Summary of Training Week Feb 9-15

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 49.4
Hours Run: 9:03
Running Elevation Gain: 6,250'

Miles Biked: 97.9
Hours Biked: 6:27
Biking Elevation Gain: 4,596
Total Power: 4899 kJ

Total Training Time: 15:31
Total Elevation Gain: 10,846'

Summary: I tried something different this week with the blog. I posted individual postings on each day and changed those to not list so many details because I was really just transcribing them from Strava. This makes it not so much of a book at the end of the week that no one probably really reads anyhow haha. Basically, what I am saying is if you want to know more specifics, follow me on Strava, Garmin, or MapMyRun. Otherwise, the blog will now just contain details that are the good parts and on top of the daily, I will post the weekly on Sunday nights for a summary like this. Anyhow, on to this week. I ended up with 15.5 hours on the week which is pretty good. I actually had 14.5 planned but I squeezed in an extra ride on the rollers tonight for an hour. Part of the extra time actually came from doing the incline with the fam vs. solo. I would have round tripped it from Manitou in about an hour and fifteen but carrying a kid in a pack took a while longer. Still broke a good sweat though so it was good for something. All in all, I got 2 long runs this week. One flat and faster 18 miler and one 3,600' gain 17 miler 2 days later with a 2 hour MTB ride the day in between. Baz tagged along on both long runs like a champ which shows me he is getting stronger too. Towards the end of both he was starting to drag but did much better than I thought he would. Last year, we got to a point where I got in better shape than him and since he was slow I quit taking my best training partner. It is much better when he can keep up and enjoy the fun too.

I might be cutting the volume slightly. By slightly I mean no more 3 a days. If I ride twice for a commute, I won't run etc. While I'm still on nights through March, this might mean commuting every other day so I get one ride and one run or something but riding is really more subject to weather during the winter. Gotta get it while you can or else ride through it. Once I go back to day shift, it will mean either commute or run but probably not both. The issue is not down to my capability or willingness but down to family time and ensuring I'm not too selfish with my workouts. I want to do good at leadman but not at the cost of my family as much as possible. This will shave a couple hours a week off my plan but should make things more balanced. Since I'm not trimming the long runs or rides, it shouldn't effect the overall result as much and in fact could actually provide better results for all I know. One thing I might do as well is consider alternating some weeks between long bike efforts and long runs but every good Leadman knows the money is in the run. Extra training shaves minutes off the bike times or hours off of the run time. Looking at the rest of the month, I have two more good hard weeks planned before a rest week the first week of March and then the Salida Marathon the week after that which is a month from yesterday. This coming week will be the key week for the Marathon and my long run is the 50k Headless Horsetooth Fatass on Sat in FOCO. This week I will also probably begin to do a little bit of speed work on a couple of runs to get that leg speed up.

Training Week Feb 2-8

Weekly Totals:

Miles Run: 51.5
Hours Run: 9:04
Running Elevation Gain: 8,970'

Miles Biked: 80.8
Hours Biked: 5:50
Biking Elevation Gain: 4,300'
Total Biking Power: 3971 kJ

Total Training Time: 14:55
Total Elevation Gain: 13,270'

Summary: Very happy with the week overall. It was a slow start as I still wasn't feeling 100% after my sickess last week and had some residual congestion all week. After getting so cold on my ride home wed and having my tail between my legs, I had a solid day thursday with an incline PR, 3 summits, and a couple of hours post mountain biking in the mud followed by a crap day friday and then a solid weekend to round out a solid week ending with 9K gain running. Plan was 15.5 hours but came up only slightly short at around 15 hours. Can't complain being that close after early week days taking it easier. Funny with 2 sports, I am back to 7 days streak now. Next week will be slightly less volume (maybe) before my 2 highest volume weeks of the season wrapping up a base building period mixed with some speed to start getting ready for Salida.

Mon 2 Feb: Didn't Commute in last night due to Priorities (Superbowl that I didn't care who won but wanted to see commercials). I also woke up feeling like my body was losing the fight to whatever sickness I was acquiring. Funny because I usually wake up feeling slightly better and not slightly worse. Today was highly opposite but I kept popping pills. Even started to lose my voice but I proudly claim that I never got fully sick. No foggy head, no stuffy nose or cough. Just a light sore throat for a couple days with swolen glands and then losing my voice. Anyhow, I felt much better after my night shift ironically and after getting home and having breakfast, I took the family for a 6 mile jaunt. Wife pulled the kiddo in the bike trailer and I ran. Was about 30 deg to start and upper 40s to finish just an hour later. I took it easy so as not to exacerbate the sickness. The idea is to get better and not worse. Sat in the hot tub before going to bed. After sleeping, I got up and rode into work for an unusual headwind on the way in. At slightly harder effort, I was a couple minutes slow. I wish wattage calculator calculated in wind because it just looks like I worked less hard.

Running Stats:

• Miles: 6
• Time: 57:26
• Pace: 9:39
• AVG HR: Tried but HRM just doesn't work anymore :( really need to cash in on that warranty.)
• Gain: 150'
• Weather: sunny and warming from 30 to upper 40s
• Route: paved trail through hood to stapleton and back.

