Mountain Summer

Summer is here, as well as the rain, so everything is getting pretty again after a long (Winter & Spring) dry season. Yesterday I did another speed solo ascent of Iztaccíhuatl via the Ayoloco route. I didn't break my personal record from April but logged a great time of 3:40:17, from car to summit, and 5:58:50 roundtrip!

Originally, my idea was to do a double ascent of the mountain as a hills/endurance training for the upcoming Leadville Trail 100-miler in August, but weather didn't look promising while I was coming down from the 1st lap, so I opted to leave it for another day. Hopefully in a couple of weeks...

Rest of the pictures are here.

Americans Free Climb Big Wall in Namibia, Africa

Majka Burhardt, Peter Doucette, and Kate Rutherford have climbed two new big wall routes: Southern Crossing (V 5.11+) and Painted Giraffe (V 5.9+), on the 1300-foot Orabeskopf Wall in Southeastern Africa. The massive golden, granite wall is located on the Brandberg, Namibia's highest peak, with a summit just over 7,000 feet.

But that’s only part of the story. There’s also a 2,000+ year-old painted giraffe, 108-degree temperatures, eight days at 15km/hour over washboard roads, scorpions, laser sharp granite cracks, crumbling granite faces, cobras, realized conservation, weathered maps, and rugged mountain passes...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

2 days of aweinspiring trails

As you may remember, last week I wrote a post about the 1st stage of Prueba de los 3 Días, a 3-day 116 km stage ultramarathon organized by the Solo para Salvajes running circuit.

This weekend we ran its 2nd & 3rd stages to complete the race. It was totally awesome! The full 3-day (116 km) course is shown in the image below (click on it to see a detailed report w/ charts):

The 2nd stage was run on Saturday and it consisted of a 38 km course from El Zarco to Presa Iturbide. A strenuous run but not as much as the 45 km from the 1st stage. I completed it in 5:22:51 and had lots of fun with folks along the course. The scenery started to get more inspiring, as we entered less populated rural areas in the Western Mexico City Sierra.

In the afternoon I came back to the city. Gerardo was in town and invited us to his parents' place to celebrate his success on Mt. Everest. Lots of fun with the good old mountaineering friends :D

The 3rd and final stage started at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It was the most beautiful course from the 3-day race, a 33 km (mostly single track) route from Presa Iturbide to Villa del Carbón. Most of the course was downhill so it was easy for everyone to do a speedy run. I logged a time of 4:19:56 and enjoyed every bit of the trail. It had an amazing scenery!

I arrived to Villa del Carbón totally exhausted but with a giant grin on my face. The mission was accomplished, the 3-day race came to its end. I couldn't help but think in the next edition of it for 2010, which will take place in the Sierra Tarahumara!

After a big lunch with fellow runners, I took a car back to Mexico City. I had a shower at home, did a little maintenance on my feet and drove my way to Odina's place for a big dinner with her family. Another amazing weekend to talk about :D

Photos from Saturday are here and from Sunday are here.

Another busy Sunday

Sunday morning was about running, but running long. I ran the 1st stage of Prueba de los 3 Días, a 3-day 116 km stage ultramarathon organized by the Solo para Salvajes running circuit.

This is the 2nd edition of the race and its 1st stage consisted of a 45 km trail run from Fierro del Toro to El Zarco. I felt good during the run, taking it easy for most of the course and logging a total time of 6:10:58 for the strenuous mountain trails that are above 3,000 meters.

Stages 2 & 3 (38 & 33 km respectively) will take place the next weekend and I'm looking forward to run them as well. They will be something really fun, just like this one :)

Race photos can be seen here.

In the evening after the race, Odi and I went to Metallica's concert at Foro Sol. Despite of being a short gig (2 hours), we greatly enjoyed it. We sang, yelled, banged our heads and jumped like teenagers full of energy. It was a memorable time for us together. The setlist for the gig was the following:

Alaska Vets Climb Superb New Routes

Jay Smith and Jack Tackle, longtime veterans of Alaskan climbing, enjoyed a remarkable two and a half weeks in the Alaska Range in May, climbing four new routes. Tackle, who has done 28 climbing trips to the 49th state, called it “maybe my best trip ever to Alaska since I started going in 1976.”

On May 9, the two men flew to a small glacial basin at 8,300 feet, south of Mt. Huntington, that Tackle called his “Private Idaho,” and where pilot Paul Roderick had never landed before. The pair had hoped to attempt a new route on Huntington but quickly determined it was out of shape. Instead, two days after flying in, they warmed up with a rapid (16-hour) round trip on the Rooster Comb, a seldom-climbed 10,180-foot peak...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.

Un viaje a la Patagonia

Here's a bit more of my friend Jorge's climbing trip to Patagonia:

En enero, jorge Colín y Axel Ávila fueron a la Patagonia con la intención de subir el Fitz Roy, pero habían llegado justo cuando comenzaba la ventana de buen tiempo y solo llegaron a cien metros de la cumbre. Este es el reporte que escribe Jorge Colín...

Montañismo y Exploración: Un viaje a la Patagonia

Big New Routes Near Glacier Bay, Alaska

In April and May, Paul Knott and Guy McKinnon from New Zealand visited the Johns Hopkins Glacier in southeast Alaska, and they came away with two major new routes, including the first ascent of an 8,599-foot summit. Knott, a Brit living in New Zealand, provided the following account of this remarkable short trip...

Taken from: Climbing Magazine.