Friday, July 18, 2014

Dis-heartening....


Imagine putting an elliptical trainer into a sauna, and then going full tilt on it for 90 minutes. Seriously, how much fun would that be? Hmmm? Because I swear I did the equivalent!

Heart Mountain, yesterday, was nature's alternative to what I just described. It soared to an incredibly humid 31 degrees C in Canmore, and at high noon, I was hoofin 'er up said scramble. Oy. Now don't get me wrong, these are the Rockies and any time I get to be out doing something, I am extremely grateful. But jeesh. I will have to say, I'm happy to have done it, but Heart Mountain won't be one that I will repeat. The trail is relentless, gaining almost 900m elevation in just over one kilometer of distance, and at the end of the grind, the summit and its views are super average.

The objective. Sadly, it did not make my "Top 10" list.
Probably not even in the top 50....

Scrambling at one of the cruxes.

The summit. How uninspiring!

The summit cairn is barely visible from some angles.

This however, definitely helped make the slog worth
the effort. He even brought one for me! Thanks Shawn!

Soooo hazy! Makes the views seem a little bit surreal.

Still happy to be outside!

Fun slabs on the descent.

The destruction of Grotto Mtn is quite evident from this angle.

In spite of the stifling temps, Shawn pretty much RAN to the top, so I did my darnedest to keep up. We ended up making good time - about 4 hours, car-to-car.

Today I'm doing some major, much needed lolly-gagging, including drinking a few pots of coffee and surfing the web. I am researching something invigorating (read: lengthy) to get out on tomorrow with my lovely friend Jody - she's a busy girl and I haven't spent much time with her lately, so I'm excited to have a day with her! Can't wait!

Cheers!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well;;at least you can say "been there and done that ,BUT maybe 1 time only" glad you are scrambling in the rockies and not flying around EUROPE,,STAY ON THE HARD ROCK TRALS AND FOOTINGS,,,much safer,,,,cheerio for no9w,,love ya lots ,,dunkster,,,