A New High

Mountain Biking Helps Endurance Racer Reclaim Life After Drug Abuse.

- Anthony Nitti

Twenty-five year old Dave Krimstock coasts across the finish line to claim victory at the Bailey Hundo, a 100-mile race held each June on the Buffalo Creek trail system outside Bailey, Colo. His bike slows to a stop and he hugs his parents, Roger and Ruth. As the embrace lingers, it is clear the trio are celebrating something far more meaningful than a mountain bike race.

Before he won the Hundo, before he went 7:07 at Leadville, before he became a Strava phenomenon in his hometown of Carbondale, Colo., Dave Krimstock was a drug addict. At 12, he drank himself unconscious. By 15, he moved on to pills and cocaine. At 20, he twice overdosed on heroin. Those close to him doubted he would live to see his 21st birthday. But when it appeared Dave was beyond hope, his downward spiral landed him at the Jaywalker Lodge, an addiction recovery center with an emphasis on the outdoors, where he rediscovered the joys of mountain biking and a life lived clean.

“Any time I need to feel plugged in to my recovery,” Dave says, “all I need is to climb to the top of something.”

Dave was born and raised in the outdoor mecca of Boulder, Colo., where as soon as he was old enough to walk, Roger and Ruth introduced him to a life of skiing, hiking and camping in the nearby mountains. From the moment he could pedal a two-wheeler, however, Dave was happiest when he was riding on dirt, chasing his father up and down the surrounding trails.

From a young age, when Dave found something he enjoyed, whether it was negotiating single track or learning to read, it instantly became a passion. “I would just attack the process with this intensity,” he explains. “It was as if I wanted to extract every ounce of happiness from an experience.”