2012 Sierra Challenge - take 1

I would like to write up a nice trip report for the 2012 Sierra Challenge with lots of pretty pictures and gruesome detail. That won't happen for a while, so meanwhile I will say that I did complete the challenge and it was challenging. I managed 17 peaks total for 2cd for the polka dot jersey - not really contested as Sean could have blown me out of the water any day. I was a very distant 4th for the yellow jersey - only by virtue of completing all of the challenge peaks. I need to stop carrying a dslr and learn to run down mountains if I want to compete in this category.

Sunrise on day 6 - an "easy" day

This challenge started out easily enough but quickly turned rough with a lot of rain and some brutal days at the end. Even the approaches to some of the trailheads were hard.

To make things even more challenging I twisted my ankle on the approach to Mt Carl Heller and then climbed and downclimbed the E ridge and exited George Creek. It was sort of hurting and quite swollen that night. The next (and thankfully last) day involved some 26 miles and 8700 feet of vertical - you see how it was. There were also more early starts - as early as 4 am and plenty of 5 am starts. This did help us to get onto the summits before the rain and more importantly the lightning. The weather did deter me from trying to get more bonus peaks - so did the fact that I got pretty exhausted.

There were many incredible people participating in the challenge. It was humbling and inspiring to get dusted by people many years older than me and those with full time jobs that live near sea level. Still, I think just completing the challenge is a worthy accomplishment.

Because I am lazy I will post some links now...

Bob Burd - the instigator's - website

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/

He posted some more links here:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/reports.html

A thread on summitpost with some trip reports and extraneous chatter

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/http-www-snwburd-com-bob-challenge-2012-t61880.html

Sean's Blog - he describes what he did every day - I was with him for most of day 2 and 9

http://drdirtbag.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/matterhorn-whorl/

Rain on the lake below Mt Mendel - it continued back from here up over Tamarack pass

At some point I'd like to talk about every day and some of the my gear choices - such as using a cotton carrier for my camera, but that will have to wait for later.