Back With a Capital Vengence!

Guess this is my year of 8th place steeplechase finishes! So happy to be able to get out and do these events slightly healthy. Race was hard. Nearly all the uphill was runnable (I like hiking!) and the downhill was relentless. Shew!

Yin Yoga.

Gobbler's from Terraces w/ Roo. +4200'

Good choice for Jupiter Peak recovery?!?

Just read Jake's post and Rob's sage comments and it made me want to start blogging again :)

Woke up at 4:30, made strong coffee, and then ran up Butler Fork w/ Wheels reaching Baker Pass just as some strange cold front blew in dropping the temp about 20 degrees and opening up a sh!tstorm on us. Aborted Mill D loop idea and ran back to car with icicle arms.

2250'

Ran up a near vertical ski slope pulling on flowers to keep from tipping over backwards and then crawled downhill swearing the whole time.  Fell 5 times. This was dumb. If I hadn't won a pair of Salomon shoes, I would have totally hated this!

But seriously there was 1400 ft of climbing from mile 1.5 to 2.5 and then over 1100 ft loss coming down from baldy in a HALF mile. I wouldn't even ski that slope. Dumb and dangerous with boulders tumbling down towards me. You know how you do something like this and you hate it and then tomorrow you're like, I totally want to do that again. That won't happen here.

AM: Hour Memory Grove walk. Creaky, but not sore from yesterday.

PM: Half hour walk. Glutes & core.

BST w/ Roo and then flew to Italy :)

I've been looking at photos of the Dolomites for the past zillion years so it feels super surreal being here. I downed a croissant and cappuccino and headed out from Passo Falzarego and immediately struck up a conversation with Lorenzo the oral surgeon from near Milano who happily gave me a brief WW1 history lesson and oriented me to the peaks. We hiked a few hours together and shared a beer at the Navolau Rif which was already rocking out (to Johnny Cash) at 10am.

Lorenzo and I parted ways and I looped all the way around the Navolau to the Cinque Torri and then back to my tiny car. Favorite quotes of my Lorenzo meeting... "I hear marijuanna is now FREE in Colorado" and "Traveling solo is good, you can think...and cry."

I've been in Europe about 30 hours now and all I've consumed is bread, cheese, coffee, beer, and Proseco and that is totally acceptable! Sometimes I think I was born on the wrong continent...

Tomorrow I'm going to climb through the Cengia Martini - a 1.1 km tunnel - and I'm not psyched because I hate being underground but I have to do it because it is history!

Another cloudless day in Dolomiti - molto caldo! 

Hiked up to Lagazuoi Grande via the inside of the mountain (WW1 tunnels) . One of the neatest things I've ever done - this totally wouldn't fly in the U.S.! Except a sign advising a helmet, headlamp, and good boots there was no other regulations. The tunnels were super slippery and super creepy, but luckily there was a window to the outside every 5 or 10 minutes. You could explore side tunnels and walk out on ledges dropping 2000 feet holding on only to a slippy cable and see old sleeping quarters and bombs and stuff. 

I then looped around a ridiculous gorgeous glacially carved valley - Val Travenanzes before hiking back through trenches and more ruins. What a beautiful place for a war!

Climbed Col Rodella from Passo Sella with the Via Ferrata.

Plans didn't quite happen today since my new buddies at the hotel started buying me Prosecos at 1pm. Probably my favorite day thus far though since I spent the whole day chatting with the locals and getting Italaian lessons from a 7 year old :) Short sunset run on the #4 from Colfosco with 1500 feet of gain and lots of cows.