This week we celebrate an under-the-radar local for whom climbing is but one mode of exploring the mountains 鈥� and most certainly the slowest.听
When 鈥淣ick Elson鈥� is typed into Google, a simple blog appears with a smattering of attention from the author up until around 2014.听
In the age of 鈥渟elf-promotion by default鈥� and telling before it is asked are social norms, Elson remains decidedly old school. He gives a short list of personal best climbs, alpine ascents, big walls and scrambles, and a few of his more notable performances in trail running, ultra-running and ski mountaineering races. He is painfully humble even though every performance noted holds a first place or course record, or both, attached.听
Elson, it turns out, is a world-class athlete.
It was almost impossible to track down the invisibly busy man in person, as he decided to tack on law school to his to-do list. What follows is a question-and-answer with Elson, one of Squamish鈥檚 most high-caliber, yet remarkably unknown, mountain athletes.听
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Q: I admit that, although I have known you through the climbing community for years, I had no idea you were such a fierce athlete in so many ways. Give us a sense of your beginnings.听
I grew up in Campbell River on Vancouver Island and was fortunate that my parents introduced me to the mountains at a young age. As a kid, I read tons of classic mountaineering literature and became somewhat obsessed with climbing. I was lucky to fall in with the local climbing club and had some great mentors at what was undoubtedly a risky period in my development as a climber. There was no climbing gym at the time and I certainly never became a very strong rock climber by today鈥檚 standards, but I think the time I spent climbing in the mountains while growing up on the Island was ultimately a really good foundation for the type of stuff I like to do now.
After graduating from university I was pretty focused on climbing for a number of years until a variety of factors 鈥� perhaps mainly an increasing awareness of my own mortality 鈥� conspired to rekindle my interest in skiing and running, which were two sports that I鈥檇 also done growing up. I realized that combining the different skills and approaches from these different sports opened up new sets of possibilities in the mountains and provided new opportunities for interesting adventures.
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Q: For a quiet guy you have quite the competitive streak. What lights your fire?
This is a good question, and I suspect that the reality is some combination. My approach to climbing has always been more focused on adventure and exploration, which is obviously in contrast with the overt competition of running or ski races. However, I think that often the most memorable adventures are the ones where you鈥檙e forced to give your very best. No one starts up a route hoping to have an epic, but at the same time it鈥檚 often when things go a bit sideways and you鈥檙e forced to dig deep that you end up learning the most about yourself. Competing in a race can simply be another way of trying to bring out the best in yourself, but in a bit more of a controlled environment. I also find that races provide good concrete goals to work toward and that you can then take the techniques and fitness that you鈥檝e learnt from racing and apply it to more adventurous objectives.
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Q: You participate in running races and ski mountaineering races with great result. What鈥檚 your first love and how do these other activities like alpine climbing, ice climbing, scrambling and big wall climbing tie in?
I always struggle to answer this question because I still identify first and foremost as a climber even though it鈥檚 the sport where I have the least amount of talent and where I currently devote the least amount of energy. However, I like to think of all these different disciplines as simply being different ways to get up mountains and rocks depending on the type of terrain and the time of year. In a way, these seemingly different sports actually just exist on a continuum where generally things tend to get slower and require a bit more gear as the terrain gets steeper. Perhaps it鈥檚 all the old mountaineering books I read as a kid, but I tend to think that the important thing is to have a good adventure and whether it involves runner shoes and shorts or a portaledge and haul bags is a secondary matter.
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Q: Nick, can you describe your training for these different activities?听
I suppose I take a relatively structured approach to training for the endurance sports that I do. Because my goals are often somewhat unconventional, there鈥檚 generally no preexisting blueprint for how to train for them. I find that having to think carefully about how to prepare for different objectives is a big part of what makes these things interesting and rewarding.听
I try to keep the big picture in mind and have a broad plan for how I鈥檓 going to prepare for the demands of a particular objective or race. However, on a day-to-day basis, I allow myself some flexibility based on how I鈥檓 feeling and also based on the conditions. One of the hardest things to balance 鈥� I suspect in just about any sport 鈥� is the need to listen to your body and back off before you overdo it and get sick or injured with the need to put in lots of hard work even when you might not always feel like it. I try to think long-term which means that I generally prioritize staying healthy over trying to push for that extra bit of training.
This may be really self-evident, but I find that a big part of staying motivated to train is choosing goals that I actually think will be fun. One of the most important concepts in sports science is specificity, which means that a lot of your training will be similar to whatever it is that you鈥檙e training for. So I try to pick goals that I think I鈥檒l enjoy training for and try not to be influenced too much by external pressures; otherwise I find that I risk getting burnt out.
Q: What鈥檚 to come for you in 2017 in the realm of mountain sports?听
There is certainly no shortage of interesting things to do, even just around Squamish. I鈥檓 going to race at the ski mountaineering world championship in Italy and also the Pierra Menta in France this winter and I also hope to do some longer single day ski traverses in the spring. I鈥檓 also planning to focus a bit more on technical climbing with the hope that in the future I can use my fitness to climb efficiently on some bigger and more committing alpine routes.
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Q: Finally, why law school and where do you see that taking you?听
I ask myself this question all the time. I suppose my hope is that I鈥檒l eventually be able to do something that鈥檚 interesting and rewarding and also has a positive impact on the world.听
I鈥檒l admit that I haven鈥檛 exactly got it all figured out just yet, but in the meantime I鈥檝e been finding that having some intellectual challenge in my life is (mostly) a nice contrast to the physical challenge of climbing, running and skiing.
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Nick will be giving a presentation on some of his recent racing and mountain experiences at Capra Running on Jan. 28. Check out for more information.听