Biking Stats:

• Bike: Cross
• Miles: 13.9
• Time: 44:54
• Avg Speed: 18.7
• Power: 190W (512 kJ)
• AVG HR: NA
• Gain: 184'

Tues 3 Feb: No running day. I know I know. I had lots of time off of running last week but this was this week's planned no running day. I rode home from work in the morning, took the wife out to birthday breakfast, went to bed and then rode back into work. The ride home in the morning, I actually tackled a new hill late in the ride. Only added .4 mi to the ride and another 100' or so but it made a difference. I have been eyeballing this climb on other days and decided to go for it. Was glad I did. Will take all the climbing I can get albeit the fact that the ride home is pretty much up hill the whole way. For the way back to work, I had a tiny bit of extra distance because I forgot my water bottle and had to go back and get it. Wouldn't have effected the ride but I would not have had water all night and commute home would have been rough. Looking at the weather forecast, tomorrow morning's wind looks scary for the ride home forecasted at 18 MPH headwind (N) and temps at around 30 before windchill. Was hoping my new winter shoes would arrive tonight but they did not. That wind mixed with that temp is right at about my ride/no ride decision but I decided to sack up. Brought the thick mountaineering gloves and some extra wool socks.

Biking Stats 1:

• Bike: Cross
• Miles: 14.3
• Time: 58:46
• Avg Speed: 14.6 MPH
• Power: 215W avg (757 kJ total)
• AVG HR: NA
• Gain: 910'

Biking Stats 2:

• Bike: Cross
• Miles: 14.2
• Time: 41:58
• Avg Speed: 20.3 MPH
• Power: 228W Avg (578 kJ)
• AVG HR: na
• Gain: 185'

Wed 4 Feb: So I was getting ready to leave work today for my ride home planning a big day with the commute home and the incline later on. Just as I was prepping to leave at work, they announced 40 MPH winds. Sometimes, they are over zealous with the announcements so I decided to make a go for it. While I got frozen toes in the very accurate announcement, I made like the tortoise and began to slowly tick off the miles wishing for my new warm shoes. Eventually, I realized I was going to be late home to take the dog to the vet and take over care of my child so my wife could run her errands by a long shot. My normal hour commute was going to take two hours. I eventually called the wife and asked her to come pick me up. It took a couple hours to get feeling back in all of my toes. The cold sort of took it out of me and I ended up napping and lounging the rest of the day and skipped the run potentially setting myself back later in the week. 2 days off out of 3 early in the week makes it hard to make quota but I just didn't feel like going back out in it. I will make it up tomorrow I thought.

Biking Stats:

• Bike: cross
• Miles: 7.5
• Time: 50:03
• Avg Speed: 9.0 MPH
• Power: 356 kJ on Strava but maybe double that with wind haha.
• AVG HR: na
• Gain: 451'

Thurs 5 Feb: Big day today. Gotta work hard eventually if you want to be a leadman. Yesterday as I rode in the cold, I recalled Larry DeWitt's blog about extreme races requiring extreme training as I froze in the wind. Today, I needed to get it done again. So the plan was to wake up early and knock out some miles while the fam was sleeping  and then maybe go get the incline or something later. I ended up not getting up early and had a headache from such a deep sleep for my first night off and on a normal schedule. After some coffee and my first advil (1 pill) in quite a while for the headache and a good solid breakfast, I began to feel much better and ready to train. After fighting sickness and the easy week, my legs were finally ready to perform. The wife and kiddo took off for some stuff mid morning. I loaded the bike onto the car and the running gear on my body and headed west towards Manitou. Ended up not only doing the incline but getting an incline PR as well as nabbing rocky mountain, Mt. Manitou, and even Red mountain on the way back for 2.5 solid hours of 4K of gain and some great PR's. After a quick 10 min break at the car eating some food and getting ready for a bike ride, I went out for another 2 hours on the bike to cover myself with mud as I hooted and hollered and wore myself out. I felt good but tired after the workout knowing I had to come immediately home and be alive for my wife's official birthday party.

Running Stats:

• Miles: 12
• Time: 2:33:33
• Pace: 12:48
• AVG HR: NA but probably 170s on incline and 150s during remainder.
• Gain: 4,237'
• Weather: Sunny and 50s maybe up to 60
• Route: Incline, Rocky, Manitou, and one person Red summit party.

Biking Stats:

• Bike: Bees Knees 650B Hard tail
• Miles: 16.8
• Time: 1:53:04
• Avg Speed: 8.9 MPH
• Power: 1190 kJ
• AVG HR: NA
• Gain: 2,386'

Fri 6 Feb: Big day causes poopy day. You got poop in your mouth Ron Burgandi. The plan once again was to get up early and get some miles. Wanted to get 2 runs in today to reclaim some lost miles. I woke up early but the legs were very dead and I hardly felt like a run. Waited until nap time and then went for a couple laps of section 16. At one point I was thinking If I could get 4 laps (16 mi) I would be in great shape. Time dwindled and I left the house planning on 2 laps. I started the run feeling like crap. The sandy wetness mixed with lots of mud and some ice mixed like that had me running slow and I had a headache and wasn't carrying water but I was determined to not give up. I figured after a few miles it would blow off and I would feel better. I ended up feeling about the same throughout the run. While I could have thrown in the towel at 4, I ran another seemingly trash 4 miles. The second 4 was not about getting physically stronger though. I was beat up from the day prior's events and the harder intensity mixed with taking an expectorant trying to clear some lung congestion. In hindsight, I was just very dehydrated as well as beaten down. While slow, today was a hard earned 8 miles. There were several times where I wasn't even climbing and thought I was at 8 min effort and was at like 10:30 pace. Crazy. It is nice to train to be able to continue on when you don't feel it when it comes to ultras. It is near impossible to run 100 miles and not have at least a minimal ill feeling.

