I had an incredible run on Grandeur peak this morning with Seth Wold, MattV, Bill Hiatt and Bill's two friends Zak and Trevor. Zak and Trevor had no idea what we were doing, as Bill told them we were going on a trail run and that the first two miles were just a little steep. I was leading the way from the start and when I turned up the West Ridge Zak said "What are we going straight up that mountain?" :) :) :)
The wind was blowing, which made it a little uncomfortable, but it wasn't bad. Bill and Trevor took off in the lead and the put a little distance on us. I was content to push a nice quick pace all the way to the top. The wind picked up near the summit and about 3/4 of the ay up Seth said he was going to try and catch the other guys, and he did beat them to the summit and then ran back to meet us on the summit ridge. The other two guys hit the top after Seth and then I was behind them with Matt and Zack right behind me.
We didn't stay long on top and the run off of the summit straight down the east side was the most fun we had all day. The snow was deep and we all went fast. The run down to Church Fork was a lot of fun and it was a nice snow packed trail the whole way. When we got to the bottom we turned down the Pipeline and ran that all the way to Rattlesnake Gulch in perfect weather. Awesome!
We all met at Rattlesnake and took a break. I took a gel and we waited a few minutes for the other guys to show up. The best comment of the day was hearing Zak say "Those were the hardesrt 6 miles of my life," while he was bent over with his hands on his thighs. That made me smile. He has been running for several years. We all ran fast down Rattlesnake and the conditions were great. Not as icy as the last time. Once at the bottom we ran down the canyon road at a nice 6:45 - 7:00 pace that we held until we got to the guard shack. At that point Matt's knee was bothering him a bit, so Seth and I stayed with him and the other three guys pulled ahead. We made it back to the cars for a total time of around 3 hours (including all breaks.) 3k+ elevation gain.
It was a perfect morning, until I got a speeding ticket on the way home. | 