~ 7.5 miles uphill , 4000 ft gain

damn 6 minutes

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Two years ago I entered this race for the first time. In fact, I think it was the first race I’ve actually competed in since early high school. If only I had the training discipline then that I have now! In that race, I managed a 1:32 to the top, which included a wrong turn that put me back a minute or two. So this time, I figured if I could improve my fitness a little bit, maybe I could shoot for a 1:28.

My girlfriend and I woke up and got to the ski lift parking area around 6:30 am for the 8 am race. I would highly suggest getting there around this time because by 7am its a zoo with lots of time spent waiting to park your car. If you want an additional challenge, you could hike up from Icehouse canyon, like Cy who I saw hiking up the switchbacks to the ski lift.

Months ago, Rachel was planning on running the race, but some knee problems had her planning on just hiking up and watching. However, the thought of everyone else there racing but not her drove her crazy, so when I saw she had disappeared I knew she was signing up

We met up briefly with Steve, Pattie, Fernando and Iron Mike before the start of the race. Then it was on to the start. I didn’t even bother warming up.

At the start, there is about a 1/4 mile run downhill back to Manker Flats, which then turns uphill another 1/2 mile on paved road then onto dirt road. The scene at the beginning is somewhat amusing to me – watching all these people sprint down than run up the road way faster than they can maintain (at least most of them). I think a lot of people need to read this hiking science post! A few guys went from running to walk within a few minutes! Of course being the science doof / control freak I am, I had my heartrate monitor / Forerunner 305 on again to make sure to pace my heartrate. It really is hard to keep reasonable at first – adrenaline really makes you want to go much faster than you should.

The first 4.5 – 5 miles of this hike are steady fire road – just the way I like it. The first 3.7 up to Baldy Notch generally goes at around 9% grade, which for me means a nice slow running pace of 5.5 – 6 mph. I was able to keep my heartrate around 173-174 up to Baldy Notch. These were similar heartrates up to the Notch as what I did 2 years ago, but this year my time to the Notch was a minute or two longer, hmm.

From the notch, the fire road steepens to average about 12.5% grade, although it could vary from 10-20% in spots I believe. Last time, I remember my heartrate dropping below 170 in this section and I was keen to improve my pace. I ended up running more of it and keeping my heartrate around 175-176, so by the time I got to Devil’s Backbone, I felt like I was doing pretty well.

The trek along Devil’s Backbone and the final push up the steep east slope of Baldy are the last two sections of the race, and they require good tactics, which I may lack in racing. The backbone is single track with not much room to sidestep people, so what always happens is that you end up in the middle of a train of people. It’s too much energy to try to pass, so you just hope that the pace they maintain matches yours. On this occasion, I felt like the pace was okay…my heartrate dropped a few beats but nothing dramatic.

The backbone has a lot of trail “variance”…lots of changes in steepness going from running flat / jogging / hiking. These changes require excellent mental focus in deciding when to change pace so that your intensity is consistent. To me, the more changes, the harder it is to keep a good heartrate / intensity. I’m sure this is like that for others and probably why the “train” of runners I was in went at a pace that I thought was hard enough even though my heartrate dropped a little.

Finally we passed Mt Harwood and I was about 1:21 in…and I was somewhat pissed because I realized I wouldn’t get that 1:28. I continued up pushing at a good rate for about 2/3 of the way when I got to a relatively flat spot and saw the summit was another few hundred feet up. I was exhausted at this point. I noticed my calves teasing cramps and I pushed on. The last few minutes seemed to take forever! Finally I got near the summit and tried to run to finish it off…well I did run but my calves started cramping so I probably ran 20 seconds like I had a stick up my ass. 1:34 and change.

Somehow, I felt I gave a fuller, more intense effort but ended up with a slower time! I was pissed, but wait first I had to stretch out my calves. Ok now I was pissed! Wait I have to get some orange slices and sit down. Okay…what happened? Well two things changed against me since last race. 1) I didn’t sleep in my car at 6000 ft the night before, and 2) I gained 7-8 lbs up to 192 (at least it was muscle). Given my hiking at altitude the last 3 weeks, I really don’t think #1 had much weight, but I may be wrong. I’m quite sure #2 had an effect, but exactly how much is hard to say and worth a whole post in itself. Suffice to say there could have been a 4% increase in workload from 2008 to 2010. I probably burned around 1900 kcal in that run! So I am mad I went slower, but given I stayed around 90% of my max heart rate the entire race, I’m also happy. And it was fun either way.