Running Stats:

• Miles: 8
• Time: 1:19:02
• Pace: 9:52
• AVG HR: NA
• Gain: 519'
• Weather: Sunny but windy. Maybe upper 40s or low 50s.
• Route: 2 Clockwise laps of Black Forest section 16

Sat 7 Feb: Normally Saturday's would be my long run day and I could have gotten up early and made it happen but I was apprehensive after yesterday's sh*t show. After a solid breakfast and some coffee I had time to slip out for ten miles on the Rock Island trail by the house. We had the privilege of attending a wedding of one of my long time Friend's little sister whom I have known since she was just a little girl. The run felt good and I probably slightly exceeded MAF effort with a negative split. Ran the first half at 8:00 to 8:10 per mile and the second half at 7:45 to 7:55 per mile average. The pup had a hard time keeping up on this one but it felt good to run in the sun in winter with no shirt. I didn't realize I had a tail wind on the first half so this made my neg split a bit harder but felt great when I finished. What a difference between yesterday where I was probably dehydrated and a bit down from the longer and harder day the day prior with the incline PR.

Running Stats:

• Miles: 10.05
• Time: 1:26:05
• Pace: 8:34 (Includes warmup and cooldown walking half mile each way as always)
• AVG HR: NA. Maybe low to mid 160s
• Gain: 84'
• Weather: Sunny. Upper 50s. Slightly windy
• Route: Rock Island Trail to 5 mi tag by Elbert Highway and back.

Sun 8 Feb: Running on a mileage deficit for the week. Goal was 50 miles to bounce back to my baseline after the rest/recovery week last week and I am still short. Don't usually like running Sundays long because I don't get to see the fam but I felt it needed to be done albeit the fact I hadn't slept since the 10 miler the day prior. I woke up at 630ish yesterday morning and was up all day with no nap due to the wedding. I came home and went to work all night (drove so I could run after) and drove to Manitou in the Morning to join the incline club. At a nice medium effort maybe 160HR going up, I made great time today. Whoever said there is no ice up there is flat wrong. There was bad Ice on the last 1/4 mi of ruxton and sheer ice pretty much the entire way from No name to Barr. Despite that I had one of my top 3 ascent times to Barr and apparently my quickest descent which I was just trying to keep around 8 Min/Mi so I wasn't too pounded out to be able to run tomorrow and not hurt. I was piggy backing with Jesse on the way up. He passed me about halfway and I was only about a minute behind leaving barr (don't know how long he was there but I didn't hang out today) Connected the last mile into town with some Incline Club legends. Ran with Glen Ash, and Jack Ramsey the last mile. I think I talked too much because they were too good at asking questions but it was awesome to run with such solid men who have been doing this for so long (over 20 years for both of them). After I got to crash for about 7 hours, it was time to ride into work. Temp was mid 40s but I wore the new winter shoes and had toasty toes. Thought I was taking it easy recovery style and made it slightly faster than normal. Wierd. No tail wind either. Proly cause I didn't bike for a couple days I guess. Great ride!

Running Stats:

• Miles: 15.5
• Time: 2:48:50
• Pace: 10:54
• AVG HR: NA. Probably around 150. I wasn't high descending. Kept in low to mid 160s up.
• Gain: 3,989'
• Weather: 52 to start. 65 to finish
• Route: Mem park to barr camp via marathon route and then back. Took back streets through town.

Biking Stats:

• Bike: Cross
• Miles: 14
• Time: 41:39
• Avg Speed: 20.2 MPH
• Power: 578 KJ
• AVG HR: 125 maybe
• Gain: 185'

Day Ascent via Chicago Creek: Mt Evans, West Evans, Mt. Spaulding

Peaks:

Mt. Evans - 14,264 feet Spalding, Mt - 13,842 feet "West Evans" - 14,256 feet

Summary
Total Elevation Gain: ~5,600’
Total Mileage: ~15 Miles
Peaks Climbed: Mt. Spaulding 13,842’, West Evans 14,256’, and Mt. Evans 14,264’
Ascent Party: Mountainmicah83, Baz Agastus (the dog)


Preface:
After getting Bierstadt done a couple of months ago and my partner not feeling the Sawtooth Traverse, I still had Evans on my checklist. Friday night at about 9PM, I decided I would make a go for it on Saturday. (Note: I had done plenty of past research on the route and area so it’s not like I just blindly picked a peak and went for it.) While someday I may get bored and go back to get individual 3000’ ascents on many peaks, I am not a current stickler on the rule, but I felt that an ascent from Summit Lake couldn’t possibly convince my conscience that it was a earned 14er Summit. I chose to go for Chicago creek on a speedy ascent in a day. With the last minute decision, I knew I couldn’t round up a partner that late in the game that would be up for a speed ascent of Evans. I defaulted to my trusty partner Baz and after packing we were in bed by 11 PM.

Saturday July 16, 2011

With a crappy couple of hours of tossing and turning, I awoke without my alarm at 1:50 am, poured the coffee and was out the door and on the road in my 1970 VW Bus by 2:10. Driving at that time is great because there is no traffic. An hour later, I was in Castle Rock and I think I pushed the bus a little too hard over Monument hill because it suddenly started to act funky. After the last Castle Rock exit my engine started to sputter and I quickly pulled over. I was so worried I killed my newly rebuilt 1835cc engine after only putting about 2000 miles and a road trip last week to the International Climbers Festival in Lander, WY. I went out and popped the back hatch to find smoke pouring out of the engine bay. I checked the oil… half a quart low. I poured the half a quart and waited 15 minutes until 3:10AM. At 3:10, I checked the engine temp and it seemed cool enough so I went to start it and it started fine and I took off only to pull over in 100’ because it was still sputtering. I was doomed. I thought I overheated it and had a valve drop in the piston. I figured the trip was over at this point because I wouldn’t have enough time for a 15 mile and 5,600’ elevation gain even if I made it there. I decided to sleep in the back until 4AM and let it fully cool down. At 4 I tried to start it and the same sputtering occurred. I figured I was in for a long day trying to figure out how to get the bus home. On a side note, the bus’ name is Pabst. I began to pray that it was just some silly problem and that there was nothing wrong with Pabst and decided to check out the engine bay one more time for any clues. After a little searching with my headlamp in the 4AM darkness, I found a screw laying down in the tin that had fresh oil that wasn’t there the day before. It had to go somewhere and I was determined to figure out where it went hoping it would fix my problems. Ah ha. A few minutes later, I spotted a hole the same size as my screw/bolt in the side of the carb. It fit like a glove. I tightened it down and went to start Past. He fired right up with his normal purr. It was only 4:10 am at this point and I was a little over an hour behind. I figured since it was such a simple problem, I would go for Evans being more cautious for storms with my later times and worst case, I could spot some granite trad lines for the future.

