2005 Squaw Peaks 50 Miler

Provo, Utah

 

June 4, 2005 Squaw Peak 50 Miler, Provo, Utah. This is considered among the top 3 of the toughest 50 mile runs in the country. I believe it. This was my last long workout before Western States. A good decision I think, the terrain was perfect. Many rocky trails, very steep climbs and decent's, and altitude. I tried to take it very easy, just like a long training run, which is what it was for me. But I was very tired at the end, much more so than I hoped I would be. Glad I didn't have to go 100 on this day, it would not have been good!

This year things were more difficult because it was the heaviest snow they've had in 6 or 7 years. In addition to 10,000 feet of climbing and descending, condensed into about 35-38 miles of the course, there were 8-9 miles of that in heavy snow, and elevations of 5200 to 9200 feet above sea level, it was a pretty tough event. Basically, we had a first series of mountains, climbing and snow for about 22 miles, then a connector road of 5-6 miles, then another section of 3 tough climbs(actually two tough climbs and one killer climb) and MUCH more snow. The first section with snow was mild, I thought the snow wasn't going to be a big deal. I soon learned different on the second set of mountains. Traverses across icy, steep sections, that would result in a 100 foot slide if you slipped, two climbs going straight up snow was brutally hard, then coming down that was an exercise in frustration of continuous sliding, slipping, and falling. My hands were froze from being in the snow so much. It would have been much more fun had I not had 40 plus miles on my legs and they were like jelly at this point. But it was still pretty cool. I quit taking pictures after the first steep pitch of snow. I was just too tired to worry with it, and I was down in the snow so much I didn't want to get the camera wet. It was a beautiful, rugged place. I'm glad I went, but it was certainly a difficult course.

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Prerace scouting.  I was turning around at a dead-end,and saw this deer watching me in my rear-view mirror.  Two quick photos and she bounded away.
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Prerace scouting.  I was turning around at a dead-end,and saw this deer watching me in my rear-view mirror.  Two quick photos and she bounded away.
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Just some scenery around the start, yes, we climb these mountains!
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Just some scenery around the start, yes, we climb these mountains!
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Just some scenery around the start, yes, we climb these mountains!   See the house on the cliff?  Actually whatever that is, it's accessed with a ski lift.
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Prerace day, water coming out of the middle of this cliff??
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Race day!  Early morning, dark trail.
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Taken soon after the previous photo.  Just the scenery from the trail.
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We've climbed some at this point, looking down on Provo.
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We've climbed some at this point, looking down on Provo.
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Scene from the trail.  We're still pretty low, but soon going up!
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What a nice, smooth, flat inviting trail!  It doenst' stay that way on our way to the top of that peak!
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You can tell we are higher now, look straight across at where we are.
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After snow like this, I thought all the snow warnings were silly, this was much easier than Florida sugar sand.  It got much tougher later.
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Look straight across and you see about what terrain we are in.
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More nice trail.
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A Kodak moment.  Pretty, but I'd rather run on dry ground.
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Easy uphill.
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Easy uphill.
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Getting Steeper!
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See the flattish road going along the middle?  See the tiny dots on it?  Those are runners.  The areas where the snow crosses over the road are treacherous traverses, where it's easy to slide 20-100 feet down the mountain.  I never did, but saw severl marks where others had.
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See the flattish road going along the middle?  See the tiny dots on it?  Those are runners.  The areas where the snow crosses over the road are treacherous traverses, where it's easy to slide 20-100 feet down the mountain.  I never did, but saw severl marks where others had.
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Another shot down at Provo.  This time from the mountain behind where we'd been before.
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This shows some trail going along with a steep slope.  So easy to slide here.
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A Kodak moment.
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Looking down again.  Hard to believe we go up and down these mountains.
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Just another moment where I look and think "I need a photo of that".
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This group of horses were beside a gravel road we popped out on from the trail.  The pasture was beside the road for about 1/2 mile.  I talked to the horses when I came out, they started looking at me, then running along, then just playing and running around.  Several times coming back to me, stopping, watching and listening to me, then off again.
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This group of horses were beside a gravel road we popped out on from the trail.  The pasture was beside the road for about 1/2 mile.  I talked to the horses when I came out, they started looking at me, then running along, then just playing and running around.  Several times coming back to me, stopping, watching and listening to me, then off again.
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This group of horses were beside a gravel road we popped out on from the trail.  The pasture was beside the road for about 1/2 mile.  I talked to the horses when I came out, they started looking at me, then running along, then just playing and running around.  Several times coming back to me, stopping, watching and listening to me, then off again.
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This group of horses were beside a gravel road we popped out on from the trail.  The pasture was beside the road for about 1/2 mile.  I talked to the horses when I came out, they started looking at me, then running along, then just playing and running around.  Several times coming back to me, stopping, watching and listening to me, then off again.
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Last shot.  They are blazing up the fenceline back to where I am again.  I'm almost at the end of the pasture at this point.  Oddly enough, after this, out in the woods, I came up on 3 dogs, a eskimo husky, a black lab, and another black dog.  I started talking to them, and they ran with me for the next 4-5 miles.  The husky was right beside me the whole time, the other two ran circles around us playing in the creek.  Cool stuff.
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Rough and rocky, but very runable trail, at least when it wasn't going straight up.
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Another tricky crossing.
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Oh now it gets fun!  This is toward mile 40 of the race.  A series of 3 climbs, up to 8200 feet or so, then down, up to 8200 feet again, then down, then up to 9200 feet.  This is on the last climb, I popped out into an opening and saw this pretty snow.  Or it was pretty until I realized those tiny dots were people climbing up.  Windy Pass it's called.  Thing is, that's not the top, you do that, go 1/2 mile or so, then do another climb just like it.
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I thought that was the top, but see to the right, we cross that saddle and go up that climb, I don't know if that's the top or not, I don't think so, we went around that and again climbed.
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Welcome to Windy Pass!  Here's how it works, 4 tiny steps up, slide two steps down, 3 steps up, two steps down!  This was so hard, being at 9,000 feet doesn't make it easier.   This was SO steep and SO long.  You can see the tiny people at the top.
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This was right after the top of that snow.  I thought I was at the top, but had to go across a saddle, climb more.   I was exhausted after this climb and my legs were like jelly.  Then descending this type snow was a 3-5 mile ordeal that really would be funny to see on video.  Falling, slippng, sliding on my butt(which is very, very cold wearing Spiderman tights!)  What an adventure this was.
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