I ran up to the top of the highest peak in Utah, Kings Peak (13,528 feet). The summmit gets about 5,000 visitors per year. However, few people run from the trailhead to summit and back in one day. Most people do a three-day backpacking trip. This was my 8th Kings Peak Summit and the sixth time I have done the summit in one day. I made the run with jun and his neighbor Eric. Read jun's detailed writeup here.
The trail is very technical including about five miles of bowling ball trail and another three miles of boulder hopping. It is very tough. I worried about Eric, a road running, doing this run as his first major trail run. It did check back his speed, but he did very well.
Our run was about 13 miles in and 13 miles out, with about 5,000 feet elevation climb. I signed up for this run in order to get more altitude training before Wasatch 100. I really enjoyed the run up, but had a rough time running back down because of record warm temperatures. It wasn't really that hot at that altitude, but I just haven't been training at all in the heat, so it really affected me. It sapped my energy with about 9 miles to go. I recovered some, but later ran out of water and became badly dehydrated. I finally had to dip into a side stream with two miles to go. I hope there weren't any nasties in the water. It sure tasted good.
It turned out still to be the fastest summit and round trip I have ever done. It was 3:40 to the summit and 6:58 round trip running time. I did stop the watch at the top and a few times waiting for the others to catch up.
My splits heading up were:
Alligator Lake trail: 0:27
Elkhorn Crossing: 1:00
Dollar Lake sign: 1:22
Trail sign: 1:36
Gunsight Pass: 2:09
Andersen Pass: 2:53
Kings Peak Summit: 3:40
My pace from Andersen Pass to the summit was pathetic. The altitude above 12,000 slammed me. I kept getting very dizzy and would have to stop and get blood back in my head. I even stayed away from the cliffs, for fear I would faint and tumble off the mountain. Ha, ha. Once on top, in a few minutes I felt fine. No headache, which I usually get up there.
After returning to Gunsight Pass, as I started to kick it into gear in an attempt to catch up to jun, I took a major face-plant. I did a shoulder roll, but bruised and scraped up my leg, shoulder, back, and bloodied a finger. I layed on the trail for a couple minutes with Eric looking over me. Finally I felt a little better and got up. That is four bad face-plants in only one week. That took the wind out of my sails. I decided to take it easy the rest of the way. | 