Week Summary: Jan 30 - Feb 5

1-30-2011
Mon-AM: 2:50, 4500' ~ Green Mt. + 3rd Flatiron
Ran to Chautauqua, stashed my pack, and went up Green via Gregory-Ranger and down the Skunk Ridge. Back at Chat, I retrieved my pack before soloing a quick lap on the Third with Buzz.  By far the crux of the route was descending the access trail from the backside of the Third--death ice. Finished up by running down to Basemar for lunch.

1-31-2011
Tue-AM: 1:30, 2900' ~ Green Mt.
Up First Saddle and down Skunk Ridge.  Running (as every morning has been for the past week+).  Managed a snappy 32min ascent despite having pretty tired legs. Acupuncture with Allison afterwards.
PM: 2:14, 4000' ~ Green Mt. via Third Flatiron + extra lap to the Third and back to Chat
Really fun afternoon on the mountain. With the Third closing tomorrow for six months for raptor nesting, I couldn't resist one final scramble up its classic East Face. Biked to Chat and started hiking hard to the base with a rope and rock shoes in my backpack. Soloed the Third in a comfortable 26min (Dave and others can blitz this 900ft/5.2 climb in 9-10min when motivated) and then did the three-pitch rappel off the SW corner. Stashed my backpack before continuing to the summit of Green via the standard route to the NE ridge and Greenman. Hiked back down the same way to get my pack before hiking back to Chat. After I'd biked home and took my pack off I saw that the top was unzipped and that my harness, locking 'biner, and belay device had fallen out...WTF?!?!  Immediately hopped back on the bike, retraced my route to Chat with eyes peeled, and then hiked hard all the way back up to the backside of the Third looking for my harness.  Nowhere to be seen. I did tally another 1200' and 38min of hiking, though (and a little jogging). In this short time someone else must've been psyched to score Camp's sick super-lightweight harness. A really frustrating end to an otherwise stellar day.

2-1-2011
Wed-AM: 2:14, 4400' ~ Bear & Green
Jogged up to Chat to meet Jeff before heading over on Mesa to Fern Canyon to the summit of Bear and then coming back over Green and descending the 1st/2nd Access.  Today was definitely a test of the shin and I think it passed, just barely. Each of the last three days have had longer-than-necessary efforts, definitely going to back off the next couple of days before L.A. this weekend. Put in steady efforts on both climbs--Fern is such a beast, super-sustained, perfect. This is just a perfect mountain loop that I've missed so much. Even so, possibly the highlight of the morning was finding last night's wayward harness just sitting on the bench at the Chat Ranger Cottage. Yes!
PM: 1:16, 2500' ~ Green Mt.
Up behind First Arete and down First Saddle. Got a late start so needed the headlamp on the downhill. Very nice pink sunset on the summit. Hiking.

2-2-2011
Thu-AM: 1:48, 5000' ~ 2 x Bear Peak
Biked over to Cragmoor, ran to the summit, descended Fern all the way back to Mesa, summited again, and ran back down to Cragmoor. Mesa-Summitpost: 28:48, 27:50. The second lap was down the Fern connector to Mesa (not past the Slab), which is ~1min shorter, so both laps were essentially the same (splits were the same from the double posts at the mouth to the top). I finally broke my Microspikes last night (actually wore through a link!), so was rocking super-sharp new spikes above the Nebelhorn Saddle, which was absolutely incredible on the ice luge conditions up there. 16min descents on both laps. I was feeling great and would've gone for round three but had to get to an acupuncture appointment with Allison. Probably a good thing that I didn't have the time. Stay smart.
PM: 1:11, 2500' ~ Green Mt.
Up behind First Arete and down First Saddle. Another late start meant I was finishing in the dark, but my legs felt super strong. Hiking.

2-3-2011
Fri-AM: 2:00, 2800' ~ Green Mt.
Winter! Up and down First Saddle. This was one of the more difficult Green ascents of the season. It took me exactly an hour to wade my way to the top, through a fresh foot+ of powder and wind-packed waist-deep drifts on upper Greenman in the dark at 4:30am before flying to L.A. Above the NE ridge I was having a really hard time seeing anything as it was snowing so hard my headlamp beam was just reflecting snow flakes. Even at the end of the run I feel like my body hadn't woken up yet. Definitely some accumulative fatigue from the last two weeks of vert.

2-4-2011
Sat-AM: 2:25, 5100' ~ Mt. Wilson & Mt. Harvard (L.A. Front Country)
Up and down Mt. Wilson Trail from Sierra Madre/Little Santa Anita Canyon (900' trailhead) with Dominic and Katie. Mellow climb for the first ~40min or so and then things really got fun, climbing ~2000' in the final two miles before joining the old Mt. Wilson Toll Road to the summit. Really sweet trail. TH to summit parking lot (5700') in 1:20:50 (7.5mi). Bopped up to 5440' Mt. Harvard on the way back down and then goat-footed it down the front before rejoining the trail and finding some really nice flow on the Cali carpet for a :53 descent (including the summit of Harvard). Incredibly good day for the shin. Zero pain. Also, shirtless in February.

2-5-2011
Sun-AM: 2:26, 5800' ~ Mt. Baldy
Up and down Bear Canyon from Baldy Village (4300') with Dominic and Katie again. Started off slow and creaky, feeling yesterday's run a bit in the hip flexors and hamstrings. Just didn't have good pop or strength all day really. Eventually found a rhythm, though, and ground out this remarkably sustained, long climb. It's just a really good, direct line up the mountain; not a lot of messing around. Hit a 1:37:22 ascent from the Bear Cyn Drive/Baldy Village junction to the summit plaque (~6.4mi). Waited around for Dom, just enjoying the super clear day on the summit and then descended in :49. Again, really nicely-flowing singletrack with stunning views the whole way down. Awesome mountain. I've been really impressed with the 1010's performance this weekend, too, on mountain trails. Soaked in the frigid stream afterwards before some pretty stellar french toast at the Baldy Village Lodge.

Hours: 19h54
Vert: 39,500'

Ended the week just short of three different round numbers with ~99mi, almost 20hrs, and nearly 40k' vert.  That's a lot.  The shin really seemed to solidify itself over the weekend.  Both runs it felt really, really good.  Never noticed it.  I had a blast on two exceptional mountain ascents in the San Gabes.  They're a really scenic, steep mountain range with totally legit climbs. This weekend was by far the most fun I've had running in over a year. Really a pleasure.  This next week I'll look to maintain this volume while shifting some of my evening outings to running, hopefully (evenings were hiking-only this past week).  Even though running up big mountains shirtless in L.A. had me jonesing a bit for the simplicity of summer, I'm still really psyched to get out in the bounty of fresh now here in Boulder.

Oh yeah, January stats:

• 65h22min 
• 122,200' vert 
• 301mi 
• 39 Greens

Summit of the Third Flatiron, Monday morning. Photo: Buzz Burrell.

Bear Peak Thursday, with weather coming in.

Running up Mt. Wilson Trail Saturday with Dominic. Photo: Dominic Grossman.

Of course, I had to scout a goat route off of Mt. Harvard. Encountered a few thorns. Photo: DG.

Final ridge leading to summit of Mt. Baldy (San Antonio, 10,064'). 

Almost to the top of Mt. Baldy. Photo: DG.

Photo: DG.

Photo: DG.

Cattle Canyon and the Pacific beyond, during the Baldy descent.