This year I really went into the season thinking I would not try to push for another vertical goal. It was not until late December that I decided to really go for it, putting me behind in hindsight. Initially I told myself I was not going to chase the vertical again, so I started with no set goal or plan. Although I had no plan, I still had that voice in the back of my mind nagging at me to give it a try. I figured if I stacked a little extra vertical on to each month's total from the previous year, I would buy some time for the first few months. If at that point I changed my mind the goal would still be achievable. Initially I just thought I could try to do a little more each month than the previous year and by the end hope to hit the goal of 300,000 vertical feet for the season. This initial logic was very loose and unplanned, and without more thought, likely not to work.
I typically track my seasons from October to June and try to make a conscious mental health decision to not snowboard at least 3 months of the year. Quite late to a real commitment of setting another goal this season, I did not really even put pen to paper until late December when I sat down and added up my totals from October, November and December. If I learned one thing from last year it was that I did not want to play catch up at the end of the year when the snow was quickly disappearing. That being said I decided to commit (I don't know why?) but soon learned with the lack of structure in the first 3 months, and a horribly dry start to winter I had really set myself up for failure, or some really big, busy months if I wanted to reach the goal without chasing fleeting snow at the end. We did have a few early storms in October which put me about +2319 VF ahead of my previous October total. Unfortunately, November absolutely killed me with really warm temps, no precipitation, and really tough access to snow or the lack thereof. I gave it a shot the first week and booted way too much dirt, but eventually just went back to running for the majority of the month. A stark contrast to last year which allowed skiing most of November.
November put me way behind schedule finishing -4535 VF behind last November and leaving me at a total deficit of -2216 VF over last year after October and November, which was not a great place to start and far from motivational to commit to the goal. Ironically, I did about +8716 ft more running in November than I did in the previous November of 2018 which put my overall combined sport monthly vertical total for November +4181 VF higher than the previous year's total, but I unfortunately could not count it because it was not ski vertical. This is why the early and late outlier months are somewhat seasonally dependent. I found myself behind and starting from scratch in December which was also quite dry. It was not until the late December that we really started to get enough snow to really ski.
In late December with only +1233 VF and only 51,958 total VF for Oct-Dec, I stupidly decided to really go for it with no good reason. That left about my last season's total, or 248,000 VF to complete in 5 months (Jan-May). Better late than never, I sat down and calculated what I would have to do in about a 5-month period (Jan-May). Since I only needed about 50,000 VF more than last season it seemed obvious to just add 10,000 VF to each month for the 5 months, but I knew that April and May might be hard to stack that extra vertical on due to decreased free time and potentially tougher access to snow. I also knew that February and March are two of my biggest months typically, so adding a bunch of extra vert to my previous totals would be more of a challenge. Prior to this year my biggest month was 52652 VF, and knowing that time commitment I was nervous to try do 60 K VF in a month, So I planned to stack more vertical on months that I had less total vertical such as January and April previously.
My rough sketched out goal looked like this:
When I got to it I started to realize I was going to have to really utilize my time if I wanted to do this goal this late in the year and try to get it close to done by the end of April to prevent mandatory stress skiing in late May or June. I realized that going out and just doing a quick 1500 to 2000 VF on my tours was not going to get me there. In fact, when doing the math, you would have to ski every day of the month to hit the vertical I needed per month for the next three months. So, I decided to try and utilize every spare moment of my time and daylight, moving fast, making logically efficient tours, doing some dawn patrol, and mainly trying to step up my outings to bigger vertical gain per outing, shooting for a minimum of 3000 VF per outing. Just increasing your vertical from 2000 to 3000 cuts the number of day you have to tour in a month by 10 if you are shooting for a 60K month and when you consider the amount of drive time to and from the mountains it is way more efficient to just do more vert while you're up there.
I also started to realize this season that falling behind on your monthly total can quickly become unmanageable. If you miss a day, or have an injury it will quickly add up to an amount that neither time or your body may be able to handle. It adds up strikingly fast when missed. That being said I really payed attention to my average weekly totals to plan my days, making sure to get close to or over my target total vert if possible, week to week. This penciled out to about 12,500 VF per week for a 50 K month and about 15000 VF for a 60 K month roughly. It was much easier to manage week to week. Big weekends helped substantially, but I made absolutely sure to never make my fun weekends about gaining vertical. I am committed to always keeping those about staying fun, maximizing turns, and being in the mountains.
