Summit junkie!

I was thinking about doing Lake Mt. again, but when I woke up to rain I went back to bed. I spent most of the weekend helping my son build a lego set he got for his birthday. Hours and hours! Did 5 on the TM to loosen up my back after that. 

Weights at the gym for an hour. I worked upper body/core. I spent a good amount of time on the pull up bar and I was feeling really good. I was able to do several sets of 20+ without much of a problem. Usually I start getting pretty worked after about 3 sets. 

Mt. Wire solo:

I had a business appointment on the east side of SLC, so I took my lunch break on the summit of Mt. Wire. I parked at the zoo and it felt really warm, so I didn't take a hat or gloves. The lower trail was muddy, but most of it was avoidable. There wasn't as much snow as I thought there would be and I didn't get into sustained snow until I was half way to the second saddle. I stopped to put on my spikes and the wind really picked up as a cloud moved in over the mountain. I was wishing I had my hat. It got cold. I picked up my pace and at the second saddle I really tried to pick up the pace. 

I stopped just before the towers to send an email and then I pushed it on up to the top in the snow. The sun came back out and the wind died a bit which was nice. The snow was much softer than what I had gone through on Lake Mt. a few days ago and I easily cruised in the tracks that someone else had left from earlier in the day. On top I took in the views and then ran at a pretty easy pace back to the saddle and from there I picked it up, except on the steep sections where I took it easy. I pulled off my spikes where I had put them on and then once I hit the first saddle I was able to run at a much quicker pace until I hit the mud.

I took this photo when I stopped to send an email. This is just before the first tower with the summit tower in the distance:

Grandeur Peak and Mt. Wire with Jun:

I met Jun at the west ridge trailhead at 4:30 am. We planned on doing a double up (uhh uhh) and that's why we started so early. We put on the micro-spikes at the start of the ridge and we were climbing on snow the rest of the way. Jun pulled away from me a few times, but always stopped to wait. We had a casual pace and just chatted the whole way up. We both noticed that we were going pretty slow and the higher we got the more snow there was. By time we reached the final push on the summit ridge the tracks we were following died and the snow became a lot more difficult to manage. It was deep sugary powder and even with the spikes on we were sliding. This slowed us down a lot. Jun reached the summit a few minutes before me and I came in at 1:34, which was 23 minutes slower than last time. We didn't stay long.

The run down was a lot more fun and we were able to pick up the pace. We chatted most of the way down and then Jun went ahead the last half mile. At the bottom we decided we didn't have time to do Grandeur again, so we cruised over to Mt. Wire to get in our second peak of the morning.

It seemed to me that the temperature was cooler on Wire, but maybe it was because I was wet and just got out of a warm car. I followed Jun until we reached the 'shortcut' where I went straight up and Jun took the longer route.We met back up at the start of the ridge as Jun caught me and then it started snowing and didn't quit the rest of the way. Jun got ahead and I put on my ipod and just put it in grind mode and pushed it up to the top. My legs were actually feeling pretty good. Jun beat me and didn't want to wait in the cold snow, so he passed me just below the first tower and I made it up in 54 minutes. It was snowing and cold, so I didn't stay long at all.

The run down was slow. There was a thin layer of snow on the trail, so I took it easy over the rocky steep section and then once I got down to the first saddle I picked up the pace back to the car. I was wet and cold, but it felt good to get in two peaks in the bag before work.

Life has been crazy the last few days and I took two days off from working out for the first time in months. I was planning on doing a 30+ mile run on Antelope Island today, but Jun came up with a better plan that we moved to Monday, so Antelope was out. I still wanted to get in a solid run, so my friend Nate and I ran Lake Mountain together.

We met at 6:00 am and it was much colder that I thought it would be and it was slightly breezy at the start which made it even colder. After a half mile though we were both fine. We ran the first 1.5 and then Nate wanted to hike the steeper sections, so we settled into a quick power hile and enjoyed a good chat th rest of the way up. We would run at times to get our heart rate up and then back to the hike.

The final push was tough as we post holed in shin/knee deep powder. Nate broke most of it since he had on his gaiters. On top we took in the views, snapped a few pics and headed down. When we got back to the road we ran a pretty quick pace (7:30ish) down past the steepest section and then I picked it up the last 3.5 running sub 7 the whole way. I felt fantastic. I think that was my fastest time on that descent. I finished about 5 minutes ahead of Nate and he looked strong at the finish. What a fun morning!