On to Colorado!
I was on the Hardrock waitlist, so we decided to go to the Silverton area early to explore and acclimate. Happily there were other reasons to be there and the best part was that other people joined us for a variety of adventures.
Adventure #1 was the John Cappis "Endurance Peakbagging" event. We very much enjoyed Sky Pilots' Lost One Standing last year and figured it was worth trying another of their outside-the-box concepts. In this case they provide a map and gpx track for a set of peaks (different, to some extent, year-to-year). Everyone starts at the same time/place and we head into the hills to reach the top of as many peaks as we can.
This year there were 13 peaks, 3 checkpoints (which were also awesome aid stations), and approximately 50K of distance. And a bunch of elevation, of course.
This is right in the middle of John's wheelhouse. I was tagging along for training and sightseeing. We invited Robyn and Leslie to join us and were stoked when they agreed it might be fun, so they were in. As long as we were sticking together and not trying to race as hard as we could (fine by both of us!)
We started at the back of the pack, up the road and onto a little trail. One minor glitch at the first intersection, quickly sorted out by checking the track on the phone. Yes, we could see how that track was going to be useful. Up switchbacks and then off trail, contouring around in the woods. We stepped over a few logs but nothing too crappy, vegetation-wise.
We reached treeline and negotiated some talus rocks. Getting from there to the ridge was our most challenging section (because, spoiler, we didn't get to the difficult second half). We could have saved time by dropping down to the valley grass earlier. John knows how slow I am on more difficult footing, while Leslie is still calibrating our team's relative strengths and weaknesses.
From the high valley it was a steep haul up to the ridge and then a slow climb toward the first peak. Our reward was an excellent view of Silverton (and thank you Leslie for these first few photos):
John does a shoe clean-out at a stunningly beautiful location:
Finally we were all on top of Sultan Mountain, and we had accomplished our #1 goal - at least one peak!
The first 3 peaks were close together with not too much elevation loss between them. A short time later we approached Grand Turk:
Peak #2 and we're having a good morning even though we're obviously in the back of the pack by far:
One more little down/up to Spencer Peak:
Leslie captured this funny picture of me and John leaning on each other:
We descended toward the next destination, West Turkshead, which we could see over yonder. While climbing from the saddle up the next slope we ran into Fred Ecks. I think he had trouble on the ridge up to Sultan (climbing too high too early) and was catching up to us. John and I recognized him from Hardrock and he actually remembered us too. So it was fun to chat with Fred for a while.
Peak #4 with our bonus team member Fred:
The next destination was CP1, and we had a few miles on and off trail to get there. More fun talking with Fred as we dropped into the Molas Creek valley and admired the views:
We were briefly on the Colorado Trail and then back into the woods to descend toward route 550. On the way to CP1, it was clear that we would make that cutoff time but not the following one. Robyn and I offered to John and Leslie that they could go on ahead at their faster pace, we were happy roaming around on the course together. John and Leslie both said they were there for the company and didn't need to maximize their peakbagging that day.
We reached the edge of the plateau and found the big drop-off we had seen from Tug-E on the way into Silverton. Finding a way through the cliff band at the top was easy (the Sky Pilots track was a good clue). The further we descended toward the highway, the steeper it got. Fred ran on ahead while the rest of us picked our way down with various levels of flair and gracefulness.
After basically sliding the final few feet, a woman walking along the road asked if there was a hiking trail up there? Not that we know of!
Ginny was waiting for us at the checkpoint, very glad to see us. I had been running my InReach mini tracking, but she didn't have service to follow our progress. We apologized for making her stay so long, which didn't seem to bother her now that she knew everyone was accounted for.
She took great care of us - chairs, water, delicious snacks, our drop bags, and good company. I'm normally a lot faster through aid stations but we were having a lovely time and nothing we did at that point was going to affect our ability to make the next cutoff.
OK, we should get going. Straight up the other side of the valley. Welcome back to the course!
Big climb #2, that took a while. Good thing we all still have plenty of topics to talk to each other about.
Eventually we were at the top of "E4" and peak #5, phew. Sure is pretty up here!
Our final 3 peaks (including E4) were on a high ridge, so we made quick work of the easy traverse to E3. Leslie is holding a rare summit register. I'm not sure John realizes this is our 6th peak, or maybe he's excited that our 2nd of 2 big ascents is done:
And finally a traverse around to Jura Knob. We saw some people on top when we were on E3, and something makes me think they were on bikes and not part of the Cappis event. I do know that when we got over here I was thinking no way would I want to ride a bike up to the top. Trekking was good enough for me.
Our 7th and final peak:
It's party time!
We dropped down to a nearby trail to work our way toward CP2. On the Colorado Trail again for a short distance:
Cutting across the next valley, enjoying our day in high places:
Using poles to hop across a side creek:
We thought it was worth the effort to keep our feet dry, but little did we know just how many water crossings we had on the way down. Nothing difficult, just increasingly impossible to stay out of the water. Until it was a full-on wading experience at the bottom (calf-deep, but still). Ah well, wet feet is good Hardrock training.
And it was worth it because Eric was making mini-pizzas at CP2. We enjoyed some recovery time, eating and talking and being thankful (at least I was) that we weren't continuing on to the "increasingly serious" regular course to Vermillion Peak.
Robyn got a ride back to pick up Tug-E while the rest of us ran down the road. We reconvened at Ice Lake Trailhead, where we picked up our friend John Sharp who just happened to be coming down the trail after timing out 3 peaks ahead of us. He was with Megan Eckert, who is a Backyard Ultra phenome (she just ran 92 yards at Big's world championships to come in 2nd female!) We had a great time chatting as we drove down the road to drop them off at CP3.
Another excellent DFL experience :)
Sky Pilots puts on great events, they make them accessible to elite runners and slow pokers alike, they are friendly folks, and they feed you well. Thank you Eric and Ginny!
Full results are here:
