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| Mile 110 |
This....
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| The mercury hit 103ºF in Central Park on Tuesday |
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| The mecurury will push 120ºF next Monday and Tuesday in Death Valley |
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| This model of the Mountain shows my route. I ascended via the Cathedral Trail, and descended via the Knife Edge to Helon Taylor. |
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| GPS Log of my Route, with miles marked. Mile 5 is at the Summit. |
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| Elevation Chart |
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| The real work begins shortly after Chimney Pond at mile 3.5 |
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| This is what Chimney Pond looks like from the summit. |
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| The route up ascends three enormous cathedral rocks |
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| Zoomed out view of previous photo (both were shot from the knife edge) |
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| Difficult rock scrambling begins immediately. These boulders were all larger than 4 feet across. |
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| After an hour of scrambling to go about a half-mile, this is how far I'd gotten |
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| Halfway there |
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| A few hundred vertical feet below the summit. "oops." Much more mellow saddle trail in background. |
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| State Highpoint #32. Northeast region complete. |
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| 360º Panorama from the Summit of Katahdin |
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| The Knife Edge from Cathedral |
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| The Knife Edge from the Summit. 50MPH wind gusts, otherwise nice. (: |
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| At first - "This isn't so bad" |
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| Trail gets more and more rugged the farther away from the peak |
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| Imagine climbing over this, realizing a fall off either side would be.. bad |
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| It probably took me two hours to do the 1-mile knife edge |
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| Leaving electrolytes in the car didn't help, I got cramps |
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| By the way, don't look down. That's Chimney Pond, 2500' below |
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| This window of exposure is only 2' wide, but look - a rare stretch of dirt trail! |
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| The very end of the knife edge was probably the hardest part, with a steep climb down Chimney peak to a notch, then an equally steep climb up Pamola Peak. I skipped the climb up Pamola, bad idea. |
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| Climbing down from Chimney Peak. Path around Pamola visible. Don't take it. |
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| Looking back up at what I just climbed |
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| Pamola Peak. You can understand why I skipped this part, and just went around to Helon Taylor. I don't recommend doing this. The path from the notch looks really promising, but it soon ends and you have to scramble over loose rock and bad footing. |
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| Helon Taylor trail descending the ridge. Lots of hiking still to do, but I was done with the gnarly stuff. |
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| 120ºF would actually be mild for Badwater |
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| Replaced 48oz of water, and still lost half a lb |
Less than 14 days until the start of Badwater! Ran with Tony on Friday after work and we're all psyched to get going!!!
This will be my third trip to death valley, but the first in the context of any sort of race. I went through some of the photos I shot on my first two trips, and thought I'd share some of them here.
Photos from April 2005 road trip:
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| Look ma, I'm hot! (it was actually only 105F) |
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| Pahrump, NV - halfway between Las Vegas and Death Valley |
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| Leaving Shoshone, CA |
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| Somewhere between Shoshone and Badwater |
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| Salt flats |
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| The sign 275 feet above the road says, "Sea Level" |
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| Yes, there is water at Badwater |
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| Closer look at the water. Don't drink it. |
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| ~10 miles from the start of the race |
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| Furnace Creek. Gas ain't cheap in the middle of nowhere |
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| Thermometer in the Shade. In September. After 5PM. |
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| Ravens hold their mouths open, presumably to dissipate heat. |
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| Sand Dunes outside Stovepipe Wells |
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| Sand |
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| My understanding of Tony's darkest moment in 2009 is probably near where I shot this. |
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| Panamint Valley |
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| Father Crowley Point |
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| Exciting point in the race - the right turn onto 395 going into Lone Pine |
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| Whitney Portal Road, Lone Pine |
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| Mt Whitney |
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