I saw this thread and I was thinking as I was reading thru the posts that the suggestions put forth by jrbren and sierra in terms of getting a less technical exposure to hiking at altitude and give yourself a couple days to get your breath were right there with mine.
Why not Colorado?
Those Colorado mountains in northen South Park - Alma/breckenridge area, heck most of the Front Range big summits are some straight forward walk-ups. Give you the elevation exposure at a hiking pace and feel - and you start at around 11,000 feet in places like Alma.
I lived in Colorado (college days) for the better part of 6 years and worked for the Forest Service summers for 4, worked and lived at 8 - 10 thousand feet in summers and stuff and hiked a few 12k summits but it wasn't until about 10 years after I moved to Maine that i went back and hiked a couple 14ers - Bross one year, Quandry the next... ok back in college I had tried Longs Peak but was ill equipped, or maybe I might have had brown bottle flu..nevertheless, I never made it...anyway, these two were easy//
the point, I guess,
being that I drove 48 hours to Alma, CO both times (cheap to do at the time) and would generally go hiking within a day or two of being at 11 thousand feet. I always seemed to need lots of water..6 liters (2 consumed before the hike) when I did Quandry. 14,000 came with some effort for sure and even the beer drinking was labor intensive at 11000 feet!
Boy I was some parched!
But I literally drove from Maine and arrived at 14,000 feet in 72 hours, suffered a little bit hydration-wise but reaffirmed that I was capable of functioning at 14k elevations and I needed nothing more than what I use on a given hike in New England. Sure, bring the crampons, and an ice axe had the snowhoes in the car just in case there will be snow in spring but I think you'll find that you're kicking steps or finding a dry ridgeline to 14000 and never have to think about roping up.
Just wanted to talk Colorado up for a minute ....
I loved it out there!