After cruising at around 55MPH and exiting at Morrison to skip the first steep part of I-70, I eventually made my way via the truckers lane to the Echo Lake Parking lot by about 6 AM. My planned start time was at 5 so I knew I had to be extra fast. Finally, by 6:15 Baz and I were taking our departing photo in front of Pabst and stepping/running off.



By the time we started, the sun was already hitting the top of the peaks and a headlamp wasn’t even needed. Echo lake sure was pretty at this time and I was surprised at this late hour only one other car was parked in the lot. It had rain all over and appeared to have sat there at least all night.



After about 10 minutes or so of jogging, I got my first view of most of the route ahead with Spaulding in the center right and Evans playing peek-a-boo at center left.


In no time, I reached the bottom of the initial 400’ descent and was crossing Chicago creek almost to the 1 mile road portion.



It is prime season for the flowers out there and I kept stopping progress to photograph them. Here are some columbines right off the trail. I am not a professional photographer and just snap tons of pictures with my point and shoot hoping to get a few decent ones for a good story so here is the best of what I got.



And a shot of the woods as Baz and I scurried through. Everything was soaked from the day’s prior rain so every bush was getting us wet as well as the fact that that all of the rocks and roots made for slick travels.
It was at about this point that I found a random cucumber laying right in the middle of the trail. I figured some backpackers from the day prior must have dropped it so I set it on a stump and continued on.



I reached the presumed burn area and got another view of the route ahead and the upper cirque. Still haven’t seen another soul since I left the car.



Alternating between jogging and speed walking, I made quick work to treeline. The lower Chicago lake is below the willows, the upper lake is above that 50’ rock headwall and summit lake is still approximately 1,500 verts away over that headwall that looks rather steep from a distance. At this point the trail got super muddy for the next half a mile as I hopped from rock to rock and side to side trying to keep dry and semi-clean shoes.


Here is a cool boulder overhanging right over the trail in one spot. This is an example of one of the hundreds of boulders hiding back in this basin just waiting for folks to come climb all over. I was still amazed I hadn’t seen another person yet.



What, snow in Mid-July at 11,500’? No way. I didn’t bring crampons. What ever shal I do? Good thing the trail went around to the right. That was a close one. Whew.



Finally, I reach the upper lake and see a few tents scattered throughout the area with folks up and about. None of which look like they are planning to climb Evans. While Baz is always on my heals and off a leash, I politely leashed him through the area where there were people. As soon as we were by, I unleashed him. He is always so close behind me, I kick him in the face when my foot slips. We start up the headwall to the Mt. Warren and Mt. Spaulding Saddle and it starts to not look that bad. My energy level was getting low as all I had eaten for the day was some pop-tarts on the drive up and I was definitely not running up this hill. Just pushing hard and chugging up like a cog train. I think I can, I think I can!



I stop to take a quick sip of water and photograph the basin below. Gorgeous.



And looking North towards Long’s Peak, I see some darker clouds developing and I begin to wonder what they are going to do as I watch them. They were definitely rain clouds but they were almost sitting still and didn’t seem to be electrically charged or shooting up or anything weird so I cautiously continued on keeping a close watch on the system. I was ready to bail at any time as I know better than to mess with storms.



Almost to the saddle, I grab a beta photo of the aprons. They were just sitting there calling my name. What beautiful pieces of slab granite and a great way to earn the summit. Next time I guess. I had it in my mind that I was going to have a few hundred feet of descent from the saddle to summit lake but at the top, the lake was right there. I stopped and sucked down a clif shot and threw the dog a couple of treats. At this point it was about 9AM. Not bad I suppose. 2:45 from echo lake to summit lake where there was already a full parking lot of cars from road bikers and hikers.


A few short minutes later and I was headed up Mt. Spaulding. I was on a mission and was cruising right along. My original plan was to be home around 3 or 4 PM when the wife was due back but with an hour delay in my start, I was pushing extra hard to try and make it so we could do some much needed weed pulling in the yard together.



I continued up the gentle slopes of the 13,842 Mt. Spaulding as I passed a Mother and Daughter taking a break.



Still watching the storm to the north east, it appeared that Longs and Mt. Meeker were now getting rain. Still no lightning and almost no movement from the clouds in my direction though. I figured I would just keep chugging.



A look east back into the Chicago creek basin with Summit lake and the Chicago Lakes and the storm brewing out yonder. It feels nice to have enough experience to watch the clouds and know when to be worried. Still in shorts and a tee-shirt at this point with no need for the goretex, gloves, and hat I carry year round.



Almost at the summit of Spaulding, I got a good shot of the upper cirque towards the summit that was a great view of the Aprons as well. Most of the upper trail goes about 100’ in elevation West and below the other side of the ridge.



With the 10 sec timer set on the camera and a quick scamper, I was able to get my own summit photo of Baz and I. Easy peasy so far.



