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Ascent of Mount Tamalpais on 2011-09-05

Climber: Jason Reed

Others in Party:

92 other racers. Friends included Roger G.
George F
Erika K
Russ K.

Date:

Monday, September 5, 2011

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

Car

Peak:

Mount Tamalpais

Location:

USA-California

Elevation:

2571 ft / 783 m

Ascent Trip Report

I ran the Mt. tam Hill Climb – a race run annually on Labor Day. The start is downtown Mill Valley and the finish is the tower door at the summit. The course follows streets at the bottom of the mountain until a short trail is reached which leads to the Tamelpa trail. The Tamelpa trail goes all the way to the top. For the 2nd year in a row the rangers required runners to stay on the Tamelpa trail until hitting the Verna Dunshee trail, which is bike path a quarter miles down from the top which is a closed loop around the summit. From there we have the 2 options. One is running along the Dunshee trail 1/3 of a mile to the left to the parking lot and up the public trail. The 2nd option which almost all runners go for is to scramble up the side which only takes a few minutes to get to the top. I chose the scramble since I’ve been this way many times before. The scramble is steep enough where you’d be hurt if you fell, but not dead. There are plenty of rocks and plants to grab onto so falling is not really an issue. I came in 11th overall out of 93 this year, which is about how I normally do. It was my second fastest ascent ever with the only faster time coming a few years ago when the “stay on the trail” requirement wasn’t there as we were able to take “shortcuts”.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

2501 ft / 762 m

Distance:

6.5 mi / 10.4 km

Route:

Bernard St,Tamalpais Ave, Summit Ave,Tamelpa Trail

Trailhead:

Throckmorton and Bernard St, Mill Valley 70 ft / 21 m

Route Conditions:

Road Hike, Maintained Trail, Scramble

Weather:

Pleasant, Calm, Low Clouds
overcaast below 2000 feet, perfetly clear above 2000 feet with a sea of clouds as far as the eye can

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