Fromme Sunday (Old) School Anyone?

Anyone interested in a little Fromme Sunday Old School this weekend?

I'll be riding from the top of Skyline along a combination of BP, powerline road, and road-turned-creek bed to St. Marys to BP. Then up to 7th, Granny's, then either along BP or down lower Crippler before going back up to Bookwus, Bitchecutioner, then powerline/BP back to top of Skyline.

I never do a good job of keeping track of how long the Skyline-Mtn Highway traverse takes (and I seem to take a slightly different way each time), so a fixed time meetup at the water tower or thereabouts is probably a bad idea. More likely I'd try to time it so if you sandbag the first climb a little I'll catch up. I'll probably be at the top of Skyline around 9am.

Overall I'm looking for a relaxed pace, I'm a little stronger climbing than descending and definitely don't mind waiting going up (no pushers though ;)) if you don't mind possibly waiting a little going down…

The ride did not quite go according to plan. The traverse from Skyline went reasonably well: I thought I'd have a chance on some of the St. Mary's climbs because there wasn't water flowing down the trail. It was slightly less of a gong show than usual.

Everyone's been going on and on about this new climbing trail, so when I reached the bottom of it and looked up at its buffness, I had to try it rather than continuing along the BP. Expresso may be the fastest way up the mountain, but I think it's still a true black-diamond climbing trail. It took a lot out of me. The full face definitely didn't help. I wish I had the leg power to carry enough speed to make better use of the climbing berms.

Once on the road, I continued up to 7th where I armored up before dropping back down to Bookwus. You know how asphalt gets slick during the first rain after a dry spell when accumulated oil seeps out of it? I think Bookwus has absorbed the sweat and tears of generations of riders and releases them when it's misty. The wood was slick, the rock was slick, the duff was slick, I swear even the isolated patches of gold were slick. I got worked. I was so happy when I reached the comforting bosom of the bottom of 7th. So much so that I continued down Leopard to the 4th to try to get my mojo back. At that point, I was afraid of slick Grannies, so I continued up to Executioner.

From Dreamweaver, it was up Skid Road to BP. Maybe it was because I was already a little tired, but I found sections Skid Road to be a tougher climb than much of Expresso. I struggled with mild leg cramps on the road while climbing back up to 7th and coming down it any kind of lunge move started to get tough, so I knew I didn't have a Grannies run in me. In a beautiful bit of ride symmetry, I bailed out down Expresso. It definitely goes by too fast downhill-uphill gives you more time to savor the craftsmanship of Digger and the build crews. From the BP, it was old Skid Road to powerline road/BP to Skyline.

Just shy of 29km and 1575m of elevation gained/lost in around 6.5h. Not too shabby, but I'm definitely not worthy of getting Horny at Whistler.

Your comments about Expresso confused me.. it's not really a climbing trail.

Expresso is not an uphill trail. I'm surprised you didn't get run over.

climbing berms..!! .sweet..:fro:

as in i rail so hard uphill i need the berms..lol

Why is this called "Old School"?

Isn't the irony delicious? I started out looking for someone to ride old school trails with and instead wound up riding up and down the newest of the new school.

I show the average grade of the new section of Expresso at around 15% and the upper mostly-old section at 17% for an overall average of 16.7%. In comparison, the portion I rode of the new Skid Road climbing trail is close to 19%. If it wasn't for the two rock faces that are too trialsy for my climbing abilities, Expresso is easier to climb than Skid Road! Mind you, Mountain Highway from the gate to 7th only averages around 7.5%, so that's still way easier (although doing MH instead of Expresso for the first ascent would have added over 4km to my ride)

I encountered two groups of downhill riders while climbing Expresso, but I had plenty of time to get to the side of the trail before they got close. I also paused and listened very carefully before riding up any of the bridges to make sure there would be no passing attempts on woodwork.