A shlushy slump...

It has been about 5 months of winter here. The snow and bad weather started about November and it really hasn't stopped. Needless to say, we are starting to feel the effects of it. And when I say it, I mean everything that comes with running in the winter. The slushy roads, the cold feet, the icy wind, snowed in trails, and so on.

Now it is not all negative. We do try to make the best of a situation. When the weather is bad we try to just get out there and go, when the weather is good we take advantage of it and go for the long runs, and everything in between (well there really is not in between...)

So how do we make the best of our situation?

For starters there is the random knocking over of big chunks of ice as demonstrated in this video...

Then there is playing catch with the random orange you found on the beach....

And Eric's favorite, jumping off anything you can climb on!

I personally am not as optimistic as Eric, so most of my time is spent frustrated and expressing that concern as seen in this photo:

 

With that said, I never come home after a run and not feel energized, happy, and accomplished. I can not wait for the first spring run post this season, and I can not wait for it to happen...but for now, we will stay stuck in our slushy slump.

What gets you into a slump? What do you do to make the best of a bad situation? 

Fastpacking Gear: Cooking

First off, I need to clarify that I enjoy backcountry cooking. Many people recommend just carrying prepackaged food and energy bars. However, I consider cooking up a good meal at the end of a long day one of the joys of backpacking. I am not willing to give that up.

Also, I have some unique dietary preferences (I have been Primal for over two years) that make finding adequate prepackaged food difficult. I will talk about food selection in a later post.

Anyway, I will be cooking my morning and evening meals, and therefore must have some sort of cooking gear.


For now lets start by taking a look at my current backpacking cooking system. Like most backpackers, I already have a fairly light weight cooking set up. It was built more for versatility and dependability than being truly ultralight. In fact that is true of almost all of my gear (not to mention that most of it is for winter camping.)
Here is the MSR Whisperlite International (an old model), and Snow Peak Trek 900 Titanium Cook Set combination I have used for a number of years.

It packs down fairly small, and the stove fits nicely inside the pot. However the stove weighs quite a bit (and that is without a fuel bottle.) It was designed to be a sturdy, reliable multi-fuel stove, not ultralight.
The other problem with this system is that the two were designed with different uses in mind. The pot was designed for use with a butane canister stove. It is a very nice pot (I really like Snow Peak), but the tall narrow design, while a perfect fit for butane canisters, is naturally unstable.
Basically the stove is designed to handle much larger pots (yeah, the wind screen is way to big too,) and is far to heavy for fastpacking.


Several lighter solutions are available to the prospective ounce counter (the lightest solution would be to just build a fire, but I don't expect to have the energy for that).

Butane stoves: These stoves can be very light weight, but the canisters are fairly heavy (and impossible to find around here.) I had one years ago (when I first started backpacking), that broke the first time I tried to cook (it was a cheap off-brand model, but was very proud of it when I got it.)

Fuel tabs: An even lighter solution is solid fuel tablets such as those made by Esbit. Fuel tabs are interesting, but they don't seem to offer much versatility as far as cooking goes. They are ideal for someone who just wants to boil water.

Alcohol stoves: Another solution, favored by many ultralight enthusiasts, is the alcohol stove. These come in countless variations from homemade to expensive titanium models. Basically, you pour alcohol in the burner and light it on fire. That is pretty much it, no mechanical parts to break. There are far to many models and variations to compare benefits and drawbacks of them all. Instead I will give you a brief overview of the main contruction types: homemade aluminum, titanium and brass.

Obviously homemade is the cheapest, but these "soda-can stoves" can be very effective if properly constructed, and extremely light weight. However, aluminum can also be crushed pretty easily if you are careless.

Titanium is also very light, but extremely durable. The only downside is they are expensive.
Brass is much heavier (though still pretty darn light,) but does have a couple advantages. The stoves made by Tiangia and Esbit come with a lid (so that the fuel may be stored inside the stove,) and a simmer ring (to allow much better control.)


