I woke up early this morning to lift at the gym. Spent 45 minutes working my upper body and core and had an excellent workout.
Lunch break run with Jun to the summit of Sugarloaf Peak above Alta. The first thing we noticed when we got out of the car was how cold it was up there and we were both in shorts. The run up to the lake seemed tough for some reason, but my legs felt great. Jun was a champ and ran all the way to the top of the lake, and I had to stop and hike the steeper stuff. From the lake we went west to the saddle between Sugarloaf and Baldy and as soon as we hit the ridge we were blasted with the coldest wind I have felt in a long time. We were not prepared for that and heading up the ridge was torture.
Jun reached the summit first and then came right back down, which was weird and as I passed him he said you will find out why pretty quick and within a few seconds the wind was so cold that it made me numb everywhere. My ears were hurting and it actually made me feel sick, so I turned right back around, spending less than a second on the summit. I think that was my shortest summit stay ever. When I got back to Jun I sat down for a bit behind a bush to block the wind and then we took off back for the saddle.
The run down was fast and Jun really picked up the speed and I couldn't keep up. The last half mile I was doing a little over a 7:00 pace and he was nowhere in sight. Everything felt good and it was fun to open it up on the less technical part of the trail. It took about 30 minutes for all of my digits and appendages to thaw out, but it was worth it. The fall leaves were absolutely phenomenal up there. Probably the best I have ever seen. The Aspens were glowing yellow. It was the perfect way to spend our lunch break. Total time was just over an hour. | 