Rode up the Frost Rd. spur onto Vedder Ridge. There was an inch or two of snow on the road all the way, and after the first climb I followed a lot of dog and then coyote tracks. Wherever the canines had stepped, their paw prints had melted a bare circle of gravel in the snow. I tried to connect these bare bits of road to ease the peddling, sort of like tearing along the perforations that separate old style stamps.

When I started down from the top of the high logging landing overlooking Columbia Valley, though, I made an interesting discovery. My new harder, supposedly ceramic-specific brake pads where rendered so hard by the snow and ice that the brakes didn't work at ALL any more! Bummer! I had to walk down part way, and then ride VERY slowly the rest of the way down. Finally, part way down the last steep descent, they loosened up and started to grip the rims again. Gotta change back to my normal soft pads ASAP.

Approximately 1100 verts.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.