TMB Day 4: Courmayeur to Refuge Elena

Posted on January 5, 2026 by seanb724

Breakfast at Maison La Saxe was great, but we couldn’t stick around too long as we had 13-14 miles and over 5000′ of climb in front of us, to get to Refuge Elena in Val Ferret, Italy. This was also the one day we wouldn’t have luggage service, so we did have to pack enough for the hike, the stay in the Refugio, and next day’s hike, which definitely filled our day packs to the max! ( I think we all had 18-20L packs, though maybe Scott just had a Salomon running pack.)

We started in town and the B&B host took us on a few roads to a side trail which led us to the TMB. Cade Tischer (Jase’s son) was running a shorter race that stared in the morning. We hit the single track climb before the race leaders, but before long, all the runners were passing us. I’d jump in with a group here and there and try to hang, but I did have more weight in my pack than most of them! Towards the top, though, I was able to settle in with a pack of runners. Eventually Cade came along, and we also took some photos up top.

The next few show how many runners there were – and how steep it was!

And here’s Cade:

We eventually came upon a Refugio/restaurant (Rifugio Walter Bonatti) that was quite busy with day hikers. I had a beer while waiting for the rest of the gang, and Kelly had a coke when she got there.

I also saw this sign advertising a cool new family game:

Then we had a beautiful rolling hike for a few miles before a final short climb to the Refugio.

The rules here were a bit strict with where you could unload gear, what gear could come to the dorm style room, water/showers, etc. And the instructions were in Italian so I had trouble understanding the hosts first round. But another hiker was able to help us out.

Kelly was unfortunately the “victim” of almost no water in her shower — the signs that warn against running the water before you put your token in, to ensure the last person used all of theirs, were in Italian! So kelly only got a few seconds. I had a nice warm shower with tons of pressure but it was only about 3 – 4 minutes. I later learned the duration of the shower is based on how much water you are using, not how long you are using it, so it’s best to turn the pressure way down!

This was really the only communal dorm style Refugio we had on the trip — the other two we were fortunate enough to have rooms for 4, so the 4 of us were a bit more separated. There were probably at least 30 people in this room, and of course some stayed up late, and some got up very early — including one guy who had his headlight on as early as 4:30 getting his gear packed!

I stayed in a top bunk, with Kelly below, and Scott just a small divider away on the other side.

2025 Art Loeb Trail Adventure Run (ALTAR)

Posted on December 22, 2025 by seanb724

2025 is the 25th annual solstice run of the Art Loeb, though last year was the 1st time I participated. Davidson River Campground is closed for renovations, so Matt (fool on the hill) reserved White Pines Group Camp site up the street, which would add a roughly 1.5 mile road section to get to the Art Loeb Trail Head (though there are some trails on either side of the road if you are crafty).

My plan all along was a single ALTAR, but then talk of a double (DALTAR) really picked up the last day. And just before I left my home in Pittsboro, I opted to charge my lights “just in case:”

And “just in case” of course meant I was going to go for the double!

I had an uneventful drive over, stopped at the Ingles just past the Asheville airport, and grabbed a few last minute groceries. I arrived to the camp site around 6 p.m. where we hung out for bit catching up.

Charlie also brought emergency pies:

Charlie, Matt, and Kevin were talking of starting at 9 p.m., and as I’m slower, I thought I’d start at 8. I hadn’t really packed gear, so went back to the van, made a big cup of coffee, got dressed, and packed the gear and food I would need.

I left the camp site just about 8 p.m. Not many photos since it was dark and I was solo, but later I saw this awesome shot that Kevin took:

I did turn my headlight off on top of both Pilot Mountain, and Black Balsam, and the stars were incredible. Right up there with the Haiti night sky and the top of Powerline way back in 2013 when I ran Leadville.

The run was fairly uneventful on the outbound, for the most part. Water wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped, but I filled up at streams just before Butter Gap shelter as well as the middle shelter near Deep Gap. The climb up Pilot, as always, was tough, and that’s when my pace started to slow. Also, the section of trail that the Art Loeb and Mountains to Sea share, was difficult. A bit icy, and to be honest, the trail is just a little hard to follow there in the day time, let alone night.

As I was climbing Black Balsam, I decided I’d turn back rather than run the last 7 miles down the Daniel Boone Camp, but I thought I’d wait to the guys catch me. Finally around 4 a.m., 8 hours in, as I was starting to head down, I figured I’d turn around even though I hadn’t been caught. But within 15 minutes, Matt and Kevin came up. I later found Charlie had dropped at Glouster due to some foot pain. I caught up with Matt and Kevin for just a minute before we headed on our separate ways. They would later bail on the double at Daniel Boone, after a 30 mile single ALTAR.

