Skiers Complete First Attempt at Colorado’s Hardrock 100

A team comprised of accomplished ultrarunners Jason Schlarb and Paul Hamilton, skimo racer Scott Simmons and videographer Noah Howell, have completed the first attempt at skiing the Hardrock 100, a 100-mile route through southwestern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. The route, traditionally a summertime endurance run, is well known for the sheer mental and physical tenacity required—it boasts 34,000 feet of elevation gain, crosses 13 passes above 12,000 feet and maintains an average elevation above 11,000 feet.

The counter-clockwise route followed by the team begins in Silverton, Colo., skirting the mountains near Lake City to summit 14er Handies Peak and continues on to the town of Ouray before cresting Virginia’s Pass to Telluride and finally finishing back in Silverton.

Schlarb and Simmons put in extensive reconnaissance time on skimo skis in order to prepare for the difficulty of this challenge. “There were a few spots that we didn’t have the time to check out, but that’s where the adventure comes in,” Schlarb says.

Only 45 minutes into the route, which the team began on March 17, they faced unexpected difficulties—“punchy and rotten” snow through the trees just miles outside of Silverton forced them off route to parallel the Animas River until they could find a safe crossing.

“Noah tried to throw his skis across the river and one ski fell short. We were there just watching Howell’s ski float down the Animas. And then he was in the river chasing it down,” Simmons recalls. “At that point we all decided just to get wet and hike across the river. Our feet were soaked, but it was a warm day; as long as you kept moving.”

The team arrived at Cunningham Gulch, their one re-supply for water and food that day, nearly three hours behind schedule. Schlarb says he experienced hobbling foot pain and, according to the group, was skinning like a “bow-legged cowboy.”

At the impromptu aid station Schlarb pulled off both ski boots, grabbed Howell’s multitool and began aggressively “modifying” his footbeds by sawing them in half to relieve the acute pain in his arches.

The 4,000-foot climb up Green Mountain from Cunningham required the team to utilize crampons. Then Simmons, while traversing a steep but short couloir, fell through the unconsolidated snowpack into a six-foot-deep well and left Schlarb yelling back at Hamilton and Howell that “Scott’s gone! He’s disappeared!”

Simmons, uninjured, was able to climb out of the hole—only after Howell captured his predicament on video. “Yeah, I was a little scared there for a moment,” Simmons says.

A heated disagreement over route finding late in the day split the group into two pairs, each going their own way and later regrouping to face a night descent into camp along what Hamilton calls a “tight-twisting ice luge and big, frozen pillow-drops on trashed legs.”

The barrage continued on day two as route finding up Handies Peak once again had the group in disagreement. Slow transitions, waiting for camera shots, 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts, a chest cold for Hamilton and a poor choice of crossing Bear Creek (that left Simmons swimming with his skis on) brought the men to the lowest point on their journey.

“It’s only been my second trip to Colorado skiing and I had the worst day I’ve ever had on skis,” Howell says.

Once in Ouray, Hamilton expressed that he did not think he would be able to continue the trip. Schlarb asked Hamilton to express his doubts on film. “He was all in after that,” Schlarb smiles.

Day three was a “rest” day and the team trekked just 17 miles from Ouray to Telluride. Although it took the group eight hours to complete the segment, their humor had returned.

The best laughs came as the men descended Liberty Bell Trail into Telluride proper—perhaps it was the oddity of four men in skin suits surrounded by the glitz of alpine skiers. But, as Simmons recalls, four men in stinky skin suits going straight for the wine and cheese in the lobby of their hotel alongside the well-to-do clientele really got them laughing.

Day four, 15 hours and 25 miles were all that remained between Telluride and Silverton. The team arrived at the South Mineral Creek crossing, the “home stretch,” right at dusk with the full moon cresting over Kendall Mountain. They exchanged their wet ski boots for running shoes and pushed hard during the last two miles, arriving in Silverton by 9 p.m.

“That was a big loop boys!” Simmons said.

The streets were deserted. Just the men and their one-lady support crew, Hannah Green, sat on a cinderblock wall eating cold burgers and sipping beer. When asked how victory tasted, Hamilton replied, “It’s sweet. And meaty.”

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Hamilton, Simmons, Schlarb and Howell’s accomplishment will be documented in the film “Skiing the Hardrock 100.” Durango, Colo.-based photographer Ben Brashear captured the Hardrock 100 on camera by meeting the team at points along the way. Find more of his work at brashearphoto.com.