This is a work in progress.\u00a0 Sorry it is so long, I know I am very wordy, I can’t seem to help myself.\u00a0 It is very detailed, and I am sure there are still plenty of grammatical errors.\u00a0 I know I am a terrible writer as every paragraph and sentence pretty much starts with the word “I”. I am currently up to day 9, and will finish as soon as I can. After finishing then I will go back and try to add some pictures. If you actually manage to read the whole thing, then you deserve a reward!<\/p>\n
2014 Colorado 14er Speed Record Attempt<\/strong><\/p>\n Prologue, June 17, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n My driveway was a disaster.\u00a0 I was packing two cars, I had gear all over the place, and didn\u2019t know how I was going to get everything ready in time to leave.\u00a0 How I hate packing!\u00a0 I had plenty of time, as I had anticipated this day for months.\u00a0 Yet, the simple fact is that I get so little done on any given day while trying to take care of my 4 kids that it was a miracle I had the boxes out on the front driveway.<\/p>\n I was getting ready to go to try set the record for breaking Colorado\u2019s 14ers in the fastest amount of time.\u00a0 The current time was 10 days, 20 hours.\u00a0 I had an aggressive plan to try to get near and somehow break 10 days.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t because I thought I was in amazing shape\u2026on the contrary, I hardly even had time to train.\u00a0 I had managed a handful of scouting trips, but most of my training came from jogging the kids to and from school every day.\u00a0 The truth is, I am very slow compared to other people who have gone for this record.<\/p>\n I thought I could break the record because I believed in my logistical plan.\u00a0 Having held this record once before, and then watched it get broken twice, I understood the importance of a good plan of attack, and I had learned from those who had gone before me.\u00a0 My goal was not to break the record by hiking faster, but by being faster than everyone else while I wasn\u2019t hiking.<\/p>\n Actually my original plan had been to go on to climb all of the 14ers in the 48 states.\u00a0 I had never been to see the ones in California and Washington, and was looking forward to that part of the trip.\u00a0 However, I knew there was a very good possibility that if I beat the Colorado record, I might be so beat up that I wouldn\u2019t be able to continue.\u00a0 And if I didn\u2019t beat the Colorado record, that probably meant I was injured.\u00a0 So the odds were good that I wouldn\u2019t be able to make it on that part of the trip.<\/p>\n I had approached several friends and my mother about being on the support crew.\u00a0 Being on the support is a lousy job\u2026The crew is responsible for all kinds of jobs: Driving me around while I sleep, feeding me, dealing with unforeseen problems, and the list goes on and on.\u00a0 I only had one person (James) that had agreed to be there the entire time, everyone else would have to leave here or there.\u00a0 I believed it was critically important for at least one person to be there the entire time.\u00a0 In addition to James, I had my mother, and good friends Andrea and Kim coming along for part of the trip.<\/p>\n We were also bringing along my oldest sons Calvin and Axel (ages 10 and 7).\u00a0 I figured this would be a good experience for them.\u00a0 For the last several years my big project had been climbing all of the 14ers with them.<\/p>\n James was due to show up soon, and he arrived too early, I thought I still had hours of packing left.\u00a0 I went inside, came out 15 minutes later and everything was packed!\u00a0 Well, so much for my number crew one rule: Stay Organized.\u00a0 Well, on the other hand I was glad everything was packed up.\u00a0 I had to have faith that James would figure it all out, and apparently packing up quickly would not be a problem.<\/p>\n We had to drive to Durango to drop off my van for my mom, who would be joining us at the end of day 2, and then head up to Silverton to take the trail into Chicago Basin.\u00a0 It was there where I would start the clock.\u00a0 James was ready to go and left ahead of me, and I followed a couple of hours behind, as I kept thinking of last minute things to do.<\/p>\n I said goodbye to my wife and kids, and then had my wife help me with my first ever facebook post.\u00a0 Second if you count one that my wife posted for me.<\/p>\n It was a 7 hour drive and I arrived early in the morning in Durango, where I met up with James again.\u00a0 The pathfinder was looking like a low-rider, because it was packed down so heavily, the dirt bike was really weighing it down.<\/p>\n Speaking of the dirt bike, that was a key part of my strategy.\u00a0 Although I am a novice at riding a dirt bike, I bought a Yamaha wr450 back in march, and had practiced on it a few times.\u00a0 The dirt bike was important because of how fast you can move on all of the 4 wheel drive mountain roads that you run into while heading up to 14er trailheads or while driving between 14ers.\u00a0 Even as a novice, I could fly by experienced 4 wheel drive operators on technical terrain.\u00a0 In a way it felt like cheating.\u00a0 But I was scared as well, because during practice I had been getting beat up on all of the rocky technical roads.<\/p>\n We left the van for my mom, and drove to Silverton, where we spent the day organizing.\u00a0 James had me buy a bunch of food the day before, and he spent some time cooking up some burritos.<\/p>\n In the afternoon we took the trail from Silverton down to Needleton, and hiked in about 6 miles to 11,000 feet, the start location for the next morning.\u00a0 It was my lucky day as part of his job was for James to carry all of our gear up today.\u00a0 We made camp and ate some food.\u00a0 I regretted not getting any sleep the night before, right before such a huge endeavor, but at least I would sleep well tonight.<\/p>\n All day long the wind was blowing hard, and apparently the forecast predicted high winds for a few more days.<\/p>\n Day 1, June 18, 2014<\/strong> The wind did not relent during the night.\u00a0 I was just happy that my Megamid tent had managed to stay upright.\u00a0 I wanted to pick the most accurate starting time possible.\u00a0 I had decided that a time between 4:00 am and 4:30 am would be ideal for me.\u00a0 If I chose 4:00 am that would give me an extra 30 minutes to take it easy.\u00a0 However, that would also add an additional 30 minutes to my final time.\u00a0 Homie and Cave Dog had both started too early and were frustrated in that they had to waste time waiting for the train.\u00a0 I figured I would leave it until morning and depending on how confident I felt I would pick my start time.<\/p>\n I woke up at 3:45 am and ate some breakfast and got my pack ready to go.\u00a0 My pack was fairly heavy as I packed extra warm stuff because of the cold wind, and because I added my ice ax and homemade glissading sled.<\/p>\n I was feeling brave so I decided to go with the 4:30 am start, figuring that if I was running late I could run the downhill from Chicago Basin to Needleton.\u00a0 So I said goodbye to James, who would pack up the tent and sleeping bags and meet me down in Needleton to catch the train.\u00a0 I went down to the starting location.\u00a0\u00a0 The previous night James and I found the spot exactly 3000 feet below Windom using two GPS devices, and then went down a little further just for good measure.\u00a0 My satellite tracker was giving much different readings than our Garmin GPS devices, but the Garmin devices were agreeing with each other so we used them as the \u201cofficial\u201d devices for determining starting and ending locations.\u00a0 I noticed later that the satellite tracker was giving elevations off by more than 100 feet compared to the Garmins.\u00a0 It is hard to nail down the 3000 foot rule start and finishes because of how finicky the GPS devices are.\u00a0 Therefore I always made sure if there was any doubt to add an additional 20 \u2013 50 feet.\u00a0\u00a0 That is the nature I guess of trying to follow the 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 However, I definitely made my best effort, almost to the point of being stupid, to guarantee that I always did extra work rather than less.<\/p>\n Speaking of rules, there are some rules that one must follow when attempting to set this record.\u00a0 The one that has been around for a long time is the 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 Basically this rule exists because there are some roads (especially the paved ones on Pikes Peak and Mt. Evans) that allow people to drive to the top of the peak.\u00a0 I imagine that climbers didn\u2019t like the idea of tourists claiming they had \u201cclimbed\u201d a mountain simply by driving up to the top.\u00a0 So this rule began as a way to guarantee you put in a minimum amount of effort to claim you have climbed a peak.\u00a0 Before CaveDog set the record in 2000 he came up with a bunch of other rules as well, although most of them seem like addendums to the 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 According to his rules, you have to carry all of your own gear, and do all of your own routefinding, but only as long as you are within that magical 3000 foot zone.\u00a0 If you are below that 3000 feet from the summit, then you can pretty much receive any support you want.\u00a0 If you had 4 friends who were willing to carry you on a litter that would be acceptable\u2026but once you were within 3000 feet of the summit then you are on your own.\u00a0 People can hike with you, but once in the 3000 foot zone, they are not allowed to either pace you, or routefind for you.\u00a0 I decided to go along with CaveDog\u2019s rules, mainly because I was too lazy to come up with my own\u2026although I have always been interested in the idea of a no-holds barred 14er record, with no rules.\u00a0 I realized over the years that the rules actually help keep the 14er record from becoming another ultramarathon.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t just a long trail run, you need to know these routes inside and out if you want to set the record.<\/p>\n I started at 4:30 am sharp, and put in some headphones.\u00a0 I don\u2019t normally hike with headphones but for this trip I decided it might be a good idea.\u00a0 I had several audiobooks uploaded on my iPhone and a few playlists that I like.\u00a0 I discovered that it is nice to hike to music, but was disappointed that I couldn\u2019t get my mind to concentrate on the audiobooks.<\/p>\n At about 11,400 feet I saw I couple of hikers get on the trail behind me.\u00a0 Surprisingly there were few hikers that I would run into in the mountains this year.<\/p>\n The wind was howling and fortunately it was a tailwind so I received a fair amount of wind assist pushing me up the mountain.\u00a0 The trail was snow free all the way to Twin Lakes, at about 12,500 feet, but after that snow covered at least 50% of the route.\u00a0 Because it was early in the morning, the snow was rock hard and was just as fast to walk on as the normal trail.<\/p>\n I was a little discouraged to see that in the week since our scouting trip, the snow had melted into very choppy formations and it didn\u2019t look good for my plan of sliding down the snowfields to save time on the descents, and abuse on my legs.<\/p>\n With the wind consistently at my back I was able to make the summit in 1:23, a solid time for me, and I was very pleased with it.\u00a0 I immediately sent a message on my satellite tracker that I was at the top and headed for Sunlight.\u00a0 I dropped down the ridge to the west for a few hundred feet before finding the snow gully I wanted to descend.\u00a0 The snow was still rock hard, and as I had feared the bumpy formations in the snow made it almost impossible to glissade.\u00a0 After attempting to slide down a little ways I gave up and walked carefully down the snow. \u00a0Fortunately the shoes I had worn today, Salomon Speed Cross shoes, have great traction on everything except wet rock, so they worked well on the snow.<\/p>\n Once at the bottom I continued straight up the snow and headed to the saddle between Sunlight and Sunlight Spire, and then followed the mostly snow covered route to the Summit of Sunlight.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even pause and just ran straight up the normally difficult friction moves to the actual summit block of Sunlight, and sent my Satellite Message.\u00a0 My total time so far was 2:04, much better than I would have expected, and probably due in no small part to the massive winds that had been pushing me up the mountains.<\/p>\n I made one routefinding error on the descent that forced me to backtrack a bit, and then the big disappointment was that I was not able to glissade hardly anything on the way down to Twin Lakes.\u00a0 Just a week before, using my glissading sled I could have covered the descent in 15 to 20 minutes, but the way the snow had melted (and because it didn\u2019t soften up in the morning because of the cold winds) meant glissading was not going to work.\u00a0 So unfortunately that added nearly 30 minutes to my expected time to Twin Lakes.<\/p>\n I began the climb to the North Eolus, Eolus Saddle, and was sad to see that the snow here was also no longer smooth, and was no good for glissading.\u00a0 I could already tell that there was no chance the snow would soften up and become useful for a fast descent, and for the first time I worried that maybe I was cutting it close with my time estimate to make the train at 11:15 am in Needleton.<\/p>\n However, I was able to make pretty good time going up the snow to the saddle, where I dropped my pack and poles, and was up to the summit of North Eolus by 8:00 am.\u00a0 From my scouting trip the week before I had seen that the standard route up Eolus was still pretty lousy, with lots of snow intermixed with the loose rocky ledges.\u00a0 A much better option is to just stay on the ridge all the way from North Eolus.\u00a0 It may feel a little more exposed and have one or two class 4 moves, however it is very solid and seems like a much safer choice than the standard route.\u00a0 I made the traverse from North Eolus to Eolus in just 14 minutes, and that included a quick conversation with the hikers that had started up just behind me that morning.\u00a0 They were just descending Eolus after struggling with the standard route all morning.<\/p>\n I hurried back down along the ridge to get my pack and poles, and then headed back down the snow towards Twin Lakes.\u00a0 Despite the pitted nature of the snow and how hard it was (normally it would have softened up by now with the sun but the cold wind was keeping the snow \u201cbulletproof\u201d), I still pulled out my glissading sled and attempted to glissade a little.\u00a0 The only success I had was to basically glissade in a self-arrest position, but that wasn\u2019t very comfortable and I gave it up immediately and just walked on down the snow.<\/p>\n I decided to refill my water at a place where some running water was available near some ice, and right as I disconnected my pack a gust of wind picked up my sled and blew it 30 or 40 feet up the mountain.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t hesitate and sprinted after it and it was almost in my grasp when the gust of wind picked it way up out of reach and carried it far up the hill.\u00a0 I gave up on the sled and went down to my pack, disgusted with my carelessness in the wind.<\/p>\n I drank a little water, and turned to leave.\u00a0 First I chanced one glance up the snowfield, and somehow, way up on the snowfield, my sled was caught in a precarious position on the snowfield, in one of the melted out pockets.\u00a0 It had somehow turned so that the wind was blowing through it.\u00a0 At the last minute I decided to try to get the sled, despite being in a hurry to get down.\u00a0 I figured I had a lot more glissading to do on the trip, and I couldn\u2019t afford to lose it already.\u00a0 I only had one spare and they get shredded quickly on rocks and hard ice.<\/p>\n So I dropped my pack again and as quick as I could move I ran up to the sled.\u00a0 My lungs were burning, but I was afraid the wind would blow the sled away from me just as I arrived, so I went as fast as I could and as I neared it I reached out and jumped on it, just to make sure I didn\u2019t lose it again.<\/p>\n I was happy to have the sled, but felt pretty dumb for the wasted time.\u00a0 In order to try to regain the time, as I descended I decided not to go all the way to Twin Lakes to pick up the trail, but instead headed straight down the hillside to try to rejoin the trail coming up from Chicago Basin more directly.\u00a0 This allowed me to utilize another hundred feet or so of snow, and after that the terrain turned into grassy slopes so it was still a nice descent.<\/p>\n Once I was back on the trail, I alternated from hiking fast to slow jogging all the way back down the trail.\u00a0 I passed our campsite from the night before and found my supplies waiting at a stream crossing near the starting location at about 11,000 feet.\u00a0 James had left me a little food, and a new pair of socks and shoes to change into.\u00a0 I had made it down in just about 5 hours, as it was now about 9:30am.\u00a0 That was pretty good and I was feeling pretty confident about the timing.\u00a0 I figured I would be able to leisurely stroll down the 6 miles to the train.<\/p>\n So I took my time.\u00a0 I removed my socks and let my feet dry, drank the protein shake left by James, and finished off all the food in my pack.\u00a0 I massaged out my legs a little, and I put on my new Hoka shoes for the descent.\u00a0 They are great shoes if used in the right conditions, and that basically means on good trails.\u00a0 Putting them on after wearing the Speed Cross shoes all morning feels so luxurious!<\/p>\n I started walking down the trail once I was all packed up and ready to go, and stopped to chat with some other hikers for awhile.\u00a0 Soon I reached a spot that I remembered from the hike up.\u00a0 James had pointed out that from this particular uprooted tree it was 4.5 miles to Needleton.\u00a0 Then I looked at the time and all of a sudden it hit me!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have plenty of time!\u00a0 It was already 10:10 am, so I basically had only one hour to cover the 4.5 miles to make the train at 11:15 am.<\/p>\n I started running but was not too happy!\u00a0 I had intended to have plenty of time to get to the train, and had been looking forward to enjoying a nice easy hiking pace on the way out.\u00a0 So here I was running, and the truth is I am a terrible runner.\u00a0 6 miles per hour feels fast to me on the trails, and I was struggling to maintain that pace.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t stop running except to tie my shoes, and to fix the bag I had hanging over my shoulders with the extra pair of shoes.\u00a0 It was bobbing all over the place and was driving me nuts.<\/p>\n I ran past a couple of groups who were nice enough to move over when they saw that I was running.\u00a0 I kept checking the time and somehow as the hour went by, despite feeling like I was running hard, I wasn\u2019t building up much of a buffer.\u00a0 On the bright side I never fell behind, so I never had to push myself and run hard, which would have been bad news for my knees and ankles, to be running hard so early in the record attempt.\u00a0 I would have felt so stupid to miss the train!\u00a0 Timing on the first two days is absolutely critical to this record attempt, and here I might have blown it already!\u00a0 I was thinking we might have to do a restart \u2013 head all the way back up and start over the next day.\u00a0 That was possible because I had scheduled Culebra for two different days, depending on how fast I was moving, and it did add an element of flexibility.<\/p>\n I ran all the way until I saw the bridge across the river, and then finally I slowed down and started to walk again.\u00a0 The trail had paralleled the river and the railroad tracks for the last half mile, and I hadn\u2019t seen any sign of the train, so that was a relief.<\/p>\n I crossed the bridge at 11:08 am.\u00a0 At first I didn\u2019t see James, and was wondering where he might be.\u00a0 Then I saw him and sat down.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t seem to grasp how close we had been to disaster.\u00a0 He was telling me to go soak my legs in the river.\u00a0 I mentioned that I thought the train would be coming soon, and that minute I heard it and we heard it blow its whistle.\u00a0 I jumped up and gave it the signal to stop.\u00a0 I was very relieved that this part of the trip had succeeded!<\/p>\n I intended to try to lay down on the train, or elevate my legs, or try to get some sleep.\u00a0 However, I quickly realized this would be impossible.\u00a0 The train was pretty full so there wasn\u2019t a lot of extra room.\u00a0 The seats were narrow and the side to side motion of the cars makes it very difficult to stay on the seat if you are trying to lay down.\u00a0 So the best I could do was sit normally and try to elevate one leg.\u00a0 I realized that I had carried some money in my pocket, and James was nice enough to go get a soft drink and some M&Ms.<\/p>\n Despite the beauty of the scenery, I was impatient to get to Silverton and begin the next leg of the journey.\u00a0 As we entered Silverton and the train came to a stop, James left to go get the big backpack from the boxcar, and I headed straight to the car to start getting ready.\u00a0 It had just started sprinkling and the wind was still very strong.<\/p>\n El Diente, Mt. Wilson, Wilson Peak:\u00a0 Disaster Averted!<\/strong><\/p>\n I packed up my motorcycle pack with my pack for the Wilson\u2019s, and some extra food and drink for when I reached the trailhead, and unlocked the bike.\u00a0 I was relieved that the dirt bike was still there, we had it ready to go in front of the car and I was worried that the previous day someone would come and drive off with it.\u00a0 James made it back with the pack and within a few minutes I was ready to go.<\/p>\n I sped off on the dirt bike, and James started to pack the car.\u00a0 He was to follow my route to the Kilpacker Trailhead and pick up the dirt bike.\u00a0 I headed to Ophir Pass.\u00a0 Ophir pass is critical to day one, and I was lucky because it had just opened up about 2 weeks before.\u00a0 I had been worried it wouldn\u2019t be open in time this year because of the snow, and that would really cause problems for my day one plan.\u00a0 Fortunately, it was open, and it is a relatively easy pass for a 4 wheel drive, and especially for the dirt bike.\u00a0 The only problem I had was right as I descended from the top of the pass, where the road is full of loose rocks.\u00a0 I was approaching a large brown rock and just as I was near it, it moved!\u00a0 It was actually a marmot.\u00a0 I swerved to avoid it, and lost my balance and almost veered off the side of the road.\u00a0 Then I was angry with myself, and with the marmot!<\/p>\n After that I made good time down the pass, and when I reached the highway I turned south toward Lizard Head Pass.\u00a0 The speed limit changed to 55mph, and as I sped up I was getting pushed around by the strong winds, which had been strong all day, and had been forecasted to stay strong for a few days.\u00a0 It is actually pretty scary being on a motorcycle in strong winds, totally getting pushed around.\u00a0 When a big car would go by in the other lane you get sucked towards them.\u00a0 I was relieved when I reached the turn off to Dunton Road, the way to the trailhead, because I was able to slow down on the dirt road and not get pummeled so badly by the winds.<\/p>\n After about 5 miles on the dirt road I reached the trailhead and parked the motorcycle in a small grove of trees.\u00a0 I ate a burrito, and drank a Gatorade and was hiking at 1:48 pm.\u00a0 Everything was proceeding according to plan, and by using the motorcycle I think I saved about 30 minutes over using an SUV, of course in an SUV I would have been able to rest.\u00a0 That is always a big tradeoff when using the motorcycle, although for me I know I wouldn\u2019t be resting very well on a bumpy road.\u00a0 And the dirt bike gives you a shot of adrenaline which can be nice when you are tired.<\/p>\n The trail to El Diente from Kilpacker is a very nice hike through meadows and forest.\u00a0 It must be beautiful when the wildflowers are peaking.\u00a0 However it is not ideal for a record attempt because of its length.\u00a0 I was also a little discouraged to run into mushy snow in the trees after the first couple of miles.\u00a0 Fortunately, most of the snow was avoidable, although the alternative was lots of wet muddy puddles.\u00a0 Because my shoes were dry I took every precaution to keep them that way.\u00a0 The longer the feet stay dry the better, because once wet they are prone to blisters.<\/p>\n As I started rising out of the trees, near the upper waterfall, I noticed the wind again.\u00a0 It was as strong as ever, and I happened to glance behind me for the first time.\u00a0 There were dark rain clouds to the south, and I was discouraged to see a rain\/snowstorm quickly advancing up the valley behind me.\u00a0 Pushed on by the strong winds, it would be upon me in seconds.\u00a0 I quickly removed my pack and put on my rain jacket just in time to get hammered by a small storm front with strong winds and very wet snow.\u00a0 However, by the time I put my pack back on and walked 100 yards up the trail, the storm had passed and I was already overheating.\u00a0 To my dismay all of the rocks were wet, but I hoped that the strong winds would quickly dry them. \u00a0I did not want the rocks on the traverse between El Diente and Mt. Wilson to be wet.<\/p>\n I continued east along the trail.\u00a0 Soon I reached the place where you turn to the north and head up the steep class 2\/3 slopes towards the summit of El Diente.\u00a0 Unfortunately this area was completely covered in snowfields.\u00a0 The snow was fairly mushy because it was afternoon, most hikers would want to be down by now to avoid these snow conditions.\u00a0 However, I found if I postholed 5 to 10 feet away from rocks then the snow was much more firm, and I could carefully walk up the snow without always falling through the top layer of the snow.<\/p>\n The route was a little tedious as I had to avoid some very steep sections of snow and move onto some class 3 rock, then back to the snowfield.\u00a0 I continued in this manner until I reached the El Diente \u2013 Mt. Wilson traverse route.\u00a0 It was a little discouraging because I had been hoping there would not be much snow on this route because the vast majority it is either on the top of the ridge, or on the south facing side.\u00a0 However, because I was here so close to the summer solstice, the north side of the ridge was actually in the sun, and south side was in the shade!\u00a0 In any case, there was a lot of snow and ice on the route.\u00a0 That was going to slow me down, and I doubt I would be able to do the traverse as fast as I planned.<\/p>\n I turned west toward El Diente, and rather than following the route over to the north side of the ridge, I decided to get out of the snow and as soon as I could I headed straight for the ridge and just stayed right on top of the ridge all the way to the summit of El Diente.\u00a0 Strangely it was exactly 5:00 pm, which was exactly when I had estimated that I would be there.\u00a0 So despite feeling a little desperate because of all the snow and ice, I was still right on schedule!<\/p>\n I sent my satellite message that I was on the summit, and immediately turned and headed back the other way to Mt. Wilson.\u00a0 The snow was difficult to predict on the traverse.\u00a0 Some if it was as hard as ice, some of it was soft.\u00a0 It was hard to know what was going to happen when you stepped in it.\u00a0 So I avoided it as much as possible.\u00a0 About halfway across the traverse, I slipped on some wet rock (some was wet from the previous snowstorm) and fell hard right on my elbow.\u00a0 I think it was during this fall that I snapped one of my carbon fiber trekking poles, because later when I got it out it was broken, and I can\u2019t think of where else I may have broken it.<\/p>\n Because of the conditions I made a couple of minor route finding errors, and then when I reached what I think is considered the crux of the route, I stayed way left and found that way to be much more solid than the standard route, in the future I think I would always go that way.\u00a0 For me though the last quarter of the traverse, and especially the very last part of Mt. Wilson is the most difficult of the entire traverse.\u00a0 I still had to deal with one scary traverse across some steep hard ice, and then a climb across the ridge into a gully full of mash potato snow, and then the climb up the last couple of hundred yards up the difficult class 4 ridge to the summit of Mt. Wilson, which was summited at 6:25 pm.<\/p>\n I was now behind schedule, but thankfully I had only lost about 20 minutes.\u00a0 The wind was cold and strong and added to the impetus to get off the summit.\u00a0 I retraced my way down the class 4 ridge, and then headed west to find a way to descend into Navajo Basin.<\/p>\n My plan was to make use of all of the snow and try to glissade the 2000 feet down into the basin.\u00a0 Finally, I found the conditions right for glissading!\u00a0 After downclimbing for a couple of hundred feet, I entered a narrow couloir and found the snow to be very soft.\u00a0 The soft snow made the steep couloir seem a little less intimidating and I unpacked my glissading sled and started sliding.\u00a0 The snow was so wet that I was instantly soaked, but fortunately my pants dry quickly.<\/p>\n I was careful to stay in control at all times.\u00a0 The slope was steep and every once in awhile I would hit hard snow and ice and had I not been careful it would have been easy to have my ice ax ripped out of my hand or to lose control of my speed.\u00a0\u00a0 Down below I could see that my snowfield was going to end in some unpleasant terrain, so I had to stop about one third of the way down and traverse left to another snowfield that appeared to go all the way down to the basin.