The trek back was long and I had a few navigational issues. Looking at the GPS track now, I see better what happened. First, after a side trip into the woods for a bathroom break, I came back and continued on the trail. Just a few minutes later I could see on my watch I was no longer on the Art Loeb, and opted to bushwhack back over. That was a mistake — thick rhododendrons and down trees made me have to do quite a loop. I finally got back to where I had been, but didn’t realize I had already been on the MST for a bit! It took a little running in the wrong direction before I headed back and corrected course. This photo shows the bushwhack loop and you can see I was already on the MST.

I’d note that MST junction is the SAME PLACE that Art Loeb Run Gone Bad occurred all the way back in 2012! I don’t think it’s super well marked here — and I don’t even recall a sign from 13 years ago. But the sign in the middle of the night wasn’t obvious. I remember looking at it a couple times, but thinking the Art Loeb was super steep as soon as you hit that junction. And looking at the topo above it is — but at night and at the actual junction, the steepness begins just around the corner from the junction!

Next, just after crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway, I came upon a tree fall area which I remembered being tough on the outbound. But this time, after 3 tries, I could not find the trail on the other side. I opted to head all the way back to the BRP and try again, and this time I didn’t find the tree fall! Had I been hallucinating?? :-). No, just bad luck. This photo shows how I was looking for the trail on the wrong side of the downfall. I would not it was 5 a.m. and there was no light yet. 🙂

Without those two mishaps, I would have made Pilot Mountain for sunrise. As it was, I did see it coming up around Deep Gap and it was gorgeous.

Here’s me up on top of Pilot:

There’s not much more to write. It was a long ways back, and I suffered, and I hiked a lot more than I ran. My feet were getting pretty tired and beat up, but that’s due to not enough run volume on single track.

I got back to the camp site around 1:30 or 2:00. No one was there (they had gone into town), so I took an hour nap or so. We then hung around camp, Charlie got Pizza, and I was in bed by 8 p.m. Next morning we at at the Pisgah Bakery before we headed our separate ways.

Next day and my body has minimal soreness, but I am pretty tired. I think it’s harder to skip a night’s sleep completely now that I’m 55.

TMB Day 3: Les Chapiuex to Courmayeur

Posted on October 10, 2025 by seanb724

We had an early shuttle from Bourg St Maurice back to the trail at Les Chapiuex, because we had a big day in front of us to get all the way to Courmayeur – 19-20 miles and 5500’ of climb! We grabbed some breakfast on the way to the shuttle from a local cafe, but I found later my chocolate croissant was missing! 😦

I grabbed a quick coffee in Les Chapiuex, as well as a chocolate croissant to replace the missing one, while the others started out. But after I finished, I jogged to catch Kelly and Kelly and we hiked the 1st few miles together.

Some photos on the road and trail up to Refuge des Mottets, where we’d start our 1st big climb.

The climb to Col de la Segne, the border between France and Italy, had amazing mountain views the entire way. On the way down to the valley, I couldn’t find the water source — in hindsight it must have been up the side trail to a Refugio a bit. But I kept on going, which would later come back to hurt me a bit.

Our friend Jase was going to be in Courmayeur to run the GrandTrail Courmayeur 100k that night, and I started seeing these flags on the 2nd big climb… So I texted Jase to see if we were on his race course and we were!

I also caught up with Scott at the top, so we did the rest of the hike together… down a big drop to a Refugio which thankfully had some water – I had been low for far too long! I Ddrank a lot of water here, and then headed down down down. The ladies would end up taking the chairlift and gondola down from here, as it was an extremely steep 2-3 miles without any views.

We had a couple miles to hike through town to get to our bed and breakfast – Maison La Saxe, which was very nice, though not so easy to find! (All those little streets were a maze and google maps was not very helpful.)

After we all cleaned up, we headed into town, quite hungry (hangry?), and we found an amazing pizza place, Ristorante Pizzeria du Tunnel.

And of course, good gelato. Mine was dark chocolate (darkest ever) and coffee:

After that, we met Jase and his son Cade near the race start at 10 pm:

Then we headed back to the bed and breakfast to crash — we were all so tired!

