On July 3 I did a speed hike on 14,270′ Grays Peak, a Colorado 14’er along the Front Range. I haven’t been to the summit of Grays since maybe about ten years ago. I had made a few half-hearted attempts, all stopped by snow or weather, or some other little thing, but today the weather was awesome, and just a week ago I’d done Quandary quite fast. The only little annoying details were that I had done a steep ten mile run the day before (July 2) and I ran into a really deep set of ruts in the road that I did not want to risk my car on.
I parked about 1.7 miles down the road from the official signed trailhead, and walked up. I set the Lap marker when I got there, 32:48 minutes. I boogied up the trail, and didn’t really feel anything like tired until the last thousand feet of elevation. I made the top in 1:36 for 3.6 miles.
Here’s a Google Map of the route:
[map kml=”http://charlesmiske.com/files/2012-07-03%20062253_Grays_Running_Charles_Miske.kml”]
I hung out on top for about 10 minutes, my standard time, to eat and drink, then took off down the trail. I was feeling a little tired and unsteady, but overall not too bad, just sore and tired legs and feet from yesterday I think. I made the trailhead in 1:26 for 3.57 miles (I accidentally cut a switchback). The last 1.7 miles to the car really hurt, but I did it in 33:50. Overall not too bad for a relatively unfamiliar trail a day after a ten mile run at altitude.
3900′ in 2:09 (time from car to top) is about 1800’/hr – or 30’/minute. That’s “okay” but I’ll have to do a bit better for Elbrus. This had a bit more horizontal though and rougher terrain – Elbrus will be almost all ice and snow.
I have more info, including the Google Earth embedded viewer on my other Blog HERE