Climbing a 14'er

[zachary]

I am sort of surprised no one here has done this, climbed a 14'er!

I like that fact that Mt Elbert is non technical, but i have never climbed above 11,000 before. My wife and i are both very physically fit and excited to think about the challenge. Just because it is a simple trail the whole way there are a lot of stores of people who can not make it. We could very easily be some of those people, our plan to drive in stay 2-3 days before and hike around at 10,000+ those days then we will have a 2-3 day window to attempt it in case we hit inclimate weather on one or all of those days. I am excited just planning this!


Successful summit trips by real mountain climbers happen in 4-5 hours, its about an 8 mile round trip along a ridgeline most of the way above the trees, so amazing views the entire way!


This will not happen till august / september but ill do a live climb snapchat or tweet thing( do not have either now). It is not a big deal in the entirety of the climbing world at all like not even a bleep on the radar, but it is a big deal to the two of us - a start into a great new hobby.

a few years ago we took a tracked personnel carrier to the top of peak 8 outside of Breckenridge. It is only above 12,000+ but it was a blizzard and we were sucking wind trying to walk around in the crazy winds!

I have hiked a portion of the grand canyon my time was limited could only go a few miles down and back up again but my gosh I would LOOOOVE to do a rim to rim and stay at phantom ranch a night or two!

[Rick Modena]

I've been to the top of Mt. Evans, hung out for a couple of hours and on the way down it started sleeting/snowing. Drink/bring plenty of water...

[kingjason]

The wife and I may either hit Vegas or Colorado in June. I am doing the Grand Canyon if we go to Vegas and if we go Colorado I am looking into something like that. I also want to do some white water rafting. Colorado gets the nod on that but Vegas has a couple. Only reason I am leaning towards Vegas is I want to do the Ace Combat mission really bad. I was only in Colorado a few days last year picking up a 5 ton but loved it there.

[juiceweezl]

This is the worst part, by far. It's not the pushing uphill, or the burning quads on the way down... it's the constant slight shortness of breath and elevated heart rate that just beat you down (you know, if you're from TX)

This times eleventy billion!!!!!!!!! It's the same whenever I bike somewhere else besides here. Altitude is a bitch when you aren't used to it.

[Shorty]

Ever done ice climbing? They do an event here in town and the people that do it make it look easy. I'm sure it's not.

I haven't and always swore it off but my old climbing partner moved to Chicago and he wants to go on a guided trip up there. I'm tempted to try it.

[Grimpala]

REALLY want to do the rim-to-rim!

I'm setting things in motion for a river trip in a dory from Lee's Ferry to the Grand Wash cliffs in '18, but I'm thinking that I want to do a three day hike from the south rim to the river next spring, just to see the canyon and get a feel for it. I would love to do a Rim to Rim trip as well.

My ultimate goal would be that before I'm 40 to walk the entire length of the canyon in the footsteps of Colin Fletcher and Kenton Grua. Something like 5 - 600 miles with all the switchbacks and trips to the river for water/supplies.

[Strychnine]

Ever done ice climbing? They do an event here in town and the people that do it make it look easy. I'm sure it's not.

Ouray?

[jluv]

Ouray?

Lake City.

[Strychnine]

Lake City.

That brings up one thing I love about the mountains. If the same municipal map were laid on west TX that would be a 19.4 mile drive (Ouray to Lake City), but in the mountains it's a 136 mile drive. 20 min vs 3 hours lol

[jluv]

That brings up one thing I love about the mountains. If the same municipal map were laid on west TX that would be a 19.4 mile drive (Ouray to Lake City), but in the mountains it's a 136 mile drive. 20 min vs 3 hours lol

Yep. But actually, if you have a very capable 4wd vehicle with high ground clearance, you can take the Alpine Loop to a road that leads to Ouray. Going that route, it's probably less than 50 miles. That said, it's slow going, so it would still take close to 2 hours. The Loop itself is doable in almost any decent 4wd vehicle, but the cutoff towards Ouray is known to be extremely treacherous. The Jeep rental places here in LC will let you take their Jeeps anywhere except that specific road. It's not maintained at all, and supposedly just gets more and more gnarly each year due to rock slides and erosion and whatnot. I plan on taking my big ass F250 across it this summer. Balls to the wall. My rig is built to go anywhere that it will fit, and I don't know for sure that it will. I'm gonna find out!

Likewise, there is also a road off the Loop that goes to Silverton, and from there you can drive pavement to Durango, all in maybe 1.5 hours from my house. Again, 4wd is a must, but it's not nearly as bad as that road to Ouray. But that's only an option from June to The first big snow in October. We went to Durango a few weeks ago, and it was a 3.5 hour drive going by the highways. Bleh.

I do love how that makes things more remote here. LC is the only town in Hinsdale County, which is THE most remote county in the lower 48. They base that on population, distance from paved roads, and also by some kind of mapping formula that takes into account the terrain. Like, if you took the terrain and laid it out flat, we are further away from anything resembling civilization than any other place in the U.S., except Alaska, of course. Heck, even on the paved highway system, we are an hour from the closest town in any direction. An hour from a grocery store. An hour from the closest vet. An hour from the nearest stoplight, etc.

[SMKR]

Start early
File a trip report prior to leaving
Do your research and prepare for every possible outcome
There is a monitor Beacon you can get, I'd recommend it
Join the Facebook group 14ers
Good luck, I'll see you up there in my jeep