REPORT: 1st Alpine Lakes Grand Tour Failure

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.  — Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho.

First, I’d like to commend Erich Sach for putting together this route. It is precisely what it should be: challenging, beautiful, and a little insane. Below is an overview of the course, which leads through amazing alpine wilderness. The challenge is part of the 2014 UltraPedestrian Wilderness Challenge (UPWC).

The route

As announced last Fri, I made an attempt to complete the route and DNF’d (Did Not Finish). This was my first and most likely last window this year. When I started my planning, I figured if I could do a 100-mile race in about 25h, I should be able to complete a 75-mile course in 24h even if things didn’t go too well. Well, I was obviously wrong and should have known better. It’s not that I haven’t done any long, solo, and unsupported runs before. I usually spend lots of time on making accurate pace tables that consider elevation gain/loss on each section. This time I didn’t. I made a rather naive pace table that assumed an average 20min/mi pace. I thought this was rather conservative. Here’s what I had in mind:

• Fri, 7pm: Start at Snoqualmie Pass
• Sat, 6am: Cathedral Rock TH (road 4330)
• Sat, 9:30am: Bottom of Jack Ridge
• Sat, 1pm: Colchuck TH
• Sat, 8pm: Finish at Snow Lakes TH

Well, things didn’t quite work out as planned. I started about 20min late from Snoqualmie Pass. While that wasn’t much, it often stresses me out to leave later than planned. BTW: the reason I decided to leave at night was to be able to do the bushwhacking sections (in particular Jack Ridge) during daytime.

At departure time, not surprisingly, my pack was much heavier than usual. Here’s my pack list:

Gear:

• Salomon ultra vest
• Pearl Izumi M2 trail shoes
• Z-Poles
• Emergency/first aid kit
• Lip balm
• Water purification tablets
• Emergency blanket
• Compression sleeves
• Compression shorts
• Shirt
• Long-sleeved 2nd layer
• Rain jacket
• Warm hat
• Gloves  (thin + waterproof)
• Buff
• GoPro
• SPOT transponder with extra set of 4 AAA batteries
• Petzl Myo-RXP headlamp with extra set of 3 AA batteries
• Petzl E+LITE emergency headlamp
• Suunto Ambit2
• 2 7oz soft bottles with 400cal of Tailwind syrup each
• 2 17oz soft bottles with 200cal of Tailwind each
• Maps

Fuel:

• Tailwind (3,200cal)
• 20 gels (2,200cal)
• 4 fig bars (220cal)
• 4 Honey Stinger waffles (640cal)
• 4 PowerBar Wafer Bars (680cal)
• 20 peanut butter pretzels
• A few chocolate-covered coffee beans
• Some candied ginger

I figured that would be plenty of food for 24h and that I could stretch it for several more hours if necessary. My headlamp extra batteries were based on the assumption that I would need a full night plus a few extra hours of light in the worst case. As we will see later, I was wrong. Also, the first bad decision was to pack the rechargeable batteries. I had used these before and was happy with their performance. However, about 5h into the night, the first set of batteries was drained. I can go about 8h with regular AA cells usually, depending on temperature. That made me a little nervous, but not too much because I had an emergency light if worse came to worse.

The night

I got off to what I thought was a pretty good start. On the way up to Snow Lake, I met several groups with headlamps. One guy was carrying his tent in his hands. The climb was pleasant and I soon was on the way down to the Middle Fork trail. That section turned out to be fairly technical, so I wasn’t able to bomb down. The Middle Fork as well as the Dutch Miller Gap trail are fairly flat, so I was able to run most of it, albeit slowly. The heavy pack felt exactly like that and my legs were not hurting or anything, but they were clearly not fresh after Pine 2 Palm last weekend. At Goldmyer Hot Springs I continued straight and ignored the first bridge, as recommended by others in the Facebook group. I then crossed on the 2nd bridge that lead to the Dutch Miller Gap TH.

