NorCal Tough Mudder

Ever heard of the Tough Mudder?  It's a 10-12 mile obstacle course that only the tough (and slightly crazy, in the opinion of yours truly) can finish!  The British Special Forces designed the event and it's caught on like wildfire (err, pun intended) since it began last year.  Tough Mudder is an official sponsor of the Wounded Warrior Project, and to date, participants have raised over $2 million.  With such a worthy cause, and with the event billed as "Probably the toughest event on the planet", well, who wouldn't go?

My brother Chris has done the TM twice, and my dad joined him for the one in Southern California last spring. When Dad saw that there was going to be a Tough Mudder at Squaw Valley in Tahoe, he decided to get a team together.  So after months of training, the twelve members of Team MudShark descended on Squaw last Saturday, and tackled the course...and of course this photographer went too!

Gotta say, after skiing quite a bit at Squaw, scrambling all over the mountain in the summertime with a bunch of heavy camera gear made me a bit lonesome for snow and skis.  ;) But it was easy compared to what the Mudders were doing, haha!  Plus Squaw is so beautiful in the summer.  There were tons of wildflowers, several pretty little snowmelt creeks, and of course Lake Tahoe views from higher up.  And the weather was just about perfect -- lovely September sunshine.

So here are some of the 16,000+ Tough Mudders who ran the course last Saturday.

 

Chernobyl Jacuzzi -- tanks full of ice water. The guys had to dunk under the board in order to get to the other side.

 

It was COLD -- they were constantly dumping chunks of ice into it.

 

Mt. Everest -- a curved 14' wall that was greased so it was almost impossible to get up on your own. Definitely a teamwork moment.

 

Some of the teams had hilarious costumes...

 

Monkey bars (and yes, these were greased too!)

 

Gotta hand it to this guy, whoever he is.  Apparently he did the course barefoot.

 

There were still quite a few snowfields on the higher part of the mountain.

 

It's beautiful at Squaw in the summer! :) (Next time I ski there, I'll be thinking of all the wildflowers that lie slumbering underneath the snow...haha...)

 

Berlin Walls

 

Walk the Plank

 

Boa Constrictor

 

 

Electric shocks (10,000 volts, I'm told)

 

Almost there!  Joan gives her husband Dennis a high-five near the finish line.

 

Jay on the balance beam (another obstacle with a cold pond underneath!)

 

Scott and Caleb after successfully making it across

 

My mom gives her friend Lisa a hug near the finish line

 

Dad navigating the nets

 

Uncle Mitch just rolled across...

 

Matt

 

Chris, never one to do things normally, exited the high nets head-first...and then...

 

...did a push-up at the bottom.

 

And he pulled off some ballet moves on the way across the balance beam. Grand battements are probably a little harder on a wobbly 2" piece of wood, eh?

 

Some of the team, alas, ended up in the drink.  So in a spirit of true camaraderie Chris joined them.

 

Chris takes on the final obstacle -- shocks. (Just after this photo, he got shocked and knocked to the ground!)

 

Marissa

 

Across the finish line! Bananas, t-shirt, and an official Tough Mudder orange headband.

 

Vince

 

Sarah, you were there! :) The team carried this rock the whole route!

Caleb, Jay, and Dennis

 

Scott's little daughter was passing out flowers...which these guys made good use of...

Chris, Scott, Tom, and Mitch

 

A very happy spectator with her Tough Mudder daddy

Want to become a Tough Mudder?  (Of course you do.)  Here's the link.

I'll post more photos soon in the Facebook album and on my online proofing site.

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
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