Quandary Peak with Maloney and J Blood

When i first decided to do this hike i figured it would be great, a nice easy 14'er to be my first. Add in some snow to make it at least a little difficult, boy was i wrong. I figured since everyone else in the world has hiked several 14'ers, myself, being in above average shape, that this would be easy. Might even be able to get in a run in after the hike.

We hit the trail head by 830, pretty cold but not bad since we would be hiking and sweating bullets real soon. the first mile of the hike is nice, through some trees, moderate elevation gain. Then you hit a wall to the first false summit, then to the summit is again straight up. Good thing for microspikes as it make the hike up much easier. The hike down would have been impossible without them. At the peak were some goats, we said hi, they just wanted our food like the homeless guys on the corner of Speer and 8th, so they moved on. Not enough snow to ski but i would definitely venture up to AT it up and get some turns in the future. Overall it was a 4hr hike from start to finish, pretty quick when comparing it to other strava people, as we were also the fastest winter hike posted. I am not sure i will do another soon, but it was fun.

Street Swell Snow MTB race at Tennessee pass

Saturday, January 5th, was the Tennessee Pass Street Swell bike race at Ski Cooper. The race is apart of the pedal power race series in the Leadville area which is mostly snowshoe races.
It was a bit cold when i arrived in the lot that morning, about 5 degree, but the sun was out so it felt warmer...but not much. The cross country ski track we would be on looked solid, good hard snow, nicely groomed. It was probably the best conditions you could get for a bike race on snow.
I was rocking my XC bike, dropped the tire pressure to 15psi. I figured I could hold my own even though most were on fat tire bikes.
The 11 mile track had a pretty good elevation profile with some downhill to start then some climbing after a mile or so then some more nice downhill leading to a fast flat section. Regardless, there is no oxygen at 11,000 feet so the whole thing hurt. The turns were a bit soft and lots of people went down there but i stayed afloat for the whole thing, barely.

Finished 8th in my AG (30-39) and 13th overall out of 35 people. Next up, Copper mountain snow bike race Jan 19th, night race!