Uinta Highline Trail

A couple weeks ago, Ben Lewis, Jason Berry, Peter Lindgren and I set off on what proved to be a most excellent adventure. Dropped of by my dad at the Leidy Peak trailhead at the eastern end of the High Uintas, we hoped to travel west for 80ish miles of the Uinta Highline Trail in one push, arriving sometime the following morning at the Hayden Pass trailhead on the Mirror Lake Highway.

We felt we were well prepared with plenty of food, abundant water supplies along the way(Steri Pens to purify said water), emergency supplies to bivy in case the forecasted storms pinned us down. we carried maps, compasses, SPOT tracker, a Garmin GPS, and a satellite phone to lead the way and get us out of trouble if needed.
What we weren't prepared with was actual knowledge of the route as the only experience any of us had was some limited traveling of the 9 miles from Rocky Sea Pass to the Finish. We all knew that the trail was very faint in the first 15 miles to Chepeta Lake, with accounts of runners/hikers getting off trail within the first few hundred yards. This wasn't going to happen to us with our wide array of route finding gadgetry!! Right......

A lazy 7:45 am start and we were on our way.  As soon as we stepped out of the car, the clouds descended, a light rain started, and our feet were wet for the next 28 hours.  Leidy Peak was obscured and we began making our way from cairn to cairn confident in our route finding abilities. An encounter with an elk herd, dense fog and an hour later something didn't feel quite right and we pulled out the maps for a closer look than the cursory glances we had thus far taken.   We found that we were indeed on trail 025 (the Highline Trail), but instead of heading west, we were going east. An hour into our adventure and we had just circumnavigated Leidy Peak and were within .5 miles of our starting point!!  Well...  Luckily all other route finding errors (of which there were a few) weren't as bad as that one and we managed to generally stay on course the rest of the way.  

Rather than a long narrative of the rest of the trip, I'll let this excellent video compiled by Ben Lewis tell the story.  The only other tidbits I'll add are that we all under-estimated this route. It was HARD!! After 8 of the toughest finishing miles I can remember, we finished in 27:52 to break the FKT held by Chad Bracklesberg by 22 minutes. And after an earlier attempt foiled by severe lightning and thunderstorms, Stephen Jones lowered our new FKT by 11 minutes, finishing the Highline Trail in 27:41. Congrats Stephen, and more so on doing it solo!!

http://youtu.be/52BkszgQbAY

Special thanks to my dad and brother for providing drop off and pick up transportation. Gregory packs for their Tempo packs which were awesome, and personally, to Altra footwear and the Lone Peak 1.5 which kept my feet happy through 28 hours of sogginess.

Parley's North Ridge to Little Mountain

Christmas day I was busy putting together a ping pong table (who knew there would be so much assembly) when I received the following email from Erik:
"Monday morning I'm thinking of exploring the ridge north of Parley's.  Starting just above the Parley's Pedestrian walkway where it enters Foothill Boulevard, and then following the ridge east until it comes out at Little Mountain.  I have no idea how long it is, or how long it will take, but I'm thinking 4-5 hours?. I'm sure there's some sort of a trail, whether it be human or linking up some game trails. Has anyone done this before, or have any knowledge of it, and more important, would anyone care to join me?"

Following this email was pretty much radio silence except from those that were going to be "out of town". I was in need of toughening up the shins and some outdoor time, so I replied with "I'm in, give me a time".

View Parley's North Ridge Run in a larger map

The route from the mouth of Parley's Canyon to Little Mountain a the top of Emigration Canyon.

At 7am Erik and I headed up the trail to attempt to link the entire ridge. The early going was pretty straightforward and straight up, gaining a couple thousand feet within a few miles. 

Finally gaining the ridge

After gaining the ridge we came to the first drainage/bowl and the trail virtually disappeared. Down below us, near interstate 80 we could see the gravel pit and in front us a hillside full of scrub oak with a few junipers mixed in.

Looking back west through some of the easy bushwack

Looking south, the gravel pit below and the Millcreek ridge straight across 

Looking east toward some of the bushwack

We tried to pick a route that would be friendly to our shins using various rock outcroppings and the junipers, but there was no way we were going to get through the next 2 miles cleanly. Shortly after realizing one of my shins was bleeding I heard Erik yell out that he saw something exciting. We were in the nastiest part of the whole bushwhack when he found an elk antler. He was so stoked that he sounded like a kid on Christmas morning.

