Gabe Joyes and the Snowman Race
What do you say when His Majesty The King of Bhutan wants to put on an ultra marathon through the Himalaya to show the impact of climate change, and invites you to participate?
Photo by Gabe Joyes
A high-altitude stage race over 5 days, 126 miles, and 33,000 total feet of climbing? Well, if you’re Gabe Joyes, you say YES.
In this episode, ultra runner, coach, and teacher, Gabe Joyes, sits down with Kris Hampton to share his experience in running the Snowman Race in Bhutan in 2022.
Photo by Gabe Joyes
The race was put on partly in celebration of His Majesty The King’s birthday, but mostly, to show the world the impact of climate change on one of the most beautiful places in the world.
While it was technically a race, Gabe walked away with a deeper purpose and responsibility to be a vocal climate steward, as well as a deep appreciation for the Bhutanese people and culture.
LINKS:
Catch up with Gabe on Instagram (you can see more photos and videos on one of his highlights!).
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Kris Hampton 0:09
Imagine: you're at 15,000 feet in the Himalayas, you've been on the move for three days, and over 80 miles, as fast as you can, in this type of terrain anyway, and you know, that around the next bend is camp. But you round that bend, and there's no camp.
Gabe Joyes 0:34
And so we're like, oh, I guess I have to keep going a bit further, and another mile and by still not camp, another mile and still not at camp, you know, we're at like, 28 miles, 29 miles still no camp.
Kris Hampton 0:47
It's getting dark. It's getting colder.
Gabe Joyes 0:51
But we were really starting to wonder and we're like, you know, thinking at what point are we just going to like, lay down and cuddle for the night like, the sun's starting to go down. We're like, we just keep going and keep hiking and running throughout the night.
Kris Hampton 1:02
And so they do keep going. 30 Miles. 31 Miles. Still no camp. Today, a story about the Snowman Race. Billed as the world's toughest ultra marathon, the Snowman Race covers 126 miles over five days, with 33,000 total feet of climbing through the Himalayas. It takes the average person about 15 days to make this trek. But these 29 athletes from all over the world are trying to cross these mountains as fast as possible. I'm Kris Hampton. You're listening to Plug Tone Outdoors. And we're talking with the top American finisher Gabe Joyes, to find out what it takes to run the Snowman Race.
Gabe Joyes 1:59
My name is Gabe Joyes, I live in Lander Wyoming. I am a runner, a running coach, a teacher. And I competed in the Snowman Race in the fall of 2022. So when I was in college, my wife and I, we both worked at a summer camp, kind of smack dab in the middle of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Montana. And we would take these kids on like five day backpacking trips. And we'd often have like 24 to 48 hours between these camp sessions. We always plan these really aggressive goals to try to go and climb up some peak that was 20 miles away or whatever. And it was really critical to have to be back on time. It was like non negotiable, you couldn't be late for the end of the break. And so we would take all of our heavy backpacking stuff and hike as hard as we could and go and climb up these peaks and end up like running down the trail with like 40 pounds on our back trying to get back on time. And I mean, it was kind of fun, but also like, kind of miserable too. And so we'd go back for like another summer, we'd come back with even lighter gear thinking we were really slick doing like the fast and light thing. Still turns out, you can only go so fast when you have like 25 pounds on your back. Once we moved to Wyoming after college, it got to the point where you only have so much time before you have to be back to work. We decided just stop carrying the backpack and stuff and just run and get to these places ee wanted to get to faster and still be home by dinner.
Kris Hampton 3:32
Yeah, I'm not a runner at all. No intentions of becoming a runner. But I could see myself getting sucked into running that way.
Gabe Joyes 3:42
Right? That's kind of what it is. You kind of get like sucked and it was never a plan. I was never like I want to be this mountain runner. It was just a really wanting to get to amazing places and had to find a way to fit into life.
Kris Hampton 3:54
Was there a moment that you were like, Okay, I'm a mountain runner.
Gabe Joyes 4:00
As these things became more and more common, I remember one fall my wife and I we got a ride from Lander over to Big Sandy. For Lander runners. It's kind of a classic run now to go from Big Sandy through the Cirque of the Towers over Jackass Pass and into Sinks Canyon, and we decided to kind of do that a little bit on a whim. And we got caught in a blizzard on Jackass Pass in the Cirque. I mean, it was and we were very underprepared. And this was I think the longest run we've ever done in our lives. And we finished that with our, you know, our eyes wide open, like, can't believe what we just did. It was mind blowing. Once that felt like possible. It was sort of like, what else can we do? This is so cool. And that was maybe like a watershed moment of 'we can do a lot of fun things running in the mountains.'
Kris Hampton 4:52
And Gabe has done a lot of fun things running in the mountains. He's also done growling things that he'd call fun, but would probably kill you and I. As a husband and father of two young girls, a teacher, and a community leader, he has to be incredibly intentional with his time. But somehow he's found the time to run and win many 100 mile races, and his held several fastest known time records in the mountains of Wyoming. And the chance to run across the Himalayas was one he just couldn't pass up. But this race wasn't at all going to be focused on just moving as fast as you could. Bhutan had something else in mind.
Gabe Joyes 5:42
The Snowman Race was the idea of His Majesty the King of Bhutan, he wanted to create an event, believe it was also to help celebrate his birthday, so part of his own birthday party to create this event to draw the world's attention to how climate change was impacting Bhutan, and particularly the high Himalayas of Bhutan, in the Himalaya, in general in Central Asia. And so his idea for drawing attention this was to put on a race and invite trail runners from around the world to come and see firsthand for themselves what is going on Himalayas.
