Sierra Challenge 2014 finish - Success?

The 2014 Sierra Challenge is over. It ended with a wimper for me in that I was wimpering. The last day proved especially painful with a bout of gut wrenching vomiting and weakness about 12 miles out from the trailhead. I sure was glad for the Leki treking poles that helped me keep moving and also make great support when puking. In some ways it was a success though as I did manage to summit the challenge peaks all 10 days as well as 6 bonus peaks (and a bonus 1/2 point for the "bat pinnacle"). Unfortunately some others were also felled or pained by stomach issues. I ended up tied for third in the polka dot "king of the mountain" race and was in a distant fourth for the yellow jersey (I was one of only 4 that did all 10 challenge peaks, but my time was much longer than the others). Eric dominated easily winning the yellow, white, and polka dot jerseys - impressive. I felt pretty lousy on days 1,2, and 10. The other days I was tired, but didn't feel so lousy too. As usual we visited some spectacular country and covered a lot of ground and a lot of vertical. I'll make a trip report at some point, but I wanted to get this up in a relatively timely manner. For more details see the links on the previous blog posts about this...

Thanks Bob for organizing this and I am sorry you were unable to make the last day.

also here is a link to an article in the San Jose Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_26373988/silicon-valley-peak-bagger-leads-pursuit-sierra-nevada

Mason on the summit of Langille - day 4

Mason on the slabs next to the waterfall coming out of Dusy Basin day 4

Mason, Luke, and Nick on Piute Pass - day 5 

people heading down from Striped S. I followed Eric along the ridge to Striped (day 6)

Jonathan heading up towards Courte-Echelle (day 7)

zoomed in on previous pic - Bob tries to shoulder stand on Eric to get to the summit

here I am on the top - maybe 5.6 up the side, but a whole lot of exposure

Matt, Nick, Jonathan, Eric, and I on top of Anna Mills - day 10

I am not feeling so good - day 10

2014 Sierra Challenge days 1-3

I certainly can't say that I am feeling particularly fit or strong so far. I have managed to get up the challenge peak and a bonus peak each day, but I just don't feel like I have any pep in my step and my times are pretty bad. Still, I haven't had to use the headlamp yet, although with a 14:25 time on day 1 I was pushing that pretty hard. Thanks to the ability to keep on plodding and my Leki trekking poles I can keep moving, I just can't always keep up with others that are going faster. This has always been the case for downhill trail running, but this year it feels like it for the uphills too. In fact the only time I can really keep up is if the terrain is really technical.

This is a brief trip report. I have more pictures and stories for later...

Day 1 Slide Mtn plus bonus Matterhorn Peak 14:25

there was lots of scenic scenery all over

attempting to revitalize my legs - Matterhorn in the middle left

there were some old m&ms in the register - thanks

Day 2 Mt Andrea Lawrence plus bonus Donohue 14:10

Donohue on the left, Andrea Lawrence on the right

Day 3 Patricia Peak (tribute to Pat Hadley) plus bonus Pointless Peak no times - but about 6 hrs

It took a while for most people to get together, then we had a nice tribute to Pat. Laura even hiked up earlier and left some beer and a poem for the group.

group on Patricia Peak in memory of Pat Hadley. 

ridge on the right to Pointless Peak

Tomorrow is going to be a big day. hopefully I am up for it.

There are some other pics and info on the links in the previous sierra challenge 2014 starts blog post

2014 Sierra Challenge starts tomorrow... gulp

Somehow despite knowing the dates months in advance, the 2014 Sierra Challenge is suddenly here. While I wouldn't say I am completely unprepared, I don't think one can ever be really prepared for something like this, and I think I was better prepared in 2011 and 2012 when I did it before. I only did one day in 2013 because that was when the concrete was poured in my place and because the end was truncated with the tragic death of Pat Hadley.

This year's Challenge averages 16.4 miles a day with 5,820 feet of elevation gain. That assumes you don't get too lost or do additional peaks.

You can see the individual peaks and maps and so on here on Bob's Page:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2014/

It is likely that there will be some updates as the days progress here:

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/2014-sierra-challenge-aug-15-24-t67565.html

I'll try to have my spot tracker going - it can be seen here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Dc9Uh3Nfi5gSoXCZcVqStstGq6beNZ8X

Thanks to Bob Burd for organizing this extravaganza of hiking and suffering. It is a lot of work and it is nice to not have to think too hard in trip planning sometimes. To anyone thinking about joining for a day or all the days - do it.

For all the challenge participants, in the words of the Roman gladiators:

morituri te salutamus

Sean and Pat plotting their course in 2013