The Grand Traverse race begins at midnight in Crested Butte, and ends 42 miles later on the slopes of Aspen Mountain. For safety, all racers travel in teams of two and carry gear that will allow them to spend the night if necessary. This year, 100 teams started and over 90 teams finished. Here is a synopsis of the race as told by Mike Smith, BSA Member and Volunteer.
Backcountry Places to Explore
The Elk Mountains - Grand Traverse
Started at midnight in Crested Butte to quite a celebration - cool scene! After a few miles of flat, we had 15 miles of continuous climb up to Star pass. Under a beautiful full moon for the first 5 hours and then a spectacular sunrise at Star Pass at 12,400 feet. Had to take a leap of faith from the pass off a cornice with a stiff wind in our face and hope not to fall down what they termed "the slide for life"....The 2 people in front of me traversed off the pass and promptly lid down a couple a hundred yards to a hideous climb out which didn't inspire confidence, but my launch and my partner's worked out okay. After that, another 10 miles above treeline to another climb up over Taylor pass above 12K. Incredible views of the Maroon Bells. Then undulating for 10 more miles above 11K feet with one last significant climb. Last but not least we had to come down 3,000 feet of the face of Aspen Mountain ski resort on our skinny skis to the finish at the base of the gondola. Oh, did I mention the 30 lbs pack we carried with all the required bivy gear?
My partner Jeff, developed heinous blisters second half of the race and we had to slow down to a crawl at times with several breaks for re-bandaging his wounds. Took us over 17 hours to cover the 40 miles and 6,000 feet of elevation gain. About 4 hours longer than I'd hoped. Felt bad for him, but he toughed it out with a lot of pain. Lessons in patience for me also for sure.
As for the race - My partner and I finished, which was the main goal! More than a few teams did not. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was both an incredible adventure and a substantial survival effort. My partner and I trained pretty hard over the past 2 months and did just enough to see us through I guess. Beautiful weather but too warm, and hard icy snow conditions were the tradeoff. The hard core skaters liked it, but we were running metal edges and stiff leather boots, so wasn't so fast for us. Our wax did not work at all, so a great deal of skins on and off.
Overall a great experience and met some wonderful kindred spirits before and during the journey.