I Climb Mountains...What Do You Do?

I'm sure I'm skipping plenty of stuff, but this is what's on my mind. The first 14er of the season happened in the day before Father's Day. Memaw and Papa were visiting from Texas, thereby giving us a chance to get away and make our second attempt at climbing Mount Sherman.

I mention the name of the mountain for two reasons: so you know what I'm talking about and so you can watch South Park with a newfound knowledge. That place really exists, and it sits in the shadow of the 14,000 foot mountain. Funny, huh? Now when you see the cartoon you can know that one of the peaks in the background is a mountain that's popular for mountaineers.

We set out from the house about 3:30AM on Saturday morning. Yes, that's early. Yes, it's tough to get out of bed at 3AM. Yes, it is worth it. It's so interesting to drive along Highway 50 West and see the lights of Pueblo behind you, Colorado Springs just behind to your right shoulder, and the lights of Woodland Park glowing above the mountains at nearly exactly your right shoulder. Oddly, I never did notice if I could see the lights of Canon City (Canyon City, there's a tilde above the middle 'n') in front of us. But it was worth talking about. It took the 90 minutes we had planned to meet our climbing partner in the gas stop town of Hartsel, in the mountains to the West of Colorado Springs, Northwest of Pueblo West. It's actually a fun stop, but nobody was even blinking at 5AM. Too bad, the sunrise was beautiful! The mosquitos were annoying, but the sunrise was gorgeous. I had to beg the guys to get going again (though the total time stopped couldn't have reached 20 minutes) because my poor bladder needed a break and Fairplay was another 25-minutes away. Thank goodness it's a lovely drive because I was able to distract myself!

We pulled in to grab a bite to eat and have that pit stop before the 15-minute drive up the dirt road to the trail head. I think we probably took longer than we wanted to, but it was still a good stop to have. Actually, it was probably wise to take that wee bit longer because it was very cold, not above 45 degrees. That's not a big deal, except we knew we still had a decent amount of snow to contend with on the mountain. When it's warming juuuust enough to cause a tiny bit of melting during the day, then freezing back at night, you get some nasty ice. We didn't feel like falling on our butts due to being dumb with ice.

The drive up to the gate at at the trail head is so enjoyable. You pass old mines, you see some incredible vacation and hunting homes (some good, some bad, all livable), you see a ton of beaver ponds and lodges, and you see scenery that looks like it's straight off a post card. The flowers that were blooming were ones I have always really wanted to put in my yard, but can't. They won't survive here. Still, the delicate little purple irises are some of my favorites. I caught a silhouette and had to do a double take. I couldn't figure out why someone would put a statue of an elk in this area. Duh, it wasn't fake, it was a real elk! Make that a small herd of 6 elk! And look at that! There are 6 mulies (those are mule deer) with them! Jeff would've missed them if I hadn't pointed them out because he was doing what a driver should: paying attention to the rough dirt road. It was a fantastic start to the morning.

Once parked we geared up and set off. We weren't the only ones with this idea today; there were already a handful of cars and more coming. Nice! We started up the trail with the thought that the first half-mile always being the toughest. In the case of this mountain, that holds true. We stopped a couple of times because of huffing and puffing. One stop I mentioned that I couldn't wait for the pika to come out of hibernation. Silly me, I figured with our very cold and wet spring that they'd hang out underground for a while longer and was immediately met by a cute face and round ears barking at me! Yeah, I looked like an idiot, but the guys nicely laughed it off. The marmots were still sleeping....that meant our packs were safe if we decided to drop them at snack break and summit.

Once past this first bit we had a small part that leveled out and allowed us to get to the Hilltop Mine and form our next plan of attack. This is a mine that produced lead, zinc, copper, gold, and silver at the elevation of 13,000 feet. Yes, men worked AND lived here to work this mine, though the 3 toughest months of the winter saw them down in Leadville (on the other side of the peak) or Fairplay. If I remember correctly, this mine shut down around 1893 at the end of the silver boom, though it's been about 1 1/2 years since I looked this info up (and it took some serious searching!). We only took a moment to admire the fact the bunkhouse and shaft tower are still standing before figuring out where we would make our climb to the ridge. The normal route had a large snow field with an impressive cornice on it. We knew that the trip reports posted on 14ers.com stated the snow was still up to waiste deep and we feared a little avalanche, so we chose the winter route. That meant a much tougher hike, literally a scramble up the mountain. Sweet! It was also at this point that we decided to stop and have a snack. It had been about an hour, and you tend to burn approximately 6000 calories on these hikes. Aside from making sure you take in a massive amount of water, you need to be sure you eat Michael Phelps amount of calories, too.

