Felt like I was cheating a little using my heel lifters today. I try not to use them and find it’s better to set a not too steep skin track. I wanted to pick up the pace a bit and try and get some vertical in from Timberline. I’ve always thought about doing laps on Palmer from Timberline. I got mostly there today — I hit my turnaround time at the mid-lift (second time up) and had to ski out and get home.

I didn’t stop until I was above Silcox on the first lap and then had some water and a Clif shot. Then I continued on to the top of Palmer where I made a quick transition, skied back down to Timberline Lodge, put my skins back on, ate a sandwich and then skinned back up to the mid-lift on Palmer. The sun went away on the first lap and it got cold quickly, sun was back out on the second lap and the wind died down.

4500 vertical, 3:20 minutes with a few short breaks for water and gel. Never felt really worked, felt faster on the second lap in fact… I think I had more calories in me.