Burnin’ Off Your Mates: Grand Slam and Flatirons

September 7, 2002

As soon as Homie told me about his incredible time for the Grand Slam, I was motivated to return. Homie did it onsight, but with some beta from me. I’d have the advantage of having done it before. Why do it again, instead of another, different tour in the mountains? Good question. Answer: Competition! The desire to see how I measured up against Homie. Plus, I now had a time, and even splits, to shoot for!

Homie’s time of 6h21m demanded huge respect. I had bested him at the Pikes Peak Marathon, but this terrain better suited him. It was definitely in doubt whether I could match him and I wanted everything stacked in my favor. First, I recruited a world-class partner in Buzz Burrell. His feats of endurance are legendary. My all out effort is just a coast for him so I’d have company as long as he wanted to keep me company.

Second, I cut down on my beloved toys. No MP3 player, no GPS, no camera even. I was hoping Buzz would bring his camera, but it wasn’t working. I also vowed to just touch the summit and go. Homie had spent 2-3 minutes on top of each of the five summits. Heck, that was 10-15 minutes right there. We went entirely in the daylight while Homie had gone for an hour in the dark. I carried too much, as usual, but only 60 ounces of Gatorade. I also carried a shell, long sleeve shirt, gloves, and tights – none of which I needed. We went entirely in shorts and short sleeves. Finally, we used some of Bill Briggs shortcuts on the way up and down.

I loved Buzz’s reaction when I first sent out a plea for a partner to break Homie’s record. His response was typically succinct:

“This Saturday. It’s done! …Oh, what is the Grand Slam?”

You’ve got to love that confidence. When I explained what it was and Homie’s time, Buzz was doubtful. Such was the respect for Homie’s time that Buzz at first questioned the validity of the time. I assured him of Homie’s unimpeachable character.

The night before I was climbing with Dave Mackey and Hardly. Dave told me he was heading up to Longs the next day to try for the ascent record. The record is a nearly unbelievable 1h18m. Like all the fastest times, this ascent goes up the Cables Route and involves about a hundred feet of 5.5 climbing. Dave climbs 5.12 so this short section would just provide him a nice break from his running.

As we pulled up to the trailhead that morning, Dave was just getting ready to launch. He was going with Charles Bedford, another superhuman runner. Charles recently was second in the Mt. Evans 13-mile Hill Climb. This race ends at the 14,000+ foot summit. Dave was coming off a big win at the U.S. 50K trail running championships and was scheduled to race another 50K back east the next weekend, so he needed a nice easy workout.

We started a little before 7:30 a.m. and immediately took the lower shortcut. This allowed us to avoid the long switchback at the start. We ran when we could and power hiked the rest of it. We used this strategy all the way to the ranger cabin below Chasm Lake. At the footbridge we had three minutes on Homie. At Chasm Cut-off I figured we were about 5-7 minutes ahead of Homie. I wasn’t sure because I forgot to bring his splits!

One split I did know was his time to the top of Meeker. He had done it in 2h8m. I knew if there was any place where I could make up time on Homie it was to the top of this mountain, with most of it coming on the lower section. Once you hit the steep talus, not many are faster than Homie. I really wanted to break two hours for this ascent because that is my goal on Longs as well. I figure if I can’t break two hours up Meeker, I have no chance on Longs.

Buzz stopped to get water at the ranger cabin and urged me to continue. Initially I thought I would just continue at a moderate pace. That would give me a little rest and allow Buzz to catch up quickly. The problem with that approach, though, was that it would jeopardize my two-hour time! There were tons of people hiking up the Loft. Three or four parties and one was quite sizable. The lead party was carrying some sizeable packs and I noticed one guy had a large tripod strapped on his pack. It turns out that the two climbers at the head of this train were Gerry and Jennifer Roach. I didn’t know it at the time, as I steamed by them on the third class section and took a lower ramp so as not to climb up right behind them. Buzz would say “Hi” to them and fill them in on our plans. Gerry was the creator of the Grand Slam, so it was pretty cool to pass him on our record attempt. Gerry was heading up Longs to “video it.”

