Always an adventure when you hike with me...

The Angel of Shavano
14,229ft
May 11, 2008

Be warned...whenever you hike with me, it's always an adventure!

It all started on the drive up when only a small portion of the road was blocked by a huge snow drift! Luckily, however, we had Crystal and her CR-V! After a couple tries, we made it up! So we all piled into the CR-V for the last few miles to the trailhead. Here we all are! Ready to start! It was already a gorgeous day!

Derek, Zach, Leah, Crystal, me and Rachel Checking out the map...maybe we should have studied it a little more... Leah and I ready to go! Heading up. Despite the snow, it was incredibly warm and I don't remember putting on my long sleeves until well above treeline. I believe I said at one point, "I could hike all day with weather like this!" Oh, had I only known what was in store...Posing with the AngelClimbing up the body of the Angel. I got to test out my crampons and what fun! The snow was just a little too soft, but definitely far easier with crampons than snow shoes. Somewhere around 2 I finally made it to the summit. I was bummed that I just didn't have time to make it over to Tab, but this way, I can adhere to the 3,000 ft rule, right?

Antero is in the background which is where this all started. In November, Heather and I hiked up Antero and she pointed Shav & Tab out to me and told me all about the Angel hike and I've been dreaming of it ever since.

On the summit!

Crystal, Leah & MeTabaguache from Shavano. If you could zoom in really closely, you'd see Zach & Rachel on the summit...well done friends!!Crystal on the way back down, enjoying the view My butt track! It was my first experience glissading. It was fun, but I'm not sure the snow was the best for this...kind of a bumpy ride at times, but oh what fun!
Below is a video of us working as a team to get down the mountain. Leah was frustrated with her snow shoes, and we found this to be a good alternative...way to go, team!

After this, I didn't really take many pictures because, well, we got a little lost... If you can see the trail in the above video, everything was completely snow covered and we thought we were following the right path, but eventually, we realized that something was not quite right and we had no idea where we were. Each one of us thought we should go in a different direction, which confused us even more! One of these days I'll learn to bring a map or compass, but really, it's these adventures that I love! I'm not sure the rest of the group felt the same way because there was quite a bit of tension in the air. It had been a long day, and a rough go at times, and truthfully, all we wanted was to be done!

Well, to make matters worse, Zach and Rachel were somewhere behind us. We had no idea if they were following our tracks, or if they had followed the correct path, all we could do was pray! By some miracle, and it truly was a miracle, we stumbled upon a trail with a map. Trouble was, we didn't quite know where we were going, and therefore, the map wasn't too helpful, except there was one little clue we recognized and decided to just go for it and by the grace of God, we found our trail and by 9pm, we'd made it back to our car! Woohoo! Well, sort of. Remember I said Zach and Rachel were behind us? Well, they hadn't made it back to the car yet and at this point, we had no idea where they were. To be honest, we'd thought they would have caught up to us by now because we were going pretty slowly for that purpose, but they were no where to be found!

Luckily, getting back to the car, we were all able to retrieve our cell phones and we called Zach immediately and they were safe, but lost, just like we had been. They had decided to follow our tracks, but when the snow ended, so did our tracks.

So there we were, no idea where our friends were and trying to think of what we could do to find them. Leah and Crystal were exhausted and so they stayed at the car in case Zach and Rachel found their way back, and Derek and I went back out onto the trail...with our whistles! It's kind of funny because Zach and I had had a conversation about the whistle calls we learned in 24/7 survival training and sort of joked about it just earlier that day and there we were, using the whistles to try and find our friends! Derek and I went in probably a mile or two blowing our whistles, when Derek brilliantly looked up at the stars and realized we were almost directly under the big dipper. So I called Zach, asked him what he saw above him and what do you know, he said the big dipper so we knew they weren't too far away. And let me tell you, the sound of his whistle in response to ours was one of the best sounds I'd ever heard!

Big hugs all around, and then we called Leah and Crystal to tell them the good news as we headed back to the car. What a day!

It was only about 45 minutes that we were waiting/looking for Zach and Rachel, but it seemed like an eternity! I'm just thankful we all found our way back safely and lessons learned, bring a map, know where you're going and stay on the trail!!

Mt. Democrat-Possibly the Hardest Hike of My Life!

Mt. Democrat
14,148 ft.
April 20, 2008

Humbled by the Mountains

The plan was to complete the Decalibron on this sunny Sunday morning. I was, however, humbled by these deceiving peaks. Three in the group, Zach, Karen and Andy were successful in completing the circuit-they were amazing! Brian and I, as it turned out, just didn't have it in us. It killed me to have been up there and not finish what I set out to do, but to be honest, I'm not at all disappointed with what we did accomplish, and at the end of the day, I was able to look back and think, what an epic adventure!

Karen and Andy spent the night at the trailhead-which maybe we should have done too-but instead we got up at 3:30 am (ouch!), packed up and were on the road by 4am. It was just Zach, Brian and I, as a couple others canceled at the last minute. It was a nice drive up, not many people out on the road at that hour, and we made it to the trailhead a little after 6am. Met Karen and Andy for the first time and two others, Sam and another Brian. We packed up our gear, layer up and were ready to hit the trail. We had to park about 3 miles below the Kite Lake trailhead b/c the road wasn't plowed, so that added a little extra onto our trek, but it was worth it.

We started on the trail by 6:30am. The sun was rising, hitting the peaks, revealing their splendor. We were in the shade, however, for much of the beginning of our hike.

From L-R, Me, Zach & Karen

with Democrat in the background

Taking a quick water break.

Brian, Zach, Andy, Karen & Brian in the corner.There it is...man we have a looong way to go...little did I know what was in store!We finally made it to the real trailhead: Kite Lake. This was the last time the six of us were together. We stopped for a picture and then continued on our journey. From this point on, Zach, Karen and Andy were consistantly ahead of the rest of us and were really making great time! There they go!

The sun continued to rise, and I got this sweet video of Brian hiking above.

So this is where is started to get hard. We were above 12,000 ft, not usually difficult for me, but the altitude we were gaining for the distance we covered was crazy and it just kept getting steeper. I didn't take many pictures from here to the summit, unfortunately, but to be honest, I was most of the time just too tired! I chose to forget that I had been up since 3:15am!

It was one of the strongest mental battles I had fought in a long time. I kept looking up at the summit and getting so discouraged-it looked so far away with so much ground to cover. Plus, I saw Zach, Karen and Andy gaining ground slowly and thought, if they're having a tough time, how in the world will I ever make it?! It was easy to let my mind wander like that, but I wasn't going to turn around, I was going to make it. It's times like these, though, that I really have to ask myself, why the heck do I do things like this?! (keep reading for the answer)

At about 13,000ft or so, I called over to Brian, who had been struggling all the way up, and asked how he was doing. His back was killing him and he was able to push through for a while, but at this point, he called back and said that he needed to turn around. On the ride home later, he told me that he was feeling sick from the altitude and really having a tough time. I commend him for getting as far as he did! Well done, my friend!

I continued on as the slope got increasingly steeper. The other Brian caught up to me around 13,300 ft and I was so grateful for his company and encouragement. I was still in my snow shoes and wished I had my crampons with me. I tried to hike up this last section, but it was so steep, I ended up "bear crawling" on my hands and feet up as best I could. Some spots brought me literally to my knees as I rested, getting ready for the next push. Some spots the snow was packed from the wind and pretty easy to find your footing, but other parts were beginning to melt from the sun and it was like climbing up sand where you lose two-thirds of whatever ground you're trying to gain! Talk about discouraging! Plus, beyond that, there was a new kind of exposure I was dealing with.

I've hiked on some sketchy scree (Harvard-Columbia) and along steep cliffs (Long's), but never have I hiked up a mountain of snow off of which I could have slid all the way to the bottom going God knows how fast! This was a new kind of fear-I couldn't lose my footing because I don't know where it would have sent me! This is where I really have to thank Brian for talking me through the last bit of this climb. With his periodic altitude readings from his GPS, his coaching and direction as to how I should make it up were what helped me make it to the summit-I don't know how I would have made it without him!

