aikidjoe

Really cool and great job! Thanks for sharing!

That is impressive! Thanks for sharing.

Hi all - I'm curious if anyone has experience biking from Seattle to the North Fork Sauk River TH or other TH's on the Mountain Loop Highway? I imagine riding the Mountain Loop Highway is kind of sketchy with the cars, but I'm curious about the rest of the path. Or if anyone has experience going for rides like this, or can point me to resources I can find better information for safe(r) bike routes to the mountains for reference? Thanks!

Good thing they closed the mountain for the foul weather up there today.

I find this outrageous and disgusting.

I also greatly appreciate this site and those who keep it going. I've used the site for a long time for beta, inspiration, research, and it's free and doesn't manipulate you (except to go on a wild goose chase for ice!).

I agree with you Olyclimber. We live in a society that now seems to rewards narcissism and egotism (often disguised in false humility), and it was so wonderful to be reminded of how such an incredible athlete and climber could live with such sincerity and integrity despite the pressure for the opposite. To be at such a high level for your chosen path and do it with such integrity, definitely an inspiring example for how to live, however short it was. And the climbing! Good lord, so beautiful (and scary) to watch. Watching him soloing on the Stanley Headwall was amazing to me. Anyhow, great documentary on a great climber and person! Such a tragedy.

I think I'll need to try something like this. The cold seems to also just eat fuel up super fast as well, and the water cup does help but is not great if you forget to take it out and the can freezes into the cup! Is that just normal aluminum foil on the sides? What's the base made of? Thanks!

I will say, we brought of lot of modern tech to bare to help with the navigating. GPS on our phone with satellite photos to help guide when to be on the river (or when to go back to the river), slope angle shading to help along the ridge. But most of all: Joe and his uncanny ability to sniff out a path through brush.

Maybe we were just being dumb! I had some bad scratches on my hands by the end. Though as I recall we only ended up in really bad devils club and nettles on the last day out, which was appropriate, since the entire approach and deproach felt like the Picket Gods were determined to destroy us, only to let us pass when spirits were at their lowest (for me anyways)!

That's impressive! Getting up Pioneer Ridge looked more difficult than what we experienced on the ridge leading up to Challenger. Do you remember battling a lot of brush while ascending that ridge?

Some things Joe did not mention: Joe is responsible for the vision, leading through all the difficulties and figuring out the route finding, and tolerating my moments of doubt. As I told my wife before the trip, I only hoped to keep up with him, and I barely did! In all seriousness, this is easily one of the most adventurous trips I've done and I felt really fortunate to get to do it with Joe!

I started that this year too, basically for the same reasons. It's funny how just a simple shift of when the week "starts" can make such a positive difference in managing weekly volume!

Thanks for sharing! The climbing aside, I find the planning and logistics to make your year successful to be equally impressive!

Just to second what bedellympian said: unless you're super fit already, I think if you just follow their basic program/structure and pay attention to your body, a serious hobbyist can use the information they give for self coaching in their books and website. I saw a huge leap in my endurance this year following their basic program/structure/ philosophy for mountain/ ultra running from their newer book tftua. Before knees surgeries, following the basic structure in tftna gave me a big jump (for me) in what I could do for alpine climbing. It's pretty simple, not gimmicky, and it works for the vast majority us. I think you'll only get value for paying for a coach if you're really advanced climber and athlete (which maybe you are?) Otherwise I suspect you'll pay a lot for them to tell you to do what is in their books and website! Just my opinion. They are super generous with putting the information out there for self coaching but you do have to put the time in to learn the material. Though once you learn it i feel like the prescription is simple.