FKT: Sara Aranda - Reno to Rose (NV) - 2020-11-10

I started from the Reno Arch at 6:54 AM on 11/10, Tue. The temperature was 26 degrees F or so. My friend Mike met me where the dirt started so I could change shoes and grab my pack. With only a high in the mid-30s for the day, the recent snowfall was runnable for the most part. I was making good time on the 4x4 roads but slowed way down when it came time to go off-trail. I was breaking trail through 4-5 inches of snow the rest of the route, save for some rocky ridge sections. Running through snow sure is exhausting! But the land is so gorgeous and the route is definitely interesting. Things got very windy the closer I got to the proper ridgeline and the rocky Church Peak was rather loose and difficult to navigate in the snow (reading the talus/gravelly slope was nearly impossible, so my running was more like stumbling with intertia at this section, ha!). The summit of Mt. Rose yielded temperatures below freezing, especially with the 30 mph wind. The summit trail itself was buried in windblown and crusty snow that I easily postholed through, so I had to skirt the trail on the rocks instead. In the end, the 360 views at the top were beautiful and so worth the winter-like journey. Shout out to Marcy Beard for doing it earlier this year and for her route data which helped me plan. And, of course, thanks to mother nature for creating such a magnificent mountain range! I'll likely be back next year to run it sans snow haha.