A short time later, Zip came running up.

Then Rachel hauling ass getting in around 1:50. That’s without much running training nor any race preparation!

My camera was all sweaty being held in my hands – this was a partial shot of Iron Mike (on the right).

Fernando

Nice temps, another lovely day in the mountains.

~ 22 miles, 8000 ft gain

damn 4 minutes

Photos are geo-tagged
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In the book The San Gabriels: The Mountain Country from Soledad Canyon to Lytle Creek, John Robinson mentions offhand about some football player being able to summit Mt Baldy via the Old Baldy trail in under 2 hrs. Sounds like a great challenge? I agree.

With 9 days till the Baldy Run to the Top Race, I thought it would be a great time to give it a go. The weather had thankfully cooled down, and I was at the Baldy Visitor Center in tank top and shorts at 7 am ready to go.

Instead of the normal 60Csx GPS I usually bring, I brought my Forerunner 305 with heartrate monitor that I have had for maybe 4 months but haven’t used much “in the field”. Based on many bouts of training with heartrate monitors, I had a good feel for what heartrate I could sustain for a 2 hr hike. I wanted to use the Forerunner for 3 purposes, 1) make sure I don’t go out too quickly 2) check my pace and 3) make sure I’m getting up to the the right heartrate at the right time. I expected I could stay between 165 bpm and 170 bpm for the duration. Seem like a bit too much? Yes, yes it is

Things were going good up to Bear Flat, with a mixture of hiking and a bit of “running” if you could call it that. The switchbacks out of Bear Canyon seem to be the steepest part of the hike, and my quads and especially my calves were really burning. I hadn’t hiked up anything steep at a fast pace in a while and I think that bit me in the ass a little bit. I felt okay at the top of the switchbacks and thought I was on pace for my goal although I didn’t really know. I was about just under 1 hr in and my heartrate was at 165 so it seemed all good.

I kept chugging up along the ridge. The weather was really good for this, nice and cool with some breeze. Higher up, the wind got fierce and become more of a nuisance. My heartrate was starting to drop into the low 160′s – I wanted to it to start getting up near 170 so that wasn’t good. “Just go faster!” you all say. Well if it were that easy! My legs didn’t want me to go faster.

Eventually I got up to the part where the ridge flattens out a bit and you can see West Baldy and Baldy ahead. Only 20 min left and they seemed so far away. The grade lessened enough for me to get caught in the Walk/Run Vortex – you know that area where it seems just a little too much energy to run, but too little energy to walk? That’s where I was. The running was too much so I walked as fast as possible but I wish it was a little steeper. Finally, it flattened out enough to run for a good 1/4 mile and I was at the base of West Baldy with maybe 10 min left. Can I make it? 3 min left and I am ascending toward Baldy-West Baldy saddle. Not looking good. I try to run but its just too much. I finally make it up in 2:04, 4 minutes too late. Damnit!

Well it still was a good try but I felt the effort was lacking. I don’t know if it was the lack of training on steep slopes, the fact that I ate too much late in the day on Friday, altitude, or a combination…but I knew via heartrate that I wasn’t at the right intensity I know I could do. The funny thing is that if I didn’t have the heartrate monitor, I would have felt like it was a better try!

Anyways, it was freaking windy on top. 50, 60 mph? I had the summit to myself (9am) and ducked behind one of the rock-stacked walls. I didn’t stay for very long as it was kinda cold with the wind, so I headed down Devil’s Backbone.

Refilling at Baldy Notch, I decided I needed to put in some more effort, so I went ahead and did the 3T’s trail. From before Thunder to just before Icehouse Saddle I had the trail to myself. I forgot how nice that area is.

