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In this brief summer intermission show Mathias shares his travel stress and gear choices for his upcoming trip to the Alps and his 100K race at Ultra Tour Monte Rosa around the mountains of Grächen, Switzerland. Hello Alps, baby!
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Friend of the show Tabatha Collins is back and she brought her trail running partner and fellow mountain slayer Mary Flinders with her. They were the first folks who attempted my epic Cushman Six route in the Staircase region of Olympic National Forest/Park.
And yes, I said attempted. When Tabatha contacted me a few days prior I felt comfortable sending them out into these mountains. These ladies are strong, experienced and know what they were doing. But these mountains aren’t easy, and there’s a lot of backcountry off trail travel.
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Fresh off his 5th Hardrock100 finish Mike Ehredt is back on the show to share his latest adventures in the San Juans. The veteran Hardrocker reflects on this beautiful route and what it takes to successfully complete this extreme race as a back of the pack runner. We dive into what makes this community special and what the future holds for him in Silverton. Mike’s also a race director, and so of course we talk about the challenges and joys of organizing a trail race.
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Mountain goat Steph Decker joins the show to talk about the latest adventure project she’s been working on. Inspired by ultra uber runner Christof Teuscher she’s working on a variation of his “Olympic Loops” in Olympic National Park. The project is a beast and while rendering somewhat speechless is inspiring me hugely to dream of new adventures. And of course, no conversation about massive adventures would be complete without a good conversation around shoes and gear.
Alex Bond returns to the show to share his experience with orienteering races, how it helps him on big mountain adventures and why he won’t run the Barkley Marathons. We talk about the romance and despair of circumnavigating volcanoes in the Cascades and what’s on the adventure docket for the remainder of the summer before the smoke rolls in, or are we already too late for that?
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Lots is going on this week: An update on our hosting server changes, summer break announcements and talks about challenges in gateway communities. Orientation runs for LBA are happening and mountains are climbed. We’re continuing our training for summer races and UTMR announces a big change to the route which will have a bigger effect on Mathias’ summer plans. But, we’re excited. Let’s get after it.
This week’s episode takes us from the inevitable weather talk to the impact heat waves have on our training plans. There are lots of thoughts on Western States, especially in comparison to UTMB, because of course. We’re NOT talking about the abysmal performance by the German National Soccer team but wonder what our favorite race distances are and for what race we’d be willing to travel for? Like for LBA, come travel to Olympia and race with us!
It’s good to be a fan right now. Red Bull XAlps is happening, Euro 2020, Lavaredo just kicked off and it’s Western States weekend. So much going on. Perfect time to flee the heat and follow along some incredible events online. Doug and Mathias als talk about their shenanigans of the last week which included night running, and setting up an aid station in the middle of Capitol Forest at 2am, hosting the first orientation run for the upcoming Little Backyard Adventure race and so so so much more.
It’s getting hot in the West. Temperatures are rising, visitors are flocking to our public lands and masks are being dropped. Oh, and speaking of hot, Mathias ran a race last weekend and actually had a good time. Lumberjack 100 was happening in Port Gamble, Washington and he actually had fun. So we talk about that, like we do. We also announce some podcast changes. Your feed might see some disruptions over the coming days. Stay tuned!
