Originally planning on spending a fun afternoon scrambling flatirons with friends, these ideas were quickly abandoned when we awoke to 6 inches of fresh snow. I got my friend to go on a "casual" run up Bear Peak - it was anything but casual. This was his first mountain run so he had no idea what to expect. There was probably about a foot of snow on the ground at the trail head, most of which was already essentially packed by our start time. Fern Canyon was difficult, but nothing terrible.
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| He insisted on bringing his juggling balls... |
Bear Peak's South Ridge was Treacherous (notice the capital T). Having one pair of micro-spikes between us, we each had one super -secure foot and one useless peg of flesh that slid everywhere.
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| Top of Fern Canyon |
My friend was not necessarily accustomed to the mountaineering, so the going was slow, but steady. At the summit, I quickly scrambled to the top, tagged the summit and scooted back down. I was extremely cold, completely numb pinky fingers and toes - I later found my sock was soaking from melted snow and had completely frozen around my foot.
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| I am colder than I look |
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| Brief rest on summit |
Wanting to warm up, I hinted at running, but didn't force it until we were off of the technical ridge and back to Fern Canyon.
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| Cruising down Fern Canyon |
Going down Fern was pretty fun, almost like powder skiing. I finally started to warm up as we sped up, and it felt amazing. We walked the final packed downhill to keep the impact off the foot.
Things I learned:
- Gaiters don't look stupid, they look like comfortable warm dry feet, put them on at the beginning, not once your feet are numb
- If its cold and there is a chance you have to touch the snow, bring non-running gloves in the pack.
It was like 6.5 miles but it took like a year cause of the conditions, it felt like we were climbing Mt. Crumpet looking for the Grinch.
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