A quick jog off of the Spaulding Summit and into the upper area towards the Evans Ridge, you could pretty clearly spot the exit from the Sawtooth traverse down below.

It was around here that I passed a couple coming down with a large dog talking with a couple going up. I overheard the couple returning saying the trail head was steep and their dog had trouble in a few spots. They gave the ascending couple advice that it would probably be another hour and a half to the summit.
I was a bit taken back because I didn’t remember hearing of any difficult sections on this trail and began to worry about the storm and the time it was going to take me to reach the summit. These normal worries can usually be discussed with a partner but with the dog I was left with the thoughts to rattle in my mind. I kept pressing onward.



Reaching the point where you could see the sawtooth, it got windy and chilly and I was running low on energy again. I choked down a mini clif bar and threw on the goretex and gloves and hat that I ended up removing 5 minutes later due to profuse sweating. At this point, my camera went kaput and even new batteries weren’t making it work. It was reading some sort of lens error so the rest of the photos are with the iphone 3gs at 2MP so I apologize for the quality of the rest. At least I had some sort of backup I guess.

Here is a look at Bierstadt and most of the sawtooth. You can’t see it due to the quality but there were no less than 30 folks standing atop the Bierstadt summit.


Being so close, I made I quick detour off of the trail and tagged the summit of the unranked, unofficial 14er, west Evans up atop the Aprons. I had a good view of Evans proper with folks on the summit. Taking the true ridge from here and a fun little scramble, we made the crowded summit and found the polished USGS marker from so many greasy hands touching it by 1020 AM just over 4 hours after leaving the car. I never did find that hard or steep section that couple with the large dog were talking about and it was less than 30 min from where I saw them to the top. Funny how perception works I suppose.



We had a couple take our summit picture. #48 for me and #23 for Baz. 10 More to go baby and then I can focus more on alpine 5th class.



Then we sat to eat a salmon pouch and a couple of doggie treats as we looked at the route back down. The storm seemed to be dissolving at this point and the clouds above were almost motionless.



Now it was time to find the Trail for the north east face route for our descent. I didn’t see the need to go back around via Spaulding. I took the tourist trail back down to the parking lot as I passed the flood of people dogging up from the parking lot as they gasped for air. Hey… At least they were enjoying the nice weather too. I hadn’t studied exactly where the route started down but right from the parking lot, I spotted a pretty clear trail headed down. It was too easy.



I had heard of nightmare type stories about how steep and loose this route is but it was much nicer than the standard route of Columbia. It was even nicer than the standard route of challenger as well. Making quick work, I was halfway down in no time and looking back up the route. This is definitely the summit direct route and not the scenic route that going over Spaulding provides.



It probably took me 10 minutes to reach the road below back towards summit lake. I jogged to the now overflowing parking lot meeting a couple of folks still pondering if they could make a summit attempt for the day. I gave them the advice that the weather was still good but to be extra vigilant and willing to turn around.


I downed another clif shot and made my hasty descent back down the headwall to the Chicago Creek basin. It was just too nice and the lake was asking for me to take a swim so Baz and I found a nice rock with deep water in front. I stripped down to my birthday suit and we dove right in. Brrr. After quickly swimming out and laying on the warm rocks, I felt so refreshed. I put back on my clothes minus the shirt and watched Baz roll in the grass to wick some of the water. With that fur coat, the wetness hopefully acted as somewhat of a cooling agent for him.



We jogged the next couple of miles down the trail passing several folks headed both directions. The basin was now full of people. I must have seen over 200 people on the way back to the car enjoying the beautiful Colorado day. At about the point where we reached the road portion of the return hike, I quit jogging and started speed walking. Baz has never had any problems keeping up in the past on long speedy type ascents but I had a feeling the heat was getting to him. He looked normal and had plenty of water for the day but I didn’t want to push him too far figuring 15 miles and 5,600’ was enough as is. I was somewhat dreading the 400’ re-ascent back to the car but it went by very quickly and gently. We arrived back at Pabst at 12:45 just 6:30 after departing. That seemed like a pretty decent time granted I got to take lots of pictures, hang out on the summit for about 20 minutes and take a swim on the way back. I enjoyed a cold beer and Baz and I shared a package of chicken.

What a wonderful day. We didsee sevaral SAR vehicles and an ambulance headed up the road on rou descent but I never heard of the outcome.


Thanks for Reading.

See you at the Top!

5 Peaks in 2 Days Solo: Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn, Handies, Redcloud, Sunshine

Peaks:

Uncompahgre Peak - 14,309 feet Wetterhorn Peak - 14,015 feet Handies Peak - 14,048 feet Redcloud Peak - 14,034 feet Sunshine Peak - 14,001 feet

Summary
Peaks Climbed: Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn, Handies, Redcloud, Sunshine
Total Elevation Gain: 17,000+ feet
Total Mileage: 32+ Miles
Ascent Party: Mountainmicah83, Baz Agastus (the dog)
Blisters: Huge!

Preface
Mid last week, I noticed the weather forecast for the weekend looking really good. I was originally planning on doing Ellingwood Arête on Crestone Needle but my partner had a family emergency and had to back out. Now, with no real solid plans, I started researching the possibility of nabbing the Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn combo. After thinking harder about it, I figured I could at least get something else so I decided I would see how that went, and if I had energy, I would go for Redcloud and Sunshine also. With one partner out for the family emergency and my other normal partner out of town, the only thing left to do was to talk my wife into letting me solo. I knew I could talk her into it. It was giving her that feeling that I would more or less be safe. I packed my gear in the car Thursday evening and researched all of the routes one last time. In the past, I haven’t been to big on stats for my TR’s but I was so intrigued on what I accomplished this weekend that this report talks more about them than normal. The intent of this is not to brag but just to give a reference on time, elevation, and distance as well as another numbers for people to add to their thoughts when researching climbs to prepare themselves.