<\/p>\n I took breaks often because it was a lot of work for the upper body, and I was fatigued in general, but still made great time all the way down to the snow river at the bottom of the basin.\u00a0 I carefully walked across the snow that was covering the water, and once across to the other side I put away my sled and ax and pulled out my poles, but discovered that one pole was broken.<\/p>\n From the basin I had about 2000 feet to climb to reach the summit of Wilson Peak, the first 1000 feet was now in shade, but was still soft.\u00a0 So I had to be careful to stay in the more consolidated snow away from shallow snow or rocks.\u00a0 I passed the little cabin near the Rock of Ages saddle that, back in 1999 I had bivouacked in during a blizzard during my first 14er record attempt.\u00a0 Beyond the cabin, I had no choice to stay in the snow as I angled right to reach the connecting ridge between Gladstone Peak and Wilson Peak.\u00a0 However, here the snow was extremely soft.\u00a0 Sometimes if I fall to through the snow to my waist or deeper, I do what I call a monkey crawl to get out.\u00a0 That is to basically crawl out on my elbows (because usually my hands have poles or an ax) and knees.\u00a0 However here the snow was so soft that when I tried to climb out like this my elbows would just fall through as well.\u00a0 So the only way out was to push out a deep trench!<\/p>\n I finally reached the saddle and then traversed across some class 3 slabs to begin the last 1000 feet of the climb.\u00a0 Fortunately, the class 3 slabs were free of snow, so I was able to cross them easily.\u00a0 I decided to leave my pack at the top of a north facing gully, and was disappointed because I had been hoping for another glissade down this north facing gully, but for some reason this gully was already free of snow.\u00a0 It was getting late and the sun was on the western horizon.\u00a0 It would be setting soon and I really wanted to be off of the crux of Wilson Peak before darkness set in.\u00a0 However, getting to the summit was not as simple as usual as the trail disappeared into some unpleasant snowfields, and it was a little bit of work to climb to the left around them to try to stay on the ridge.<\/p>\n I was getting cold as the sky darkened and the wind continued to punish me since I had to stay on the top of the ridge.\u00a0 At one point my headphones pulled out of the socket and I was taken by the vicious sound of the wind blowing so hard.\u00a0 I realized that I would be much more depressed without the headphones and was happy to have them.\u00a0 Without them I would feel lonely and exposed to deteriorating conditions.<\/p>\n I was fooled by one false summit before I reached the tricky notch before the summit.\u00a0 The notch, as expected was full of snow and ice so I had to take it slow in order to safely move across it.\u00a0 I was disappointed I had left my pack behind because the gully that dropped north from the notch was still full of snow, although it turned out for the best because later I noticed that this particular gully cliffs out and heads in the wrong direction near the bottom.<\/p>\n Once past the notch it wasn\u2019t long until I was standing on the summit of Wilson Peak (summited at 8:36 pm), just after the sun had gone down. Worried about the approaching darkness, I didn\u2019t take time to enjoy the view and heading back down the ridge and retraced my steps as quickly as possible.\u00a0 My hands and feet were numb as I reached my pack, and I put on my down jacket and headed down the horribly loose, steep gully.\u00a0 I was surprised to find an old collapsed mineshaft right in the middle of the gully, and my imagination wandered back in time and wondered what life must have been like as a miner.<\/p>\n Soon it became too dark to see so I turned on my headlamp.\u00a0 I reached some snow that was still super mushy despite the cold and the dark, but was able to slide down a bit before the terrain flattened out.\u00a0 It became much more solid as I got away from the rocks in the gully, and as the terrain flattened out the snow was hard enough to walk on without worrying about falling through.\u00a0 I followed the rolling terrain and eventually came upon a couple of tracks in the snow.\u00a0 For the most part I was extremely disappointed with my fellow San Juan hikers this year!\u00a0 There had been for the most part almost no tracks to follow, and it can be difficult to stay with a trail when it disappears underneath a large snowfield.<\/p>\n I followed the tracks.\u00a0 It was now totally dark, and I was completely dependent upon my headlamp to see anything at all. The snow had hardened up quickly without the sun, and with the cold wind blowing it would soon be as hard as ice, \u201cbulletproof\u201d.\u00a0 After a couple of careful, slow glissades in self-arrest position on the hard snow I decided to leave the tracks.\u00a0 They headed left, but I knew the road I wanted to follow was towards the right.\u00a0 I found the road and followed it for a short distance before it disappeared into snow.<\/p>\n I was blown away by the amount of snow in Silver pick basin.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know it at the time, but my headlamp batteries were old, and the light put out by my headlamp was weak.\u00a0 I was having a very difficult time figuring out where to go when the road disappeared under the snowfields.\u00a0 There were no tracks to follow and it was just instinct and luck that managed to keep me on track.\u00a0 I knew there was serious danger of missing the crossover point from Silver Pick Basin to Rock of Ages trailhead.\u00a0 Then I would be stranded in the wrong basin and that would put a quick end to the record attempt.<\/p>\n The other difficulty was that part of plan had been for James, once he had picked up the dirt bike, to drive around and wait for me at the Rock of Ages trailhead.\u00a0 He was also supposed to push my downhill mountain bike up the trail and leave it at 11,000 feet.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know exactly where that was, but I was afraid if I lost the trail then I might miss the bike.<\/p>\n I continued and at one spot I was following the road as it once again disappeared into a steep, rock hard snow field.\u00a0 I tried traversing across the snowfield where I thought the road must be, but the snow was so hard that I slipped and fell.\u00a0 Fortunately, I didn\u2019t go far because my ax was ready for a quick self-arrest.\u00a0 However I was now in a tenuous position on a steep snow field.\u00a0 I decided my best option was just to glissade all the way down into the darkness.\u00a0 When I reached the bottom, I was surprised to find my water bottle.\u00a0 I guess it must have fallen out of my pack when I fell.\u00a0 I made my way through some old avalanche debris and had a bad feeling that I had descended too low.<\/p>\n So I decided to head up a steep talus slope, and to my great fortune, somehow after just a few minutes I stumbled upon the road right where it turns to go to the Rock of Ages trailhead.\u00a0 And I also found the tracks I had been following earlier.\u00a0 I guess it would have been better to just follow them in the first place.\u00a0 What luck that I had decided to head up the talus slope instead of down!\u00a0 That would have been a major problem.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t see any mountain bike tracks so I was pretty confident I had not passed the bike already.\u00a0 I followed the tracks and once again had to traverse some steep snowfields.\u00a0 However, the people who had made the tracks had also kicked in some steps and that made the traversing much easier.\u00a0 Soon I descended low enough that the snow was not a problem, and after some very rocky switchbacks I found my downhill bike waiting for.\u00a0 I powered up my NiteRider headlight and with pure joy coasted down the trail.\u00a0 The trail was perfect for the bike and I made great time down to the trailhead.\u00a0 It was a lot of extra work for James to push the bike up the trail, but mentally it was sure worth it for me.\u00a0 In what seemed like no time at all I was pulling into the trailhead, it was 10:42 pm, I was about 42 minutes behind schedule.<\/p>\n There were a surprising number of people at the trailhead.\u00a0 James, Kim, Andrea, Calvin, and Axel were all there and I immediately sat down and started drinking and eating.\u00a0 I was excited to see Calvin and Axel, I hoped this would be a good experience for them, but didn\u2019t have much time to visit with them.\u00a0 Will, a friend of Andrea and Kim, had decided to help out and was going to join the support crew.\u00a0 There were also some other people who had read about the record attempt on 14ers.com and they also said hello.\u00a0 I was very grateful for all the support.<\/p>\n After just a few minutes I crawled into Will\u2019s car, and our little caravan of 3 cars, began the dusty drive out to the highway.\u00a0 At one point James was unsure if he made the correct turn and not having any idea of where we were I just told him if we were heading down then we were going the right way.\u00a0 Luckily we managed to stay on the correct road.<\/p>\n Sneffels:\u00a0 Snow, Snow, and more Snow!<\/strong><\/p>\n When we reached the highway, I crawled into the bed in the back of Will\u2019s car with Axel, and eventually fell asleep for awhile in the back of the car.\u00a0 It was only about a 45 minute drive to Ouray, but every minute of sleep was vitally important.\u00a0 I had originally considered taking the dirt bike over Immogene pass as a more direct route to the Sneffels trailhead, but it was still closed due to snow.\u00a0 In hindsight I don\u2019t think that would have been a good idea anyway, especially in the dark.<\/p>\n The support crew has a difficult job, and somehow in the dark James blew right past the turn to Yankee Boy Basin on the south side of Ouray.\u00a0 However, because we had driven to this exact spot on our scouting trip, he knew something was wrong, and quickly we turned around and found the turnoff.\u00a0 I was going to take the dirt bike from here, so James immediately got the bike ready to go, and I prepared my pack for a night hike up Sneffels.\u00a0 The road was not difficult, but I knew I could go much faster on the dirt bike.\u00a0 Every minute was critical in these first two days as I raced to stay on schedule for a day 3 or day 4 rendezvous with a 6:00am start on Culebra.<\/p>\n I put on my warm jacket and gloves, and began the 10 mile ride up the road.\u00a0 I hoped the support crew would get some good sleep, and expected to be gone for at least 4 hours.\u00a0 I was able to drive fast up the road because it is relatively smooth.\u00a0 I lost some time when I was fiddling with the GPS trying to find a good place to park the bike approximately 3000 feet below the summit of Sneffels.\u00a0 I knew approximately where to go, but then I kept stopping and looking at the GPS, then driving forward a little and trying again.\u00a0 It was very inefficient, so eventually I threw in the towel and just decided to hike some extra elevation to be guarantee an ascent of at least 3000 feet.<\/p>\n I decided to turn the bike around, which wasn\u2019t easy because I was not on a flat section of road and the road was narrow.\u00a0 It seemed like a good idea though, because the bike had been hard to start lately, and I didn\u2019t want to deal with trying to turn it around after hiking Sneffels.<\/p>\n Once parked, I started hiking up the road at 12:56 am (now about an hour behind schedule).\u00a0 I was wearing my Salomon Quest 4D boots\u2026GASP!\u00a0 No self-respecting speed record attempter would ever be caught wearing boots!\u00a0 But my waterproof trailrunners were wet from the Wilson\u2019s, and I had no choice if I wanted to wear waterproof shoes.\u00a0 They felt good, but they definitely don\u2019t encourage any sort of speed.\u00a0 It was handy having waterproof shoes though because right from the start there were stream crossings, and I feel pretty invincible with the boots on.\u00a0 Unfortunately it was very cold as the wind was still blowing, and wherever there was water, there was ice.\u00a0 I had to be careful not to slip.\u00a0 I followed the trail up past one of my favorite signs, the \u201cNo picking flowers\u201d sign.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter I came across the first snowfield.\u00a0 I guess it shouldn\u2019t have been surprising to run into snow already, but for some reason I guess I had expected that some determined jeepers might have pushed through a little further.\u00a0 I traversed across the snow and once again was disappointed with my fellow San Juan hikers.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t any good tracks to follow.<\/p>\n Soon I passed a point where you have the option of taking a hiking trail or staying on the road.\u00a0 At this junction I had originally planned on taking the trail, but could see that the route was virtually 100% covered in snow at a steep angle, so I had no desire to go that direction.\u00a0 However, the road also disappeared into a large snowfield and I had no desire to go that direction either.\u00a0 I chose to go with the road because I believed it would be easier to find the road in the dark when I inevitably lost it.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long before I lost the road, so I just picked a grassy patch that ascended for quite some distance out of the snow towards Sneffels, and I hiked up as far as I could.\u00a0 Eventually I picked up the road again and continued to play \u201cthe lose the road, find the road\u201d game until I finally reached the upper trailhead.<\/p>\n At last I found a reasonable footpath in the snow, and was able to follow it for a short distance before losing it again in a section of rocks.\u00a0 At this point I decided the trail didn\u2019t matter anymore, I just aimed for Sneffels and didn\u2019t really try to stay with the trail any longer.<\/p>\n When I reached the base of Sneffel\u2019s west facing slopes, I could see that it would be snow travel all the way to the summit.\u00a0 I had brought my crampons for the first time and decided to put them on.\u00a0 Soon I was making my way through some old avalanche debris and it was slowing me down, so I made my way to the left and then continued straight up the rock hard snow.\u00a0 Near a saddle, the snow became very steep so I angled left and finally found a pretty well beaten path.\u00a0 I followed the path up into the couloir and was actually enjoying the snow, but the wind was really whipping up the couloir and my face was pretty cold.\u00a0 I sure was getting sick of the wind!\u00a0 Finally I made it to the point where you exit the couloir, which was basically a vertical 10 feet snow wall, and it was a little tricky climbing up and over.\u00a0\u00a0 Then I took off my crampons because it looked like I would be able to climb the last couple of hundred feet on rock, and I reached the summit at 3:03 am.<\/p>\n The summit was cold and windy (as usual), so I entered the preset message into the satellite tracker, and immediately turned around.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why but walking down hard snow with crampons on seems hard on my joints, so as I descended I lamented the fact that had I been here during the day, I could have had a beautiful glissade down the couloir and down the west slopes and could have been to the upper trailhead in a matter of minutes.\u00a0 Instead it was step after careful step down the hard snow, and it seemed to take a long time.<\/p>\n Once at the bottom of the steep snow field I removed my crampons and tried to retrace my steps to the upper trailhead and then down through the snowfields to the road.\u00a0 I did find one glissade that saved me a little bit of downhill wear on my legs, although it was slow because I could only use self-arrest position because the snow was so hard.\u00a0 I loved my glissading sled, glissading down snow that hard would have shredded my pants without it.<\/p>\n Once down to the road I found that the river crossings were now much more covered in ice, and on one crossing I slipped and put my foot in the water, but thankfully I had on the waterproof hiking boots instead of running shoes so the cold water didn\u2019t get through to my frozen toes.<\/p>\n I reached the motorcycle at 4:42 am.\u00a0 The motorcycle was covered in frost, and not surprisingly it would not start.\u00a0 We think that during our scouting trip we wore down the battery, and I should have charged it up before the record attempt.\u00a0 It was being very finicky about starting up.\u00a0 I put on my warm motorcycle clothes and helmet, and started coasting down the hill.\u00a0 We had mounted my mountain bike light to the dirt bike helmet, but I had found that annoying so it was in my pack, so I had no light.\u00a0 The road was rocky and I couldn\u2019t gain any real speed.\u00a0 When I let off the clutch the bike sputtered a couple of times and then somehow before I knew it the engine started and I crashed it to my left.\u00a0 I was so weak and tired that it was very hard to lift up, and gas was leaking everywhere.\u00a0 However, after wrestling it back into position I tried again and was able to get it going.\u00a0 I think in hindsight I may have been wiser to get a smaller dirt bike, I think a 450 may have been a little too much for me to handle given my weak, sleep deprived state.<\/p>\n After that it I drove fast all the way back down the road toward Ouray.\u00a0 It was getting late, and I knew I was probably running about an hour behind my projections.\u00a0 I made it to the highway at about 5:15, I crossed it and pulled up next to the support vehicles.\u00a0 Immediately the support crew was up and ready to help. Handies:\u00a0 Stuck on a headwall, and the San Juan Ron Mobile.<\/strong><\/p>\n Because I was a little behind schedule, and it was already light, I was reconsidering my decision to skip a gnarly shortcut to get to Cinnamon Pass.\u00a0 Just as Ophir Pass was critical to Day 1, Cinnamon Pass was critical to day 2.\u00a0 It is the most efficient way to get from Ouray to Handies Peak, the peak I wanted to climb after Sneffels.\u00a0 Cinnamon Pass itself is a little more difficult than Ophir Pass, but it was nothing for the dirt bike.<\/p>\n From where we were parked, I had two options.\u00a0 One was to get in the car and rest for about 30-40 minutes while James drove us to Silverton.\u00a0 From Silverton I could ride some relatively easy dirt roads on the dirt bike to the start of Cinnamon Pass. \u00a0The other option was to stay on the dirt bike and take a much shorter road that left the highway just a couple of miles from our current position and headed directly towards Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass, that cuts off around 75% of the distance.\u00a0 I am not sure what the road is called but I think it follows Mineral Creek.\u00a0 During scouting I had driven down and up it again, the up during a lightning storm, and it had thoroughly intimidated me.\u00a0 I had crashed twice, and almost driven off the edge of the shelf road to my doom.\u00a0\u00a0 I figured since I thought it would be dark that it wouldn\u2019t be worth the risk.<\/p>\n However, I was concerned about running behind and since it was light I saw the shortcut as a good opportunity to gain 30 minutes to an hour and almost put me back on schedule.\u00a0 So I was kind of leaning towards the aggressive option, but James managed to talk me out of it.\u00a0 So I ate and drank a few mouthfuls and climbed into the back of the pathfinder to try to get a few minutes of sleep on the way to Silverton.\u00a0 We left Ouray at 5:30 am, exactly 1:30 behind schedule.\u00a0 It was a little hard to get to sleep in the pathfinder, because the bed was a little cramped.\u00a0 However I must have fallen asleep for a little while, because in what seemed like no time at all, we were in Silverton.<\/p>\n I expected the car to stop at any moment, because then I would jump out, hop on the motorcycle and head to Cinnamon Pass as quickly as I could on the dirt bike.\u00a0 But James didn\u2019t stop, he continued driving along the dirt road towards Cinnamon Pass.\u00a0 I remembered an ATV staging area, and thought maybe he was going to stop there.\u00a0 He was driving really fast, I was getting bounced around hard, and I could see the dirt bike bouncing around hard on the rack on the back of the pathfinder.<\/p>\n I was actually pretty annoyed.\u00a0 I just felt like it was risky to drive so fast.\u00a0 That was the whole purpose of the dirt bike \u2013 I could drive fast to gain time, but the support crew could theoretically take it easy and not risk damage to the vehicles.\u00a0 Will and Kim had driven around the long way and avoided Cinnamon Pass.\u00a0 We were on our own for the time being and any mechanical issue with the car could be a serious problem.\u00a0 It was not like I was getting any good rest either, I was getting bounced around and boxes and gear were falling on me.<\/p>\n Finally, I voiced my concern.\u00a0 James had a plan so I didn\u2019t argue.\u00a0 But I was relieved when we finally arrived at the location James had picked for me to start dirt biking.\u00a0 We certainly hadn\u2019t lost much time.\u00a0 James was driving almost as fast as I would have gone on the dirt bike.\u00a0 But I wished I hadn\u2019t spent the last 20 minutes completely stressed out!<\/p>\n James prepped the dirt bike, and warned me to watch for ice at stream crossings, and I headed up the road.\u00a0 It was a beautiful morning with blue skies.\u00a0 The dirt bike made quick work of the west side of the pass.\u00a0 But once descending the east side I found that the snow banks were melting and water was all over the road, and most of that water was still frozen.\u00a0 James had been right to warn me to watch out for the ice!\u00a0 I took it a little slower than I wanted because of the ice, but continued down much quicker than we could have in a 4 wheel drive.<\/p>\n At the base of Cinnamon pass, rather than turning right and heading up in American Basin to climb Handies, I had to go left (for quite a distance!) to satisfy the 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 During scouting we had marked the exact bush on the side of the road that I needed to park at, so I didn\u2019t have to waste time finding the right spot.<\/p>\n I left the dirt bike and started walking up the trail at 7:11 am.\u00a0 On the scouting trip, we had found Handies covered in snow, and I had decided to forget about the standard route and take a more direct route to the summit.\u00a0 We had seen a good looking snow couloir that topped out right near the summit ridge, and I had brought crampons so that I could walk directly up the couloir.\u00a0 I looked for this couloir and once I recognized it (it had kind of a bow shape with a couple of \u201cH\u201d shaped snowfields nearby) I put on my crampons and headed up.<\/p>\n The sun was up, but as I was on the west side of the mountain I was still in the shade and the snow was still bulletproof.\u00a0 After trudging up the couloir for several hundred feet, it started to get steep.\u00a0 Usually I am fine with my trekking poles and crampons while heading up snowfields, and I made the mistake of not pulling out my ice ax.\u00a0 I continued with the poles despite it getting steeper and steeper, and was able to make some use of some exposed rocks.\u00a0 Where the rocks ended, there was only about 10 feet left to go before the steep headwall relented and the grade eased.\u00a0 I made it a few steps up and found myself completely stuck.\u00a0 The snow was so hard that my feet were only hanging in by the toe points on the crampons.\u00a0 Even if I kicked I couldn\u2019t get a step to rest my foot on.\u00a0 The snow was so steep that I found my poles to be useless.<\/p>\n I looked down because I wanted to descend to one of the rocks so that I could take off my pack and get my ice ax.\u00a0 However, my position was so precarious that I didn\u2019t dare go back down.\u00a0 And I couldn\u2019t get comfortable to take another step up.\u00a0 The snow was so hard and there was nothing to hold on to.\u00a0 I was stuck and I wasn\u2019t sure what to do.\u00a0 Without decent handholds I felt like I was going to fall backwards, and I was disgusted with myself, why didn\u2019t I have my ice ax out on this terrain!\u00a0 I think I had just figured that with crampons on I wouldn\u2019t run into any trouble, this really caught me by surprise.<\/p>\n The only option I liked was to go up and over the steep part, and I still had about 5 feet to go.\u00a0 It took a long time, but I found a solution.\u00a0 I needed steps, and I just had to stand in place, and kick, and kick, and kick until I had created a step large enough to provide some support.\u00a0 I repeated this process and slowly made my way up and over the headwall.<\/p>\n I was now feeling mentally a bit depressed and tired.\u00a0 I had been hoping for a lightning fast ascent on Handies and this silly error had cost me some time.\u00a0 In my melancholy mood I continued slowly up to the summit ridge and up the last few hundred feet to the summit, which I reached at 9:16 am.<\/p>\n For the descent there was no way I was going to try to go down the same couloir I came up, but the next snowfield to the south looked reasonable so I descended to it to give it a try.\u00a0 Unfortunately, even in the sun it was still just too hard for a comfortable glissade.\u00a0 Determined to save some wear and tear on my legs, I pulled out my sled and slowly and carefully glissaded down while in self-arrest position.<\/p>\n I know I have mentioned glissading in self-arrest position already.\u00a0 It is not the most desirable way to glissade!\u00a0 First of all, you have to be careful that the ice ax does not get ripped out of your hands.\u00a0 If you happen to pick up any speed, and the point of the ax contacts either a rock, or patch of ice, or even just harder snow, then it is very easy to lose your grip on the ax, and then you are pretty much screwed.\u00a0 It takes a lot of upper body strength to maintain the necessary grip on the ax.\u00a0 You also don\u2019t have a great view of where you are going, and you lose most of your ability to steer.\u00a0 So it is not my favorite way to glissade.\u00a0 However, when the snow is super hard it is the only way I can manage to keep myself comfortable in control.<\/p>\n I was determined to stay in the snow and had to crossover to another gully to avoid cliffs several hundred feet down, but the glissade was slow and difficult all the way down.\u00a0 It was probably not faster than just running down the side of the mountain, where most of the snow could have been avoided.<\/p>\n Near the bottom I did finally get to a place where the steep angle of the hillside relented, and I was able to relax and enjoy a fun glissade for the last couple of hundred yards down to the main trail.<\/p>\n The best word to describe me at this point in time was \u201cweary\u201d.\u00a0 I was tired, I was walking slow and feeling a little sorry that Handies had beaten up my spirit.\u00a0 I crossed the raging stream by walking over the snow, and began the hike down to the dirt bike.\u00a0 Up ahead some people stopped in a dune buggy looking contraption, and as I walked toward closer I recognized Kim and James.\u00a0 My spirits immediately rose.\u00a0 It is hard to describe the emotional lift you get from just having some company on a multiday adventure like the 14er record.\u00a0 I immediately perked up and told them about my troubles in the couloir, and the 3 of us walked down the road towards the dirt bike.<\/p>\n The dune buggy looking contraption, which I have since named the San Juan Ron mobile, was driven by San Juan Ron, a fellow 14ers.com member who had heard about our plans and driven out to cheer us on.\u00a0 He had even written \u201cGo Andrew\u201d on a cardboard sign he had in the back of the vehicle.\u00a0 He had driven James and Kim up to meet me from my next trailhead, and once I had descended enough to satisfy the 3000 foot rule he intended to give me a short drive down to the next trailhead, the Silver Creek\/Grizzly Gulch trailhead that is the start for Redcloud and Sunshine.\u00a0 I was back down to the dirt bike by 10:25.\u00a0 Somehow through all that I was maintaining my 1:30 deficit on my ideal schedule and not falling further behind schedule.<\/p>\n It was fun to have a spectator, and I was impressed with his driving on the 4wd road.\u00a0 Since I was getting a lift, James took the dirt bike, and I was amazed that San Juan Ron actually didn\u2019t lose much time to the dirt bike.\u00a0 San Juan Ron told me he had a cabin nearby, and that Axel was off learning to fish with Will on his property.<\/p>\n We reached the trailhead at 10:40 am, I thanked Ron and stopped for a picture, then sat down for a quick rest and some food as we all prepped for the next mountains.\u00a0 The sun was beating down and for just about the first time since the start I was hot.<\/p>\n Redcloud and Sunshine<\/strong><\/p>\n What was great about James was that from the beginning of the record, he completely understood how every minute saved was critical to the overall record.\u00a0 He was constantly thinking of ways to save a few minutes here and a few minutes there.\u00a0\u00a0 Without him I think the whole thing would have fallen apart pretty quickly during those first couple of days.<\/p>\n He also understood the importance of utilizing others to save wear and tear on my body, and he had recruited Andrea, Kim, and Calvin to hike with me and carry my pack up to 11,000 feet.\u00a0 I had kind of a slow transition as I ate, changed my socks and figured out what shoes to wear.\u00a0 After my emotional up and down on Handies I needed a little break to recover my will to go on.<\/p>\n Finally we started up the trail at 10:56 am.\u00a0 It was nice to have the company, and I led our little group up the trail.\u00a0 All too soon the GPS closed in on 3000 feet, so I took my pack and my Hoka\u2019s (extra shoes for the run down the trail) and said goodbye to the others.\u00a0 Then I turned on continued on alone up the trail.