Smoke was heinous at the start from the SQF Complex Fire. Various air quality index sources marked the air quality at upper orange to lower red - not ideal.
The air quality seemed to be moderate above 10,000ft , so I decided to roll the dice and go for it. My plan was to bail if conditions remained too drastic. I had a hard time making the decision to start or to bail. Winds cleared some smoke at the lower elevations later in the day, dropping the AQI down to yellow.
I ran through the hazardous smoke and had a great time in moderate air quality through the rest of the day. I did manage to get off route pretty badly while descending the chute into the bowl which cost me 25 to 30 minutes. In the biz, we call this a 'bummer'.
It probably wasn't the best decision to take a stab at Mt Williamson today, but hey, you can only YOLO once... right?
Feeling satisfied & thankful,
Canaan