From the Summit Daily (read the full article, here) Out on the remote, amazingly wild ridgelines of this state’s most dangerous backcountry locations Justin Simoni would ask himself the most recurring question of his unprecedented trip: “I wonder why no one does this?” “I always had these, ‘I wonder why no one does this?’ questions,” Continue reading…
Summit County! I’ll be talking at Wilderness Sports in Dillon, CO on August 29th, 6:00 to 9:00pm! Do come! I’ll have loot to raffle off from Ultimate Directiojn and La Sportiva, and tons of stories to share! RSVP here. Update: here’s coverage of the presentation by the local paper, The Summit Daily. Front page story! Continue reading…
Last Thursday, I thought a righteous challenge would be to see how many laps on the Second Flatiron’s “Freeway” route I could do, before my arms fell off. After 16 hours, I had accumulated 40 laps! 20 up, and 20 down, done in succession with little rest in between. A fantastic day of moving meditation Continue reading…
Earlier this month, I sat down with Like a Bigfoot and talked bikes, mountains, and all points in-between. Have a listen! Like a Bigfoot Podcast #104: Justin Simoni — Tour De Highest Hundred, Bikepacking & Climbing the CO Centennials
View/Download this route on Strava View this route on Google Maps With another run of the Tour Divide this year, I’m reminded again of this awesome cross-country route and the many great memories I have on it. The last time I was riding on the GDMBR was on my Tour of the Highest Hundred, where Continue reading…
My long-form trip report of my Mosquito-Tenmile Traverse is up on the Ultimate Direction blog. Grab a coffee and have a read: http://blog.ultimatedirection.com/knowing-when-to-just-go-for-it-the-mosquito-tenmile-range-traverse/
Learn more about the complete Mosquito/Tenmile Range Traverse The Mosquito/Tenmile range in Colorado runs south to north between Buena Vista and Frisco, CO. Inspired by Peter Bakwin’s nearly futuristic vision and attempts to traverse the entire ridgeline from Weston Pass (outside of Leadville, CO) to the Mount Royal trailhead, I awoke early Saturday morning from Continue reading…
I took my buddy Nolan up his first 14er, and he made this video of our trip. Enjoy!
I’ve found the Garmin eTrex Touch pretty useful on my long distance trips, and I love the touch interface, but the unit is a real pain to use in the rain, even if I’m not interacting with it. I’ve found that the unit will think I’m tapping the screen to navigate through things like menus Continue reading…
Sometimes it’s seems that it’s hard to follow up something like the Tour of the Highest Hundred with the next project. It took years to get myself physically and mentally ready to take something like that on – save nothing for the financial burden of taking so much time off work and the burden of Continue reading…
Enjoy!
Stats (approx.): 36.5 miles 12,815’ Starting Date: 9/2/17 Total time: 2 days, 11min Three Centennials Summited: Capitol Peak Snowmass Mountain Hagerman Peak After cruising through the Sawatch, I had to once again cross west over the Continental Divide – this time with an unruly bear canister in tow, to dash off the Elk Range. A Continue reading…
Thanks to Dispatch Radio for having me on among so much talent and stoke. Listen here, or below: We packed The Studio (Boulder) Airstream with a grip-load of talent to dive into the topic of fastest known times (FKTs). We talk with four athletes who set new records in 2017: Cat Bradley, Darcy Piceu, Continue reading…
Stats (approx.): 32 miles 10,000’+ elevation Total time: 1 day, 2hr, 30min Three Centennials Summited: “Phoenix Peak” San Luis Stewart Peak I questioned framing this leg of my Tour of the Highest Hundred as a, “Fastpack from Hell”, as the numbers really don’t compare to the Crestones, Sierra Blanca – let alone the mighty Weminuche. Continue reading…
Stats (approx.): 81.4 Miles 34,847’+ elevation Total time: 5 days, 1hr, 44min Nine Centennials Summited: Pigeon Peak Turret Peak Jupiter Mountain Windom Peak Sunlight Peak North Eolus Mount Eolus Jagged Mountain Vestal Peak The Weminuche. This was the make-or-break section of my tour. A large project within an enormous project. Lots of terrain to cover, Continue reading…
Happy to announce a new talk covering my Highest Hundred trip in 2017 at Bent Gate in Golden, CO on the 28th of March. Come by and check it out! The event is free:
The 2018 FKTOFTY Awards have been announced. I’ve very thankful that the Tour of the Highest Hundred was selected in the lineup! Although, it didn’t “win”, I really had no reason to think I would! I’m actually a little confused how different FKT attempts can even be compared to each other, but if all we Continue reading…
The theme of this week was, “Am I getting sick? I’m getting sick. No, not quite sick, maybe tomorrow?! Tomorrow I’ll be sick?!” Thus, it was an easy-ish load of training. Trying not to overdo it, as everyone around me seems to be inflicted with the plague.
Before I completed my first self-powered Longs Peak Duathlon (after a few failures) from Arvada, I knew of only a few others I was certain had made the trip: Bill Wright, The Briggs Brothers, Stefan Griebel. I never thought about who the first people to complete the feat were – perhaps the names were lost Continue reading…
Wow, the start of the new year perfectly coincides with the beginning day of my training journal? Guess that’s good enough excuse enough to jot things down online. This year, I’ve decided to keep record keeping in a actual gridded notebook, and make my notes as I do the exercise, which makes a world of Continue reading…
Check out the La Sportiva Blog to read and read about just how I got to where I am in all this peak-bagging self-powered adventuring. Thanks goes to La Sportiva for believing in me, and providing me with the best trail running shoe on the planet: The Mutant.
The electronics gear kit list! Bringing any sort of gear – especially electronic gear, is a fine balance between the convenience of having the resource, and the burdens of carrying it all with you. Doubly so with electronic gear, as it all requires some sort of power source to charge it all up. Choose wisely. Continue reading…
The Crestones! A highlight of my Highest Hundred trip – the mountains of this group are awesomely steep, the rock is solid, the scrambling: divine. This is truly a Fastpack from Hell-yeah! Stats: 36.1 Miles 15,200’+ elevation Total time: 1 day, 17hr, 28min Seven Centennials summited: Adams Challenger Kit Carson Columbia Point Humboldt Crestone Needle Continue reading…
Stats: 33.1 Miles 15,085’+ elevation Total time: 2 days 25min Six Centennials summited: Ellingwood Point Little Bear Peak Blanca Peak “Huerfano Peak” Mt. Lindsey California Peak To make the Tour of the Highest Hundred work, my general strategy was to keep the number of separate trailheads I needed to visit by bike as low as Continue reading…