Spring Break 09....away from school and all the stresses that come with it. LETS GO TO A BEACH! Thats the words most spoken...however, those words were merely an afterthought on my Spring Break. We decided to head to the Rocky Mountains, square in the middle of Colorado. So TJ (my brother), Jared and Chad (a set of brothers) and I left Sunday 3/22 at 12:30 p.m. heading west on Interstate 70 towards Denver. The drive there was awesome, although 20 hours (22-2 due to Mountain Time Zone), and right smack in the middle we got a pleasant surprise in Topeka, Kansas. We are at a toll service station, filling up, emptying bladders, and buying caffeine, when who else but John Cena walks in. HOLY CRAP. John blanking Cena.
So we are thinking that our trip could not be bad, we just saw a major celebrity in a Po-Dunk State at 11 p.m. at night.....Oh. Boy. Was. I. Wrong.
We get to Leadville, CO at 6 a.m. Mountain Time, ready to tackle the beast they call Mt. Elbert. Elbert is the tallest mountain in Colorado, 2nd tallest in America, only to Mt. Whitney in CA. It is 14,440 ft of pure beauty. We parked at the parking lot, a little ways from the base of the mountain. The temperature in Leadville was around 35 degrees, which would be the fairly constant throughout our stay there. We got packed up (each with around 40-50 lbs of equipment) and headed on the trail, leading to the trailhead. The Sun is shining, although cold yet. Our spirits are high, our ambitions even higher. We are on the first trail for less than half a mile, when TJ and Jared decide, "Hey! The trail looks to bend around, lets cut some time by climbing straight forward (70 degree angle). Against my better judgement, we all agreed, and decided to go forward (Mistake #1). After a very gruesome climb, we continued our trek towards the peak!
By this time, the trail is no where to be found, so we decide to continue making our own path (Mistake #2). By this time, we are trekking through WAIST-DEEP snow, and no, I am not exaggerating. As you can imagine, this was a very tiring process, and completely drained us. So we decided to back track to a campsite where it was a) flat b)dry (er) to spend the night, as it was around 4 p.m., not enough time to make it to the tree-line of the mountain.
Now if you remember, we were going through waist deep snow, which in turn meant that it soaked everything I was wearing. My boots, 3 pairs of socks I had on, and my outer shirt. To make it worse, my camelback (which holds 2 liters of water, and fits in my backpack) broke, leaking water ALL inside my bag, therefore getting EVERYTHING else that was previously dry wet. We set up our tent, tried to get a fire going (which is hard to keep one up in the mountains, oxygen level, etc.) So TJ and I decided to call it bedtime at like 6 p.m., lol; We were already exhausted from our day. So I set my boots, socks, and shirt to dry right by my tent, and went to bed. I went to bed without socks on (remember, its dropping to 20 and below). Oh, and it was snowing fairly bad too...
Lets just agree its safe to say I got next to no sleep. When I "woke" up the next day, my toes and fingers were completely frozen solid, I thought I could be suffering from Hypothermia. I reached to get my boots and socks to put back on, only to find out that they were COMPLETELY frozen STIFF. Normally, shoes and socks are form-fitting to your feet, allowing for comfort. Well, when something is frozen solid, its not so forgiving to form. Ok, so that was the worst night of my life (up until that point of course!)
Fast Forward to Wednesday morning, 3:30 a.m. MST. We wake up in our hostel, ready to tackle the mountain once again. This time, we had dry clothes, a better map, a game plan, and the most important thing, snowshoes. Snowshoes basically look like tennis rackets, allowing for you to float higher above snow (bypassing the trecking through the waist-deep snow problem). We drove back out to the parking lot, got there about 4:30 a.m., ready to FOLLOW the trail this time. We head up the same trail we started Monday, were making really good time as we came to the bridge that lead to the actual path to the peak. Then, finally then, we make it to the actual trail! It sat at the bottom of the Mountain. We continue up the path and trail, still on great pace to make it to the summit by 1:00 p.m. or so. From here it really gets interesting.
This is the point in the story where I would place an Intermission................
We finally come to a fork in the trail, one leading slightly to the left, one leading slightly to the right, and much steeper. This was the point in my life if I had a choice to redo, I would choose the path to the right. However, life usually doesn't allow for redo's, and this case is one of them. We chose the path to the left, and from there our fate was sealed. See, our rationale was the left path was much more flat compared to that of the right. Anyone would have chose the path with less work, right? Right? Tell me I am right!
Well, needless to say, we basically ran into a dead end, and once again decided to make our own path. (Grand Mistake #3). Member how our last climb was a 70 degree angle? Well, we will call this one an 80 degree + angle. No joke. The only way we were able to climb this was due to the very skinny tree's lining this forest. Just think 200+ feet, 80 degree angle, blizzard conditions, snow shoes, and backpacks, to go along with crappy power bars for every meal.
These were the longest 200 ft of my life to climb, and after we made it to the top, I almost passed out. However, Praise the Lord, we made it to the treeline successfully. We only had like 4 miles to go! Yipeeeee! At this point, I was struggling physically, as well as mentally. It was so difficult to want to go on, yet I didn't want to be "that" "guy". You know the wussy guy who has to ruin everyone else's trip by stopping. So I pressed on. (Mistake #4, man, these are adding up)
Fast Forward to elevation height 13,800 ft. I am slipping in and out of consciousness, my toes and hands are completely frozen (due to the snow and extreme wind), and the only thing my stomach has in it are power bars. Not a good combination to be honest......
THIS CONCLUDES THE ENDING TO PART #1. Please Read, and tune in for Part #2 to come soon, which includes 2 near death experiences, and this is not an exageration.
Posts
