Personal Narrative: Growing Up The Ski Mountain

Too bad, as the water I brought was now warm. Another trail went up to the summit. It was paved with wood at the bottom, which became wooded steps a bit further up, rather like a wooden escalator. There was a handrail on this section. At the top of the steps, about a third of the way, the trail became narrow and rocky, requiring careful footing. It was there I caught my first views of the other side of the mountain, the West Peak and one of the park’s several lakes— which I believe was Lake Lagunitas-- far below me.

At this point, the course had a longer trail sprint and eventually made it way to the Barbed Wire crawl # 1, the first crawl wasn’t that long, but it did go up the mountain so rolling wasn’t that easy and I had to crawl! After a short sprint, it was time for the Herc Hoist, which I always look forward to because for a larger guy like me, it’s nice and easy. A very short distance ahead came Inverted Walls and just after that came Plate Drag. The course headed down at this point and continued for a longer sprint and up next was Z-Walls and just after we headed over to the Bridge, which was nice and easy. It was time for the swim.

The Super version of the course continued on the top of the mountain for a brief trail sprint before coming to the next obstacle, which was a classified obstacle on the map and I hate to say it, I cannot remember what it was. The course now continued back down the mountain and the next obstacle was “Stairway to Sparta” which is another ladder wall type obstacle, but with this one the first part of the obstacle is solid sections of very slanted wood that provides nowhere to grab on to and climb up, so it requires good upper body strength to get up the first part of the obstacles climb. From here the course went for one of the longer trail portions of the course that pretty much went through very technical trail descents that required racers to pay attention to the terrain and have patience to get through it. The next obstacle was the “Atlas Carry” and it was interesting to watch racers that just finished the above mentioned technical descents deal with the heavy Atlas stones. The course now continued on for a decent distance trail sprint and the next obstacle I recall was the “Farmers Log Carry”, which was two logs chained together that had to be carried for a short distance and then back. The course again continued for a brief distance and I am sorry to say I cannot remember what the next obstacle was but the next obstacle after that was a set of

The mountain lays out in a large funnel or "V" shape, with beginner slopes situated in the base area, novice terrain stretched across

The course was redesigned just for this event in a “spoke and wheel” format with six distinct obstacle course loops and a central zombie zone that racers had to cross between to enter each loop. Participants had to attempt to complete the course without losing all three of their flags. I have only participated in one previous Zombie themed obstacle course race that provided flags and had zombies on the course attempting to remove the flags from the racers, but I was very impressed with the “spoke and wheel” course design as it allowed all be it a small number of racers to spread out between one of six course loops and prevented delays at all the obstacles. I also liked that

The course started out with a climb right up the face of a ski mountain, once racers made it up the initial steep section the course continued on for a brief distance further (still up the mountain) and the first obstacle of the

Near the end of the course was a second challenge, that had racers drag a heavy object via a harness and in addition carry two kettle bells, this one actually kicked my but a little. The course had a section that was near an old railroad and racers had spent time on this section racing on both train tracks and climbing in, through, and out of several train cars, which again I enjoyed because it was different and the train cars were pretty cool.

I decided to sneak out of the office a little bit early and enjoy a mid-week afternoon adventure along the Ancient Giants Trail. Don’t let the snowdrops, crocuses and early blossoms fool you, there is still plenty of snow to be had! Naturally, the snowpack has been reduced due to the recent heavy rains, but the trails are still in relatively good shape and now is the time to take advantage of them. My trek began along the Hollyburn Meadows trail. The interpretive sign on the trail notes that below the 10 to 20 feet of snow lies terrain so thick with blueberry bushes that during the summer months the route is almost impassable. The trail continues on to the western shore of First Lake and the Hollyburn Lodge. Built in 1926, this historic building is rich in history and a popular destination for cross country skiers and snowshoers alike.

Have you ever skied down snow-covered slopes? Ever felt the rush of cold air in your face? If you have, you would understand the exhilaration and thrill of skiing. No matter how many times I slide down glistening white mountainsides I will never lose that feeling of joy and a little hint of fear.

We had planned for this European backpacking trip for months in advance and I suggested canyoning the Austrian Alps prior to our Oktoberfest festivities. Collectively, we had zero experience trekking mountains; naturally it made sense to sign up for the extreme package, which consisted of a six hour gruelling test of mental, physical and emotional strength.

Now those who had tried the other way came back; it had not worked. Consoling myself that my friend Seth would be right behind me, I shakily began the ascent. The “path” led up a narrow area between boulders. In it, we reached a place where there just were no good handholds. Seth braced my foot, and those above sent down words of encouragement. I was soon past the first challenge safely, but not feeling much better about the rest of the climb.

Once we finally arrived at the resort we were surrounded by cool chilly air and snow, we had an amazing view of the mountains and crisp green pine trees all around us, which was breathtaking. This was also a great opportunity for me to take as many pictures as I could of the amazing mountains around me. Thankfully that day there were no harsh winds and the slopes were not icy yet since this was towards the end of March. In order to get our tickets and find our instructor we had to enter this cabin like building; the bottom floor was where we picked up our tickets and tried on boots, the upstairs they had a dining area where they had delicious hot dogs and cookies.

The terrain here was hilly and the trail quite winding, but even their best laid plans only allowed several hundred feet before their prey would be out of danger.

This was the back end of what was my hardest race weekend to date, I raced in Ohio on Saturday after driving from NY to Ohio overnight and ended up with a bad case of insomnia and was awake for over forty hours. I spent most of Saturday driving from Ohio to Montreal and arrived in the Mont Owl’s Head parking lot after 1:00AM and didn’t get to sleep in my Prius until just after 2:00AM and ended up getting less than four and half hours sleep. Talk about the perfect conditions for running a Spartan Beast on one of the more challenging mountains used to date? Well I didn’t have those conditions and I was aware I wouldn’t and I can’t lie, it’s a main reason I even decided to come for the Beast.

The course included other obstacles and as already mentioned some fun technical terrain to deal with, one part of the course has racers climb up on to a huge natural stone and then maneuver through a tight fit section of almost like a tinny cave, I was worried I wouldn’t fit through it, but I did!