Richard Stum’s randonneur cycling, rando skiing & SUP site. @rando_richard
A New PR on Skis — 10,000′ of Uphill
Strava Data Screen Shot
In December there was a vertical challenge at Sundance Ski Resort. The objective was to do multiple uphill (& downhill) laps on skis until you get in 10,000 ft of vertical gain. I was unable to attend, but decided to do it on my own at Brighton on Feb. 19th, 2015.
I removed the tongues and two additional buckles of from my La Sportiva Spectre boots to save weight. I took my lightest skis which are the carbon fiber G3 101 Synapse (101 mm wide x 180 cm long). I started out at 7:40 a.m. doing laps on the far east side of the resort going up near the Great Western lift (~ 1800 ft). The lifts open at 9:00 so I got a lap and half in before I started getting downhill traffic. Eventually, the ski patrol requested I relocate my efforts to the Wren Hollow run, which I did for the balance of the day. Several times through my workout I stopped at my car or the lodge to resupply food stuffs and fluids. I was only carrying a single 750 ml water bottle and a narrow waist belt. I opted to go without a backpack to save weight.
I ended up doing eight uphill climbs until I hit my goal and then finally skied back to my car for the last time. For the downhill, I specifically stayed on groomed runs so as to not wear out my quads. They actually felt a lot better than most ski races despite doing much more climbing. But, most ski races go down more technical terrain that I did on this day, which takes it toll on my quads, especially for me, as I am such a crummy downhill skier.
My total time was 8:43 with an average speed of 3.2 MPH, topping out at 32 MPH (moving time was 8:02). For the climbs I tried to keep my heart “down” to about 80-85% of my max (in a race, I push it to 90-93%). Towards the end of this effort I was only pushing about 75% due to fatigue. In the future, if I do this again, it should would be nice to have some lighter race skis (65 mm wide x 160 cm long) instead, esp. since I stayed all on easy groomed slopes.
I’m an old guy (age 69 in 2023) who enjoys aerobic, endurance sports. I call myself a cardio-junkie. Perhaps the more appropriate term would be “ultra” endurance sports. Since I was a teenager I have always enjoyed “slow twitch” outdoor sports like backpacking, ice climbing, running, mountaineering, hiking, alpine skiing and randonnée skiing (alpine touring, backcountry skiing or skimo). In 2005 I starting running with more regularity — except this time it was not for the intent of getting ready for a mountaineering trip, but as an end to itself. From 2005 to 2007 I managed to eek out two seasons of ultramarathons — that is competitive trail runs up to 50 or 100 miles. Due to a nagging ankle injury from the 80s (an accident while ice climbing in the 1980s where my lower tib and fib were badly broken), I had to cease that grueling, but rewarding activity. I then migrated into ultra distance road cycling or randonneuring. The rides are called brevets (pronounced bruh-VAY, it’s French) and are minimally supported — they are similar to ultrarunning and backpacking where one must be self reliant. Although brevets are non-competitive, they do have have cut off times to qualify as a finisher. They are usually are done in groups, which can have a competitive slant to them. Today, I continue to participate in long distance cycling including some ultra-racing, randonnée skiing (a blend of cross country and downhill disciplines) and still get out on an occasional mountaineering trip.
Since 1996 I have been designing, manufacturing and selling camera bags. That is Kinesis Photo Gear (kgear.com). In 2005 I started selling cycling bags under the Kinesis label and eventually expanded it to including other sports like SUP (stand-up paddle boarding and some skimo). Consequently, it become eoGEAR — the “eo” stands for endurance outdoor.
My wife and I are empty-nesters now and we live and work out in the boondocks of central Utah, half way between Salt Lake City (great powder) and Moab (great red rocks).
Well, I guess that is all for now. Safe travels mate! Perhaps I’ll see you on the road or trail.
— Richard Stum
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2 thoughts on “A New PR on Skis — 10,000′ of Uphill”
I see you tracked it with a fenix. Did you have it on Ultra Trac Setting or just the normal every second sampling? Also, because I don’t ski uphill, were sleeves/skins necessary for the uphill parts?
I do NOT use the UltraTrac function. I tried it once, but it cuts off the corners in a bad way. Instead, I have the Track Interval set to normal, unless I am doing a multi-day event and then I drop it to “Least Often,” but that only saves a meager 20% of memory. When I do long events, I save my data to BaseCamp via my iPhone and delete it later off the Garmin, later connecting multiple rides or trips together in Garmin Basecamp ap. Also, I set my Output to only FIT and not GPX to save on memory.
Yes, skins are must when doing that steep of climbing. After each climb, I have to pause and rip them off, before descending.
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I see you tracked it with a fenix. Did you have it on Ultra Trac Setting or just the normal every second sampling? Also, because I don’t ski uphill, were sleeves/skins necessary for the uphill parts?
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I do NOT use the UltraTrac function. I tried it once, but it cuts off the corners in a bad way. Instead, I have the Track Interval set to normal, unless I am doing a multi-day event and then I drop it to “Least Often,” but that only saves a meager 20% of memory. When I do long events, I save my data to BaseCamp via my iPhone and delete it later off the Garmin, later connecting multiple rides or trips together in Garmin Basecamp ap. Also, I set my Output to only FIT and not GPX to save on memory.
Yes, skins are must when doing that steep of climbing. After each climb, I have to pause and rip them off, before descending.
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