Once above the rock band in the Loft, I made straight for the summit of Meeker. I could see Buzz heading for the saddle and the trail that he knew was there, but he didn’t see me until I was descending. I pushed here a bit when I thought I could break 1h50m and was glad when I did. I tagged and went and three minutes later Buzz did the same.

Buzz caught me quickly, just as I started the Clark’s Arrow Traverse over to Longs. Soon we were slogging our way up again and the lactic acid in my legs was causing some discomfort. As I crested the Homestretch and emerged onto the broad, flat summit of Longs, three guys were watching me. One asked, “Are you the guy I saw running across the Loft?” I nodded and he then asked, “Are you an alien?” While it was a flattering thing to say, I had to chuckle. I didn’t have the time or the breath to explain. Heck, I’m not even sure Dave Mackey or Buzz Burrell consider me a runner, so far beneath them am I. Dave must figure I’m a fast walker, but not a runner. How could a runner be so far behind him? Dave has run the Pikes Peak Marathon an HOUR faster than me.

I called out for Dave and was a bit surprised that he wasn’t on top. I guess he got bored or cold. His plan was to wait for Charles’ wife to ascend the peak. We passed them down on the trail and knew we were up before her. I guess they either descended to climb back up with her or just headed down for we never saw them.

I started to fade going up Pagoda. We hadn’t even been out three hours and my tank was empty. I wondered if I had gone too hard at the start. I hadn’t eaten anything yet – dumb move. I downed a GU and a Cliff Bar on the way over to Pagoda and was really getting hammered. I was still keeping up, but fading. Buzz signed us in as I got a head start on the descent. It seems I’m frequently doing this stuff with stronger partners to handle these details. When I ran the Marshall-Mesa Lollipop just before Pikes, Krieghton handled the opening and closing of all the gates.

I showed Buzz the cool link-up over to the Keyhole and he urged me to keep hammering. Once on the Keyhole Trail Buzz started pulling away. As we neared the Keyhole, I cut directly across the slabs and avoided a climb and descent on the trail. The allowed me to catch up to Buzz and we went through the Keyhole at the same time.

Buzz could tell I was dying and I might bonk. He nicely says to me, “Now I fully expect and want to stay together for the rest of this, but if I get out in front, is that okay with you?” Of course it was! I was excited to have the company this long. He just wanted to maintain our pace from earlier in the day and I couldn’t keep it up. He immediately pulled away, but I used him as motivation to keep pushing.

I found a nice line over to Storm and was very surprised to see that it had only taken me 13 minutes. The last time I did this it took me twenty minutes and I knew Homie had done it in 19 minutes. Buzz was only a minute faster and we passed each other just below the summit.

Once again, I took an efficient line over to Mt. Lady Washington. I didn’t head directly at it, but contoured a bit to avoid losing too much altitude. I did drop a lot and doubt I contoured as much as Homie did, but Buzz made a direct beeline for the summit. Once on the slopes of the mountain, I contoured way around to the east. The last time I had gone over the false summit and descended fifty feet. I was so tired now that if I could save fifty feet, I was going to take it. This moved allowed me to close the gap on Buzz once again and I arrived at the summit only two or three minutes after him.

The entire day I was dreading the steep, rocky, two-thousand-foot descent from the summit of Meeker back to the trail. My knees were already aching and this proved to be a physical and mental challenge. I knew that Homie had taken less than an hour to get from the summit back to the trailhead. I didn’t think I could match that and I didn’t, but I wanted to be close.

I found out later that I descended to the trail junction a minutes faster than Homie, and four or five minutes slower than Buzz. I ran the entire way out, except for the upper Briggs shortcut, and it took me 34 minutes to Homie’s 31 minutes. I’m not sure if Homie was just hammering or if these shortcuts don’t really save much (any?) time if you run. They are definitely faster if you are hiking, but maybe not by much.

I really wanted to break five and a half hours and promised to work hard until that time had passed. I made it with nearly a minute to spare. Buzz had finished exactly ten minutes before me in 5h19m and that is now the FKT (fastest know time) for the Grand Slam. Who’s to say what Buzz could have done without an anchor like myself holding him back for the first four hours. I’m sure he could break five hours on a solo effort. Dave Mackey might be near four hours.

I was elated to have done it so fast, but I was also pretty wasted. I immediately slumped down on a bench and rested. This was tough and fun, but just a picnic compared to the Pikes Peak Marathon. These are good training outings and I should have done something like this before Pikes. Training needs to be fun. The races are for pain and suffering. This was a huge effort and I was hurting, but not at the level of a race. It was still at an intensity that allowed for fun.

I would have been very disappointed if we had broken Homie’s time by a minute. That would have been cheap. Homie was only shooting to break my previous time (8h55m) and then maybe to break the FKT held by Darrin Eisman at 6h49m. Once he got under that time there was really not much incentive to push hard. I don’t think he did any running until the final descent from Chasm Cut-off. Who’s to say he couldn’t have gone under 6h20m? If I was going to break Homie’s time at all, I wanted to break it as convincingly as I could. I figured breaking six hours might be at the limit of what I could do and hoped that would be sufficient and not perceived as a nickel-and-dime effort to best my great friend.

Back at the trailhead, I anxiously scanned the register to see Dave’s time. He promised to write the results here. I didn’t find his name anywhere, but about where it should have been I saw an extra entry for Buzz and I. Buzz asked, “Did you write that?” Of course, I didn’t. It was Dave. Under the destination heading he wrote: “A lot higher than you think.” What a card.

I later talked to Dave about his ascent. He and Charles took off running around 7 a.m. Here’s is Dave’s brief account:

Charles and I had a good run, but didn’t come close to the record. We did it in 1:35. There has got to be some short cuts heading up the first 2 miles of trail. I scouted it out on the way down and there is somewhat of a scurry trail and old road along the creek that ends up at the ranger station. It goes pretty directly up to treeline. I will try it out sometime. Charles and I split up on a couple of times, and definitely schwacked through some willows and trees. You were right about going right through the middle of the upper "field" rather than taking the trail – it was full of willows and wet in spots. We did skirt Lady W to the north and that saved some time.

The Grand Slam loop is around 18 miles and just over 9000 vertical feet. A lot of that mileage and climbing is on talus and the going is not characterized by a smooth trail anywhere. The trail up to Chasm Cut-off is good, but pretty rocky. This was my fifth ascent of Longs this year. I climbed it in February, March, April, July, and September. This pales in comparison to Bill Briggs’ feat of 2001, when he climbed it every month of that year, mostly by different routes.

I’ve been asked many times how I have time to write trip reports. I’ll admit that I wrote the start of this report and created the table below, albeit without my latest splits, immediately after Homie told me about his feat. I didn’t even know if I’d have a go at Homie’s time this year, but I knew I had to take a shot eventually. Homie’s inspiring…

I wrote the rest of this when I got home from Longs. It was entirely done by 4 p.m. – that’s one advantage of moving fast. In the time most people will complete the climb, I can do the climb and the trip report! J

Figure 1: Heart rate and altitude vs. time. The summits are marked by splits 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9.

Table 1: In the last column the times in parenthesis are Buzz's times. These are only listed when they differed from my times.

Location	Bill and Warren on 7/28/02	Homie on 8/24/02	Bill and Buzz on 9/7/02	Lead over Homie’s time
Foot Bridge	0:38:45	0:32:31	0:27:54	4m37s
Chasm Cut-off	1:08:27	0:58:31	0:49:54	8m37s
Ranger Cabin	1:22:57	1:09:54	0:58:58	10m56s
Meeker	2:39:46	2:08:00	1:49:12 (1:52:??)	18m48s
Longs	3:55:09	2:56:14	2:27:29 (2:29:??)	28m45s
Pagoda	4:54:36	3:40:05	3:01:05 (3:00:50)	39m00s
Keyhole	6:16:33	4:28:12	3:46:13	41m59s
Storm	6:37:17	4:47:12	3:59:25 (3:58:??)	47m47s
Lady Washington	7:37:42	5:22:32	4:29:17 (4:26:??)	53m15s
Chasm Cut-off	8:13:06	5:50:20	4:56:19 (4:50:??)	54m01s
Foot Bridge	N/A	6:03:24	5:11:23 (n/a)	52m01s
Trailhead	8:55:23	6:21:35	5:29:03 (5:19:??)	52m32s

