As in past years, I write up mini reports when the trip is modest or I don't have time for a full-blown expose.
|
|
|
I haven't been on ice since last March and my New Year's resolution is "Climb More". Thus I jumped at the chance for some mellow ice cragging with the Stupid Brutes. We headed up to Clear Creek Canyon to Coors Light, a series of short falls a mellow quarter mile from the car. Fabio, Scott and I headed up first to set top ropes on some routes. Eventually, we were joined by Andy, Jeff, Brian and Eric. We set two ropes on the upper falls; a 25' vertical cascade with two pillars, and a single rope on the long, three-tiered lower falls. Temperatures were mild and the ice was nicely plastic. Picks went in without much trouble and the ice, though hacked up pretty well, was fat enough for newbs like me.
I've been slowly working up the nerve to try my first ice lead but have been stymied by changing gear and unoptimized systems. My "new" bent shaft Black Prophets performed wonderfully, but the BD leashes I was using were really getting in the way. After one climb, I took them off and tried the leashless thing--wonderful! It's a bit harder on the arms, but at the level I'm likely to be climbing, that shouldn't be much of a problem. I'll have to come up with some sort of tether system before climbing anything big and/or committing (a dropped axe would be disasterous), but it was much more natural than having to mess with wrist leashes all the time.
After making four laps on the upper falls, we wandered down to the lower falls and tried that. I did a mock lead (placing screws on top rope) and feel pretty confident that I could now lead that route. Next time! For now, it was great to get out for a casual and productive day of ice climbing with a bunch of convivial folks. By noon, the ice was gushing with water from screw holes and melting, so we packed up and headed for Neptunes and Southern Sun.
I've got an ambitious race schedule in the first half of 2008. The San Juan Solstice 50 miler is clearly the biggie, but that's not until June. Plenty of time to train for that one later. The one that's got me nervous at the moment is the Moab Red Hot 50k race in mid-February. Back in the shape I was in last summer, such a run wouldn't have been that big a deal. But it's winter and I haven't trained nearly enough. Nor have I ever run that kind of distance before (34 miles).
Fortunately, a lot of us Special Idiots are running this race, so there is lots of interest in training. During the month of January, I got in weekly 20+ mile training runs. First up, fresh off most of a week at Sea Level, was a beautiful 21 mile group run at the great Devil's Backbone Open Space from Loveland to Ft. Collins and back. We had 13 people show up including a number of people I'd never met and some old friends from last season. The trail was pretty rough in places, but mostly clear of snow and ice and quite interesting throughout. For January, I felt pretty good, but I was pretty hammered by the time I got back to the car.
The next week, I embarked on a solo run at Teller Farm with an additional loop on the north end. Peter joined me for the first hour and his company was greatly appreciated. I spent the second and third hours running solo training for speed and distance. Total distance was 19.8 miles in just over three hours; a very fast pace for me for that long.
Finally was the big, double-long run, back up at Devil's Backbone. This time it felt a good deal better. We reached the Soderberg TH at mile 10.5 and had a refuel break at Alex's car (thanks!). Then we did a quick climb up Tower Road (1700' of climb in 3.5 miles) which reminded me that my elevation training hasn't been keeping up with my distance training. Finally, we headed back south with a detour over to Coyote Ridge. The last six miles were pretty much a death march and I arrived, solo, at the car totally depleted. Total elapsed was 30.7 miles in about seven hours.
With three weeks to go until Moab, I'll take it easier for a while and let the legs recover. I've run over 120 miles this month which is my second highest (barely!) monthly total in my two years of running. I'm pretty sure I can now handle the distance under race conditions, but it's still going to be a long time on the feet. As for the 50 miler in June... we'll have to see about that.
Unleash the Chicken!
Ice Climbing at Coors Light, Clear Creek Canyon
January 5, 2008
Jeff starts up the lower falls with the infamous Chicken Screamer (tm)
Myself climbing the lower falls. Photo by Scott Borger
Lots of Running
January 13, 20, and 27, 2008
Chris runs the first mile of trail at the impressive Devil's Backbone.
Clem, Pete, and the rest of the crew running along at mile 6.
Climbing Estes Cone
February 2, 2008
![]() Eric at Moore Park making for Estes Cone 1200' above. |
From the mine, the trail was unbroken, but there was clearly a packed trail under the new snow. We hiked half a mile to Moore Park, then turned sharply left and made a bee-line through the trees for Storm Pass. Somewhere in there, we regained the trail and made steady progress up to Granite Pass at 10,240'. The trail from the pass to the summit was quite steep... and entirely absent in many places. Eventually, I gave up trying to follow faint signs of snowed-over trail and just struck out on the most likely looking lines myself. The snow varied from hard and shallow to deep and drifted and going was quite slow. About half way up, the number of rocks poking through the snow prompted us to stash the snowshoes and continue on foot. The rocky NW ridge was quite steep here and we spent a great deal of effort climbing snow-covered talus to a series of rocky knobs. Eventually, the slope eased and we slogged over to the highest knob... only to find that it wasn't the highest after all. The trail became apparent here and we followed a set of cairns through scattered, wind-blasted trees and up a short gully to the true summit.
