Steve Ilg gets vertical to end 2020
Durango, Colorado Currently Wed
Merry Vertmas win dedicated to friends recently lost
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 7:57 PM Updated: Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 9:06 PM
Steve Ilg gets vertical to end 2020 Durango’s Steve Ilg climbs the south rib of Hogsback in December on one of his outings during the Merry Vertmas race held by Aravaipa Running. Courtesy of Steve Ilg Escuchar en Español:
Steve Ilg spent his final month of 2020 going uphill over and over again.
Ilg, one of Durango’s famed mountain athletes, tackled the Merry Vertmas race put on by Aravaipa Running out of Arizona. In this virtual challenge, athletes logged all of their vertical feet climbed from Dec. 1-25. Ilg would log 87,915 feet of vertical gain across 182.8 miles during the 25-day effort. He spent a total time of 2 days, 7 hours across 40 different uphill efforts.
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Merry almost Christmas. Southern California has its very own Christmas berry called toyon, or California holly (
Heteromeles arbutifolia, for people who know their plants). You’re sure to see it along hillsides and trails at this time of year: clusters of bright red berries dangling from a tall shrub with long oval green leaves. They’re not for eating, just admiring.
Supposedly, stands of toyon on local hills were mistaken for holly and attached to the name of L.A. s most famous neighborhood. “This idea of floral origins for Hollywood is romantic,” Lila Higgins of L.A. s Natural History Museum writes in “How Hollywood Didn’t Get Its Name.” “It’s also not true. Hollywood got its name for a much more mundane reason: Someone wealthy liked the sound of it.”
California State Parks
POINT MUGU STATE PARK, Calif. - A man tragically died Saturday morning after crashing on his mountain bike in Point Mugu State Park.
The Ventura County Sheriff s Office said it happened around 9:30 a.m. 64-year-old Roy Wallack from Irvine was reportedly riding with friends in the Sycamore Canyon area when he crashed and struck his head.
A County Sheriff and Fire helicopter responded to the scene with a flight nurse who pronounced the man dead at the scene.
The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Medical Examiner s Office has not yet determined the cause of Wallack s death.