This week has been all about vertical gain. Uphill stuff. (23,000 feet this week.) Today was a lot of the same. I went with Martinez to American Fork canyon and we intended to climb Box Elder peak. There is a lot of snow up there still, and the ridge leading to the peak has a lot of cornice overhang. There was one huge cornice near the top of the peak. We observed this from a couple thousand feet below because we went as high as the lower ridge at the meadow before the climb to the summit. We were ascending a snow field through some scattered boulders when A. felt snow shift beneath her and got spooked. I could tell she didn't want to try for the peak after that. I could have gone on and got the summit but we decided it was time to go down. We also witnessed an avalanche on the East face of the mountain. We had a good run down to the reservoir where we had parked. Not finished for the day, we decided to drive to Timp cave and run up to the cave and back. We got about a quarter mile and maybe 400 feet up and then were stopped with a closed and locked gate. D'oh. Still not finished, we drove over to Dry Canyon TH and did a run up to Horsetail falls. Of course, we overshot it and did some extra climbing, but I wasn't bothered. I was in training mode and made use of the steep climb to strengthen my legs. We eventually found the falls, got a drink from the cold mountain water, and had a fun run back down.
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