# Death Ride



## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

Who's doing it this year? This will be my 12th.

Looks like the big fire south of Markleeville has been contained.
Weather will be unseaonably cool.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

1st time for me. Disappointed in the cool weather forecast. I know it's better for most people, but I prefer the heat than dealing with the cold at the summits and descents. Guess I'm bringing my winter gear.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

I may not be doing it after all. I seem to have hurt something under one sit bone. It was bothering me a lot on Sunday's ride so I stayed off it for a couple days. I tried a ride today and turned around after less than a mile.

I like the heat too, as long as I can get enough water. The first time I did the DR was in a heat wave. It was over 100 at Picketts. That was a little much for my first long distance climbing ride. I did not take enough electrolytes and suffered badly from hyponatremia. I did finish but the last climb was really slow.

Last I looked at the forecast it did not look like it would be really cold, just not as warm as usual. It wont' be snowing like it has been a couple times at Everest Challenge.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

Too bad about the injury. Maybe it will heal really quickly!

The forecast for Saturday morning is 47° in Markleeville. If you drop ~5° for every 1,000' you climb, then that means it would be about 34-36° at the Monitor Summit. If my calculation is correct for that temp at the summit, that's very cold to me.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

Yea, but it takes 1.5-2 hours to get from the start to the top of Monitor, and it's been warming up during that time. I normally start at 5:30 and usually it's been warmer at 7 on top of Monitor than it was at the start. 

If you start super early then that might not be true.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

ericm979 said:


> Yea, but it takes 1.5-2 hours to get from the start to the top of Monitor, and it's been warming up during that time. I normally start at 5:30 and usually it's been warmer at 7 on top of Monitor than it was at the start.
> 
> If you start super early then that might not be true.


Friends already up there are saying it's not warming up that much in those couple of hours, but it was a good point if this wasn't such unusual weather. Latest news is some portion of the roads are quite muddy from slides in the burned areas. They look pretty dangerous to me even if you are going pretty slow.


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## Rogus (Nov 10, 2010)

While it was cold to start and particularly at the top of Monitor, it turned out to be a beautiful day to ride. The mudslides were cleaned up and no rain on Friday allowed the roads to dry. While there was some dirt on the road it wasn't slick at all. Top couple of miles or so on Carson was torn up for repaving was the only flaw to a great day of riding.


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