Category Archives: Friends

Transitions – Summer 2015 Recap

October 16, 2015 brackec Leave a comment

Fall is the Wasatch is a great time. Cool temps, the overgrown trails start to die back for good running, quick desert trips to remember what summer is like, and a huge drop in running miles in favor of duck and elk hunting. By October my body is ready for a break from running so the relaxed pace of hunting is a perfect transition season for recovery before ski season starts. With any luck, the seasons transition perfectly with hunting ending at the end of October and skiing starting the first of November. If the snow doesn’t come early, by November Emily and I are usually both ready for an long weekend of running in the desert.

While not racing much this year, I had some great runs and other fun times (and a few not so fun times with my uncle’s death). As I was looking through photos from the summer, I thought a summer photo recap would be a great seasonal transition.

A great view while running through Valley Forge National Park.

I spent several months working 1 mile from Valley Forge National Park and was able to do some great training (even on dirt) for Jemez 50.

I suffered through Jemez 50 as much as it looked like in the photo.

I burned up in the ND Bad Lands trying to run the new section of the Maah Daah Hey Trail in hopes of connecting the entire 140+ miles in a single push in the near future.

July in ND and seeing if I can still ski

The 4th of July at Lake Metigoshe is one of the few true traditions we have. It is always hard to miss it.

Nebo Traverse in August with Eric and Tom

Helping Tom Diegel train for his first 100 was fun. We got in some great vert and technical scrambling on a Mt Nebo Traverse.

Hanging out with 2 of our favorite girls - Berkley and Mischa — Hanging out with 2 of our favorite girls – Berkley and Mischa

Not much more needs to be said about these 2 girls.

Mill B run through amazing wildflowers in July

Probably the most amazing run I have ever done through wildflowers was Mill B in July.

Our first trip to the Wind River Range in August

We took up fast packing and had 2 fun trips to the Wind River Range (our first time ever visiting the range)

The Uintas is my favorite place in Utah. I didn’t get there enough this year, but was at least able to get a little trail time out there.

My first ascent of the South Ridge of Mt Superior with Nina, Pete, and Dom

After 13 years in Utah, I finally climbed the South Ridge of Mt Superior. It was a first for Nina, Pete, Dom, and I. Sticking to the ridge like we did definitely increases the pucker factor.

Chad & Ryan McDermott Relaxing in Titcomb Basin in the Wind River Range

Chad & Ryan McDermott on the Dinwoody Glacier During out Gannett Peak attempt (Wind River Range)

An amazing trip to the Winds with a failed Gannett Peak attempt.

Celebrating Uncle Gary's life in a style he would have liked — Celebrating Uncle Gary’s life in a style he would have liked

We had a hard 2 weeks in late August and early September as Gary passed away. The night after his passing we honored and toasted him with an amazing bottle of bubbles.

Chip Duross at mile 55(ish) of Bear 100 en-route to complete his first 100

I was honored to pace Chip Duross for just over 30 miles of his first 100 (Bear 100)

Proud parents (Galen and Ashley) and God parents (Emily and Chad) with Ben and Emma

Maddie Selzler's Baptism — Maddie Selzler’s Baptism

And to wrapped up summer (or at least this got us to 05 October) celebrating Maddison Ashley Selzler’s baptism in Steamboat. We were honored and thrilled to be asked to be her God Parents.

With the middle of October having started, we are running the Corner Canyon 50K which is benefiting our best friend Christian Bacasa from his 4+ year ordeal with lymphoma, then directly after the race I am off to the airport for a 2 week work trip in Europe from which I get home and 16 hours later head to Indianapolis for a 4 day work trip. So, it is only 16 October, but I miss the best season in the Wasatch and hopefully it will be ski season when I return.

Family, Friends

My Tribute to Uncle Gary

September 13, 2015 brackec Leave a comment

My uncle Gary passed away on September 2 after a 10 month battle with pancreatic cancer. Gary was an extremely important person in my life and was much more than an uncle. I was asked to say a eulogy at his funeral and I wanted to post this along with some photos as a lasting tribute to Gary.

Over the past week, I have been thinking a lot about “Who was Gary”. He was so many things to so many of us. He was a Son, Brother, Uncle, Friend, Travel Partner, Chef, Teacher, Role Model, Care Giver, Philanthropist, and much, much more.

