When I accepted a job in south central Colorado, one of the biggest secondary factors supporting that decision was our proximity to the
San Juan Mountains and a new found ability to volunteer at
Hardrock. Two weekends ago I helped clear the course across the 28 miles of trail between Silverton and Telluride. The whole endeavor of carrying the aluminum flags, removing orange flagging from trees, and picking up race trash took us just over 10 hours and was
INCREDIBLE the entire time, even while getting pummeled with gravel hail. A side note to the runners - we found a mere four tiny bits of trash along those 28 miles, so nicely done!
First, just a few photos from the race. My group was set to clear our section on Saturday, so I got to watch a good chunk of the race which starts on Friday.
[To be clear - I posted a bunch of photos on FB from two aid stations as the leaders went by, and I think many assumed I was also a participant. Believe you me, had I been running this race then I would in no way be able to take photos, and there'd have been a lot of hoopla in the lead up - you'd have known.]
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| City Hall in Silverton, the race's home base |
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| Race start |
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| Telluride |
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| First finisher Kilian Jornet, new course record holder |
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| Last finisher Amanda Grimes. Yes, that is 47h 51m. |
Below are a handful from my time on the course. The nice part about not being an actual entrant is the amount of time you can take to soak it all in!
(Also, to note, none of these are edited - just whatever my phone camera could pick up.)
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| Above tree line heading up Pitman Basin |
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| My trail mates, Erich and Heath. |
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| From the top of Pitman Cataract Ridge, ~12,600 feet. |
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| From whence we came. |
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| Ice Lake, nearing the top of Grant Swamp Pass |
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| Descending into Grant Swamp Pass, looking down into Chapman Gulch and across as Oscar Pass |
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| I wish a camera could capture the angle of descent... Not easy! |
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| Just below tree line on Oscar Pass, in a short break from the rain and gravel/pebble hail. Looking back at Grant Swamp Pass, which by now had lightning. |