Kris Hampton 6:20
Did it seem odd to you? Because it did to me the first time I heard about this race, that there was a, you know, a big Ultra run through the mountains, which very few people can really go do as a pointing toward climate change.
Gabe Joyes 6:42
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I almost rolled my eyes at it. At first I heard about this, I was like, How ridiculous is this? Like? How does it make sense to fly all these people from around the world. And in all the, you know, the carbon that comes along with that, and it's something for climate change awareness. To be fair, I thought it sounded really amazing. I was like, Whoa, what a completely badass adventurer. But I kind of thought really, like really, for climate change. Come on now. But as I kind of read more about the event and learn more about the event, I was sort of like, whoa, they're dead serious. This is not the sort of thing where they're putting on an event with just climate change being sort of like a convenient excuse to do it, like an excuse to put on the party or whatever. But they were really serious about it. And they, the more I learned, the more impressed I became and saw that there there could really be tangible benefits for for the running community and maybe for the world.
Kris Hampton 7:39
Yeah, this wasn't like a 5% of proceeds go towards climate change, right?
Gabe Joyes 7:44
Yeah, not not at all. Not at all, this was very much like a financial net loss for them. I mean, the amount of money the government of Bhutan invested into this race is frankly, unbelievable, especially considering their budget, like Bhutan is not like an overly wealthy country, and for them to go through all the hoops it took and yeah, the finances, the logistics, the years of planning to make this happen. You don't do that unless you're really serious and feel like it's gonna make a difference.
Kris Hampton 8:17
Yeah. What was it? Like? What was the conversation with the runners like in explaining that you're now climate ambassadors?
Gabe Joyes 8:28
Yeah, they use that term climate ambassadors very seriously. Even before we left, like, so there is a whole application process. You know, we kind of interviewed with an athlete manager and a race director, and they wanted to make sure it was abundantly clear to us like this race is not about you trying to run across the Himalayas and cross the finish line in some sort of glory for yourself. That's not what this is about at all. This race is about climate change. It's about Bhutan, it's about the people of Bhutan. And so the tone was set in from the moment we got there. We were welcomed as, as climate ambassadors. And we were told from the Chairman of the Committee of the Snowman Race committee, that with this race becomes a great responsibility for us, and that we are absolutely expected to go out in the world and share our experience and share what we've seen and, and be ambassadors for climate change.
Kris Hampton 9:28
In fact, Bhutan was the first carbon negative country in the modern world, and still one of only three offsetting more than double the carbon emissions that they produce. For the race. They tracked and offset the emissions created by athlete travel, and maybe most important, these runners were racing through and stopping in villages in the high altitude fragile ecosystems that were being most affected by Climate change. They got to see with their own eyes the real results of global warming. And I don't know about you. But when I hear a politician talking about climate change, I tune them out. It's probably an election cycle. They didn't write that speech. And I'm not even sure they understand what they're saying. However, when an athlete speaks up about something, particularly in the era of stick to sports man, and especially an athlete who knows firsthand what they're talking about, I listen. So this might just be a masterstroke from His Majesty, the King of Bhutan. So they bring in athletes from all over the world, a week before the race is scheduled to begin. And they make sure that the reason for the race is crystal clear.
Gabe Joyes 10:57
We also did a lot of fascinating, amazing cultural events. We went to a monastery called Tiger's Nest that some folks might be familiar with, it's this Buddhist monastery hanging off the edge of like a 500 foot cliff or something like that. I mean, it's just out of this world. So we had lots of very, very cool spiritual experiences, lost track of how many times a different monk or abbot blessed us and wished us well, so it was kind of exhausting. You know, by the time raceday came around, we were pretty tired.
Kris Hampton 11:33
So it sounds like the whole country is getting into this.
Gabe Joyes 11:35
The whole country was absolutely behind this.
Kris Hampton 11:45
Okay, so there are 20 international athletes, twelve men, eight women from 11 different countries, they all fly to Bhutan, and meet up with the Bhutanese team, five men, four women. They're all going to be running 126 miles over five days, which for most of these runners, seems pretty tame. But the average elevation of the course is over 14,000 feet. So basically, that would be spending five days trying to run at the same elevation as the highest peaks in the continental United States, not to mention, the 33,000 feet of climbing. And the high point of the race, at just about 50 feet shy of 18,000 feet. Doesn't seem so tame anymore. In fact, it sounds pretty daunting. And I'm not a runner. But I have spent my fair share of time in the mountains sharing big objectives with people from all across the world. And every time there's one intangible that not only makes success more likely, but as the lasting thing I walk away with, and it's not the achievement. It's the sense of community. And Gabe says the getting to know the Bhutanese athletes, particularly when they would sing together during group runs, was one of the most special parts of his trip.
Gabe Joyes 13:21
Here we go, running behind the Bhutanes, they're are all going.
They were such an exceptional group of people. They had diverse backgrounds, as you might expect, all the males were involved in like the armed forces or police of Bhutan. But you know, some people like a woman who won the race. He was a yak herder. You know? That's what she does for a living is herds Yaks and collects cordyceps and that's so for living, she walks around the Himalayas and she beat every other woman there. So kind of a, you know, maybe slightly non conventional training regimen that worked very well for her.
Kris Hampton 14:18
So the Bhutanese government brought some ringers is what you're saying.