Friday June 24, 2011

After getting off of work a little early Friday, I loaded up the dog left home around 3 PM from Colorado Springs. My goal was to make the Matterhorn Creek Trailhead before dark to avoid the last .6 miles of 4WD in the Dark. I rolled in at about 8:45 PM. The road was dry and easy driving until the last .6 miles of 4WD. A Honda Civic should be able to make it to that point. From there, the 4WD isn’t horrible. My guess is that a Subaru Forester or Outback could make it there with a little care. It was an easy bumble and jumble in my jeep. With my few minutes of daylight to spare, I hastily setup the tent and readied my gear for a 2:30 AM wake up time. At 10:15, I was out for the night.

Saturday June 25, 2011

Summary
Peaks Climbed: Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn, and Handies!
Total Elevation Gain: 12,000+ feet
Total Mileage: 20+ Miles
(I don’t usually measure elevation gain and mileage exact but this trip I decided to keep the GPS on while climbing)
Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn
2:30 AM both of my alarms go off waking me up after a few short hours of sleep. That is… if I even actually slept. Maybe a little! I hastily packed up the tent, heated up some coffee and had a few quick bites to eat. At this point, I debated the sanity of such an early start and almost went back to sleep for another hour in the Jeep. I then reasoned that the earlier the better for the sake of softening snow through the day. I felt like I was carrying too much weight so last minute, I dropped the snowshoes and decided to risk not bringing them (which turned out to be fine). By 5:15 I was standing atop the 12,200-12,400’ pass underneath Matterhorn peak staring up at Uncompahgre. I remembered reading in Gerry Roach’s book that if the gulleys had snow in them on the peak that they would make a decent snow climb and avoid going all of the way around. Fifteen Minutes later, I was under the base of the climb putting on crampons and axe and stepping off. By this time, it wasn’t quite light enough for pictures. I will show pics of my route later on in the report. At about 5:45 to 6, it was finally light enough out to snap a pic of Wetterhorn in the twilight.

About half way up the 1000’ snowfield, it was finally light enough to snap a pic. I would say it was about 35 to 40 degrees in steepness. I think this is probably the last weekend that this will be a full snow climb as well.

A short while later, Matterhorn pokes its head out into the sun.

And shortly after, I have made quick work of the snowfield and glad to have not had to hike the long way around. The snow was rock hard and awesome for cramponing.

With a quick 100’ scramble above the snow, I made the top of the ridge right at about 14,000’ and took a peep back down.

Just 3 and a half hours after starting off, I arrive on the summit of Uncompahgre at about 6:18AM. Yay #43 of 58 for me and #18 for the Pup.

After a quick snack, a few photos, and signing the register, I took a picture of the USGS Marker. I always like to find these when I can.

A look back down the standard route towards Nellie Creek down and left.

And my next goal for the day a short 3 miles away as I depart at about 6:25AM.

A rather quick jaunt back down the way I came up and I take a quick look back up towards Uncompahgre. I did the snowfield on the right.

Getting back to the saddle, I re-applied sunscreen and had a quick snack. On my way to finding the best line over to Wetterhorn, I took a photo back towards the Matterhorn Creek basin where I came up in the morning in the dark with the tiny sliver of a moon.

After taking too high of a line and having to drop a couple of hundred feet off of the steep shoulder of Matterhorn, my next goal for the day was becoming a reality. At this point, I could feel that I was developing some descent blisters on my heels and decided to stop and moleskin up. When I removed my boots, I had blisters the size of a silver dollar (no joke) on each heel. I guess I waited too long, but the moleskin really helped to finish out the day.

This was the first time of the day that I saw any people as I saw one group crossing behind me over towards Uncompahgre and another making it up to about 13K on the shoulder of Wetterhorn above me.

The snow was just looking too perfect up the face for me to want to take the long way up and around. I decided to just go for it. I didn’t measure the angle but I would say it was somewhere around 45 degrees at the top. Maybe one of you skiers knows? I started the steep part of the snow at about 8:30 AM.

About half way up my progress began to slow as I was feeling the distance and gain for the day.

¾ of the way up I got really tired and slowed even more.

And a look left towards the standard route as I took one of my many rests at about every 20 steps.

One of Baz Agastus as he patiently waited on me with his bad self.

At the top left of the snowfield, I easily spot the notch and make a break for it at my snail pace.

Through the notch, the infamous class 3 summit pitch comes into view. I had to boost Baz just 2X with a little booty push through this section.

And a look back down the pitch from above. As you can see… snow free on the crux.

My happy pup on the summit at 10:00 AM on the dot 3 hours and 20 minutes after departing Uncompahgre. Yay #44 for me and #19 for Baz.

I snapped a summit pic with the 10 sec timer and attempted to call the wife. I have AT&T and actually got through but then lost service and the call dropped after about 20 seconds. I was not able to restore the service so I had a bite to eat and decided to head down before the snow got too soft on this beautiful summit with no wind and very warm. I had no luck on finding the register so it must be buried in the snow pretty good still.

Headed down the class 3 ledges, I snapped another photo of my partner. Baz is a great companion and partner but I still consider this trip solo as he wouldn’t be able to do much to get me help if I needed it. Who knows though. Dogs have done strange things for their owners.

And just a pretty pic on the way down. A little 5th class anyone?

Arriving back at the notch

Passing a couple of gentlemen on their way up, I made quick work of the descent of the standard route. This is looking back up towards the summit. Mostly Snow free.

