Pikes Peak

I've been itchin' to get up a 14er for a few weeks now, especially with the great weather we've been having along the front range. Problem was, we had record snowfall here in Colorado and it's gonna take some time for it all to melt. But I kept hearing wispers of folks climbing Pikes via the Cog Railway route, so I figured I'd give it a go.

First, a little bit of personal history. My very first trip to the summit of Pikes Peak was via the train, with MeatGazer when I was in town on vacation. Kinda fell in love with the mountains that day, and I vowed I'd come back to hike up the hill. Never knew I'd make it my backyard. Oh yeah, my second time up the mountain was the 50th anniversary of the Pikes Peak Ascent. Ran 3:18, not too shabby for living in Austin at the time.

I left my front door at 5:45AM. By 6AM there was a Cog employee raising the Americal flag, so I had to continue all the way up Ruxton to the gate where I jumped a stream and hit the railroad tracks.

For the next few hours I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Damn, that track is steep in some places. It blows my mind how those trains can carry all those overweight tourists up that hill.

About halfway up, at the Mountain View station (just over 10,000 feet), two trains carrying workers came by. I hid in the woods and let them pass. Onward and upward.

Was working real hard in the thin air. But I kept to the ultra mantra "relentless forward motion" and things were going well. Around 11,000 feet the weather started to get finicky. Strong winds, snow, and dark clouds replaced the mild weather that had been the norm. Started to wonder if I'd make it.

Shortly after 12,000 feet (there's a shelter there - was it Whispering Winds?) I noticed the two trains that had passed me earlier had stopped, and the crew was out working on the tracks. I knew any of the passenger trains wouldn't stop to yell at me for trespassing, but I wasn't sure about the workers. So I bailed off the tracks for some good class four scrambling, then ran across a nice open field. Probably added a mile onto the route, but it was nice to get some good running in at such an altitude. Weather started getting real nasty here. Plus, the scramble back up to the tracks really took a lot out of me, probably because I was nearing 13,000 feet.

Back on the tracks I guestimated I had another 1.5 miles to go. Had to keep moving because the dark clouds were coming after me. After another half mile, the hail started getting real bad, and I stopped, telling myself, "teish, you need to turn around, you're not gonna make it to the mall before this storm hits." Then, I thought I heard the faintest voice. Went up about 50 meters around a bend, and lo and behold it's the summit house! Woulda sucked to have turned around, but I thought I had a lot longer to go. Slammed a can of Arctic while being pelted by hail and went inside for some coffee and a doughnut.

Had to sit in the summit house for an hour before the storm cleared. Hated to sit still for so long, but I told myself it was good altitude training. As soon as the storm cleared I was bolting back down the mountain. The hail returned for about 20 minutes and, using the strong winds, hurt like a bitch while it was constantly pelting my face, but soon it was smooth sailing and once I got below 12,000 feet it got quite nice again.

At mountain view I hooked a left and went over to Barr Camp to visit Teresa and Neil. Always great to see those two. Had a cup of joe while shooting the shit and then left to finish the rest of Barr Trail and get back to my house.

All in all, a great run. Nice to finally get some altitude in, not to mention the almost-7 hours of time on my feet. Add the Incline Club run I'd do later and it adds up to over an entire work day of mountain running. Good times! And it's only Thursday, the weekend hasn't even begun yet!

Final splits:

My house to Summit House (about 11+ miles with my added foray through the field): 4:15
Summit House to Barr Camp: 1:11
Barr Camp to Casa de brownie: 1:21
Total time: 6:47:32, not including the time spent at the summit house or Barr Camp. Roughly 25 miles. Yeah, it's slow going up the Cog.