Saturday Hike

By: Ryan, on May 2, 2009

The rain broke at around 5:30 today and I decided that I had to get out and do something. We have an adventure contest at work and I get a point for each activity and a point for every 1000ft of vert. Since I’m one of those competitive types, a day inside is a day I could have been winning and wasn’t.

My plan was to hit Grandeur Peak using the West Ridge ascent. 2.25 miles and 3299ft of vert. I figured I’d knock it out by 7:30 and be home for dinner. A little ways up I saw this:

I figured it was going to miss me, but the ridge is totally exposed, so I decided to haul. I got about another 1/4 mi up and turned to check out the storm.

Yeah, not good. I checked the altimeter, I’d climbed 772 feet. So I needed another 228 to get a vert point for Saturday. So I started running. I ran up to about 6000ft, checked the altimeter, 1044 ft, good enough. I turned around and hustled back down. It started to rain. I watched the storm growing bigger and filling more of the horizon. I figured I was going to get wet regardless, but at least I wouldn’t be exposed…

Me with the wall of di-hydrogen oxide approaching.

Then the sun hit me like a truckload a bricks, really bright bricks. The clouds parted. The rain whiffed me by maybe 1/16 of a mile. I was back at the parking lot and didn’t have enough time for another attempt. At least I got my 1000ft of vert. Oh, and I got to see some gorgeous stacked rainbows.

Gorgeous.

I’ll try to make up for the vert when I ride tomorrow. Today’s totals:

Distance: 1.82 mi

Time: 45:43

Vert: 1044 ft

Avg Speed: 2.4 m/h

Max Speed: 6 m/h

Pace: 25:01

Shoved in: hiking, outdoors