Like a kid on Christmas morning, Erik carried it another 4 miles or so

Another 1/2 mile or so and we were done with the Class III bushwhack and began the small ups and downs along the rest of the ridge.

Looking back west along the ridge and our tracks

My bloody shins

Not really a "run" so much as it was an adventure and a good one at that. We stuck to the true ridge for 90% of the route but there is a mile or so where it's just not possible. When we deviated from the ridge the south side provided the "easiest" travel path.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and call this an FKT, but it's a soft one. Someone is bound to do it faster (or has already done it) and I can't wait to hear about it.

Here are the stats...

Distance: 9.1 miles

Vertical Ascent: 3,750' (measured by a Suunto altimeter)

Vertical Descent: 2,360'

Time: 3 hours 20 minutes.

Utah Triple Crown FKT

This time last summer, Christian, Erik, Greg, Peter and I were on a long Saturday run and Christian began describing a run that had been reading about, the Utah Triple Crown. He went on to describe how Craig Lloyd linked together Utah’s three tallest peaks into a 29-mile run. We all agreed that it sounded like a potentially grand adventure and we added the Utah Triple Crown to our list of “to do” runs.

On July 16^th, Peter, Erik, and I had a “window” where nobody was racing, working or had family obligations. We were off to the Uintas! Our plan was to follow Craig’s route.

We drove to the Henrys Fork Campground the night before and camped under a full moon. Our plan was to be on the trail at first light. By the time we had broken camp, fueled ourselves and completed all requisite pre-running business (Don Pedro)– it was 6:21 am. We were off on our grand adventure.

Erik and Jay at the trailhead ready to go

The first milestone of the route, Elkhorn Crossing, is at 5.3 miles. Craig reached Elkhorn in 1:02. Somehow we missed the turnoff and ran a half-mile or so towards Sawmill Lake before realizing our error. After consulting the map, It was then back to Elkhorn Crossing where we walked the stream bank looking for a safe place to cross. The heavy runoff this year had washed away the bridge. The swift current made crossing a dangerous challenge. I began an attempt to cross and turned back to the bank when I became doubtful I could keep my feet underneath me. The river rock was slick and the current was strong. Erik then tried and made it successfully across. Peter crossed and I had no choice… I made it! Our time to Elk Crossing was 1 hour 3 minutes, before the wrong turn and 1 hour 26 minutes before our cold wet asses were across the "creek".

Trail looking at the peaks after Elkhorn crossing

The run along Henrys Fork was spectacular. First light was casting a spotlight on a variety of flowers. A rather large bull elk ran across the trail in front of us. Splashing through intermittent streams and bogs was invigorating. Good company in a spectacular environment made for a wonderful morning.

Basin between Gilbert and Gunsight Peak

We reached Dollar Lake and turned east to begin the climb up to the first of the three peaks that comprise the Triple Crown; Mount Gilbert (13,446). We stopped several times to discuss how we thought Craig had approached the peak and what constituted the best route. After climbing up the ridge and reaching a meadow I erroneously began to lead the group towards Gunsight Peak. As we reached the base of the peak we realized our mistake and turned back and began the climb to Mount Gilbert to the Northeast. As we climbed Gilbert strong gusts of wind made climbing the rocks difficult. The wind was causing my eyes to water and I was having trouble seeing. Intermittent gusts would knock us sideways; requiring quick rethinking where feet and hands would next make contact. This was not a place to have a fall!

We reached the top of Gilbert in 3:10, 10 minutes behind Craig’s pace. We quickly took some pictures and hurried down to get out of the wind AND try and make up lost time.

Peter and Erik on Gilbert Peak

Gunsight Peak

On top of Gunsight Peak, Jay and Erik study the route to Kings Peak

Looking back at Gunsight Peak from Gunsight Pass (the photo doesn't do much to show the difficulty of the descent)

We next climbed Gunsight Peak and began the treacherous descent to Gunsight Pass. Staying on one’s feet was a challenge and we took several spills on our way down. What the F#&* was Craig thinking?? We reached Gunsight Pass at 4:23, we made up a little time and were now just five minutes behind Craig’s pace.

