Pikes Peak, Baby! 14,110 Feet by foot....

Success!!! 12 miles round trip, 10 hours on the trail (including an hour on summit), and some really great company. I was able to complete my third Fourteener today, had 1 1/2 donuts in the summit house, and have now caught up to my husband. All since the latter part of June! Okay, so that's miniscule in a season compared to a lot of people, but considering it's only been six months since my embolism, I think it's a pretty big accomplishment.

Oh, btw, I'm not sticking my butt out in the group picture, I was holding on to the rocks on the sign because I was afraid we were going to break the bench. It was creaking!!

Nightstalkers Don't Quit.....

(Photo from one of the SAR folks who shared it with the 14ers.com community)

Yesterday was a bad day for the United States Army and for the Colorado Mountains. A Blackhawk helicopter (MH-60) from Kentucky crashed on the second highest mountain, Mount Massive. All four crewmen have passed away.

Most people who know me also know that stories like this strike an immediate cord in my heart. This one strikes my heart for two reasons: the military connection and the mountain connection, specifically the fourteener connection.

I am glad my climb this weekend is close to home and not in the same area as my last climb. There is a lot of activity going on there with the investigation, Mt Massive is completely closed to the public right now (including the campground at the base of the mountain), and those who have plans to be in the area of Massive and Elbert have been asked to reschedule their plans and go elsewhere this weekend.

I do, however, wish I were actively serving right now. It's no secret I am biding my time and starting my talks with the recruiters to get back onto Active Reserve duty, probably in the Legal Office, and you can be sure there'd be a good chance I'd be one who was involved in the recovery and investigation process due to my security clearance (since Air Force personnel are involved). So, I'm torn.

(Massive from Elbert. Crashi is just over the crest near the summit)
(Mt Massive from below, crash is near the center of the picture about 200 feet from the summit)

One thing that people don't realize about the mountains is just how dangerous they truly are. You can never go unprepared, and you can never expect the air to remain the same. Aircraft are often brought down by the every-changing thermals, which is why the military trains there. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out.

This bird was part of the unit highlighted in the movie "Blackhawk Down." Yes, that really happened. Yes, it is a very tight unit. I am sure they are grieving beyond belief right now. Not just current members, but those who have been there before. Rest assured, Nightstalkers, that you are not grieving alone. May these men rest in peace, and may their families know we are a grateful nation. NSDQ!

The Pictures

Mount Elbert from about 9000 feet...after the climb
Barefoot at 14,440 feet looking over the Twin Lakes
The GPS reading, always a plus!
A relieved and exhilarated couple!
The summit log
The Maroon Bells
Highest Pt in CO, Mt Elbert, 14,440 Ft, 8Aug09
Jeff making summit
A pika that was kind enough to stand still long enough for my shutter
Our path off the path, a.k.a. the Narrows
Can you see how steep? And not even close to the finish
Pikes Peak
Break time!
Going up!
Twin Lakes
Me with my hands in my pockets heading toward the first false summit. Second false summit is the point on my right shoulder
Mount Sherman, my first 14'er
Mount of the Holy Cross
Looking Northeast'ish, you can see Turquoise Lake
Mount Massive

The Climb....

Sorry it took so long. I got distracted. Sometimes parenthood does that, and I think that's just a little bit more important than blogging. :)

It kind of felt like we were heading into some big sporting event by the amount of people hitting the trail with us. Weird thing is that there were already a ton of people ahead of us. The difference was we headed into the dark and thick expanses of thousands of pine trees with backpacks and food, not into some arena where backpacks are forbidden and food is provided. But it was pretty cool. Spirits were high, and you could feel the energy everyone was exuding from their excitement. There was a family from New Hampshire behind us, a guy from Denver who was taking his buddy from Greenville, South Carolina just a bit ahead of us, a group of college students from CU Boulder setting a strong pace directly in front of us, and the guy behind us was here from California. Then there was us, the couple from Pueblo West who convinced my parents to stay an extra week so we could climb this mountain.

Right away we were huffing and puffing. Okay, this isn't unusual on a hike like this, so it's not extraordinary news, but usually the first half mile is the hardest, then you get a reprieve. Not on Mount Elbert. It's fairly steep for about a mile, then it does smooth out for a short distance before a very steep climb deeper into the forest where you can choose to continue to summit or fork off onto the Colorado Trail. You already know which route we took. But before we started this incline, we sat on a log and ate a snack.

We had immediate visitors. Gray Jays, a.k.a. Camp Robber Jays. Very brazen birds that beg for your food. Leave it to me to break even my own rules and put the tiniest of crumbs in my hand to see if they'd eat out of my hand. The answer: yes! And a stern word from my husband, which I brushed off. He was right, but I was victorious, so I didn't care. I snapped a couple of pictures of these two, but they're on my phone and I have to wait for the software update to download them to my Mac.

