Grandeur Peak loop with Jun:
This is one of my favorite running routes in the Wasatch. We met at 5:30am and started at the Grandeur Peak West Ridge TH. It was cold and dark at the start, but within 10 minutes or so we were breaking out of the miserable inversion and were greeted to a starlit sky and fresh air. It was also a lot warmer as we made our way out of the muck and up the west ridge. The trail wasn't as packed in as we had hoped and it was frustrating at times when there would be footsteps going off in 2-3 directions and we had to guess on what the best route would be. It was slower than we thought, but we still made 'decent' time up to the top where we had an incredible sunrise and amazing views in every direction. The Salt lake Valley fog/smog is just atrocious right now. After a gel and some pics we took off down the other side of the mountain (Church Fork)
The Church Fork trail was absolutely amazing! The best trail running so far in 2013. The trail was well packed in, there was zero ice and the usual loose rocks were buried under the nice packed trail. Awesome. Of course the views are always sweet, the sun was out, the sky was blue and we were cruising down the trail. It doesn't get much better than that. Just before we got to the Pipeline junction we crossed a creek where we stopped to take some pics. I had an excellent idea that I would jump the creek for a glory shot and after packing down some snow I attempted the jump. The packed snow gave out and... FWAP! BAM! UM OUCH! That sucked. Hello large sharp rock, meet my hip. Luckily Jun didn't capture it with his camera. After that my mojo was gone and my hip/shin/leg hurt the rest of the run.
The Pipeline trail wasn't in great shape, but it wasn't horrible either. We slogged it out all the way to Rattle Snake Gulch where we decided to head down and take our chances with the infamous Millcreek Flasher instead of hitting Bambi Hill. Unfortunately we missed the flasher, but we did start to enter the inversion again and we would smell, taste and feel it. SICK! COLD! So cold. Within about 5 minutes we were completely frozen. Frost on the gloves, hats and beards. It had to be below zero. The run down the canyon road and back to the car wasn't as enjoyable and we were happy to get out of that crap back at the trailhead. As always it was worth losing some sleep to get out into the Wasatch.
A few pics from the summit:
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