6 Summits in 6 Days
I recently wrote a quick and dirty article about celebrating my birthday in the mountains. Thank you everyone for your kind birthday wishes, was great to come back to civilization and read them all! I thought it would be appropriate to share with you my most recent adventure to the Colorado mountains.
If you recall, my last trip to the Colorado mountains in Estes Park culminated when I decided to climb a gorge. This particular trip left out extremely stupid and exciting tricks such as this, but I did have a blast. In total, I was without a proper shower for 7 days and I enjoyed every minute of it (the trip, not offending my neighbors).
Day 1
Upon my arrival in Pike National Forest, it started raining. I was less than thrilled but knew that my body was basically acclimated to sea level so if I was going to have the slightest chance of making it up anything taller than a mole hill, I would need to acclimate as quickly as possible. It has been suggested that the safest and most effective way to acclimiate to a new altitude is to spent short bursts or extreme exertion in that altitude. In this case, I went for an 11 mile hike, in the rain. The rain felt good given that I was clipping along at a decent pace. The hills weren’t crazy but keep in mind that I quickly ascended above timber line so was moving around in the neighborhood of 10,000 ft. It kicked my ass.
Day 2
Waking up the following morning at 6 am and I was already feeling sore. I knew this wasn’t a fantastic sign but I was going to be 26 in a few days and the first step to good health in old age is an active lifestyle. That being the case, I decided that my first mountain(s) would be the Buffalo Peaks. There’s actually three of these suckers but I only summited two of them. Call me lazy, but I was exhausted. If you have never climbed these guys, you should know that there is no trail. You simply drive up forest service road 431 in the Pike National Forest until you can’t go any further, in this case because my economy rental car couldn’t negotiate boulders that stood in my way. Step out of the car and start hiking through the wilderness. No trails here. The ranger told me that if I just followed the drainage and kept walking uphill, I would eventually reach it. Damn if she wasn’t right. It took a little while and I was convinced that I was going to run in to a bear, but I made it to the top of two of the three peaks. I didn’t see anyone else on the mountain and it’s definitely not a tourist attraction. It felt great to be the only person on the entire mountain. It was this first day that I had a brilliant idea. The next time I was going to go through all that work, I had better bring some beer along.
Day 3
My third day out there and I was already beginning to lose track of time. I could have sworn it was my birthday so I decided to climb Mt. Democrat. It was a nice climb but nothing spectacular. Sure, all summit views are pretty, but this particular mountain seemed to be one of the more popular ones and I had to deal with other people on a way up and down. On my way back through town I stopped at the liquor store and picked up two six-packs of beer. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t actually my birthday until about 9pm that evening. A little bummed, I just decided that it was a good excuse to celebrate all over again.
Day 4
This time it really was my birthday and just a single mountain wasn’t going to do. I climbed up onto the continental divide. If you have never been there, I would strongly advise that you take the opportunity to go. Not only is it an amazing view at the top, but if you keep hiking along you can hit summit after summit after summit. I have no idea how many official summits I made this day nor what their names were, but it was fantastic. I ran into a few people along the top of the ridge from Chicago and we shared a common accent along with a few cold beers. See, when you’re up there in the 14,000 ft range, everything is cold. The only bonus of hiking in a virtual refrigerator was that it kept the brew chilled. It was good times.
Mt. Sherman
Day 5
Mt. Sherman was just 4 miles up the hill from where I was camping and begging to be climbed. Day 5 was the day I finally felt capable of handling such an attempt. Being a good sport, I parked down the road and started my stopwatch from the moment I opened the car door. 92 minutes (and some seconds) later and I was parking my ass at the top of a 14,036 foot summit. Absolutely amazing. I waited at the top long enough to let the friends I made on the way up make it to the top. We snapped a few pictures when the storms started getting too close for comfort. It was time to go down. The best part about this mountain was that much of the east face was still covered in snow. This made for an easy glissade down 2/3 of the mountain. Another great day.
Day 6
I was starting to near the end of my journey here so it was time to make sure I hit the best that Pike National Forest had to offer. On this day I trekked up to the summit of Mt. Lincoln just north of Kite Lake. Getting there was a bit of a challenge, to say the least. Most of these mountains are privately owned and were profitable for gold mining some years back. Many of the old structures and certainly the mine shafts are still there. Just hiking up to Mt. Lincoln allowed me to pass all sorts of old buildings and improvised railway systems that were used to get the ore out of the mountain. Very cool to be hiking along, just had to be sure not to wander into a mine shaft. This particular mountain kicked my ass. I managed to hit the summit in 96 minutes but it took everything I had. By the time I got to the top, I was panting and my legs felt like jelly. That was fine by me. Gave me more time to enjoy some trail mix and a cold beer. Yes, the other people at the summit were jealous, though one guy did bring up cold spagetti.
Day 7
It was my last day on the mountains and I had to make the most of it. Mt. Cameron seemed like a healthy choice at 14,238 ft. I must admit, I completely forgot to time myself this particular day and I am half glad that I did. This little hill was tough. Maybe I was just getting tired, maybe I was starting to feel my age, but it was a struggle to get to the top. Once there, I didn’t stay long. Heading back down I started to circle around the wrong side of the mountain, remember there are very few trails, but quickly realized the error of my ways. Unfortunately, the only way back was to go back up to where I forked my path before I could continue down the correct side. I am sure not to make that mistake again.
All in all, it was a fantastic time. I’m not sure that every summit I hit was a 14er (above 14,000 ft), but it was still a feat for me. Now my legs feel like they’ve been battered and I’m sure my lungs are twice as healthy as when I started. Too bad it’ll be 2-3 weeks before I get bak to a mountain again and I’ll need to acclimate myself all over again. Though, this next time I’m hell-bent on climbing Long’s Peak both the commercial route and the far less travelled Clark’s Arrow/Loft route. Between these two summits I’m sure it’ll take me at least three days so I should find myself fairly well acclimated by the end.
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