Kurt enjoys conducting sleep deprivation experiments on himself, the trials usually begin after riding 200 miles of singletrack and don’t stop until his GPS says so. Kurt is a veteran of the AZT300 & holds the record for the AZT750 as well as being a multi-time finisher / pace pusher of the Tour Divide. He’s also a PhD Geologist professor at Prescott College. He has has lead student groups on “Geology by Bikepacking” classes and runs a consulting service Ultra MTB Consulting. His most recent project is advocating for the advancement of bikepacking and landscape conservation through Bikepacking Roots. Kurt seriously gets after it.
I love local challenges. But one such backyard adventure just a few miles down the road from my house had me too intimidated for the past decade to attempt, “Dells in a Day” – riding all ~45 miles of trail in the most relentlessly technical trail network I’ve ever seen. The trails through the Granite … [ Read More ]
Kurt Refsnider has quite the impressive endurance biking resume, and he’s out on the trail and at it again with a new huge challenge: The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Kurt is estimating that this endeavor will take about 3 or so months and the entirety of the trail includes 3,100 miles with ~2,000 miles … [ Read More ]
For someone who relishes riding in the mountains, I’ve long felt a bit reticent for having never ridden more than a few miles in Nevada, the most mountainous state in the U.S. Years ago, I drove across Nevada on Highway 50, “The Loneliest Highway,” en route to a geology conference in San Francisco. That was … [ Read More ]
After four days of racing on the iconic sled dog course, Revelate ambassador Kurt Refsnider just became the first rookie to take the overall win at the Iditarod Trail Invitational 350. Amid some of the toughest conditions in years, racers pushed through fresh snow, 50 mph winds, drifted-in trails, and overnight temperatures that dipped to … [ Read More ]
Before last winter, I never anticipated that I’d find myself on any sort of path leading toward the Iditarod Trail Invitational. I had, however, followed the race each winter for the past decade through Craig Medred’s captivating writing about the event for different news outlets. I’ve long admired the athletes who patiently work their way … [ Read More ]