Waiting for Winter

After some early October storms we've had extended high pressure here in Utah. I've contented myself with time trialing local foothills and building fitness for when the snow does fly. Last weekend Jason and I had grand ideas for stringing together local peaks. Unfortunately there was enough snow up high to make travel difficult and ultimately force us to bail on original plans.

A bull moose had us bushwacking for 20 minutes on Timp

Nonetheless on Saturday we climbed Timp via Aspen Grove to Emerald Lake and bagged Lone Peak's South Summit. Later that evening I tacked on some vert on Grandeur with Garrett who had also been doing a bunch of vertical. By days end we had both racked up over 4,200 meters (13,800 ft) of elevation gain.

Lone S Summit via the Hamongogs in 1:52

I had a 10 mile and 4,000 ft climbing group run planned on Sunday and with another Grandeur lap in the evening rounded out about 21,000 ft of climbing for the weekend.

It was quite pleasant at 11k feet

As you may have noticed from my blog widget, I use Strava. I had signed up for a vertical challenge the previous week which was starting on Saturday. I expected it to give me some extra motivation to go big. I also expected, given it is a world wide challenge, that to win would require something like 10k feet/day for the 10 day duration. Maybe the high country is becoming increasingly snow covered or weekend ultras started on Friday or not many people use Strava -- but by the end of the weekend I found myself in the lead!

Monday and Tuesday I have done two Grandeur laps each day. It happens to be some of the most efficient vertical anywhere and with the recent storm it hasn't received much snow. Also the trailhead being only mile from home makes it convenient!

I'm sure there is someone who hasn't uploaded yet and might come over the top at the last minute, but it has been good fun so far.