Last night driving home from dinner, I was t-boned by a poor person driving a mitsubishi who decided to blow through a red light and then take off while my engine was dead. I’m ok, as is Scout (though she was certainly shaken up for a while). I was hoping to post about a few other things today but I’m going to be preoccupied for a while. Fantastic, right when I need to be planning things.
Went to A-Basin yesterday, and had a blast. The snow was harder than expected but I still had a blast, and had more good crashes than I’ve had all season. Here’s a photo of Nate jumping off something:
So we are going into another winter storm, which threatens to actually happen (unlike all the other ones forecasted to slam Denver this year). I turned on the TV this morning to find that damn near every school district in town has called it a snow day…huh? I thought something must’ve been wrong with that channel’s feed, so I checked another channel, and it was the same. A little odd, seeing as how it was practically dry outside, and blue skies were visible. I guess they just don’t want to have to deal with getting a bunch of kids home when it starts dumping. Understandable, though I never got anything like that during my 9 years in the public education system in Colorado. I guarantee that wouldn’t have flied 10 years ago.
I did ride my bike in to work today. It’s filthy now, and will require a hose off. Depending on the snow quality and quantity, I may be able to ride home – or I may be hoofing it. We’ll see. And if it snows like it’s supposed to, I fully intend on making my way to the powder day of the year for bell to bell skiing.
It’s been a few weeks so I figured I’d check the numbers and go through another rundown on my commuting logs. Year to date, I have had 49 commutes to work. Three of those have been by car, forty-five by bike, and one on foot, for a total of 93.88% of non-car commutes. If I can manage to not drive for a couple more weeks, I’ll be at 95%.
This has been made possible by an incredibly warm, dry winter in Denver. The weather is finally turning though, with forecasts for as much as a foot of snow to hit town starting tomorrow and going into the evening. I’ll have to figure something out, and I doubt that running in the fivefingers will be an ideal option. What’s really on my mind though is skiing this weekend. First real powder in months!
As most of you know, Denver finally got some precipitation after an incredibly dry winter last night and into this morning. As many of you are aware, biking in the rain (or even just on wet pavement) sucks, particularly if you don’t have fenders (which I don’t). On top of getting you wet, it tears up brake pads, picks up leaves/dirt/grime, strips off dry lube, and is generally just miserable. On the other hand, running when it’s cool, dark, and damp (like it was this morning) is great. It was a decent pace at 39 minutes (for just under 5 miles), which I’m sure will improve as my feet get more used to the fivefingers. I didn’t feel like I was moving fast, just a leisurely run, so if I can get my distances up, a half marathon will be substantially under 2 hours. Perfect.
I’ve had the chance to take my new FiveFingers KSOs out on a couple 5k runs now. The first was on Thursday, which was pretty flat. The first portion was paved, and felt fine. The middle 2 miles was mostly grass, and it felt better than running has ever felt for me. Getting back on asphalt for the end was painful, and I was glad when it ended. I was fairly happy with them at that point. Today I ran another 5k, which was hillier and had a more solid mix of hard and soft surfaces, as well as a boat-anchor of a dog (wtf Scout, you were fine on Thursday!). Running on asphalt and concrete felt a lot better than it did last time, though my calves were more sore (I assume from the hills).
I’m happy with them so far, and look forward to trying to get ready to run 13.1 miles with them in 8 weeks.
Update: I was hoping to go for a long-ish bike ride today (60-70 miles) but that won’t be happening, as my calves are very tight today. Maybe something on the shorter side, we’ll see.
Yes, that person is wearing shoes. For a few months now, I’ve been intrigued by the concept of barefoot running. When I lived in the downtown area, I ran 4-5 miles nearly every day. It was fun and challenging, with endless stop lights to race against (and timed so well that you can just go faster and faster until you’re nearly all-out for half a mile). Since I was running so much I started to develop shin splints on a fairly regular basis. After a little research, I found that heelstriking was the likely culprit, and changed my style to land on the balls of my feet. Almost immediately, I could run every day completely pain-free.
Sadly, I’m no longer able to run my course through downtown anymore (unless I want to ride my bike in 6+ miles first), although I still am running in a better style. I saw these shoes sometime last year, and figured it as the next (if a bit “extreme”) logical step. I grew up running around barefoot half the time, so I couldn’t imagine it’d be a difficult transition. Though I grabbed a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOs at REI on Monday evening, I haven’t been able to take them out running yet. Lounging around is plenty comfortable and easy though, and I hope to get out for a couple miles after work today. With any luck, I’ll be running the half marathon in them. I’ll report back as soon as I get a chance to run in them.
I got Carl’s photos from this weekend not long ago, so here they are.
The direct approach to the Trough that Kiefer and I took.
It was substantially more difficult than the class 2 bypass on climber’s left (from where this photo was taken). Doing it in ski boots and with skis on my back (which restricted movement pretty heavily) made it a pretty major challenge.
Looking down the Trough. Prakesh is the small dot climbing up.
Here’s me, crossing the Narrows for the first time that day. It was somewhat precarious in ski boots.
Due to not carrying skis or wearing ski boots, Kiefer, Stephanie, and Sean were able to make the summit a little before Carl and I were. Here’s them, making the top.
And here’s me, starting the Homestretch. The near-total lack of snow made this extremely difficult with ski boots on.
Kiefer, Stephanie, and Sean enduring the harsh winter weather.
Carl’s view, getting ready to plod down a few hundred feet to our skis.