As always, the navigation and route-finding required some time and extra stopping. I had loaded my GoogleEarth track into the Ambit2 but didn’t need it until the Meadow Creek trail (#1559). And of course I had detailed maps (National Geographic Alpine Lakes Wilderness #825). I didn’t carry the actual map because it’s rather heavy and cumbersome to use. Instead, I made color photocopies of the relevant parts that I folded in small, convenient pieces. I carry them in a Ziploc that I stick under my pack’s shoulder strap. The map is therefore always easy to access. I use it very frequently and always memorize what’s supposed to come up next and in what distance approximately.

The night was rather uneventful otherwise. I had to put on a long-sleeved shirt at some point and was wearing gloves, but it was pleasantly warm otherwise. I got quite wet, however, because the vegetation was loaded with dew. My feet were wet all night and day actually. Next time I’ll pack a pair of extra socks as well.

At some point on the Dutch Miller Gap trail (if I remember correctly), there was a pretty big bridge I had to cross. I was surprised to see that a group had pitched their tents on the bridge. The tent’s lines were all tied to the bridge, so there was no way for me to just squeeze by the tents. I had to climb up on the railing and be careful not to fall off. Nobody of the group seem to have woken up despite my bright headlamp.

Overall, all trails until the PCT were in good shape, and so was the PCT. On my map, it didn’t look like a significant climb up to Deep Lake, but it was! There were endless switchbacks that were not even on my map.

The day

The sun started rising when I was climbing up Cathedral Pass. At that point I realized I was significantly behind schedule. At sunrise, I should have been at the Cathedral Rock TH (road 4330). Yet, I still had to get that massive climb done and then descend on the other side. I wasn’t too worried yet because I figured that there may be other, potentially easier sections I could make up some time. I was wrong about that.

The descent from Cathedral Pass was where I saw most of the people. There was a lot of huffing and puffing and sweating on their side, not so much on mine. Some dude said “Oh, there is a jogger.” Of course I felt insulted. Who wants to be called a jogger after running through the entire night.

On the bridge to the Cathedral Rock TH I encountered a marten that was very curious. He even started chewing on my poles. At that point, my GoPro died and I was unable to record any further movies. Reason why I only include some pics from the beginning here.

To reach the Paddy-Go-Easy Pass TH, I had to run on a gravel road for about 1.5mi. I felt tired and wasn’t able to keep up a good pace. The pass itself is very steep. I knew I would be slow and I was. The descent to the French Creek Trail (#1595) was easy. The trail then becomes Meadow Creek trail (#1559). That’s where things started to go wrong. After about a mile on #1559, I continued on what looked like a trail. It wasn’t. It soon disappeared into nothing. From the map and from my GPS I saw that the trail would go over the pass more to the left. The bushwhacking started and ate up precious time and energy. There were bushes so thick I could not get through, there were swamps I had to bypass, there were rivers I had to ford. After I reached the saddle, I veered to the left and suddenly hit the trail. Someone had actually put red flags and some cairns up.

Now I was ready to make up some time and bomb down the Meadow Creek valley. I was wrong once again. Trail #1559 is in terrible state and some parts are so overgrown that you practically have to move on your knees to see a faint sign of a trail. Running was out of question. The trail is in really bad shape pretty much until the intersection with trail #1560 that goes up to Cradle Lake. From there on, it was smooth sailing, but I had already lost too much time.

Once I reached the Jack Ridge turn-off, it was clear I was not able to complete the course as planned. I had two options there:

• Bail out and go to the Jack Creek TH.
• Continue until Trout Lake, Colchuck TH, or even finish.

I really wanted to see what the Jack Ridge trail (#1557) looked like, so I decided to continue, knowing I could still bail at Trout Lake or Colchuck. The trail is clearly not maintained and very overgrown, but I was able to follow it without too much trouble. It was certainly in better shape than the Meadow Creek trail. However, both of them will be challenging at night. The descent to Trout Lake was steep and at several spots, it was hard to follow the trail. There wasn’t any real bushwhacking involved, however.