To me, Gary was many of these things – Uncle, Best Friend, Travel Partner, Teacher, and Role Model.

Uncle Gary was the name so many people called him. He only had 4 nephews and 1 niece and yet so many people called him Uncle Gary. I think that says so much about who he was. He was an Uncle to so many, many people and everyone wanted to call him Uncle Gary as it was synonymous with the fun, compassion, and generosity with which he led his life.

To me, Uncle Gary was a Best Friend. Gary treated his friends like family and he treated them all so very well. Gary was one of the people who taught me the importance of treating friends like family and the importance of that extended family. Living so far away from our family, this is something that Emily and I now live by.

Gary loved to travel and was an amazing Travel Partner. He helped instill in me the importance of traveling which is something I have tried to live by. My first trip to Europe was with Gary and I still have fond memories of that trip. Most of us have heard stories and seen pictures of Gary’s amazing travel adventures with Barb, Craig, Hansi, Angela, and many more of you. All around the US, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Norway, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong, China, and many more. He loved to experience new places and cultures. He cherished all of the places he went and made life long memories in those places. Much of the art in Gary’s homes shows his love of traveling and the cultures he experienced. Traveling with Gary was always a mix of art, history, food, and of course lots of fun.

Gary was a Role Model to me. He was one of the classiest and most dignified people most of us knew. Many of us learned so much from him about style, art, cooking, entertaining, and more. I always loved going to Niemen Marcus with him and seeing him greeted by name by the staff as they would show him the latest arrivals that they felt he would like.

Gary treated everyone so well that they couldn’t be anything but nice to him. He was an extremely generous person to family, friends, and the organizations that were important to him. His impact on people became so apparent after his passing, when several of the people who had helped take care of the Scottsdale house for many, many years came by the house. Their extreme sadness and tears showed just how much he impacted everyone he came across. I only hope that someday I can be this type of role model.

Gary was also such a great Teacher. For me, his greatest teachings were in the kitchen. He was one of the critical figures in teaching me how to enjoy great food, be a good cook, and throw an amazing party. In looking through photos over the past few weeks, so many of my photos were of Gary in the kitchen with his favorite apron on (put on apron). I was surprised in how many of these photos he was wearing a polo shirt, boxer shorts, and an apron. I am not sure this was the style that the sales people at Niemen Marcus were going for, but somehow, he made it work.

We all know how much Gary liked to throw a party and we could spend hours telling stories of his parties we have all attended. These parties were great times and great memories of Gary. I hope we can all continue his tradition of great parties and memories.

So as we are all sharing stories and memories of Gary, take time to think about who Gary was to you. For me, every time I put on an apron to cook a meal for family and friends I will be thinking of Gary. For those of you who were around for Gary’s last week, he was ready to go and would look you in the face and intently say “Emily, Let’s Go”, “Craig, Let’s Go”, “Kari, Let’s Go”. At the time, we weren’t sure where Gary wanted to go, but now we all know the final party that Gary was ready to go to, so “Let’s Go”.

The other Eulogies were by my sister and 2 cousins. I wanted to include a part of my cousin Russ’s Eulogy where he ended with ‘Gary’s recipe for life’ as I felt this was just wonderful.

A few photos of Gary over they years:

The siblings: Orlyn, Gary, Carolyn (my mother)

Gary and the cousins playing in Westhope in 1955

Germany 1994 – Chad, Gary, Angela, Steffi, and Hansi

Gary and myself at one of our favorite Arizona watering holes

Gary, Chad, and Grandma

Mom, Dad, Angela, Gary, Hansi, and Chad at Sue Ballantyne’s wedding in 2010

Family, Friends, Running, Skiing, Travel

Reflections – Part 2

December 31, 2014 brackec Leave a comment

If you haven’t read, Part 1, please reach that first.

Taking a quick step back to May, we also started a large house remodel as soon as the snow melted. We extended our master bedroom above the 2nd garage (which had been a scab on at some point). The construction wasn’t without challenges. As with most remodels, there were a lot of unknowns as they began to tear into things and we encountered numerous setbacks in the first few weeks. Thanks to our great architect and friend Blake and Noah Bigwood our builder for doing such a great job. We now have an amazing master suite and my pride and joy of a gear room.