Unfortunately, the weather had gone from passably nice to ominously bleak in the hours since we left the trailhead. The high peaks were now obscured and the wind had come up laden with light snow. We had a quick snack on the summit, before making our careful way back down to the snowshoes. Once we got back on the packed trail (packed by us on the way up), the retreat back to the car was easy enough. Still, it was a surprisingly tough climb and long day for only 7 miles of trail. Regardless, it was very nice to get out into the mountains for the first time in months.
Back in the Saddle
Biking Heil Ranch
March 15, 2008
![]() Kevin rides the Wapiti Trail old school. Check out that sweet horn! |
![]() Eric cruises the "zippy" Wild Turkey Trail. |
From here, we took the new Wild Turkey Trail which makes a longer loop than simply returning on the other half of Ponderosa. The first half mile or so is fabulous smooth dirt trail zipping between trees like that scene from Return of the Jedi. Awesome! Even after that, it became technically much harder, but was still narrow and "zippy" without so many of the loose rocks found elsewhere in Heil. Moderate downhill gave way to another uphill slog.
Back at the junction, we steeled ourselves for the downhill run. It wasn't bad and II marveled at the difference even front shocks made. We reached the road part way down and Eric performed his first endo, landing unhurt amidst a nice little rock garden. Kevin, sans suspension, was getting hammered by the rocks and elected to take the road out. Despite his fall, Eric continued with me on the lower part of Wapiti. We met up with Kevin again at the road and all reached the cars shortly thereafter.
It was a great day of riding. I'd forgotten how much fun and how difficult it can be.
A major Brute Stupidity expedition was planned for Vedauwoo. Fabio and I drove up for Saturday only, but many others were camping and climbing both days. Strangely, I was the most experienced Voo-climber going, so a lot of the planning fell on my relatively narrow shoulders. There was still quite a bit of snow in the shady areas, but the sun was hot and the rock pretty warm except in the deepest chimneys. Fabio and I showed up at 8:30 and met up with Scott, Rebecca, and Dan, heading to the sunny side of the Nautilus since it was close to the road, easy to find, and had an array of interesting climbs. We started by doing laps on the Etude slab (5.5) as the rest of the crew trickled in; Andy, Brian, Jeff & Dyan, Mike & Rachel, Cushman, and assorted offspring. With Andy belaying, Dan had himself an epic on the fiercely overhanging fist crack Flying Buttress (5.10b) while Fabio got stymied by the off-width crux of Stepladder (5.6).
After a quick lunch, the family-sorts headed out to set up camp and the climbers headed over to the NW side. We set up shop at Cornelius (5.5) where several people did leads of the excellant finger crack. No trip to the Voo would be complete without some off-width. Andy tackled Easy Jam (5.4) and several others did laps on it as well. Dan had himself another epic, this time on Hair Lip (5.9+), making it past the first rap station, but chickening out before reaching the official top of the route. Much to the surprise of all, I managed to thrash my way up to the first anchor to clean Dan's gear. It was a very physical climb requiring actual crack climbing skills, neither of which I have in abundance at the moment. Struggling upward, I realized that finishing the route would probably end my chances of climbing anything else for about a week. On the other hand, failing would probably result in the same outcome, so I might as well fight my way through it.
Tired from our route, Dan and I circumnavigated the Nautilus formation spying out nice-looking lines and then getting mired in the deep drifts on the north, shady side of the crag. By 4:30, we were all pretty tired. The gates were closed and the road to the main area blocked by extensive snow drifts. But we'd driven two hours each way, so the seven of us hiked in to see Walt's Wall and the other main features of the 'Voo. Dan, eager to not have an epic on something, scampered up the famous Edward's Crack (5.7) running out both pitches into one 70 meter push with about five pieces of gear. After some trepidation, Brian scampered up it and finished with a huge grin on his face. We then trudged back to the car and stopped by camp where the rest of the folks had established a homey presence.
It was tough to leave for the drive back, but leave we did, content in the knowledge that it had been a good, social day at the crags. I had a chance to tie in with some new folks and introduce a new batch of climbers to that unique style of climbing found at Vedauwoo.
Early Season at the 'Voo
Vedauwoo, WY
April 19, 2008
An Epic Averted
Running on the Colorado Trail
May 10, 2008
![]() The Good: Running the CT 10 miles from Kenosha Pass. |
The weather wasn't great as we left the car at Kenosha Pass, but the trail was reasonably clear. We got off on the wrong trail due to map reading errors (i.e., we didn't read the maps) and we wasted 4 miles before getting things right. Once on the right trail, we made pretty good time through the beautiful Lost Creek Wilderness.