I got down to Icehouse parking lot 6 hrs after starting, not too shabby in halving my days compared to the last 2 weeks. I was going to hitch a ride (turned off GPS), but didn’t see anyone leaving, so I jogged / walked the 1.5 miles back to my car.

I don’t know what goal to set for the Baldy race. 1:25 seems too low, I don’t think I can do that at 192 lbs. I’m shooting for 1:28.

I’m not going to rewrite this, you can read Ze’s previous report. All that I’m going to say is that once at the Backbone trail and at the top of Harwood, the wind from the north really kicked up. This just made things really really cold.

Check out the pics and vids below:

There’s a small rock portion which can be avoided by going 30′ feet to the left. But after all the leg charging uphill portions, this was a good change.

Miriam had the bag, Eric said “why not?”

Part 2 of Eric trying on the second attempt.

Jack heading down.

Paul’s turn.

Tim had some good runs and pretty much setup these paths down. I was just too slow with the camera.

That’s Register Ridge and Baldy.

You can check out my pictures here.

My photos here

Our initial plan was to take Register Ridge up to the Devil’s Backbone trail, continue on reaching Mt. Harwood, Mt. Baldy, Dawson, and Pine. However we knew there was going to be snow on the north face of Baldy so we weren’t sure about the latter two.

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Mt Baldy via Register Ridge at EveryTrail

I was also trying on a new pair of shoes. I ordered several pairs from Sierra Trading Post with the intention of trying them all and keeping one pair. Last week was the Salomon Solaris, which was good except for poor lateral support – an important feature on cross-country hikes like Rattlesnake Peak.

This week I was trying the Asolo Veloce. A nice looking pair with Vibram soles, but with stiff soles I wasn’t sure how well they would break in during the first hike.

Anyways, we were off a bit past 8am, and once hitting the Ski Hut trail, we quickly diverged onto the clearly worn Register Ridge use trail.

Of course, this is a steep path. But it is a good steep, the terrain for footing is reasonable. And I always enjoy hiking around fallen pine needles, as they pad the feet and smell nice.

Here is a video of some ridge ascent around an area with large boulders:

The view south of course gives clear views down the canyon. On this day, there were some interesting views due to cloud cover and light rays pouring through.

At this point, we reached the Devil’s Backbone Trail. We just scaled about 2700 ft in 1.5 miles up the ridge, and about 3000 ft in 2.5 miles total! We took a short break then headed up straight toward Mt Harwood.

However as we were approaching the backbone trail and then on to Harwood, it began hailing on us. And the weather around looked somewhat formidable, although clear skies were not too far away.

After bagging Harwood, we decided to mix it up just a bit and veer toward the northeast face of Baldy to ascend instead of the normal east route. This provided more of a workout dealing with the scree and scrambling.

We then ascended to some really cool views.

Once we had ascended Register Ridge, it was really, really windy. And initially there was no sun. Luckily the sun finally came out to provide some warmth and to counterbalance the wind.

We started heading down toward Dawson, but after a few hundred feet down found the entire face covered in snow up to 1 ft deep. The snow could be traversed in the current condition, but I wasn’t sure how it would act (freezing) later on the return so we decided to bail out on that portion of the trip. However, it might have been possible to avoid the snow if one stays as far west on the ridge as possible, as there was less to no snow there.

Instead, we hiked back up and over to West Baldy, and went down several hundred feet toward the San Antonio ridge. It looked really inviting, but that’s for another day.

So we turned around and traversed over toward the Ski Hut trail. We decided to check out those airplane crash sites.

I’ll assume someone put this here and it didn’t land this way!

We then descended traversed along the western side of the ridge until we hit the saddle where the Ski Hut trail veers down easterly. Instead we continued on the ridge for a while to check it out. After some descent, we traversed across the side of the ridge to meet back up with the Ski Hut trail.

We met up with the trail, and followed it back to the cars.

In the end, this was about a 10 mile, 5000 ft jaunt with major cross-country portions. While we didn’t get to Dawson & Pine, we saw some great views and had some great hiking.

KML Google Earth file

Mt. San Antonio (Baldy) via Ski Hut Trail & Devils Backbone Loop at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging