Snowflea
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Because a few folks have asked...
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This is copied from my blog http://runsuerun.blogspot.com/2011/08/colorado-14er-fini.html. There are some photos there, too, if yer interested; some are old and kinda funny.
.
Part 1
.
On July 22, 2011, I completed what turned out to be a project lasting almost two decades, that of climbing all of Colorado's ranked peaks over 14,000 feet. Using Gerry Roach's Colorado's Fourteeners, from Hikes to Climbs almost exclusively, I picked away at the list over the years, initially not attempting to climb them all. My 14er quest was inexorably tied to running the Hardrock 100. Were it not for that annual Tour de San Juans, I likely would never have climbed all the 14ers. This post is on the long side, but it covers 54 peaks and 18 years!
.
My first 14er was Quandary Peak in 1993. Mostly a mountain biking trip to Moab, Telluride, and Crested Butte, my husband and I threw in a hike up Quandary, one of the easiest 14ers, on our way back to Denver's Stapleton International Airport (this was before DIA even!). Thrilled to have reached a new elevation PR by around 8,000 feet on this easier peak, I had absolutely no aspirations of climbing them all, especially after reading some of Roach's intimidating route descriptions: "A fall here would be fatal." "The rock is loose, rotten, and dangerous." "Some parties choose to rope up here." And other scary stuff like that.
.
In 1996 I ran the Leadville 100 for the first and only time. Hiker friends Andy and Tom joined me on some acclimatization hikes and introduced me to my first Class 3 peaks: Longs, Snowmass, and Kelso Ridge on Torreys. Perhaps a brief description of classification is in order. A recent issue of Backpacker magazine offered the following explanation:
.
Class 1: Walking easily navigable trails
Class 2: Hiking cross-country across rough terrain, occasionally using hands for balance
Class 3: Scrambling steep terrain (roughly 35 degrees and higher), using hands for support
Class 4: Simple climbing (think ladder) with potentially significant exposure. A fall would result in serious injury or even death; many parties use a rope to belay the toughest sections.
Class 5: Technical rock climbing requiring a rope and safety hardware
.
As with gear talk, etc., classification of routes can be overanalyzed, discussed and argued ad nauseum. Ultimately what became patently clear to me is that the classification of the route was a general guideline and didn't mean much until I was actually ON the route. To say, I've been freaked out on Class 2+ and felt totally comfortable on Class 4. Also, the more I was "exposed to exposure," the more comfortable I was with it.
.
Kelso Ridge freaked me out back in 1996! On the more exposed sections I remember my legs shaking uncontrollably, coincident with my stomach churning uncomfortably. Just as I thought I would certainly throw up, we skittered across the last narrow catwalk and stood atop Torrey's summit, huge smiles all around. Encountering mountain goats on the descent of Grays Peak was the icing on the cake.
.
We also bagged the foursome of Democrat, Lincoln, Bross, and Cameron that summer, along with Longs Peak, a repeat of Quandary, and a one-day Snowmass epic. Since it is well over 20 miles round trip, most people do Snowmass as an overnighter, but Tom and I somehow talked Andy into starting very early and doing it as a dayhike. I remember our argument going something like "We'll actually expend less energy because we won't have to carry in all that gear" (tents, sleeping bags, pads, food, stove, etc.). Andy finally gave in, and Snowmass ended up being one of my favorite 14ers. In a bookstore a few days later, the three of us cracked up when we read in another guidebook something along the lines of "Only the hiking gods and goddesses attempt Snowmass in a day."
.
Again I waited three years before returning to Colorado in 1999. This time it was for my first crack at the Hardrock 100 and the first of many ascents of Handies Peak -- the HRH course goes right over the summit. Since I spent most of the pre-race days acclimatizing on the course, the only other 14ers I climbed that year were Sunshine and Redcloud. Hardrock went well: I finished 2nd woman, top 10, and bettered the previous women's course record by 5 hours.
.
I returned to Silverton the following year. Unlike today's application process with its huge number of applicants, this was back in the good 'ol days of Hardrock, when nearly everyone who applied and qualified got in. That year -- some solo, some with friends -- I climbed Sherman, Massive, La Plata, Huron, Shavano, Tabeguache, San Luis, and Colorado's highest peak, Mt. Elbert. A friend and I also reclimbed Democrat, Lincoln, Bross, and Cameron. At Hardrock I struggled through some very rough patches but prevailed in the end: I was first woman!