The excitement started just before the Lost Gulch trailhead; roughly our half-way mark. We had encountered a few stretches of deep snow on north facing slopes in the trees. Going was slow, but not too bad. Climbing out of Lost Gulch, we again encountered serious snow and detoured up onto the rough but sunny slopes of Pt. 11130. We bushwhacked back down to the trail and finally ran along the north side of a sunny, 99% snow-free valley for about 8 miles making up a lot of lost time. I'd gone from feeling pretty crappy at mile 10 with visual migranes, general lethargy, indigestion, and so forth, to feeling pretty good at mile 25. We reached the end of the valley and rejoiced in the fact that we only had 8 miles to go to the cars.
![]() The Bad: Postholing near Lost Gulch. |
Finally four of the five of us reconvened and reflected on how serious our situation had become. I was the only person with a headlamp. Joe had a lighter. We had a couple of maps and a GPS. Most importantly, we were missing Mike and he and I were wearing shorts. None of us was particularly prepared to spend the night out and it was already getting pretty cold.
![]() The Ugly: This is what postholing for miles through icy crust does to your legs. |
We discussed options and decided to get back to the car, call up friends with more appropriate gear and mount a rescue if Mike didn't beat us back. Things looked grim. Suddenly we heard a shout from behind us and there was Mike standing on a rock 100' up the slope. A tremendous weight was palpably lifted off our shoulders. We would all survive this, despite how unpleasant it might be. Mike was covered in blood from the knees down, product of all the icy crust he'd been breaking through in shorts. His first words to me were "I need a camera". Mike was clearly okay.
The rest of the trip out was no fun, but at least uneventful. We made good time down to the Payne Creek Trail where we headed south for a mile or two and regained the CT. The elevation was low enough now that most of the snow was gone and it was a reasonably simple three miles from there down to the car. Daylight was gone with a mile and a half left, so we limped in under the power of my headlamp.
Our 31 mile, 6-7 hour training run turned into a 38 mile, 12 hour epic almost resulting in a Situation. Chris has written up an excellent trip report with a lot more details and thoughts on the trip. From my perspective, we did a number of things right and wrong. First and foremost, becoming separated was a potential disaster in the making. If we and Mike hadn't independantly made the same, correct decision to head for the easier ground, it would have been much worse. Once the situation became clear, we made a lot of quick and correct decisions. Not having the 10 Essentials with us could have been a real problem had we needed to spend the night out there (which was a distinct possibility). We've become complacent that trail runs are somehow different from other mountaineering ventures. Just because we're running doesn't mean we're not in the wilderness and shouldn't be prepared!
More abstractly, we failed to remember that May is the worst month in Colorado. There is not enough snow for skiing, but still too much for hiking. I've fallen into this trap before and apparently it didn't stick. May is still winter in the high country. On the plus side, I felt pretty good for the latter half of the run and got in a great time-on-feet training run. I feel pretty confident now that I can handle 50 miles in the San Juans in six week's time.
![]() Ski Now. Bryan carves it up on Sundance. |
The problem with Sundance is that it gets steeper the farther down you go so you can never see very far up or down the slope. Also the terrain gets steeper just as the snow is getting softer. However, the bigger problem is that your car is parked up above and you've got to hoof it up hill, toting skis, after every run, no exceptions. Ski now, pay later. The first run was wonderful. The snow up top was a bit icy, but I mustered what little technique I have and was soon enjoying sweeping turns on blue-equivalent terrain. We stopped often to take pictures of each other and the fantastic scenery. Lower down it started to get a little wiggy. The snow was getting pretty soft and the slope really steep; solid black diamond terrain for me. It's the kind of thing I could get down, but it's not much fun and I'd only have to hike back up anyway so what's the point?
![]() Pay Later. Eric and Chris trudging up after our second run. |
![]() Impressive crags on the north side of Sundance Mountain. |
There was still no sign of Kevin. Hopefully he hadn't plunged down to the bottom, gotten lost, or eaten by marmots or something. As I finally, sorely, reached the top again (ski boots really aren't made for this kind of thing!), there was Kevin, notably missing both skis and boots. It turns out he's strapped boots and skis to his pack and changed into hiking boots for the trip up. Somewhere in there, the skis had popped off and gone rocketing down the slopes to lodge in a group of rocks a few hundred feet below. Figuring that there was a decent chance he might do the same if he tried to downclimb, Kevin declared them a loss and kept climbing.
It's a shame about the skis, but they were pretty ancient. "At least they had a memorable last run," Kevin remarked. Grateful to be out of ski boots, we hiked back to the cars, then up the nearby Sundance Mountain to check out the dramatic couloirs and rocky fins on its north face. If the snow climbing is as easy-access as the skiing, I'll have to make a return trip one of these days.
