6000 Foot Drop

Manitou Springs CO: 2013 Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon -- A Hearty 7815 Foot Drop

Zebulon Pike never made it to the top of his eponymous Pikes Peak, the easternmost 14.000 foot mountain in America and a navigation beacon to the heartland still today. 

But thousands of runners just as hearty as Zebulon made it to the top over the past two days in the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon -- and in under 10 hours, albeit in shoes Zeb might not have fancied.

"Hearty" is the feeling in authentically quaint Manitou Springs, perched at an elevation of 6300 feet into the canyons at the base of Pikes Peak -- 7815 vertical feet below the summit of the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon.  The Manitou Springers are real Coloradans living a real Colorado life.  For example, sometimes it rains.

Plus, gravity affects people living at the base of a gigantic mountain. 

One of the tourist attractions in hearty Manitou Springs is the Incline Trail, which, at a 2000 foot drop, is too big for Amsterdam's Museum of Torture.

Good thing the mineral water is free.  There are over a dozen pure, drinkable mineral springs all throughout Manitou Springs, built into attractions where people can fill and re-fill their water bottles gratis.

The rainbows are also free.

As we reported in our last post from Pikes Peak, its 14,115 foot summit is accessible without crampons.  One way up is the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog railway, which is a simple, albeit narrated, route to the top.

The finish line of the Pikes Peak Ascent is the finish line of the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

The Pikes Peak Tollroad is a paved road to the top for $12 per person.  We experimented on the road with a rental Toyota Tot which survived the drive and also a rental Nissan Vestibule which did not.

Or you can get there on foot -- uphill all the way.

Over 2500 hearty runners -- not a fat slob in sight -- qualified for coveted spots in Saturday's Pikes Peak Ascent, a half marathon from Manitou Springs to the summit of Pikes Peak, and Sunday's Pikes Peak Marathon, which is the same course as the Ascent but where runners turn around at the summit and plunge back down into Manitou Springs. The Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon are "America's Ultimate Challenge" (assuming this weekend's Leadville 100 is too preposterous to count....) Here is the happy scene at the start of the Ascent.

The Ascent and Marathon course follow the famous Barr Trail, busted into the pink Pikes Peak granite 100 years ago by hearty Fred Barr.  

The Ascent rises an astonishing 7815 vertical feet in 13.32 miles, with its apex at the summit of Pikes Peak at a breathtaking 14,115 feet.  At 14,115 feet, oxygen is scarce and no one can hear you scream. 

Spectators are warned not to spend too long at the summit, and Ascent competitors are whisked off the summit in shuttle vans and down to 12,000 feet to gather their thoughts.

The Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon are impressively well organized and managed events.  Seattle Seahawks american football coach Pete Carroll lookalike Ron Ilgen is the race director. Mr. Ilgen and his entire staff are to be commended for the amazing job of coordinating and comforting runners all along the steep and roadless Barr Trail.

Competitors win a medal and a unique pullover shirt and some even win a bit of money. But the joy is in the accomplishment and being one with the mountain. They are part of Manitou now.

Pikes Peak -- it's more than a 6000 foot drop!

See you in Denver for Labor Day Phish at Dicks!

 

 

Monte Carlo, Monaco: Alain Ducasse's Le Grill at Hotel de Paris -- Tuxedos are for Wait Staff

After a ten year hiatus, 6000footdrop.com returned this week to Alain Ducasse's Le Grill at the magnificent belle epoque Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Monaco.  Le Grill (on floor eight) remains a wonderful companion to Ducasse's signature (main floor) Louis XV restaurant for those looking to spend less than $1000 for dinner.    You can see the windows of Le Grill in this photo top center.

Our last Alain Ducasse review of his signature Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee in Paris showed Ducasse's ability to be completely over-the-top, cuisine-wise.  Our polite lunch-time 86 from his Le Jules Verne restaurant in Paris (for wearing shorts) showed his ability to enforce a dress code -- and that was in effect Thursday evening as we watched a Russian oligarch and his painted girl get the 86 from Le Grill for failure to wear a dinner jacket (returning 20 minutes later with a jacket still with tags.)  Tuxedos are not required for the patrons, although the staff sports at least seven different types of tuxes -- denoting who is who (e.g. white vest, white bow tie and tails means you are a busboy.)

About 25 tables mostly eurocouples, a few japanese, the sloppy russians, and even a quite well-behaved child.  The ghost of Andy Warhol was at the next table with Diane von freaking Furstenberg in a fur dress.  This Double R had only a baby on board -- no other occupants (car-seat back-seat driver's side, no kidding.)

The "purse chair" seen at Ducasse's other formal restaurants (but not, for example, at his Paris "neighborhood bistro" Aux Lyonnais) was a welcome spot for the Mary Frances.  

Le Grill opens at 8pm, although early-americans are offered the bar before 8.  Ever had a cloth cocktail napkin?  How about a blended fish tart topped with a quail egg slice the size of an olive? An asparagus puff?  Perfectly octagon potato chips? A spinach tart smaller than any of your teeth?  All for free!

Once seated, you can see the open kitchen and Le Grill's signature "grill" -- a vertical firewood prison six feet wide by four feet tall where the meats are hung vertically not even touching the hot metal.  Little hanging rib cages were going around to many of the tables like we were in Borneo.

As in all Ducasse's restaurants, the service is perfect -- at least a three-to-one server-to-patron ratio, with each staff member executing perfectly or else being berated en francais (but being allowed considerably more fraternization than at Ducasse's formal restaurants.)  Again, all silverware is presented upside down, so you can see the "HP" markings (Hotel de Paris, not Harry Potter, we deduce.)  

They sensed our americanness and offered to rush us through -- 

-- but our wry two lead waiters realized we were there for the evening just like the eurodiners (including, for the second time we have seen at Le Grill -- a lone diner) so it settled into a nice europerfection.

Our amuse bouche was a shot glass pousse cafe of blended livers cross-spiked with green apple toothpicks.  Although the wine list includes 8000-euro Chateaux Margeauxs and bargain 900-euro Opus Ones, we settled for Evian Pure with our appetizers -- grilled prawns and the 35 euro "lettuces".  Our main courses included the Sea Bream, killed, gutted, grilled and presented (with the head, by tux #6) -- before our tux #2 waiter filleted it tableside and placed it naked on the sterno'd hot serving plate followed by tux #5 on the hot citrus sauce pouring ceremony.  We also got the recipe for Ducasse's incredible "puffed" potato slices -- complicated enough for Nathan Myhrvold.  

The Grand Mariner souffles were baked perfection.  Although it had been sunny enough Thursday for this solar-assisted Fisker Karma, Le Grill's signature retractable celestial ceiling was, on this evening, on le fritz.

The triumphant Eva Peron windows are open tableside -- enough to sneak out on the marble balcony for an interlude.  Stealthy, like a matte-black Porsche.

Even perfect dinners must come to an end, so we did depart, but it was satisfying to know that we would see Monaco-native Alain again the next night at his La Trattoria at Prince Albert's Sporting Club of Monte Carlo.  We're working on our AD punch card!

See you there!