.
Alas, Hardrock fun in 2001 was not to be as I DNF'd at Grouse Gulch after barfing my way up Engineer Pass, the one and only time in over 100 ultras that this has ever happened. However, it was another good year for picking away at the 14ers as I stood atop the remaining Sawatch (and the crazy, RIP, Nolan's 14 event) peaks: Missouri, Oxford, Belford, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Antero, and Holy Cross, as well as Uncompahgre in the San Juans and Challenger Peak in the Sangres. A fast approaching storm prevented the traverse from Challenger to Kit Carson that year, and I also got turned back on Ellingwood/Blanca after hiking all the way up the horrible Lake Como Road on a hot day -- ugh. No worries, the mountains weren't going anywhere in my lifetime.
.
Four years passed before I decided to give Hardrock another shot. With successful hikes of Bierstadt, Evans, and Pikes Peak, the Front Range was now complete. Memorable were sightings of a nude male hiker on Bierstadt (!) and a requisite mountain goat and her kid on Evans -- apparently not seeing goats on Evans is the exception. Pikes Peak was a blast: I did the "marathon," the entire Barr Trail up and down from Manitou Springs, and enjoyed a freshly made donut on the summit before running back down the easy 13-mile trail. I finished off acclimatizing for the race by climbing Wetterhorn (marmot PR on the approach!) and Sneffels back in the San Juans. One unfortunate memory of Sneffels was meeting a trio from Texas -- two guys and a teenage boy -- on the final Class 2+ snow-filled chute to the summit, the boy visibly scared. I passed the group again on my way down, they making very slow progress. Laughing out loud, I did a controlled glissade about 1000 feet down the mountain. It wasn't until the next day that I learned the teenager had taken a terrible fall in the upper chute, sustaining compound fractures of his femur and requiring a complicated rescue and helicopter ride out. As for Hardrock, I had a great time that year and was thrilled to win it for a second time.
.
.
This is copied from my blog http://runsuerun.blogspot.com/2011/08/colorado-14er-fini.html. There are some photos there, too, if yer interested; some are old and kinda funny.
.
Part 1
.
On July 22, 2011, I completed what turned out to be a project lasting almost two decades, that of climbing all of Colorado's ranked peaks over 14,000 feet. Using Gerry Roach's Colorado's Fourteeners, from Hikes to Climbs almost exclusively, I picked away at the list over the years, initially not attempting to climb them all. My 14er quest was inexorably tied to running the Hardrock 100. Were it not for that annual Tour de San Juans, I likely would never have climbed all the 14ers. This post is on the long side, but it covers 54 peaks and 18 years!
.
My first 14er was Quandary Peak in 1993. Mostly a mountain biking trip to Moab, Telluride, and Crested Butte, my husband and I threw in a hike up Quandary, one of the easiest 14ers, on our way back to Denver's Stapleton International Airport (this was before DIA even!). Thrilled to have reached a new elevation PR by around 8,000 feet on this easier peak, I had absolutely no aspirations of climbing them all, especially after reading some of Roach's intimidating route descriptions: "A fall here would be fatal." "The rock is loose, rotten, and dangerous." "Some parties choose to rope up here." And other scary stuff like that.
.
In 1996 I ran the Leadville 100 for the first and only time. Hiker friends Andy and Tom joined me on some acclimatization hikes and introduced me to my first Class 3 peaks: Longs, Snowmass, and Kelso Ridge on Torreys. Perhaps a brief description of classification is in order. A recent issue of Backpacker magazine offered the following explanation:
.
Class 1: Walking easily navigable trails
Class 2: Hiking cross-country across rough terrain, occasionally using hands for balance
Class 3: Scrambling steep terrain (roughly 35 degrees and higher), using hands for support
Class 4: Simple climbing (think ladder) with potentially significant exposure. A fall would result in serious injury or even death; many parties use a rope to belay the toughest sections.
Class 5: Technical rock climbing requiring a rope and safety hardware
.
