Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
The Wild Wild West (Year in Pictures)
One year has passed ...
Date: 08/22/08
Location: I-70 (Kansas into Colorado)
Description: Crossing the state line into Colorful Colorado
Date: 08/23/09
Location: YMCA (Estes)
Description: 2nd night in Colorado
Date: 08/24/09
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)
Description: Beautiful
Date: 08/24/09
Location: RMNP
Description: Stephanie and I at the Visitor's Center
Date: 08/30/09
Location: Walker Ranch
Description: One of my favorite pictures of Stephanie
Date: 10/24/08
Location: Thornton
Description: Haunted Corn Field (Jen, Jenny, Wendy and me)
Date: October
Location: Moab
Description: Dirt Divas
Date: October
Location: Moab
Description: Dirt Diva
Date: 11/15/08
Location: Keystone Resort
Description: 1st day of ski season
Date: 02/14/09
Location: Edwards
Description: View from Maria's ski house
Date: February
Location: Beaver Creek
Description: Collision with Karen
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Carrie's 1st day boarding
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Happy Carrie
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Powder Day
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Mt. Holy Cross
Date: 04/17/09
Location: Moab, Utah
Description: Arches National Park (Balanced Rock)
Date: 04/18/09
Location: Moab, Utah
Description: Amassa Back
Date: 07/03/09
Location: Silverton
Description: Driving into Silverton
Date: 07/04/09
Location: Cabin over-looking Silverton
Description: Me and my wood stack :)
Date: 07/04/09
Location: Cabin over-looking Silverton
Description: Sunset on 14ers
Date: 07/11/09
Location: Grays Summit
Description: 1st 14er
Date: 07/11/09
Location: Grays
Description: 14erWorld View
Date: 08/01/09
Location: Evergreen
Description: Elk Herd X-ing
Date: 08/09/09
Location: Crested Butte
Description: Trail 401 Valley View
Date: 08/30/09
Location: Jamestown
Description: Girl on Top (Venus de Miles)
Date: 09/07/09
Location: Bierstadt Summit
Description: 14er #2
Date: 09/07/09
Location: The Sawtooth
Description: Class III scramble route from Bierstadt to Mt. Evans
Date: 09/07/09
Location: Bierstadt
Description: Deb descending into fall
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary
Description: Ascent to summit.
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary
Description: Valley view
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary Peak Summit
Description: 14er #3
... I have been living in a post card.
Colorado to do list:
Summit Longs Peak
Summit Mount of the Holy Cross
Denver Broncos game
Hut trip
Colorado's Triple Bypass
Iron Horse Bicycle Classic
Concert at Red Rocks
Date: 08/22/08
Location: I-70 (Kansas into Colorado)
Description: Crossing the state line into Colorful Colorado
Date: 08/23/09
Location: YMCA (Estes)
Description: 2nd night in Colorado
Date: 08/24/09
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)
Description: Beautiful
Date: 08/24/09
Location: RMNP
Description: Stephanie and I at the Visitor's Center
Date: 08/30/09
Location: Walker Ranch
Description: One of my favorite pictures of Stephanie
Date: 10/24/08
Location: Thornton
Description: Haunted Corn Field (Jen, Jenny, Wendy and me)
Date: October
Location: Moab
Description: Dirt Divas
Date: October
Location: Moab
Description: Dirt Diva
Date: 11/15/08
Location: Keystone Resort
Description: 1st day of ski season
Date: 02/14/09
Location: Edwards
Description: View from Maria's ski house
Date: February
Location: Beaver Creek
Description: Collision with Karen
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Carrie's 1st day boarding
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Happy Carrie
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Powder Day
Date: March
Location: Vail
Description: Mt. Holy Cross
Date: 04/17/09
Location: Moab, Utah
Description: Arches National Park (Balanced Rock)
Date: 04/18/09
Location: Moab, Utah
Description: Amassa Back
Date: 07/03/09
Location: Silverton
Description: Driving into Silverton
Date: 07/04/09
Location: Cabin over-looking Silverton
Description: Me and my wood stack :)
Date: 07/04/09
Location: Cabin over-looking Silverton
Description: Sunset on 14ers
Date: 07/11/09
Location: Grays Summit
Description: 1st 14er
Date: 07/11/09
Location: Grays
Description: 14erWorld View
Date: 08/01/09
Location: Evergreen
Description: Elk Herd X-ing
Date: 08/09/09
Location: Crested Butte
Description: Trail 401 Valley View
Date: 08/30/09
Location: Jamestown
Description: Girl on Top (Venus de Miles)
Date: 09/07/09
Location: Bierstadt Summit
Description: 14er #2
Date: 09/07/09
Location: The Sawtooth
Description: Class III scramble route from Bierstadt to Mt. Evans
Date: 09/07/09
Location: Bierstadt
Description: Deb descending into fall
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary
Description: Ascent to summit.
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary
Description: Valley view
Date: 09/19/09
Location: Quandary Peak Summit
Description: 14er #3
... I have been living in a post card.
