alaska mountain ultrarunning camp - day 5

last day of camp - big sad face - i will really miss this . . .

it was decided the night before that everybody could choose their route and duration. some of the fasty patties opted for going on the long haul with geoff. chad and i wanted to put in 5 hours, so we ran with brian and john. initally, everybody started on the roberts trail. a fairly good climb through a nice section of forest. eventually we all split up and went our separate ways. i'm not sure what some of these peaks are, but chad and i managed to get up and over gastineau peak, mount roberts, sheep mountain and clark mountain.

me and chad on mount roberts (i think) . . .

yup - we went up and over this . . .

our 'ultimate guides' - brian and john - thanks guys !!

top of sheep mountain . . .

this one naturally is for my beloved trail trash partner . . .

wicked shot that chad took of me and john walking out of the clouds . . .

this was the final ascent - clark mountain. as i was climbing, john calmly advised that if i start slipping, i should spread eagle out and try to dig my fingers and toes in the snow ! eep ! it's way way steeper than it looks . . .

here we were told by brian to 'make like a mountain goat . . . ' eep !

almost there!!!!!

after this, we descended down into granite basin - mostly on our butts! (i still have bruises.) one of our slides was something like 800' long! so scary yet so kool ! chad was insane! with a final descent on the perserverence trail, we popped out onto the road. john was just finishing his run and managed to get in on the picture with us . . .

what a day! an epic run for sure! me and chad covered about 13.2miles in 5 hours, with over 6000' vertical! we then walked over to geoff's place to use his shower - which was up 6 flights of stairs - of which we initally went up the WRONG ones . . . grrrr! we then joined everybody for pizza and beer! what an amazing group - i will miss them !

chad left for the airport, and the rest of us went back to the cabin. we were treated to the most beautiful sunset . . .

and after much kerfuffle, we finally managed a 'timed' group shot. what an amazing week!