This song encapsulates the essential truth of backcountry skiing (along with any other athletic endeavor or human pursuit, for that matter) – No Up-No Down, No Pain-No Gain. The effort and time involved in climbing makes the downhill that much more satisfying. Grunt Factor was written at Eiseman Hut, near Vail Colorado, after a brutal ski in in a total whiteout blizzard -- the tracks of our friends breaking trail obliterated before many of us got to them. Once at the hut, the skiing was amazing but required long detours to avoid dangerous slopes -- fantastic and really, really hard going.