Brad Snider's Mountain Blog

This past year was all about training for a 20-mile hike in the Bridger-Teton Wilderness with my Dad and Uncle John–who first did this Paintbrush Divide / Cascade Canyon Loop in 2002. Where there had been wildflowers that year, there was deep snow in 2011–thanks to an epic snow year in much of the West. We were glad we had trained as much as we did for mileage on the trails in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia–but the snow was a whole different animal and required ice axes and crampons.

These training hikes turned out to be a lot of fun in themselves, starting with a 3-day backpack of the Tuscarora Trail in February. In the spring, we did a 10-mile figure-8 tour of Catoctin State Park in Maryland, then an introduction to the Standing Stone Trail and the 1000 steps on Jacks Mountain in Pennsylvania, then some more Tuscarora Trail and Appalachian Trail section hikes.

And in June there was Colorado. I did a fun solo climb of Gash Ridge to Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point, even though I fell short of my plan for 5 summits that day, and I brought my fourteeners-to-climb count to down to one after completing the hike to Culebra Peak and Red Mountain on a windy June day.

Our family trip to Montana and Wyoming in July included some hikes I will never forget, including short hikes to Lower Grinnell Lake and the Swiftcurrent Pass / Garden Wall to Point 8,479 hike in Glacier National Park, followed by Bunsen Peak in Yellowstone and–the one we had been training for–Paintbrush Divide to Lake Solitude and Cascade Canyon in the Tetons.

Now almost the end of January, I am finally getting around to updating the website with 2011’s trips, and looking forward to getting out more in 2012.

Trying out my new Canon Rebel T2i (click on the photo to see full-size):

My goal this year was to climb as many of the remaining 14ers (and Centennial 13ers) as possible in 9 days in Colorado: August 19-27. The first and last days were travel days, so they were out, and I allowed for one rest day. The trip ended up going very well, and Jupiter Mountain was the only mountain on my itinerary that I could not get to.

August 20th to 23rd I spent backpacking from Purgatory Trailhead to the 14ers above Chicago Basin. I had a nice campsite at 11,000 feet, and succeeded in climbing Sunlight Peak, Windom Peak, North Eolus and Mount Eolus.

Worried my toes were going to fall off during my rest day in Silverton, I bought some new hiking shoes for the rest of my vacation. The next day, I broke them in on a 16 mile ridge-walk in the San Juans: hiking to the summits of “Sundgog”, Sunshine Peak, Redcloud Peak, Point 13,811 and Point 13,832. This day turned out to be the unexpected highlight of my trip.

At this point my time was almost up, so I camped in American Basin, on the 26th hiked to the summit of Handies Peak to watch the sunrise, then drove to Denver to get one night of rest before my morning flight home.

Trip totals:
10 mountains (7 14ers, 2 centennial 13ers and a lower 13er),
22,975 feet elevation gain,
66.9 miles.

This leaves 4 14ers to climb (Blanca, Ellingwood, Culebra, Snowmass), and I am even more excited about some of the Centennial 13ers I will climb in the future, some of which I got first glimpses of during this trip while in the Weminuche Wilderness: The Trinities, Arrow, Vestal, Jagged Mountain, et cetera. There are always more mountains to climb.

2009 has been a busy year. But between life I managed to explore more of my home state than I’d ever experienced.  Some highlights included hikes to Flat Rock, Pole Steeple, and the summit of Big (Tuscarora) Mountain.  Holly and I went upstate for a week in September and took a day to visit Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon, and I did some section-hiking of both the Appalachian and Tuscarora Trails.  As always I am finding time to enjoy the great outdoors; now snow is on the ground, hunting season is almost over, and 2010 is right around the corner…

In the second part of my 2009 trip West, I got back to climbing some of the 14ers on my “Hundred Highest of the Rockies” list. I finally got all my trip reports and photographs organized and online.

After some rest following the Grand Teton, I took a day to drive exactly 600 miles south to camp below the trailhead for Mount Sneffels. I climbed Sneffels the next day. After another day of rest, I climbed Wetterhorn Peak, followed immediately by a 3-day backpack to Navajo Basin to climb El Diente by a relatively unknown route (the North Buttress), traverse to Mount Wilson, and finally climb Wilson Peak. I wanted to climb Gladstone Peak as well, but that didn’t work out on this trip. The beautiful weather I had for Sneffels and Wetterhorn was replaced by thunderstorms and waves of hail during the backpack, which kept things interesting.