EMGT was Emily’s last long run before Wasatch 100. Unfortunately, this was her first DNF as a slip at mile 6 caused a glute muscle pull that by mile 60-ish was no longer bearable. Your first DNF is always hard and Emily struggled for several weeks accepting it. Luckily, her glute recovered fairly quickly and she was able to enjoy a fall of fun running.

Summer and fall were a mix of things going on. I was working on getting a new job going back to work with some old colleagues from Accenture. I was excited about an opportunity to work in healthcare technology consulting, but getting the job finalized became a long engagement. I finally started the new role on 01 December. Our friend Stephanie who had gone through breast cancer 3 years ago was re-diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing rigorous treatments. Christian’s health continued to yo-yo with a couple more hospital stays and some challenging times for him. My uncle was also diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and began a rigorous treatment regiment. All of this lead to a busy, stressful, and sometimes sad fall. It is amazing the impact that the health of close friends has on a person.

Fall also had fun times with Nick and Brita’s wedding in Tellurirde, Coyote running, and seeing family.

Mt biking with Eric and Jackie in Telluride

The happy couple

Starting in November, my back started to do much better and the last 2 months have been the best of the year for my health. This allowed us to once again enjoy our long weekend of Coyote running antics. This year we were in St George and Zion. Jared Campbell treated us to an amazing Zion run that required wetsuits, ropes, and harnesses. We also had some great runs around the St George area.

Coyote Running
November became the month we really weren’t home with 2 trips to Arizona to help care for my uncle and grandma. It was great to spend so much quality time with them and to be able to help my uncle through this challenging time.
We scrambled to get moved back into our house by Thanksgiving when Emily’s parents, sister, and nieces came to spend the week. By the time Emily’s family arrived, we hadn’t both been home at the same time for 3 weeks and our stress was increasing. Adding to the stress, I would start a new job on 01Dec, but be flying out the Sunday of Thanksgiving. I would be getting home and we would turn around and go to Crested Butte for the first skimo race of the season, then I would leave again that Sunday for another work trip. When I finally got home on 11Dec, we were both excited to have no travel plans and be able to spend some time recuperating, skiing, and finishing up working on the house. It had been since 04Nov since we had both been home and had time together. Another level of stress for both of us.
Skimo training at PCMR under the snow guns
We spent a quiet Christmas with friends and we were treated to a 70”+ storm over the Christmas week leading to some of the best skiing in 2 seasons.

Amazing powder skiing over Christmas
The key I had been learning all year was how to no let all the different types of stress affect my health. It has proved to be a constant journey that is never simple. The new year is going to probe to be very busy with work, skiing, racing, Powder Keg, USSMA, and all of the other hobbies that we have. With hopes, I will keep the lessons I learned in 2014 close to me and be able to manage all of the responsibilities and stresses without letting it affect my health.
Here’s to looking forward to sunny days, powder skiing, friends, and family in 2015!
Mineral Fork Powder - 29Dec14

Family, Friends, Running, Skiing, Travel

Reflections – Part 1

December 30, 2014 brackec Leave a comment

It has been a quiet year of blogging as it has been a challenging year. Unfortunately, that means that this post got a little bit long so I broke it into 2 parts. It was a challenging year for me physically and mentally. I started the year off with great fitness ready for a good ski and skimo racing season. That worked out very well with great race finishes (PR’s) at the Targhee and Jackson races. The Targhee race had decent weather but the Jackson race had sub-zero starting line temperatures with 40 mph winds at the top. Most of us were treated to a nice case of frostnip (or worse).

Chad-on-Corbetts-Ladder

Climbing Corbett’s Couloir at the Jackson Skimo Race

What wasn’t readily apparent to me going into the new year was my stress level. Work had been crazy with over a dozen trips to Europe during the year including a last minute 48 hour round trip to Oslo. Add to this stress the natural holiday season stress and the training the skiing I was doing and I was setting myself up for a giant fall.