Personally, I require something reliable and reasonably durable (I have a thing about being prepared). Also, It needs to allow me to actually cook, but still keep weight to a minimum.

I chose the brass Esbit alcohol burner, along with a titanium Clikstand pot support and windscreen. I also picked up a new Evernew 900ml Ti DX2 Non-Stick Pot Set to match the set.
The combination is considerably lighter than my old one.
It also works together very well (the Snow Peak pot was to small for easy use with the stand.)
It also packs down quite well.
The pots are both 900ml, but the frying pan is much larger on the Evernew model. The only down side is the design of the handle on the Evernew frying pan. It does not work as easily with the wind screen as the Snow Peak design.

Did I make a good choice? Did you have better recommendations? Let me know what you think.

Next time, I will be doing some initial testing of the setup.

The Winter Blues, and New Adventures.

The long dark of winter has been marching slowly on around here. We have had considerable snow (which is nice) but the weather has been a bit rough for any good adventures. I've had several good runs, but nothing exciting. Well, I did climb several mountains... and snowboard down. Oh, then there was the day hike to the other side of.... Okay it hasn't really been that bad. I guess seven months on our little rock has just started to get to me a little.

That said, it is time to start planning for the future. I have been daydreaming about all sorts of ways to get myself into trouble this summer. Aside from the road/camping trips I have planned with my family (which should be interesting), and finishing my flight training, something a bit different has caught my interest: a multi-day trailrun.

Sort of like backpacking but faster. I have been backpacking and trail running for years. Why not combined the two? I had no idea when the idea first came to me, but this is what has been called fastpacking (so much for being original).

Obviously, it will take thorough planing and preparation (an excellent way to relieve a bit a cabin-fever, perhaps.) I need to lighten my pack to a reasonable running weight, and find a manageable solution to the water issue (it will probably be in the 90s or 100s), but still have enough equipment to make my overnight reasonably comfortable and restful between full days of running, and prepare meals that will keep me going.

Over the next few weeks (or months) I will discuss my journey into the realm of fastpacking, including gear selection and decision process, initial testing and reviews. Along with any other preparation that seems worthy of note, and eventually a report of my first trip.

First up: Cooking Gear

The first white trail of the season...

So Eric and I set out on our first run together in about three weeks. 

 

The air was crisp, and so was the newly fallen snow as we set out on a brand new trail. Well, it was a brand new trail for me anyways. Eric discovered this while I was gone, and I am very glad he did. It is hard to find new paths on our little chunk of land here in the middle of the ocean. But nonetheless yesterday was a first for me, and an exciting one at that. 

It has been a while since I had ran, due to work. Everything felt great until our first “hill”...more like a long gradual ascent along a access road. I was huffing and puffing right out the gates and reminiscing about that time two months ago that I could run uphill like a champ.

 

 All the effort paid off though, because once we hit the trail at the end of the road, the view was amazing.

Eric and I took in the view for a little while then set off back towards home. On our way back we decided to adventure from a previously trail a little and see what we could find. About ten minutes later we discovered this....

  

 Today I asked Eric if he thought that the sign meant landmines as well...his response was simply “Hmmm...possibly”. After running through the abandoned explosives cache (I may be slightly exaggerating this point), we made it home in one piece. It was great to get out again and explore some new territory. After a summer of running, I forgot how much I enjoy running in cold weather and the snow...it was cool to get back to it. I think it is going to be a great winter season! Happy trails....

Some past photos...

In the past two years Eric and I have been on some amazing runs here in Alaska. I figured I should post a few photos from the past as a preview of what is to come.

On the trail after work one evening...

Top of the local snowboarding spot...

Eric's matrix impression...took us an hour to get him down from that pose, almost called in assistance

My arms were swing I swear...

