Summit junkie!

Roid night at the gym. The meatheads were out in full force. The gym was stanky!! 50 minutes of lifting upper body/core.

4 miles on the TM after the kids went to bed. Nothing exciting about this.

I did a solo climb of Mt. Wire this morning. I was really worried about the weather, but after looking at it last night I figured the storm would be moving in a little later in the morning, so the only thing I was worried about when I woke up was the wind. There was a slight breeze at the trailhead when I started at 6:00 am but it wasn't bad. The trail was dry all the way to the second saddle, so I made really good time. I saw a headlamp about a mile ahead of me heading up to the towers, which was weird because I rarely see anyone on the mountain that early.

There was some slushy snow to deal with from the saddle to the towers and that slowed me down a little, so I reached the top in 53:00 and didn't stay long because the wind had picked up a little, but it was still warm. The run down was really fun and I enjoyed it so much more than when there is snow.

Back to the car in 1:29 (including all breaks). 2200 vert.

50 minutes of weights at the gym. I spent a good deal of time on the pull up bar and I was so spent at the end I could barely do one. It was a lot less crowded tonight and smelled a lot better.

I woke up at 4:00 am to go climb/run Grandeur Peak with Matt Van Horn this morning. We definitely had our challenges today. First of all it was wicked cold at the start, and the wind that beat down on us for the first 30 minutes was horrible. That West ridge is sure windy and exposed. At least the lower trail was dry. The last mile to the top took us forever because there was about a half inch of light powder on top of a icy hard crust, and no tracks or trail, so we slipped and slid the rest of the way up. It was tough and slow. We finally hit the summit in 1:40, which is 20 minutes slower than the last two times we did it.

It was still dark when we reached the summit and I took a gel and checked out the incredible view of the valley lights below. Heading down the back side was also quite challenging because the snow had a hard crust that you would punch through to deep powder. It was slow going down to the saddle where we finally hit a packed snow trail. I guess we were the only ones dumb enough to go to the top.

We ran down to Church Fork, and then on the Pipeline to Rattlesnake Gulch. From there we ran down to the canyon road and then back to the car. It took us almost an hour longer than the last time we did this route two weeks ago. It was a lot of fun anyway. We saw some deer, elk and had some impressive views along the way. This route is definitely one of my favorites.

My legs were sore today from Grandeur Peak, so I did 4 easy on the TM and they felt a lot better afterward. My pull up fest on Thurs must have been really good because my upper body is still quite sore.