Trail Running in AP- Video

Took this short video while running in the snow the other day. Anyone know what trail is was taken on?

Trail Running in APNP

Went for a great run yesterday afternoon. It had been snowing on and off all day out here in Arthur's Pass, were I am currently working, and running in the snow covered beach forest was pretty nice. I ran for about 1.5hrs, which just flew by as I was distracted by how transformed the Bridal Veil and Bealey Valley tracks were by the covering of snow.

I was demoing a Salomon backpack and was easily able to carry my camera with it. Below is the pick of the photo's, it's in the Bealey Valley.

happy Guy Fawkes?-HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Its Guy Fawkes today which means every one will go a little crazy. In between watching the race for the US precedence folks will come up with new and exciting ways to burn and scare them self's, as well as those close to them, and lets not forget about scaring the shit out of your neighbours pets..........

I must say that this proud NZ tradition has never been huge in my family, don't get me wrong, when we were young we'ed throw the odd "Guy" on the bonfire and I may have pointed the odd fire rocket at friends and family when I was younger all in the name of fun, but for me the 5th Nov isn't Guy Fawkes day, or even the day that Barack Obama got a new postal address, no, the 5th of November is my Dads birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad from Jane and I! wish we we're down there to celebrate with you, but we are think of you.

Flagpole Run Up

Did my first ever trail/mountain running race this past Saturday, the The Shoe Clinic Flagpole Run Up. It was a 20km race up Flagpole hill near Whitecliffs, with the first 5km climbing up to the 897m high summit of Flagpole, then down into the Selwyn rive and back to the start area. I haven't been running a great deal and it was predicted that I would go out hard and then fade even harder. Not one to disappoint I went out in the lead group, was in 2nd for a time and reached the top of Flagpole in 3rd place. I grabbed some water, throwing it over me, only to discover it was sports drink! I had to stop and get water to get the sticky stuff off me and fell back into 5th place. I knew with a lack of running, my legs would struggle on the down and 3rd and 4th place pulled away from me. I was relived to cross through the Selwyn 12 time's as it was very hot and my pace slow more and more. Lucky I was far ahead of the chase group when I really hit the wall and managed to hold on to 5th place, which turned out to be 2nd in the open men's. The top 3 were all 40yrs old and over! I finished in a time of 1hr40min. Jane had a similar race to me, being in 5th place until around 5km to go, when she hit the wall and was pasted by multiply racers. Jane was pretty happy with her race and time of 2hr14min Was a great little race, with around 250 people competing. Next big race on the calendar is the Avalanche Peak Challenge, 23km, up Avalanche Peak and out the Crow river!

Guest Blog- Mt Brewster Area

Been pretty slack on the blogging lately. The shock of Noel's accident has put me on my ass a little. I did get cheered up last week when Derek from MWH Engineering in Queenstown sent me some great photos of a recent trip to the Mt Brewster area, just off the Haast high way. Figured I better share these with you, maybe the last skiing stoke until next winter............... "Hey Grant, Brewster is a really great skiing destination particularly earlier than now, when you can ski from the new hut. I am bias about the quality of the new hut, it is one of our designs. Here is a handful of pictures of the area from the weekend if you are interested:

Brewster Hut and Mt Topheavy

Top of the gully Dropping into Armstrong gully

Run off Top Heavy

old man turns

Thanks Derek!