Tough Mudder Start

What a weekend for Squaw Valley.  Bringing Tough Mudder to the valley in September made what would usually be a quiet weekend look like a mid winter powder day with the number of cars and people here.  That being said it was very well organized from parking and registration to the actual event.  I think it worked out because of the staggered start times of the approximately 18,000 participants over a two day period.  This was not only an event to particpate in, it also had a cause.  Tough Mudder has donated over $1 Million to the Wounded Warrior Project.

We challenged ourselves on Sunday and lucked out with an early start time of 8:40am.  600 people started ever 20 minutes for this 13 mile course with 24 obstacles around Squaw’s skiable terrain.  Our team, “Fadders and Mudders”, consisted of Ron and I and another couple who are good friends of ours and also competitive adventure racers.  Yeah, they have done Primal Quest and Eco Challenge and races of that sort. 

Fadders and Mudders

We were the 3rd wave of starts, so approximately 1200 people were in front of us when we gathered on the start line.  Before starting we heard the National Anthem and raised our right hand for the Tough Mudder pledge that basically said… this is not a race but rather an event to be completed, no whining because kids whine and comradirie and team spirit are of upmost importance.  Having checked out the start on Saturday, we knew getting to the second obstacle at the beginning of our wave prevented us from waiting in a bottleneck lineup to complete it.  So our team decided it would make sense to run up the first hill and get to the “Kiss of Mud” within the first 50 people or so. 

The horn blasted and off we went up the Sunnyside of the mountain run and we were kissing the mud within the first 15 people.  We had to belly crawl under barbed wire through muddy water about 18 inches deep.  Yep, about a half mile into the 13 mile course and we were soaking wet and had bits of gravel in our shoes and gloves (a recommended bit of apparel).  We chuckled as we looked at ourselves, glanced back at the bottleneck forming behind us and headed off on our hike up the mountain run.

Kiss of Mud

We hiked at a steady and fast pace, slowly gaining on people from the waves in front of us and being passed by a handful of people running up the mountain run.  We stopped for a mid mountian obstacle where we waded through a large garbage container full of cold muddy water in which we had to dunk under a few walls to get across.  You can’t stop and contemplate how it is going to be or feel.  We just got in, got it done and kept on hiking, dripping wet again.

The top of the mountain had us doing a variety of obstacles including a childhood P.E. classic rope climb, monkey bars over water (some bars rotated), another garbage container full of ice and water with walls to dunk under (burr to the fullest extent of the word) and probably the hardest to accomplish… a slippery quater pipe wall.  This curved and slippery wall was probably more than 12 feet high at the top.   The side offered a few 2×4 planks to step up almost within arm reach of the top.  You really had to depend on teamwork and help from other teams to accomplish this.

Over the next several miles we made our way to the top of Emigrant and the top of the Palisades with a few obstacles to accomplish along the way like Devil’s Beard, Log Jamming and Hold your Wood.  The views were amazing, the weather was perfect and it seemed every time we were drying out a bit another water obstacle was in front of us.  I kept commenting on how I was ready for another swim.

Next we approached the Mid Mountain area around Goldcoast and Siberia.  We did Berlin Walls, two 12 foot high walls that we hoisted each other up and over.  As I pushed off for this one my calf  muscles had a severe charlie horse cramp.  Luckily it passed with a little stretching and I was well aware of my movements the rest of the race to prevent it from happening again.  We also did Walk the Plank, a 20ft jump into the cold Goldcoast pond, then swim over to 3 floating barrels that you had to dunk and swim under.  I liked these ones however the water was colder than I expected.  My biggest concern was possibly having a leg cramp but I swam gingerly enough that it didn’t cramp and actually the cold water probably did me good.

Turd's Nest- cargo net

Eventually we made our way across Headwall and over to the KT horse trail area.  We hiked and jogged along the ridge up to the top of KT22 where the 4th and last water station was.  We grabbed a sip and breezed by 30 or so people lingering at the top.  I know this was not a race but we are all athletes and there is just something inside that makes you feel accomplished as you pass others along a course.  It was all downhill from there and we jogged our way down completing 2 tasks on the way.  The last mile or so were switch backs down the face of Red Dog which brought us to the last 3 obstacles: crossing a cargo net suspended off the ground, crossing a balance beam over Cushing pond (3 of the 4 of us didn’t make it and took a final swim) and lastly a dash through live electric wires.  This was one of the obstacles I was most nervous about but figured if thousands of people had done it yesterday I would be fine.  I got one really big jolt on my leg that made me yelp and go down onto one knee but I was up and out of there quick.  We all crossed the finish line together.  It took us 3 hours and 35 minutes which I would guess was on the faster side but they don’t time you so who really knows.  As we walked across the finish line we were handed a bright orange Tough Mudder head band, a t-shirt and a nice cold beer.

There was definitely a cross section of people participating but I would say the majority were ages 25 to 45 and looked fairly fit.  We did pass people who looked like they may have never come down a rocky mountain trail, unsure with their feet.  I heard there were people being rescued from the Goldcoast pond because they couldn’t swim.   We heard of one heli vac from early in the competition on Saturday.  We heard about big pile ups at the obstacles for people who started later in the day.

Chiara- a Tough Mudder

Ron- looking tough

We had a goal of finishing the entire event, safely and to have fun doing it.  We definitely completed our goal and actually had more fun doing it than expected. 

We did the Tough Mudder event because it was in our “backyard”.  I’d have to say if it came to Squaw Valley again I’m pretty sure Ron and I would be signing up!