Sticking to these guidelines I was able to cross the 60 K mark per month for my first three months of 2020. January went 61441 VF, February went 60971 VF, and March went 63892 VF, putting me at 186,304 VF in 3 months and just shy of 50 K more than I had done the previous year in Jan-Mar. I had to try and get out every opportunity I had and It was incredibly tough at times to find enough time. Ultimately my limiting factor was definitely free time. By stacking on the additional 50 K of vertical I needed to complete the goal by the end of March, that meant I could just match my previous years vertical and meet the goal. This made for a really nice April and May, taking the pressure off being behind and trying to play catch up trying before the snow melted. The goal turned into more of a casual fun routine at this point and to help we were treated to 2 amazing weeks of powder the first two weeks of April, followed by 6 weeks of great snow, weather and stability which made for some out of this world tours. That being said the skiing in April was so good that I crushed my previous year's monthly total of 35,320 VF with a solid month at 55,650 VF putting me 20 K over the previous year and leaving my season total at 293,912 VF just 6088 VF shy of the goal before starting May. A quick tour on the 3rd of May followed by one final tour on May 5th, and likely my last day to access Snowbowl, put me up over the mark of 300,000 VF on the season.
Packing beers to the tops of summits is something I don't do...ever, I just can't mix alcohol and physical activity. On this day however it seemed fitting to pack up one of my favorite beers, The Good Medicine Strong Red from the Great Northern Brewery. This would likely be the last one of these beers I would ever have after out of state interests purchased the brewery and promptly shut it down. I was lucky enough to find a few of these scattered around the state. This can being the last. Having one last discontinued beer, on one last skin at the bowl, on one last climb to surpass my goal not 5 months ago I thought I would ever try seemed like the right time to pack a beer up a mountain. I sat there, by myself, enjoying the view, quietly thinking on the experience and being so happy to have committed and seen it through.
The rest of May was quite excellent and cold and numerous great outings put me 9900 VF above the previous May, however June sucked! Stuck in a holding pattern of blazing hot weekdays followed by horrible weather weekends put me 8600 VF behind my previous June total. In fact, I only got out one day in June after three failed attempts due to weather which was disappointing at best. It just goes to show you that "Making Hay when the sun shines" is critical for these pursuits. Depending on the year you just can't fully count on the first two or last two months of the season. So, after my one tour in June I was at a season total of 324,789 VF. I was satisfied but for some reason with June not panning out for me, and falling 200 feet short of 325 K I decided to do one final outing in July, a month I typically try not to ski and capped my season at 326,889 VF for the 2019/2020 season.
I have done a lot of thinking on this pursuit, and whether or not I will continue. For that question I have no answer at this point. Last season I said I was done, and yet here I am writing about it again this year. What I do know from this season was that weather in the months of November and June made reaching my monthly totals very challenging. Between those two months I lost about 13 K from my previous year's monthly totals. Even December was quite dry leading to a break-even month. I couldn't help but think that if I had more snow in November to ski instead of run, better weather in June, and a stronger December I think 350 K could have been done. In all reality though, weather aside, time was becoming my limiting factor. As with last year time to ski, or utilizing your time became my biggest challenge. Decreasing switch over time, using direct routes and picking areas to ski that yield the most vertical in your time slot allotted was at times critical to meet my weekly and monthly goals. I truly did enjoy the challenge this year and learned a lot about my body and training which I could not be happier with. This type of stuff is not everyone's cup of tea, and four years ago I would have thought this was a pointless boring post, but I find it enjoyable, motivational, and it makes all the weekend outings so much more fun enjoying more skiing without being in the pain cave. In the end that's what we are all looking for, more lines for our approach effort. So, if it's not your cup of tea, no worries, and sorry for this boring post you likely did not make it through. If it is your cup of tea, I would love to hear more about others winter training! goals.
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