Running Ben with Ben(or near him)

The start

Map at trailhead

Stats:
Ben Lomond Peak: 16.4 miles RT from the North Ogden Divide Trail with 3600' vert.
I knew nothing about Ben Lomond Peak up until a week or so ago when Court told me about the awesome trail up the peak that he and Nick did not too long ago. Turns out he was right. I got stoked on it so when Court called to give it a time trial I was down to give it a go.

Ben(Pete) and I drove up after work to run it nighttime style since Stevo decided to run it Tues and Court wanted to run it Wed in the light. So we had ourselves a little competition going on for fastest time. Unfortunately Court pansied out for some reason and so it was just the three of us battling it out. Steve posted a time of 3:23 according to his blog, so that was the benchmark.

I had printed off instructions how to get to the trailhead, but didn't do my research as I had directions to the North Fork Park trailhead, which is shorter and starts in a completely different city. Luckily I left them in my car back in SLC so Pete used his Ogden navigational skills he picked up from dating Jackie to get us to the North Ogden divide trailhead, the one we were supposed to be on. 

Pete and I took off about 6 pm from the trailhead, headlights donned. Pete always goes out hard from the get go and was power walking 10 minutes into the run. The trail was remarkably runnable the entire way, though deep crusty snowpack often slowed the pace. I hit the summit wall and the trail pretty much became despicable.  I said screw it and bee lined it up the face where I could see dry shale. I hit the top at 1:43, 10 minutes under Stevo's split I believe. I passed Pete on the way down about 10 min later. It was a beautiful run out as you can see all of Ogden with gorgeous singletrack most of the way. I felt like I could maintain a pretty good pace most of the way.

I hit the top of the wet switchbacks at 2:50, and was hoping to go sub 3, but ended up 3:06 with Pete firing off a 3:31. In completely dry conditions this could go 2:45 by a member of the clan. Also makes me want to do the skyline marathon.

We were both super dehydrated and hungry, as we both ran out of water halfway into the run and didn't bring food. But whatever. Didn't get home till 11. Probably won't be back till summer.

AANG, the car/creature that took us to Ogden

Pete finishing out