Gabe Joyes 14:21
Exactly, yeah.
Kris Hampton 14:29
We'll be right back. And we're going to run right alongside Gabe day by day on the world's toughest high altitude ultra marathon.
Emily Holland 14:54
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Gabe Joyes 15:39
That whole first week we were in Bhutan, we were catching the end of the fall monsoon. It rained every day, it was gray, it was overcast. All these different monks had been praying for good weather and for things to clear. And then it was unbelievable. The morning of the race all these clouds start to pull back and reveal its enormous mountains with like blazing white snow capped peaks. And it was like oh, this is what we're getting ourselves into.
Kris Hampton 16:09
So that was the curtain at the last minute before the race started?
Gabe Joyes 16:13
Exactly. So we didn't quite know what we're getting into. We didn't get a preview but race morning that was quite eye popping for sure.
Kris Hampton 16:23
Snowman race day one, 29 miles, total climbing 10,000 feet, highest elevation 16,255 feet.
Gabe Joyes 16:36
The first I don't know four or five miles of the race. Were some of the only miles that were truly runnable but it was of course a little bit muddy and so we could start out running quite well. And then as soon as we left this this road and got onto a single track, the trail I mean you can't even, the word trail isn't quite appropriate. I mean it's a utilitarian path you know, these are our working paths where people are, mostly it's a lot of livestock using them, you know it's a lot of pack animals, Yaks, transporting goods, transporting people and so it's these rocky absolutely just mud filled paths and of course you know it's all these pack animals you know leave behind you know their feces and so after the weeks of raining after this it was like running in diarrhea. I mean it was just gnarly. Yeah, that was interesting you know like Okay, here I am this is, this is running
Kris Hampton 17:42
It threw you right from the easy dirt road into the mess.
Gabe Joyes 17:45
Yup, absolutely into the mess with the slime yes filthiest stuff you can imagine. And as we started to ascend higher and you know into the high Himalaya on the first day.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 17:58
All right, Snowman Race is getting real. The river, glaciers tumbling off mountains, so outrageous.
Gabe Joyes 18:14
Things became less muddy but of course then it became snowy, rocky and just extremely high altitude difficult to move, which is something that I had really looked forward to this race I was really curious to see what it was like to run and move at such extreme altitudes and I can confirm it's humbling and very challenging.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 18:40
Made it to the first big pass. I am at, almost 16,000 feet, little bit of icy gravel coming out the sky. It's fantastic up here.
Gabe Joyes 19:06
I mean, there's some running for sure but it's more like dynamic mountain movement would maybe be like a term for it you know, you're hopping from one rock to neck jog a few steps splat and in the mud. Hop on for more rock jog a little bit hike up the next hill, you know, it's it takes a kind of an extraordinary amount of patience. Because your progress is slow. You're not moving nearly as fast as you'd like to you are carrying, you know 8-10 pounds on our back of required gear. So that slows you down and then there's a thinner air. And so it's just you have to take it bit by bit because there's, you know, if you're picturing like a Boston Marathon or something that it couldn't be any more different than that.
Kris Hampton 20:03
I'm curious in the past, you know, a long time ago, when I did run quite a bit I would sort of get lost in my thoughts while running. It doesn't sound like you even have that opportunity in that kind of terrain.
Gabe Joyes 20:20
You're kind of right. Yeah, if for for the kind of runner that likes to like kind of space out and just zone out andcruise this isn't it takes full on focus and concentration. And so that makes it really mentally exhausting, as well as physically tiring, of course, and to me, that's the challenge of this. It's like, you know, once you get really fit, you know, you can train your body to run all day, but to train your mind to stay focused so that you can move through that sort of terrain safely is really difficult. That takes a lot of a lot of practice and a lot of mental stamina.
Kris Hampton 20:58
Yeah. How were you feeling on that first day?
Gabe Joyes 21:02
I felt quite good running. I was pleasantly surprised how well I held up with altitude. Certainly felt a bit hypoxic. I like the high pass that day which was at 16,000 feet, but I felt like I was keeping it together pretty well and the last couple of miles before I got into the day one night halt. I was starting to feel like a little off but I was like oh I'm gonna keep it together. I should be okay.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 21:27
All right, I think I'm almost at the final night halt or the first night excuse me get ahead of myself here. I don't know where it is though. Got worried that it was moved up a little bit. Seems like I should have been there by about now but I'm still on course. Giddy up time, feel a little hypoxic at the moment, I think I'm close to 16,000 feet, but doing okay.
Gabe Joyes 22:06
Okay, got to camp. I was like, Alright, I'm gonna change out of my wet clothes, eat some food lay down and I figured things would be fine and...
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 22:16
Kay, here's night halt one unbelievable. I'm gonna go eat and sleep.
Gabe Joyes 22:32
I went with that game plan. And I went laid in my tent. And I just started feeling terrible. I mean, it was like, every, every minute that went by, I sort of felt like my skull was being crushed. I felt kind of sick to my stomach and woozy and just kind of felt like I was out of my mind a little bit. And it didn't help that our camp was I think it was right at 16,000 feet or maybe was a hair below that. So for listeners who have climbed a mountain in the US, or maybe like a 14-er in Colorado or something like that, you get up there, it's really high. You high five, you have a snack, you turn around you come back down, right and so your actual time at altitude is really low. But to get up that high and then to stay there and try to recover at that altitude. I discovered is that's really hard when you don't get a break from it. And so that whole rest of that afternoon that evening. I felt just awful. I couldn't eat anymore. I couldn't sleep and was kind of a miserable human being.
