9-22-2011 Timp, Lone, Nebo Failure

We've been talking about skiing Timp, Lone and Nebo in a day all winter.  It even had a name, The Car Traverse.  Since I had the day off I figured I better give the summer Car Traverse a go.  Logistics are pretty easy, eat and drink whatever sounds good as you drive to the next trailhead.  

I had partners, Andy and Matt, for the first leg up Timp but that was it.  The day started really well.  Weather was perfect, cool and sunny.  We leisurely jogged up Timp laughing most of the way and continually commenting on how nice the morning was.  

Andy and Matt heading up

After hitting the saddle we ran into an annoyed little goat.  He stared us down for a few minutes before we decided to sneak past.  A little scary.

Matt and our friend

The run down was great, casual, almost even peaceful.  After a little over 3 hours we were down and Andy and Matt had get back up to SLC. This left me with two more peaks and a lot of alone time to go.  I was feeling so good I didn't want to ruin it by talking to myself and suffering all day.  Actually, heading back to SLC and eating lunch with the guys just sounded like a lot more fun.  I guess I'm a ______.  We'll be back and make it a group effort.  

More Andy and Matt

9-17-2011 Center Thumb, Lone Peak

I was on Lone Peak last week and saw a few parties on Center Thumb, since then I've been thinking about getting back. Jared had most of the day free and was psyched on doing a little climbing so after the saturday morning soccer games we were off.  Our 11:15 start had us looking at nothing but clouds.  When we finally got a view of the cirque we saw snow!  Although the first snow of the season is exciting, snowy ledges/wet rock don't help climbing.  To make matters worse clouds started to build and snow started falling the second we entered the cirque. We sat, shivered, and ate while trying to decide what to do.   It came down to the good ole, "We might as well take a look."  

Scattered damp holds and full on wet cracks made the first few pitches a bit more insecure than I would have liked.  Luckily the sun came out and things seemed to dry out by the time we made it higher on the thumb.  Turned out to be almost perfect climbing weather.  

September snow clouds?

"My feet hurt."  No, this face was not posed. Notice the snow. 

Jared cruising the crux pitch

The late start had us summiting right when Jared had to be home.  We skipped any further climbing plans for the day and had a quick jog out, GC training.  Golden hour wasn't too shabby.

Jared and the County

2010-2011 My Favorite Pictures

After loving Adam's picture review, I figured I'd go through some old pictures and gather my favorites from the past year.  I was going to limit it to 10 but I just kept adding on ones I liked, now it's out of control, oh well.

Andy on Box Elder

Andy Split Couloir, Split Mountain

Sam in the "Front Porch Couloir," Mt. Timpanogos

Skiing in front of Keeler Needle, Mt Whitney, photo by Andy

Adam Okeefe in the Y Couloir

Jim Knight high on the snowfield, Mt. Timpanogos

Nate Brown on Skillet Glacier, Mt. Moran

CJ Whitaker in the NW Couloir, Pfiefferhorn

Jared and me off the summit of the Grand, photo by Andy

Brian Harder in the Chevy, The Grand Teton

Chad Ambrose and Andy on the Timp Traverse

Lars in the Great Chimney, Mt. Olympus, photo by Andy

Brian Harder in the SW Couloir, Middle Teton

Drake Kroger somewhere on The Nose, El Capitain

Skiing high on Mt. Timpanogos, photo by Adam Okeefe

Bart G. on Box Elder

Andy in Terminal Cancer, Ruby Mountains

John Swain at home in powder, Big Cottonwood

Andy in Lone Peak Cirque

Andy on The Mountaineer's Route, Mt. Whitney

After the Trans Zion with Warren D.

Fromke on Taste the Rainbow, Red River Gorge

Dr. Jimmy on The Gold Face, The Grand Teton

Andy and Jared at the start of the Hulk Hogum

9-10-2011 Mid Mountain Marathon

Victory Pie

The Sugar House Track Club ran in spikes on the track last Tuesday, that may have been a mistake.  Four days later my calves were still a little sore. The start of the MMM went out in a fairly conservative fashion, a group of five or six of us chatted as we ran the first paved loop and hit the trail.  After about a mile I figured I better go for it a little and see if anyone would follow.  Unfortunately no one did and I ran the next 25 alone wondering if my calves would hold on. 

