I have done a fair amount of high-country "running" lately. I use running in quotation marks because much of it, as is often the case with true mountain routes, was not done at a typical running pace. However, it was faster than most people would be able to climb, so I shall for now use the "moving efficiently over terrain" definition of running.
If it's good enough for Geoff Roes, it's good enough for me.
Rather than get long-winded about my adventures, I'll just post some pics. Two weekends ago, I took a shot at Square Top mountain, across Guanella Pass form Bierstadt. IT was a fun, if easy, thirteener, which had the distinction of being much, much quieter than Bierstadt and not having a trail to speak of.
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| Square Top. We took the route to the left (south) in this pic. |
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| Cool Green Bug on the trail |
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| Evans (L) and Bierstadt(L) from the top of Square Top |
The next day, G and I did Democrat, a Fourteener in the Ten Mile-Mosquito Range. She climbed like a champ, given that she hadn't done any hiking all summer.
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| Climbing Democrat. |
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| For some reason, I missed the opportunity for a summit pic of the two of us. This is looking back down at the Cirque between Democrat, Cameron, and Bross. |
This past weekend, I took a shot at Meeker Ridge. This is the most prominent ridge on Meeker, and also lacks a defined trail. For the most part, at least. I discovered on the way down that there were, in fact, cairns leading you to the correct route: I just missed the cutoff for the correct route and ended up bushwhacking through the woods for a long time. This is a route I hope to do again, now that I know how to proceed.
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| From the Ridge, looking over Wild Basin, towards a peak whose name I cannot place right now. |
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| There was a bit of a trail, but nothing too impressive. |
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| Looking back up at the Ridge, from Lookout Mountain. those clouds came over me within 10 minutes of this pic. |