\u00a0 I was hoping for a nice glissade off the west side of Redcloud.\u00a0 Since it was going to be right in the middle of the day when I would begin my descent, I knew the snow would be soft and I was looking forward to a fun descent.\u00a0 So that meant I would ascend Sunshine first.\u00a0 At a river crossing where you turn south into an enchanted forest, I left an extra Gatorade and my running shoes for the descent, and crossed the raging stream on a log bridge that James, Andrea, and I had constructed the week before on our scouting trip.\u00a0 Immediately I encountered soft snow in the trees.\u00a0 But I was able to get out of the forest into the open by staying on the snowpack that had formed over the stream in the gulch.\u00a0 The snow in the trees was much softer than the big snowfields so it was best to avoid the trees.<\/p>\n Eventually I was able to find and follow the trail again, but soon I ascended above treeline and was able to stay on snowfields instead of the unpleasant fields of talus while down in the basin.\u00a0 Soon I turned east and ascended a snowfield that helped me attain the lowpoint on the ridge between Redcloud and Sunshine.\u00a0 The snow was steep, and ended in a very unpleasantly steep, loose and rocky slope that lasted for a few hundred feet.\u00a0 At the saddle there was a sign that asks people not to use the route I had chosen, however as a snow climb it is a pretty direct way to climb Sunshine.<\/p>\n Once on the ridge, I left my pack and headed up the remaining 500 feet to the summit of Sunshine, and reached the summit at 1:19 pm.\u00a0 Even the ridge contained lots of snow, and this snow had been in the sun all day and was now very soft.\u00a0 So I avoided it as much as possible to avoid postholing.<\/p>\n I made the summit, immediately sent out the satellite message, and turned around to pick up my pack and complete the traverse to Redcloud.\u00a0 The traverse went by pretty fast and before long, after bypassing one depressing, but expected false summit I was on the summit of Redcloud (summited at 1:58 pm).\u00a0 I had a great view of my next set of mountains, Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn, and was discouraged by the amount of snow I could still see up there.\u00a0 It seems like this was a strange year.\u00a0 Supposedly the San Juans had a low snowpack this year, at about 60%.\u00a0 And down at lower elevations I sure did not see much snow.\u00a0 But up above 12,000 feet there was seemingly a crazy amount of snow this year.<\/p>\n I began descending Redcloud via its standard route.\u00a0 But soon turned to the west and began descending some unpleasant scree so I good find the snowfield I wanted to descend.\u00a0 Unfortunately I had to descend the rocks much further than during the scouting trip, as there had been a fair amount of melting on the west facing slopes.<\/p>\n I wondered if people that were following along via the satellite tracker would notice when I glissaded.\u00a0 Relatively speaking I am pretty slow for someone trying to set the 14er record, especially on downhills.\u00a0 On downhills where others can run pretty fast I usually limp and hop and moan and groan as I try to manage knee and ankle pain.\u00a0 However, I was also the first that I know of to try to set the record with so much snow still in the mountains.\u00a0 The one good thing about all the snow was that it meant there would be lots of opportunities to slide down the snow, and in the right conditions that can make for a superfast descent.<\/p>\n Once I finally made it down to the snowfield, I discovered that the snow was very soft, and it wasn\u2019t quite steep enough at first.\u00a0 Finally I did get moving, and it was a very fun glissade.\u00a0 It was one of the few big glissades that was at a steep enough angle to get moving fast, but not steep enough to be scary.\u00a0 It was pure fun, except that it had melted out with lots of runnels and bumps and mounds.\u00a0 I began to notice that my butt was pretty sore from all the glissading and dirt biking.\u00a0 Still, I was able to glissade all the way down and even cross the tracks I had left in the snow that morning.\u00a0 The only bad news was that I lost one of my poles on the descent, and there was no way I was going back up to find it! Two days, and two of my four poles lost. I was a little nervous because I simply do not hike well at all without my poles\u2026<\/p>\n I retraced my earlier steps down to the river crossing, and changed out of my Speedcross shoes into the Hoka\u2019s.\u00a0 The Speedcross shoes had been invaluable waterproof shoes with their good traction in snow, but my right foot had developed a bruise on top of the foot from the shoes, and soon I wouldn\u2019t be able to wear the right shoe anymore.\u00a0 Once again changing into the Hoka\u2019s felt extremely luxurious, and I looked forward to using them again.\u00a0 It was very warm now, and I was tired and desperately wanted a nap, so I was looking forward to the 40 minute drive to Nellie Creek trailhead.<\/p>\n I jogged my slow, haggard looking jog as much as possible down the trail.\u00a0 I was secretly hoping that someone would be waiting to hike with me from 11,000 feet down to the trailhead, but unfortunately I hadn\u2019t thought of that so I was on my own all the way to the trailhead.\u00a0 They saw me coming and Calvin came running out to greet me while Kim danced to some motivational music playing from one of the cars.\u00a0 At 3:18 pm I sat down by my gear that James had laid out, and stuffed down some food, protein shakes, and liquids.\u00a0 I was starting to lose my taste for solid foods and for the protein shakes.\u00a0 This was expected and James was very good at convincing me to take more bites even when I felt like I couldn\u2019t stomach anything else.<\/p>\n At this point Kim and Andrea didn\u2019t really know how to step in and help out, and I realized how lucky I was that I had James who really understood what was needed right from the start.\u00a0 Later we would become a much more efficient crew and everyone would figure out their part on the team.<\/p>\n Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn:\u00a0 Saved by Snowshoes, and a Bright Headlamp<\/strong><\/p>\n After I drank and ate as much as possible, I climbed into the pathfinder, and stretched out as much as possible.\u00a0 While the others packed up, I tried to sleep.\u00a0 Soon James got in the car and we started driving.\u00a0 The drive out to Lake City is relatively smooth, so I was optimistic to get a little bit of sleep.\u00a0 However, somehow James and I started talking upcoming strategy, and before long he was talking and talking and talking and I kind of hoped he would just be quiet so I could get some sleep.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t help but tune him out and just agreed with everything he said, but inside I was lamenting every minute that passed.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, we arrived at the turn off to Nellie Creek and I still hadn\u2019t fallen asleep.\u00a0 It was just James and I as everyone else was supposed to go into Lake City, get some food, and meet up with my mom who was arriving with the Van.\u00a0 I knew now that I was a little behind schedule that I would not be able to achieve my optimal Plan A and make it to Culebra the next day, and since I bought a pass for both Friday and Saturday, Kim, Andrea, and Calvin were going to head out and climb Culebra the following morning.\u00a0 It would be Kim\u2019s last 14er.<\/p>\n James prepped the dirt bike while I tried to get my gear together.\u00a0 I had to make a call on whether to bring snowshoes.\u00a0 In scouting we had found there to be a tremendous amount of snow on Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn, and from Redcloud and Sunshine earlier I had seen that there was still a large amount of snow.\u00a0 However, my snowshoes were heavy and I was having a tough time deciding if I wanted to bring them.\u00a0 It was late in the day and I didn\u2019t want to get caught in miles and miles of mushy snow, but on the other hand in something like this you always want to travel as light as possible, and usually if you get to the middle of the snowfields away from the rocks then you won\u2019t fall through and have to posthole.<\/p>\n Finally I decided to leave the snowshoes behind.\u00a0 Then James talked me around and convinced me to take them.\u00a0 So I pulled out my larger Salomon pack and packed it up with the snowshoes, food, headlamp, and everything else needed.\u00a0 My plan called for hike to take about 6 hours, however that was for normal conditions.\u00a0 I had no idea how much the snow would slow me down.\u00a0 I was looking forward to a couple of nice descents, so I thought maybe that would make up for the lost time.\u00a0 I ate some more food including another protein shake.\u00a0 It was only day two and I was getting very sick of those protein shakes!<\/p>\n I was extremely nervous about the upcoming dirt bike ride.\u00a0 About half way to the Upper Nellie Creek Trailhead there is a river crossing, and during our scouting trip it was pretty high.\u00a0 In fact I had heard it was running higher for this time of year that it had been since the 1990s!\u00a0 I had taken one look at it and chickened out and turned around.\u00a0 While I was scouting Wetterhorn with Andrea, James took the bike up to the river crossing and even he had run into some trouble.\u00a0 The river crossing was tricky because it starts out in flat water, but then you have to turn left right into the thick of the current, and right where it is deepest there are some boulders that are large enough to knock you over if you aren\u2019t careful.\u00a0 In the end we decided it would be safest if I just walked the dirt bike through, and I had practiced this so that I would feel confident when I tried it during the record attempt.\u00a0 The one thing I had to avoid was either crashing or dropping the dirt bike in the water.\u00a0 A dirt bike can recover from going under water but you have to know what you are doing\u2026And as I think I have made clear, when it comes to dirt bikes I am definitely a novice!<\/p>\n At 4:40 pm James had the dirt bike ready, so I put on my dirt biking gear and pack, and headed up the trail.\u00a0 I did have some backup in that James would be hiking up the road to pick up the dirt bike where I would drop it off at about 11,300 feet, 3000 feet below the summit of Uncompahgre.\u00a0 The adrenaline from the dirt bike and my fear of the upcoming river crossing had me wide awake.\u00a0 I was psyching myself up and I convinced myself that the stream would be lower than it was during the scouting trip.\u00a0 I would just go for it and zoom through the river crossing.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have any trouble with the steep, rocky road leading to the crossing, and felt pretty confident.\u00a0 As I descended down to the crossing and rounded a corner, so I could see the crossing, I was surprised that it didn\u2019t seem any lower than during the scouting trip.\u00a0 If anything it seemed a little higher, and just as I reached the water my confidence left me like air leaving a popped balloon.\u00a0 I dismounted and prepared to walk the bike through the crossing.<\/p>\n The dirt bike, a Yamaha wr450, was just too big for me to push around.\u00a0 So when I say I have to walk it through the stream, I am really walking next to it, but giving it gas and just keeping it balanced as it goes over the rocks.\u00a0 Well, that is the idea.\u00a0 In reality I had a tendency to stall it out, because I didn\u2019t want to give it too much gas and have it lurch away from me.\u00a0 I slowly moved into the water, and felt the icy grip of the water on my legs.\u00a0 I walked the bike through the flat water, and then right as I eased it up over a boulder and into the meat of the current, I accidentally gave the bike too much gas and it lurched forward and I stalled it out.\u00a0 Fortunately, I was able to keep it upright, but it wasn\u2019t easy as because the current was strong.<\/p>\n Then I ran into some trouble, the bike wouldn\u2019t start up again!\u00a0 The battery, despite all the driving I had been doing was just not strong enough and after a minute of trying I could hear the battery giving up on life.\u00a0 I tried but couldn\u2019t push the bike forward because of all the big boulders, then I tried yanking and pulling the bike back the way I had come but managed to wedge myself in worse than before.\u00a0 Meanwhile my legs were starting to get numb.\u00a0 All the water in this creek was snow earlier in the day and it was cold!<\/p>\n I momentarily thought about abandoning the bike in the middle of the crossing. \u00a0Eventually James would find it and deal with it.\u00a0 But then I would have to hike for an extra couple miles up the road.\u00a0 Or I could hike down to him, and he could run down to the pathfinder and drive me back up the road.\u00a0 Either way it was a disasterous loss of time.\u00a0 I was only going to save 20 minutes or so by using the dirt bike, and now I could lose an hour!\u00a0\u00a0 Again I tried yanking the bike backwards, but couldn\u2019t budge the bike.\u00a0 I sure wish I had considered a smaller bike like a 250 that I would have been able to push around a little easier.<\/p>\n I still hadn\u2019t decided what to do, but I tried starting the bike again, after a couple of lugs it miraculously started up.\u00a0 I was back in action!\u00a0 But I could take no chances.\u00a0 I knew I could not be timid because I had no reason to believe I could count on the engine starting up again if I stalled it out.\u00a0 So I pulled back hard on the gas, and the bike shot forward like a missile.\u00a0 I wish I had a video of this, because it must have been pretty funny to see me get yanked off my feet, into what felt like \u201cSuperman\u201d position, barely hanging onto the handles with my body flying through the air.\u00a0 The bike bounced over a couple of boulders, made it across the stream, then I swerved left and then overcorrected and crashed hard to the right.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know it until later but I broke the rear brake pedal on this crash.\u00a0 The engine did not shut off as the rear wheel was spinning in the air, and I immediately wrestled the bike up again.<\/p>\n Somehow I was across the raging stream, and I felt exhausted but exhilarated!\u00a0 I started up the road again and with a fresh batch of adrenaline flowing through my blood I continued up the road.\u00a0 I was relieved that the dreaded river crossing was done.<\/p>\n The GPS was lagging a bit because I was driving so fast, and I overshot the elevation I needed to park at.\u00a0 It took a few minutes to find the correct spot.\u00a0 After I finally parked, I changed out of all of my wet clothes and shoes and left them to dry on the bike.\u00a0 One nice side effect of standing in the water so long was that it was kind of like icing my legs, and they felt refreshed.<\/p>\n I started up the road at 5:20 pm.\u00a0 It was only a few hundred feet to get to the Upper trailhead (I couldn\u2019t go all the way up because of the 3000 foot rule).\u00a0 It was obvious that much snow had melted in the last couple of weeks, especially below treeline, so I made very good time hiking up the trail.<\/p>\n After I passed treeline, I had to navigate an extremely steep snow headwall that blocked the trail.\u00a0 Once I passed the headwall, I found the trail again and only had a short time on the trail before it disappeared below the sea of white.\u00a0 Interestingly, I could see that much of the snow was shallow, and the shallow snow was very soft, and offered no support at all so I would fall right through.\u00a0 I was at a place where I had to decide between trying to stay with the trail, which took a circuitous route to the summit, or just heading straight to the summit.\u00a0 In the summer there is an area that hikers are asked to avoid to save fragile alpine species, but with the snow I didn\u2019t have to worry about that, so I chose to head straight ahead on the most direct route to the summit, which appeared to be almost entirely on snow.<\/p>\n With some careful zigzagging, I spent as little time in the soft snow as possible.\u00a0 In places it was easy to spot because instead of a flat surface, or uniform bumpy surface, it was usually given away by its irregular bumpy look.\u00a0 So, despite a fair amount of soft snow I never felt the need to actually put on my snowshoes.\u00a0 There was one area where I thought I was on nice consolidated snow, because it was totally smooth and I was not sinking in at all.\u00a0 I was just innocently walking along when all of a sudden I stepped into a mysterious patch of soft snow and fell in all the way to my waist.\u00a0 For some reason, there was an \u201cisland\u201d of soft snow ahead of me.\u00a0 It reminded me of what quicksand might be like in the jungle.\u00a0 I turned around and once I climbed back on the solid snow, I used my poles like a blind person might use a stick, to poke at the snow and find the edge between the soft and consolidated snow.\u00a0 In this manner I was able to make my way around that patch of snow.<\/p>\n I crossed some old avalanche debris that was melted into some interested ice formations, and made my way up to the southern ridge of Uncompahgre.\u00a0 The wind was blowing and I quickly became chilled so I had to stop and put on my wind jacket.\u00a0 I continued over to the west side of the ridge, where there was less snow, and followed it up to the summit, it was 7:25 pm.<\/p>\n As usual, I didn\u2019t spend any time on the summit, just enough to send my satellite message, then I immediately backtracked and headed back down to find the southwest slopes route, the most direct route to get to Wetterhorn.\u00a0 I had been looking forward to the upcoming 2000 foot snow descent in the soft afternoon snow.\u00a0 I had to descend about 100 feet of unpleasant loose rocks to get to the top of the snow.\u00a0 But once I retrieved my sled and ax from my pack the snow did not disappoint.\u00a0 It was a beautiful, fun, fast descent on perfect snow.\u00a0 The only downside was that the snow was so wet, that I was soaked by the time I was half way down.\u00a0 Despite the good snow conditions, my upper body was weak and controlling my speed with my ice ax was difficult and fatiguing, so I had to take a few short breaks.\u00a0 Near the bottom of the snow field, the snow was too mushy to glissade, so I left the snow and followed some grassy slopes and continued towards Wetterhorn.\u00a0 Soon the grassy slopes ended and I was forced to climb back up onto the snow.\u00a0 The snow was so soft and deep that I couldn\u2019t make any progress.\u00a0 I was in deeper than my waist and the only way through was to make a trench.<\/p>\n I figured it was finally time to put on the snowshoes.\u00a0 With them I was able to get through the soft snow up to where it was packed more firmly.\u00a0 Then I continued across the snow to the pass between Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn.\u00a0 Much of the snow was shallow and soft, and even with the snowshoes on I still fell through the snow in several places.\u00a0 I probably would have been OK without the snowshoes in the end, but I do think they saved a fair amount of work.<\/p>\n The sun was just starting to go down as I passed a 13er called Matterhorn that sits between Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn.\u00a0 I finally came to a rise where I could see the rest of the route up Wetterhorn, and I was disappointed!\u00a0 I had been hoping to just leave the snowshoes on all the way up to the south ridge of Wetterhorn.\u00a0 Unfortunately enough snow had melted that there was an even mix of talus fields and snow fields.\u00a0 I certainly did not want to keep changing in and out of snowshoes, but as the shadows pushed away the sunlight with the setting of the sun, I knew the snow would get hard fast.\u00a0 So as I reached the base of the talus fields I decided to take off the snowshoes and leave them behind as I could retrieve them on the way back.<\/p>\n The light started getting dark as I alternated hiking on rocks, sometimes on the trail, to losing the trail in snow and then trying to regain the trail when I made it across the snow.\u00a0 In this manner I continued hiking until gaining the south ridge of Wetterhorn at about 13,000 feet.\u00a0 The wind was blowing fast up and over the ridge and it was now pretty cold.\u00a0 I drank the last of my water and powder, and left my pack and poles behind and continued up the ridge with my ice ax in hand.\u00a0 Even the wind blasted ridge was not free of snow, and in the darkness I had a little bit of trouble locating the trail.\u00a0 I made what turned out to be a good decision and when the trail started contouring on the west side of the ridge, I left the trail and headed back to the top of the ridge.\u00a0 I could tell, even in the darkness, that the standard route was going to be covered with snow and I knew the trail would be difficult to follow.\u00a0 At least up on the ridge the routefinding would be easier, although you still have to navigate some large boulders and small cliffs to keep the difficulty around class 3.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t run into any trouble on the way up and soon made it up to a large prow like formation near the summit block.\u00a0 I think Wetterhorn is the quintessential class 3 peak in the state (along with Long\u2019s).\u00a0 If you want to show someone what it means to be class 3, then Wetterhorn is a great example of that.\u00a0 The last 150 foot pitch up to the summit is normally a very enjoyable climb, although it is quite exposed.\u00a0 Fortunately this pitch was completely dry.\u00a0 So I left my ice ax behind at a notch, and continued up to the summit.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember having any trouble on the way up, and I made it to the top and sent my satellite message at 10:00 pm.<\/p>\n Suddenly I started to feel a little tired and I wasn\u2019t thinking very clearly.\u00a0 In this foggy mental state I began the downclimb, back to the notch where I had left the ice ax.\u00a0 In the light it is pretty easy to find where to exit the class 3 ledges.\u00a0 However, in the dark and cold wind I became confused and thought I had overshot the exit.\u00a0 So I climbed back up until I realized I was just below the summit again, so I headed down again. \u00a0Finally I found the correct exit, and made it around the corner to pick up my ice ax and begin descending.<\/p>\n Back in 1999, I had also been climbing Wetterhorn in the dark, although that time it was during a whiteout.\u00a0 Somehow instead of heading down the south ridge I had made a big error and taken the East Ridge toward Matterhorn.\u00a0\u00a0 In more recent climbs of Wetterhorn I couldn\u2019t believe how foolish I had been to make that error.\u00a0 However, I almost made the mistake again!\u00a0 I am not sure how this happened, because in the light the route seems completely obvious.\u00a0 I think I was only saved because after my debacle descending the Wilson\u2019s in the dark the previous night I had asked the support crew to change the batteries in my headlamp.\u00a0 Those batteries must have really been week the day before because now the light was working great.\u00a0 This time I had not ventured along the ridge to Matterhorn, but had somehow wandered down a rocky rib that was heading west.\u00a0 I only realized the mistake because the bright light showed that there was a well-defined ridge way off to my left, and I knew that should not have been the case.\u00a0 So I backtracked to the South Ridge of Wetterhorn, and continued descending.\u00a0 I took it slowly to make sure I did not make another error.\u00a0 Wetterhorn is class 3 but as with just about any mountain if you lose your route there is usually much more difficult terrain around the corner.<\/p>\n The near mistake injected me with some adrenaline and that managed to pull me out of my drunken like mental state.\u00a0 I descended back down to the trail, crossed some now very hard snow on the ridge and made it back to my poles and pack.\u00a0 I tried to slide down a few snowfields on my way back down to the snowshoes but didn\u2019t have much luck.\u00a0 The snow was too hard now and it just didn\u2019t feel efficient so I gave up on the idea.<\/p>\n I made it back down to the snowshoes again, but decided to put them in my pack because the snow was firming up.\u00a0 Then I headed in a south west direction until I crossed a large ravine and eventually found the trail heading down to the Matterhorn Trailhead.\u00a0 If all went as planned, James would have picked the dirt bike up at the Nellie Creek Trailhead and driven it up to the Matterhorn Creek Trailhead.<\/p>\n Once down to treeline the trail was mostly clear of snow so I made good time and even tried to run a little bit to make up some time.\u00a0 The snow conditions had definitely slowed me down and I knew I was running a couple of hours behind schedule.<\/p>\n When I made it down to the trailhead at 11:49 pm I was relieved to see the dirt bike waiting for me, along with a protein shake.\u00a0 The dirt bike was cold and as usual, it refused to start, even with several attempts to kick start it.\u00a0 The good news was that I was parked at the top of a hill, so I wrested the bike into position and started coasting down the hill.\u00a0 Unfortunately, without any power the motorcycle headlights were not on, I hadn\u2019t noticed all of the loose, large, rocks in the rutted four wheel drive road and somehow kept the bike upright as I was bounced all over in the dark.\u00a0 By the time I managed to gain enough speed to release the clutch, the engine started right up, and the lights came on for just a second, just long enough for me to see what I was about to crash into.\u00a0 Then the engine died, and I crashed, and I just laid there cursing myself for being such a terrible dirtbiker.<\/p>\n I had better luck on my second attempt as I gave the dirt bike more gas once the engine started up, and with the headlights blazing I cruised down the road without crashing again.<\/p>\n Just after midnight, at the bottom of the Matterhorn Creek road I found the Pathfinder and the Eurovan waiting for me, and I was relieved to see that my mom had found us.\u00a0 I was also excited to get in the van, which has a pretty nice bed, and get some good sleep.\u00a0 Mom, James, and Axel woke up (the others were climbing Culebra this morning and were already gone) and started helping me out.\u00a0 After greeting my mom and dropping most of my gear, I got into the back of the van.\u00a0 There was some cold pizza waiting for me which tasted pretty good, so I was willing to forego closing my eyes right away to force the food down.\u00a0 I was pretty disappointed with the organizational status of the van.\u00a0 Boxes were piled up all over, sleeping bags were scattered, and the pizza was tenuously balanced on a box and I could foresee it falling all over the place.\u00a0 I spent some time talking to my Mom and Axel as she followed James down the road, but I soon closed my eyes and was soon asleep for the 2 hour drive to Creede.\u00a0 We were still running about 2 hours behind schedule. San Luis: The Trail of False Hopes<\/strong><\/p>\n I must have slept well because it seemed like the moment after I closed my eyes, it was 2:00 am and we were parking and it was time to get up again.\u00a0 We were parked just north of Creede in an ATV staging area.\u00a0 James was preparing the dirt bike for me.\u00a0 In hindsight I regret using the dirt bike on this road.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t know if the dirt bike saved me much time because the road is steep, but not very rough.\u00a0 It probably would have been smarter to get in the pathfinder and get some more rest while James drove.<\/p>\n I put on all of my warm stuff because I was pretty cold and was walking around shivering with my teeth chattering.\u00a0 I said goodbye to Mom and James, and asked them to try to get some sleep.\u00a0 There was no way I would be back in less than 4 hours so I hoped they would get some good sleep.<\/p>\n The road heading up north out of Creede is extremely steep as it goes by an amazing old mining complex.\u00a0 It is also in pretty good shape and is pretty smooth, so I was able to go very fast on the dirt bike.\u00a0 For all the troubles I had with the bike in the first couple of days, it still saved me at least a couple of hours versus being in a 4 wheel drive.\u00a0 It is amazing how fast you can go by people in jeeps and other 4 wheel drive vehicles.<\/p>\n San Luis from West Willow Creek is one of the worst 14ers when it comes to trying to follow the 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 It does not make much sense at all for this mountain.\u00a0 The problem is that once the steep road levels off, it stays relatively flat as you make your way up the road.\u00a0 It means you have to hike a few extra miles to start 3000 feet below the summit.\u00a0 Even the lower trailhead at 11, 100 feet is too high, because San Luis sits up at 14,014 feet.\u00a0 At 11,000 feet there was no place to park, even for the motorcycle.\u00a0 So I had to drive past my starting point to a dirt road that headed off to the left, and park the bike at this point.\u00a0 Then I had to turn around and hike back down the road until I was sure I was at or below 11,000 feet.\u00a0 Then you start the long hike up to the upper trailhead, hike way up to a ridge that joins the Colorado trail, and drop about 500 feet before you start going up again, and of course you have to ascend that 500 feet on the way back.\u00a0 So in the end, in order to satisfy the 3000 foot rule, you have to hike about 4000 feet and add in a few extra miles!<\/p>\n I started hiking at 3:05 am.\u00a0 The road was a little muddy in places, and it was a little tricky crossing West Willow Creek a couple of times, but I managed to keep my feet dry.\u00a0 I passed the upper trailhead, and at first the trail was a little overgrown and not totally obvious, but when I started to wonder if I missed something I found it when it abruptly turns right and crosses a creek.