And a look at my route to go down to the saddle.

I was still so excited about making the two summits for the day and it still being so early now at only maybe 1030 but I was worried about softening snow. I grabbed another shot of Uncompahgre. Again, I climbed the right snow gulley earlier this morning but didn’t have enough light for pictures then.

Glissading probably would have been the way to go for a quicker descent but I didn’t want to risk it being solo so I just hoofed it down and soon enough I was at treeline seeing what I couldn’t in the morning.

11:50, I arrive back at the car with 12.04 miles on the GPS and 7,500’ elevation Gain. Not a bad day for a 8:35 round trip. I head back down towards Lake City and grabbed this photo of the old mining town.

Handies
In Lake City, I made a quick call to the wife and to let her know I was alright and I took off to the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch Trailhead. As if I haven’t had enough for the day, I got a wild hair and begin thumbing through Roach’s book and thinking about Handies. While American Basin seemed like the way to go with the sun to set on that West side and being shorter after the day I had, I couldn’t get over the fact that Roach calls the East side the “classic” route. This way would also give me more than 3000’ gain and put me right back where I want to be for red cloud and sunshine. I set up the tent to reserve my real estate and step off at 2:45 PM with the weather still perfect. I figured I would see lots of folks returning but I only saw one gentleman about 5 minutes into the hike.
A short ways up, I snapped a photo towards Red Cloud and Sunshine.

And nearing treeline, Handies comes to view with much more snow than I expected. I was a little worried because of sore feet and ginormous blisters from my boots, I had just worn approach shoes and had no axe and knew how soft the snow would be this late in the day.

Making treeline, I got even more worried as I began to carefully pick my way around snowfields that I could see were hard snow in the morning and people just crossed over. The snow was absolute slush.

Taking a closer look, I made my way to the far right, which was unfortunately outside of all my photos. It was just to the point that would sit to the right of Handies down the ridge a bit. White Cross?

I spotted only 1 dry run that looked to be about class 2+ up this grassy slope with only a short snow crossing so I went for it. Nearing the top, I snapped this.

You can see how far right I am now of the summit. But how nice it still is this late in the day.

Here is the thin line I picked to the summit ridge. I drew my route. I ended up with about a 40’ climb of snow to the ridge with my trekking poles and approach shoes.
>http://14ers.com/images/trips/wett/49_201106262304046.jpg>
From the ridge, I snapped a shot of tomorrow’s goal. Doesn’t look like I’ll be needing boots, pons, or axe tomorrow.

Just a few hundred feet to go and I can’t believe I feel this good still after this morning’s events. Doesn’t seem real.

Baz waiting for me to catch up as usual.

I met up with the trail at this point and followed it to the summit.

Before making it, I had to take a picture of the magnificent mountains from this morning. Of the 2 prominent peaks, Wetterhorn is the one to the left (pointy) and Uncompahgre is the one to the right. You can actually see the 2 distinct snow fields and the right one that I climbed. I can’t believe I was over there in the same day earlier.

Oh crap… A false summit but a quick jog to the main summit.

At 5:30 PM, just 2 hours and 45 minutes after leaving the car and over 4496’ more gain for the day it is still gorgeous and still plenty of time left for a safe descent in the light. #45 for me and #20 for Baz.

After three summits to myself for the day I make haste to try and stay in the sun that is quickly fading as the shadows move farther and farther. Somewhere around 12,500K, I found a natural spring. It was shooting out of the ground like a water fountain.
Approximately 7:15 I made it back to the car after jogging down many sections of the trail. Just 4 and a half hours after leaving and there is still sunlight to spare. I was originally thinking sunrise on the summit but I was much earlier than expected and didn’t feel like hanging out for almost four hours and descend in the dark. After settling back at camp I make some dinner, drank a beer and bed down by 8:30 PM as I fell asleep reviewing the routes for Redcould and Sunshine in Roach’s book with the alarm set for a late time of 5AM.
Handies was 4496’ elevation gain which is funny because the 14ers description says 3,650 and about 8 miles round trip. Perhaps my alternate route added a bit of Gain. Total summary for the day ended up being about 12,000’ of ascent and 20 Miles.

Sunday June, 26 2011

Summary
Peaks Climbed: Redcloud and Sunshine
Total Elevation Gain: 5,000 feet (Also more on GPS than 14ers guidebook)
Total Mileage: 12.04 Miles

Redcloud and Sunshine
After a considerably colder night than the one before, both my alarms startled me at 5:00 AM. After about 15 minutes of mental complaining and trying to find an excuse to not hike for the day, I managed to make myself get up and start getting ready. I could barely walk as the dried out blisters stuck to my socks over night and were cracking as I stretched the skin. OUCH! I put on some fresh moleskin, ate some oatmeal and readied my pack. I watched several groups of folks start before me between 5:30 and 6AM and had no idea if anyone had started before I even came out of the tent. At 6 AM on the dot, I stepped off on the Silver Creek Trail for the standard route up Redcloud. My heels were already in pain and my quads were burning a bit from the day before so I just kept my head down and focused on using my trekking poles that I was so glad I had thrown in the car. By treeline, I had somehow passed every group that I had seen take off before me. To my surprise, I looked at the GPS and noticed that my average speed thus far was 2.8MPH. Unbelievable. It is nice that the lower few miles of this mountain are such a low angle. You can really cruise. There wasn’t really any snow field crossings below treeline and just a little water flowing down some spots of the trail.
A first shot into the cirque-

And a look across back to Handies-

The farther I rose up into the cirque, the more snow fields I crossed. Early in the morning, they were pretty much frozen solid so I didn’t have to worry about wet feet in my approach shoes. They ranged from 20 to about 150’ across and had decent traction from other’s tracks the day before. Most were small enough that they could be avoided by going around if you really wanted to. My goal was to not stop to take my first break until I was sitting in the sunlight. Closer and closer I got.