Over the past few months we've been hiking various peaks as fast as we can and then running back down.  I've been able to run down pretty well regardless of how tired I've been after reaching the top.  Since the last six miles of the MMM are mostly down I figured all I had to do was run the first 20 hard and, just like all summer, I'd be able to cruise the down the last six no matter how tired I was.  That was close to being another mistake.

The first 20 miles went well, I pushed the downs figuring no one else would want to run 5:45-6:00 miles on the down and then ran the ups as relaxed as possible.  Turns out running hard down hill on rocky terrain with sore calves adds up after two hours.  On the last climb heading towards the six mile down hill finish my calves started cramping.  I slowed to a shuffle and every mini up hill from there on out forced me to either walk or cramp.  Lets just say I looked back more than once during those last couple miles fully expecting someone to blow my doors off as I crawled up the few short hills.  Coming down the last hill and onto the pavement (last 400 meters) it took all I had to keep my claves from locking.  Luckily they held out and I didn't have to walk it in.

Cramping seems to be a recurring theme these days.  I guess going out hard and trying to hold it for longer then I'm prepared for has also been a theme.  Maybe the two are related.

9-4-2011 White Pine to Lone Peak

Went out for a little WURL recon.  Up White Pine to the Pfeiff, out the ridge to S. Thunder, Big Horn, Lone Peak, down to the "notch" and then out Bells.  

A dry NW couloir of the Pfeifferhorn

Getting to South Thunder took a bit longer than expected.  It was a little over an hour from the top of the Pfeiff.  From there it's relatively easy to get up Bighorn.  Finding the way off  Bighorn and onto Lone was a bit of a search.  There are two carains marking a gully that heads SW off the summit ridge of Bighorn.  I heard that was the easiest way off the peak, definitely isn't.  After a bit of down climbing I felt it was a little above my on-sight, down-climb solo comfort level.  I turned around at a sand covered slab right above a pretty good drop off.  I'm guessing it could be down climbed but it looked less than ideal.  After that detour, I headed back to the ridge with hopes of following it out towards Lone.  That's the way to do it.  All you have to do is bounce back and forth from the south side of the ridge to the north side following the path of least resistance, backtracking when needed.  No moves were harder than 4th or very easy 5th class. 

A few moves before I aborted the gully

Once onto the shoulder of Lone it's not hard to find the way up.  The summit ridge that leads down to the "notch" was easier than expected as was entering the notch.  The gully down into Bells was loose but easy with a fair amount of hard snow in it.  The Bells exit was overgrown, not too bad though.  6:56 total time was a steady pace but not fast.  The WURL is BIG.

Climbers on the Center Thumb, look hard

Question Mark Wall

8-31-2011 The Pfeifferhorn Speed Record

Winter!

The Pfeifferhorn is one of my favorite places in the Wasatch.  Every time I've been up there it's been good. Last week Jared and I ran pretty casually to the top in 1:22, I heard the fastest known ascent time was 1:10 and figured that shouldn't be out of reach.  I still haven't heard a cat to car time. Wednesday evening Jake, Josh and I all decided to give the Pfeiff a time trial effort and see how fast we could get up and down it.  From the White Pine parking lot I ended up going 8 minutes to the first bridge, 25 to the second, 55 to the ridge and 67 to the top. New record?  I guess my hopes of a sub 60 minute ascent were a little ambitious for the day.  After I topped the ridge out I had bilateral calf cramps that slowed me up a bit.  It was 95 degrees in the Valley when we started, I think that may have contributed the cramping, the steep trail and fast pace didn't help either.

As I summited, I was pretty tired. So tired that I debated the idea of hanging out and forgetting the round trip time. This seemed lame though since I had already made my mind up that I wanted a car to car time.  I sat down until my watch read 1:08 and then slowly started making my way down.  Being tired, I took it easy until the trail mellowed out on the ridge.  From there it was a pretty good run out ending at the parking lot in 1:54.13.  Jake and Josh a few mins back.  Not bad.  Besides the obvious fitness, I think easy gains could be made with cooler weather and a little more familiarity with the trail.  I think we should all meet and make a race of it.  Andy? Jared? Lane? Bart? Swain? Okeefe? Keith? Derkas? Say yes.

Andy and Brian gave the WURL a go today.  Here there are looking fresh about 7 and a half hours into it.