The countdown to Meet the Minotaur is quickly dwindling.
I won’t lie to you. I am still feeling out of my element and worried about meeting the cutoffs in the race. My trip to Arizona was great but it cut into my training time.
These last few weeks are critical time for training. So this past weekend I did my first of hopefully several 2,500 metre days.
Since it was the long weekend, I knew it would be busy everywhere. Crowds don’t bother me and I never seem to have an issue with parking because I go out super early. I decided to do Ha Ling, East End of Rundle and Miner’s Peak (in that order). The three peaks share the same parking lot so it made sense to park for the day and use our cars as aid stations.
Ha Ling
My friend Laurent joined me for the day. I wasn’t sure if he would do all three peaks with me since he isn’t really training for anything. I was happy to have the company. Reaching the peak of Ha Ling was uneventful. I still hate the new stairs.
We didn’t linger long despite the rare occasion of having very little wind. We chatted with a woman from Canmore who is running a 250-mile race across Scotland. She easily cruised passed us as we jogged down.
We stopped at our cars to fill up our water and for a little snack. I loved using my car as an aid station.
East End of Rundle (EEOR)
I haven’t been on EEOR since 2020 so I was excited for this one. The trail was a lot easier than I remember it to be. Many, many people were coming down while we were climbing. There were a few patches of snow but otherwise the trail was dirt dry.
I was warmed up now so I felt pretty good climbing – not particularly past but steady. Laurent kept a steady pace so it was great to have him to push me to work harder. At the summit, we chatted with a few people before making our way down. It was a fast descent and we patted ourselves on our backs about how quickly we got down.
Then as luck would have it – we missed the trail in the trees and had to do some bushwhacking to locate the trail. Oops.
I was happy to take a short break at our cars to refuel and use the washroom. I had drained all my water on EEOR. It was definitely warming up and I could feel the heat beating down.
Miner’s Peak (new to me in 2023)
The final climb up to Miner’s Peak really tested me. I was super hot and my legs were tired. The cable steps/stairs didn’t bother me but I cursed every single rock step. Laurent didn’t seem to have any issue. He was moving along very quickly. A few times he looked back to check to see if I was alive.
The wind picked up a bit as we climbed the final stairs and turned toward Miner’s Peak. That helped cool me down and I was good to go.
Reaching the final summit felt so good. The climb was a lot easier than I thought it would be. This was my first time on Miner’s Peak so I was pleasantly surprised. There was a solo hiker on the summit. Across at Ha Ling, we saw at least 30 people.
We were both to happy to reach our third summit of the day. Across from Miner’s Peak, we got a clear view of the masses on Ha Ling and of Mount Lawrence Grassi. (If you look close in the first photo, you might be able to see EEOR.) We couldn’t resist climbing up the “Three Stooges” on our way down. The woman on the summit told us the extension of Miner’s Peak was called The Three Stooges. I haven’t been able to verify this anywhere but I will take her word for it.
Running down was great. I couldn’t wait to get off the summit because by the time we had decided to descend the skies were threatening to open up, and the wind had already picked up significantly.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day from Mother Nature. While it was hot, I didn’t really seem to feel it until I was on the last climb and it was only briefly. Throughout the day there were nice breezes.
Training-wise I feel generally good about the day. I am still crap at climbing and descending but I could be worse. I ate a lot and drink even more. All together we got in 2,500m of vert over 24 kilometres. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
Project 23 Update: Miner’s Peak brings my tally to five new peaks in 2023.