How has it been going for you? Are you doing them? Is it easy to motivate to do them? Are you finding them easy to do? Challenging? Why? If sore in the beginning, where? Is soreness diminishing?

Cheers,

Stephen

In this short video I demonstrate and explain the “Burpee,” a wonderful all around exercise that requires only one thing, YOU! No props, no weights, bands, benches, balls or anything else to give you an excuse to not do them! Check it out…

All you need is a little encouragement and belief that you will be more loved if you do these. You will! You will love yourself for doing this wonderful all around exercise! The Burpee works your legs, core, shoulders, back, chest, hands (clapping), and face (from the inner joy that will emit from your being through your smile because you accomplished something that will benefit you greatly!).

If you can pick something off of the ground you can do a Burpee! In this video I demonstrate an easy version of the Burpee and a more dynamic, or the classic, Burpee.

Don’t be alarmed with the sore muscles you may experience 24 to 48 hours post first Burpee session. This is your body’s way of letting you know that you did a good thing and that you are getting stronger! That being said, go easy to start if you have not been working out.

The beauty of the 30 seconds of Burpees, 30 seconds of rest is that you do as many as YOU are capable of. The key is to just start. Get up off your chair, drop down and DO IT! One. Just do one. Once you are down and realize how simple, fun and easy it is, go ahead and do another, and another and then you realize 30 seconds has passed and it is time to rest. A rest you earned! Then at the top of the minute, drop down and do another 30 second round! The clap at the finish is to celebrate! Go ahead and celebrate! You will be stoked you did! If you are an experienced athlete/person who works out, Burpees are a great warm-up exercise.

Burpees: Total time…10 Minutes a day! 30 seconds of Burpees, 30 seconds rest. Repeat 10 times (go for 5 minutes…2:30 of actual exercise time…to start). Key to do them again when sore in a couple days! The movement and use of the muscles that are sore vitally need to be moved again. You will be less sore after working out again anyway! Drink plenty of water. Water is the medicine.

And most important of all, listen to your body. If you are feeling faint/super fatigued etc. stop. Chill. Walk around the room/house/car/block. Breathe, relax and feel your heart rate drop.

That is enough for now. Now, drop down and do some burpees!

Petzl Tikka 2 Headlamp

Help support StephenKoch.com with a Petzl Tikka Plus 2 Headlamp for your no excuses in the dark Burpee session!

In this short video Greg explains how he fuels himself, sometimes for 15 10K vertical days in a row…again…MASSIVE! As he explains, he stops every hour to fuel his engine. Greg breaks a big 10K vert day into bite size chunks…one hour at a time. He is breaking his goal of skiing 2 MILLION VERTICAL feet down and taking it one day at a time, one step at a time, one moment at a time. There is only one moment, and it is now…and now! May you enjoy your moment!

Go Greg, Go!

Calories from Greg Hill 2 Mil on Vimeo.

Help support StephenKoch.com by fueling yourself on your next adventure with GU CHOMPS from Backcountry.com!

I/O Bio Merino Wool

When it is cold and raw, like it is now in Jackson Hole, I reach for my wool. The new Merino wool is not uncomfortable and scratchy like its predecessor. This is not the wool sweater your mother used to throw on you. The new wool is luxuriously comfortable, warm and best of all for the active set, doesn’t smell worse than if  you rolled around in the dogs mess, like most synthetic long underwear, after sweating in it.

The thing I like about I/O Bio is the styling of the pieces. They are made to function for high intensity activities like running, biking, climbing, skiing and snowboarding, but they also look good worn on their own. So you can be just off a backcountry skiing or snowboarding run on Teton Pass, peel off your soft shell jacket and head straight into work with nary a nostril flared nor eyebrow raised.

Last winer Darrel Miller and I partnered for a climb and descent of he Teton Classic West Hourglass Couloir. The WHC rises above Garnet Canyon at a lovely steep angle on a north aspect for around 2,000 plus feet. I was initially snickering at D’s snowshoes until he busted ahead of me as I was too skeched to continue on my split snowboard due to my inability to sink my edges into the firm snow. I was forced to deboard (take off board) and climb. As I started up I sank up to my hips into the snow that was firm enough to support D’s snowshoes but not my Scarpa F1 Boots. That will not happen again as I now have B & D Ski Gear’s super FAT Crampons and will bring them on all splitboarding excursions from now on. It is frustrating putting oneself in a compromised position because of not having an essential piece of gear. Certain pieces of equipment at the right time are key. Check out my gear list here.

Darrel Miller climbing West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Darrel Miller shredding West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Darrel Miller spraying in West Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce.

Help support Darrel Miller and Storm Show Studios by buying his sweet snowboarding DVD’s, featuring Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the Teton Backcountry!

http://bit.ly/abcWqj

Photo: Stephen Koch 2010

While climbing the north face of the Grand Teton earlier this month I took photographs of this beautiful, rare and unusual looking flower which I had never seen before, called Alpine Lantern, at about 11,900 – 12,000 feet, just below the Guano Chimney. After some searching and inquiring about it, this is what Dick Scott, author of The Alpine Flora of the Rocky Mountains: Volume 1, The Middle Rockies, wrote to me about it:
It’s an uncommon plant, often overlooked, of rocky places above timberline. We have it from cirque walls, moraines, fellfields, talus, scree, and other rocky places in many, but not all, alpine ranges of western Wyoming. It has sort of a disjunct distribution pattern, skipping from one range to another in western North America. I’ve seen it and collected it, here and there, from the Wrangells in Alaska to the Uintas in Utah. If you’d like to see a distribution map for the Middle Rockies you might check the Jackson Library for a copy of my book, The Alpine Flora of the Rocky Mountains: Volume 1, The Middle Rockies (I’m still plugging away on the Southern Rockies and the Northern Rockies). – Dick Scott

So it seems like this may be the first sighting and recording of it in the Tetons. Pretty exciting!

