EISPIRATEN

Today I "ran" a trail-running race. We started at Manker Flat, and set off to hit 3 checkpoints: Thunder Mountain peak, Ski hut, Baldy peak. In any order, using any route. There's still a lot of snow at elevation, so clearly "running" this isn't what I wanted to do. I brought mountaineering gear, and took a very direct route: Big Butch Wash to a side gully directly to Thunder Mountain, down to Notch, up the Backbone, down the Bowl, back to Manker. Easy peasy. This ended up being much shorter than what everybody else did, but I was covering more challenging terrain, moving much slower.

Near the bottom of Big Butch Wash, looking up. Just a boulder field here:



After a bit of climbing the snow fields began, and the canyon acquired a nice stream:



Sunlit side is dry, shaded side holds snow:



Just below 7400ft Big Butch Wash looks like this, looking up:



But I didn't go that way. I put on the spikes, and took a right turn into a snow-covered gully:



This is a steep, direct and very fast route straight to the top of Thunder mountain. At 7800ft I crossed into the ski area



And soon I was at the top.



Then I descended between the ski runs down to the Notch, and up to the Devil's Backbone. Here I found a crucial piece of mountaineering equipment that I forgot to pack with me:



That side of the ski area is dry, and closed to skiers for the season. Past the lift, the backbone has quite a bit of snow. The top has lots of snow too, but the middle section is dry:



It's going to be melted out completely soon. The peak is nice. No wind at all today:



Then I descended the bowl. Took the chute nearest to the peak. The steep upper section was uncomfortable; had to descent backwards, slowly. The snow is all really soft, and traction is good. Below the really steep top of the chute I was mostly doing a foot shuffle through the soft snow, trying to slide down. Worked decently well: I only ate it and had to self-arrest once. It's all so soft, I probably wouldn't have slid very far even without the self-arrest. There are many dry patches, but I had a continuous snow line all the way down to the hut:



Bowl looks like this from below:



My chute is conveniently obscured by the tree on the right. And then I finished the route, after doing the only "running" of the day. 8.5 miles, ~5000ft gain, 4:12.

Awesome!

Way to represent the ice pirates by taking an off-trail shortcut. How many others competed and how did you finish? Did your unconventional route help or hurt your time?

I was 3rd out of 15 or so. Definitely did far better than I otherwise would have. The two that beat me normally would have finished in half the time as me, but here I was 3rd by only a little bit. Recommended!

You cad! Real 12-points? Any balling in that luscious spring velvet? First time I ever saw sastrugi and corduroy was on the summit of Baldy.

Impressive! and creative.

Yeah, no one is running up the backbone yet. When you say spikes, did you mean crampons or microspikes?

Definitely full crampons. But wait a few weeks, and it'll all be gone.

Thanks for the report. Amazing, you found my eyelash curler!? Seriously though, Thunder Ridge has some of the best scree surfing in the summertime.

Sean wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 10:05 am Amazing, you found my eyelash curler!?

You can have it back, I got eye boogers all over it

Sean wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 10:05 am Thunder Ridge has some of the best scree surfing in the summertime.

I saw a report where you took that down to Manker. Ever go all the way down to the mouth of Icehouse canyon? I look at that slope every time I'm in that parking lot

dima wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 10:56 amEver go all the way down to the mouth of Icehouse canyon? I look at that slope every time I'm in that parking lot.

No, I haven't tried that, but I've eyeballed the same slope. The rocks look bigger and more annoying on that side, at least from what I can see at the parking lot.