Just before the summit, we ran into the three muskateers descending from the summit. We had a brief check-in where we discussed the rest of the circuit. They were all still game to complete it but I knew that if I went for it, it would have been a terribly long day and we never would have made it back to the Springs so I decided to take my one summit and be done. Karen offered to drive Zach back to the Springs so Brian and I could make it back in time for our Paradigm meeting we had that night. With that, I bid them good luck and be safe as they continued down the saddle towards Cameron and I turned to face the wind and the summit just ahead... Slowly, with every step we were one step closer and finally, at about 11:45am, we summited Mt. Democrat! Victory! Here is the obligatory Summit Photo! Was I ever relieved to make it to the top! As I said before, I think this was one of the, if not the most difficult climb I've ever made. Of course, it didn't help that I grossly underestimated what I was going up against...I guarantee, that's the last time I'll do that!

Mt. Bross is behind me, the peak I had intended to end on, but it looks like I'll just have to save that one for another day...

We didn't hang out on the summit for too long b/c it was unbelievably windy! Brian and I started to head down and this is where we went our separate ways. He had stashed his snowboard a little ways down and as soon as he was reunited with it, he was gone! I, on the otherhand, went down the hard way! I decided that going down to the saddle between Democrat and Cameron was my best bet-there was no way I wanted to go down what I had just come up, though maybe I'd have made it down a lot faster... ;-) I did get to glissade down a little bit, but the conditions weren't exactly ideal, nor did I feel comfortable enough just yet. I'll wait for the Angel next month for more glissading. The little bit I did get to do was fun and next time I'll make sure I have my ice ax with me! It was a long hike down, but I took my time, enjoying the beauty of God's creation!

I fianlly met up with both Brians again down at the Kite Lake Trailhead. We hung out for a bit and I was grateful to rest-I so wanted to be done!!

The wind wasn't that bad down here, but we'd get these crazy gusts every now and again that literally almost blew me over! We waited for a little bit, trying to decide whether or not to wait for the other group and finally realized they were at least a few hours behind so we went back to the cars. These last two and a half miles were possibly the longest of the entire day! The end of the hike is always the worst when you want to be back at the car, but the trail is a neverending trek. To make it worse, these relentless gusts would come and freeze us for about 5 minutes and then die away at which time we would boil in the sun. It was riduclous, I finally just left my jacket on, convincing myself that were were almost there! A little before 3pm, we returned to the cars and I was so relieved to be back, I can't even put it into words! We packed up and decided to go ahead home. As we left in the shadow of these majectic peaks, I remembered why I do this-I don't know of many other things that are as truly gratifying as climbing a mountain!

A Beautiful Day on Quandary!

Quandary Peak, 14,265 ft

What a beautiful day we had! Here we are, all geared up and ready to go! In less than 15 minutes, however, I'd shed at least two layers! "Start cold," one of these days I'll learn!

Ryan, David, me, Lauren, Dave and Zach

On our way up, with a gorgeous clear blue sky!

Zach and me

Still going...

Ryan and Lauren, taken a breather

Above treeline. We stopped for a little lunch and continued on our way.

Here is the first view of what I think is the summit!Getting closer...Zach went on ahead of us and made it to the top three times before the rest of us caught up to him. Here we all are! I was so proud of us, for some of us it was our first winter summit, and others their first 14er summit! Way to go!! David, Dave, Ryan, Lauren, Zach and me

And now the fun part-down, down, down!Taking a quick break to enjoy the view! We made it! Back at the trailhead for a victory photo :-)

The Unexpected Sunset Summit

Humboldt Peak, November 18, 2007
my 17th 14er

For whatever reason, it seems whenever Heather and I set out for a hike, we end up on some sort of adventure we didn't necessarily plan on...

Last Sunday, we decided to head down to the Sangres and the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining and we were looking forward to a wonderful day. We made it to the 4WD trail which had been greatly improved this past year, but was still pretty rocky and so we just set out and tried to make it as far as we could. Neither of us were feeling adventurous enough to hike from the bottom of the 4WD drive road which would have added anywhere from 6 to 11 miles to our hike. About 2 1/2 miles into the drive, we noticed a pretty large patch of ice ahead of us and so we hopped out to check it out to see if the car would make it down and then back up again. It looked great so we turned back to the car and that was when we saw it...we had a flat tire.