Kris Hampton 23:31
Were other people also suffering in the same way?
Gabe Joyes 23:34
Yeah, a lot of folks were struggling for sure. I was certainly maybe amongst the few that were feeling at the hardest that first day. My prognosis to carry on the second day was really low. The doctor there said like if you don't if you're not better you're not you're not racing tomorrow. Same with like the night halt manager they weren't gonna let me go unless I got a lot better.
Kris Hampton 23:57
Snowman race day two, 25 miles, total climbing 5,500 feet, highest elevation 17,000 feet.
Gabe Joyes 24:11
I woke up at like two in the morning and was kind of like hey, maybe I feel a little bit better. I was able to eat a little bit of food at two in the morning and I was like oh, you never know. And then I forget what time we had to wake up four or five or something really early. I don't know. It wasn't that much longer I woke up again I felt even a little bit better I got some food in me and...
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 24:30
Everybody's feelings little check in videos yeah, we're doing like warm and cozy. "FUCK" I only want a second that it's not there's nothing like waking up to literally frozen running shoes. I forgot to brush my last night it was like heavily this morning. Yeah, any better Megan? Any better? Various degrees getting me through. Feel's good, here we go. It's cold.
Gabe Joyes 25:10
Put on the best show I could for the doctor, smile from ear to ear and hopped around. I was like, I'm ready to go. And I convinced her to sign off for me and reluctantly, the aid station or the halt manager said fine, go ahead. It sort of felt a little bit miraculous but I was able to turn things around just in time and continue on to day two which was such a relief to because to go there and only run one day would have been a massive disappointment.
Kris Hampton 25:39
I'm curious in the middle of the night at night halt one. Were there moments when you were like, I don't think I even want to continue tomorrow?
Gabe Joyes 25:51
No, I desperately wanted to continue. You know, I was there for this once in a lifetime experience of running across the Himalayas and wanted to embrace experience everything that I had to offer whether that was comfortable or highly uncomfortable that that wasn't that wasn't a concern. I just really wanted to be out there. 100%
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 26:13
Okay, about to start day two. I almost didn't start today with some nasty AMS symptoms yesterday. Got nice and medicated, hopefully that's a good choice. Give it a try today. See how it goes. Mostly just want to run across the Himalayas. We're all getting ready. It's cold! Game on.
Gabe Joyes 26:42
So day two, I mean, I was a little bit nervous going into day two, I was like, wow, I completely got my ass kicked within a day one. I need to keep it together for day two here a little bit. So I intentionally dialed back the effort. I ran all of day two with a good buddy of mine, Luke Nelson, from Pocatello, Idaho.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 27:00
All right. Luke and I are making progress. Here comes our friend, she's so strong. Sometime we're going up this I don't know where yet. But it's coming.
Gabe Joyes 27:18
And so we started out together up another large climb. We went up to I think was about 17,000 feet right away. Some of the best views of the entire trip it was unbelievable, but kept the other two there and then we had a huge descent down to I think we were running in a valley that was about 13 or 14,000 feet which you know is really high but it felt kind of low it was like, huh, it's great down here there's like green grass and felt like there was oxygen so it was nice to have someone to run with and move along and share the miles with and kind of help watch out for each other and we just kind of moved along pretty well and that day was challenging but I was really pleased with how well I was able to keep it together. We had another high pass we had to go over and I mean, it ended up being a little over eight hours of running again I think.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 28:10
Thank you! Thank you. Thank you. Oh man.
Gabe Joyes 28:19
I mean it feels uneventful now looking back on it because it was but it was more just about like trying to make it through one step at a time because I just I was so so focused on being able to finish and so I knew I just had to make it through a little by little and that was the whole goal that day and yeah, it was great great to have somebody to run with and final destination that day was probably one of the most remote villages in the world it's called Lunana Village. I think is the highest altitude permanently settled village in the world. Hope I'm right about that. But I mean it's out there there's no roads like like you know you're like 30 miles of trail just to get to this village so it is really tucked back there. So that was somewhere that I had been looking forward to getting into so I was thrilled to make a to Lunana village at the end of day two and day two chewed up a lot of people there was folks who like didn't who turned around after night halt one and didn't continue on they weren't confident they could make the cut offs or complete the race. One of my good friends, she ended up with IV needles in her arm and getting a helicopter ride out that next day. There was a another athlete who was lifted out on a helicopter so people struggled you know. The time at altitude was wearing folks down for sure.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 29:45
Alright folks made it to night halt two, Lunana Village. Now, we're just resting now. Do you guys see this view? I don't know if I'll turn up. What?! That's from the tent. Not bad.
Gabe Joyes 30:04
Yeah, night halt two was some of the most memorable times of the whole trip. So all the students are the kids in this village. They got the day off of school. So, so wild and they all made signs about climate change, that they were like holding up for us. And so they welcome us into the village that evening, and they made an absolutely enormous bonfire, which is kind of remarkable, because like, there's no trees around this area for a while. It's like it's so high. So I don't know where they got all that wood from. I'm sure that was a good bit of work for them.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 30:41
All right, we're in Lunana Village. And all these wonderful childrenare gonna sing for us around a fire. I can't believe it. And then it will be bedtime. What's your name? Nice to meet you. My name is Luke.
Gabe Joyes 31:04
Had this huge bonfire and they did dances for us and sang songs and they put on this unbelievable show. And so we got a chance to hang out with these kids and adults and Lunana village and hear their stories.
