I met MattV at the Wire trailhead at 5:45 this morning. I looked for allie (stalker) on the Sunnyside up route, but I only saw a dude in a yellow vest. Matt was waiting for me and he actually left a few minutes before I did. The trail was frozen mud and it was colder than I expected, but after a few minutes I was quite warm.
I didn't have my ipod because the battery died at the gym last night, and now I was being punished with Santa Claus is coming to town, which somehow ended up in my head and was now playing over and over. Ahhhh! I needed to catch Matt so we could chat. I finally caught him on the start of the ridge, as he was taking his one mile break (at .85). I stopped to wait for him and had a drink while I checked out the city lights below.
The rest of the way up went fast, but we went slow, as we were talking the entire time and not really focusing on speed. When we hit the towers Matt took off running for the summit and I followed and we topped out at 1:03, which is pretty slow. Matt wore a cute black cowboy hat with a blinking star, and we both took turns taking pictures, although it was dark and they were with my Blackberry, so they aren't great, but I'll post them because it was a fun rodeo.
We ran all the way down, and once we got off of the ridge I somehow ended up in a sage bush, and it was stinky! Some of the bush did get on my water bottle and made it taste like sage tea, so that was a bonus. Back to the cars in 1:32. Here are a few summit shots:
Me playing rodeo. Look at those eyes!
Cowboy Matt:
2200 ft of vert. | 