Broken Top & South Sister
What a great route. I'd done both summits on their own several times, but never both in one shot. Also my first fkt attempt.
I'd summarize this effort as 85% pure fun and 15% sufferfest. Made it to the summit of Btop in 1:34 and was still feeling great by the time I got down to the lakes. The climber's trail up the E flank of South is generally pretty straightforward, although I did feel like I had to be paying attention/looking for the path because it gets faint in spots. One thing I didn't consider is that, because of the aspect, this part of the mountain gets super hot by late morning - I was cooking in there and could've used more salt.
Made it to the top of South at 3:53 feeling kind of slow and unmotivated but, despite pretty nasty cramping in my calves and hamstrings, rallied and made it down to Moraine lake pretty quickly trying to chase that sub-5 hour carrot. Unfortunately the wheels came off for me at Moraine lake and I ended up shuffling the last 3 or so miles back.
I could see this going 4:30ish for me on a properly cold day (high of mid 30s at 6k feet) and with more thoughtful nutrition/salt replenishment. Probably not much more though. I have no doubt some local crusher is going to completely smoke this time soon, but I'm happy to have pushed the bar forward a bit and look forward to seeing where the times on this end up!
Comments
Great work, Xavier!