The agenda for the day was Mt. Sherman and Gemini, a neighboring 13er and one of Colorado's Centennials, but weather proved to be a bit of an obstacle this day, unlike Saturday on Antero.
We started at 6:30am and it was COLD! We bundled up ready to start and had to get a picture! I think I look like a turtle!! One of these days I'll heed Christopher Beard's good advice and "start cold" because within the first 5 minutes you inevitably warm up, but I still haven't learned....
This was our first view of the summit, before the sun even rose! The moon was still pretty full and we didn't even need our headlamps. It was fabulous!
Mount Sherman is the site of an old mining village. We're not sure what they used to mine, but the ruins were really interesting to see. I have to say, however, that with the early morning light and the gusting wind, it made for some pretty eerie scenery!
The sun finally poked its head out from behind a neighboring mountain. This picture does not do it justice, the sun was a firey red and absolutely stunning!
By now we were probably an hour and a half to two hours into the hike and the wind was relentless! We were getting close to the summit and knew it was definitely within our grasp, but it took a lot to battle the high winds. This is Heather to the left gazing upon the summit...almost there!
And of course, here's our summit shot! We didn't stay too long on the top of this mountain as the winds would probably have blown us right off! We snapped a couple shots and headed down. We had hoped to zip over and bag Gemini as well that day, but the wind was too much and we were both just as happy to get down as quickly as we could!
On the way back down, we took a short cut down the snow. Luckily, it was still early and the sun hadn't melted it and so it was pretty hard and we were able to walk right down. No gaitors needed today!
Before Heather joined me at the summit, I took this video which gives you a little idea of how windy it was!
I just remembered this picture too...gives you an idea of how cold it was. I had to thaw my nalgene before I could even open it and it was completely frozen! Yikes!!
1 comment:
Nice job! Wish I could have joined you (although I would have probably been too wimpy with the wind!) :)
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