Long Snow Run - Today we (Joe and I) re-visited Franklin Basin. I was thinking it would be reasonably packed down from the high snowmobile traffic in-spite of the warm temps. I was wrong. The road was covered in slippery powdery snow that made traction difficult. It was lumpy and kind of melty but very slick. My microspikes were not helpful and even collected the sticky snow on the bottom until it was a ball of ice. I took them off within 3 miles. No, snowshoes would not have been a good choice either as it wasn't deep enough for that. Skis would have been ideal. We were working VERY hard to go only 5mph on the way up. We were stubborn enough to go 7.5 miles (in 90 mins) before turning around. We were exhausted by the end of the run but managed to crank out a fast last mile on the best traction section over that last mile. Only 15 miles, but felt like 25. Looks like today is the last day of the inversion for a while. The ice storm on Thursday cleared out half the pollution and the storm tomorrow should take care of the rest. Back to regular training again soon. T-2:40 (10:40) 1400' vert
|