We pulled off to the side of the road, and to make a long story short, it took us forever to change this silly tire. The incline of this mountain road made it especially challenging...
The jack didn't go high enough for us to take the tire off, so we had to find some sturdy rocks. Yes, we realize it's not the safest thing, but we were getting pretty desperate!

After probably something like an hour or two, we decided to go back into town and get the tire fixed and then decide whether or not we still wanted to go for the climb. Thankfully, there was a shop open and he patched our tire and we discussed what to do...

Well, neither of us needed much convincing, though we realized that if we went back for the hike, we'd get to experience a sunset summit...something neither of us had done before so I reconciled with the fact that we'd be hiking back down in the dark and we took off down the trail. We took our chances and continued down the same road where we got our flat, and made it about 4 miles with no issues which was great.

It was a beautiful day...

This is a picture of South Colony Lake, a little bit of ice, but not bad. The upper right is one of the Crestones...gorgeous peaks!!
We made it to the ridge! Finally! I was getting pretty tired, it'd been a long day. But what I didn't realize is that behind me was a false summit and in trying to get to it, I led us up the wrong side and on a much more difficult path...sorry Heather! Had we stayed to the right and bypassed the false summit, I think it would have been much easier...ugh!

We made it! We took a couple quick pictures, but it was pretty cold up there with the wind. I had to take my gloves off to catch a picture and I don't think my fingers had ever been so close to frost bite!

We did get some fabulous sunset pictures. These are the Crestones...pretty spectacular!

It took us quite a bit to get down, but we made it down the tricky part with the last bit of sunlight which was a blessing because it was a lot of bouldering and headlamps would have been tricky. By the time we got to the car, I think we were both so relieved! It had been an incredibly long day, but a really great one!

My Second October Summit...and a Windy One!!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

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!!

My First October Summit!

Saturday, October 27, 2007, Mount Antero

So as it turns out, my hiking is not over for the season...thank goodness!! This past weekend Heather and I set out for a weekend of hiking, not knowing what to expect. It is the latest in the year I have ever hiked, so it was an adventure! We prepared for the worst, but lucked out with some fabulous weather and very minimal snow, at least on Saturday...

This was my view on the way to the trailhead as the sun was rising.

We met at the Baldwin Gulch trailhead at 8am hoping to drive up the road a little, but there was too much ice so we decided to just hike it. We were in no hurry and the extra couple miles was a good warm up. By 8:30 we were packed up and on the trail.

We stopped for a little snack and met a few new friends. Heather called them Grey Jays, but apparently, they'll eat right out of your hand! It was pretty fun!!

After some food and fun with the birds, we continued on our way and it wasn't long before we were above treeline and started looking for the summit. There was this beautiful summit to the right of our trail that we thought could be the summit and we contemplated taking a short cut over there, but it's a good thing we didn't b/c it turns out it wasn't the summit!

We hiked a little further and rounded one last corner only to see we had been chasing a false summit...ugh! This is me to the left, a little annoyed that we still had quite a ways to go!

These were some of the rocks we had to cross on the way to the summit in the background.

Here's Heather on her way to the summit! We reached the top around 2:30pm, about 6 hours after we started. We didn't rush the hike and simply enjoyed ourselves. We stayed on the summit for almost an hour too before we started back down. We were enjoying reading the register, something I don't usually do. I saw a couple names from Buffalo, NY!!

Here's our summit picture! Mt. Princeton is in the background. The views weren't all that great b/c it was kind of a hazy day, but it wasn't too windy at the top and absolutely no threatening clouds so that made the summit quite enjoyable.

On our way back down I saw this rock about to fall and cause a terrible rock slide, so I pushed it back up to stabilize it...haha!

As we were hiking down, I looked down at my watch and realized it was almost 4pm and that was when I first realized we might be racing against the sun! We ended up making it back to the trailhead at 6:45pm just as the light of dusk was all but gone. To the right is Heather and I at the end of a wonderful 10 hour day :)