Sunday, September 8^th: First and Third Flatirons

I lounged around most of the day, seemingly satisfied with the previous day’s half-day workout as sufficient for the entire weekend, but I finally got motivated. In the same vein as going up against Homie, this afternoon I took aim at another friend Ben Hoyt. Ben is a young stud attending CU. He’s an outstanding climber who onsights 5.12, climbs 5.13 and M7, and does scary routes on El Capitan and in Alaska. He’s also a real nice guy who even likes doing easy scrambles with an old guy like myself. He makes me feel pretty good about the young people in Boulder. With his young legs and tremendous agility, Ben can fly downhill. If I had any chance to stay with him it would have to be on the uphill.

Ben is the only one I know who has linked up the First and Third Flatirons in a fast time. He’s done it a number of times. I guess just one fast Flatiron isn’t enough to satisfy him. He did his fastest time just recently in 1h24m from Chautauqua to Chautauqua. It was this time upon which I took aim.

I started at 5:30 p.m. and run/power hiked up to the base of the First Flatiron. Here I was three minutes ahead of Ben’s time. He had graciously provided me with all his splits. The overcast skies had me a little worried, but it also made conditions a bit cooler. Despite this my T-shirt was absolutely soaked in sweat by the time I finished. I figured I was carrying 1-2 pounds of extra water in my shirt! Ben usually goes sans shirt and has the chiseled upper body. My rotund figure doesn’t lend itself to such displays, but maybe a synthetic shirt would work better in the future.

I raced up the face in my Sportiva SuperFly approach/climbing shoes and was on top in just 27 minutes after leaving the car. On top the wind was really picking up and tiny drops of water were falling. I thought maybe my link-up was over. In fact, I poured on the speed at the top so that I didn’t get stranded in the rain.

While downclimbing the southwest face, I passed two other free soloists. They seemed a bit confused on the best way down, but I got them straightened out and they appeared to be following my route. I’m not sure, because I was dashing down the trail and then carefully picking my wall down the huge talus and over to the Third Flatiron.

When I got to the start of the Third conditions didn’t look good. Rain was imminent. To start up would be foolish, but I was ambitious. I figured I could climb it even in the rain if I had to. Or at least I could get down safely. Either way I convinced myself to start up. After two minutes a steady, but very light rain was falling. After five minutes I paused and wondered what hubris had done to me. The sky didn’t look that dark and while the rock was now completely wet, I didn’t think it would turn into a hard rain. A hard rain and I was screwed. I thought about descending, but figured it would take me nearly as long to get down as to get up. Yes, of course, I’d have to get down from there, but, well, I wanted to go up.

I climbed very carefully and really used my hands more than usual. I couldn’t trust the friction of my shoes on the wet rock. I figured that my link-up was off and I’d just have to bypass the last pitch and try to get down safely, but fortunately as I neared the top the rain stopped and the rock dried remarkably quickly. Soon I was padding up the last pitch and touching the summit. I carefully downclimbed back to the notch and then down the Southwest Chimney route.

Glad to be back on the ground I picked my way carefully, but quickly, down the south side ramp system. There are a couple of 3^rd and maybe a touch of 4^th class on this descent, but most is pretty easy. Once I hit the Royal Arch Trail I ran all the way back to the parking lot, finishing in just under 1h11m. Success! My time could be very short-lived, though. If Buzz or Bill Briggs take aim, then it is all over. I’ll enjoy it for now.