This story has two parts. A long and a short. I will start with the short as it has important information regarding this year’s Silverton Steep Camp (formerly known as the Silverton 1000 Multi-Day Challenge).
Cancellation of 2019 Steep Camp Silverton
Due to increasing costs with renting the venue at the Kendall Mountain Recreation Area which is owned by the Town of Silverton we have had to make the tough decision to not hold this event in 2019. We hope to find a way forward to again hold Steep Camp in 2020 but just cannot do so at the current revised rates.
As you will read below in the long version, this event is very special to myself, Aravaipa Running and all who have attended in the past and this decision was not an easy one.
In place of that event, we do have a couple of exciting updates to our other Silverton events and a new one in Arizona:
Kendall & Silverton Alpine Join Weekends
For those of you planning to come up to Silverton already in July especially around the time of Hardrock, we do have another great option for you. The 2019 edition of the Kendall Mountain Run has been shifted to July 13 and we have moved the Silverton Alpine Marathon & 50K to July 14.
You can now participate in one or both on the same trip and the same weekend! If you complete both you will become a finisher of the Mountain Duo Challenge and receive a special award for this year. We also now have added an 8 mile option to Sunday’s Silverton Alpine Marathon that goes out along the Animas river to Howardsville and back. You can check out all the details on the websites linked above.
Silverton Alpine Marathon Start 
Silverton Alpine Marathon
NEW Steep Camp Sunrise
The second piece of exciting news for those of you specifically interested in Steep Camp, we will be hosting at least one edition of Steep Camp in Arizona in 2019 and hopefully two. It will be a bit more condensed than our Silverton edition, but we hope to get more people than ever out to climb in the mountains.
We are excited to announce our newest event, Steep Camp Sunrise to be held at the Sunrise Park Resort near Greer, Arizona on June 22-23. Steep Camp Sunrise will feature on site camping, a fixed time format on a 6 mile mountain loop that summits both Sunrise & Apache Peaks all the way up to 11,100 feet above sea level. You will be able to choose from 24 hours, 12 hours or 6 hours to rack up as much vertical climbing and descending as you can at one of Arizona’s most popular ski destinations.
We are very excited to be partnering up with Sunrise Park Resort for this new event. It will be our first event in this part of Arizona and opens up a whole new region to explore and breathe in thin, mountain air. Details: Steep Camp Sunrise Webpage
The Rest of the Story…
Now for a longer backstory on the entire Silverton 1000 and Steep Camp Silverton journey that has spanned over the past decade. My annual trek up to Silverton, Colorado began in 2007. After seeing photos of the 2006 Hardrock 100 I was immediately draw to the race and decided I wanted to run it as soon as possible. After hearing more about the race from my friend Rodger Wrublik who was the host of the Across The Years race and the co-director of the Javelina Jundred who himself was a multiple time finisher, I knew I had to go. Rodger and his family recently purchased The Wyman Hotel in town and they offered to let me camp in the backyard of the house they were renting just behind the hotel.
That first trip hooked me in to the Hardrock family and to Silverton in general. I was soon roped in with Rodger helping to volunteer and soon organize the other local running events in town. The Blue Ribbon Run 5K and 10K held on July 4th needed help as did the historic Kendall Mountain Run which was based on a bar bet way back in 1908. I was loving the mountain running life and always keen on giving back to the sport.
Rodger and I would always chat running and big ideas. He always had some crazy training run planned himself or was hatching a new way to promote visitors to come to town including runners. He approached me with a couple ideas which we made reality in 2009 which was the first year I ran the Hardrock. First was the resurrection of the Silverton Alpine Marathon. This was a pretty successful event organized by local resident and Hardrocker Emily Baer. She saw a hole in the offerings for Silverton runners who already had a 5K/10K with the Blue Ribbon Run, a half marathon distance with Kendall and of course the big boy – the Hardrock 100 Mile Endurance Run.
If you shrink down the Hardrock Course and stick to the Alpine Loop Jeep Roads that are frequented by jeeps and off-highway vehicles she was able to come up with about a marathon length course that summited two high passes just shy of 13,000 feet. She created the Silverton Alpine Marathon or “SAM” for short and it was a local hit. Karl Meltzer ran the inaugural in 2004 and the event happened three times with 58 finishers in 2006. Emily moved away shortly thereafter and the event fizzled away.
We brought back the SAM and added a 50K complete with a Trolley shuttle to the start line. It was low key and tiny, but we felt we were preserving a piece of history just as we continued to carry the torch of the Kendall Mountain Run forward.
Also that year, Rodger hinted at an even bigger idea. He told me about Captain Barclay, a pedestrian who in 1809 completed a bet to walk 1 mile per hour for 1000 consecutive hours. He wanted to organized a race like this in Silverton. At 9,318 feet above sea level. On a mountainous course with 500 feet of gain. Ok Rodger, I’m in.
We looked at a course that went straight up a road towards a mine on the side of Kendall Mountain but the out and back nature and extreme gain was I guess even a bit too over the top for us both. We eventually settled on a concept for a 1 mile trail loop around the Kendall Mountain Recreation Area right above town. It would have great views, be close to town and have some good flow. Only one issue, the trail didn’t exist!
Rodger doing most of the work and myself assisting, we built the trail some with his backhoe, but mostly by hand. Digging and grading the dirt, rocks and soil. Running countless loops with a measuring wheel for accuracy and coming up with the rules of the game. The race would be called the Silverton 1000 and the challenge was to complete at minimum 1 loop of the 1 mile course every single hour. Miss an hour and you are out.
Of course, this would take over 41 days so we condensed it. You had to do 350 miles minimum in the first 6 days to continue. We would fully support the runners in the first six days while also holding a six day race, 3 day, 2 day and 1 day where you go as you please. Anyone meeting the minimum would be essentially on their own minus the timing point for the remaining 12 day cutoff to complete the full 1000 miles.
Of course the whole idea of someone actually completing the 1000 is quite ludicrous if not impossible, but sometimes the carrot has to be there for anyone to reach to achieve it. The dream was born.
Over the years we’ve had a small crew of participants trekking loops around the 1 mile “Kendall Trail” which we dubbed the course after it’s completion. There are literally too many stories to name an achieve one by one, but year after year it has always been a place to return to for some legit mountain training and catching up with friends in one of the most beautiful places in the country. The event was renamed Steep Camp this past year to more accurately represent what the event has become for so many of us. A place to come together to run, to train, to relax and to camp out in a stunning setting.
I am still deeply saddened as I write this post that we will not be running loops around the Kendall Trail this year. However, I will return to Silverton this summer once again for the 13th year in a row to run, breathe and experience some of the best mountain running in the world. I hope you will join us for either the Kendall / Silverton Alpine weekend or a future edition of Steep Camp currently in Arizona. And maybe, just maybe we will once again return Steep Camp to Silverton in a future year.
Jamil Coury