Did manage to bag Mt. Sherman (14,036 ft). But to do so I had to take shelter not once but twice in old, abandoned mining buildings. Seems the snow came to Colorado one week too early. And it was a snow/hail mix, and the driving wind caused the hail to pelt off my face, which got annoying really quick.
Almost didn't make this one. There's a long ridge you hafta traverse to bag the peak, and the wind was howling and the visibility was super low. Plus, it was freezing cold and I was just plain miserable. But I kept on, and eventually got to the top. I usually spend a good hour on the peak of a 14er, but I was there just long enough to down my PBR today. And I had planned on doing two 13ers on this hike, but I had to bail due to the weather. On the hike back down the ridge, I was knocked over by the wind. Pretty scary.
After escaping the crappy weather it was off to Alma, where I proceeded to drink in every bar in town. Yup, all two of 'em. The South Park Saloon and Alma's Only Bar (which is right next door). Might have the pub crawl there for CoTex.
The weather actually started getting a bit better, or maybe I was just getting drunk, and I thought the chances were decent for the planned Quandry Peak night hike. Met up with Melissa, Just Susan, and Hundred Buck Fuck at the trailhead around 8PM. Beautiful night, and I really thought I'd finally beat Quandry. But once we got above treeline the wind was awful. I've heard many stories about the wind on Quandry, including hikers literally getting blown off the mountain, so not too far above treeline I made the decision to turn around. I think I'm gonna save Quandry for my final 14er, that mountain seems to have my number and I should lay low for a while so it forgets about me.
Susan and HBF had to bolt back to Colo Springs, but Melissa and I were off to the Collegiate Peaks for an attempt on Columbia and Harvard. Rained all night, and of course that rain was snow up at higher elevations. So we only got about three miles into the hike before we had to bail. Didn't even get to see the mountains, it was so cloudy. Melissa had a good breakfast though.
So that's it for my rookie climbing season. Managed to bag a dozen 14ers. Might try some winter climbing on Pikes Peak, but other than that I plan on being lazy until next May or so.
Pics can be seen here.
3 comments:
Quiter! I don't start climbing until Feb, no challange w/o at least waist-deep snow. The fun part's sliding down afterwards.
You're officially nuts....but still an interesting read.
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