The week after Jackson, we were off to Heathen Challenge in Sunlight Colorado. The race was fun and post race I was driving to Denver to catch a Sunday afternoon flight back to London for work. A great run with Matt and Walter, a quick shower and off to the airport. This was supposed to be a great trip that would involve a hard week of work followed by a quick weekend in Verbier to race a skimo World Cup race. Little did I know that my giant fall would come that week. On Wednesday I was stretching in my hotel room before going to work and felt something in my back ‘pop’ and then felt sudden excruciating pain. I have dealt with back issues for 20+ years so I didn’t think much of this. The pain increased during the day and I was able to find both a masseur and physical therapist over the next 2 days. By the time Friday came and I was supposed to be heading to Verbier, I could hardly stand up straight and carrying my suitcase and ski bag was miserable. I made it to Verbier, met Meredith and Bill and we had an easy skin to see if my back would behave. It wouldn’t. There would be no racing for me. I went out the next day and Bill and I cheered Meredith on at various location of the course. Sunday morning I could not get out of bed and was in the worst pain of my life. By the time the vertical race ended, I had made it out of bed and packed my bags. We were headed to Chamonix and then I would fly out of Geneva Monday morning. Lots of pain and drugs later, I finally was back in the US hunched to the side and barely able to walk. This is what started the next 10 months of rehab for me. My much looked forward to ski season would end up being only easy climbing on groomed runs for 6 weeks.

In normal fashion, I did race the CROWBAR and Power of Four races off the couch. My fitness was poor, but I still enjoyed racing and not pushing myself so that I would get hurt worse. I was able to complete my Level 3 Avalanche class in light of my back issues. I was concerned I would not be able to complete the class, but was extremely happy to have been able to expand my avalanche knowledge to this level. This all brought an end to February.

Wasatch Citizen Series Race - 25Feb

Our nighttime skimo race series

Sarah and Emily finishing Power of Four

March started crazy busy with the Powder Keg. We were the North American Championship Race and also was an ISMF Sanctioned Race so we had a huge turn out and our most successful race ever. It was in March that I finally started to put the puzzle pieces together and realize the root cause of my back issue – the combination of stresses (work, physical, personal). I had a good learning lesson and really appreciated the book Back Sense and the lessons it has to offer for anyone with chronic pain. After the Powder Keg, I was able to start skiing again, but being cautious while still trying to have fun. This allowed some fun objectives like Mt Nebo, the Sliver, and others.

Skiing the top of the Sliver

I normally start training for running after the Powder Keg, but this was still out of the question with my back so I decided to continue skiing as long as I could. Emily and I planned a trip to Sayulita for April. This would be our first ever destination beach trip and we were both excited to do something completely different. I have done a little bit of surfing over the past few years so I was excited to be able to get in a full week of surfing. The day before leaving, we Paul D joined us for a ‘Whiskey Tour’ (Alta to High West Distillery in Park City).

We left the next morning and had a great week of fully relaxation with lots of surfing, a day of scuba diving, great fish, and the chance to see our friends Chris and Ashley (and their kids Alex and Trace) who had moved to Sayulita a few years earlier. This was a great vacation for us. No racing. No plans. No stress. I felt better after this trip than I had felt all year. Things seemed like they were (hopefully) turning around for my back.

True R&R in Sayulita

I still wasn’t running in May so skiing continued. A couple of standout adventures on Bald Mt, Mt Wheeler and Twin Peaks. Not nearly as much skiing as walking, but fun none the less.

Bald Mountain Skiing Skiing NW Couloir of Twin Peaks

Gemma climbing Bald Mt; Chad hiking off Wheeler Peak in the rain/snow/sleet; Mark wading down Deaf Smith Canyon off Twin Peaks

June was still limited climbing so Eric and I went to the NW for a couple of volcanoes. We skied Mt Adams and Mt Rainier in 2 days for a total of over 20,000’ climbing and pretty much horrible snow and weather conditions. I had the worst frostbite of my life in June on Mt Adams. Skiing quality aside, it was a great trip. Thankfully we had Goliath (Eric’s Sportsmobile) to shelter us from the weather and provide a great base camp.

Rime storm on Mt Adams

Freezing on Rainier

Ski season had ended and I really wasn’t doing much running. I enjoyed short runs and some great mt bike rides through July and August. My work had been going through lots of changes so starting in April, my work load was very small. This was fun, but also added some stress as I never really knew if I would be laid off as several other’s on our team had been laid off and then they had dismantled our team. More stress was added when Christian’s health started going up and down. Christian is our best friend who has been dealing with lymphoma and all the treatment side effects for over 3 years. I tried to keep the lessons learned from Back Sense in mind and deal with those stresses ‘healthfully’.