Colorado to do list:
Summit Longs Peak
Summit Mount of the Holy Cross
Denver Broncos game
Hut trip
Colorado's Triple Bypass
Iron Horse Bicycle Classic
Concert at Red Rocks
Monday, September 21, 2009
Quandary Peak - "Nowhere" and Back Again
Quandary Peak is a fourteener in the US state of Colorado and the highest peak in the Tenmile Range, a northern extension of the Mosquito Range. It is the 12th, 13th, or 14th highest peak in Colorado, depending on how it is ranked. It has nearly the same elevation as Castle Peak and Mount Evans. It lies in Summit County and within the Arapaho National Forest about 6 miles (10 km) south-southwest of the town of Breckenridge.
Difficulty: Class 1
Summit Elevation: 14,265 feet
Trailhead Elevation: 10,850 feet
Elevation Gain: 3,450 feet
Round-trip Length: 6.75 miles
Trailhead: Quandary
Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at? ~W.S. Gilbert
Quandary [kwon-duh-ree]
- noun
a state of perplexity or uncertainty.
"When a non-climber asks me what the summit of a 14er is like, I sometimes answer that it is like being nowhere. On a summit you will find no shelter, no food, no water, no trees, and no one living there. There is no warm bed to rest in, no fortune to be found, and no adoring crowd cheering your accomplishment. You will find cold, wind, harsh sunlight, hard ground, rain or freezing snow, and lightning.
To get "nowhere" and back you must experience pain and soreness; be tired, cold, dehydrated, hungry or perhaps nauseated, and potentially facing a long trek on which you only want to be finished, to be back at the trailhead where you can find relief from both your physical and mental suffering. And if everything goes as planned, that is the best possible outcome." Mark Scott-Nash, Colorado 14er Disaster, Victims of the Game
OMG, I complained (in my head) from the bottom to the top of Quandary Peak. It rained mental F-bombs in my world. I was tired. I was grumpy. I was miserable. I have yet to really prepare myself to climb a 14er. I climb these mountains on a whim. It's going to get me in serious trouble one day. I am reading Colorado 14er Disaster, Victims of the Game ... and the first two paragraphs of this book summarized my Quandary experience better than I could ever articulate myself. Pain - yes. Soreness - yes. Tired - yes. Cold - yes. Dehydrated - yes. Hungry - yes. Nauseated - yes. Physical and mental suffering - HELL yes ... LOTS.
The snow has already started falling at the higher elevations here in Colorado. I think it's almost time to strap on the skis and head downhill ... CLIMBING mountains on my poor feet instead of using a nice chairlift to the top ... how silly.
-The Peak Bagger from NC
Sweat silently. Let's have no squawking about a little expenditure of energy. ~Martin H. Fischer
4:50 AM Awake
5:30 AM Depart
7:00 AM Breakfast/Mountain Lyon Cafe/Dillon/Keystone Exit
8:45 AM Start Hiking
11:15 AM Summit
11:45 AM Descent
1:45 PM Finish
Date Ascended: 9/19/09
Roundtrip: 5 hours
Temperature: 60's at the bottom, 40's at the summit
Difficulty: Class 1
Summit Elevation: 14,265 feet
Trailhead Elevation: 10,850 feet
Elevation Gain: 3,450 feet
Round-trip Length: 6.75 miles
Trailhead: Quandary
Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at? ~W.S. Gilbert
Quandary [kwon-duh-ree]
- noun
a state of perplexity or uncertainty.
"When a non-climber asks me what the summit of a 14er is like, I sometimes answer that it is like being nowhere. On a summit you will find no shelter, no food, no water, no trees, and no one living there. There is no warm bed to rest in, no fortune to be found, and no adoring crowd cheering your accomplishment. You will find cold, wind, harsh sunlight, hard ground, rain or freezing snow, and lightning.
To get "nowhere" and back you must experience pain and soreness; be tired, cold, dehydrated, hungry or perhaps nauseated, and potentially facing a long trek on which you only want to be finished, to be back at the trailhead where you can find relief from both your physical and mental suffering. And if everything goes as planned, that is the best possible outcome." Mark Scott-Nash, Colorado 14er Disaster, Victims of the Game
OMG, I complained (in my head) from the bottom to the top of Quandary Peak. It rained mental F-bombs in my world. I was tired. I was grumpy. I was miserable. I have yet to really prepare myself to climb a 14er. I climb these mountains on a whim. It's going to get me in serious trouble one day. I am reading Colorado 14er Disaster, Victims of the Game ... and the first two paragraphs of this book summarized my Quandary experience better than I could ever articulate myself. Pain - yes. Soreness - yes. Tired - yes. Cold - yes. Dehydrated - yes. Hungry - yes. Nauseated - yes. Physical and mental suffering - HELL yes ... LOTS.
The snow has already started falling at the higher elevations here in Colorado. I think it's almost time to strap on the skis and head downhill ... CLIMBING mountains on my poor feet instead of using a nice chairlift to the top ... how silly.
-The Peak Bagger from NC
Sweat silently. Let's have no squawking about a little expenditure of energy. ~Martin H. Fischer
4:50 AM Awake
5:30 AM Depart
7:00 AM Breakfast/Mountain Lyon Cafe/Dillon/Keystone Exit
8:45 AM Start Hiking
11:15 AM Summit
11:45 AM Descent
1:45 PM Finish
Date Ascended: 9/19/09
Roundtrip: 5 hours
Temperature: 60's at the bottom, 40's at the summit
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