Now I had a more difficult decision to make. I had fuel that I could stretch probably for another night. My wife would not have been worried if it had taken much longer since she was able to follow the SPOT track. However, the real problem was the lack of more headlamp batteries. I estimated I would have possibly light for another 2-3 hours at best. Yet, I needed probably another 8-12 to finish the course at the pace I was going. Distance-wise, I had about 20mi or so left, but with huge climbs and technical trails. There would have been limited running and lots of slow going. Here are the options I considered:

• Risk it and see how far I could get by using my batteries plus the emergency light. In the worst case, take a nap and wait for the next morning. I considered this option too risky. I don’t like to tap into emergency resources in a non-emergency. Plus the emergency light does not last long and it was all simply calling for trouble.
• Try to make it to Colchuck, drop a SPOT message for my wife to pick me up, then grab extra batteries and fuel from the car and continue. However, this would have turned the adventure into “supported” instead of “unsupported.” More importantly though, I don’t think I would have made it to Colchuck on 2-3h of headlamp light. And even if I did, there was a chance my wife would not have read the SPOT message in the middle of the night.
• Light a branch and use it as a torch. I gave up on that archaic idea because most of the wood was wet, it would have been hard to keep a fire going and to find appropriate pieces of wood. And it may not have given me enough light. But thinking about me running with a wooden torch somewhat amused by tired mind anyway.
• Use the moonlight. First, I didn’t know when the moon would even rise. Second, I noticed during the previous night that it was slim at best. Idea abandoned.
• Ask people I may encounter for batteries. Unlikely I would see anybody at night. Even unlikelier they would have had extra batteries. And again, it would have made the adventure a supported one.
• Abort and go to the Jack Creek TH.

So after considering all options, I really only had one that made sense to me and that was to abort. Needless to say that it was a very difficult decision and that I was deeply disappointed. I dropped a SPOT message so that my wife would know I was bailing out. She was exploring the Alpine Lakes region on her own and just got back to the hotel in Leavenworth. She watched the SPOT for a while to make sure she knew where I was going. We met at the trail head, where I was shivering after having fallen asleep on a picnic table.

As always after running for hours, I was craving pizza and beer. And that’s precisely what we got in Leavenworth, but not before taking a much-needed bath. I slept like a rock and had no nightmares of headlamps or anything else.

Running ultra long distances is before anything else a fight against yourself. You compete against your own bodily and mental limitations. Sadly, this time, it wasn’t so much about my own limitations, but rather about technological limitations. Something that could easily have been avoided with a more careful planning.

GPS track

You can download the GPS track on Strava or e-mail me: http://www.strava.com/activities/197719618. I’ve also created a SPOT Adventure page with the SPOT locations: http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=333624

Note that the GPS was on 60s interval, so it logs 10-15% short and is not very accurate. The actual distance was thus more like 63+ miles. Strava also does its own moving time math. I was on the way for 21:55:49.

Summary of planning mistakes:

• Didn’t consider heavier pack.
• I had no fresh legs after Pine 2 Palm the week before.
• Route finding takes time.
• Bushwhacking takes even more time.
• Don’t save on extra headlamp batteries. With another set, I would have finished this challenge.

All of that lead to a very unrealistic pace table, and eventually to the DNF. When you mostly do races, it’s easy to forget that solo and unsupported adventures are a different beast. There will be no one filling your water bottles. No drop bags, not extra gels you can grab if you used more than anticipated. No aid station light that allows you to comfortable change headlamp batteries. You are on your own in a very unforgiving environment.

“Science asks How, Philosophy asks Why, Nature doesn’t give a Shit.” — Unknown

How to be successful on this route:

• Plan, plan, plan. Repeat.
• Plan conservatively. Consider trail conditions, pack weight, etc.
• Have a solid bailout plan in place.
• Be ready to get lost.
• Have the equipment and skills to get back on track.
• Be ready for bushwhacking.

What’s next?

Mountain Lakes 100 next weekend? Ha, I considered it, but first I need some quality recovery time. In the meantime, I will go back to the drawing board and re-do my planning. Sadly, it’s unlikely I will get to do a second attempt this year, but I will definitely want to finish that amazing route sometime.

“Fail boldly. The more you take on, the more you will fail. But the more fail, the more you will learn—and the more you will succeed.”  — Dean Karnazes

Photos

Dinner before heading out.

Getting ready!

Ready! With a cookie in my hand.

Off I go!

Grinding up to Snow Lake. Last daylight.   On the bridge leading to the Cathedral Pass TH.Sunrise seen from climbing up Cathedral Pass.Some huge salamander I almost stepped on. I can only imagine what noise that would have made!