Snack finished, we loaded packs back on and started huffing our way up the hill. It seemed like it would never end. In fact, it didn't until we were above 13,500 feet! But we did stop a few times before we hit tree line at 12,000 feet, partially to take advantage of the cover of trees, if you catch my drift, and partially to rest. It seemed like it took forever to hit tree line, but that was only a little less than halfway! We already were seeing people turning around, and there was one large family group with about 5 teens that was struggling. Okay, the group wasn't, but one of the girls was really needing to go down. She had altitude sickness bad. But they pressed on. So did we.

The climb above tree line got steeper, so we started going about 20-50 feet, then would rest a moment. I took the camera out and started snapping each break.

By the time we reached 14,000 feet, the girl with altitude sickness was in really, really bad shape. Her dad kept saying "you've made it this far, you can make it to the top." He was saying this as she was puking. Again. And again, and again. We lost count of the times WE saw, but it was too much. I think she finally was able to convince someone that she had to go down because we never saw her again. I still hope & pray she's okay and that the family isn't kicking themselves now. One rule to this game: the mountain will always be there, you CAN come back. We pushed on.

You wouldn't think the remaining 440 feet would be all that difficult when you've made it this far, but you'd also be wrong. At this elevation your brain slows down due to lack of oxygen, you need more calories, and you're tired. We somehow managed to get off trail and onto a narrow game trail, or something. I even thought "huh, I don't remember hearing anything about this, but this is awfully similar to the narrows on Long's." Needless to say, we figured out we were wrong and pushed over to the trail. Thankfully it was easy! We made our first false summit and took a breather. Then we pushed on.

It was only about 150 more feet and we made our second false summit, but now we could see it we were so incredibly close to our true summit. We took another really quick breather and pushed to the top. Jeff was a bit hypocaloric by now, despite our big breakfast and snacks at breaks, so he was a tad lightheaded, but he kept on. Good man! Granted, we knew we'd be eating again very soon and that coming down would help, but still. The talus at this point was slick and the incline very steep, but we managed to do the entire climb sans poles, so we were happy. And the summit!! Oh, my, the summit....

We had a day that was nearly cloudless, so it was perfect. Despite the wind and very cold temps while sitting on top of the state of Colorado at 14,440 feet, it was smoky down lower, so our view was a bit less than it could have been, but we were able to figure out peaks from all over the state. We saw Pikes Peak quite well, the Maroon Bells near Aspen, the Needles Range to our South, and even all the way to the San Juan Range on the Utah/Colorado state line! Jeff signed the summit log while I wrote a note on my hand for pictures, I paused a moment by a flag someone had planted and thought of Jeremy Clawson (who's Utah memorial was on this day), and we posed for summit pictures. Lucky for us, we asked the one person who is shutter happy and took a LOT of pictures for us! He got three shots that we're going to have made and framed, and he made us laugh. What a fun guy!

I couldn't find my gloves the night prior, or the morning before we left, but Jeff let me use his because his baselayer shirt has thumbholes that hold his shirt over his hands for extra warmth, so he was fine. Thank goodness! It was barely 40 degrees on summit and my hands would've been frozen. I took the gloves off as we sat behind a cairn to block the wind, called family, I shed my boots to have some barefoot time, and we ate. We spent about 30-45 minutes on summit and started our descent. Bear in mind we've been drinking this entire climb, and there's no place to "hide" once past tree line. It had been a long time. So our descent started with a sprint down slippery talus and steep slopes from 14,440 feet down to tree line at 12,000 feet. Talk about exciting! How neither of us managed to fall, roll an ankle, hyperextend a knee, or some other obvious damage to ourselves at this time is beyond me, but we didn't! My toes, however? They were screaming at me not long after the other relief came.

So, our time on top was fairly short, but we made it. Of all the people we saw in the parking lot when we started, just short of a quarter of them made summit. We don't know their stories, but we know the mountain will still be there.

We made my parents giggle the next day with our groans and slow movement, the muscles were so sore. And my toes actually bruised enough that I might actually lose a toenail (they're fine now, just acted like I smashed them in a door), but it was all worth it.

Saturday is August 22. Guess what? I've got another mountain to climb! This time it's close to home: Pikes Peak. I'll be solo from the household, but with about 6 other people. I am looking forward to the donut at the summit! (explanation later) Do you think Jeff and Luke will see me wave from 14,110 feet and 40-something miles away?

Heading Out...

It was such a gorgeous morning Saturday. The skies were clear, the air was quiet, and the temperature at our house when we left was 72 degrees. Bear in mind that we are just 7-feet short of a mile high, so we've got some elevation. It was lovely. Though it was an hour later than we had originally planned and hoped to set out, we were excited and ready for the adventure.

