Feb 11 - 17

Feb 11 

--AM

Ski tour

4hr30

2920' Gain 

Started at the Butler Th and headed up towards the Basin. Took a bunch of ski photos of Brody shredding around. Really good ski day, nothing intense, just amazing snow. 

--PM

Roller Coaster + Living Room

1hr05

1750' Gain

Zoo TH and up the Shoreline Path to the bottom of Mt. Wire where the trail/path/steps disappeared in the snow. Decided to head down the roller coasters and then linked up with the main trail to the Living Room (aka Red Butte Ridge.)

Feb 12

Short Swing + Toms Hill

2hr05

3250' Gain

Skied around in some flat light. Wildly tracked out, reminded me of skiing in bounds. Snow was still really good though.

Feb 13

1/2 Wire + Roller coaster + Living Room

1hr30

2450' Gain

Eerily gray and murky day.  Zoo TH and up towards Mt. Wire. Gaining the 2nd shelf, the snow drifts grew larger, cat paw prints everywhere and a freshly chewed on coyote leg, which made the outing become a little more eerie. I stood there for a bit and weighed my options of what to do since I'm trying to keep my vertical gain up. I was more discouraged about post holing through the snow drifts than I was about running up on a big cat. So I headed back down, linked up with the Roller Coaster and headed towards the Living Room ridge, which was a great call, since the Living Room ridge was surprisingly dry-ish.

Feb 14 ~ Off. 

Feb 15

Mt. Wire + Living Room Ridge X3 (#25)

2hr34

4860' Gain

Late morning start. Slushy and sloppy paths. Zoo TH and up South Wire ridge to the summit (46min). Post holing up the last 600 vertical to the summit really slowed things down. Descending the trail/path into the west gulch was more miserable knee deep post-holing. Once arriving in the main gulch the trail was solid and supportable. Ran that back down to the shoreline paths, flipped a 180º and went back for 3 loops on the Red Butte Ridge to the Living Room.

Feb 16

Mt Wire + Living Room Ridge + 1/2 Wire (#26)

2hr27

4770' Gain

Warm day, trails were definitely better. Mt Wire summit in 44min (from car). 1 quick loop on Red Butte Ridge. Obnoxiously crowded trails. So I headed back to the South Ridge and made a push up to where the majority of the post holing began and then headed back down. Fun outing, felt really nice to wear shorts and a tee shirt again so I just wanted to stay out for a while.

Feb 17

Olympus Creek

48min30

1475' Gain

Easy. My legs slightly torched from the previous 2 days, but not too bad. Once I started jogging I felt really good and not too tired, still kept it turned down though. Olympus TH to the creek (29:30min from car). Descend in 19min. Some mud and slush thrown in, mostly dry… even dusty in a few spots. Dust!? Gasp!

Overview

Gain: 21,475'

Time: 15hr30

Pretty good week. Started off with some incredible ski touring in Big Cottonwood Canyon and ended with a couple of nice back-to-back pushes. As well, I started taking EnergyBits about mid-week, which is spirulina algae. I'm not the person who normally promotes products like this (unless they're shoes). But honestly, I feel pretty good. I'm taking about 30-50 tabs mid morning. Energy is up during the day. No cloudy head. I feel consistently good on runs, and it seems as if fatigue takes longer to happen too. I was able to push through some more intense sections of climbing and continue on. I'm sold. 

Brody Leven enjoying the views and a nice little pow turn in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Awesome old tree that had been pushed and twisted around by weather.

Brody Leven.

Mt. Olympus trail. Doesn't look nearly as fun as the other images, however I was equally as excited to be here as I was in the images above. Literally grinning ear to ear to be running on a mostly "dryish" trail! However everything beyond the creek was still mostly all snow packed.