Short n Steep 2.0

Saturday morning Peter, Sam, Brian H. and myself headed out for one of my favorite BST routes I call the short n steep. This route is about 13 miles and takes in about 3500' to 4000', a good quad buster for the early season when the higher trails are still packed with snow.

Heading up toward the shoreline from the zoo Peter suddenly stopped to point out the most amazing moonset I've ever seen. As the moon was descending toward the western horizon it appeared to be further north than usual, setting just next to the state capitol. But that wasn't the amazing part, the fact that it was huge and on fire was. I can't recall ever seeing a moon quite that large or that color, really quite cool.

Making our way up the south ridge of Mt. Wire we were greeted with a stiff cold wind blowing from the southeast before making our way down to George's Hollow. This proved to be the most painful part of the day for me as we post-holed through shin deep crusted snow. Down around the living room to the mouth of Red Butte where Brian and I said goodbye to Peter and Sam, as they had to get back early.

Up and down Van Cott was pretty uneventful and as we started up the mouth of Dry Creek I presented my new route extension idea to Brian. I wanted to head up our favorite climb, the Unkle or aka Black Mtn Ridge then head down the ridgeline following the route of the BSTM. We both felt great, the weather looked as though it was going to hold so we decided to do it. About halfway up the climb the wind started to pick up and I noticed a few snowflakes swirling around us. The scene was giving me flashbacks to our mid-December whiteout in the same place. Sure enough once we hit the ridgeline the wind intensified forcing me to hold on to my hat and lean sideways into the wind. It wasn't quite as bad as the last time we got caught up there but still pretty cold.

Back on the BST it felt like summer compared to where we had come from. The temperature was still in the 40's but the wind had pretty much died down. The new route extended the run by about 4 miles and added an additional 600' to 1000' of climbing. I was worked and it felt great. As Brian and I made our way back to the car we started scheming a way to make it a real epic. Instead of heading down Black Mtn Ridge, go up, following the steeplechase route. I haven't mapped it out yet, but I imagine it would be 20+ miles with 6000'+ vert. Maybe in another month or two...

In other news, I went up to the Wasatch Lottery. I'm happy to report all of us that put our name in, got in. Should make for a fun summer of racing and training.

Still waiting to hear how Greg did up at the Orcas Island 50k, hopefully he'll post a report when he gets some time.