In July I was invited on a Canyoneering Trip by Paul and Tom. A little unsure of my abilities, I was hesitant, but was ensured that the pace would be slow so it would not hurt my back. This turned out to be an amazing trip doing Ice Box, Heaps, and Pine Creek Canyons in 3 days (video). I am definitely hooked on canyoneering. I did sustain a nasty hematoma on my shin that would end up taking over a month to heal.

Bashed shins

Heaps Canyon Canyoneering Trip with Colter, Paul, Tom

Final 300’ Heaps rapel into Emerald Pools

I also did the Pie N Beer marathon. I definitely wasn’t ready for that distance and just wanted to go out and have fun doing an easy paced long run. Unfortunately, I learned a side effect of the leg weakness caused by my back issues – extensor tendonosis. I was hobbled for about 15 miles by foot pain. This was a huge mental setback for me. I was planning to do the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse Run on August 19 and I was not very unsure if I would be able to do that. I rested until EMGT and 8 miles into that 40 mile race, had the same tendonosis break out. To add to this, we were running from Crested Butte to Aspen and had no planned return. We had a hotel reservation and a planned running route for the following day. After a good night out with friends and a few too many margaritas, I was able to hobble back to CB the day after the race. It would have been a tough day had it not been such a beautiful trail full of wild flowers as we went over Triangle Pass.

Aspen to Crested Butte Run

Friends

My First Elk Hunt

October 13, 2011 brackec 1 Comment

Warning – if you are offended by hunting and the sight of dead animals, read no further.

Growing up in North Dakota, hunting was a normal fall past time. The opening day of deer hunting season was practically a state holiday. When I moved to Minnesota, I gave up deer hunting as I had no desire to hunt from a tree stand. When I moved to Utah, I always said that with all the possibilities for hunting, I would eventually have to start hunting again. After skiing with my friend Evan for a few ski seasons, last winter he finally convinced me that this should be the year to take up hunting again. When a Nate Thesing, a friend and coworker from MN and an avid hunter, moved here in February, it made the timing seem even better (now there would be 2 of us hunting in UT for our first time). Between Evan, Nate and I, we were able to get a cow and 2 spike bull permits as well as a buck mule deer permit each. Having not hunted for 15 years, I was a little bit nervous. I brought my guns back from ND when we were visiting in August (nothing like flying somewhere to run 100 miles and coming back with guns). Finally a few weeks before season, I figured since I had not shot the gun in 15 years, I should probably go to the firing range. Other than a sore shoulder from shooting 20 rounds, that went good. A couple of shopping sprees to Sportsman Warehouse and Cabela’s and I was ready to go. The season opened on October 8th and our first winter storm moved in on the 5th with cold temperatures, rain and snow. We were only hunting 1 hour from our house, but decided it would be easiest to camp for the weekend. We drove down on Friday and scoped out the place we intended to hunt. After a cold and wet night camping, we left camp on foot, in a snow storm 45 minutes before sunrise on Saturday. With the fresh snow, we were able to find lots of fresh signs, but spent over 10 hours hiking and bushwhacking through the mountain side to not see a single animal. It was a tough day of being cold and very wet all day and continual frustration with the difficult walking in the thick scrub oak and bushes. The evening cleared, we had a new plan, and after a good dinner and a few beers by the campfire, we were ready to get some sleep in preparation for another long day.