As with gear talk, etc., classification of routes can be overanalyzed, discussed and argued ad nauseum. Ultimately what became patently clear to me is that the classification of the route was a general guideline and didn't mean much until I was actually ON the route. To say, I've been freaked out on Class 2+ and felt totally comfortable on Class 4. Also, the more I was "exposed to exposure," the more comfortable I was with it.
.
Kelso Ridge freaked me out back in 1996! On the more exposed sections I remember my legs shaking uncontrollably, coincident with my stomach churning uncomfortably. Just as I thought I would certainly throw up, we skittered across the last narrow catwalk and stood atop Torrey's summit, huge smiles all around. Encountering mountain goats on the descent of Grays Peak was the icing on the cake.
.
We also bagged the foursome of Democrat, Lincoln, Bross, and Cameron that summer, along with Longs Peak, a repeat of Quandary, and a one-day Snowmass epic. Since it is well over 20 miles round trip, most people do Snowmass as an overnighter, but Tom and I somehow talked Andy into starting very early and doing it as a dayhike. I remember our argument going something like "We'll actually expend less energy because we won't have to carry in all that gear" (tents, sleeping bags, pads, food, stove, etc.). Andy finally gave in, and Snowmass ended up being one of my favorite 14ers. In a bookstore a few days later, the three of us cracked up when we read in another guidebook something along the lines of "Only the hiking gods and goddesses attempt Snowmass in a day."
.
Again I waited three years before returning to Colorado in 1999. This time it was for my first crack at the Hardrock 100 and the first of many ascents of Handies Peak -- the HRH course goes right over the summit. Since I spent most of the pre-race days acclimatizing on the course, the only other 14ers I climbed that year were Sunshine and Redcloud. Hardrock went well: I finished 2nd woman, top 10, and bettered the previous women's course record by 5 hours.
.
I returned to Silverton the following year. Unlike today's application process with its huge number of applicants, this was back in the good 'ol days of Hardrock, when nearly everyone who applied and qualified got in. That year -- some solo, some with friends -- I climbed Sherman, Massive, La Plata, Huron, Shavano, Tabeguache, San Luis, and Colorado's highest peak, Mt. Elbert. A friend and I also reclimbed Democrat, Lincoln, Bross, and Cameron. At Hardrock I struggled through some very rough patches but prevailed in the end: I was first woman!
.
Alas, Hardrock fun in 2001 was not to be as I DNF'd at Grouse Gulch after barfing my way up Engineer Pass, the one and only time in over 100 ultras that this has ever happened. However, it was another good year for picking away at the 14ers as I stood atop the remaining Sawatch (and the crazy, RIP, Nolan's 14 event) peaks: Missouri, Oxford, Belford, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Antero, and Holy Cross, as well as Uncompahgre in the San Juans and Challenger Peak in the Sangres. A fast approaching storm prevented the traverse from Challenger to Kit Carson that year, and I also got turned back on Ellingwood/Blanca after hiking all the way up the horrible Lake Como Road on a hot day -- ugh. No worries, the mountains weren't going anywhere in my lifetime.
.
Four years passed before I decided to give Hardrock another shot. With successful hikes of Bierstadt, Evans, and Pikes Peak, the Front Range was now complete. Memorable were sightings of a nude male hiker on Bierstadt (!) and a requisite mountain goat and her kid on Evans -- apparently not seeing goats on Evans is the exception. Pikes Peak was a blast: I did the "marathon," the entire Barr Trail up and down from Manitou Springs, and enjoyed a freshly made donut on the summit before running back down the easy 13-mile trail. I finished off acclimatizing for the race by climbing Wetterhorn (marmot PR on the approach!) and Sneffels back in the San Juans. One unfortunate memory of Sneffels was meeting a trio from Texas -- two guys and a teenage boy -- on the final Class 2+ snow-filled chute to the summit, the boy visibly scared. I passed the group again on my way down, they making very slow progress. Laughing out loud, I did a controlled glissade about 1000 feet down the mountain. It wasn't until the next day that I learned the teenager had taken a terrible fall in the upper chute, sustaining compound fractures of his femur and requiring a complicated rescue and helicopter ride out. As for Hardrock, I had a great time that year and was thrilled to win it for a second time.
.
