Quality, Not Quantity

Now three+ weeks off of Wasatch 100 and I feel fully back to normal. I've tried to get into the swing of normal training again, and while I have had some amazing outings over the last week it certainly isn't reflected in the number of miles I've posted. I wouldn't trade those outings for anything though. What a week.

It really started one week ago when my friend, Matt Van Horn, and myself wanted to tackle Mt Nebo. Unfortunately, we did the math and just didn't have the time. Instead, we targeted the 'ole fallback, Mt Timpanogos. But then, while standing in my front yard, I turned to the east and Lone Peak caught my eye, a peak that has been on my to-do list, but something I've never done. As a Draper resident I feel it's my civic responsibility to climb it. I called Matt and shared my idea and he was immediately on board.

I could tell I still wasn't recovered fully from Wasatch, but all things considered I think it went really well. I settled into a very relaxed pace on the way up, summiting in 2:55:18. Matt beat me up by a few minutes and I'm quite certain could have gone a lot faster had he not had to show me the trail. What a view. It is really beautiful up there. We chose to come down a different trail so that I could get a sense of both of them. It turned out to be a nearly 16 mile outing with almost 7000 feet of vertical gain. I'm proud to say that I've finally put that one away.

 Looking through the notch above Bear Canyon toward the summit

 Matt on the summit

 Me on the summit

That run tuckered me out. I took Sunday off and enjoyed a very easy run on Monday up to View Benchmark, my standard Monday run with Scott Wesemann. I felt better than I had expected and really enjoyed a speedy run on Tuesday in the gully with good friend and amazing triathlete, Leslie Howlett.

Wednesday was another day, like Saturday, where we had plans in mind, but ended up having to change them a few times. Matt VH and I again hoped to get together and this time tag the Broads Fork Twins. Unfortunately, clouds had been sitting on top of it for a few days and just as we pulled into the parking lot it started raining. We settled on Mt Olympus, a peak we can do in pretty much any weather (lightning aside). While on the drive over Matt suggested we do the West Slabs and loop around. I immediately bought on it as the west slabs are another tick list item I had yet not done. The only hitch was that were it to rain we would be in a world of trouble.

How do you explain the west slabs if you haven't seen or done them? Hm. A grueling steep single track climb into a very steep 2nd/3rd class gully. The slabs themselves are more than 1200 vertical feet tall and range from 4th to low 5th class, if you take the correct route. Go off-route and you sustain more consistent 5th class (5.4 - 5.6) for considerably longer. As we made our way up the approach I was looking for the clean line, while Matt searched for the correct and easiest way up. Within a few hundred feet I had found the clean line, but it turned out to be much harder and exposed than Matt was comfortable on, considering we were in running shoes. As I continued up Matt looked for another way. I hit the top of the slabs in 1:15:00 (which included a 7 min wait for Matt). After waiting up the north ridge for a bit longer we both continued together over to the main summit, reaching the top in 2:07:40. From there we ran the spectacular main trail back down and then cut around on the newly cut Bonneville Shoreline trail. At only 7.3 miles total it boasts a total of 4800 vertical feet of climbing. Again, I was grateful to tick off another from my to-do list.

 Matt, low on the slabs during the still very easy part

 Looking back down the technical section

 Matt on the north ridge

 On the summit of Mt Olympus

 Cruising through the turning leaves

Matt on the new BST

I finished my week off with a very easy run in the gully with Brent and Jeremy testing out my new Sony Action Cam. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this thing. I posted a very short video about it. The clarity isn't that good because my output file with medium format and I didn't upload it to youtube in HD. You'll get the idea though.