Spartan Beast - Monkey Style

Even though this race was a couple of months back (6/30/2012), I thought it was appropriate to throw into the OTM blog.  Thanks to my bro SuperflyChris for loaning me the GoPro, and thanks to my bro Nate for keeping me going in the mud.   We finished in 2:45, and it was quite possibly the funnest run I've ever done.  There was mud in places it shouldn't be.  One of my friends that ran this race was sitting in church the next day and someone asked why she had dried mud on her elbow.  Yeah, it was that dirty.  But a fun kind of dirty.  I'm already signed up for next year, and can't wait to get all muddy again.

 

 

Playing in the Mud

Summer Trail Series VI - Partial Credit for Twin Peaks

After a few painful treks with a couple Orange Trail Monkeys (OTMs), I suppose I have now become a quasi-official member of the group, as I have been asked to file the report on the latest climb in the summer trail series.  And it would be fitting that I have been asked to report on a climb in which we did not reach the summit.  (i.e. expectations for Jake's reports and climbs should be fairly low.)


Bridge Over the River. Why?

We started our day fairly early, leaving the trailhead just after 5:00 AM, our goal being to make it as far up Twin Peaks as possible before having to turn back around to make it back down in the valley in time for work.  Twin Peaks is the highest mountain on the Little Cottonwood Canyon ridge (11,489'), and it is named Twin Peaks because the peak itself is made up of two similarly shaped summits situated on the same mountain top.  It was still fairly dark when we started, so Headlamp Huff led the way.  Slowly but surely we made our way up the mountain.  And then, there was a first.  Sam got tired....And had to slow down.....And had to sit down.  Never before has this happened, I'm told.  But here's proof:


The Thinker

Obviously something wasn't right.  I'd spent most of the other runs with the OTMs as the caboose, just hoping to not get too far behind, or to at least keep within shouting distance of one of them.  And so to have Sam pulling up lame just wasn't right.  Sam then confessed to having had donated blood the day before, noble generosity to benefit your fellow man Karmic contribution blah blah blah.  I'm no Doctor, but I'm going to theorize donating blood before trail runs at 9,000 feet above sea level may have a small effect on one's endurance.  So we left him.  Every man for himself, isn't that what they say?  Amen.



First Light

Soon there was enough light to turn off the headlamps, and then Steve just about ran into a big, big fella on the trail.  Another trail, another moose, only this one was about twice the size of the one we ran into on Gobbler's Knob, and Steve was close enough to touch this one before we realized we almost ran into it.  We allowed this bullwinkle time to move off the path, and that's when Sam caught up...You can't keep that man down for long, and he powered through the blood-donating fatigue the rest of the day.  All for one!  One for all!  As long as you can keep up!

After working our way a bit higher up the mountain, the trail became less defined.  This was the first time any of us had been on this route, and so our limited knowledge of the trail came from various summitposts and hiking blogs, and so we approximated what the course to the top would be.  One would think that it would be easy to make your way to the top of a mountain that was right in front of you.  Alas, one would be wrong.  And so went our climb.  There were some vague directions on the easier way to the top, take your first left, then right, then stay right, then stay left...We followed what cairns we could see but ended up taking "The Robinson Variation" of the trail.  Robinson Variation sounds like it should be some lifesaving procedure, or a wrestling hold, or maybe even a dance move, not a trail route.  In this case, however, the Robinson Variation was simply an unmarked scramble up a scree face, in which no one's lives needed to be saved, no grappling moves took place, and there certainly was no dancing.

A Gift Found On The Trail

There was on extremely pleasant bonus from taking the Robinson Variation:  Wild Raspberries!  Quite a few of them....All over the mountain!  At the lower elevations they were relatively small berries, but in other places we scored some pretty big ones.  Little pockets of juicy, sweet, sweet joy that also leave you with tiny seedlings to pick at in your teeth for a few climbing steps.  We spent a while grabbing handfuls of berries, and then continued our march up the mountain.


As we continued climbing up the scree portion of The Robertson Variation, something very important came up.  We'd heard this word "Scree" many times in different conversations with other climbers/trail runners, seen the word "scree" on some climbing reports, and even used the word "scree" to describe some of our own trails (http://orangetrailmonkeys.blogspot.com/2012/08/quest-for-kings-2012.html).  Anyway, Steve had actually looked up the word "scree" in the dictionary, and essentially we've guessed right and have been using the word correctly.  Scree means: an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff, aka Talus. And scree looks much like the photos of scree from the Quest For King's 2012 blog post that I've listed here.  (See more photos of scree here.)


A Huff Sighting...Feeding on Berries in the Scree

As we made our way further up the scree slope, we realized that time would not permit us to make it to the summit, and that we'd need to turn around soon in order to make it back to the base camp in time to get to work on time.  Steve made it much further up the mountain than the blood donor and I.  But we did have a tremendous view and were able to enjoy the sunrise on the trail.

Here comes the Sam

Tres Hombres, with some climbing still to do.

We made good time on the descent, and even got airborne a few times, and there's pictures to prove it.  We will be back in the future to conquer this peak.  Both of them.

White Men Can Jump

The trail, there and back again.  And we will be back again in order to get fully there.

Happy Birthday to Me

As is becomming an annual tradition, I made another summit of Mount Olympus to celebrate my birthday.  This year, Sam's schedule allowed him to make one last summer summit with me before school starts.  This makes my fourth summit of Olympus this year and Sam's third.  We once again attempted to break the 90 minute mark to the summit, but still fell just a little short.  Perhaps if we had had a few more days to rest from our Friday hike up Twin Peaks Robinson Variation we could have made it, but since when are we the kind to take a few days rest?



