Ossa Mountain Recon Mission

I realize that I haven't really 'written' much over the last little bit and I guess that's cause I've been too busy trying to enjoy this incredible summer we've had here on The West Coast! Having experienced virtually no rain fall since early to mid May, B.C. was on the verge of seeing its entire trail network closed off to the public, due to the escalating wildfire problems. As of last week they were investing three million dollars a day just trying to keep the problem at bay! With this in mind, I prayed for some rain to fall...it just happened to do so over the weekend.

My Trans Rockies racing partner Tamsin and I headed up to Squamish last night to get an early start this morning at a peak named 'Ossa Mountain'. Conveniently enough you can camp just 2.5km from the trail head, for free! After a quick stop at a friends place to watch UFC 101, we set up camp late and called it a night.

The weather today actually cooperated for the most part, granting us a ceiling of about 5,000 feet. Unfortunately we were hoping to get to 7500 feet and in the end we were forced to turn back before before we even hit the final ridgeline to the summit. Starting from sea level however still left us with a solid day out in the mountains and some worked legs once it was all said and done. Thirty kms of tough terrain and seven and a half hours will do that I guess.

Funny story is that while Tamsin was flipping through my 'Scrambles In South Western B.C. Book' she looked at me and asked,

"So, did you purposely choose the mountain with the largest total elevation gain in the entire book?!"

Of which I had no idea! (Upon referencing the books it's actually only the second largest total climb without a necessary overnight hut stay)

"Umm, no. Guess I just got lucky with that!"

The highlight of the day was while hanging out at a small glacier we heard a massive rock slide coming down from above...and by highlight I mean totally freaked out adrenaline rush! We were nowhere near the 'danger zone' and I think it sounded far worse than it actually was, but either way, you end up feeling very small and insignificant during moments like that. Which is actually a very good thing to be reminded of from time to time!

I guess since Trans is just thirteen days away that puts us into the 'taper time' again...and I was just starting to find my groove post Western States. Oh well, time to bottle up some energy and save it for The Rockies of Colorado...I CAN'T WAIT! I've never been and it promises to be an incredible ten day journey from door-door, six of which we will be running our asses off! Which I guess means Roxy will get a well deserved break from all the mileage as of late:)



GR