\u00a0 Then I was already facing the first snow drift of the day.\u00a0 This one was a 10 foot headwall, but it was easy to bypass.\u00a0 Fortunately after that the remaining snowfields on the way up to the Colorado Trail were not very steep.\u00a0 The snow was still very hard, as it was just starting to get light.<\/p>\n I joined up with the Colorado trail, and turned east for the long round about trail to San Luis.\u00a0 First you climb a little, then you have to drop about 500 feet.\u00a0 Then the trail contours while ascending up and over a saddle that is downright depressing.\u00a0 This is because as you approach the saddle you feel like you are nearing the summit, but from the saddle you can finally see San Luis and it is so distant that it is very depressing.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the trail crossed snowfield after snowfield after snowfield.\u00a0 A couple of them had formed vertical headwalls of about 10 feet and it was tricking getting up and down them with the snow so hard.\u00a0 However, I was lucky that the snow was so hard, because I could see that some poor soul had been on the trail previously when the snow was warm and had postholed all over the place.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally I reached the actual southeast ridge of San Luis, and despite being a very good trail, it was very depressing of several killer false summits.\u00a0 The kind where you know that you probably aren\u2019t near the top, but then when you can see past the false summit you are heartbroken and demoralized at the sight of the actual summit way off in the distance!\u00a0 I decided that I didn\u2019t like San Luis anymore!<\/p>\n When I finally reached the summit at 6:23 am, I was grumpy because of all of the false summits.\u00a0 However, it had only taken about 3 hours, so I hadn\u2019t lost much more time.\u00a0 However, as I stood on top enjoying a few seconds to enjoy the view, I was mapping out the rest of the day in my head.\u00a0 I had failed to go fast enough to get to Culebra and the Blanca group today, so all I had left was the Crestones, and I had always assumed that if I only did the Crestones this day that I would get plenty of sleep (my first real sleep since the start) as I would have to wait until 6:00 am (when the gates open) to start on Culebra the next day.\u00a0\u00a0 I was about 2.5 hours behind, So I would probably be down to the car around 9:00 am, then it would take 3 hours to drive to the Crestones\u2026.Then #$%!@!\u00a0 All of a sudden I realized I could be in big trouble!\u00a0 I probably wouldn\u2019t be able to start on the Crestones until about 1:00 pm.\u00a0 I had decided against starting from the closer trailhead because I thought it would take nearly 2 hours longer in hiking.\u00a0 If I drove to South Colony Lakes it would be a longer drive, but then the hiking would be faster.\u00a0 The problem was that I knew that in light in good dry summer conditions the Crestones would take about 13.5 hours (It used to take me about 12 hours from the Upper South Colony Lakes trailhead, but that trailhead is closed now so it adds about 5 miles roundtrip, and I estimated about 1.5 hours for the extra 5 miles).\u00a0 That means the earliest I could finish would be about 2:30 am, and then considering about 2 hours to drive to Culebra would be about 4:30 am, and I had to be there by 6:00 am. I was cutting it close!\u00a0 However, I was going to be in the dark for about one third of the hike, and there was lots of snow and ice on the Crestones, which are some of the more technical peaks in the state.\u00a0 So was it realistic that I could still climb them in 13.5 hours?\u00a0 I was officially in worry mode.\u00a0 In any case, I was certainly not going to get any extra rest tonight!<\/p>\n Upset with myself that I hadn\u2019t seen this coming, I realized I had to try to make up some time.\u00a0 Every minute would count on the way out.\u00a0 So I decided to try to run all the way back.\u00a0 So far my legs were holding out pretty good, and it seemed necessary despite the extra abuse.\u00a0 Remember that when I say \u201crun\u201d, I really mean changing my pace from a 3 mile per hour downhill walk to a 4.5 mile jog.\u00a0 But it feels like running.<\/p>\n I jogged all the way out.\u00a0 I only walked on uphills, and I had to stop to refill my water once.\u00a0 I quickly ascended the annoying 500 foot descent from earlier that morning, and tried a short cut through a ravine that was probably a waste of time.\u00a0 Finally I made it back to the upper trailhead and then jogged out the extra miles thanks to the cursed 3000 foot rule.\u00a0 As I rounded the final corner of the nearly 7 mile run, my ankles were sore and both of my knees were hurting, and I was happily surprised to see James packing up the dirt bike.\u00a0 I had to run past him to get back to the official starting point, and then I checked my time.\u00a0 It was 9:01 am, and I was still 2.5 hours behind schedule.\u00a0 Sometime after destroying myself on the descent by running the whole I had only gained 20 minutes.\u00a0 It had taken 3 hours to go up, and 2:40 to go down.\u00a0 How was that possible?\u00a0 It was very depressing.<\/p>\n I immediately told James of the new dilemma, and how time was of the essence.\u00a0 I got in the pathfinder and James drove us down to the van where Mom and Axel were waiting for us.<\/p>\n Drive to Crestones: James Taking Charge<\/strong><\/p>\n On the bright side, we did have a long drive ahead of us, and I was happily thinking about 3 hours of sleep, and how great that was going to feel.\u00a0 Before going to bed I tried to send Homie, a fellow 14er record aficionado, a text updating him with my plans, because there was a possibility he was going to meet up with us and help out for a couple of days.<\/p>\n I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly for about an hour because it wasn\u2019t until we were in Alamosa that I woke up.\u00a0 The traffic was surprisingly bad, and it must have been the stop and go traffic that woke me up.\u00a0 Then my mom\u2019s cell phone rang and I heard her talking to James.\u00a0 When she hung up I let her know I was awake and asked her what they were talking about.\u00a0 James had concocted a plan where he would leave my mom and Axel behind to stay at his mom\u2019s cabin near Fort Garland, while he would take just me to South Colony trailhead.<\/p>\n I was not too happy with what I had heard.\u00a0 I understood his reasoning.\u00a0 The two of us with one vehicle would probably be faster, especially if James had to drive like mad to get to Culebra by 6:00 am.\u00a0 However, I didn\u2019t want mom and Axel to leave, and I was annoyed that I would have to get back in the pathfinder.\u00a0 I sleep much better in the van, and my number one priority was trying to sleep for the next two hours on the road.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think my mom was too thrilled about the idea either.<\/p>\n We just decided to go along with the plan, and somewhere on the road to La Veta Pass after Fort Garland we stopped and met James\u2019 mother.\u00a0 She seemed very nice, although I didn\u2019t say much as my job was to get out of the van, and into the pathfinder.\u00a0 Meanwhile James and my mom transferred all the necessary gear into the pathfinder.\u00a0 Soon I said goodbye to Axel and Mom, and we were off.\u00a0 I was still annoyed, and now I was wide awake and uncomfortably situated in the back of the pathfinder.\u00a0 In my mind I was going over the plan.\u00a0 I felt like it was still doable, but it was impossible to know how the conditions on the Crestones would affect my timing.<\/p>\n Then with just a couple of miles to go to our turn off to Pass Creek Road, James had to stop.\u00a0 Traffic was backed up for as far as we could see ahead of us.\u00a0 Road Construction!\u00a0 Oh how I hate untimely road construction!\u00a0 I can\u2019t describe how frustrating it is to run into road construction when you are doing something where every last minute is critical.\u00a0 However, we realized that there was nothing we could do, so we tried to sit back and relax, but on the inside I was completely freaking out.\u00a0 My blood pressure probably neared dangerous levels.\u00a0 After what seemed like an eternity, we saw the pilot car leading the traffic going the other direction.\u00a0 It was an incredibly long line.\u00a0 When we finally got moving in the miles long line, it was really annoying because there was only one little spot where construction people were even working.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t seem very efficient to create huge wait lines on both sides.\u00a0 What a ridiculous way to lose 25 minutes when every minute was critical!\u00a0 In any case, soon we came to Pass Creek Road and turned north.\u00a0 It is a pretty smooth road as far as dirt roads go, but I couldn\u2019t sleep because it was so hot and curvy and James and I were talking too much.\u00a0 This was truly my nightmare scenario from a logistics standpoint.\u00a0 The one thing you want to avoid is a long during the day, because then you end up stuck on the mountains in the dark.\u00a0 Ideally you want to stay on schedule and get the long drives done during the night, when it is easier to sleep in the car.<\/p>\n When we finally made it to the paved road and were heading toward Westcliffe, I think I was able to sleep for about 30 minutes before we made the turn to South Colony Lakes Trailhead.\u00a0 Rather than driving all the way to the lower trailhead, we parked within sight of the trailhead but before the road gets very bumpy, and James started prepping the dirt bike while I prepared my pack and put on shoes and socks.\u00a0 I knew there was a chance Homie would be meeting up with me, but didn\u2019t know where he was.\u00a0 Unfortunately, a few minutes before I was ready to go, a few cars passed by on their way up the road.\u00a0 This was bad because if I was stuck behind a bunch of slow moving vehicles it could defeat the purpose of driving the dirt bike up the road.<\/p>\n Finally I was ready, said goodbye to James, and headed up the road at full speed.\u00a0 This was the perfect kind of road for dirt biking, because it is bumpy enough to slow down cars, but perfectly suited for moving fast up on the dirt bike.<\/p>\n Before long I reached a van, which moved over for me to pass, and it was Homie, who told me not to wait for him at the trailhead.\u00a0 I yelled hello as I passed, and zoomed up the road.\u00a0 Luckily, all 3 vehicles ahead of me either stopped and waved me by or moved over for me, so they didn\u2019t slow me down at all.\u00a0 I found out later Homie had seen James and I getting ready and had stopped the 3 cars and asked them to let me go by when they saw me.<\/p>\n I parked at the trailhead at about 1:15 pm and was ready to go immediately, but I was hoping to see Homie so I took a couple of extra minutes to stretch.\u00a0 I noticed that my tracker had turned itself off at some point on the drive from San Luis, so I turned it back on.<\/p>\n I heard a car and saw him driving up, so I gave him a wave and headed up the trail.\u00a0 I knew Homie would be pretty fast and would catch up to me.\u00a0 Earlier in the spring we met up for a hike to talk 14er strategy, and while trying to keep up on that easy hike I gave myself two nasty heel blisters and lost a toenail!\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t moving slow, but it wasn\u2019t long before he caught up to me.\u00a0 He understood my dilemma with making sure I was able to be finished in time to make it to Culebra, and told me that people following my progress on 14ers.com were concerned.\u00a0 There was all kinds of speculation about why my best option would be.\u00a0 Some had suggested doing the Blanca group instead today, because the drive time would have been shorter.\u00a0 One thing confusing was that people online had seem my estimated times, and my times for the Crestones had been estimated from the trailhead on the other side of the mountain.\u00a0 However, from this side I could do the Crestone loop faster, although the drive had taken more time.\u00a0 But the situation was not as dire as some on 14ers.com had thought.\u00a0 I wanted to keep Culebra and the Blanca group together because that would cut down on driving time tomorrow.<\/p>\n Homie also warned me about the conditions on Kit Carson.\u00a0 Apparently someone else had been up there a few days before armed with ice ax and crampons and had turned back because of all the snow and ice on Kit Carson Avenue.\u00a0 I did not have crampons with me so this was concerning news.<\/p>\n We made very good time up to South Colony Lakes, and stopped to purify some water.\u00a0 Then we continued up the trail to Broken Hand Pass.\u00a0 I also forget how unpleasant the hike up or down Broken Hand pass is, but it is a significant part of the day.\u00a0 We hit a snow field fairly early on and ascended most of the way on snow.\u00a0 The slope steepened and soon I was kicking steps in hard snow with my Hoka shoes, which is definitely not what they are designed for!\u00a0 It was pretty steep and in a few spots I was nervous about slipping.\u00a0 Fortunately we made it past the snow and a few class 3 spots before we came out about the snow, and soon after made it to Broken Hand Pass.\u00a0 Then we turned right and began ascending Crestone Needle.\u00a0 The Crestones are very unique mountains in Colorado in that they are pretty technical, but are composed of pretty solid knobby rock.\u00a0 So in good conditions the climbing can be quite fun going from knob to knob, although you have to be careful because occasionally you grab on to a loose knob that falls out.<\/p>\n Crestone Needle is a fairly intimidating climb for a class 3 peak.\u00a0 It is steep and exposed, and it can be easy to miss the marked route that follows one gully and eventually exits the gully and heads up another gully.\u00a0 Unlike other peaks, it feels like rock climbing.\u00a0 I had brought along another pair of shoes for the hike, and near the base of the more technical class 3 climbing I switched to my approach shoes.\u00a0 These shoes have a sticky rubber sole, almost like a climbing shoe, although they are designed to be worn for hiking too, so they are much more comfortable to wear than climbing shoes.\u00a0 I had purchased some that James had recommended the previous year and absolutely loved them for class 3 and 4 scrambling.\u00a0 They make me very confident with the footing, exactly the opposite from the Hoka, which is great for smooth trail but horrible for scrambling.<\/p>\n Fortunately, I climbed Crestone Needle twice the previous summer, albeit in the other direction.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the route finding was not a problem, and Homie and I made good progress up the Needle.\u00a0 He commented that I was dropping him and that he didn\u2019t think he would be able to keep up all day, but he was never more than 5 feet behind me so it didn\u2019t seem like he was hurting.<\/p>\n We reached the summit at 4:07 pm.\u00a0 From the Summit I sent my tracker message, then we were faced with another classic Colorado traverse, the Crestone Needle to Crestone Peak traverse.\u00a0 The scary thing about the traverse is the first knobby downclimb as you descend the Crestone Needle.\u00a0 It is solid class 4 with a Class 5 move or two, and it is heavily exposed.\u00a0 As you descend you are literally staring down at a 2000 foot drop straight down to South Colony Lakes.\u00a0 If you try to avoid the intense exposure and stay more to the left then the difficulty increases.\u00a0 I had never before climbed down this direction without a rope, and usually opted to traverse the other direction so I could climb up this tricky pitch instead of descending it.\u00a0 However, I couldn\u2019t go the other direction today or I would be doing the traverse in darkness which was not a good option.<\/p>\n We both had no problems climbing down.\u00a0 I chose the exposed part and Homie chose the more difficult part to the left.\u00a0 It was a relief to finish the difficult pitch, however now we faced the next most difficult part of the traverse, which can be a little tricky.\u00a0 And there was lots of snow to be wary of on the traverse.<\/p>\n I opted to avoid the more standard approach to the traverse that I call the \u201cfin\u201d which is described in Roach\u2019s book, and instead tried to find the route that I call the \u201csneak\u201d, which descends down to the left and somehow avoids cliffing out by traversing a lucky sequence of ledges.\u00a0 I felt responsible for Homie because by the rules he was not allowed to help with routefinding.\u00a0 So if I led us into a dangerous spot he was not allowed to offer any options, and could only follow along.\u00a0 This added a lot of pressure.\u00a0 Luckily, I didn\u2019t make any wrong turns and we made great time until we finally came out in the gully below the Black Gendarme.\u00a0 From there the difficulty of the terrain eased dramatically, but the routefinding still kept me on my toes and I was constantly scanning the rocks ahead for the next cairn.<\/p>\n Eventually we reached the red gully, a gully that drops south from near the summit of Crestone Peak, now all we had to do was ascend the gully, and that would bring us within a couple hundred feet of the summit.\u00a0 Surprisingly, there was a lot of snow in the gully.\u00a0 Since it was June 20, it was almost the longest day of the year, and the sun was so far north that the northern facing gullies actually received more snow than the southern facing gullies.\u00a0 Homie told me to go on ahead because he felt like he was holding me back (not true!), and while he stopped (I think to put on crampons and get some water?) I headed up on my own, expecting him to catch up soon.\u00a0 Although we had not seen one other hiker all day, there were a couple sets of footprints heading down the gully from someone else that day.\u00a0 The easiest path up the soft snow was to head directly up those tracks. \u00a0Soon I was way above Homie and once I reached the saddle I left my pack and decided to head to the summit by myself.\u00a0 The scrambling from the saddle to the summit is quite fun, I headed up and reached the summit at 5:40 pm.\u00a0 Considering the conditions, I did not think a 1:30 time was too bad.\u00a0 From the summit I took a good look at the route over to Kit Carson, and it did look pretty nasty with lots of snow all over my route.<\/p>\n I turned around and met up with Homie at the saddle.\u00a0 He did not want to continue over to Kit Carson, but said he would wait for me on a high plateau called Bear\u2019s Playground for a few hours.\u00a0 From Bear\u2019s Playground I would have to do an out and back hike to Kit Carson and Challenger so it was a good place for him to wait.\u00a0 However, he said not to worry if he was not there because he may have decided to head down, depending on how long I took.<\/p>\n I descended north down the infamous Northwest Couloir, basically the opposite side of the Red Gully that we had ascended.\u00a0 I say infamous because when I was 12 I had taken a nasty fall down the Northwest Couloir while hiking with my step dad.\u00a0 We had descended the Northwest Couloir, and then had attempted to glissade.\u00a0 My step dad (Henry) warned me to be careful because it was icy, and slid all the way to the bottom.\u00a0 When it was my turn I immediately slipped and fell all the way down the icy snow, hundreds of feet to the bottom with my ice ax dangling from a cord on my wrist.\u00a0 I was saved as Henry hurried up the snow and tackled me to slow my momentum as I crashed into the rocks below, and somehow I had managed to escape without a scratch.<\/p>\n This was my first time descending the couloir since that experience, and it was much different than I remember.\u00a0 It turns out my fall must have been more like 400 feet than 800 feet because you have to downclimb a few hundred feet before you get to a snowfield that seems reasonable to glissade.\u00a0 I found the descent to be very treacherous, because it was class 3 and 4 downclimbing intermixed with a mushy layer of about 1 inch of soft snow on top of a solid layer of pure ice.\u00a0 This was not ice as I often call hard snow, but was actually solid ice.\u00a0 I tried a controlled glissade but stopped immediately because I couldn\u2019t penetrate the ice with my ax and realized I would not be able to control my descent.\u00a0 Then I had to climb up on to the wall of the couloir to avoid some more steep ice.\u00a0 It was very treacherous, and any fall here could be fatal.<\/p>\n Finally I made it down to a snowfield that seemed less steep and less icy, and realized this was where I could finally glissade.\u00a0 There were still sneaky sections of ice under the snow, so I had to be careful.\u00a0 I neared the bottom of the snowfield, then exited the couloir to the right, and took a high traverse out that eventually led me to the ridge directly above the Bear\u2019s Playground.\u00a0 I was lucky that Homie had not started to downclimb because I had knocked lots of rocks down the couloir, and if Homie had been above me he might have unknowingly knocked rocks down the couloir at me.<\/p>\n From the Bear\u2019s Playground the standard route contours a long distance across an unpleasant steep, rocky slope to the base of Columbia Point.\u00a0 I have always hated that route, and opted to head straight north up from the eastern edge of Bear\u2019s Playground to the top of Obstruction Peak.\u00a0 This adds a few hundred feet of elevation gain, but it avoids the unpleasant contouring.\u00a0 And an added benefit is that the ridge that forms Obstruction Peak is a very fun, well defined ridge that is my one of my favorite types of hiking.\u00a0 I reached the base of Columbia Point and the shadows were getting long.\u00a0 I very much wanted to back to this point before darkness, but knew that was very unlikely.\u00a0 I realized that I was out of water and that I should have filled up in the Bear\u2019s Playground.\u00a0 Now as I continued to climb up Columbia Point, the snow was pretty hard and there wasn\u2019t any water anywhere, however I did find some icicles under a rock and I plucked one and began to suck on it to moisten the back of my dry throat.\u00a0 As I neared the top of Columbia Point, I veered left along a cairned route.\u00a0 I lost the path in a snowfield, but generally knew where to go, and pretty soon was near the top of the downclimb between Kit Carson and Columbia Point.\u00a0 This is a downclimb that stays at class 3 as long as you stay on the route.\u00a0 However, if you lose the tricky route you can easily end up in more difficult terrain.<\/p>\n I descended deliberately and slowly, and often turned back to look at what the route looked like behind me.\u00a0 I did this because I was going to have to come back this way and I knew that it would likely be dark.\u00a0 I wanted to make sure I would be able to stay on the route in the dark.<\/p>\n Soon I was at the bottom of the downclimb, at the top of the Outward Bound Couloir, and I followed a cairned route up the rocky route to the top of Kit Carson, and I summited at 8:10 pm.\u00a0 My throat was dry, and the snow was so hard now that I couldn\u2019t eat it because it was too hard to break off small pieces.\u00a0 In some places where the rocks were still wet I would crouch down and desperately lick up any moisture I could.<\/p>\n The sun was nearing the horizon, so I didn\u2019t have much light left.\u00a0 I investigated the north side of Kit Carson to see if I could see the class 4 route that I had heard of that would allow me to directly climb to Kit Carson.\u00a0 I saw what looked like a reasonable way to go, however since I couldn\u2019t see the whole route I decided against it.\u00a0 The last thing I wanted to do was get stuck up on Kit Carson in the dark.<\/p>\n I turned around and started heading back the way I had come, then found a gully and headed straight down towards Kit Carson Avenue, the ledge that I could follow around Kit Carson to get access to Challenger Point.<\/p>\n I found some wet rocks in the gully and greedily licked up as much water as I could, and then I saw that I was nearing Kit Carson Avenue.\u00a0 I just had to drop down a little snowfield to get to the ledge.\u00a0 I stepped on the snowfield and took a couple of steps before the crusty top layer gave way and I fell through the snow down to my chest.\u00a0 I just stayed there for a minute and laughed at my predicament.<\/p>\n Ever since I had left Homie, I had been listening to some music on my headphones.\u00a0 From time to time during the last hour I had heard a buzzing but had thought nothing of it.\u00a0 However, now as I looked over sky towards the Sand Dunes on the plains below, I noticed for the first time what was causing the buzzing.\u00a0 A helicopter flew by very close to my position, and continued west between Kit Carson and Crestone Peak.<\/p>\n My immediate thought was that it was a search and rescue helicopter.\u00a0 The first thing I did was check that my satellite tracker was working.\u00a0 It was, so there was no chance the helicopter was looking for me.\u00a0 Homie and I had seen no one on else on the Crestones, so my fear was that something had happened to Homie.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know if he had brought his SPOT tracker along.\u00a0 I was scared that maybe he had an accident while descending the Northwest Couloir of Crestone Peak.\u00a0 But I knew Homie was a very experienced climber so there was a good chance the helicopter was up there for something else.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, I crawled out of my chest deep snow pit.\u00a0 When snow piles up against rocks or cliffs, the rocks get warm in the sun and can melt out snow that is closest to the rock.\u00a0 In this case there was a deep trench between the rock and the snowfield, but somehow a thin layer of snow had formed a bridge over to the rock.\u00a0 I had broken through this bridge and that was why I had fallen in so far.\u00a0 I climbed out and had no more problems descending to Kit Carson Avenue.<\/p>\n Although snow covered most of the Avenue, there was a thin part of the edge that was snow free, and at first it was easy to move forward.\u00a0 However, soon I came to the big obstacle, a spot where the snow crossed all the way over the ledge.\u00a0 The snow was steep and hard, and might have presented a problem, considering that I had no crampons.\u00a0 However, I was lucky because the snow had melted out like a golf ball, so although it was steep, there were little indentations that I could step in, and I carefully stepped across the steep snowfield using the indentations and my ice ax.\u00a0 After crossing the obstacle, it was smooth sailing across the rest of the ledge.\u00a0 It was only about 300 feet to the summit of Challenger from the end of the Avenue, but first I stopped to look at the class 4 route from Kit Carson.\u00a0 It looked like it ended in a small overhang that might have been difficult to overcome, so it was probably a good idea to avoid it.<\/p>\n The sun was just setting as I summited Challenger at 8:46 pm.\u00a0 That gave me about 30 minutes of light, so I hurried to get as far as possible while I could still see.\u00a0 The difficult part of the Avenue seemed harder this time, maybe because now I was descending more than ascending, and then I followed the ledge all the way down until I reached the gully that separates Kit Carson from Columbia Pt.\u00a0 I finally had to turn on my headlamp, and with the light on I ascended directly up the snow in the gully a couple of hundred feet back to the top of the Outward Bound Couloir.\u00a0 I still had the tricky class 3 climb back up toward Columbia Pt., and thankfully I had taken my time on the way down so I was able to stay on the route.\u00a0 Near the top it seemed easier to veer left, so I did and decided to make a quick stop on top of Columbia Pt., at 13,980 it is one of Colorado\u2019s highest officially ranked 13,000 feet peaks.<\/p>\n As I started dropping down towards Obstruction Peak I was very relieved to see a headlamp off in the distance.\u00a0 It could only have been Homie, because what other idiot would be out here so late?\u00a0 It turned out that the tracks we followed up the red gully to Crestone Peak were made by someone who hurt their leg and needed a rescue.\u00a0 Fortunately they were evacuated safely.<\/p>\n At the saddle between Columbia Pt. and Obstruction Peak, I again chose to stay on the ridge and climb an extra few hundred feet rather than trying to contour around Obstruction Peak on my way back to Bears Playground.\u00a0 This was my third night on the attempt without any real sleep and I was starting to feel it.\u00a0 The first thing that happened was that I started to feel drunk.\u00a0 I just had a hard time maintaining my balance as I was trying to jump from rock to rock.<\/p>\n It seemed like a lot more effort to climb Obstruction Peak in this direction.\u00a0 Then I started having trouble keeping my eyes open, and every time I blinked it seemed like work to force my eyelids open.\u00a0 I was a little disoriented, but fortunately I knew that I just had to follow the ridge all the way until it cliffed out, and then turn right and head down to Bears Playground.\u00a0 It was hard getting down to Bears Playground, and I had to find some gear that I had left behind on the way up next to a big cairn.\u00a0 Then I noticed Homie\u2019s light up ahead, but I wasn\u2019t ready to continue along the route to Humboldt, and I yelled up ahead that I had to go find some water.<\/p>\n Bears Playground is a big grassy plateau, and I had to walk along a short distance before I found some standing water.\u00a0 Unfortunately, after squeezing it through my filter, I tasted it, and it was some of the most terrible tasting water.\u00a0 Still, I drank as much as I could because I was so thirsty.\u00a0 But then I only filled up one water bottle, and hoped I could find a tastier source.<\/p>\n I hiked over to Homie, who was waiting for me.\u00a0 And I began to find my way on the ridge that heads over to Humboldt from Bear\u2019s Playground.