Today, I battled Heaven.
Loop #1 of the Breck 100 starts by climbing the ski hill on the outskirts of town. As I approached the mountain, the sky over my head was blue and sunny, but a black cloud hung over the top of Peak 9. Once I found the Ski Hill Access road, the rain had started. As I climbed, it sprinkled on and off, but then started to hail and thunder once I was a mile or so up. I put my jacket on and kept going…
A few minutes later, the hail stopped, but as I rounded 10.5K feet or so, it started to sleet. Eventually, after a lot slow uphill grinds, dizzy spells, and walking, I was above the treeline. The road became nearly unridable… the grade on my Garmin read 25 -35%, and the gravel road turned in to a rock-covered jeep trail. The skies had momentarily cleared, so I alternated wallking and riding as I navigated the switchbacks.
I finally reached the Wheeler Trail- the singletrack that would eventually cross the mountain and lead down to the base on the other side. However, as soon as I turned off, something crazy happened. The wind started to gust, and suddenly, I could barely see the narrow strip of singletrack in front of me. Fog? No… something was hitting my face…
It was a blizzard.
The snow was blinding, and the wind was gusting so hard that I could barely stay on the trail. I didn’t want to stop and freeze, so all I could do was keep steadily rolling forward. Then, almost as suddenly as it started, the blizzard was gone.
Soon after the snow stopped, I reached the final grunt over Wheeler Pass.
In my hypoxic brain, I’d conquered both heaven and earth. The ride back down was insane- until I was well below the treeline, I didn’t feel “right,” so I decended slowly.
At least the view was nice.
The remainder of the trail was not nearly as hard (other than the initial climb up the Peaks Trail). As I rode back in to town, the thunder clouds rolled back in. Luckily, the only thing between me and a the sweet nectar of a hot omelet at the bakery down the street was a hot shower and a little walking…
Yep, that’s Colorado weather alright. I remember it being nice and sunny then seeing dark clouds forming over the mountains. A torrential rain would come along with wind and goodness knows what else. I would be huddled up in my tent wondering if I’d get blown to Kansas. It all eventually ended about as suddenly as it started and the sun would be back out like nothing happened. There is some weird weather at elevation.
On a different note, I found some youtube videos of the Leadville 100 trail. The race looks absolutely brutal. Now I want to try it too.
I’m not all that interested in Leadville… the Breck 100 is less popular because it’s harder
… heard good things about Brek 100, but don’t know much about it since it lacks the press of the Leadville 100. I think Lance really put Leadville on the map. The Laramie Enduro is supposed to be the king of all enduro races from some of the thing I have read over the years. I’d be thrilled to try any of the races out west. They all sound like a kick in the teeth. :)