On Monday June 19, Cendrine and I finally arrived in Silverton, where we set up base camp for the HardRock Endurance Run.
Once settled in our studio, as usual I decide to stretch my legs a bit by going for a run in town with the idea of doing 45 minutes or an hour max. So I went out quietly without my phone, which was discharged and without much ambition.
The photo you see here is the only one I took all day. It’s the view from our lovely studio, and guess what?
Once I’m outside, I get the urge to go and so I went and I wasn’t disappointed. So I’ll tell you about it.
Upon enquiry, this mountain is called Kendall Mountain, culminating at almost 4,000 m (3,980 m or thereabouts). The final D+ is just over 1100m.
The thing is, there’s a path up, so I was able to take it at the beginning before encountering snowdrifts that hadn’t quite melted yet, and so here I am, doing the wild boar for 90% of the route: downed trees, scree, rock, parts where you had to put your hands in like in the good old days of skyrunning… in short, no fun… To get to the top…
But now, friends, the reward… A fantastic, breathtaking view. You can see the whole Colorado chain and even, I think, the snow-capped mountains of Utah, lakes…
But there’s no time to linger, it’s getting late, the light is fading and the descent won’t be a formality. Never mind, I’m going to be doing a lot of summiting over the next few weeks, so I’ll have plenty of time to contemplate Colorado’s incredible landscapes.
Fire, back down to the scree being careful not to hurt myself, find the névés by seeing another person’s tracks, great, but no, I realize a few hundred metres further on that they are in fact my tracks… in short, I quickly descend and find the path a few hundred metres from the village… Happy with my impromptu outing.
And then the meeting…
********Message from the Beñat team**********
Beñat also told us this story on WhatsApp, and we can’t resist posting the audio of the meeting.
********Fin de la rencontre du 3ième type**********
In fact, it was probably 3 grizzlies… I can’t hide the fact that I had trouble falling asleep after that…
America is really incredible.
So that’s it for the first day at Silverton, and today the serious business begins… Focus Hardrock Endurance Run with, I hope, other human and wild encounters just as fabulous.
