I climbed/ran Lake Mountain with Jun and my friend Nate this morning. We were expecting warmer temps and a muddy trail, so when we got there and there was hard icy snow covering the trail right from the start we were surprised. This was both good and bad. The conditions on the lower trail were not great. There were a lot of hard icy ruts to navigate and it was slick, but the upper half of the mountain could not have been better, with nice firm snow that made for really good running conditions. My hammies protested (4 peaks in the last 8 days) on the last mile, which slowed me down a bit.
We didn't run as much as normal because of all of the icy ruts, but we did have a really fast hiking pace on the steeper sections and we made pretty good time to the top, where we witnessed one of the best sunrises of the year (see Jun's blog for a pic). It was really cold up there and after a few peak jumping pics I choked down a gel and then we headed down. Nate started out a little before Jun and I, and Jun quickly caught and passed him and then blazed down the trail. I stayed behind Nate for about two miles until I slipped on some ice and took a dive. Luckily it didn't hurt too much, but I was a lot more tentative going down and then about a mile later I slipped again and banged my knee on some ice. It wasn't serious, but did slow me down. Other than the falls it was a perfect morning.
Here are some pics from my Grandeur Peak climb on Saturday:
Matt making his way up near the summit ridge:
Me on the summit:
Matt (looking like an old woman) on top:
After 7 attempts, this was the best peak jumping photo:
Matt on the way back down. Check out that dirty air in the valley:
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