Training Log Archive: Tim C

Long day. Constantia village loop.

Segment chasing in Newlands.

Old zoo, newlands. Nice to let the legs go on a descent and not notice the knee :)

Jog down from the hut

Snow loops in front of the hut (warmed up to 0 degrees or so and a lot of snow had started melting, so rather wet). Didn't want to wet my remaining dry stuff (or put on the wet stuff), so shorts, shirt, and no socks. Toes went numb after about 2min, so didn't notice the cold after that :P

A couple of hours of "snowboarding" in the morning.- lots of hiking back up, and lots of rock dodging in between runs.

Had spent the whole day in the loft watching first the torrents of rain (until lunchtime), and then some decent bouts of snow the rest of the afternoon. Snow had built up to 25cm or so and Id managed to time the run with a bit of a gap in the bouts, so thought I'd head down to Pell's and possibly point hi to see how the snow was there. Fairly protected from the wind until Pel's where I got absolutely munched by some monster gusts and the -4degrees suddenly felt like -15. That, and a new bout of snow, quickly changed my point hi plan, and headed back to the hut to do some loops around there (and find some ski goggles to protect the eyes from the now wind assisted snow crystals).

Had a sudden bright flash of light just before the 3k was up and thought for a sec that my eyes were going crazy, but a few subsequent flashes and some thunder quickly re-assured me. Pretty cool having a thunderstorm in the middle of a "blizzard"!

Had been following a very promising cold front for the last little while and decided it was definitely worth a hut visit to see what snow it would bring.

Late finishing lecture and some really kak traffic leaving Cape Town (What is it with people forgetting how to drive in rain...), so only arrived to the parking rather late.

Plan had been to get up to the hut before the rain started, but the late start meant it was already drizzling by the time I started. This changed the plan to "get up as fast as possible so you don't get too cold". Worked out pretty well, and by the time I'd got to the hut the toes were the only things that were feeling the cold a bit (not helped by taking a few min to get the hut open because I'd forgotten the key). Weather also never got too terrible. Still slightly +ve degrees and far less wind than I was expecting, so pretty glad about that.

New fastest time up to the hut, but bag was only 6/7ish kg , so not an official record. Would be keen to have a proper a go without a bag sometime and see if the sub 60 is possible.


Base hut: 8:10
Agony Rock: 26:00
Mid Hut: 37:00
Point Hi: 59:50
Hut: 1:08:29