TMB Day 1: Les Houches to Les Contamines

Posted on August 4, 2025 by seanb724

I should rewind a bit after the prelude, and talk about the logistics of the trip. I would guess upwards of 75-80% of people who hike the TMB use tour guide companies to at least help with accommodations, though a quick check with Grok and it might be less. Either way, self booking can be pretty complicated. There is a site that ties most/all of the Refugios together, but if you want to mix it up and use some hotels and some Refugios, it gets harder. That combined with having a distance range in mind per day, trying to secure lodging when different places open reservations on different days, etc, and it can be quite difficult and time consuming. All that said, KellyE took it on to manage all of that, and KellyB and I are incredibly grateful! From securing lodging, buses, breakfast/dinner/lunches, and luggage transport, KellyE had it all planned and documented for us!

Wednesday, July 9th, we woke up in Chamonix, had breakfast at our hotel “Plan B,” and jumped on an early bus to Les Houches. We were getting a little nervous that maybe we were at the wrong place as our bus was late, but there were other folks there that were obviously going out for long hikes. We later found that the buses in the area are often several minutes late. Our bus eventually arrived, we boarded and had a good 10-15 stops before Les Houches. At each stop, more and more people got on. It was soon quite crowded! But we made it to the bus stop right across from the Arch that is considered the start of the TMB.

And we were off! (After we watched everyone else get photos, and we took a few of our own.)

We had about a mile or two on flat ground before we started climbing! Scott and I got ahead of the ladies, and I quickly saw that navigation was not always going to be obvious. There weren’t always signs at road/trail junctions, or if there were, I thought they could be a little confusing. I was using Far Out and could see where I needed to go, but I was worried KellyB might not have been as familiar navigating with that. So I jogged back down to Kelly and Kelly, got KellyB set up with Far Out and the TMB maps, and started back up. KellyE always had paper maps as well as the book descriptions of what to look for. We really needed all of those sources over the course of the trip!

I reached a water stop and bathroom, and opted to run back a little to the ladies so we could enjoy some of this section together:

There were some huge slugs!

It was near the water stop when I overhead a group of runners talking about pin holes in their bladders, and I asked if they had tried to patch, but the one had just received a replacement from Salomon.. I told them that I had several pin holes right before “a big event,” and the patches didn’t help, so just had to order a new bladder rather than try to get a warranty replacement. One of the ladies asked what the big event was, and I was like “uh, Barkley.” I hadn’t really planned to say the event name, but she asked directly! They were all quite surprised! Normally I don’t really talk about that event much, and this was the only time all week it came up with anyone outside of those I was with.

Eventually I took off from the ladies to run the last bit. This was when there started to be some discrepancies between Scott’s GPX files and the Far Out app. And even the street signs weren’t always that helpful. One example:

The red line is supposed to be the main route, and the purple is an alternate. I ran up to the red, but it was just a paved road, while the purple was a trail along the river. So I opted for the latter which looked much nicer. This would become a theme the rest of the trip… Debating between Scott’s GPX files, the Far Out app, and what was actually there in real life! Scott’s was nice because it actually took us right to our lodging locations when they weren’t on the trail, so I just used a combo.

I got to the Refugio and it wasn’t open yet, but Scott and I sat on the deck for a while. Eventually the owner came and let us in, and I got cleaned up and had enough time to wash and then dry my clothes in the sun. We had a nice dinner and the four of us were in a private room, with a shared bathroom (with a bunch of ladies from Norway)!

Elevation profile and map:

The Barkley Marathons

Posted on March 25, 2025 by seanb724

I thought I might write a more in-depth race report, but instead I’ll share what I posted to social media immediately following the race, and then supplement it with a bit of info on gear and nutrition, as well as more photos.

What I wrote a day after is raw and emotional and I want to share that feeling here:

I’m having trouble putting into words the emotions I feel having participated in the 2025 Barkley Marathons, to me the pinnacle of the “do hard things” ethos my endurance pursuits have gravitated towards over the years. I have paddled a boat for 38 hours / 340 miles on the Missouri River, run 100 miles at altitude or in near freezing rain — the list could go on.

But the Barkley has been the hardest event out there — with just 20 finishers in 38 years. To toe the line after years of dreaming about it, after years of trying to get in, was somewhat overwhelming. I had imposter syndrome leading up to it, and as I summited the very first hill as the last runner out of the 40 starters, it was hitting hard. I have no idea why I couldn’t climb that 1st hill, but once I summited and started the descent, I started catching others, found the 1st book, and was on to the next climb, where I was able to hang with those I was now around.

I’ll write a much more in depth report on the 2sparrows blog soon, so won’t go into much more detail here. But from the 2nd climb on, I felt better, and after a few hours found myself in a group of five — John, Matt, Kenny, Nathan, and myself, two veterans and three virgins — all with the same goal — get all the books on loop one no matter how much time it took. Thankfully Laz had given permission at the start to be out there beyond the cut off, and we took that to heart. We did quite well other than book 9 — where we spent at least 5 hours, attacking and re-attacking, but all to no avail.

