Solo Mt. Wire. I was hoping to beat the storm that is moving into the Wasatch front and at the trailhead it was warm with not much wind. I wanted to just do a nice and easy recovery climb, but I was feeling really good and I ended up running a lot more than I had planned. My quads have a touch of soreness, but other than that my legs feel pretty good. I think climbing Wire is perfect for recovery.
There was a girl ahead of me and I caught up and passed her just before the first saddle. Some dark clouds were moving in and the wind started to pick up, so I picked up my pace and pushed it where I could.By time I reached the last saddle it was raining and blowing and the darker clouds were getting closer. Just before I got to the first towers the wind became fierce and the temperature had dropped 20+ degrees from the start, so I put on an extra long sleeve shirt as I ran up the summit ridge. The only positive is the wind was at my back and it made the final push a lot easier.
I reached the summit in 42 minutes and didn't even stop. I just turned around to head down and got blasted by the wind. It was really blowing and now there was sleet mixed in. I ran for about 10 seconds and couldn't take the pounding any more, plus I couldn't even get in a breath, so I had to turn my head to breathe and then used both hands to protect my face from the stinging sleet. I just started laughing. Once I was off the summit ridge the wind calmed down a little, but the rain picked up and just got progressively worse the rest of the way down. I had a few annoying rocks in my shoes, but I didn't want to stop and mess with them, so I just ran all the way down. I was completely soaked at the finish. Total time 1:10 |