"Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense."
- David Blaikie

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Kamm Traverse to the Nute Chute on the Hardrock Course

I met up with fellow Hardrocker Bob Combs around the Mineral Creek crossing yesterday and after continuing together about a mile in the reverse course direction we decided we should run point to point from KT Aid Station back to Mineral Creek crossing, mile 89.0 to 98.5 of the '09 Hardrock Course. So, that's what we did...

I took a lot of video on this section and really tried to study the lay of the land on the advice of Hardrock veterans Jim Ballard, Scott Brockmeyer and Geoff Scott. I found the trail to be well marked, but if you hit this at night and have the misfortune of having marmots or elk take out a marker or two, this could be tough. There are numerous cross-country sections where you either have to know the general direction you are going or hop marker to marker.

Here are some of my favorite videos from the day...






And links to many more videos of this section for those studying up!

3 comments:

Trey Barnes said...

Thats awesome. Wish I could be there. Good luck this weekend.

-blade

Joseph Lea said...

Thanks man. Wish you could be here too!

Sarah and Phil said...

That creek crossing is at mile 98.5! Nothin' like a nice easy finish, huh? But I gather there is nothing nice and easy about this race. :) Good luck out there and have fun!

-Shyrpa