\u00a0 Seeing Homie and having someone to talk to helped to give me a burst of energy, and for a little while I felt awake.\u00a0 The ridge is pretty easy but it can be tricky to find the best route, especially in the dark.\u00a0 Soon I started falling asleep again and I was barely keeping my eyes open.\u00a0 I felt like I was just stumbling around and often lost my balance.<\/p>\n We had to descend the ridge to get to the saddle with Humboldt.\u00a0 That is where Homie decided to leave me.\u00a0 He headed back down to the trailhead and offered to give me a ride from the Upper trailhead to the lower trailhead, where James was waiting.\u00a0 James was supposed to hike up my mountain bike to about 11,000 feet so that I could ride all the way down to the lower trailhead.<\/p>\n I drank the rest of my nasty tasting Bear\u2019s Playground water, and left my pack behind and started up the 1300 foot cimb to Humboldt.\u00a0 I was sleepy but was able to follow the trail and cairns up to the summit (summited at 12:24 am).\u00a0 At the summit I was happy because I had made good enough time that making it to Culebra on time seemed possible, although Homie had indicated that Andrea may have somehow gotten permission for me to arrive late, and later I heard that even Cave Dog, the current record holder had tried to call and make sure I could climb Culebra if I was late.<\/p>\n Then I started down, and this is when everything fell apart.\u00a0 My last memory was of hiking down a small little rockband, and then, I must have been asleep on my feet, because I have almost no memory of coming down Humboldt.\u00a0 Instead there is just a disjointed sequence of images and dreams.\u00a0 In one dream I imagined that I was in orienteering school, and was learning how to stay on the trail, but I kept losing it.\u00a0 Another memory is of finding the trail, which shone like moonlit river through the rocks, but then taking two steps and losing it.\u00a0 I also remember several times reaching an edge where down was too steep, so I would turn and walk the other direction until it was too steep.\u00a0 Then I started seeing Calvin and Axel, and so I would yell for them and turn around and look for them until I dimly realized they were not there.\u00a0 There was one thought that I managed to keep on the edge of my consciousness, and that was the necessity to get back to my pack.<\/p>\n When I finally saw my pack, it was like being pulled out of a deep sleep.\u00a0 I hurriedly put it on, and started down the hill.\u00a0 I realized that my little slumber into la-la land had cost me some significant time and I was afraid I would fall behind schedule.\u00a0 But my moment of wakefulness did not last long, and soon I found myself drifting asleep as I tried to jog down the trail.\u00a0 Each switchback by itself seemed to take an eternity.\u00a0 What I was experiencing is something I know of as the \u201cSleep Demons\u201d.\u00a0 That state you go into when you are desperately fighting off falling asleep, yet at the same time your brain starts going crazy and you begin to hallucinate.<\/p>\n Then I passed the turnoff To South Colony Lakes, and had to deal with some overgrown willows on a very muddy and swampy trail.\u00a0 I found a clear running stream and decided to stop and refill my water, and I didn\u2019t even bother purifying it.\u00a0 Soon I made it back to the dry trail, and the last seemingly neverending mile to the old trailhead at 11,000 feet.\u00a0 Laying next to the old trailhead sign I found my down hill bike waiting where it was supposed to be, and it was a beautiful sight.\u00a0 I was happy to have the chance to get off my feet.<\/p>\n I turned on my bike light and started riding down the road at about 2:25 am.\u00a0 For some reason, in the dark the road seemed like nothing but mud and rocks.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t remember all of this on the way up.\u00a0 On the way up it seemed like a normal dry but rocky dirt road.\u00a0 But now it was mudcrossing after mudcrossing, after large rock gardens.\u00a0 It felt like it did not let up all the way down to the Upper trailhead where Homie was waiting for me.\u00a0 Somehow, even in the dark I had managed to ride just about everything, as I only had to get off the bike for one small climb.\u00a0 All of the dirt biking with the heavy motorcycle made the mountain bike feel like a toy that I could maneuver through anything!<\/p>\n I pulled in to the trailhead at about 2:45 am and I found Homie at his van.\u00a0 I was completely covered in mud.\u00a0 He opened the door to his van, and I was blinded by the immaculately clean, shiny interior of his big van.\u00a0 This thing was total luxury compared to my Eurovan, with a spacious bed, a kitchen, shelves, and more.\u00a0 I was instantly overcome by van envy.\u00a0 I felt very guilty to contaminate the clean interior with my muddy self, but Homie allowed me to climb onto the bed so I could rest while he drove us down to James at the lower Trailhead.\u00a0 Homie drove down the nasty road with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the bike.<\/p>\n I can only describe the ride like the game of \u201ccrack the egg\u201d on a trampoline.\u00a0 I was trying to keep my legs elevated but on the bumps I would bounce high into the air and come back down bouncing off the bed.<\/p>\n We made it down to the lower trailhead at about 3:10 pm, and according to our estimates, with about 2 hours and 50 minutes until 6:00 am we would be able to get to Culebra in time!\u00a0 I thanked Homie, who was going to meet me on Blanca the next day, and climbed into the Pathfinder to sleep while James drove to Culebra. Culebra:\u00a0 The race to the trailhead.<\/strong><\/p>\n When I awoke James was driving very fast down a remote country road.\u00a0 He was lost.\u00a0 I was surprised because the directions as described in Roach\u2019s book are pretty easy to follow.\u00a0 However he was using a GPS and it had led him astray.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know the exact time, but inside I was cursing because I had worked so hard the day before so we could make it to Culebra on time, and now that was in jeopardy because of a simple, unnecessary navigational mistake.<\/p>\n After several u-turns and lots of speeding where I nearly feared for my life, James retraced his steps and got back on track.\u00a0 We arrived at the gate around 5:30 am, with much more time to spare than I had counted on.\u00a0 There there was a long line of cars waiting for the gate to open.\u00a0 I hoped they didn\u2019t mind as James drove to the front of the line.\u00a0 I got out and said hello to Andrea, who had been waiting for us after climbing Culebra the day before with Kim, Will, and Calvin.\u00a0 Soon the ranch manager arrived, and after talking to us for a few minutes he graciously opened the gate and allowed me to go up the road without having to go through the step of stopping at the ranch house.\u00a0 I gratefully thanked him and said goodbye to everyone and sped up the road.\u00a0 It was pure joy to cruise up the relatively smooth, steep road until my GPS read 11,000 feet.\u00a0 I parked the dirt bike and began the long walk along the road to the upper trailhead at 6:04 am.\u00a0 The first cars from the others hikers began arriving at the upper trailhead just as I arrived.\u00a0 I headed onto the grassy slopes for the enjoyable hike up towards Culebra.\u00a0 I find grassy slopes to be much more pleasant to hike on than scree and rocks, and I was a good mood as I listened to piano music on the way up the hill.<\/p>\n Culebra has a couple of nasty false summits, but I was ready for them and was not demoralized at all as I climbed past one and then another.\u00a0 It was a beautiful morning and I was feeling like a new person after fighting the sleep demons on Humboldt.<\/p>\n I reached the summit at 8:01 am, sent my satellite tracker message, and immediately turned around.\u00a0 After dropping several hundred feet I started seeing the hikers coming up Culebra.\u00a0 It was day 4 and I had seen almost nobody else up in the mountains so far.\u00a0 Most of the people I passed knew I was out to set the record, and shouted encouragement to me.\u00a0 It is amazing how a little bit of encouragement from complete strangers can lift your spirits.\u00a0 For the first time I became emotional and tears nearly came to my eyes as people encouraged me, and I was able to jog down the rock fields with a new fire to succeed in my heart.<\/p>\n As luck would have it, I unintentionally veered too far rght on the way down, and ended up at the very top of some snowfields that saved me several hundred feet of descending.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t very sleep and I was able to lift up my legs and slide down at a very comfortable speed.<\/p>\n Soon I reached the road and I slowly jogged all the way back down to the motorcycle.\u00a0 I was annoyed because now my tracker indicated that I was about 20 feet higher than where I wanted to be to satisfy the 3000 foot rule, about a 50 foot swing from what it was reading in the morning.\u00a0 So rather than hopping on the motorcycle I decided to hike down the hill for a ways until the altitude was reading what I wanted, and I marked my finish time as 9:26 am, then I went back up to the motorcycle to begin the ride back to the gate.<\/p>\n In the warmth of the morning light, I descended the steep road into the trees.\u00a0 The air was like a thick fog of mosquitos and other flying insects.\u00a0 It would truly be an unpleasant place to take a nap.\u00a0 It was the largest cloud of bugs I had ever seen, and that includes a long adventure race on Michigan\u2019s Upper Peninsula.\u00a0 I continued down the road and saw a couple of bears running in the distance, and then stopped at the ranch house.\u00a0 I signed the book, and on the way out was greeted by one of the residents who wished me well on the adventure.\u00a0 When I made it out to the gate by 10:00 am, Andrea was holding the gate open, and I sped through and parked by the pathfinder.\u00a0 Someone had made us fresh cinnamon rolls and I sat down and enjoyed a plate of them.\u00a0 Real food had not tasted very good lately, but those cinnamon rolls were delicious and warm and melted in my mouth.<\/p>\n Andrea worked on my feet, while James packed up the dirt bike.\u00a0 It was now hot outside, and the back of the pathfinder was not very pleasant.\u00a0 I climbed in and we set off for the infamous Lake Como road.\u00a0 I was terrified about what was to come.<\/p>\n Little Bear, Blanca, Ellingwood, and Lindsay: The road of Doom!<\/strong><\/p>\n The truth is that I had lost all confidence in my dirt biking abilities on tough, rocky terrain over the last several days.\u00a0 Still, I had saved a lot of travel time by using the dirt bike and despite all my crashes had come out of it in one piece.<\/p>\n But now we were heading to the road known as the toughest road in Colorado.\u00a0 I still had confidence that I could make it.\u00a0 After all, if a car can make it, so can a dirt bike!\u00a0 Or so I thought\u2026<\/p>\n It was extremely hot when we arrived at 10:45 am at the Lake Como trailhead.\u00a0 I put on all of my motorcycle gear for protective purposes, drank as much as I could, put on my pack and started up the road.\u00a0 James would be driving up in his 4Runner to pick up the dirt bike.<\/p>\n I left at 11:00 am, and the first part of the road was basically a sand pit.\u00a0 I was fishtailing all around just trying to stay upright.\u00a0 Then the terrain changed to small fist sized rocks.\u00a0 This short section was no problem, unfortunately it didn\u2019t last long and soon the road was composed entirely of mid-sized boulders, probably averaging the size of a soccer ball.\u00a0 The problem I was having was that there was no line that I could follow through the rocks.\u00a0 The only way to go was just to give the motorcycle gas and hang on, trying to avoid the biggest obstacles.\u00a0 It was extremely hard work.\u00a0 Some hikers were in the road and didn\u2019t move over enough so I ran off the road just in front of them.\u00a0 Restarting was difficult because you need speed to get over the boulders.\u00a0 What was crazy was the consistent difficulty of the road.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t spots where I could catch my breath.\u00a0 I ended up staying on the bike, but running off the road and needing to stop and restart several times.\u00a0 I was dripping sweat, my clothes were soaking and sweat was pouring down my neck.\u00a0 Then I reached the first \u201creal\u201d obstacle on the road for SUV\u2019s.\u00a0 It is a steep section with large boulders that leads up to a switchback.\u00a0 I thought if I could get to the switchback the difficulty would ease.\u00a0 I tried my hardest, but crash once, twice, then three times.\u00a0 Each time the bike fell I was OK, but gas would come pouring out and I would immediately shut the bike off, and then restart it.\u00a0 About halfway up the hill to the switchback, after I had wrestled the bike upright again after my fourth or fifth crash, I had to stop for a break.\u00a0 I was completely soaked, and breathing harder than I had at any time in the record attempt so far.\u00a0 I heard a car driving up behind me.\u00a0 How embarrassing!\u00a0 To be passed by a car while on the dirt bike!\u00a0 However, It was none other than James, Calvin, Will, and Andrea!\u00a0 I parked the bike, and thanked goodness that James had been coming up behind me.\u00a0 They made room for me in the car and I hopped in, first posing for a loser shot of me with my helmet on.\u00a0 It was 11:20 am, and the last 20 minutes had been some of the most intense of my life.<\/p>\n So, to those who advised me against dirt biking up Lake Como road\u2026You were right, and are all invited on my official 14er advisory board!<\/p>\n James and his 4Runner were amazing going up the Lake Como road.\u00a0 James never even slowed down to look at the hard spots (although the road is mostly all hard spots), he just kept up steady momentum and the car performed admirably.\u00a0 In several places people with Razr\u2019s or nice vehicles hurried to get out of our way as James motored up the road.\u00a0 We were all blown away, the road seemed much worse this year than any of us ever remembered.\u00a0 I never would have made it up.\u00a0 The difficulty never eased and I would have had to walk if James hadn\u2019t rescued me.<\/p>\n Finally we arrived at Jaws 1 right at about 12:00 pm, the first truly insane obstacle on the road.\u00a0 Most stock vehicles have to stop at this point, and it is also close to 3000 feet below Little Bear, so it is near where we would have to stop anyway.\u00a0 James had arranged for a couple of his friends to meet up with me, two fellow 14ers.com members who had been planning on hiking in the area anyway.\u00a0 Waiting for me though had cost them their entire morning, so I felt a little bad about that, but was excited to have some company.\u00a0 It makes a huge mental difference to be able to hike with others.\u00a0 Ryan (Monster5 on 14ers.com) and Steve (Marmot72) were ready to go.<\/p>\n We said goodbye to everyone in the vehicle, I wished James good luck in riding out on the motorcycle, and headed up the rocky trail.\u00a0 It was still very hot.\u00a0 Ryan and Steve both carried extra weight so that I wouldn\u2019t have to carry my pack until we reached the 3000 foot line.\u00a0 We moved uphill at a solid hiking pace, and before long passed Lake Como.\u00a0 I decided to skip the standard route up Little Bear.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t my favorite route because I figured there would be a bunch of ice in the dangerous hourglass couloir, and I didn\u2019t want to be a target for someone knocking rocks down on us from above.\u00a0 I also didn\u2019t want to be the one knocking rocks down on to people below.<\/p>\n Instead I chose the Northwest Face.\u00a0 Ironically, this is the scene of one of my worst ever experiences on a 14er.\u00a0 This is one of the few routes where Roach has drawn a line on an actual picture of the mountain, to help with routefinding.\u00a0 Back in 1999, despite my own instinct that the line he chose was a pretty poor choice, I followed it and ended up clinging for my life on a slightly overhung wall with one hand holding onto a muddy clump of moss.\u00a0 However, in 2013 I came up and found a much better way up.<\/p>\n For anyone interested, and this is how to get past the first steep headwall in the northwest face, there is a watermark that resembles a black hand.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want to be anywhere near this watermark.\u00a0 Instead, you want to come up just to the left of the watermark\/shallow couloir that is about 100 yards right of the black hand.\u00a0 From here you do an ascending traverse to the left on ledges that will eventually take you above the black hand.\u00a0 The difficulty on this route does not exceed class 3 (of course up above near the ridge there is still some class 4).<\/p>\n We advanced up the basin to some shallow lakes.\u00a0 Since we could potentially not see any water again, we opted to drink our fill, and fill up our water bottles.\u00a0 I also switched to my approach shoes, as the rest of the day was going to be full of scrambling, and the hokas would not be a good choice to continue with.<\/p>\n From the lakes we started ascending steep talus slopes for several hundred feet to reach the base of the rocky face.\u00a0 We took the class 3 route I mentioned above to avoid the first headwall, and climbed quickly up the next section of the route, which is a pleasant class 3 climb up various ledges.\u00a0 I was very impressed with Ryan and Steve.\u00a0 I could tell that Ryan was having no trouble at all and could have easily passed me and left me in the dust.<\/p>\n About two thirds of the way up the face steepens, and it becomes much more of a rock climb.\u00a0 We zigzagged up the path of least resistance aiming just right of a knob on the ridge above.\u00a0 The last part of the climb is very steep and exposed and is where you run into the crux of the climb.\u00a0 We reached the ridge, part of the famously exposed Little Bear Blanca traverse.\u00a0 The ridge is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been on a Colorado 14er.\u00a0 It is amazing how the exposure continues and goes on and on, on both sides of the peak.\u00a0 From where we gained the ridge we had to turn right and head up to Little Bear, then back track and follow the ridge for about a mile to Blanca.<\/p>\n Most 14er record attempters avoid the Little Bear Blanca ridge.\u00a0 For a strong runner it probably makes sense to avoid it.\u00a0 For someone slower on the trail but good at scrambling it can make sense to take the traverse, especially in good weather and if you don\u2019t mind the exposure.<\/p>\n Ryan and I left our packs and headed up to Little Bear, with Steve a little ways behind.\u00a0 The steep exposed ridge was very fun.\u00a0 Perhaps this is an additional benefit of the traverse, the huge rush of adrenaline.\u00a0 We quickly attained the summit and turned around immediately at 2:24 pm.\u00a0 We noticed that Steve still had his pack on, and was moving a little slower on the ridge.\u00a0 I reluctantly decided to just go on ahead, and when Ryan and I reached our packs again, I said goodbye and headed on my way.\u00a0 I was feeling good and wanted to set a fast time across the ridge.\u00a0 So I took every shortcut possible.\u00a0 Steve and Ryan decided to follow the ridge for the entire time, and it is amazing how quickly they moved.\u00a0 However, by skipping some of the ridgeline by traversing down to the left or right I was able to move quicker.\u00a0 The second half of the ridge is less exposed and had one long section where I traversed down some talus and then reascended the ridge via a gulley.\u00a0 During the climb out of this gully I started to feel a little fatigued, and my pace slowed.<\/p>\n Finally I neared the end of the ridge, my time was about an hour and a half, that is a decent time for the traverse, although I had been hoping to pull it off quicker.\u00a0 I wondered if Homie was up on top of Blanca waiting for me, and I yelled up to two people I saw on the summit.\u00a0 I must have been too far away because they didn\u2019t hear me.\u00a0 I was feeling very fatigued, and I realized it wasn\u2019t necessary to go up to the summit of Blanca, and instead traversed the north side.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t necessary to go up yet because I would be coming back over Blanca on my way to Lindsey.<\/p>\n The traverse to Ellingwood always looks harder than it actually is, and was surprisingly enjoyable.\u00a0 It only took about 45 minutes to get to the top of Ellingwood, which I summited at about 4:40 pm.\u00a0 I opened up my pack to get some of my sustained energy.\u00a0 I turned around and on the way down I stopped at a trickle of water melting from some ice and slurped up water.\u00a0 I was getting in the habit of eating lots of snow and ice in order to keep my throat from getting too dry.\u00a0 I had developed an annoying cough, probably because I had been sick before the start, and somehow it had moved into my lungs because of the exertion of the past few days.\u00a0 I passed Ryan and Steve at the low point on the connecting ridge with Blanca, and said goodbye, as they were continuing north to climb some 13ers after climbing Ellingwood.<\/p>\n Staying on the ridgeline going up Blanca was enjoyable, and I made it to the summit at about 5:20 pm.\u00a0 I met a guy coming down who was hiking with his daughter, and all of a sudden I realized that I didn\u2019t see my headlamp in my pack.\u00a0 Could my crew have forgotten to put that in the pack?\u00a0 Holy Crap!\u00a0 That could be a disaster.\u00a0 I felt around and didn\u2019t feel it back there, but didn\u2019t feel like wasting daylight by hunting for it right now.\u00a0 After all, it was either there or it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t see Homie on Blanca, and so alone I began to descend the Gash Ridge of Blanca.\u00a0 I had only scouted out the Gash Ridge the year before, and it was fairly technical for someone like myself who is not a great rock climber.\u00a0 In the past I had always used the Winchell Lakes traverse which generally took me about 5 hours.\u00a0 However, this year I was not compromising on my routes!\u00a0 I was excited about this day because looking back I knew I wouldn\u2019t have any regrets, I was trying to eke out every possible hour to give myself a chance to crack the 10 day barrier!<\/p>\n As I started descending the Gash Ridge, I noticed a stiff wind coming in from the north.\u00a0 It looked look a pretty big storm heading straight at me.\u00a0 It was already nearing Ellingwood.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 As luck would have it I was looking at my first storm of the adventure and it happened to be bearing down on me as I was nearing the 5.3 crux of the day\u2026actually the technical crux of the entire 14er attempt (assuming of course that I didn\u2019t screw up massively somewhere).<\/p>\n Sure enough, just as I neared the 5.3 downclimb, a steep slab with a small crack running through it, it started hailing and raining.\u00a0 Fortunately there was no lightning to scare me, but I was pretty sad to have to downclimb this part while it was wet.\u00a0 I took it easy, thanking providence for my approach shoes, which managed to give me a firm grip despite the wetness.<\/p>\n In my mind I had only considered the crux.\u00a0 I was surprising at how difficult the rest of the climb was all the way down to the Gash, the large namesake notch in the ridge.\u00a0 I stepped deliberately and carefully, fully aware that one misstep could lead to my doom.<\/p>\n After crossing the gash, the rain stopped, and the difficulty eased up.\u00a0 I was mentally drained so 1 stopped for a short 2 minute break to try to relax.\u00a0 I needed to know for sure if I had my headlamp or not, and dug way down and found it near the bottom of the pack.\u00a0 Good Job support crew!<\/p>\n Then I continued down the ridge.\u00a0 The last part of the ridge down to the lowpoint in the Lindsey-Blanca connecting ridge is another crux.\u00a0 Nearing the top of this difficult part, I finally saw Homie.\u00a0 He was waiting for me up on the ridge towards Lindsey.\u00a0 I waved and headed down.\u00a0 I think Homie enjoyed watching me navigate the descent.\u00a0 It was like navigating a maze.\u00a0 I would clear a section, then look down, left, and right, guessing which was the best route, and going with it.\u00a0 A couple of times I had to come back up.\u00a0 However, it was fun, like solving a puzzle.<\/p>\n It was just after 7:00 pm at the lowpoint, and that gave me two hours to get to Lindsey.\u00a0 I navigated around some crumbling towers, and then climbed up and met Homie where the crappy rocks turned into a nice grassy slope.\u00a0 My feet were a little sore so I decided to change back into the luxurious feeling Hokas.<\/p>\n I got a big kick out of Homie describing to me some of the discussions that were going on the 14ers.com website.\u00a0 His description of the commentary about my missing Blanca on the way to Ellingwood and the descent down Gash Ridge had me laughing.\u00a0 In good spirits we continued towards Lindsey.\u00a0 We ran into a couple of short snowfields on the way.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have my ax, but why walk when you can slide?\u00a0 I invented a new technique in the relatively soft snow that I would call the elbox ax, using my elbow to control my descent.\u00a0 Fortunately I did not bang the elbow on any rocks!\u00a0 Soon we had made our way around \u201cHuerfanito\u201d peak and began the ascent to Lindsey.\u00a0 At 13,000 feet we reached a saddle, and I made the mistake of leaving my Hokas on, it wasn\u2019t a game changing mistake, but would cause some difficulty on the class 3 ridge ahead.<\/p>\n Homie followed me up the ridge (I prefer to avoid the class 2+, loose gully and take the more solid ridge route instead) and we made it to the summit just as darkness was settling in.\u00a0 Even with Homie to talk to, I immediately felt the onslaught of the sleep demons.\u00a0 I was starting to lose my balance with each step, and felt the weight of my eyelids.<\/p>\n As we neared the difficult part of the ridge, I was having trouble because climbing down with the Hokas on was difficult.\u00a0 Homie had just commented on how I had a big advantage in the 14er routefinding because of all the time I spent on the routes with the kids.\u00a0 I agreed, and then managed to veer off the ridge to the right.\u00a0 Some how I managed to not only downclimb the hard part of the ridge, but I also ended up back in the loose gully that I was trying to avoid in the first place.\u00a0 Homie chose a better path and we both made it down to the trail, much further down that I had expected.\u00a0 I was kicking myself for not switching shoes, as I just didn\u2019t have any confidence on the sketchy terrain in the dark.<\/p>\n We made it back to the saddle at 13,000 feet, picked up our poles and packs and began the remaining descent.\u00a0 On the next steep section, I think I was annoying Homie.\u00a0 I was tired and all of the aches and pains over my body seemed to amplify.\u00a0 I must have sounded pretty ridiculous as with each footfall: \u201cOw, oooh, eee, ahhh\u201d all the way down.\u00a0 The trail leveled out for awhile, and at a low point where the trail was about to start climbing again, I made a quick stop.\u00a0 When we started going again I didn\u2019t realize it, but I had started back up in the direction we had come!\u00a0 Something didn\u2019t feel right, so I commented to Homie that although I knew we were on the right trail, something didn\u2019t seem quite right.\u00a0 Then I looked up at the North Star and realized my mistake.\u00a0 Doh!\u00a0 So much for my masters knowledge of the routes!<\/p>\n Back on track, we continued on down the trail and had to start making our way through some annoying snow drifts in the trees, and to Homie the descent must have sounded like a miserable song of tormented souls: \u201cOw , oooh, eee, eee, ah, Ow, Ow, #$%$#!\u201d.<\/p>\n The couple of miles of the trail was relatively flat and I was definitely walking like a drunk, veering left and right just doing what I could to keep my eyes open and stay on the trail.\u00a0 I was definitely feeling beat up.\u00a0 Both knees were in rough shape and my feet felt terrible.<\/p>\n It was a relief to get to the trailhead around 11:30 pm, and as expected the dirt bike was waiting for me.\u00a0 James and I had figured I could save time by dirt biking down, and now I was regretting that decision because I was so tired.\u00a0 I said goodbye to Homie, who was planning on taking a nap in his van, and started riding down the road.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know exactly where I was going, but figured my crew would be parked in an obvious location.<\/p>\n Usually the dirt bike gave me a shot of adrenaline, and would help fight off the sleep demons.\u00a0 However in this case that did not happen.\u00a0 My vision was blurry, and I was swerving left and right just trying to stay on the road.\u00a0 Thankfully it was steep but not too rocky, or I might have crashed often.<\/p>\n I was fighting hard to stay awake, and then as I looked forward something strange occurred.\u00a0 It was like a great black void.\u00a0 I could see the road ahead, but then somehow it just ended in\u2026nothing.\u00a0 Like you might imagine the edge of the universe.\u00a0 It took my foggy mind a moment to utter the command \u201cStop!\u201d\u00a0 But I wasn\u2019t stopping quickly enough so I braked as hard as I could, squeezing the front brake and stomping on the rear brake.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t make it, and crossed into the void, stopped and put my feet down.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the edge of the universe at all–it was a puddle.\u00a0 Now my feet were soaked.<\/p>\n You might think that would wake me up, but after a minute I was dozing off again.