Basically the same as yesterday, but with 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Took the 1st access for the ascent on lap one hoping to catch a majestic glimpse of the 3rd breaking out of the cloud layer, but the ceiling sat higher than the rock. Breaking trail on what is not an official trail was - not surprisingly - difficult and slow. Descended Ranger/Gregory just to mix things up, then turned around for another mellow ascent (~52min). Took the Amphitheater back down and slithered past Tim Olson (!), even the Western States 100 record holder is reduced to a power hike on that technical beast! Good weekend, 10,700' of gain in 29 miles.
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| Green summit just barely made it above the clouds. 9th summit in 7 days! |
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| Had to snap this pic of Bear (in clouds left) and Green (in less clouds right) heading back home through CU campus |
Up Gregory-Ranger, down Saddle Rock with the Rocky Mountain Runners. Snowpack was absolutely perfect, allowing for sharp traction sans spikes. The full moon was just bright enough to go without a headlamp on the ascent, but the quick steps on the techy descent dictated illuminating measures. I was out for about 2:40 total, but I got to Chat 10 minutes early and we spent a good deal of time on the summit and general regrouping, so I'm counting it as 2:20 running time (could have been much less). This also marked my 50th lifetime summit of Green Mountain, only 950 (or more now) behind some guys around here and 77 more (hopefully) for this spring.
2/3, Tuesday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 2:06
Ah, the evening to morning workouts are always tough with only a few moments awake for separation. Took the middle route up and the Amphitheater down. One of those days where all I could muster was just tagging the summit, I must have hiked a third of the way.
2/4, Wednesday - Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 1:51
Left the apartment around 6AM and was about halfway up the mountain in fresh ankle deep powder before there was enough light to click off the light. If you have energy, snow is the most fun in the world; if not, its pretty frustrating. Thankfully, today I felt great and skipping down the sugary pillows on each step was a perfect way to start the morning.
2/5, Thursday - AM: Green Mtn - 10 miles, 3,000', 1:42 - PM: CU Rec Climbing
Today I figured there would be a well packed and buffed out snowy trail, so I figured to try my luck at cracking 1 hour for Gregory to Green to Gregory. I started hard up Gregory Canyon in less than ideal icy conditions, I pushed on thinking I would be plodding up a hard packed trench once on the Ranger trail. This was one-hundred percent wrong. Five minutes on the Ranger trail and I hit the first of many massive snow drifts completely obscuring the trail. Knee-deep post holing hike to the West Ridge which was only marginally better. I clocked a desultory ascent of 48 minutes, completely off any pace to break one hour. The Amphitheater descent was more of the same drifting until I got lower and it was just super wet slush. At this point I was super frustrated and just about screamed when my pinkie toe slammed into a rock lurking beneath the snow. Like stopped me in tracks, afraid to take off my shoe and look at it painful. The sidewalks were icy too. I guess all days can't be good.
I finally went and bought a membership to the climbing gym at the rec center today with my friend Kevin. We both ended up failing the belay test (I had to too much slack and he let go of the brake rope - whoops!) so we were limited to just bouldering. We were both startled to discover just how fun the short technical sequences were. Good fun.
2/6, Friday - AM: 2nd Flatiron + Green Mtn - 9 miles, 3,000', 2:18 - PM: CU Rec Climbing,
I could tell immediately that a) I had zero energy and b) it was a beautiful morning. Naturally, most of the running - or jogging, rather - I did was on the streets or going downhill, otherwise it was an upbeat hike. Scrambling felt tremendously good after yesterday's indoor session. After classes Kevin and I put in another session of indoor bouldering.
2/7, Saturday - 2nd Flatiron, Green Mtn, Betasso Preserve, Poorman Dr - 22 miles, 4,600', 3:53
Jogged to Chautauqua still feeling 'meh' until Tony Krupicka darted around me. I met his pace until our paths split: me to the easier 2nd Flatiron and TK to the 1st Flatiron. We subsequently regrouped and I paced off him to the summit. Of course, he probably wasn't going hard and he could have left me in the dust just as easily. Super cool nonetheless, but not the smartest way to start my long run. We chatted on the summit and I introduced myself before he headed back down Saddle Rock and myself down Ranger. I took Chapman Drive, the dirt road - which is still completely destroyed from the floods - down to Boulder Canyon and ran the bit of road to connect to the Betasso Preserve. At this point it felt 80 degress (in February!? I know!) and I had brought about a third as much water as I should have. I could also feel some twitches in my quads reminiscent of my 50, so I was also likely in need of sodium. So I did a lot of run/hiking despite the moderate grades on anything uphill until I finally returned to town and refilled at Eben G. park's drinking fountain. I could have spent all afternoon drowning myself there, but I waddled myself home instead.
Week Totals:
86 miles
24,900'
19:23
Wow, that was a big week! Had I not had bigger plans for Sunday, I probably would have just made Saturday a 26 just to top out at 90 miles. With less elevation, I'd like to think I have adequate fitness to get a 100 mile week - not that I necessarily plan on that any time soon. Anyways, I definitely felt this week more than last, I'll probably back down to the 60-70 range for next week. Don't want to get too far ahead of myself. My pinkie toe seemed to just be bruised, I barely felt it on Saturday, so I'm 99.99% sure its not broken.
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