All in all, it was a fine and novel mountain adventure.
Now that the training is over and the race has been run, I can enjoy some mellow days in the mountains! Eric, Kevin, and I saddled up and headed up to the Mummy Range for some peak bagging. The Mummy Range has been on my list for a long time now and yet I've never really ventured in there. The full "Mummy Mania" traverse of 5-8 peaks (Chapin, Chiquita, Ypsilon, Fairchild, Hagues, both Rowes, and Mummy) is a pretty tall order, but we planned to the first three in the less-well-known CCY traverse.
The day was beautiful and the weather mild as we drove up Old Fall River Road and started from the Chapin Pass TH at 11,000'. After a mile in the nice forest, we broke into the open and began slabbing across the west face of the lumpy Mt. Chapin. Reaching the Chapin/Chiquita saddle, we turned right and climbed 500' to the summit of Chapin and took in the fantastic views of Trail Ridge, Sundance Mountain, and points south. Then back to the saddle for the grueling 1000' climb up to Chiquita. After a quick bite, we dropped a bit to another saddle and then tackled a shorter climb up Ypsilon.
From the west, Ypsilon doesn't look like much. I was expecting a similar experience as we'd had on the previous summits; dozens of marmots, scattered rocks, decent wildflowers, great views, and a nice time spent at 13,000'. Thus I was utterly unprepared for the stupendous and sudden drop-off on the east side of the summit ridge! Suddenly, there was nothing but 2000' of air and steep rock and snow between me and the Spectacle Lakes down below! A wicked cornice guarded the top of both branches of the Y-Couloir. Fatigue forgotten, we scampered around taking photos and gaping before meandering over to the true summit for a second lunch.
The rest of the Mummy Range was Right There and I was sorely tempted to just keep going and bag a few more peaks. The weather was still good and, in fact, visibility was improving. But we were looking at a long and mostly-trailless retreat to the car and the point of the day was to be a mellow mountain trip, not a huge peakbagging epic, so we regretfully left the amazing Mt. Ypsilon and made a bee-line for the trailhead, avoiding both intermediate summits on the way out.
All in all, it turned out a bit less mellow than I'd expected with 8.5 miles in seven hours with a stout 3200' of elevation gain over three summits. It was nice to finally explore the Mummy Range and I am eager to return for more next season.
An Alpine Trifecta
Mts. Chapin, Chiquita, and Ypsilon in RMNP
July 12, 2008
Kevin and I excited about Mt. Chapin (photo by Eric)
Quintessential summer!
Atop the spectacular east face of Ypsilon
The Spectacle Lakes and Blitzen Ridge (photo by Eric).
Eric descends west off the summit of Ypsilon toward Desolation Peak
Coal Creek Crossing 10 miler
August 31, 2008
![]() Matt (#3), Chai (#1) and myself (#53) after the race. |
It's always surprising to see 100+ runners turn out in the early morning for a small, local race like this. Louisville is a much bigger place than it feels and, being so close to Boulder, there are plenty of very active people. I met up with Chai and his coworker Matt at the start and we milled around for a while before the start. When the gun finally went off, we started at a good pace, running past the community park and then doing a 5k loop through the Warmeborg Open Space just south of my house. The course was mostly the crushed gravel of the Coal Creek Trail with occasional pavement stretches, well marked with mile-posts and numerous volunteers and water stops. I ran at an 8:10 pace for the first three miles (much faster than my usual 9+ plod), and wondered if I could maintain it for another seven miles on the out-and-back part of the course. It was quite a contrast to my last race
Things really opened up after a couple miles and, despite being in the middle of the pack, I was pretty much running by myself, occasionally reeling in and passing someone. At mile 6, the front-runners started passing me headed the other direction (the turnaround was at mile 6.5). To my limited surprise, Chai was flying along in second and breathing down the neck of the number one guy. I reached the turnaround and started back, sweating profusely and passing the half of the runners who were slower than my pace. Back up over the Aquarius hill with its spectacular view of the mountains and a fleet of hot air balloons launched from Boulder and drifting east. 1.5 miles to go. Feeling pretty fatigued, but still managing an 8:10 pace. Down the hill, one mile to go, time to hammer. I passed a few more people, then ran the last hundred yards at an all-out sprint. 1:20:45, 53rd place out of 128 starters. Not bad for a guy with a two-week-old kid whos run all of fifty miles in the last month.
Despite nearly not turning out, and then some serious pre-race sandbagging, Chai ended up winning the whole shooting match in 1:03:57. Not bad, sir! It was a nice race, very well organized with great volunteers. Plus it was really great to get out of the house and back to a somewhat-active lifestyle!
![]() The Wilderness Journal | ![]() Neithernor |