There was a father and son who caught up to us and chatted for a few minutes. Dad waited for his wife while son (he was 12) went on. Holy moses, this kid was a tank!! He climbed his first 14er at age 8, and he was climbing in water treads today (look like a cross between a sneaker and a sandal) and no socks. I couldn't help but wonder if he was cold at summit, but never got the chance to ask. Being that he was a kid, I doubt it. But he definitely ran circles around every single adult there. Impressive!

Snack break over, we began our tackle of the winter trail. Thank goodness for trek poles, they saved us from doing what the climbers who didn't have them did: grab rocks and hope they didn't roll down the mountain. The trail was mud, which normally would make one cringe, but it actually helped me. Jeff went first and did a bit of slipping. Not bad, but enough it slowed him down. I was in the middle and managed to catch up to Jeff a few times without knowing it until I nearly stabbed him in the foot with my poles. Our buddy brought up the rear. It was good for me because I could see where Jeff was slipping, find my own footholds, and still keep up without slowing down Jason. One more rest once we reached the ridge, took the camera out and kept it at the ready, made sure we were prepared for the snow and knew exactly where the cornice was (so we wouldn't fall through and die!), then we headed up toward the summit. Silly men sent me first with the instructions of "just don't go too fast and get too far ahead." I fell right into my rhythm, worked up to the next "flat spot," turned around in the fog and saw...........nobody. Great.

Lucky for me there were two other climbers there. One was heading down, one heading up. The upward bound climber had been all over the world and was interesting to listen to. The one heading down was from Boulder and immediately let it be known he was a bit full of himself. Either way, it was nice to know I wasn't alone while I waited. Our buddy caught up first, Jeff took a few shots thinking we were at the summit, then appeared to us. I gave him a little teasing and took off for the summit leaving him disappointed. He thought he was being all artistic.

It was only a matter of minutes later that we reached the summit, dropped packs for a moment, ate some more high-calorie bars, QUICKLY took in the scenery around us, gazing at Leadville and Turquoise Lake below us, Mount Elbert (on our list for the end of the month) flanking Mount Massive to our West (I believe), and had a little celebration before the fog rolled back in. We signed the log (a staple at the top of the 14ers, those who climb sign it), packed back up, and started our decent. The clouds spotted us with some freezing rain, grapple snow, and wind, but we worked down. We had already decided not to take the same winter route down and traversed our own trail over the rocks near the normal route, taking care to skip the snow field. We DID have to go through some snow, just not that one we feared would start an avalanche (seriously, not a single person traversed that trail this day). The trip reports were right, there were plenty of times we sank to our waists in that snow! There was one moment that I stopped at hip level with the knowledge of it being at least 6 inches deeper. I plopped down on my side because my knee started to roll. Thanks, I'd rather be a bit wet than need to be carried off the mountain!

A few people decided to glissade (slide) down the snow field, but they were few, indeed. The snow was just soft enough that glissading was a stupid move. That planted them right at the edge of Hilltop, just as we came out in the same place but in a safer manner. Then we marched on down back to our vehicles. The climb down was much rougher on me and I learned I do need some new hiking boots. My ankles need better support. But it was exhilarating to have completed this hike! We downed some not-so-good-for-you drinks (Coke, DP, gatorade!) and headed to Fairplay for some fat food. One of the best burgers I've had and wonderful sweet potato fries at a little place just on the edge of South Park, Colorado. We giggled a bunch.

The drive home was uneventful, but just as beautiful. We were so tired, yet we managed to stay up over 20 hours that day and only went to bed because we knew we had to get the rest. We slept late on Father's Day, weren't nearly as sore as we expected to be (my butt was very sore! But the rest of me was fine), and somehow managed to recover fairly well. We were tired, but it was a good tired. It left us looking forward for more.....