So that was really special even though we were all just exhausted completely knackered. Like we all stay up along the fire, you know, for well into the dark in the beginning of another freezing night. I don't know if I mentioned that before, but goodness that nights are cold. I mean, damn. I mean, you can stay alright, warm in your sleeping bag when you get out in the morning. Anyways, so night two in Lunana Village was really special.
Kris Hampton 31:53
We'll be right back with the final three days of the Snowman Race.
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Snowman Race, day three, scheduled for 27 Miles, actually 32 miles, total climbing 7,500 feet, highest elevation 17,946 feet.
Gabe Joyes 33:21
I felt good. I felt like I was really starting to get more acclimated in day three was our you know most folks were anticipating that being the most challenging day of the whole journey. There was supposed to be about 26 miles and going over a pass that was at 18,000 feet just a hair under 18,000 feet like 17,994, something like that.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 33:48
It's hard to think too much about the fatigue with views like this unbelievable. Here comes Luke. Lunana Valley's down there, unbelievable. I keep saying that but I think I'll keep saying that.
Here we go up up up. Joggy, Joggy. Let's go, let's go in Bhutanese. Looks like we got another welcoming committee. We had another little village here. Even got the Bhutan flag out today. Jogging while at about 14,000 feet. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you!
At about 14,000 feet. Think we're going somewhere up there. The mountains get really big and snowy. But we came up from this valley below, crossed the river, did some hiking. There's Luke, looking good. Lunana Village is somewhere down there. Oh my, giddy up.
Alright, we are climbing at 16,700. You can see one of our Bhutanese friends up there in the orange pack. We gave up on eating while moving and took a standing snack break. I think it had to be done. And it's getting a little snowiers, getting a little weirder. But maybe we've got like another 12 or 1300 feet to go to the pass. I'm pretty sure we're gonna make it. Pretty sure. Peace out.
Folks, this is pretty cool. A monk or abbot, somebody at the Tigers Ness gave Mr. Luke Nelson here some prayer flags to add to the highest part of the course, which indeed we have made it to somehow. Prayer flags from the Tiger's Nest. That's not amazing. I don't know what it is. Bravo, sir.
Gabe Joyes 36:35
I felt surprisingly good that day. As we worked our way up for sure, like hypoxic. Things were silly. But I was able to eat well and, and keep I was like just pounding these peanut butter filled pretzels. It was great.
Kris Hampton 36:52
What are you? You mentioned that it was really cold at night. What are you wearing? How are you dressing to run at 18,000 feet?
Gabe Joyes 37:01
That's interesting. So we'd start in the morning with like everything on, you know, like, all these layers. And then the moment that sun would hit us, it felt blazing hot, even if it wasn't, and so most the time we were running in shorts and T shirts.
Kris Hampton 37:15
Wow.
Gabe Joyes 37:15
Here we are in the Himalayas in October, you know up at I think by the time I got the 18,000 feet, I think I put a Wind Jacket on or something like that. There's fresh snow on the ground. And the air temperature and solar intensity is warm enough for like, shorts, t shirt, wind jacket. Yeah. I mean, that's wild. I think that's wild.
Kris Hampton 37:37
I suppose it is a race for climate change.
Gabe Joyes 37:39
Yes, exactly. And so as we're that I mean, that really was striking as we were up at 18,000 feet and like, you know, barely wearing any layers and looking at these giant moraines that don't have ice in them anymore. And you can tell they're recently melted out. And there's these lakes leftover and that was really eye opening, particularly on that third day when we were up in such a high alpine area. But the lack of ice in some areas was kind of staggering. The terrain on day three was as difficult as anything you could move on. I mean, the path was barely a path. You know, if anyone's ever hiked or ran on moraines before, it's not super pleasant, you know, just a big pile of rocks. And that's that's all it is. And so there was some route finding in there for sure. But it was real slow growing at a high altitude and and so certainly Luke and I were really looking forward to being done. That was a long day. And as we got to kind of mile 25, 26 Whatever. I think it was supposed to be around there. And we weren't finding camp and so we're like oh, I guess we have to keep going a little bit further, keep going, another mile went by, still not camp, another mile went by, still not at camp. You know we're at like 28 miles, 29 miles still no camp.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 39:09
Another update because why not? Found this lake, it's pretty cool. Found Luke, that's cool. Still looking for my soul. Nah, I'm just kidding.
Gabe Joyes 39:30
We were thinking like, did we miss this camp? And then we're like, Well, how can we possibly miss this camp, we are going down a valley. That's, I mean, it's this U-shaped glacially carved valley, but still relatively narrow. Like we can see from side to side where there's no trees, like besides some rocks to block the view. We're kind of in a grassy strip by a stream in the middle of it, we're like we couldn't have missed this. And you can't take a wrong turn because a wrong turn means you're like going in a mountaineering expedition. Right close to the top of the ridge or whatever, but we were really starting to wonder and we're like, you know, thinking at what point are we just gonna like lay down and cuddle for the night like, the sun starting to go down, we're like, do we just keep going and keep hiking and running throughout the night or the next night halt? And it wasn't until a little more than 50k. We were like 31 or 32 miles, finally reached that next night halt, which there apparently there have been some confusion about where that one was supposed to be. Which is, I think one of those general, you know, growing pains with a race that's being put on for the first time. But that made for a really long day. Luke and I were out there, I think it was, like 12 hours. I can't remember exactly, but it was a full day. And there was a lot of other folks that were out there much longer than that. There was a whole crew that kind of came in with a couple of soldiers actually, that were out there. And they all kind of gathered together and, and made it in that night very late, I think close to midnight.
