Jeff Pelletier - Trail Runner & Filmmaker
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Jeff Pelletier - Trail Runner & Filmmaker
  • Blog
    • General
    • Training Recaps
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    • Trip Reports
    • Gear Reviews
    • Videos
  • About Me
  • Event Calendar
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Trip Reports, Videos

Fastpacking the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in 5 days [VIDEO]

June 19, 2020 by Jeff Pelletier No Comments
Tahoe Rim Trail

The Tahoe Rim Trail forms a complete loop 165 miles around the Lake Tahoe Basin on the border of California and Nevada.

The main hiking season is from July through September, though lingering snow patches can often be found into August of high snow years.

A thru-hike of the trail typically takes 10-15 days. My friend Adam and I had planned on fast packing the trail over a 5 day period in late June of 2019. The only problem is that this happened to be a particular high snow year, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range at over 200% of average, and 33 times the levels of the previous year.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, we kept a close eye on the conditions, obsessively checking the snow reports from various snowtel sites along the trail. We debated a few alternatives objectives around California and Colorado, but the snow levels were equally high throughout the Sierra Nevada and San Juan mountain ranges. So we re-committed to our original plan.

While we expected the snowpack to significantly slow us down, we were optimistic that we could complete the trail. But we never could have anticipated just how much of a challenge that would prove to be.

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Trip Reports, Videos

Fastpacking the Sunshine Coast Trail: 115 km in 3 Days [VIDEO]

April 28, 2020 by Jeff Pelletier No Comments
Sunshine Coast Trail

The Sunshine Coast Trail is Canada’s longest hut-to-hut hiking trail, just 5 hours North of Vancouver, BC. It’s a unique and beautiful backcountry experience that stretches 180km from Sarah Point to Saltery Bay, along coastal shorelines, through old growth forests, and up to panoramic mountaintops.

Early June of 2019, my friend Adam and I planned on fast packing a large portion of the trail, starting from Powell River and running 115 km back to Saltery Bay. Our primary goal was to train and test out our ultralight gear for our upcoming 5-day fastpack of the Tahoe Rim Trail a few weeks later.

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Videos, Trip Reports

Trail Running in Puerto Vallarta – Boca de Tamatlan Trail to Quimixto Falls

November 30, 2019 by Jeff Pelletier No Comments

Puerto Vallarta is a beach resort city on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It’s a popular destination for those seeking sun, water sports, and nightlife. But it’s not exactly known for its trail running.

I had been to Puerto Vallarta many times over the years to visit my sister who lives in the area, but it wasn’t until a visit in 2018 that I discovered this little gem that has since become my favourite local trail.

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Race Reports

Tor Des Geants 2018 Race Report – Among the Giants of the Alps [VIDEO]

July 18, 2019 by Jeff Pelletier No Comments
Tor Des Geants Race Report

Starting in Courmayeur, the 330 km Tor Des Geants follows two popular trekking routes in the Italian Alps. The course heads counter-clockwise on the Alta Via 2 along the south side of the Aosta valley for the first half of the race, returning along the Alta Via 1 back to Courmayeur.

There are 43 aid stations along the way, along with 6 major life bases, where runners can eat, sleep and obtain medical care if needed, with a cut off time of 150 hours.

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Trip Reports, Videos

Running the Loowit Trail Around Mount St. Helens [VIDEO]

January 30, 2019 by Jeff Pelletier No Comments

The Loowit Trail circumnavigates Mount St. Helens in Washington State, past old-growth forests, waterfalls, meadows, and the leftovers of the volcano’s 1980 eruption.

A group of us ran the roughly 30 mile trail in August of 2018, starting from Climber’s Bivouac Campground. Watch the video below.

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About Me

I’m a trail runner and filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC Canada.

Recent Posts

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Our third day on the Tour du Mont Blanc would be o Our third day on the Tour du Mont Blanc would be our longest so far but would also be the most scenic. We began the morning by dropping down into Courmayeur, the site of the start and finish of Tor Des Geants. From there we actually followed the final 10k of the race route, all of which I’d run in the dark when I ran the race back in 2018. I had no idea this leg of the race was so beautiful!

The panoramic views continued throughout the day as we traversed the valley before dropping down into Switzerland and our refuge in La Fouly. We covered just over 40k with close to 2,100m of elevation gain in another 9 hours on feet.
Our second day on the Tour du Mont Blanc started w Our second day on the Tour du Mont Blanc started with a climb to Col du Bonhomme - a beautiful start to the morning. From there, we dropped down to Les Chapieux where we grabbed some food for the road. We then had a long, steady climb to Col de la Seigne with stunning views of glaciers the entire way. We stopped to eat at the summit before descending into Italy, passing by the famous Rifugio Elisabetta on our way to our own rifugio on a hilltop above the city of Courmayeur. We covered just over 38k with 2,200m of elevation gain in another 9 hours on feet.
We started the Tour Du Mont Blanc last week from C We started the Tour Du Mont Blanc last week from Chamonix, right at the future location of the UTMB starting line. Our route over the next 5 days would mostly follow the UTMB course, although we decided to skip the diversion to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains in favour of climbing up and over Col du Tricot.

Our first day ended with a steep climb up to Refuge des prés where we settled in with a warm shower, a beer, and big meal. We covered 37k with 2,400m of elevation gain in just under 9 hours on feet.
Voilà, c’est fini! We arrived back in Chamonix Voilà, c’est fini! We arrived back in Chamonix on Monday after setting out on the Tour du Mont Blanc four days prior.

We covered more than 175k with close to 10,000m of elevation gain, as we travelled through Italy & Switzerland before returning to France where our journey around the Mont Blanc Massif began.

This trail was simply incredible. It was certainly busier and less remote than many of the long distance routes I’ve done in the past. But it’s pretty amazing to be able to move so fast and light through the mountains with the comfort of a shower and a warm bed each night, along with great food to fuel you along the way.

Can’t wait to put the film together from this one! Now to recover in Annecy as we begin our taper for UTMB. #tmb #tourdumontblanc
Le massif du Mont-Blanc 🏔 . . . . . #runningisl Le massif du Mont-Blanc 🏔
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#runningislife#ultralightgear#celebratewild#goodtimesoutside#hikingphotography#lovemountains#mountaintops#runningworld#runonemotion#trailmagazine#hardrock100#ultrarunninglife#salomonsquad#fastpacking#trailrunningviews#choosemountains#runitfast#seenonmyrun#trailrunning#ultrarunning#montblanc#tourdumontblanc
Monte Bianco and the Rifugio Elisabetta during the Monte Bianco and the Rifugio Elisabetta during the Tour du Mont Blanc.
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