This time I picked the right way to skin up to the western summit at Windham Mountain but not the best day in terms of the weather. The thermometer at Adaptive Sports Foundation read 9 degrees and the windchill made it feel like -10 degrees Fahrenheit.
After making sure that Elliot was properly bundled for his race training I headed out. I had an extra sweater on, over mitts, and a balaclava which I had to pull down once I got a feel of that wind. I had to take the over mitts off 20 minutes into the climb but kept everything else on.
Still, it was hot and I had to open the zipper to my fleece and my zip pits because of the exertion but kept the balaclava on for the wind, despite the sweat pouring off my head.
This was the second time climbing up Whiskey Jack however I had plenty of time to reach the summit. The bottom section of Upper Wraparound is a little hairy because its so narrow. I had no trouble climbing up but had to wait near the top to traverse to the other side while a long throng of snowboarders and skiers came by. I hate to say this but snowboarders are the worst! Some guy stopped to chat with me and snowboarder ran right between us. He passed within a foot of me and he was going extremely fast. One the Ski Safety Patrollers noticed this and went after him. I hope he got his ticket pulled!
At the summit of the western peak the wind was so fierce I de-skinned behind the Ski Patrollers shack. Threw on my shell and helmet and took a more direct route down the mountain.
I got back to ASF with plenty of time before Elliot returned. For some reason my Strava app failed on the iPhone. I think because I had to bury it number my jacket so it wouldn't freeze it lost signal and never recorded the route. Fortunately, I always bring my old cycling GPS, my Garmin Edge 705 and got a good track. It took me an hour 20 minutes to get to the top.
Elliot returning training but was totally warm.
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