Kris Hampton 41:01
Wow. Did any of those people end up having to exit the race?
Gabe Joyes 41:05
Yeah, they did. I mean, there was one runner she, she's climb the Seven Summits, you know, she's summited Everest, and she was lifted out of there the next morning with pulmonary edema. I mean, so this, we're talking about experienced strong elite athletes that got chewed up by this. So yeah, the challenge was real, for sure. But that was a really difficult day for a lot of folks that just about broke a lot of people. And I was thrilled that in some ways that I wouldn't say it was like, an easy day for me like, it was very challenging, but that was maybe the day that I felt the strongest, but like I really felt like I had together and had finished that one so I was thrilled with that and felt really fortunate.
Kris Hampton 41:56
Snowman race, day four, 15.5 miles. Total climbing 7,100 feet. Highest elevation 16,300 feet.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 42:13
Okay, good morning from night halt three. That was a burly, crazy night there's a lot of people look really rough. It's really cold. It's icy. We're in a deeply shaded valley, it's damp and cold. But today's our shortest day yet, even though it packs a lot of climbing punch. So hopefully we all make it through one piece. All right, hang in there.
Gabe Joyes 42:42
Day four. I sort of feel like I got clobbered. We started out with a mega steep climb.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 42:50
All right, here we are in day four. And the climbing has been pretty unreal. We're at 2,700 feet of climbing in five miles. It has not been soft climbing. It's been like, like grant swamp pass climbing. Luke's getting out his sunburned legs. Look how red those are. There's a moon. Okay, I think we get to do some descending for a while. So that's cool. Seems like it's about time for that. All right, I think, I think we just might be able to pull this crap off. Maybe...
Gabe Joyes 43:33
Felt like an absolute never ending dissent. And again, just to reiterate the trail quality. I mean, it was basically descending a waterfall for, like 4,000 feet. I mean, it was just a stream bed of rocks. You know, as we got further down there were some covered moss and things and it's just hopping down these rocks, and there was no cruiser, easy miles and we just descend it down, down, down out of the high country.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 43:58
Alright, I'll check in here, folks. This is wild. We were up at 16 something not too long ago. We've just dipped below 13,000 feet now, in only a matter of, I don't know, a couple of miles or something. And it's a completely different world. Different ecosystem mud, moss, plants, trees we haven't seen in a couple days. Smells like Earth. Water everywhere. Amazing. So we had to descend like this for another 1500 feet or so. And then turn around and climb up another, I think it's three and a half or 4000. I think we're almost done for the day, something like that. So today is the shortest day mileage wise. I think feet per mile, it's sort of a punch in the gut so alright hope you're all doing well. I'm gonna try not to hurt myself. Bye. Bye.
All right. The never ending descent actually ended. Made it to the river. Looks like there might be Tigers around but that waterfall is awesome!
Kris Hampton 45:29
Tigers?!
Gabe Joyes 45:30
Yeah, right?
Kris Hampton 45:31
What?!
Gabe Joyes 45:31
That was my thought too we learned that in our like week before the race where our prepper preparations was like yeah there's Bengal tigers in Bhutan. What? Like that's not something I'm accustomed to watching out for and it's like temperate rainforest is like a jungle you there you know and I was looking around I was like damn I don't even know what I'd do if Isee a tiger you know we didn't have like bear spray or anything like that with us you know? And we had been completely defenseless if I saw Tiger would have been like well this is a hell of a story. Oh wait and you know like that's about what it would have been you know? Yeah, so it did look like there could be Tigers around there. And then we went from that went along the river for just a couple of few miles past a hot spring and had to turn around and go right back up again.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 45:31
Okay 4000 feet in four miles. I can just see camp over there in the distance. Goodness that looks really good. Cooked
Gabe Joyes 46:43
Yeah, remember that climb then back up into the high country just about feeling like it was the end of me.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 46:48
All right. Just made it into night half four in my very spacious and comfy tent. These are very nice. I'm pretty sure I had an entire family size bag of Fritos in the ziplock bag crushed up. It's almost gone. Today, it was only 15 and a half miles. It was 7500 feet of ascending and 7500 feet of descending. Which is bonkers with absolutely no easy miles. Feeling pretty tired. But feeling pretty stoked. Tomorrow is day five, we have a punchy climb. Can't remember it's like 3000 feet, or something up to a pass. That's right above us. It's gorgeous out, I'll take a video here second. And then it's like 10k down to Bumthang. So that'll be interesting. I don't know if my shoulders can handle it. But you're gonna make it there somehow. The field has dwindled down to I think a total of 17 athletes at this point. Starting with 29 which is a pretty well vetted field. So that's kind of outrageous. Tells you a little bit about just how difficult this race is and I don't have. Nobody quit. Let's put it that way. Like Doctors told them they couldn't keep going and things like that. And helicopters were sent in for people. No one was just like, oh, it's not my day. Like, people were absolutely worn thin, people who are phenomenal athletes. So feeling pretty fortunate to still be out here in more or less than one piece, I think and looking forward to getting this all done tomorrow. That's all. Bye.
