The last three times I've run the mountain I have been praying for good weather - each time to no avail. This time I thought I might have my prayers answered, but alas, not so. I could see the summits this time, but that just let me know what I was going to get hit with - 30 to 40 mph gusts of wind that carried small particles of snow ice. The wind cut through all of my layers (I'm guessing solid negative temps with the wind chill) and the snow ice stung on any exposed skin. I couldn't really stand up top, so my time on each summit was a mere few seconds as I scrambled to find any small boulder to help block the cutting snow ice. Down in the valley the wind was tolerable, but it did make for some serious work breaking trail. I obviously came up with this challenge during the summer when it was nice out...
Sunrise on Mt. Parnassus - things look promising...
Lots of work breaking trail... you can start to see the wind gusts picking up on top of Torreys...
My face is red from the wind snow ice burn...
Looking towards South Park through the snow ice wind...
You can see Longs Peak way off in the distance...
This was a massive avalanche that I had to cross twice - it was about 400 yards wide.
Nice work. Looks like good weather this weekend. Would love to catch up for a run at some point as I've been out here just a couple months.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yeah, this weekend looks to be good. I'm thinking of going again on Monday. We should get out sometime, although I'm sure you are faster then me. pnj@bauuinstitute.com
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