Today was the big day, my first summit attempt of a Colorado 14’er. I went to bed the night before at 10:30pm and my alarm was set at 3:30am so I could get a head start on the mountain. I didn’t sleep very well, maybe an hour or two, because I kept thinking of what to expect when I started.
It was 2:30am and I had been awake for a while already so I figured I would get out of bed and start getting ready. I repacked my backpack. The night before my camelback leaked about 60 ounces of water and soaked just about everything inside. We put the clothes in the dryer and the backpack outside on the deck to hopefully dry overnight. Thankfully it did. Heeding James’ advice, I decided to throw in my sleeping bag as a precautionary measure. I scurried around the house trying not to wake anyone, especially the monsters, collected my things and was out the door by 3am.
It was 60 degrees when I walked outside which was warmer than I expected. By the time I arrived at the Barr trailhead at the base of Pike’s Peak, the temperature had already dropped to 50F. I got onto the trail shortly after 4am as my self diagnosed OCD had me check and recheck my pack several times to ensure I didn’t leave anything important behind. I started in a pair of shorts and two layers of long sleeve shirts. In my pack I had extra layers to protect me from the anticipated 40 degree temperature differential between the base and the summit.
323’ short of Colorado’s highest peak (Mt. Elbert, 14,433’), Pike’s Peak (14,110’) is only ranked as 31st highest in Colorado; however, it has the greatest vertical gain (7,300’+) of all 54 14’ers. Pike’s Peak is also one of the most famous mountains in CO as it was here that inspired the words to “America the Beautiful” in 1893.
For the first 2.5 hours, I trekked up the mountain in the dark with only my headlamp to shed light on the trail. Within the first 10-15 minutes I immediately began to take notice of the elevation gain as I looked down over the streetlights of Manitou Springs. Another thing I observed was the steep terrain along the side of the trail, in some cases being able to look down at the tops of some very tall trees that were only a few arms lengths away. I was careful to avoid any missteps, especially in the dark and upon reaching each switchback I blew out a “here I am” whistle to alert any bears or mountain lions of my presence. I knew I was in for a long day.
Once there was enough sunlight to see the trail, I was able to turn off my headlamp and pick up the pace a bit. I was feeling pretty good as I reached Barr Camp (10,200’), 7 miles from the start and a little over half way to the summit. Barr Camp is a small cabin run by a husband and wife who cater to hikers who attempt to summit in two or more days. I reached Barr Camp in about 3.5 hours and the general rule is that the last 6 miles to the summit should take roughly 1 hour longer than the first 7 miles, so by that logic I was making pretty good time. Only 6 miles and 3,910’ to go.
Once I reached about 11,000’ I started to notice the effects of altitude. My pace slowed considerably as my head started to pound and I began to feel dizzy and a bit nauseous. I stopped for a few minutes to rehydrate and put some food in my stomach. Knowing that the oxygen levels are beginning to decrease from what I was used to I also paid more attention to my breathing, taking in deeper and deeper breaths to refill my lungs. Although I was starting to feel better, I assumed that it was only going to get harder the higher I went so I proceeded to walk again, but at a relatively easy pace. I tried not to look at the altimeter on my watch too often as that just made me think of how much farther I still had to go. Instead I just tried to focus on taking one step at a time, saying to myself that each step put me one step closer to the top.
After getting about the tree line around 12,000’, where the trees stop growing and it becomes just baron rock, I strangely caught my second wind. Even though I felt like I could physically walk faster, the terrain was becoming more and more difficult. The trail was getting steeper and large boulders made it harder to traverse around and over. I could see the summit within reach but I knew that I was still almost 4 hours from the top so even though my body was feeling good, I was now trying to overcome more of the mental challenges.
The weather couldn’t have been better. There were only a handful of times that I needed to stop to put on another top layer and gloves but within 20 minutes I was already getting too hot and needed remove them again.
The last few miles were definitely the hardest with long switchbacks, back and forth across the mountain. I eventually arrived at the summit around 12:45pm, after 8.5 hours of slogging it uphill. I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I had the answers to my nagging questions from the day before. Now I was able to relax and check out the amazing views. Looking down from the top at the tiny silhouettes of people making their way up the mountain just reinforced this great effort.
I stopped and had lunch with fellow once NJ’an, named Ben whom I met about ¾ of the way up the mountain. Over a well deserved cheeseburger I started to ponder the idea of cancelling my one-way return ticket off the mountain on the Cog train. I was definitely tired but feeling pretty good considering I had just walked uphill for 8.5 hours. I even conquered my goal of making it to the top so I had nothing more to prove to myself. I walked over to the train conductor and told him not to process my ticket; I was going to finish this journey on foot.
I noticed some dark stormy clouds that quickly appeared over the summit and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. These clouds can bring extremely dangerous lightning storms so I hurriedly got my things together and by 2pm I started my way back down, trying to reach the safety of the tree-line. Luckily the storm passed by overhead without even a drop of rain.
I traversed back and forth down the mountain following the same path that I worked so hard to hike up. It was definitely a faster pace going downhill but it also put a little more pressure on the knees, and my knees reminded me to take it easy. After about 10 hours of carrying a pack, my back really started to stiffen up and my rest stops became more frequent to twist and stretch my muscles. I made it back to Barr Camp, only 7 more miles to go. This is where I started to hit the wall on the way down. Physically, I still felt ok but I was just about mentally shot. Walking downhill was so much easier than walking uphill but 13 miles is still 13 miles. After 5.75 hours I had made it back to my car. The last two hours were once again in the dark. Total round trip was 26 miles in 14 hours and 15 minutes. I was happy with my decision to pass on taking the train down from the top.
With stiff muscles, I got in my car and drove to the closest Chipotle to recklessly devour a burrito. I stayed at James’ and Kristin’s house again to avoid an hour-plus drive back to Highlands Ranch. After a much needed shower, we hung out for about an hour and then I headed straight to bed.
I felt awful, but even that…felt wonderful!