Summit Photo - Looking South



Summit time for Steve:  1:38:22, which was 4 seconds faster than my July summit, and my third best time.
Summit time for Sam:  1:41:22, which is a new PR for Sam.

Steve's Splits
1st creek bed:  34:29
1st to 2nd creek bed split: 18:47
Staircase to saddle split:  31:27
600' saddle to summit split:  13:37

 

The area between the 2nd creek bed and the saddle are what we affectionatly call "The endless staircase."

Quest for Kings 2012

This was Round 2 of the Quest for King's Marathon and our third time summitting King's Peak in the past four years. It was definitely the highlight of our summer and running season. We beat our first time from four years ago by six hours, and beat our last year's time by more than an hour. Our training leading up to this race was much more intense than the previous year, especially on Steve's part. 

As we set up camp the night before we found some other people who were planning on walking King's. They had no idea that a group of runners were going to be on the trail with them. Coincidentally, at the summit we found yet another group of people who walked it all in one day who had started at 3:00 a.m. It was cool to see a lot of people doing it, whether they were part of Quest for King's or not. It was also fun to meet up with the other runners and share stories around the campfire. We all had a good laugh at many of the stories, especially the ones that involved pooping in the woods.

Here's a view of the course, with the trailhead in the bottom of the map.

Henry's Fork Trailhead has an elevation of 9,430'.

A view of the course from the other angle with King's Peak on the bottom right.

King's has an elevation of 13,528'.

We started at 6:00 a.m. running much more consistently than last year and felt really good about our progress up to the Elkhorn Bridge and Dollar Lake. We maintained a steady pace of about 12 min. miles for the first 7.5 miles. 

Jake was the Flash. About 3 miles in.

Steve, shortly after crossing the Elkhorn Bridge. About 6 miles in.

Sam, near Dollar Lake. About 7.5 miles in. Look closely for Jake in the background.

After passing Dollar Lake it's about 3 miles to the top of Gunsight Pass, which has an elevation of 11,888'. We call this part The Steps of Gunsight because it gains elevation quicker than the previous 7 miles. At this point we all had to break from running and walk a bit. We had hoped to run all the way to the top of Gunsight, however, we were making good time so a little walking wouldn't hurt. Our time at the top: 2:24:32.

Gunsight Pass. Sam in the foreground and if you look closely you can see Steve in the background.

After going up Gunsight Pass it's about 2 miles until you reach Anderson Pass. We take the common shortcut of scrambling up a steep cliff of rock scree. There's actually a fairly decent trail leading up through the rocks and without the snowdrift from last year, we made good time. After this point it is mostly bolder-hopping the rest of the way.

Jake and Steve coming up over the steep scree. Gunsight to the left.

I tend to be very nimble on my feet while traversing the boulder fields and if you look closely in the photo above you can see me taking the lead. Steve had maintained the lead until this point. You can also see Anderson Pass on the Left side. Anderson has an elevation of 12,700'. I must have been in much better shape this year because the last mile climb from Anderson to the top of King's seemed much easier. Last year I remember taking two steps and wheezing for a few seconds before taking another step. I thought Steve might pass me at this point but I maintained the lead and was the first to summit.

Jake, taking his last steps to the summit.

Steve, taking his last steps to the summit.

Jake, Steve, Sam on King's summit.

Sam's summit time: 3:41:52

Jake's summit time: 3:46:57

Steve's summit time: 3:48:31

Last year, Steve was first to summit right at four hours. I followed ten minutes later and Brian another ten minutes later. This year we summitted much closer together and broke the four hour barrier. Another thing we decided to change from last year was how much time we spent on the top. We were close to an hour on the top last year, which sure, was a nice break, but a waste of valuable time. So, we snapped the photo shortly after all of us arrived and I took off. Steve and Jake followed just a few minutes later. As I descended I started to see many of the runners coming up from Anderson. It was nice to exchange encouraging words as we passed each other. I felt really good as I ran the boulder fields of Anderson and started the decent to Gunsight. Just before starting down Gunsight I looked up and saw Steve and Jake starting the decent of scree cliff. That was the last I saw of them until the end. This year I ran straight down the gully instead of taking the long switchback. I know it saved me a lot of time. 

I started running on the trail at a slow pace because my legs felt a little wobbly. After a few miles I regained my strength and sped up a little. This point of the race is always rather fun and exciting. The hard parts are over, now we just have to make it back as quickly as we can without letting the bowling ball sized rocks jump up and trip us. It's also fun to pass the many people on the trail. We always get some funny looks and comments from backpackers.

After crossing the Elkhorn Bridge there's about 6 miles left to the trailhead. This year it was an annoying game of dodge the horses. I've never seen so many horses on a trail before. The people riding the horses were not very cooperative in letting me pass them. But eventually, I got by all the horses and was feeling pretty good when I hit the rock slide, which marks about 3 miles from the trailhead. I tried to imagine a regular routine of three miles and pushed my pace a little. It was hard. With every step my body seemed to say, "whoa there, just slow down and walk for a minute" but I pushed through the pain.

At about the last mile a runner came up behind me. I talked with him for a moment and gave him room to pass me, but he stated that he was not in a hurry and was content to finish it out at my pace. So, I felt inclined to push the pace a little more and finish strong. Jake got stuck behind the horses or he may have broke seven hours. Steve decided not to eat anything and was running low on energy, but still did awesome.

Sam's finishing time: 6:46:26. An hour and thirty-six minutes faster than last year.

Jake's finishing time: 7:07:00. Way to go Jake! It was his first real trail run, ever.

Steve's finishing time: 7:09:00. An hour and twenty-three minutes faster than last year.