Help support StephenKoch.com with a sweet pair of Steiner Binoculars, to view alpine flowers on your next adventure, from Backcountry.com!

I like carrying water off of my harness to lower my center of gravity, especially during steep climbing. If the bottle leaks from my harness, my jacket or sleeping bag don’t get wet! Another reason I like drinking out of a bottle is so that I know how much water is left! It can be frustrating while using a hydration bladder to be half way up a climb thinking I have plenty of water left only to discover I am sucking the last of it down without knowing it.

Climbing the north face of the Grand Teton.

I reuse the bottles several times until they start to get funky or develop a leak, then recycle them. I also like the price of these water bottles and holders!

May you have a safe, fun and successful adventure!

Click on image to enlarge!

Rock climbing up the classic north face of the Grand Teton.

Click on images to enlarge!

Help support StephenKoch.com with a great mountain biking Hydration Pack from Osprey or a Petzl Spirit Carabiner to attach your fresh new water bottle from Backcountry.com!

Preston enjoying the cool breeze off of Hidden Falls in Grand Teton National Park. Photo © Stephen Koch

Jenny Lake on a calm morning.

Inspiration Point offers a magnificent view of Jenny Lake and Jackson Hole beyond and is 1 mile from the boat dock and about 400 feet above the lake. The hiking trail is dirt and strewn with imbedded boulders with several steps built into it. A hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point may not be for everyone, but those who venture there will be rewarded with a magnificent view of the falls and the cool, damp breeze emitted from the spray of the cascade. You can also hike right above the exciting rush of water that is Cascade Creek.

Begin your trip at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center, which has a large parking lot. Once at the Visitor Center, you can decide to follow the trail around the lake, 2 miles heading west or about 5 heading north, or take the shuttle boat to the other side.

SHUTTLE BOAT HOURS: The hours of operation for the shuttle boats, which depart about every 15 minutes are:

May 15 – 31 10am – 4pm
June 1 – July 5  8am – 6pm
July 6 – Aug 15  7am – 7pm
Aug 16 – Sept 7  8am – 6pm
Sept 8 – 30 10am – 4pm

The cost to ride the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake to Cascade Canyon trailhead is $10 round trip for adults and $5 for children.

Ken Barkey and his kids hiking to Hidden Falls for some rock climbing. Photo © Stephen Koch

When at the view point of Hidden Falls, make sure to look up at the great climbing and rappelling taking place on the rock walls above. There are several bolted climbs and rappel anchors for climbers of all abilities.

Learn to climb safely and correctly by finding a mentor, hiring a guide and buying this video.

Learning to rock climb in Grand Teton National Park.

Help support StephenKoch.com by heading to Backcountry.com for all the gear you need or covet for your next hiking or climbing adventure!

This climbing trip was one of the more intense trips I have ever done. The combination of wind, snow, ice and whiteout conditions made for a special challenge that kept me intensely interested and in the moment. It is times like these that I love climbing! Nothing keeps me in the moment better than challenging climbing,  except for possibly sex.

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Help support StephenKoch.com with a Brunton Atmospheric Data Center (tells you wind speed and more) from Backcountry.com.

Brunton Atmospheric Data Center Summit

I did make some turns along the north side of the ridge traversing to the glacier on my way to ride the Gervasutti Couloir on Mont Blanc du Tacul. The “Gervasutti,” as it is known, is situated between a bergschrund at 3465 meters and the summit ridge at 4200 meters and was first climbed in 1934 by the Italian Giusto Gervasutti and his companion Renato Chabod. The steepness of the couloir averages 45° and is 55° at its steepest.   The Gervasutti has seen a number of tragedies over the years, including that of my friend and occasional skiing and chess partner Hans Saari . Hans fell in the direct entrance to the couloir after losing his edge on ice. Check out the link above to know more about the Hans Saari Memorial Fund and the good work they are doing in Hans’ honor!

The Gervasutti was first skied by Sylvain Saudan on the 17th October 1968. Saudan is one of the great early pioneers of extreme skiing.

Here is a 1 minute video of  Tobias Granath skiing the Gervasutti. The video shows the steepness of the couloir nicely.

I opted to break the golden rule of climbing what you ski/ride on this instance, and paid a small price…others have not been as fortunate as I. The Gervasutti has towering seracs menacing the slopes below. To minimize the risk of getting wiped out from an ice avalanche if the ‘schrund calved, I walked up the back side instead of climbing directly up the couloir under the “hang fire,” before dropping in, as Hans had done. I slipped on ice towards the lower part of  the Couloir but was able to self arrest with my ice ax and eventually able to force an old, dull Russian titanium ice screw into the ice and clip into the screw with a daisy chain (leash) attached to my harness just as my gloved hand slipped out of my ice ax leash. Phew! A quick change to crampons for a short climb to the snow, and soon I was riding again. I jumped the 15′ bergschrund at the bottom of the couloir and, upon landing, popped out of both bindings! My binding screws were loose!

Let’s just say, after this and a couple other near misses, I was fortunate to make it out of Chamonix alive and with many learning experiences to learn from moving forward!

I like the short video below…of a Frenchman skiing four routes on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix.

Enjoy!

4 routes.2 friends.1 camera. from sébastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

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Help support StephenKoch.com with a sharp new ice ax to use on YOUR next steep descent from Backcountry.com.

Petzl Sun'Tec Mountaineering Ice Ax