Day off school ride with Lauren

Morning Snowboard

Boulder

Afternoon Snowboard

We are celebrating Fathers Day a week early since Karen has to go out of town for work next weekend.  I didn't feel my toe was in a good place for Charleston via Big Falls, which I'd signed up for with LVMC for Sunday.  I was trying to think of smaller peaks that sounded interesting to me (Fletcher bores me) and came up with Cockscomb.  Right around the same time, LVMC published a trip up Cockscomb with a 2-rappel descent.  That sounded perfect, so I reached out and said I have all the equipment, just no skills to set my own rappels up.  Thought there was a chance they'd have me, even name dropped CP that I'd rappelled with him, but they totally shot me down.  Lol.  I was surprised but not offended.

So then I realized that I'd never gone up Cockscomb from the Stanley side.  My memories of descending it were that it was pretty, so I figured I'd go up and down the same way, and I'd have plenty of opportunities to bail if my toe got out of hand.

Warm day up there, and it being "Fathers Day", I slept in to try and make up for all the VGK-decimated nights I've had lately.  Tore myself away from the kids around 9:15.  By the time I got up there, it was about as warm as expected, just below 80.  This was fine in the shade, a bit much in the sun with no wind.

Easily stayed on route up until the mine, when a police helicopter was hovering very close above.  At the same time, I encountered the only other human on the day, a woman with her dog.  These two distractions served to divert me and miss a crucial turn.  I ended up on a higher ridge, bushwacking my way forward while the actual route lay just below in the drainage.  Corrected my error a short while later.  Wet my hat at the spring to cool down, then pushed on.

Further up, I needed to decide when to leave the drainage and gain the ridge that eventually leads to the Cockscomb-Stanley saddle.  I had a GPX of my previous descent, but this didn't stop me from making an ill-advised decision to deviate and attempt to cut upwards at the wrong time.  I found myself on alarmingly steep terrain, pushing forward to "climb out of danger".  This time, I stopped myself and made the responsible decision to descend the 100 feet of junk, backtrack, and ascend at a better point.  The ascent, descent, and subsequent re-ascent of this same 100-ish feet of vertical served to fry my legs.  From here on out, the route was steep and my legs protested every 50 or so feet.

I had intended to wait until the peak to eat, but I was so hungry on the ridge leading to the saddle that I stopped in the shade to eat a bit. This helped, but my legs were still fried.  As I gasped for air and pushed forward, I contemplated what may be causing this surprising lack of fortitude.  For 1, I am heavier than I have been in 10 years.  Very close to 180, whereas in my heyday of adventuring and peakbagging, I was hanging out around 148.  Much of the extra weight is muscle, but it's still a lot more weight to haul around in the mountains.  Second, I have not been training calves and I have been pounding my quads for months, carrying a lot of fatigue in the quads basically 24/7.  I believe all of these factors led to the dip in performance.  Rather than slow down dramatically to make progress less of a battle, I had to force myself on due to the time constraint of family coming to visit for Fathers Day later on.  

I gained the saddle, then absolutely battered myself to continue up to the peak with little rest.  In the summit register I found the names of the LVMC group that had turned me down.  I devoured my pb and j and some other food, then decided to see how quickly I could descend.  If I could do it quickly, I'd be home with plenty of time.  If I faced delays due to fatigue or toe issues, I'd be late.

Here the weight training has paid off in dividends, as I can pound down descents in the mountains with little care for my knees.  I made quick work of almost the entire descent.  Near the very end, after running a few short spurts, I got quite the uncomfortable cramp on my left quad.  I have never experienced any cramping in my legs EVER despite the dozens of strenuous adventures I've been on.  I was able to limp my way out and arrived home with plenty of time to spare.

All in all, a more difficult endeavor than I'd planned, but the toe came out mostly fine and it was quite rewarding.  As my days of being an endurance and adventure athlete continue to fade in the rear view mirror, I am always intrigued and sometimes disappointed to witness the resulting changes in my mountain performance.  Previous difficult endeavors (Mummy, Wheeler via Baker, Yosemite) have shown a negligible drop in performance.  This may be the first time I am truly several steps behind my "old self".  Again, it could be due to the constant quad fatigue and the need to alter my gait due to the toe, but this summer's backpacking adventures should shed additional light on this possible performance degradation.  

This was a fantastic day, though, and the pizza and drinks afterward tasted extra sweet.

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Phil Rosati

Cockscomb via Stanley B

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Day off school ride with Lauren

Morning Snowboard

Boulder

Afternoon Snowboard

Morning Snowboard

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