Hardrock Training - The Hard Way

Friday Night - 22:00

Sustained winds of 40+ MPH blowing the dumping of snow that we are getting horizontally only gives me about 10 feet of visibility in the dark.

But there I am at the bottom of the Spring Pitch run with about quarter of a mile climb to get back up to my sled.

I am wearing about 20 pounds of clothing and gear. My boots weigh 3lbs each... This I know from both the tech specs and weighing them myself just to be sure.

I am already exhausted from digging out all of the snow guns and having moved a conservative estimate of a ton of snow in a little over an hour... with a shovel... by hand... at 10,000 feet in elevation, in the dark.

Kicking steps the entire way up the frozen slope, I am using two short handled shovels as impromptu trekking poles for both safety and stabilization as I climb. Shovels are a lot heavier than trekking poles and my arms are burning.

I determine that I have zero desire to ever climb any of the highest peaks on the planet... ever. 

Kick, step, kick, step... look up and verify my route the best I can... Kick, step, kick, step...

Finally I make it to the top of the bowl, and rather spent I might add...

This is what my training looks like now... unorthodox as hell, but I am getting scary strong.

The joys of being a snow maker... cross fit as a job...