From Gunsight we climbed up the cutoff trail towards Anderson Pass. We filled up with water from an impromptu spring in the middle of a snow field and worked our way across the meadow beneath Kings Peak (13,528), our next climb and the second peak of the Triple Crown. There were several small snowfields on the climb. We were hopeful that climbing up the snow would be faster than climbing over the rocks. Wrong! The snow was soft and was melting from beneath causing us to drop through to our knees and sometimes hips. We laughed at Peter as he literally had to roll and crawl serpentine style off the snow as each step he was dropping to his upper thighs. We reached the top at 5:40, exactly on pace with Craig.

Erik and Jay on Kings Peak

South Kings Peak

South Kings Peak

After some quick pictures and a snack we were off to our third and final peak, South Kings Peak (13,512). Moving across the loose boulders was slow, occasionally large rocks would tip or move under foot challenging balance and control. More than a few scrapes were had navigating the rock fields. All we wanted to do was run (very little of the route had been runable since the climb to Mount Gilbert). We were cursing the poles we had brought which were of almost no use. We needed our hands to provide stability over the large rocks. There was an unspoken unease about how we would descend from the peak given the poor quality of the snow. We summited South Kings Peak at 6:08, we were now 15 minutes ahead of Craig.

Moments before we stood on top of the ridge negotiating the best route - which happened to be straight down

Looking back at the snow field (right side of photo) we descended. It is as steep as it looks.

We followed what we understood Craig’s route to be, glissading downward from the saddle between Kings and South Kings Peaks. The snow quality was better than we anticipated and we had a nice run/slide off the saddle. We then worked our way towards a saddle in the ridge dropping to the east of Kings Peak. As we crested the saddle there was silence among us. We were in a spot with no great options. A tricky traverse along a cliff band that would maintain enough elevation to reach the meadow below Anderson Pass. Or, an extremely STEEP glissade down into Painter Basin. We opted for the glissade. After many pucker moments, frozen hands, and snow compacted into a variety of orifices we made it to the bottom.

From this vantage we could see Craig’s route. He had traversed to the north and had come down a nice (as a matter of perspective at this point) snowfield underneath Kings that allowed him to cross the meadow below Andersons Pass to Gunsight Pass. We realized we made a big mistake and began to work our way towards the trail in Painter Basin that would ultimately take us back to Gunsight Pass. After several more small snow fields and navigating through marsh and brush we found a trail that took us to the climb back to Gunsight Pass. We were discouraged and beating ourselves up for our navigational mistake.

We reached Gunsight Pass in 7:46. Eighteen minutes behind Craig’s pace. We quickly did the math and realized that if we were able to keep up a moderately brisk pace over the last 10 miles we would be able to finish under Craig’s time of 9:41. After a creaky half-mile or so to get the legs used to running again, we all got into the zone. It felt good to be able to run. In fact, it was fun to be able to run. We crossed the stream at Elkhorn without event and continued to make good time back to the trailhead. We reached Henrys Fork Trailhead in 9:21, 20 minutes under the previous FKT.

At the car ready for a milkshake

We took off our shoes, soaked in the stream and shared our respect for Craig. This was a tough route! That he studied and knew the terrain well enough to develop this route was impressive. That he had completed it alone was ballsy. His solo effort is a remarkable achievement (follow this link to read his full report).

As we drove back to Salt Lake we recounted the day; laughing about our navigational errors, our fine dining at Don Pedro, and the absurd route, but oohed and aahed over the stunning vistas and scenery we had experienced. Yes, it was a grand adventure!

Zion Traverse 50 miles - FKT

I have a lot to be thankful for this last weekend, including an incredible family and new niece to start with.  On the running side of life I had the great fortune of joining Jay and Jared Campbell on a 50 mile trek across Zion National Park.  I'm not going to post a detailed report about our adventure because Jared has a great post over on his blog about our run.  I will share a few details from my point of view though.

• Zion National Park is much more diverse than I had imagined.  The main road through the park only gives visitors a glimpse of what is out there, wander off the beaten path and you will be rewarded.
• The weather couldn't have been better.  Even though it was a little cold to start with the temperature for much of the day hovered around the mid 50's with just a slight breeze.  Perfect running weather.
• 50 miles is still a long way to run.  I suppose that the distance just doesn't seem as formidable to me as it once did but I was reminded that it still deserves respect.
• Getting the FKT (fastest known time) was just icing on the cake.  Spending the day running with friends through one of the most amazing places in the world was the real treat.