Thursday, February 5, 2009

First Dirt: Carbo Report

Tempted by its bare south slopes every time I make my way out to Rotarun, I  made my first assault on Carbonate of 2009 today. The bare hills were a bit of a Siren song, luring me toward the Scylla of extended deep snow in the draws and the Charybdis of some slick compact snow on the descents, but, I made it to the top via the switchbacks and even got to enjoy some decent sections of bare trail.  

I started by hiking up to the foundation, then began the switchbacks where there was as much walking as running because of a lot of long snowy sections.  The Jones-Wilkins cornice is still in place but not as aggressive as last year and once over that, it was pretty easy up the Jeep trail to the top -- again, some walking, some running.  At the top, short on time and patience, I just came down the spine, rather than return on the switchbacks.   

Unless desperation takes hold, I think I'll give it a bit more time before doing it again.  Yet, it still felt really nice to be climbing on bare earth in February.

Happy trails.

2 comments:

AJW said...

Hank,

Great news and thanks for the report. Maybe we can try next weekend if the temps keep cooperating.

AJW

Hank Dart said...

Ran it again today (Feb 25). Getting pretty good.