Now only 11 fourteeners to go!

I have been wanting to climb the Grand Teton, so my friend Logan and I signed up with Exum Guides to climb Upper Exum Ridge. We made it to the summit on July 22 on a bluebird day in Wyoming. Read the full trip report for the details.

With the economy in the dumps and my life stuck in the rat race, there is just too much other stuff going on right now to spend any time traveling out west to climb mountains, but I will be back eventually. I hope to improve my website in the interim, considering I still have to catch up with digitizing my 5 years of experiencing the mountains of the West (2004-2008). For now I am trying to get out once a week to the woods of Pennsylvania, and that is keeping me happy.

In September and October this year, my wife and I enjoyed a 3-week road trip of a lifetime through 14 states.  We totaled 9,000 miles of travel, and got to visit 5 national parks and monuments: Mount Rushmore in South Dakota,  Glacier National Park in Montana, Yellowstone and Teton National Parks in Wyoming, and Arches National Park in Utah.  I also climbed 8 “and a half” mountains in three of the states, from Glacier Park to the Wind River Range to Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. 

The states we visited were: Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa.  Here are some of the highlights, complete with trip reports from some of the most interesting places:

Ehlenbach’s Cheese Chalet:

Mount Rushmore:

Glacier National Park (Trip Report: Reynolds Mountain, Montana):

Wyoming, including Yellowstone, Teton National Park and a visit to the Wind River Range (Trip Report: Dog Tooth Peak, Wind River Range). Here is Old Faithful:

Arches National Park, Utah – the highlight of our vacation! (Trip Report):

Wasatch Range, Utah (Trip Report: Bullion Divide):

Alpine Ascents International has a great personal training regimen for Denali. I am still a couple of years out from climbing The Mountain, but I am ensuring that I keep myself in shape. Right now my workout routine consists of weekly variations of the following:

---

Day 1:
(Full Body Workout Day)
2-1/2 mile run
Weights / Upper Body: 4 sets of 5-10 reps
Legs / Abs: 4 sets of 10-15 reps

Day 2:
(Full Body Workout Day)
2-1/2 mile run
Weights / Upper Body: 4 sets of 5-10 reps
Legs / Abs: 4 sets of 10-15 reps

Day 3:
(Full Body Workout Day)
2-mile sprint intervals
Weights / Upper Body: 3 sets of 5-10 reps
Legs / Abs: 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Day 4:
(Rest Day)
Do Nothing!
Keep breathing, eat a lot, sleep a lot, be as lazy as can be.

Day 5:
(Leg Workout Day)
2-mile run
Leg Presses: 3 sets of 10 reps
Leg Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps
Lunges (weighted): 3 sets of 10 reps
Squats (weighted): 3 sets of 10 reps
Crunches: 1 set of 100 reps

Day 6:
(Upper Body Workout Day)
3+ mile run
Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps
Pull-Ups: 3 sets of as many as possible
Chest / Shoulder Machines: 3 sets of 10
Abs: including sit-ups, crunches, others: 3 sets

Day 7:
(Activity Day)
Hiking. Sometimes substituted with rock-climbing, biking or some other activity.

---

Sadly I do not stick to this routine as vigilantly as I should, but at least having a routine and someone to work out helps motivate me to work out more often. So while not perfect, I am staying in shape. I have learned from others who climbed Denali that yes, it is important to stay fit, but perhaps more important is the climber’s level of endurance to stick it out for potentially 3 weeks in one of the world’s toughest settings. That is something that is very difficult to train for without long trips to the mountains, something I am not able to do. But, staying in shape for the time being is at least one step toward preparation for The Mountain.

My friend Patrick made it to the summit of Denali on June 20th, along with our guides from the AAI Alaska Trip, Coley and Forest. Here are a couple pictures from the summit of Patrick and the view:

Congratulations, guys!

Link to the American Alpine Institute: aai.cc.