Wednesday: Got out and enjoyed the warm weather in Little Cottonwood. Court Pace and I hit up the Ultra Classics Crescent Crack and Mexican Crack. At M C we met one of our hero climbers, Nic Berry. He is a local that climbs super hard (13+ Trad), BD athlete, and nice guy. After we pulled our rope from the 10d crack. We chatted for a minute then he soloed up the crack nice and smooth, no rope. Fun to watch. Worth ditchin work for.
Thursday: Awesome food and fam time followed by freezing my butt off for 5 hours at Best Buy and successfully obtaining a new teevee and xbox for the cold winter ahead.
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| Ma and kiddo |
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| feastage |
Friday: Family and friends climbing in Zion. Izzy, Nick, and I got down to the tunnel wall area and cragged at the Confluence while Court, Annie, and Spence rocketed up Smash Mouth (4 pitches 5.11.) Awesome weather and clean beautiful crack. Then dirt bagged it back on some dirt road on the other side of the river. Temps not to bad. and Izzy was a great sport spear heading the baby wrangling.
Saturday: Early rise to begin the main event. Zion Traverse 50 miler (48 to be exact.) 5 of us took off from the East Rim trail-head under crisp frigid air. 11 miles later we jogged into the Grotto. I came in first at 2 hours. I tend to fly down the switchbacks more than most. Gravity is kind. Izzy and Anna pitted the aid station at the car and then we were all on our way up the Angel Landing trail. Court challenged me to not walk the whole climb up past the Wiggles tell Scout lookout, I paid for it later but I succeed. And yes, Court I have not forgotten you still owe me dinner. The rest of the climb up and out of the West Rim area is absolutely spectacular viewage and trail. I was not able to run very much, but Nick and I power hiked it through the dark side of ultra running (ie bonking out mentally, gut wrenching fatigue and ultra euphoria at the same time).
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| Best Crew Ever |
We all re-grouped and then pressed on. I don't think any of us felt 100% and we were not running near as fast as we expected. Flat stuff I normally cruise was slow going. Spence and I crested a hill and made it to around mile 26, West Rim TH, to another spectacular oasis in the desert, Izzy, Anna, and the 4Runner. 3 finished their journey there, and Spence and I pressed on. It was getting late and by mile 32 we detoured to the road, hitch hiked out, and we all were in Cedar eating greedily by 7. We could have slogged on through the night, and I really wanted to run the last 16 because it is all trail I have not seen before, but it will have to wait for another day. (a warmer day with more sunlight) Great Friends and a great capstone to the running/climbing season.
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