We finally had to abandon it, but we were not defeated, we were determined to continue. Matt did decide to head back to camp at the Fire Tower, while the rest of us continued. I had been thinking in my mind we’d have to send one of us back, just to let everyone know the rest of us were still alive, uninjured, and determined to continue. We had yet to see an elite runner pass us on their loop two, and literally had seen no one else for over 15 hours, so no one in camp knew we were ok or that we were together.

The remaining 4 of us trudged on, down Rat Jaw, up and down a couple more mountains (where we lost John on the last climb who told three of us to go on), and on to camp and the famous yellow gate. 24 hours and 30 minutes on an incomplete loop one. But I never felt defeated — this was clearly the hardest Barkley yet — three time five loop finisher John Kelly was barely able to eek out the only fun run (3 loops) of the event, with less than 10 minutes to spare before the 40 hour cut off. And that included two 15 hour loops! It was incredibly challenging, incredibly humbling, but at the same time incredibly validating – even though I didn’t complete loop 1 in time or with all the books, I belonged.

I estimate we covered 30-35 miles and 14,000-15,000 feet of vertical, 90% off trail. (More than one loop should be, but re-attacking book 9 three different times added a lot of distance and vert!)

So incredibly thankful for my wife and crew Kelly Allenbaugh Butler who had no idea where I was for 20+ hours… And stayed up into the wee hours waiting…

Nutrition

Below are the day and night bags I had made. Not shown in the day bag is that I put 4-500 calories of Tailwind in both of my bottles. These equate to about 2500-3000 calories each and about 4-500 mg of caffeine in the night bag. With the late start time and me thinking a single loop could be well over 13 hours, I ended up carrying a day bag distributed in my pack and belt as then threw in a night bag in the back of the pack – just in case. This saved me, as when we finally reached the fire tower about 18 hours in, I had to calorie count what I had left to ensure I could make it, otherwise I would have had to head back to camp from there.

All the food was good — the only time I had trouble was with how dry the SIS Go Energy Bakes can be. I would of course had some real food on an inter-loopal if I had gotten that far.

Gear

Not shown are a few items like a naked running belt etc. The pack was a Salomon Adv Skin 12 which was borderline too small — if the weather had looked bad I might have had to carry a larger pack. I did need my belt to hold a few things — some nutrition and the course description.

I wore both a wrist compass and had a plate compass for bearings, but I almost never used the plate compass. Mainly because the runners I was with had already written down bearings and were faster checking/taking them in the field. But I would certainly carry both again.

The light set up was great. While the runners I was with all had to change batteries a couple times or pull out a 2nd/spare light, both the flash light and headlight I had never needed battery changes. They both take 18650’s and I had purchased Orbtronics 3600mAh batteries, larger than the 3400mAh Fenix offers. Flashlight is Fenix PD35 v2 which has a max lumens of 1600 (I see they now have a v3 which goes to 1700!), which we used extensively as we approached books or searched the distance for land features such as a spur or draw. None of the other guys had a bright handheld, but all of them said they would definitely carry one in the future! I have used this set up extensively for Rogaining and it really is key to have a bright handheld as you approach controls or to get a lay of the land. The headlight is the Fenix HMR65R-T v2.0 which I kept on the 2nd lowest setting all night — never needed the brighter settings since I had my handheld.

Clothing/shoes

I definitely had trench foot after 24 hours… I had slid into a stream at hour 3 or 4, so my feet were wet early and stayed that way. I had injinji toe socks with an over sock. I would go with a thinner injinji next time. The La Sportiva Cyclan was great, even though it’s advertised as a mid-distance shoe. The traction is really good on the crazy steep terrain we covered.

I also used XOSkin liners and had no chaffing (liberal amounts of Squirrels Nut Butter!!). A Stio Eddie short sleeve was fine — bright so everyone knew who I was. Arm warmers, a buff for a hat. (I had forgotten a real hat, but the buff was fine in this weather. I thought I didn’t have any gloves so my fingers got cold in the deep night up on the ridges in the wind, but found gloves the next day when I emptied the pack. 😦 )

All in all happy with all the gear choices!

Video

I also want to share this great video from the single track podcast which has both Kelly and me in it in a few places — didn’t hurt that we shared a camp site with Ron the filmmaker…

A few miscellaneous photos:

I’m still on cloud 9 a week after having been “out there” — such a long time dream for me that finally came true. It was a great event with a great group of people and I hope I’m allowed to participate again in the future.