Me, skiing down the trough. This might be the first real shot of me skiing this year, and it looks good despite exhaustion and funky snow.
And finally, the hike out from the bottom of the Trough to the point where the snow picked up again.
Saturday March 14, 2009
Longs Peak via The Trough, 14,259′
12 miles RT, approximately 5,200′ of elevation gain
Car to car time: 12:45
For a few years now, this route has been on my hit list. Yes, I’ve climbed the mountain a few times before, but always in summer or fall, and never with skis. When I saw a group was forming a few days prior, I checked the weather and jumped on it. In the days leading up, the forecast called for a high in the high-20s around 13,000′ and a 10% chance of snow. On Friday, it was calling for 29F and no snow or wind…perfect.
Friday night, I ate, and ate, and kept on eating until I was stuffed and it was time for bed, around 8:30. At 2:30 the next morning, I’m awakened by my alarm. Sigh…time to get up. Fortunately I had packed the car the night before, so all I had to do was get dressed, eat, and go. I was on the road just after 3am, and pulled into the Glacier Gorge parking lot right around 5. At 5:10, the hudge group (of 6) was off!
An hour and a half later, it started to get light. It was nice to kill the headlamps, and to be able to enjoy our beautiful surroundings.
The sun was making its presence known, though I knew it would be a while until we got any direct sunshine.
We took occasional short breaks, which were helpful in keeping energy up for the long approach.
When I don’t get out like this for a while, I can forget why it’s so amazing. I remembered yesterday morning why I love it so much.
We made great time on the approach. Here’s the group past Black Lake, which only took about 2 and a half hours to get to.
From the same spot. Rocky Mountain National Park is truly amazing.
Not much later we got our first view of the objective. Longs is the big rectangular protrusion, with the Trough cutting down below it. Keyboard of the Winds is just to the right of it.
Here’s the group nearing the end of the approach.
There were several bighorn sheep waiting here, not particularly concerned about us. In this same spot on the way out, a big herd (15-20) ran by. It’s amazing how nimble these things are.
I believe that’s McHenry’s on the left and Arrowhead on the right. I could be entirely wrong though. What really matters is how gorgeous it was. Not a cloud in the deep blue sky. The air was crystal clear and crisp.
This is where the group split briefly. Carl went left of here and had a super-easy time. Stephanie and Sean went to the right and had to backtrack a ways. Kiefer and I went straight through here, and it was a disaster. I was drytooling with my whippet to get through here. Carl got some photos from up above, which I can’t wait to see.
Immediately after that section, we hit the Trough and the real climb began. There was good styrofoam snow most of the way up, though at the top it became extremely rocky. The average pitch of the Trough is 30 degrees, so a pretty mellow climb in good conditions. It’s long though, at about 2,200′. Here’s Sean, enjoying the great snow.
And Carl.
We carried our skis to roughly 13,250′, about 600′ from the top of the Trough. That was the end of the skiable snow, and it was great to get them off our backs.
At 10:52, the sun finally crested the ridge. It was a very welcome sight, and great to get a little bit of warmth finally.
At the top of the Trough is a chock stone that I remembered (from my first two trips up here) as near-vertical. Turns out it’s not, and I scrambled up it with crampons on without an issue (and it was nearly devoid of snow). We took a break here before taking off the crampons, and heading for the narrows. This is the most exposed portion of the route, but wasn’t too bad.
The Homestretch was absolutely miserable in ski boots. What can nearly be walked up in the summer (wearing trail runners) was a fight for survival in AT boots. If it had been snowy (as it is most winters, and as it appeared a few weeks ago) it would have been a straightforward climb up. Nevertheless, at 1:15pm, we hit the summit.
Sean and Kiefer had been there for a little while, enjoying the absolutely perfect weather. Around 30 degrees, calm winds, and not a cloud in the sky.
Some summit shots, from roughly the same point (because I was exhausted).
It’s amazing how big and flat the summit is. We discussed how awesome it would be if there were a summit cone instead of the huge plateau.
Carl touching the official summit.
Meeker, to the south.
Me.
Look how extreme I am!
The descent back to the Trough was miserable. The homestretch took forever, and the narrow, off-camber ledges of the narrows were much more apparent in my exhaustion. I moved slowly, as I didn’t have the energy to be both quick and safe. Finally, we made it back down to the snow, and everything was right with the world.
Shortly thereafter, we got to our skis. The snow was pretty funky. It was a mix of powder, sastrugi, ice hardpack, and breakable crust. Unfortunately, it randomly varied on each portion of the line as well as in vertical space. Fun, but not fast or easy.
At the bottom, we had to take our skis off and carry them a mile or so over rocks and dirt. Once we were finally able to put them on, all was right with the world. I have no more photos from this point, but hopefully will get some from Carl.
The lakes were semi-unpleasant. Long, flat stretches that we had to pole across. I stayed extremely close to the edge, as I heard some popping and cracking as I went over some sections. It seemed like forever, but we eventually got to the trees. It was fast and fun, with enough random obstacles (that were entirely inconsequential on the ascent) to keep things interesting. After ducking fallen trees, jumping rocks, and dropping small cornices for half an hour, we finally were back to the parking lot. It was 5:55pm, a full twelve hours and forty-five minutes after we left. I’m glad to have done it, but that’s one trip I’ll probably never repeat.
Eight hours bottom to top. Only at the halfway point and beat. A few more hours to the car, can't wait for a beer.
Through Polarized Eyes 