Gabe Joyes 48:00
You know, it's like if you made it to night four like, you're gonna finish. No one. No one got airlifted out that night and everyone kind of like, rolled into that camp looking haggard, destroyed, emaciated, but kind of with this, like twinkle in their eyes smiled like, we're gonna make it, we're gonna do this. And so there was kind of like, as we're eating more of our spicy rice and vegetables in camp that night there was a yeah, really kind of a celebratory feel. But it was also sort of surreal. It was like, a scene from like, an old war movie or something like that. We'd be like, Oh, I wonder how so and so is doing? Yeah, I haven't seen them since night one. Where'd we lose so and so? Oh, yeah. Night two we lost them. Hope they're okay. You know, so it's like this. We hadn't been out there that long would have felt like an eternity, you know? So there was, yeah, there was this tremendous bond celebration night four knowing that, we're almost there, but also 100% aware, it's not going to be easy finishing the race getting out, into the city of Bumthang, was the final destination. And even though that day there was, again, it was about a marathon distance. And I think there's only about 3000 feet of elevation gain. We were all savvy enough at this point, knowing that it's not going to be a cakewalk to the finish line by any means. Yeah, even if we do feel like we're almost there.
Kris Hampton 50:20
Snowman Race day 5, 27 miles, total climbing 3000 feet, highest elevation 15,400 feet.
Gabe Joyes 50:33
Starting out on day five, we just had one large climb. That's most of that 3000 feet of climbing. We did that, had one last like big look at the high country. And then we started a long descent.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 50:48
Day five, cruising down, frosty cold, but we're moving well and staying warm. Really looking forward to Bumthang, and a little more oxygen. And maybe even making some Orange Julius if we can find some orange juice, vanilla ice cream, or anything that even looks like that. It's going down.
Gabe Joyes 51:20
As we did that, we descended and the path, the trail, whatever you want to call it. That became again that muddy, soupy sloppy mix. And so even like an elevation profile looks fairly smooth, but there was absolutely no easy miles you know, again, mud up to the knees, your feet disappearing.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 51:41
Gabe, How's it going? Where's my foot dude? I lost my foot, dude. Currently we're in the process of confirming no easy miles. So much mud. Don't my Scarpas looks so good? Check it out. This is something else. Just when we thought it might get a bit easier. The mud is class four, class four mud going on here. Where are we 13 miles or so in? 12 miles. Had some pretty good cruising along the river. But this has changed the game. So we'll see what we can do here.
How cool is this? A little water wheel action comes right out the spout. We're surviving.
Gabe Joyes 52:54
As we start to get to where the trail ends and like the dirt roads begin, we start to see more and more people people just out standing on the side of the trail waving to us, handing us boxes of mango juice or pieces of Yak cheese and cheering for us. As we get closer and closer to Bumthang, the road was lined with people especially with kids waving flags, flags of every country, representing all the athletes that were participating from around the world. More signs about climate change. I mean, it was just miles and miles of this. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before and probably never will again.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 53:42
Thank you, thank you. Thank you, thank you.
Gabe Joyes 54:09
The support from the people was absolutely tremendous. It looked like no one went to work or school that day either. Everybody was out as we approached Bumthang, which was really great. Because that last day was hard. You know, as we descended, it got warmer, you know, the fatigue from the event was adding up and even though some of the final miles on the dirt roads might have looked any other day might have been you know, easier. There was nothing easy about them because we were well on a fatigue hole. Yeah, it felt like the people of Bumthang were just willing us to get there, willing to get to the finish line and kind of greet us with open arms. It was unbelievable.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 54:48
YEAH! Okay, here's the aftermath. Got it done somehow. And there's never been a finish line like this one. For the last six miles there was Bhutanese kids lining the streets. Giving us high fives, waving flags, handing us mango juice, posters about climate change. And now they're lining the way here for the next finishers. The whole community is here. And frankly, indescribable. Can you believe this?
Race Organizer Voice 55:51
All the runners on the stage now.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 55:57
Bumthang knows how to put on a party.
Gabe Joyes 56:00
Like the celebration after the race was unbelievable. I forget the name of a singer. But apparently he's very famous in Bhutan. He's like this rock star. They put on a whole concert and everyone was out there like dancing, and guys shredding on the guitar. And I mean, it was it was cool.
Kris Hampton 56:15
It's like having Beyonce at the finish of a race in the states.
Gabe Joyes 56:19
That's what we're told it was like. So that was pretty incredible. And the very next morning, one of the first things we did was we went in did tree nurturing. So they want to just, you know, continue to do activities, then be visible as climate stewards.
Kris Hampton 56:38
What, no rest?
Gabe Joyes 56:38
So it was very challenging. And by tree nurturing, I'm basically we went to all these little, little saplings, and we were paired up with someone from the community. And we like trimmed weeds and like plucked off dead branches and things like that out in the hot, late morning sun and we watered them. And that was great, but it was exhausting as well.
Then, after that there was a climate action summit. So there was a bunch of different college students there, there was speakers from all over the world that were kind of Zoomed in for it and lots of government officials, the Queen gave an address. And people presented research about how climate change is affecting Bhutan in the high Himalaya. And so that was really cool that that was a priority to have as part of this race. Climate change was at the forefront of everything. That was the objective and having like a competitive race was definitely like a secondary goal.
Kris Hampton 57:54
On the run, did you notice signs of the climate change that this whole thing was, was built on?
