Still Hope for 2012 and Hardrock

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know I tried to get in the Hardrock 100 again this year and for the second time I did not.  Last year I was at least on the waiting list which is almost as long as the list of runners that got in.  This year I did not even make the wait list.  As I also mentioned I was thinking about going out to help with trail work and at an aid station to get additional lottery tickets.  They give you one ticket for every year you do not get in, so I now have two, three next year.

We have decided to go.  I will go out Friday, July 1st and do trail work over the weekend.  Marye Jo will fly out Sunday and meet me in Telluride.  I have volunteered to be an aid station captain so I will get another lottery ticket.  I think that means I will spend the week getting everything ready for my aid station, then working the entire race at the aid station.  I am really excited about going out to Silverton and being a part of the race even if I am not running.  I intend to find some time to run a few of the Hardrock trails during the week.  The trail work may not necessarily be on the actual Hardrock course.  I should have 5 lottery tickets for next year.  At least I will have a better chance of getting in.

You may be able to tell I am obsessed with Hardrock.  I even created a webpage on davidtosch.com borrowing pictures from all along the course.  Look at the picture behind the blog postings.  Yep, that is Hardrock too.  This picture is "Dives-Little Giant Pass." If you have a minute, take a look at my Hardrock webpage.  The course is the most spectacular one in America and probably the world.  Although I have never done the race I have hiked or run the trails from Ouray to almost the top of the of Oscar Pass.  I have not done the section through Governor Basin.  Almost the entire race is above timberline.

Below are pictures from the 2010 race.  They were taken by Blake Wood and posted on the Hardrock Website.  I hope they don't mind that I borrowed them.  In 2010, the race was run in the clockwise direction, Silverton to Ophir to Telluride to Ouray, to Lake City and back to Silverton.  Actually, the run only goes near Ophir and Lake City.

The Start

Heading up to Putnam Ridge, the first climb.

Probably heading down after Putnam Ridge

Somewhere after Putnam

KT Aid Station

Approaching Grant-Swamp Pass

Island Lake.  I cannot imagine where they got that name.

Looking down the other side of Grant-Swamp

Headed down to Chapman AS.  The next major climb is up to Oscar Pass on the far ridge line.

Almost to Oscar Pass.  That is the road from Ophir, over Ophir Pass and down to Silverton.  

That road is not on the race route.

Heading down the Wasatch Basin toward Telluride

Across an interesting bridge on one of my run routs up from Telluride which is just visible in the valley.

The Telluride aid station

Approaching the Mendota Saddle.

Perhaps the most famous Aid Station in all for Ultrarunning, Kroger's Canteen atop Virginius Pass.

The final scramble up to Kroger's

Looking back up at Kroger's. Some years you can glissade all the way down.

Looking down at the Mountain Top Mine on Governor Basin and up at Sniffles Peak, a fourteener.

This is the descent down to Ouray.

This picture is was taken during trail marking.  It is on the climb up from Ouray to Engineer Pass.

Blake would have been on this section in the dark. That could be a little scary.

This picture jumps ahead to the next day and the descent down from Green Mtn.

This is the final climb of the race up from Cunningham AS to Dives-Little Giant Pass

The traverse along the ridge of Dives-Little Giant.

It's all down hill from here.