I don’t know the exact number of entries but based on the number of requests for information I’ve received, it looks there are an unprecedented number of rookies that are interested. 

Use the remaining couple of weeks before the race to prepare yourself mentally.  The anticipation is bound to be intense but you can use and direct the nervous anxiety to prepare yourself.  Accept who you are and where you are at this point in your life.  Center yourself.  This may sound a little dramatic and new age-ish but if you don’t think about it now, you will in the middle of the race as doubts fill your mind and you question why you started.  There’s nothing like a hundred or so miles of true wilderness to amplify your personality flaws. 

Anyway, back to centering yourself.  Meditation, yoga and tai chi are all excellent ways to center your mind and keep your body limber.  Spend part of your meditation time clearing and slowing your mind by focusing only on your breathing.  The rest of the time visualize yourself in the race overcoming difficulties.  It’s most helpful to imagine the feelings and emotions you will encounter.  For example:  imagine how cold and tired you will be and the despair that comes along with it.  Then spend several minutes feeling how satisfied, competent and proud you are when you continue hiking through the cold, exhaustion and feelings of hopelessness. 

Most of all visualize yourself as confident, competent and making intelligent, safe choices. You don't have anything to prove, just enjoy the experience and the journey.  

2011 Hot Springs Race

Thank you to spruceboy who originally posted the results of the Hot Springs 100 in a comment.  Here are the results again along with a couple links to some news articles about the race.  Congratulations to everyone who did the race! 

News Miner Article 1 

News Miner Article 2 

Traveling entirely overland from Chena Hot Springs to Circle Hot Springs,

 Gerry Hovda's time of 21hours and 13 minutes broke the old record of 23:35.

The river was very low, the paddlers couldn't catch him.

 

21 hours: 13 minutes   Gerry Hovda    “Wildermeister”

 

23:30     James Binkley, Jeff Levison,  Peter Calvin

 

24:23     Andrew Harrington, Bob Gillis

 

28:16     Mark Ross

 

28:28     Tom Moran,  Jay Cable

 

31:30     Mike Roylance, Jeff Garrder

 

32:18     Scott Jerome, Joel Pierson

 

34:15     Ed  Plumb, Mark Plumb

 

35:07     Joe Meyer, Jason Reppert

 

40:26     Ryan Clairmont, Matt Rogers

 

41:08     Riley Troyer

 

41:41     Eric Troyer

 

51:45     Andrew Bishop, Zachary Keskinen

 

51:53     Dan Bishop, Wayne Livingston

2002 Pictures Part Four

Hiking difficult moraine past dark.

  

Early morning after a couple hours of sleep on the ground. Removable blow-up seats from Alpacka rafts make great pillows. 

The joy of navigating unstable moraine on brutalized ankles is difficult to describe.

Hiking along a glacial lake near Skolai Pass. 

This picture shows the rest of the lake we need to circumvent.  To get an idea of the scale of the place, notice the person standing next to the water on a small outcrop of rock.  The mountain pass in the middle of the picture, just to the lower left of the snow, is the beginning of the Goat Trail.  The pass is several miles away, about 2000 feet higher in elevation, and across a good sized, waist deep glacial river.

Crossing the river. 

On top of the pass with the lake and river in the background.   

The origins of the Chitistone River and the beginning of the Goat Trail. 

2011 Hot Springs Race

For those of you looking for a great pre-Classic race here is a great one near Fairbanks.  The pre-race meeting is in just a few days so hopefully your schedule is flexible and can accommodate a last minute race. 

Here is the press-release:

Hot Springs--AlaskAcross  MEETING, May 24, 7pm  at  beaver sports

 

please attend

Cost:

--the price you pay is out there in the country

 

Rules:

-- a code of conduct is understood:

      no pack animals(except yourself), no caches of gear, 

      carry all gear from start to finish, no sabotage

AlaskAcross is for those experienced with raw wilderness travel.

There are no marked trails or directional markers.  This is wild country. The event is difficult and hazardous even when conditions are best. You will be entirely on your own in a remote region of Alaska . 

No help will be available.  No rescue can be anticipated. The appropriate knowledge of wilderness orienteering, bears and other animal hazards, crossing and paddling rivers, illness, injury, gear failure or loss, self- rescue, bad weather, hypothermia, frostbite, extremely difficult terrain, and the like must have been acquired before entering this event. 

 

2011 Race

The 2011 Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic applications are out and available.  The race this year will start on July 17th.  After two years of starting the race at Gerstle River, it's possible that the race this year will start from Black Rapids.  Severe weather last year as well as the lengthy route made for a potentially dangerous situation.  Starting the race at Black Rapids would make the race shorter and people would be more likely to finish.  If you need an application send me an email and I'll make sure you get one. 

2002 Pictures Part Three

 Finally getting close to the Solo Mountain cabin. 

Taking a quick break on the warm, summer tundra about 100 miles into the race. 

Traveling over moraine with glacial ice in the background.  

 
A brief minute of late day sunshine after crossing Flood Creek.

2002 Pictures Part Two

Continuing up into the Cooper Creek drainage with a heavy snowstorm poised to hit.  
 

We made it to the pass in a whiteout blizzard.  Wearing enough clothes for a day hike and light trail running shoes, the three feet of snow was a challenge.  After a brief evaluation of our situation, we vowed that we were not going to stop moving until we were below the snow line.  Given our lack of shelter and winter clothes, if we did stop, we would have been in a fairly serious situation.  This picture is near the top of the pass next to a frozen lake. 

We made it below the snow line but still 5 miles short of Chisana the first night.  The next day we spent a little time drying our gear out on the Chisana airstrip.  About half of the people in the race, including the majority of the front-runners dropped out of the race in Chisana. 

More ankle busting terrain while ascending up into the Geohenda drainage.  

Feeling the hurt.

Pictures from 2002

2002 was the year of the legendary July snowstorm.  You can read the details in earlier posts.  Check out some more pictures from that year that I haven't posted before.

The obligatory pre-race photo in Nabesna just a couple minutes before the race began.  The temperature was in the low 40's and it was raining steadily.  The first section of running water to float is just five miles down the trail from the start so several people have saved time by blowing up their packrafts in advance.

The racers taking off down the initial trail from the starting line.  Everything was soaking wet after pouring rain all night and the trail was boggy.  The first five miles was relatively easy going though compared to terrain later in the race. 

Floating the Nabesna River.  The weather hadn't improved much at all by the time we started floating.  The low light made it difficult to find the Cooper Creek takeout on the opposite bank.  If you look carefully, you can see someone floating in the distance in the center of the picture. 

After the hypothermic float in the Nabesna River, we set a strong pace up Cooper Creek to warm up.  This picture is taken a good distance up the Cooper Creek drainage.  The temperature is dropping steadily, the rain is turning into sleet and we can see the snow in the background on the hills.  Adrenaline is still running extremely high even several hours into the race. Typical strategy is to walk through the stream in a straight line up the drainage to save time and distance. Getting wet doesn't matter because you're already soaked anyway.