The past year or so I’ve been getting focused on ‘fitness’. For the summer this includes strength training at the gym, HIIT, trail running, mtn biking and yoga. With the hot temps I’ve mostly been in the gym and doing shorter trails in the am. That gets boring, so I decided to get out for a long day with the simple goal of putting in a good chunk of vert. I don’t really see this as ‘good’ training, but more of a test to see how the other practices are paying off. What fun is it to tweak and tinker with your car and never open it up on the highway?

My friend Jeremiah joined me for the warm-up and we scrambled the 3K ft South Ridge of Superior in relaxed fashion.

Jeremiah had to bail, so I crossed the road to Snowbird and headed up Peruvian Gulch aiming for Hidden Peak. This is a great trail that gets you close to 3K of vert, but you get to save the knees by taking the tram down! I do dusk patrol laps here quite a bit in the winter when I’m stuck in the office all day or the skiing isn’t great. They do a 6K race in the fall called the Hidden Peak Challenge, which is a great event that I plan on every year, but have only done once.

I took the ‘Ridge’ trail above the cirque from lookers right to left.

Elevation 11,000ft, temp not 99, but it was warming up. First lap was 1hr 20min at a brisk hiking pace.

I took the free tram down, ate some lunch, filled up the camelback and the legs were feeling good so I headed back up.

Water was flowing and I was able to cool off in fresh mountain run-off mixed with the piss of a thousand skiers.

Encountered an old friend that I dearly miss!

Great views from the summit

2nd lap was a bit slower at 1hr 30min. I kept missing the trams that come every 20mins so I had a nice rest up high in the breeze.

Caught old blue for another ride down. Rested on the tram deck and considered another lap. The clouds looked like they might provide some cover and feeling fine I set off for another round. It was later in the day, but the temps didn’t seem any better and the clouds dissipated shortly into the lower section. Oh well.

I took the ridge route again for it’s directness and the breeze. The flowers are nice up there as well.

I like how this one came out. That’s Superior in the background where the day started.

I had to pick up the pace to not miss another tram and made the third lap in 1hr 35min despite stopping to ‘smell the flowers’.

Feeling pretty OK after lap three! Nearly 12K on the day with the help of staying hydrated, sportlegs and training I guess.

Back in the office enjoying the A/C and  feeling great this morning!

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