We over slept on Sunday, but were still out of camp before 7. We had a 15 minute drive up the trail to where we could cross the creek and start climbing into the higher elevations to hunt (we were camped around 6,700’ and were planning to hunt between 8,000’ and 9,000’. After only an hour of bushwhacking, the woods opened up and shortly after we all (separately) had our first elk sighting, but none of us were able to get a shot off. We were all hunting individually, but had 2-way radios and would make contact every 2 hours (or when we heard close shots) for updates of where we were at and what we were seeing. At our 11:00 contact, I had decided to head to high ground and was on my way to a 9,200’ ridge which I intended to follow a couple of miles until it intersected a trail which would then drop down into the canyon we were camping in about 4 miles from camp. For 2 hours I followed numerous sets of very fresh tracks and at 1:00, I saw a good sized elk standing 75 meters from me in the grove of aspen trees I was climbing up through. I was only able to see the entire body for a couple of seconds before it hid behind a tree. From my vantage point, I was able to just see the neck and head. I was standing next to an aspen tree so I stabilized my rifle against the tree and squeezed off a round. I couldn’t tell if I had hit it or not, it appeared to duck, but then disappeared. I assumed I had missed (it was hoping for too much to hit an elk on my first shot hunting in 15 years), but regardless I ran over to the area it had been standing. I found a large blood mark, but no animal, I was able to follow the blood track, scared the elk up a hundred meters or so later and then followed it another 300 meters before I found it dead.

1 of the 2 animals we had down

All this while, I am on the radio trying to get Nate and Evan. It wasn’t until I heard 3 more shots (before I had even found my elk) that Evan came on the radio to tell use he had an elk down. With 2 animals down, none of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into. Nate went to the truck to gather packs and rope then meet us at the animals. Evan and I both started to field dress out animals – not having hunted in 15 years and only having cleaned a deer, I really didn’t have much of an idea of what to do. Compared to dressing a deer, an elk is a complete different story. You can’t straddle the animal and hold the legs apart, they are just too big. I didn’t have rope to tie the legs to trees and I was on a steep hillside so every time I would try to do something it would slide down the hill. After about an hour, I had most of the guts out, but was not able to get everything removed so I had to leave it, and I headed over to help Evan with his animal. We were 1.5 miles (as the crow flies) and 2,000 vertical feet from the truck. There was no way to get any closer to where we were without an ATV (there was an ATV trail 3/4 mile and 800’ below us). We started the task of skinning and quartering the elk. At this point we thought that the 3 of us would be able to carry both animals out in 1 trip. By the time we got the packs to the animals and the animals both skinned and quartered it was 6:00. We loaded 2 quarters onto a pack and quickly realized there was no way to carry this. It was well over 130 lbs. New plan – we decided to carry out 2 rear quarters and all of the loins, back straps and small scraps. The rest of the meat we hung from trees with a plan to return on Tuesday to carry it out. We had everything packed and hung and stared down through the woods in the dark at 7:30. We had hoped to make the hike out in 2 hours, but instead it took us 3 very long hours with 70-90 lb packs, rifles, etc. There was no trail out so we had to do everything including scrambling, down climbing, wading the creek, and literally crawling up the bank on the other side. When we finally got to the truck, we were exhausted and we still had to break camp and drive the 1-hour home.

Nate and Evan hiking out in the dark exhausted

By the time we got to my house to hang up the meat it was 12:30 AM, we had been going hard since 6:30AM and we were exhausted. We decided we would figure out the rest of the meat on Monday. Monday Evan went out to scope out any better access and was able to confirm we had 2 options: 1) hike 2 trips down the way we did on Sunday night which would take about 10 hours or 2) get an ATV. My neighbor was kind enough to lend us his ATV and we rented a trailer. We convinced our friend Andy to come with us and on Tuesday the 4 of us took off to get the rest of the meat. We had a 3.5 mile approach on a technical ATV trail. We had 3 mountain bikes, an ATV, and our packs. We biked and hike-a-biked in, then swapped bike shoes for hiking boots and started carrying elk quarters down to the trail.

Going back in to haul out elk quarters

Unfortunately, we had 3 quarters that had been pulled down by a bear (we think it was a bear based on the scratch marks on the trees), but only a small amount of meat was eaten. With 2 ATV trips to get the meat out and us hiking and biking out, we were able to get all the meat out in 6 hours. This was still a challenge, but much easier than 10 hours of hiking on steep terrain. We got everything loaded and were able to get back to my house to get the meat hanging not much after dark.

My garage/butcher shop

The first elk hunt was a lot of fun, but it was also as huge learning lesson about how much larger an elk is than a deer, the massive differences between deer hunting in farm land and elk hunting in the mountains, how much work it is to haul out an animal on your back, and much, much more. Nate still has a spike bull tag, but we may not have time to fill the tag as we have realized that you need to plan for an entire day to haul out the meat after you shoot an animal.