Getting to about 12,700’ or around there, I finally found myself in the warm sun on another beautiful day. I got my first view of the Red Cloud summit hiding behind the false summit. I stopped long enough to convert my pants to shorts and strip my long sleeve cap 2 shirt off down to a tee shirt and slather on the sunscreen and grab a quick Clif Shot to power me to the summit.

And a look back down into the valley where we came up as the sun starts to hit.

Nearing 12,800 to 12,900, Redcloud and the route above comes more into view.

At 13K, Baz and I crest the ridge. You can see the trail wind up to the steeper section of the false summit where it starts to switch back. There is one portion a couple of switch backs up where the trail runs right into the snow. With all of the firm snow earlier, I began to cross and surprisingly started to posthole to my thighs. In retrospect, I should have went back down and around a bit.

Past the switchbacks, almost to the false summit and the last couple hundred feet comes into view with one more snow crossing. The snow was firm on that one and a breeze to pass.

Once across the snow, the wind picked up to about 15 to 20MPH and it was a bit cool so I threw on my Shell and Beanie to finish to the summit. I love the Red S the trail makes up to the finish of Redcloud.

I arrived at the summit at about 8:45 AM which was 2 hours and 45 minutes after starting. I think I faired quite well after the big day before. I signed the summit register and didn’t take much time before I was departing for Sunshine. Here is a picture of the 1.3 miles left to get to the last peak of the trip.

A quick look back down from where I had come over the false summit provided some good views of yesterday’s climbs of Uncompahgre (right of center) and Wetterhorn (left).

By 8:50, I was departing #46 (20 for the dog) and in route to the final goal. I jogged down most of the downhill part and passed one solo hiker who was already on his way back to Redcloud. He must have had started before 5 Am because I never saw him above me on the ascent.
After reaching the low point of the traverse around 13,500’, I started to move up hill again. The trail on the Sunshine side is covered by snow in a few spots but it was easy to go right and around avoid. Progress was a little slower at this point as I willed my way toward the 5 summit in just 2 days. A couple hundred feet below the summit, I snapped a shot back towards Redcloud as I dreaded going back across.

I didn’t get a picture of it but I took serious considerations of descending towards Sun Dog and nabbing that tri-centennial and descending the steep ridge. It seemed like a much shorter way down than all of the way back to Redcloud and all of the way down and around.
Looking up towards the summit, I was almost there. If you look close, you can see the trail going right up the ridge. The trail on this side sucked compared to the rest I had encountered for the day. Large loose talus wanting to fold my ankles with each step.

I picked my way through it pretty quickly and made #47 and Baz made #21 in about 45 minutes across the traverse at about 9:35 AM just over three and a half hours after leaving the car. After snapping a couple of photos and setting up the summit shot, my camera battery died as I took the final picture but I did manage to get it. I hung out on the 5th out of 5 summits all to myself until 10 AM as I rested up and shared a sandwich and orange with my good partner before taking off back towards Redcloud. While I wanted to do Sundog, there looked to be one steep section just after rising up from the low point of the saddle that I was unsure of and I didn’t have an axe in case I needed to bail down a snowfield and exit through that drainaige. Being that I didn’t have a human partner, I opted for the safe way back and headed back towards Redcloud.

I passed several hikers on the way back across and by 1040 I was back on Redcloud. Not wasting any time, I made a hasty descent as I jogged much of the trail back to the saddle at 13 K in about 20 minutes. From the saddle at 13K to the car at just below 10K, it took me about another hour and 20 minutes to drop the 3,000’ by jogging and speed walking while slowing down for snow crossings and trickier sections. At 12:20 PM, I arrived back at the car exhilarated at what I had accomplished. In 6 hours and 20 minutes, I was able to make 12 more miles and over 5,000 more feet of gain. While this isn’t anywhere near a record, it felt good for me to get off of the couch and make so many miles and elevation gain with decent times. I haven’t been running too much lately because Rock Climbing has taken up more of my time.

Conclusion

So… Just a total of 33 hours and 5 minutes (or 20 hours hiking time and 13 hours resting/driving time) after I started off on Uncompahgre at 3:15 AM the day before, I managed my 32+ miles and over 17K of Elevation gain. The US Marine switch from back in the day must have kicked in as my determination carried me through the great adventure. This was a personal record for me in the realm of Verts as I broke my record from September when Dancesatmoonrise and I tagged the Chicago basin famous 4 from the Purgatory trailhead without the train in also about 33 hours car to car. That was 42 miles but only 12,000’. Mileage and Verts aside, the solidarity provided by this trip was what I enjoyed the most. Except for the ascent on Sunshine, I hardly saw any other people and had time on 5 Colorado 14er summits on a summer weekend all to myself. The weather was nice enough on all of them to hang out for hours but I was always worried about getting back down before the snow got too soft.
All in all, the beautiful weather over the weekend was a true gift from God as I bagged these peaks and enjoyed the true beauty that he created in the San Juans of South Western Colorado. Thanks for reading about my Journey that will provide me memories for a lifetime. I usually like to write more about the adventure of trips but without a partner in the photos (other than the dog), I focused more on stats and tried to show conditions out there so more folks can go and enjoy.
I apologize that there were so many pictures as it can get tiring viewing so many but I figured, had I climbed each of these individually, it would have been 4 trip reports (Redcloud and Sunshine together) totaling over 120 pictures. Thanks for reading.
See you at the Top!