Issy Alps 50k attempt .

Issy Alps 50k attempt

John, Roger and I had plans this weekend to do the UPWC Coastal route. John had a family thing today so decided a attempt on the Issy Alps 50k would be a good substitute. We were at Mailbox trailhead by 6 working our way up Mailbox after having done the car scuttle. Things progress well hitting snow about 1 mile from the summit.

Summit photo of the three of us. 

Down Mailbox we went passing lots of other people going for their morning workout up the peak. Worked our way over to and on trail that takes us to the base of Tenerife, 

Roger getting ready to cross the first stream. There used to be a bridge here. 

Roger walking on water. 

We got to the turn off for Tenerife fall and John said he was not feeling it today and was going to head back to car. He took the low route back to Mt Si trailhead and walk back to car along road to the car at the Little Si trailhead. Roger and I continued up to Tenerife falls and on to summit. Note here that there is a lot of snow on the summit of Tenerife. Roger and I used microspikes for the last 1000 to 1500 ft of the climb. There was a good boot path to follow. Who put the boot path in did a good job as it followed my GPS track of the trail almost dead on. Once at the summit Roger was feeling a bit tired and said he did not want to continue with the 50k route. He encourage me to continue on, I would decide once we hit the turn for the Mt Si trail system. When we were chatting of options up there a young gal came up and asked about direction. She decided it was best to join us for her trip down to her car. Again there is a lot of snow up there. On the way down the boot path is dead on for the ridge traverse. Once you turn left a little going down in the tree switch back area the boot path is to the right of the GPS track of the trail. The boot path and GPS track of the trail meet at the road. There is snow a few miles down the road, maybe about half way down. The high route traverse to Mt Si is snow covered from what I can imagine from what I saw. We got back to the Mt Si trailhead around 7. I decided that I did not want to spend 3 more hours out there with half of that time in the dark. I know Roger and John would have waited for me. My goals of spending time with friends, showing them new trails to explore and spending time playing in my backyard were accomplished. It was a great day.