\u00a0 So I pulled over, parked the bike, and took a 2 minute nap, just to refresh my brain a little bit and allow my blurry vision to clear.\u00a0 It is amazing what a two minute nap can do, because after the minutes I jumped back on the bike and continued down, and soon thereafter I saw my van parked in a large pullout.<\/p>\n However, only the van was there, no sign of any other vehicles.\u00a0 I knocked on the van, and woke up Calvin, Axel, and my mom.\u00a0 When I asked where everyone was, she told me that Andrea had been in an accident (and that she was OK), and that James and Will were off trying to help here out.\u00a0 I guess they had a plan that I was to leave the motorcycle, get in the van, and continue with just my mom while everything was worked out.<\/p>\n I was in kind of a daze as I heard this.\u00a0 But I did as I was told and parked the bike, and climbed in the van.\u00a0 I started eating some cold pizza as my mom started driving down the road. Andrea\u2019s Accident<\/strong><\/p>\n As we drove down the road from the Huerfano trailhead, I was asking my mom about Andrea, but she didn\u2019t know any details, other than she had seen a deer and run off the road.\u00a0 I was depressed about the whole situation.<\/p>\n The support crew job is very hard.\u00a0 There is a lot of time where you have nothing to do, but then there are times when you have several different jobs, and you may be tired, and then have to drive 4 hours in the night.<\/p>\n I had always asked the crew to make sure they got plenty of sleep.\u00a0 James was always joking around with me that he was competing with me because of all the sleep deprivation and mileage he was getting just from supporting me.\u00a0 I wished he would take me seriously though and sleep whenever he could.\u00a0 I had also asked, although maybe James missed that meeting, everyone not to drive too fast, especially at night.\u00a0 For one thing, it is hard for me to sleep if I am getting bounced around the back of a vehicle or if I am slammed against the side of the van while trying to sleep as my mom performs a 2G turn at high speed.\u00a0 \u00a0But I was concerned about deer, as I have hit two of them, and about the drivers just being tired.\u00a0 I was never impressed with the stories of CaveDog\u2019s crew driving him around at high speed, I just didn\u2019t think it was necessary to put other people at risk for something like the 14er record.<\/p>\n It turns out that neither speed nor sleepiness was a factor in Andrea\u2019s accident.\u00a0 She had just driven down the road a little ways to get a cell phone signal so she could update our 14er blog.\u00a0 And on the way back she swerved to avoid a deer and ran straight into a pole.\u00a0 Fortunately the pole stopped her, because behind the pole there was a house and if she had run into the house this could have been a true disaster.<\/p>\n Covered in blood, she didn\u2019t really remember much of what happened after the crash, except she was able to tell the residents of the house that the crew was just up the road, so the family was able to find James and Will.<\/p>\n We saw the emergency lights on the road, and stopped at the scene of the accident.\u00a0 James came up and told us the details, and told us to keep going, and that he and Will would take care of Andrea, who they were going to force, against her will, to go to the hospital.\u00a0 However they were going to drive her to Denver so it was going to take some time.<\/p>\n It seemed ironic that Andrea was going to the hospital.\u00a0 It seems like before the attempt began if you were betting on who would end up in the hospital that I would be the odds on favorite!<\/p>\n Unfortunately, James only had liability insurance for his 4Runner, the vehicle that Andrea had been driving, and it was a total loss.\u00a0 I felt responsible, because if it weren\u2019t for me Andrea wouldn\u2019t have injured herself, and James would still have a car.\u00a0 And that car had saved the day on the Lake Como road earlier in the day.\u00a0 At least it had a good sendoff!\u00a0 After the record I decided to try to help James recover some of his cost by giving him the dirt bike.<\/p>\n I felt terrible for Andrea, but she was OK and wanted me to continue, and at this point there was nothing I could do to help.\u00a0 So we said our goodbyes and mom started the long drive to Pikes Peak.<\/p>\n Pikes Peak<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I fell asleep on the drive to Pikes.\u00a0 We chose a slightly longer route through Walsenburg that took us to I-25, because it would be easier to sleep on a nice straight road.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately I woke up after only sleeping for about an hour and just laid awake in the back of the van.\u00a0 It is so frustrating to be so tired, and to need sleep so badly, but not be able to go to sleep.<\/p>\n I felt the transition from pavement to dirt road and knew we must be on the turnoff to the Crag\u2019s Campground Trailhead, and that we only had a few minutes of drive time remaining.\u00a0 I was feeling very stiff and grumpy, and was rude to my mother.\u00a0 She parked in the lower part of the parking lot at about 3:40 am, but I wanted her to park in the upper part of the lot which would save me about 10 steps or so.\u00a0 I tried to explain to her where the trail was but she just wouldn\u2019t listen.\u00a0 I felt bad about getting short tempered with her over something so minor and just let it go.\u00a0 It is amazing what she will put up with.\u00a0 One thing about these sort of adventures is that you lose your ability to filter your thoughts.\u00a0 Anyone who remains your friend after putting up with you on something like this is a true friend.<\/p>\n At the trailhead one of Homie\u2019s friends was waiting for us in his car with his dad.\u00a0 Wes Thurman had also joined Homie for part of his 14er record attempt, and had found out when I would be at the Crags Campground trailhead.\u00a0 We said hello, and he left us alone to get packed up.\u00a0 Soon my pack was ready, I said goodbye, and Wes and I headed up the trail with our headlamps blazing at about 4:00 am.<\/p>\n It was great to have the Crags trail to hike on.\u00a0 It was an easy trail all the way to the summit.\u00a0 One of the few errors I think CaveDog made was avoiding Pikes at this point in his schedule because he wanted to climb Pikes in the day when he could use the road.\u00a0 That saved him about 1000 feet of elevation, but cost a half a day to drive to Pikes and back near the end of his record setting attempt.\u00a0 By doing Pikes now via the Crags trailhead the hike time would be longer, but I figured I would save a few hours of transition\/driving time.<\/p>\n I was definitely slower than Wes, who could have run circles around me all the way to the summit.\u00a0 Several times I doubled over in coughing fits, due to the annoying lung infection.\u00a0 Still, combined with the sleep I had in the van, and with having someone to talk to, I didn\u2019t have any trouble staying awake, and when the sun came up it I felt great.\u00a0 Once our route joined up with the road, we even jogged along it for a short distance.\u00a0 It was still too early in the morning for cars so we had the road all to ourselves.\u00a0 On the road we were treated to a spectacular view of the sun rising in the east.<\/p>\n We made the summit around 6:25 am, and immediately turned around.\u00a0 We jogged occasionally, although I was still feeling my knees and now an ankle was getting sore.\u00a0 The original plan was to have James hike my downhill bike up to 11,000 feet on the trail (bikes are allowed on that trail) and leave it there.\u00a0 However, I didn\u2019t know if he would be back yet, so I didn\u2019t know if the bike would be there or not.\u00a0 As we descended we started seeing people coming up\u2026lots of them\u2026hoards of them!\u00a0 For the first time it seemed like a normal, crowded 14er hike.\u00a0 As we rounded one corner there must have been a group of 50 people or so, and rather than stop we cut through the trees into a grassy meadow.<\/p>\n Then I realized we were below 11,000 feet.\u00a0 This was good because I had satisfied the requirements of the 3000 foot rule, and technically Wes was now my slave and could carry my pack.\u00a0 However it was bad because the very section where we missed the trail was where the downhill bike would have been waiting.\u00a0 Just to make sure it wasn\u2019t up there, Wes ran back up the trail to 11,300 feet.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t there, and on the way down I was very annoyed that I didn\u2019t have my bike on this smooth, beautiful trail (well, it did have a few rock gardens).<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know it, but Will had taken Andrea to the hospital in Denver, and James had gone home to Aspen to get some supplies and some sleep.\u00a0 So all the time I spent worrying about the bike was a waste of time.\u00a0 We continued down as I grumpily contemplated how much faster I would have gone with my bike.<\/p>\n When we crossed a stream and to my surprise, I saw Birdie (nickname for my 2 year old daughter Scarlett) and Luke (my 4 year old) hiking up the trail with my wife Natalie and my mother, Calvin, and Axel.\u00a0 Birdie took one look and came running with her arms open, and I ran to her and picked her up and threw her in the air.\u00a0 Just like that all my worries were forgotten as I happily hugged and kiss my kids.\u00a0 It was my emotional highlight of the entire trip.\u00a0 I put Birdie on my shoulders and we all hiked down to the trailhead together, which we reached at 8:25 am.<\/p>\n We happily regrouped at the trailhead.\u00a0 I talked to Natalie about my woes and she encouraged me and said I was doing great.\u00a0 She decided to join us on the drive to Buena Vista to help send me off on the next set of mountains.<\/p>\n Antero, Tabeguache, and Shavano:\u00a0 First Whiteout!<\/strong><\/p>\n I slept for another hour and a half in the back of the van while my mom drove to the Baldwin Gulch Trailhead for Mt. Antero.\u00a0 This would be the first of 3 days in the Sawatch range.\u00a0 The Sawatch peaks are much less technical than the San Juans and Sangre De Cristo ranges, and are better suited to ultra trailrunners than someone like me.<\/p>\n I had played with several options for how I would approach the first day.\u00a0 First, since I would be gone for most of the rest of the day, it was a perfect time for my mom to take Calvin and Axel to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort. I figured it would take about 8 or 9 hours for Antero, Shavano, and Tabeguache, and because the resort it right next to Mt. Princeton, I figured the crew wouldn\u2019t even have to move.\u00a0 I could stop by on my way up Princeton.\u00a0 I usually prefer going south to north on the 3 peaks, because in that direction there is more uphill, which is better for my knees.\u00a0 However, with the dirt bike I had the ability to get to 11,000 feet quickly up the Baldwin Gulch road towards Antero, and then I was hoping for a nice descent down the Angel of Shavano snowfield.<\/p>\n I also had a secret plan to have James move the dirt bike up to Brown\u2019s Lake while I was hiking, allowing me to significantly shorten my descent.\u00a0 However this idea would only work if the Antero road was completely clear of snow.\u00a0 We decided that after I dropped off the bike, James would come up and see if he could make it on the road.\u00a0 If so Brown\u2019s Lake would be the endpoint, otherwise I would drop all the way to the Shavano Trailhead.<\/p>\n We arrived at the lower Baldwin Gulch Trailhead at about 10:30 am, and James was there with the dirt bike.\u00a0 I ate, drank, packed, and fixed my feet.\u00a0 My mom wrapped my right knee with an ace bandage to help with the pain, and it seemed to work pretty well.\u00a0 When I was ready to go, I had to say goodbye to Natalie, Luke, and Bird who were heading back home.<\/p>\n I started up the 4 wheel drive road at about 10:50 am.\u00a0 The Baldwin Gulch road is actually a pretty rough road.\u00a0 Had it been something I faced on day 1, it probably would have roughed me up.\u00a0 However, considering that I had been manhandled on the Lake Como road yesterday, it seemed much easier.\u00a0 I flew up the trail at high speed.\u00a0 About 5 minutes up the road I noticed the smell of gasoline, and then I noticed that the gas cap was not screwed in.\u00a0 Gasoline was all over my coat, pants, and gloves.\u00a0 James must not have screwed it in properly when he refilled the tank.\u00a0 I checked and fortunately it looked like I still had a full tank, and screwed the cap back on.<\/p>\n I continued up the road, and didn\u2019t even pause at the big river crossing.\u00a0 It was wide but not very deep.\u00a0 Then I motored on up the road until I was at the 3000 foot rule starting point.\u00a0 While I was taking off my gear I noticed yet again that the GPS altimeter seemed to be lagging, and it was slowly saying I was higher and higher even though I was stopped.\u00a0 Rather than turning around I just walked down about 50 feet or so, then I headed up the rocky 4 wheel drive road at 11:18 pm.<\/p>\n Near treeline, I met a family riding down the road on some ATVs.\u00a0 I stopped them and asked them if the road was clear of snow.\u00a0 They said they tried, but there was one snowfield they could not get past, and they didn\u2019t think a motorcycle could make it either.\u00a0 So I sat down and sent James a satellite message to skip the Brown\u2019s Lake plan and just pick me up at the Shavano Trailhead.\u00a0 I also asked the ATVers to tell him if they saw him hiking up the road.<\/p>\n If the road is clear of snow, you can take it all the way to about 13,500 feet and within a \u00bd mile of the Antero summit.\u00a0 \u00a0However, as soon as the road veered left to begin switchbacks up Antero\u2019s west side, I left it and followed a grassy ridge heading straight up the peak.\u00a0 For the first time I felt like I had truly found my mountain legs.\u00a0 I just put my head down and walked straight up the hill without pausing for anything.\u00a0 When I crossed the road for the last time, I headed straight up a steep rock field that was fairly loose and unpleasant, until I crested the sub peak near the top of the Antero road.\u00a0 It seemed that my route was much faster than the road would have been.\u00a0 Then I turned and followed the ridge up to the summit of Antero, it was 1:00 pm.<\/p>\n I had been rapidly gaining ground on some folks hiking up Antero, and they had just summited ahead of me.\u00a0 Apparently I motivated them because they did not want to get beat by \u201cthat guy\u201d.\u00a0 Then they offered me some fireball whiskey.\u00a0 At first I declined, thinking that a strict interpretation of the rules might suggest that was illegal\u2014you can\u2019t receive support above 11,000 feet.\u00a0 But then I realized that was stupid, if anything the whiskey would slow me down.\u00a0 So I took a couple of swigs\u2026It tasted so good, it was all I could think about in terms of alcoholic drinks for the next couple of days!<\/p>\n Taking a quick glance around us, I noticed that there were storms all over the place.\u00a0 Storms north, south, and west.\u00a0 Currently Antero was fine though.\u00a0 I snapped some pictures of my new friends, then headed back down and started the long cross country traverse to Tabeguache.\u00a0 I slid down a short snowfield, and continued back to the Antero road.\u00a0 Once on the road I started jogging, and it was feeling pretty good so I just kept on jogging.\u00a0 I followed the road as it swung back west around Antero, then took a left fork and continued jogging south.<\/p>\n I have tried a couple of routes between Antero and Tabegauche.\u00a0 Basically there are two choices: extra elevation, or muddy swamp.\u00a0 I decided to go with muddy swamp.\u00a0 However, to avoid getting too bogged down I decided to stay west and aim for the saddle between Tabeguache and North Carbonate Mountain, a high 13er.<\/p>\n After a one hour jog I made it to a low point in the traverse at about 11,880 feet, with a small but raging creek to cross.\u00a0 Fortunately there was a snow bridge that covered about half the distance of the creek, and from there I was able to leap across into a thick patch of willows.\u00a0 The willows were taller than normal willows, and I tripped and fell down in a position where I was trapped.\u00a0 I tried a couple of times to get up, only to fall right back down.<\/p>\n Once I worked through the willows I was pleasantly surprised that most of the terrain was dry, and most of the willows were easily avoided.\u00a0 Still there was a couple of hundred yards of muddy wet bog to jump around in, but all in all it could have been much worse.\u00a0 I was happy with the route, and this was a wet year.\u00a0 It could be much drier at other times I suppose.<\/p>\n Then I saw a snowfield that aimed just left of the Tabegauche-North Carbonate Saddle, and I decided to use it.\u00a0 First I had another tentative hiking pole vault across a stream, then I headed up the snow until it died out.\u00a0 Then wet grassy slopes to the ridge.\u00a0 On this descent a short, furious snowstorm passed through that caused me to get out my warm gear, and once I the ridge I just left on my jacket because the wind was blowing so hard and the sun was hiding behind storm clouds.\u00a0 I continued up the ridge until I reached the summit at 4:07 pm.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think much of the weather yet, and began the mile long traverse to Shavano, making use of some more snowfields that took me down to the Tabeguache-Shavano saddle.\u00a0\u00a0 I have always enjoyed the traverse from the saddle up the ridge to Shavano\u2019s summit.\u00a0 The ridge crest is a fun combination of grassy slopes and big granite rocks.\u00a0 Everything was going great until I was within a few hundred feet of the summit\u2026<\/p>\n The wind had been pretty strong, and now Shavano and Tabeguache were being overtaken by one of the darks clouds that I had been luckily dodging all day.\u00a0 The clouds moved in and it started snowing, and the wind picked up.\u00a0 The wind was blowing so strong that the snow looked like it was blowing sideways.\u00a0 I made it to the summit at 4:45 pm.\u00a0 Thinking about the descent, I was faced with a dilemma.\u00a0 I could descend east immediately so my back was to the wind.\u00a0 The advantage was that I would drop down quickly and not have the cold snow blasting my face.\u00a0 The downside was that the rocks and grass were very slick.\u00a0 Another option was to head south and aim for the top of the Angel of Shavano snowfield, potentially a very quick way to get down.\u00a0 The downside is that I would have to continue ahead with my face in the wind and snow, and it would take longer to start descending, but the advantage was that I should be able to descend 1500 feet in a few minutes once on the snow.<\/p>\n I decided to go for the snow field (of course!).\u00a0 The wind was so intense it felt like hurricane force winds.\u00a0 I had to lean to my right into the wind in order to be able to stand up straight, and my hands and the exposed part of my face were frozen.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t see very well in the whiteout, but continued plodding along following the ridge south of the summit of Shavano.\u00a0 The wind only intensified as I dropped onto the long broad saddle between Shavano and the peak to its south.\u00a0 Finally I was able to turn left and put my back in the wind, and make it to the snowfield.<\/p>\n The snowfield had melted out like a golf ball, with pits all over the place, and it was very dirty.\u00a0 However, there was a path that people had been using to glissade on.\u00a0 Over the weeks, the path must have been used multiple times to compress the snow beneath it, and all the snow around it had melted out much more quickly.\u00a0 This resulted in what looked something like a raised bobsled track.\u00a0 I was looking for to this!\u00a0 I pulled out my ice ax and began to descend.\u00a0 At first it wasn\u2019t very steep so I descended at a reasonable speed.\u00a0 Unlike a normal descent, where you use you ax to control your speed.\u00a0 This time all I was trying to do was stay on the track.\u00a0 So I would use the ax to try to make adjustments to keep me on the track as I slid down the hill.\u00a0 A few times I failed, veered off the track, and was rewarded with some hard snow in my rear end.<\/p>\n Then I made it to the steep part of the Angel of Shavano, and continued right down at high speed.\u00a0 When I finally came to a rest at the bottom, I stood up and noticed something was wrong.\u00a0 My pants were totally filled with snow, so I had to dance around to shake it all out.\u00a0 I had ripped a hole in the butt of my pants and the snow had filled up the pants as I careened down the hill.\u00a0 It had come down about 1000 feet in 8 minutes, I wish I could always descend that fast!<\/p>\n I was still in a pretty strong, consistent wind, but it was much tamer than it had been above.\u00a0 What I was more upset about was that now it was not snowing anymore.\u00a0 Instead it was raining!\u00a0 One thing about the snow, it may be cold, but at least you don\u2019t get soaked\u2026I continued straight down the path of least resistance, knowing that after descending about another 1000 feet I should join up with the standard route up Shavano.\u00a0 Soon I was in a forest, expecting to run into the main trail, but it didn\u2019t come.\u00a0 Instead I found myself navigating around fallen trees.\u00a0 They were all over the place. \u00a0I took a couple of hard falls on the slick forest floor, but just continued heading east.\u00a0 I was annoyed that it was taking so long to find the trail, so eventually I turned to the left, believing it was on that side.\u00a0 Fortunately, that was a good idea and I found the trail right at about 11,000 feet, and the rain finally stopped so that lifted my spirits.<\/p>\n Not one minute after I found the trail, I saw James coming up the trail.\u00a0 Well, that was perfect timing\u2026however, we just barely avoided a disaster.\u00a0 If he had gone up the trail just a little further I wouldn\u2019t have seen him since I was off the main trail.\u00a0 I might have gone down, made it to the trailhead, and then had no idea what happened to James.\u00a0 He might have waited for a long time before heading down.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t seem to understand what a disaster we had narrowly averted.\u00a0 Sometimes you just get lucky!<\/p>\n According to the 3000 foot rule, it was now legal for James to carry my pack, so he took my pack and I followed him down the trail.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t noticed the storm above and made fun of me for how brutal I made it out to be\u2026Oh how I wish he could have suffered with me!\u00a0 He was faster on the rocky trail, and I had to drop back a little bit.\u00a0 I was pretty beat up, wet, and cold, and that storm had turned my earlier enthusiasm into melancholy.<\/p>\n We ran into Homie near the trailhead, a surprise to me since I didn\u2019t know he would still be around.\u00a0 (That meant if I had missed James, at least Homie would have been there to take me to the next mountain, but James would have been temporarily left behind).\u00a0 We reached the trailhead at about 6:15 pm.\u00a0 I climbed into Homie\u2019s van, and because Homie had a microwave in his van, I was able to eat my first warm food in several days.\u00a0 That warm pizza tasted so good, I started to recover from how depressed I was after the storm.<\/p>\n Then I just laid down on the bed, and James started doctoring my knees, ankles, and feet while I fell asleep for another 45 minutes.<\/p>\n Mt. Princeton: The return of the sleep demons.<\/strong><\/p>\n We arrived at the Frontier Ranch Trailhead (the bottom of the road) on Mt. Princeton at about 7:10 pm.\u00a0 I was happy to see Andrea again, although she looked pretty terrible.\u00a0 Here we were on day 5, I was supposed to be the person that looked all beat up!<\/p>\n At 7:25 pm, I picked up my fresh pack and climbed onto the motorcycle.\u00a0 I said goodbye to James, Andrea, Kim, and Homie and started up the road.\u00a0 This road is amazing smooth for a 14er road, and it was a fast ride up to 11,000 feet, although the spot my GPS indicated was the start was right on a long narrow section of road with nowhere to park, so it took a little bit of work to turn the bike around and park it in such a manner as to not block the road if someone else came driving down.<\/p>\n I started hiking at 7:41 pm.\u00a0 Homie told me about a faster way up to the trail than following the road, so I followed his instructions and indeed found a pretty decent way to save a few minutes on the hike up the hill.\u00a0 I had a pretty good idea that the sleep demons would be coming for me as soon as it was dark.\u00a0 So I drank a 5 hour energy, hoping it would give me enough energy to make it back down without getting too tired.\u00a0 Princeton is not my favorite mountain.\u00a0 Viewed from the east, it is an impressive looking mountain.\u00a0 But I have just never liked the trail.\u00a0 After a short jaunt on a trail that leaves the road and continues up a grassy slope, it turns into a rock field of unpleasant, sharp boulders that are loose, and most of the route contours across this terrain, it just is not very pleasant.\u00a0 It got dark just before I summited, and despite the energy drink I immediately felt the attack of the sleep demons.<\/p>\n It was a struggle to finish the peak, which I summited at 9:46 pm, and now in the dark I turned around and tried to descend.\u00a0 If you have read this far, you probably have an idea of what I will describe next.\u00a0 Blurred vision, walking like a drunk, having trouble staying balanced, I went through all of this as usual.\u00a0 I also tried stopping a couple of times to close my eyes for a few minutes.\u00a0 I started hallucinating that Axel was hiking with me, and I remember turning back to wait for him, yelling \u201cAXEL!\u201d, and wondering why he wasn\u2019t there.\u00a0 Then I would realize where I was and continue down.\u00a0 Luckily I found the same short cut on the way down, and made it down to the motorcycle just after midnight.\u00a0 It had taken longer to descend than to go up.<\/p>\n I changed into my motorcycle clothes and carefully drove it down the road, taking it pretty slow because of my untrustworthy vision and slow reflexes.\u00a0 I pulled into the trailhead at about 12:38 pm, and desperately tried to turn away some food from James.\u00a0 I climbed in the van and fell asleep immediately.\u00a0 At this point I was really getting sick of solid food, in fact I would imagine while hiking down what I could say to James to make him stop making me eat so much food.\u00a0 At least I still like the taste of the sustained energy, I was confident I could get by on that powder alone.\u00a0 But that is one of the unheralded jobs of the support crew, having to force it down very ungrateful people like me\u2026 Mt. Yale<\/strong><\/p>\n We arrived at the Denny Creek Trailhead for Mt. Yale at about 1:10 pm.\u00a0 I was only about an hour behind schedule but was so beat up that I asked for about an hour and a half of sleep.<\/p>\n Originally I considered going straight from Yale to Columbia.\u00a0 It would probably save me a little time, although it is rugged terrain.\u00a0 However, I decided a little bit of time with the support crew before the huge effort to come would be worth the extra time.\u00a0 So I just chose to do an out and back on the standard route of Mt. Yale.<\/p>\n When I woke up I was feeling pretty battered.\u00a0 I slowly set out at about 2:57 am, and made my way up the trail in the dark.\u00a0 I was tired but the little bit of rest refreshed my mind so I didn\u2019t have to fight off the sleep demons anymore.\u00a0 I just plodded along listening to music thinking of nothing but the next step.<\/p>\n I had a little trouble staying on the trail in the forest due to some snow, but was always able to find the trail again.\u00a0 The sky was just starting to turn light as I made it to the ridge, and I was on the summit at 5:44 am.<\/p>\n Down at 10,700 feet I ran into Kim, who was hiking up the trail looking for me.\u00a0 She had just arrived after a couple of days off, and was going to stay until the end.\u00a0 She took my pack and we walked together down to the trailhead, which we reached at 7:44 am.<\/p>\n Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, Belford, and Missouri: Asthma, Whiteout Round 2, and Ice on Mt. Missouri.<\/strong><\/p>\n For the first time it seemed like we had the whole support crew there.\u00a0 James, Andrea, Kim, Will, Mom, Calvin, and Axel.\u00a0 We piled into the vehicles and I tried to catch another 45 minutes of sleep on the drive to the North Cottonwood Trailhead for the start of Columbia Peak.<\/p>\n We all arrived at the trailhead at about 8:30 am, and it took about 20 minutes to get ready to go.\u00a0 I was expecting to be away from the crew for about 15 hours, so my pack was pretty heavy.\u00a0 Now that everyone on support was here, things were starting to operate much more smoothly.\u00a0 Andrea had settled into her role as medic, Kim would prepare my pack, James was my chief strategist and navigator, and Mom and Will would fill in wherever necessary.\u00a0 I loved having Calvin and Axel along, I felt that no matter what happened with me, it would be a great experience for them.<\/p>\n At 8:48 am I was ready to go.\u00a0 James decided to hike Columbia and Harvard with me, and I was grateful to have someone carry my pack all the way to 11,000 feet. \u00a0We weren\u2019t hiking particularly fast, but the weather was nice, and my spirits were up.\u00a0 I was optimistic about being able to beat my expected splits.<\/p>\n There was lots of snow in the trees near treeline, and I missed the normal turnoff to Columbia.\u00a0 However we found another trail that we were able to follow to the base of Columbia\u2019s steep southwest slopes.\u00a0 Many people malign this route up Columbia, but for some reason I have always enjoyed it.