We made a quick stop in Canon City for gas, coffee, and some high calorie junk breakfast food, then we were on our way. A little less than 90-minutes later we made our junction at Hartsel. Anyone want to guess the temperature then? At about 8800 feet in elevation we were seeing the temperature sitting at 35 degrees. Yikes!! It was warmer than that when we did our early season climb on Mount Sherman! No stop this time, just a continuation of our drive in Buena Vista (pronounced B-you-na Vista). The sun was rising now and it was amazing. We could see the rays peeking over the summit of Mt Sherman and it was incredibly colorful from the haze of smoke the multiple wildfires in Western Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

Near Antero Resevoir the wildlife started were starting their morning feast. Jeff was snoozing a bit, still sort of hung over from the Benadryl, but I saw a ton of antelope grazing in the meadows. I am amazed that I didn't see any deer or elk at this time, but the antelope were still wonderful to see.

Coming into Buena Vista is always quite a sight. The Collegiate Peaks greet the drivers with a huge presence. Mount Princeton was looming this morning and letting everyone know it was going to be a fantastic day. I looked at the thermometer and saw the temps had risen to 45. Granted, we had dropped to just below 8000 feet, but still...

We made another quick stop in this town we greatly enjoy and went on to our trailhead. We had a little over 45-minutes to go. We'd already been on the road 2-hours, so we were anxious to get started. The upper waters of the Arkansas River were beautiful in the morning sun, and there were already a number of anglers out. It was a super easy drive into the outskirts of Leadville where we made our turnoff toward the trailhead. As we climbed the dirt road toward the base of the mountain we saw a very large number of primitive campers waking to greet the day. They were completely bundled up. Uh, that doesn't look good. We looked at the thermometer when we hit the trailhead. 10,000 feet (or just below) and it was 32 degrees. Oh boy...I'm not sure we packed the right clothes! Jeff was in shorts and a tee, I was in convertible capri pants and tank top, and we only had our lightweight softshell jackets and windbreaks. We did both grab a lightweight fleece on the way out the door, but didn't expect to use them.

We found one of the last parking spots (this is a popular trail) and braced for the cold. Stepping out gave us a huge sigh of relief because the amount of sunshine we had made it not too bad! I was fine in my fleece and my pants already rolled into shorts. Jeff was fine in his long-sleeves and shorts. We put our boots on, made sure our packs were ready and put them on, grabbed one more swig of water to keep our camelbacks full, and started out. It was going to be a great day full of adventure!

The Night Before the Climb...

Friday night seemed to be one that would let us rest and get some good sleep before our big hike in the morning. We needed to get up a little before 3am in order to be on the road by no later than 3:30am. We wanted to hit the trail head and start our hike by 6:30am. Really wouldn't be a problem, we had our packs ready, water filled, cooler set for our after-hike goodies, and small child in bed zonked out from another big day with his grandparents. Murphy had other plans...

Jeff was fairly lucky in that this is the time of year his allergies kick him in the butt, so he had enough drugs in him to knock him out for a while. I, on the other hand, made it to bed somewhere around 10:30pm, 30-minutes later than I wanted. Then I was up at 11:30, midnight, and close to 1am because my small child decided he couldn't sleep. It didn't help that every dog in the neighborhood, ours included, was barking. A lot. Granted, Luke usually sleeps through this, but not tonight.

I had just managed to get Luke back to sleep and my head barely touched the pillow when there was a knock at the front door. I leapt out of bed with a bit of anger, peeked out the window and saw my next door neighbor there. I felt an immediate fear because they've had one heckuva time as of late. One that includes 2 ambulance calls within 3 days, damage from baseball-sized hail on a vehicle, and some other stuff that's just not very fair. Anyway, I open the door and Carly tells me that 4 or 5 kids are running around breaking into vehicles and they caught the kids at our truck (which stays outside due to size and the fact we only have a 2-car garage). The cobwebs cleared and I headed out with a flashlight to find all was fine. Moments later there were 7 Sheriff's cars dashing about the streets, complete with spotlights looking for these kids. Jeff did join me shortly and said he was tempted to sleep outside...I talked him out of that. By the time we got back in bed it was after 2am. Oh boy...

The cops kept their patrol up and we dozed back off. The alarm went off about 25-minutes later, but we hit snooze. After the excitement we figured we could just delay our start about an hour. I was up at 3:30, Jeff about 3:45. We left the house at 4:15...and the cops were still patrolling. Given the problems Colorado Springs and El Paso County are having with the police (there's not enough and some calls just can't be answered due to lack of manning and money), I am so extremely grateful to be in a spot where we have a near instant response and resources to see that even the most minor of incidents is looked into in a very timely manner. And I'm grateful for neighbors who look out for each other. It makes chaotic nights, which are rare, worth it....

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH!

Yup, that's me on the summit of the 2nd highest peak in the lower 48 States, and the 17th highest peak in the entirety of the United States. Mount Elbert, Colorado, at a height of 14,440 feet above sea level! What a ride!!

The highest peak in the lower 48 is Mount Whitney, California at 14,494 ft, the other 15 are all in Alaska with Mount McKinley leading the pack at 20,320 ft (also affectionately known as Denali).

Rest assured I will detail our trip, including the...uh...interesting night before the climb. For now, I have a 3-yr-old needing attention and dinner to cook. So, stay tuned! Adventure awaits!