Gabe Joyes 58:03
Yeah, absolutely. Particularly in the high country, like I'd mentioned. But I think maybe what I was watching out for that really impacted me with some of the stories we were told from some of the other athletes and some of the people in Lunana, about the glacier like outburst floods. If you're not familiar with those, that's where, you know, if you have this chunk of ice, this glacier that melts, you know, leaves behind a lake. And these, you know, moraines and little bits of ice aren't strong enough structure to hold back a whole lake. And so eventually something will happen where the dam breaks, basically, and one of these whole lakes will come on out and go in and wash away a whole river valley, wash away communities. The female athlete who won, she had lost some family members to one of these glacial lake outburst floods, the people in these high altitude communities, they live in constant fear of kind of a ticking time bomb, and you know, you don't know when the dam is gonna break. But, you know, that's their home, that's their place where their, you know, their lineage goes back, who knows how long you know, they're not going to just pack up and leave. Right? You know, it's one thing to hear hear someone like me tell that story. But it's really, really striking when you're when you're hearing someone who lives in those areas tell you this story with like teary eyes about the family members they've lost and the buildings that are swept away. Some of these high altitude communities, you know, during the winter, they would have to descend to lower elevations but people were still living with these high altitude communities and in mid October, and we were told they'd be staying there year round. Also, people told us how they're starting to have mosquitoes in places they never have before. The temperatures have warmed. And I understand there's some real disease concerns with that. So the impacts are there if we're looking for them and then, of course, you hear the stories from people and that was, that was really striking really impactful.
Kris Hampton 1:00:21
Because it was a race, I have to ask. How did you do? And did you meet your own expectations?
Gabe Joyes 1:00:29
Yeah, um, I think I did well, I ended up taking sixth place, which means I was the fastest male that was not born in Bhutan. Born and raised in the Himalayas.
Kris Hampton 1:00:42
So everyone just got wiped by the Bhutanese.
Gabe Joyes 1:00:46
Everybody just got wiped by the Bhutanese, like, just got our butts kicked for sure. You know, I ran days 2, 3, 4, and 5 with my friend Luke Nelson. And it was like him I actually, oddly enough would start out every day kind of in front. We talked and got along really well with all the Bhutanese athletes, but I swear they were like scheming. They would like they would like let Luke, and I go out and get all tired. And I swear, if someone would like whisper, like, go. And all five of them would just like, drift past us. And we'd be like, bye, guys. See you later. Sometimes we might see one of their bright colored jackets in the distance or whatever. But now they wiped the floor with us.
Kris Hampton 1:01:31
That's kind of beautiful, actually.
Gabe Joyes 1:01:33
Oh, it was great. And they're all super legit runners. They could be competitive at some of the most competitive races in the world. I mean, they're phenomenal.
Kris Hampton 1:01:43
Was it the same story on the women's side?
Gabe Joyes 1:01:45
Yeah, it really was. My friend Sarah. She actually was the first woman after stage one, but then she's the one who ended up you know, airlifted out with an IV in her arm then the next day, so, but after that, yeah, the Bhutanese woman, again, cleaned house, which is just remarkable. One of them I know, she said the longest race she'd ever run before the half marathon. I mean, like, Are you kidding me? The longest race she's ever done is a half marathon. And you know, she just did like five consecutive marathons in the mountains and just cleaned house. To be fair, there was a pretty significant home field advantage, but no complaints. They outperformed us in every single way. And it was very cool to see these Bhutanese runners like winning the home turf and be the heroes. And that was great. I liked the nightly news and Bhutan during the race, they would you know, give a recap of what happened during each stage, to give reports. And it was the big news every day about how the international athletes were just getting like, just buried by the Bhutanese runners. And that was like the big dramatic headline. So, happy to play that role someone needed to do it might as well been us.
Kris Hampton 1:03:03
Do you feel pressure as a climate ambassador and do you think that's important for outdoor athletes to be considering?
Gabe Joyes 1:03:15
Yeah, I 100% I feel pressure, you know, we met the prime minister after the race, we met the king, his majesty, her Majesty, the King, Queen of Bhutan, after the race. And the messaging was all clear. We are asking you to go forward now and be a climate ambassador and to speak for the Earth, speak for Bhutan, speak for those who don't have a voice. And so I 100% feel pressure. I think it is important for anyone to use their voice and do what they can. We can all have an influence on those around us, right? We can all model ways to take care of Earth and ways to act in a way that can hopefully help with climate change and move us towards a systemic change that is going to help the planet. And if we pass the buck to someone else, I don't think anything ever gets done. I'd always thought of myself as an athlete who took environmentalism very seriously. That's something I modeled to my kids we talked about, but after the Snowman Race, it felt like a whole new purpose, passion and obligation. When when the king of a country asked you to go and do this because they'd given you a trip to come and see their countries, you know, yes, sir. I'd be happy to.
Gabe Joyes Recording from Snowman Race 1:04:34
All right, one last run in Bhutan. Back in Thimpu. There's big Buddha from the other day. The city below me what an experience.
Kris Hampton 1:04:57
A big thanks to Gabe Joyes for sitting down and talking with me multiple times and for letting us use all of his videos from the race. I've got more stories to tell with Gabe. So stay tuned. In the meantime, at the post for this episode, you'll find links to Gabe, his coaching services, and to his Instagram, where you can see in his story highlights the videos we used with the incredible scenery of the Snowman Race. You'll also find links to learn more about the race itself and the climate mission of the kingdom of Bhutan. If you're enjoying these stories, please leave us a rating and a review. And most of all, share these stories with your friends. I'm Kris Hampton. You've been listening to Plug Tone Outdoors.