\u00a0 Probably because it so steep that I can achieve a pretty ascent speed.\u00a0 Just maintaining a steady pace we were averaging about 2000 feet per hour once we were on the steep slopes.\u00a0 James didn\u2019t seem to be having any trouble keeping up with me, and I noticed that I was breathing pretty hard.<\/p>\n One nasty part about Columbia is that once you gain the ridge, which looks like the summit from down below, you see the actual summit which appears to be a mile away on the ridge.\u00a0 And that is not the actual summit either, once you reach that point you see the real summit off in the distance again.\u00a0 By the time we were between the false summit and the actual summit, the wind had come in and a dark cloud appeared over us.\u00a0 I put on some warm stuff, but the storm didn\u2019t materialize.\u00a0 However I did notice storms off in the distance to the north and west.<\/p>\n We reached the summit at 11:32 am, and immediately continued towards Mt. Harvard.\u00a0 The Columbia to Harvard traverse is not my favorite traverse.\u00a0 It starts with steep loose boulders, you have to drop all the way to 12,400 feet, and then there are something like seven false summits as you near Harvard.\u00a0 As you might expect, I aimed toward the first snowfield that I could find and slid down the soft snow.\u00a0 James stayed a little behind me and we continued down steep boulders until we reached a very steep, loose drop off.\u00a0 We descended this loose rocky slope for about 100 feet before finding another snowfield that we gleefully descended all the way to the lowpoint of the traverse.<\/p>\n We filled up our water bottles and began the 2000 foot climb to Harvard up very nice grassy slopes.\u00a0 The seven false summits of Harvard didn\u2019t seem so bad today, perhaps they seemed terrible because in the last few years I have always had the kids on this part, and each and every false summit seems more horrible than the next when the kids are on the trip.<\/p>\n We reached the summit at 1:56 pm.\u00a0 James headed back down to the North Cottonwood Trailhead, and alone again I descended north on the rugged, seldom climbed route down to Pine Creek on the traverse to Oxford.\u00a0 My goal for the day was to get off Missouri (perhaps the most treacherous route on the Sawatch peaks if you choose the East Ridge) before dark.\u00a0 It was going to be close.<\/p>\n I started descending large boulders and shortly I ran into a superman kite.\u00a0 I wondered about this kite and how far it had flown.\u00a0 Pretty amazing to fly so far and come to rest right near the summit of the state\u2019s third highest peak!<\/p>\n The bad news was that Missouri, Oxford, and Belford were in the midst of a storm, and snow was blowing up the mountain from down in the valley below.\u00a0 I was still in snow but was headed straight at the dark clouds.\u00a0 A stiff wind was blowing the storms through quickly and I hoped it would clear before I reached the mountains ahead.<\/p>\n Given that I was downclimbing the north side of Harvard, I hoped for some large snowfields to glissade, but was disappointed.\u00a0 For some reason this side of Harvard was pretty dry.\u00a0 I had completed this traverse about 4 times before, and rather than looking for a quicker route I just followed the route that I was used to.\u00a0\u00a0 It was nice to be here in the daytime, as with Calvin and Axel we usually travel slow enough that we end up bushwhacking this in the dark, which seriously complicates the traverse.<\/p>\n It was difficult going down the ridge with snow blowing hard straight up the mountain into my face, but the storm relented as I followed a finger of talus into the forest below treeline.\u00a0 Pine Creek was littered with fallen trees and I was able to cross the raging stream by walking across a maze of crisscrossing trees.\u00a0 Then a little more bushwhacking to reach the trail that ascends the valley, a right turn to a large grassy meadow, and up and into a thick band of short aspens that guard access to a talus field that avoids the thick trees on the steep slopes up Oxford.\u00a0 The sun was out, but the wind was still fierce and to the west I could see some dark clouds moving in.<\/p>\n In this talus field I started having trouble breathing.\u00a0 It was a strange sensation for me, because no matter what it just didn\u2019t seem like I could catch my breath.\u00a0 Yesterday I had covered 3000 feet on similarly steep terrain on antero in about 1:40 minutes.\u00a0 Today I was moving nearly twice as slow, a couple of times after moving a little too fast I even fell to the ground breathing heavily, just unable to catch my breath.\u00a0 It was pretty scary, and anticipating a slow ascent I sent a message warning my team that I was about 1:30 behind schedule.\u00a0 By the time I reached the top of Oxford, it was 6:25 pm, so the traverse had only taken 30 minutes longer than in my plan, despite my breathing problems.\u00a0 However, it was more demoralizing that you might think because now that I know the traverse route so well I was secretly hoping to gain an hour on the traverse.\u00a0 Instead I was a total of about 2:15 behind schedule.\u00a0 So in my mind I felt like I was way behind.<\/p>\n As I started the much easier, 1 mile traverse to Belford, I was headed into some very dark clouds.\u00a0 The wind was blowing hard right in my face.\u00a0 After descending to the saddle between the two peaks, I slowly moved up the hill, at a pace where breathing was difficult but not bad enough to send me to the ground.\u00a0 I sounded like Darth Vader nearing death as a wheezing sound escaped my mouth with every exhale.<\/p>\n I reached the summit of Belford 7:26 pm, in the thick of a full on summer Blizzard.\u00a0 The wind was blowing so hard I could barely stand, and the snow was blowing straight up the mountain into my face.\u00a0 By the time I turned and descended toward Elkhead pass there was already an inch of snow all over the mountain.\u00a0 I convinced myself that the support crew was completely worried about me.\u00a0 And I expected that James would be heading up to find me and give me some company on the way off of Missouri, which I was now very likely to be descending in the dark.<\/p>\n Speaking of Missouri, this was the peak I had been dreading all day.\u00a0 Although I have climbed the East Ridge several times, perhaps it is the ridge\u2019s horrible reputation as a loose, dangerous pile of crap that always makes me nervous about it.\u00a0 The last time I had the opportunity to climb it, with Calvin, Axel, and Andrea, I chickened out and hiked down to Missouri\u2019s standard route.\u00a0 It is much easier but you sacrifice a significant amount of elevation and add over a mile to the route.\u00a0 Another option would be to drop south off of Elkhead pass and loose some elevation, and follow the terrain to the South Ridge of Missouri.<\/p>\n Given the blizzard like conditions, I did not want to climb up the East Ridge of Missouri.\u00a0 However, as I stood on Elkhead pass contemplating my route, I realized that even dropping 600 feet to the standard trail would take much longer than usual.\u00a0 It was my breathing that I was concerned about.\u00a0 And without a clear view to the south I didn\u2019t want to try the route that heads to Missouri\u2019s south ridge.\u00a0 I decided to go with the dreaded East Ridge.\u00a0 Technically, I don\u2019t actually follow the ridge all the way to the summit.\u00a0 Perhaps that is why it has never seemed as bad as its reputation implies.\u00a0 What I usually do is follow the ridge until it just seems correct to contour south.\u00a0 Eventually I turn and head up the southern face via loose rocky ledges that for the most part do not exceed class 3.<\/p>\n However, the current conditions were not ideal.\u00a0 The wind was still blowing hard, but at least the snow had stopped.\u00a0 The ground was warm enough to melt the snow so everything was soaking wet and treacherously slippery.\u00a0 I was wearing my speedcross shoes which have great traction\u2026on everything except wet rock.\u00a0 Considering that I was going for the south side of Missouri, you would think that up against the rocky south face the snowfields would have melted out by now.\u00a0 But no\u2026there was no such luck. When I contoured around to the south, the route was covered in steep snow.\u00a0 The snow was very deep.\u00a0 However, being that it was up against the cliffs of Missouri\u2019s south side, the snow near the cliff was soft because of the warmth of the cliff, because the cliff receives plenty of sun during the day and warms up any snow that is adjacent to it.\u00a0 I tried stay in the snow a few feet from the cliff so that the snow would be more firm.<\/p>\n However, for the first time in my life I fell completely through the snow.\u00a0 It would have been fun to have a video of this, because it would be funny now to watch myself take a step and then completely disappear into the snow.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe what had happened.\u00a0 I had to climb up out of the hollow pit I had fallen into, and then had to crawl on my knees and elbows to avoid falling through again.\u00a0 With all of the snow I had no idea where to turn and start heading up the south face, so eventually I just felt I had gone far enough so I just turned and slowly made my way up the wet rocks.\u00a0 It was a maze like area of ledges and headwalls and loose rocks.\u00a0 I just always kept to what seemed like the path of least resistance, the difficulty exceeded class 3 in a couple of spots, or perhaps it just seemed that way because everything was so wet.<\/p>\n I reached the East Ridge a fair distance to the east of the summit, so continued on the ridge towards the west.\u00a0 The sun was down and all traces of light would soon be gone. It was much colder on the ridge, and some of the wet, melted snow had turned into ice, so the footing was treacherous.<\/p>\n I reached the summit at 9:09 pm, and in the cold wind pulled out my headlamp.\u00a0 I hoped I would see a headlamp headed up Missouri from the other side, as I figured the crew would be fearing for my life.\u00a0 But alas, I saw nothing but darkness.<\/p>\n I followed the long, snow riddled northwest ridge of Missouri to for about 20 minutes until I found the ridge that headed west towards Clohese (Cloyses?) Lake at the base of the next peak on my itinerary, Huron Peak.\u00a0 I had been a little worried about finding this turn in the darkness, but there was a large cairn on the trail and I recognized the turnoff.\u00a0 As I started down the ridge I was in rough shape.\u00a0 Both knees were just destroyed.\u00a0 My left ankle was hurting, my right shin was swollen, and I still made that strange sound whenever I except.<\/p>\n Descending was like linking a sequence of awkward hops, jumps, steps, and falls\u2026all to the sound of a symphony of ooohs, aaaahs, ouches, grunts, groans, sighs, and swear words.\u00a0 For the first time during the record attempt I began to seriously question my body\u2019s ability to continue, I was completely and utterly demoralized.<\/p>\n Yet, there was nothing to do but continue down into the complete darkness.\u00a0 Eventually the awful rocky terrain turned into pleasant grassy slopes.\u00a0\u00a0 But it was a short respite, because soon I followed the trail to the left, and although it was still grassy it was extremely steep as I dropped off the ridge, and this intensified the pain in my legs.\u00a0 Once in the trees it was difficult to stay on the trail because of some snow, but with a couple of short backtracks I was able to stay with the trail, and this was no small feat because it was at this time that the sleep demons were attacking.\u00a0 I remember having thoughts such as \u201cDuring the record attempt I should really try to nail this route.\u00a0 Wait, this is the record attempt!\u00a0 Oh crap!\u201d, and I became confused and started wondering where people like Kim and Andrea were, only to remember that I was hiking alone.<\/p>\n One thing about sleep demons is that they make a short amount of time seem like an eternity.\u00a0 So after an eternity I was in the vicinity of the lake, and I was surprised not to see anybody from my crew.\u00a0 I was fully expecting to see the crew, rushing up with concerned looks, armed with medical kits, food and blankets.\u00a0 They must have seen the massive storm up on the mountains and become very worried, and then they must have seen my light heading down the ridge.<\/p>\n We hadn\u2019t even decided for sure yet if I would continue up the rugged east side of Huron, or if we would drive around so I could climb Huron from the standard west side.\u00a0 In any case, I was at 11,000 feet now and was desperate for my support crew!<\/p>\n I considered the possibility that they were not able to make the river crossing 3 miles below.\u00a0 Perhaps nobody would meet me here at all?\u00a0 But then it occurred to me that the plan may have been for them to stay with the car down the road where a gate blocks further access to the lake\u2014I couldn\u2019t remember.\u00a0 So I followed the trail until I found the road, and shortly found the gate, and thankfully there they were, in Kim\u2019s Jeep Liberty, it was 11:02 pm.<\/p>\n Expecting to finally get some empathy, sympathy, medical care, food, warmth, etc., I yelled hello.\u00a0 Kim nonchalantly responded.\u00a0 James, Kim, Andrea, and Will were all packed into the Liberty, and my best description is that it seemed like a party car.\u00a0 I half expected the door to open and loud music to be playing and smoke to come pouring out of the windows.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t they understand what I had just been through???!!!\u00a0 Andrea, Kim, and Will squeezed in the back to make room for me in the front, and James told me to get in for the ride around to the west side of Huron.\u00a0 Well, at least that decision was made!<\/p>\n They had no idea there had been a big storm up there, and they weren\u2019t concerned about me because on the way up Oxford I had sent a message saying I was already 1:30 behind schedule, so they weren\u2019t worried that I was late.\u00a0 I tried to explain to them what I had been through, and that my body was falling apart and that I was having trouble breathing.\u00a0 But if I was looking for sympathy, I wasn\u2019t going to find it in this crowd!\u00a0 \u201cMaaahhhhmmmeeeee, where are you\u201d!<\/p>\n I realized that I was very uncomfortable up here in the front seat, who the hell had been sitting up here, someone with extremely short legs?\u00a0 Axel?\u00a0 There was no leg room and my legs were cramping up.\u00a0 And wow was it hot!\u00a0 \u201cHow do you open the fucking window in here?!\u201d\u00a0 Apparently Jeep thought it would be cool to put the window opening buttons in the center console, what?\u00a0 It is safe to say that I was in a pretty grumpy mood\u2026No one seemed to notice.<\/p>\n One thing about James, if you ever ask him a question, it would simply be impossible for him to say \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d.\u00a0 He always has an answer, no matter the subject, he will answer as an authority on the subject.\u00a0 I rattled off my list of complaints:\u00a0 Me: \u201cSwollen knee, it really hurts, can I continue?\u201d\u00a0 James:\u00a0 \u201cPatella bruise, I get those all the time, it won\u2019t slow you down.\u201d\u00a0 Me: \u201cI had trouble breathing, couldn\u2019t catch my breath.\u00a0 I thought I might die!\u201d James: \u201cWe\u2019ll get you an inhaler, you\u2019ll be fine.\u201d Me:\u00a0 \u201cI have a swollen area on my shin, it hurts!\u201d\u00a0 James: \u201cAndrea must have bruised it while rolling your legs.\u00a0 You can deal with a little pain, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Although it was quite comforting to hear James have an authoritative answer for everything and nothing was a problem\u2026I had kind of expected that and had no idea if he really knew what he was talking about.<\/p>\n We bounced on down the road until we came to the river crossing.\u00a0 Thank goodness we hadn\u2019t planned on the dirt bike, I certainly would have drowned in that river crossing!<\/p>\n After the river crossing we made it to the regular dirt road that heads to Winfield, an old historic town near the trailheads for Huron and La Plata.\u00a0 We drove straight up to the upper 4 wheel drive to Huron. Huron: The Art of the Two Minute Nap<\/strong><\/p>\n I was way behind schedule.\u00a0 My plan had been to finish Huron in less than an hour\u2026However, I had also worked about 3 hours of sleep into my schedule, and according to that schedule I needed to start La Plata in the morning at 4:45 am.\u00a0 Clearly I needed some rest after the last set of mountains, but I could try to get back on schedule by skipping some sleep.\u00a0 So I decided to ask for 1:30 minutes of sleep.\u00a0 It was very cold, and I crawled into my sleeping bag on the ground and slept.\u00a0 I just remember the Jeep leaving as I drifted off to sleep.<\/p>\n It was immediately time to wake up!\u00a0 Well, that is what it felt like.\u00a0 Man was it cold! Fortunately, I was able to catch an extra few minutes in the sleeping bag as Andrea taped up some blisters on my feet.\u00a0 Surprisingly, I only had a couple blisters, which doesn\u2019t do justice to what they felt like.\u00a0 I was shivering like crazy as I got out of the bag and prepared to go.\u00a0 I groggily remembered that Wes had showed up to hike with me again.<\/p>\n After thanking Kim and Andrea for helping me get ready, Wes and I started up the mountain at 2:17 am.\u00a0 This was the beginning of yet another huge day.\u00a0 We had to get up and over 4 solitary mountains, no \u201ceasy\u201d traverse from peak to peak for us today.\u00a0 Each and every mountain we had to go all the way up, and all the way down.\u00a0 To break 10 days for the record I had been hoping to be ahead of schedule right now, but now I was just struggling to keep up with the schedule.\u00a0 It was actually pretty encouraging that was so close to the schedule so far.\u00a0 If I stayed on schedule, even though I might just miss cracking the 10 day barrier, I still looked to shatter the old record by nearly 18 hours.\u00a0 In fact I felt confident that if I could just avoid an injury I would destroy the record, I wasn\u2019t even worried about it.\u00a0 I was just trying to somehow think of a way to gain those few hours that would allow me to break 10 days.\u00a0 It seemed that I just had to survive today, and then tomorrow, the big day in the Elks would make or break me!<\/p>\n It was great having Wes back, but also a little discouraging.\u00a0 It was just so easy for him\u2026Of course, he reminded me that he hadn\u2019t been through what I had been through\u2026yet it is still humbling to hike with people that seem so fast.\u00a0 He seemed invincible.\u00a0 Every step at the beginning of the hike was difficult. I needed some time to loosen up, let the foot pain numb out, and to fully wake up.\u00a0 At 11,000 feet Wes gave me back my pack, and we continued up at a pretty reasonable 1500 foot per hour pace.\u00a0 Several times I had to bend over, lean over my poles, and cough and try to hack out some gunk out of my lungs, and then we would continue onward.<\/p>\n The trail up the west side of Huron is a very good trail, except maybe the last few hundred feet to the summit where it enters a loose talus field.\u00a0 We reached the summit at 4:18 am, and this was encouraging because climbing 3500 feet in 2 hours was a very decent pace, consideration how beat up I was.<\/p>\n However, on the way down I started having trouble staying upright again, and my vision was blurring.\u00a0 So I asked Wes if he didn\u2019t mind if I took a nap, and laid down for a short rest.\u00a0 In two minutes, I popped up ready to go again.\u00a0 A couple of short naps like this seemed to refresh me just enough to keep moving.\u00a0 Wes was impressed that he didn\u2019t have to start prodding me to come back to life, considering how quickly I was falling asleep.\u00a0 Soon it started to get light, and of course that is always the best medicine when you are struggling with sleep deprivation in early morning hours.<\/p>\n We headed down and started seeing other people coming up, which was still a surprisingly rare experience.\u00a0 It is amazing how crowded the 14ers are during peak times, such as weekend morning in the summer, yet how desolate they can be if you are up there at uncommon times\u2026You know, like midnight in a whiteout!<\/p>\n We reached the trailhead at 6:00 am.\u00a0 Kim and Andrea were waiting with the Jeep Liberty to drive me to the starting location for La Plata.\u00a0 Wes decided to join me for yet another peak, so he followed along with his dad.\u00a0 I fell asleep right away.<\/p>\n La Plata:\u00a0 The Secret Bridge<\/strong><\/p>\n The plan for La Plata was to drive up from Winfield and hike it from the south side.\u00a0 This is actually the easiest route on La Plata, and since we were already near Winfield because we just descended Huron, it was a no brainer.<\/p>\n However, for the way down I wanted to head north down the standard route of La Plata.\u00a0 It was a little harder to descend north because it was a little longer and there was an extra 1000 feet to descend.\u00a0 Normally I would not choose a longer route with more elevation, however in this case it would make the shuttle time to the next peak very short.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, we had recently found out that the bridge over the river was being repaired, so there was no access up the standard route.\u00a0 James had scouted out the river and told me it was raging, so there was no option of swimming across the river.\u00a0 I used to be a raft guide and kayaker and mentioned something like \u201cIf only we had a kayak\u2026!\u201d\u00a0 Immediately, James got an excited look in his eye.\u00a0 He could set up a ferry with his raft!\u00a0 So that was our plan and while I was climbing Huron James headed back to Aspen to round up the ferry gear.<\/p>\n I woke up on the bumpy 4 wheel drive road as we headed toward the La Plata trailhead.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t recognize anything, so my mind was still in a fog.\u00a0 Andrea and Kim helped me get ready to go, and I started climbing the trail with Wes at 7:02 am.\u00a0 I had been way behind schedule, but by taking such a short nap in the night we were only about two hours behind my planned schedule.\u00a0 And in the crisp morning light I was feeling pretty optimistic.\u00a0 It still took some time for the stiffness to work out of my legs and the knee pain, foot pain, shin pain, and ankle pain to numb out, but that was what I had signed up for!\u00a0 I knew this was going to hurt.\u00a0 And here we were on day 7 and I was only an hour behind schedule!\u00a0 This was great, if I could just pull a rabbit out of my hat on the last couple of days, maybe I could break 10 days\u2026<\/p>\n At 11,700 feet, Wes realized that he had the key to his dad\u2019s car, so he decided to head back down, because he didn\u2019t want his dad to be stranded.\u00a0 I said goodbye and continued up the trail.\u00a0 The minute Wes was gone I started to lose my optimism, and I noticed that my legs were burning, and I would still have coughing fits every once in a while.\u00a0 I still had to be careful not push myself too hard because that would lead to difficult breathing problems.\u00a0 Although it seemed like it wasn\u2019t as bad as the day before.<\/p>\n Around 12,000 feet you come into a wide basin that is famous for lots of willows (not fun to bushwhack in) and lots of mud bogs and swampy trails to go through.\u00a0 This year, with all the snow, I figured it was going to be pretty nasty.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t interested in get my feet wet\u2026on something like this I have found that it is important to take care of your feet.\u00a0 So anything you can do to avoid getting them wet can save you painful foot problems later on.\u00a0 I remembered that a few years ago I had hiked this side of La Plata with my mom and son Calvin.\u00a0 Rather than going through the mud bog willows, we had found a route that stayed dry up on the west side of the basin, and the bushwhacking wasn\u2019t bad either.\u00a0 I saw a cabin and remembered taking a picture of Calvin by that cabin.\u00a0 So rather than following the trail I left it and found some pleasant, dry grassy slopes to walk up.\u00a0 I avoided the entire swamp, yahoo!<\/p>\n I continued up and on to a ridge, and then up the steep rocky slope that leads up to a false summit.\u00a0 It is a good thing I knew it was a false summit, because otherwise that would have been a demoralizing one!<\/p>\n I turned around, and to my surprise there was Wes.\u00a0 He had run all the way back down with the key, discovered that his father was gone, (he must have had a key) and then he ran all the way back up.\u00a0 He was not even breathing hard.<\/p>\n We reached the summit at 9:29 am, and immediately turned around, and started down the north side.\u00a0 Wes speculated that people following along on the website that knew about the bridge being out might be concerned that we were making a huge error\u2026so it was going to be fun to surprise them with our sneaky plan to ferry across the river.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, we found an unexpected snowfield to descend.\u00a0 The conditions were perfect, and even Wes, who had never glissaded before had a fun time zooming down the snowfield on his butt.\u00a0 I think he understood why I felt that trying to set the record so early in the year did have some benefits\u2026Unfortunately there were some other nice looking snowfields, but they didn\u2019t go in the right direction.\u00a0 So we continued on down the trail.\u00a0 I tried to jog as much as I could, and I am not sure if it was a good idea because I was feeling ever step after pounding step in my joints.<\/p>\n At 11,000 feet Wes took my pack and started running in front of me.\u00a0 Normally this would be considered \u201cpacing\u201d but since we were out of the 3000 foot zone anything goes.\u00a0 We made it down to a creek crossing, and turned left to contour around to the road.\u00a0 Then we saw James hiking in to meet us.\u00a0 He told us that he had scrapped the kayak\/raft idea in favor of a couple of ladders strapped together.\u00a0 Mental note, another desirable skill for a crew is the ability to build bridges.<\/p>\n Then we followed James along the trail, after joining the road he led us into the trees just before we were within sight of the bridge that was under construction. \u00a0We reached the location where we would cross the river at about 11:40 am. The river was spectacular where we were going to cross.\u00a0 It was like a mini box canyon, with steep cliffs on either side.\u00a0 James had found a very narrow part that was just narrow enough to allow two ladders strapped together to reach both sides.\u00a0 My entire crew plus Steve and Betsy were on the other side ready to watch us come across.\u00a0 James gave a quick demo of how he wanted us to cross, and first Wes went across.\u00a0 I could see that Wes was pretty nervous, so he took it slow in an effort to keep the ladder from shaking around too much.\u00a0 Once he was across I followed him, and rather enjoyed the break from the constant pounding of the trail.\u00a0 The cool air rising up from the rapids below briefly reinvigorated my spirit, and it was fun to see Axel and Calvin on the other side.\u00a0 There was a pretty big crowd there to watch us cross, including the entire crew, there was also Wes\u2019s dad and Steve and Betsy, some close friends of Kim and Andrea.<\/p>\n Axel and I hiked out to the road where the car was waiting, and slowly we all regrouped.\u00a0 I crawled into the van and Andrea started working on feet, and I tried to eat and drink as we drove towards the South Mt. Elbert Trailhead.<\/p>\n In the end, it may have been a little unnecessary to go to all the trouble to cross the river rather than just drop down the other side of La Plata.\u00a0 But it was a fun experience, overall it probably did not save any time.<\/p>\n Elbert:\u00a0 The Glorious Descent<\/strong><\/p>\n It only took about 20 minutes to reach the lower South Mount Elbert Trailhead (we arrived at 12:23 pm).\u00a0 However, it was hot, and I needed some extra work done on my legs.\u00a0 Andrea taped up my feet, and I was trying out an ankle brace, as the sore left ankle was becoming a problem.\u00a0 The shin problem was not hurting anymore for some reason, but my knees, especially the right one was still pretty bad, I had left the wrap on my knee so long the previous day that the back of my knee had become chafed and that was creating a\u00a0 surprising amount of discomfort.\u00a0 Mom and Andrea took good care of me though.<\/p>\n I also had some new drugs to help with the breathing problems-including an inhaler.\u00a0 Natalie seemed to think that the cold I had started with had turned into a lung infection and that had led to exercise induced asthma.\u00a0 I never before appreciated what it would be like to have asthma, and now I think I have a pretty good idea of how bad that would suck.<\/p>\n I also tried a breath right strip to open up my nostrils, which was especially helpful for me.\u00a0 My nose is so crooked that I can barely breathe out of one side anyway, so I should probably use those strips more often.<\/p>\n It seemed like it was taking forever to get ready.\u00a0 When I finally got out of the van I felt like a robot.\u00a0 Everything was so stiff from the new tape, braces, and wraps that I felt very constricted and could barely move my joints.<\/p>\n I said goodbye to the crew after about 30 minutes in transition and hopped in Kim\u2019s Jeep for the quick drive to the Upper Trailhead.\u00a0 Fortunately Kim and Steve knew where to go, because I tried to make them take a wrong turn!<\/p>\n Wes just couldn\u2019t get enough of this 14er training, so he had signed on for one more peak.\u00a0 I was planning a big snow descent, so he brought along my extra ice ax and sled so that he could enjoy the glissade with me.