I am going to try and remember to bring my camera for every run in the future. Key word is try. But we should get on some exciting runs here shortly...aside from my 3 week hiatus due to work (going to be out of communication, but Eric will be around).

Sun, rain and a little bit of pain...

As work was coming to an end the other day, Eric and I noticed that it was raining on the west side of the building and sunny on the south...the debate about whether or not to run started. After 4 days of bad weather and doing little to no exercise the conversation went as such...

Eric → It's sunny out and it looks like a nice day for a run...

Ed → I'm pretty sure it is raining on the other side of the building.

Eric → Ohhhh.....

Well it may not be those exact words but that is how I remember it. So we got ready anyways and started heading out at a nice and easy pace. That is when we realized

Bad Decision #1 → We wore shorts instead of tights.

Everything seemed okay for about 1/8^th of a mile, then we made our first turn which lead to a road completely exposed to the elements. We got sprayed with ice cold rain and winds of about 30 mph...give or take a couple mph. I said to Eric at that moment that wearing shorts in this weather for a run is like drinking milk on a hot day when your dry...just a bad choice.

Bad Decision #2 → Running along the beach.

Whoever invented the air freshener scent “Ocean Spray” got it completely wrong. It doesn't smell like that at all. The swell was so big along the beach (not really a beach as in a beach with sand, sun and surf...more like a beach with big akward rocks, intense wind and rain, with surf that would be a hell of a ride but surely would kill you) that you could hear all the rocks being dragged out to sea and slammed back to shore each time the swell would meet land. It was intense....

Bad Decision #3 → High-stepping the tall grass...along the “beach”

Well that lead to my first injury, twisted my ankle and had to walk it off. Still hurts today but I think it was just bruised a little, would have been fine if it wasn't for my second injury...more on that later.

Bad Decision #4 → Running a foot wide strip of land between a busy road and the ocean.

Oh and I forgot to mention the cliff...when you miss step like I do your foot slides quickly down said cliff and you have to grab on to the roads metal guard protecting cars from going over said cliff. Again it was intense...

Bad Decision #5 → Running behind an abandoned cannery.

Lots of slippery, wet, jagged rocks with debris and not much space. This led to my second injury when I jumped off an abandoned oil tank and landed my already injured foot on a rock very awkwardly. Eric was wearing Vibrums the entire time and was enjoying the adventure...well he did say it was a bad idea in the first place, but he will attempt it again....

At this point our run turned into a wet and cold, but relaxing jaunt home. It was prolly another couple miles but we took it easy. We ran past a few land marks like the abandoned knife, the truck with a snow plow someone randomly ditched off the road, our office, and the airport.

All in all it was a great run. Our bad decisions actually turned out to be little adventures that gave us something to talk about the next day. So they ended up being good choices (well except for anything that ended up in an injury...I did not actually know I would be injured so I am still saying it was a good idea). It was not a day that most would go running, in fact I wouldn't of went a year or two ago. I am slowing starting to discover there is a beauty in inclement weather that not many people get to see, so I am going to try to branch out and not stay inside just because it is not “nice”. I am sure Eric will make sure of that as well since he seems to thrive in crappy weather.

Does anyone else actually end up enjoying the days that it wasn't the best idea to go outside?

Introductions

Hello, and welcome to the Tundra Runners web log. Let us start with a couple of introductions:

Eric is the "crazy guy with the toe shoes," around here. He has been running off and on since high school, and has more recently taken up running in minimalist footwear. Though he spent a couple years training for a marathon he now thinks it is more important to enjoy running than hit a split time.

Ed is the "guy with the big watch". He started attempting to run for fitness in college with little success. He was far from in shape and wanted to stop every time he would pick up his pace beyond a brisk walk. After college he spent a couple years working at sea and spending most days traveling. He made a commitment that if he was to settle down he would get into some sort of shape. That time came just over two years ago (when he started working with Eric) and he hasn't looked back since.

Together we are the Tundra Runners, two guys who live, work and run in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.