<\/p>\n We left the trailhead at about 1:03 pm.\u00a0 So with the bridge crossing and long transition I was now about 3 hours behind.\u00a0 That was OK, it just meant that I wouldn\u2019t be able to try out another plan I had hoped for to squeeze out a few more hours towards the 10 days barrier.<\/p>\n It just did not like the first part of this climb.\u00a0 It was hot, very hot, and flies were buzzing.\u00a0 The first part of the hike was totally dry.\u00a0 Not a drop of moisture anywhere. I was also extremely uncomfortable with the knee wrap and tape, etc.\u00a0 Wes and I weren\u2019t talking much either, and I was starting to fall asleep.\u00a0 This had happened to me too often during the day, and I was in a mental rut as we passed a group of trail volunteers hard at work on the trail.<\/p>\n Wes must have noticed that my performance was lagging, because he tried to strike up a conversation.\u00a0 It worked because then we talked all the way up to the summit.\u00a0 Now that we were getting higher we were seeing a few snowfields, and it was now my practice to wipe of the dirty top layer of snow, grab a handful of snow, and slowly eat it while hiking.\u00a0 The only thing missing was some snow-cone flavoring.<\/p>\n I also laid down near any clean source of water coming out of the snow and drank as much as I could.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t drink enough water.<\/p>\n We reached the summit of Elbert, the highest point in Colorado, at 3:37 pm.\u00a0 Now I was getting excited.\u00a0 I was hoping one of the west facing gullies that lead down from the summit of Elbert would be full of snow, since it was afternoon, I was hoping for good sliding conditions.\u00a0 We headed down the South Ridge for a short distance until I saw the gully we wanted.\u00a0 And yes it looked like a glorious descent.\u00a0 Unfortunately it would take some time to get there, as the snow didn\u2019t start for a few hundred feet.\u00a0 When we reached the snow, it was a little intimidating at first because of how steep it was.\u00a0 Wes was definitely not feeling very confident, and asked me if I would like to go ahead.\u00a0 He would just hike down and meet up with the crew later.<\/p>\n I suggested it was a good time to learn, since he had the gear and a good snow field, and I hoped I was a good teacher.\u00a0 I would give him instructions, then slide down a ways, and then wait for him to try to follow my instructions to come down and join me.\u00a0 He mastered the self-arrest, which is important, but eventually felt bad because he thought he was slowing us down too much.\u00a0 For one thing, he was wearing shorts and his butt and legs were completely numb.\u00a0 So he asked me to go on ahead.\u00a0 I reluctantly decided to go, and made sure I gave him clear instructions on getting out once he found the road.<\/p>\n So on my own I continued sliding down the gully.\u00a0 The really good stuff only lasted a while longer, because then it became littered with rocks and pits.\u00a0 However, dodging rocks on my sore bum was still better than hiking down talus.<\/p>\n Eventually the snow ran out, and it was a short bushwhack down to the road.\u00a0 The plan had been for James to deliver my mountain bike up to this road for me to ride out, because I was already 3000 feet below the summit.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see the bike, and hoped that it was not on the road above where I had come out of the bushes.<\/p>\n So I hiked on down the road looking for and wondering where the bike was.\u00a0 Soon I was in a grumpy mood because I just didn\u2019t see the bike, and I would have made quick work of the road with the bike.\u00a0 Soon Wes caught up to me again, as he was still moving quickly on the road.\u00a0 And we walked on down until we found the river crossing.\u00a0 James and Kim were waiting for us on the other side of the river crossing, and the only way across the raging torrent was a single little 3 inch diameter log.\u00a0 It was a little scary crossing it, and I imagine I teased James \u201cWhere is my bridge now?\u201d\u00a0 It was 5:21 pm, and we were finally at the car.<\/p>\n The road from here on down totally sucked, and James had figured no one would want to ride down this road and hadn\u2019t even really thought about getting the bike across the river crossing.<\/p>\n We reached the bottom of the extremely bumpy road, because James and Kim\u2019s Jeep performed admirably, and then had to cross an even bigger river, although this was one the Jeep could handle, then we turned left and headed up to the North Half Moon Trailhead for the climb up Mt. Massive.<\/p>\n Massive: It\u2019s Dark\u2026Hence\u2026Sleep Demons!<\/strong><\/p>\n We pulled in to the North Half Moon Creek Trailhead at 5:42 pm.\u00a0 It took me too long to get ready again.\u00a0 My estimates for hiking time and driving time had been pretty accurate for the whole trip, but the one thing that I hadn\u2019t expected was to spend so much time just getting going once we were at a new location.<\/p>\n We knew that I would get caught up on the mountain in the dark, so we had to add some extra gear for warmth and a headlamp, and replenish powder and drink a protein shake. Kim and James were both very helpful in laying out my options and then packing whatever I wanted.<\/p>\n The shoes I had worn on Mt. Elbert, the Hokas, were done.\u00a0 Permanently.\u00a0 The soles were peeling off and despite James attempting to super glue them they were just a lost cause.\u00a0 I knew there was going to be a bunch of snow so I decided to just wear my Salomon boots.<\/p>\n I said goodbye to Kim and James, and with Wes following behind we started to hike at 6:04 pm\u2026for about two steps.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t walk in those shoes, at all.\u00a0 Within those two steps I could feel every bruise, bone, tendon, hair, and painful fleck of skin in my foot.\u00a0 So I immediately turned around and asked to try the Speedcross shoes.\u00a0 After putting them on I walked a little bit up the trail, but the right foot had a horrible bruise on the top (caused earlier by the Speedcross shoe) and on every step the shoe bent and compressed the bruise.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t going to work either.\u00a0 So James went back and grabbed my old road Hoka. I tried it on the right foot and it felt pretty good.\u00a0 So I continued up the trail with the Speedcross shoe on one foot and the Hoka on the other.<\/p>\n Wes and I continued up the trail through a nice forest.\u00a0 This part I remembered always drags on and on when you are coming back down, you just don\u2019t remember how far you actually hike down here along the river.\u00a0 I was shocked to find a massive snowfield just before the turn to the right that begins the steep climb.\u00a0 We made the turn and continued up the steep, rocky, trail.\u00a0 I just wanted to get this mountain over with, and I just started counting every step:\u00a0 \u201cOne, two, three, four\u2026one hundred and eleven, one hundred and twelve\u2026one thousand two hundred and sixty four\u201d.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to stop, so I didn\u2019t pause or change my pace.\u00a0 Just step after relentless step, hoping to get up this mountain as soon as possible.<\/p>\n We had to leave the trail as it was completely blocked by snowfields.\u00a0 Oh how I wished I could go faster.\u00a0 I wanted to slide down these snowfields but I feared I would be coming down after dark when the snow turned bulletproof.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, for the first time all day, I noticed that Wes was starting to fall back.\u00a0 This was surprising because he had been like a superman all day long.\u00a0 He had carrying my pack when allowed, had kept me awake by talking to me, patiently waited as I hacked out my lungs with grotesque sounds, and had been in a great mood the entire time.\u00a0 At first I didn\u2019t think much of it, but then he said that he was afraid he would hold me back, and he decided to go down.\u00a0 I was sad to see him go, and thanked him for all his help.\u00a0 He offered to let me use his superlight carbon poles, as I had been complaining about the poles I had borrowed from James.\u00a0 Heavy poles that seemed to be made of the compressed matter of a neutron star\u2026you know, where a teaspoon of the stuff weighs as much as earth.\u00a0 In contrast, you hardly even knew you were holding the light carbon poles.\u00a0 I warned Wes that I was developing a reputation of breaking every pole I touched on this trip, but he insisted that I take them.<\/p>\n I continued up and made it to the ridge south of Massive\u2019s summit at 8:30 pm.\u00a0 This was a little depressing, because I thought I had been making good time, but I should have summited by now.\u00a0 And Massive was a lot farther up the ridge than I remembered.\u00a0 I had to cross a big snow field to go directly to the summit, and since I was now on the east side of Massive the snow was harder than it had been on the other side because this side had been in shade for a long time.\u00a0 On one step the pole broke through the crusty surface, and as I pulled it out it snapped in half!\u00a0 \u201c$%@#$!\u201d.\u00a0 I hated that I had just busted up such a beautiful pole!<\/p>\n I reached the top at 8:56 pm.\u00a0 It was getting dark fast so I pulled out my headlamp.\u00a0 It took an hour longer than expected to get up.\u00a0 I hoped that the snowfields would stay soft for a good descent, so I tried to descend quickly.\u00a0 It was no use though, by the time I started trying to slide down snow it was already rock hard, and the glissading was extremely unpleasant, as I had to self-arrest the entire glissade, the snowfields were also melted out in that pitted, rutted, golf ball like fashion that I had seen before, and my rear was felt pretty bruised up, so I tried sliding on my slide to take the pressure of the sore areas..\u00a0 It was now completely dark, and the glissading exhausted my entire upper body.<\/p>\n When I ran out of snow, I was expecting to come upon the trail, but I couldn\u2019t find it.\u00a0 I figured it must be close, and that I couldn\u2019t go too wrong if I kept descending and stayed right.\u00a0 I knew that if I somehow missed the trail, it would mean trouble because without the trail I would find myself in some cliff-strewn bushwhacking down below.<\/p>\n I started falling asleep\u2026blurred vision, can\u2019t walk straight, etc.\u00a0 If you have read this far you know the routine.\u00a0 Somehow I hadn\u2019t found the trail yet, but I just kept descending.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t what I expected, a wide open grassy slope.\u00a0 Where were all the rocks?<\/p>\n Then I found what appeared to be an old trail that had been made unusable by a trail crew.\u00a0 In order to dissuade future climbers from using the old trail, large rocks had been put on it.\u00a0 I figured this was a good sign because it would probably lead to the newer trail that I was looking for, so I continued down the grassy slopes.\u00a0 When I reached the trail I was confused.\u00a0 I was wondering why Calvin and Axel weren\u2019t keeping up with me.\u00a0 \u201cCALVIN!\u201d\u00a0 I yelled, wondering where he was. Then I remembered, he wasn\u2019t here.\u00a0 When I am going for the record I have to be careful to really move fast here!\u00a0 Wait a minute, I am going for the record!\u00a0 I better get moving.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a beautiful sculpture!\u201d\u00a0 I stared down at it.\u00a0 I climbed up on a large rock and stared down at the beautiful sculpture that Kim had made.\u00a0 I stared and stared at it, then I realized it was a rock.\u00a0 \u201cWhat I am doing standing up on this rock?\u201d\u00a0 I took a few steps.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a beautiful sculpture!\u00a0 I must get on a rock and look at it.\u201d\u00a0 Staring.\u00a0 Staring.\u00a0 No I should really sit down and look at it.\u00a0 Maybe a little nap would be nice!\u201d \u201cDamn it, what am I doing?\u201d, \u201cAxel, where are you?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cCrap, I\u2019ve got to get moving.\u00a0 Wait where is the trail?\u00a0 Why isn\u2019t someone looking for me, I could get lost\u201d.\u00a0 These were some of my hallucinations I was having as I tried to concentrate, stay on the trail, and continue moving down.<\/p>\n I was still in a daze as I made it to the bottom of the steep section and turned left to hike out the last couple of miles.\u00a0 I saw a headlamp in the distance, I made my way towards it and eventually found Kim, who was coming up to find me.\u00a0 We hiked down together, which lifted my spirits and helped pull me out of my slump, and finally reached the trailhead at 11:39pm.\u00a0 I had really fallen apart on Massive, taking much longer than expected.<\/p>\n Before I got in the car I saw Wes in his dad\u2019s car, and can\u2019t remember if I said goodbye.\u00a0 I found out later he had scraped his butt on the glissade coming down Elbert.\u00a0 The wound became infected and he ended up getting admitted to the hospital for 24 hours.<\/p>\n James drove down the road to where the van was waiting.\u00a0 I climbed in the van and fell asleep right away. Capitol, Snowmass, North Maroon, South Maroon:\u00a0 The Elks Traverse.<\/strong><\/p>\n A Slow Transition<\/strong><\/p>\n The previous 3 days in the Sawatch had been difficult days.\u00a0 But the looming approach of the big Elks day was always on my mind.\u00a0 This was it, the big \u201cMake it or Break it\u201d moment of the record.\u00a0 What was at stake?\u00a0 The 10 day barrier.\u00a0 The record itself was in the bag!\u00a0 I only had two days left and I figured that I was still about 12 hours ahead of the record.\u00a0 But the 10 day barrier was dropping away from my reach.<\/p>\n However, Homie felt I had significantly over estimated the time it would take me to climb the Elks, by at least 3 hours.\u00a0 I hoped he was right.\u00a0 I try hard to make my estimates accurate, but on the conservative side.\u00a0 It is much more fun to be ahead of schedule than behind.<\/p>\n I originally planned to complete this traverse in the opposite direction.\u00a0 I had done the Pyramid to Bells, to Snowmass, to Capitol traverse 3 times, and had always gone in that direction.<\/p>\n However, on the early June scouting trip I had climbed up high on Pyramid and had viewed a good portion of the traverse.\u00a0 I had changed my mind that day for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 One was that I knew I had to climb at least either Pyramid or Capitol in the dark.\u00a0 To me Pyramid has always seemed a little easier than its reputation, and I thought climbing it in the dark would be reasonable, rather than Capitol with its confusing route finding on it south side.\u00a0 I also felt like I could start early and get several hours out of the way in the dark on the long approach to Capitol.\u00a0 The last reason was that I had taken one look at the east face of Snowmass, and I couldn\u2019t resist the urge to slide down that face on my sled, what a blast!\u00a0 And as a surprise to those viewing on the internet, I wanted to glissade the Bell-Cord couloir, although maybe not at the top where the steepness exceeds 45 degrees, as this would avoid the South Ridge descent off Maroon which stands out as one of my least favorite routes.<\/p>\n Joining me for this climb was my well-known speed climbing friend, Stefan Griebel.\u00a0 I met Stefan years before on a long bike ride with our mutual friends Bill Wright and Emily Baer.\u00a0 We were surprised to find out we had been in the same electrical engineering class at CU Boulder and had never known each other.\u00a0 He had grown up only a few miles from my mom\u2019s house in Cortez, Colorado, and we had never met, even though we knew many of the same people.<\/p>\n I had even helped introduce Stefan to adventure racing, although he\u2019d probably like to forget his first race! \u00a0He paddled for the first time and became severely dehydrated and demoralized on a long desert hike, where he had decided to abandon the race.\u00a0 That had been around the time that I gave up racing to stay at home with the kids, and in the following years Stefan had developed a reputation as a serious badass.<\/p>\n I awoke to bouncing with boxes falling down on top of me around 2:30 am.\u00a0 I had incorporated the bouncing into my dreams and I had absolutely no idea where we were.\u00a0 When it hit me that we were on the way to the Capitol trailhead, I thought we must be lost.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t supposed to be on such a bouncy road.\u00a0 We were supposed to regroup and meet Stefan down at a huge flat area before the road gets rough.\u00a0 Did we miss this trailhead?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like the idea of beating up the van on such a rough road.\u00a0 How could we be lost?\u00a0 James lives in Aspen and this was his backyard, I couldn\u2019t believe he could make a mistake around here.\u00a0 Maybe he should have listened to me and tried to get more sleep\u2026<\/p>\n All of the cars stopped.\u00a0 James was trying to turn around, he was yelling at someone, Andrea was screaming.\u00a0 James was stuck.\u00a0 Will decided to keep on driving, and mom followed.\u00a0 It was a good move because soon we were at the upper trailhead, at least we had been driving up the right road.\u00a0 I had been scared that we were way off course.<\/p>\n Mom parked and I Andrea went looking around to double check that this was the right location.\u00a0 James was missing.\u00a0 In the meantime I started to slowly get ready to get going again.\u00a0 I wanted to get going as soon as possible, but there was a lot to do.\u00a0 This was going to be a massive effort.\u00a0 Potentially over 24 hours without support.\u00a0 I needed gear, including crampons, and warm gear for cold weather.\u00a0 I needed lots of food, and just took a whole bunch of sustained energy powder.\u00a0 I wore the mismatching shoes again, with one of my Asics running shoes on my right foot, and threw the right Hoka in my pack for good measure.\u00a0 The pack was getting heavy, ugh\u2026<\/p>\n Finally James showed up.\u00a0 I am not sure what happened to him, only I imagine it was tough to turn around with the dirt bike sticking way out off the back end of the pathfinder.\u00a0 I ate some food, although I should have eaten more, considering the big day ahead.\u00a0 Mom, Andrea, and Kim were working hard to get me taped up, wrapped up, medicated, and well fed.\u00a0 It took a long time for me to be ready, and we didn\u2019t get going until about 3:54 am.\u00a0 Darn!\u00a0 I had wanted to be going around 2:00 am.\u00a0 James decided to hike with us for a portion of the approach to Capitol, and brought along his big white fluffy dog, Wesley.<\/p>\n The Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n Stefan both carried my pack and set a blistering pace, at least it felt that way to me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think he was working very hard.\u00a0 My foot was hurting.\u00a0 I had injured my feet and gotten Plantar Fasciitis several years before, and it had taken several years to get through the injury.\u00a0 Since then I have been totally dependent upon heat molded shoe insoles that gave my feet excellent arch support.\u00a0 But something felt wrong, it almost felt like there was no insole in my shoe.<\/p>\n I mentioned this to James and Stefan, but then said that was silly, and that we should keep going.\u00a0 But James insisted that I check, and sure enough, there was no insole.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 James immediately turned and ran back towards the trailhead, while Stefan and I continued on.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t slow down very much, and as we neared a highpoint, James was desperate to catch us before we starting descending.\u00a0 His dog had run off and he needed to go find him.\u00a0 Fortunately, we heard his faint, far-off screams and waited for him to catch us.\u00a0 I have never seen him breathing so hard.\u00a0 He handed me the insole, and deliriously said that he needed to go find his dog.<\/p>\n Stefan and I followed the trail and we descended to the valley below as the sky began to lighten, but in order to get to the main trail heading up to Capitol, we needed to cross the stream.\u00a0 Up and down the stream for a couple of yards there simply was not a single log or rock that we could use to get across the stream.<\/p>\n So we decided to wade across the stream, but we had to take off our shoes and socks first. It was cold water!\u00a0 But it felt pretty good afterwards.<\/p>\n We found the main trail in the light, and soon we started running into snowfields.\u00a0 I just followed behind Stefan and let him find the trail (still below the 3000 foot zone).\u00a0 There was a lot of snow, and we were not anywhere near treeline.\u00a0 When we finally came to 11,000 feet, I put on my heavy pack.\u00a0 Ooof, I didn\u2019t want it!\u00a0 I took the lead now and Stefan had to follow behind me.\u00a0 We continued up the trail, and there was still plenty of snow, but because it was early it was firm and we walked across without any difficulty.<\/p>\n For the first time I mentioned to Stefan about my reasoning for choosing to change the direction on the Elks traverse.\u00a0 I was surprised that by his grunt he didn\u2019t seem to approve.\u00a0 He seemed to think that Capitol was relatively straight forward.\u00a0 Hmm, usually people don\u2019t say that about Capitol\u2026but now that I thought about it, I realized I considered something.\u00a0 There is a ridge route on Capitol that avoids the tricky routefinding on the south side of Capitol.\u00a0 If you were climbing in the dark, and didn\u2019t mind 4th<\/sup> class intermixed with a little class 5, the routefinding would be easy, and that is a big deal.\u00a0 Contrast this with Pyramid, which in the daylight is straight forward enough, but thinking about that route in the dark was a little scary.\u00a0 It could be easy to get off route.\u00a0 Perhaps I had made a mistake.\u00a0 Well, not much we could do about it now!<\/p>\n We reached the lake and turned up for the steep pitch up to the Capitol, Mt. Daly saddle, which we reached at about 7:00 am.\u00a0 The climb was about to get interesting.\u00a0 The normal trail contours south across some narrow gullies and joins heads into the rocky basin without sacrificing much elevation.<\/p>\n Capitol and the Knife Edge Ridge<\/strong><\/p>\n However, it looked treacherous and time consuming to follow that route.\u00a0 So instead we descended down one of the gullies directly into the basin.\u00a0 I just figured it would take less time to descend and go back up than to try to cut across all of those steep snow gullies.\u00a0 From below it sure looked like we made the right call.\u00a0 There was nothing but a sea of snow surrounded by rocky ridges in front of us.\u00a0 It was getting steeper so we stopped and put on our crampons, then made very good time walking up the snow.\u00a0 We stayed on the snow up passed the entrance to the Wandering Dutchman Couloir (our route to get to Snowmass) and up to the ridge near the summit of K2, a mini-summit that guards the entrance to the east ridge of Capitol.\u00a0 I almost felt like it was faster in these conditions than normal hiking conditions in the summer.\u00a0 Up to this point the snow was firm and with the crampons on we could just walk straight up with worrying about following cairns.\u00a0 It was about 8:10 in the morning.\u00a0 We drank up, and left our packs behind, and headed up with just our crampons and ice axes.\u00a0 I had my satellite tracker dangling from my neck.\u00a0 The easiest way to get around K2 is normally on the north side, however, this route was guarded by steep snow, and it so exposed that I wanted nothing to do it with.<\/p>\n Instead we just climbed directly up and over K2, and dropped slightly North off of it to drop to the ridge.\u00a0 We were nearing one of the most famous 14er features:\u00a0 the knife edge of Capitol.\u00a0 The route is heavily exposed on both sides, and for some people the exposure can be quite terrifying.\u00a0 The 100 foot section that gives the ridge its name, unless you are fearless and have good balance, requires a short distance of literally straddling the top of the ridge and crawling across as if you were on a horse\u2019s back.<\/p>\n There was a fair amount of snow to deal with on the ridge, and it was definitely getting soft by now.\u00a0 It took us about 20 minutes to cross over the ridge from K2.\u00a0 From this spot the standard route contours south along loose rocks and gullies on the south side of the summit.\u00a0 However, the steep snow all over the place looked totally undesirable.\u00a0 I asked Stefan how he felt about the ridge route, basically staying on the ridge all the way to top.\u00a0 That was a silly question!\u00a0 5th<\/sup> class moves?\u00a0 Check!\u00a0 High mountain ridge with dangerous exposure? Check?\u00a0 Of course that was the route that Stefan wanted.<\/p>\n The nice about hiking with Stefan, and this is not common, is that when we were hiking on technical terrain, I didn\u2019t have to worry about him at all.\u00a0 He is a master of this terrain.\u00a0 When I knocked a rock loose, I didn\u2019t have to worry that he wouldn\u2019t be able to get out of the way.\u00a0 If we came to a hard spot, I knew that the challenge was getting myself over the hard spot, he would easily be up and over before I thought about.<\/p>\n So we continued up the ridge.\u00a0 I won\u2019t lie, I was pretty scared in a couple of places.\u00a0 There was one spot where I just barely put some weight on a rock, and the entire rock, about the size of my motorcycle, fell off and crashed down the south side of the mountain.\u00a0 It was a good thing nobody was climbing up the standard route today!<\/p>\n We reached the top at 9:30 am.\u00a0 I went to send my satellite tracker message, and was horrified to find that it was completely dead, and it would not turn on.\u00a0 What rotten luck to have this happen here on Capitol.\u00a0 I figured there would be conspiracy theories about how I turned off the tracker and didn\u2019t climb the summit!\u00a0 Stefan offered a solution in that he was tracking the route on his own GPS watch, and could post it later.\u00a0 He also took a picture of me tinkering with the tracker on the summit.\u00a0 I knew it had plenty of battery life, we had charged it on the drive from Mt. Massive, and it was almost full when we started in the morning. \u00a0That should have been enough battery power to last the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n This had once happened before, and it was solved when at home I learned how to do a soft reset on the device.\u00a0 I tried the soft reset procedure but nothing happened.\u00a0 I turned off airplane mode on my phone, and saw that somehow, even with Sprint (Gasp!!!), I was getting one bar of cell phone service.\u00a0 I sent a text to Natalie, and she responded right away.\u00a0 She tried to help me figure out the soft reset procedure, but it just wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0 Finally, after about a half an hour, I had to give up.\u00a0 There was nothing I could do.\u00a0 I was completely bummed out that people wouldn\u2019t be able to follow along anymore.<\/p>\n So at about 10:00 am we gave up and retraced our route down the ridge all the way to K2.\u00a0 I was surprised in these conditions to meet another climber headed up Capitol.\u00a0 Only a confident climber, or complete idiot, would climb Capitol in these conditions, I hoped he was a confident climber.<\/p>\n We climbed over K2, and were definitely starting to fall through the snow more easily as the bright sun began to heat up the snow.\u00a0 We made it back to our packs and both needed a drink.\u00a0 I remembered a trick I learned from Kim, when in snow, without good sources of water, you can drink up to half of your water, and then you fill up the rest of the bottle with snow.\u00a0 This is important because without that water in the bottle the snow will not melt.\u00a0 Stefan was running low on water.\u00a0 I happened to check the satellite tracker again, and to my delight it was working.\u00a0 It must have taken some time for the soft reset to reboot the device!<\/p>\n I immediately turned back on the tracker and was immensely relieved.\u00a0 It was about 11:10 am.<\/p>\n The Capitol to Snowmass Traverse<\/strong><\/p>\n Traversing to Snowmass from Capitol is not a commonly climbed route.\u00a0 Fortunately I knew the route well as I climbed it about 3 times.\u00a0 But I had never seen it with this much snow.\u00a0 During the traverse I learned another good reason why I chose the wrong direction on the traverse.\u00a0 It seems that south and west facing snowfields melt out into those pitted golf ball formations much more than northern and eastern facing fields.\u00a0 It seem that whenever we were descending, I was trying to glissade horribly pitted, bumpy snow, and it was not very pleasant.\u00a0 Stefan quickly gave up on the sleds and would just walk by me as I persisted to avoid taking even one more step than necessary.\u00a0 However, whenever we were climbing uphill, the snow was beautifully smooth, perfect for glissading.\u00a0 So in the future I want to keep this in mind.<\/p>\n First we backtracked to and descended the Wandering Dutchman Couloir into Pierre Lakes Basin, definitely lousy conditions for glissading.\u00a0 Then as we passed a pretty heart shaped lake, we took a small detour to fill up our water at a place where water was visible.\u00a0 The water in the lakes was not accessible as the lakes were still frozen.<\/p>\n Then we continue along rolling hills in the snow until we were near the lowpoint in the saddle between the long rotten connecting ridge between Capitol and Snowmass.\u00a0 We had to put our crampons back on to ascend this very steep pitch up to the saddle.\u00a0 The super steep snowfield got us most of the way to the saddle, but the ridge was guarded by a 100 foot, steep class 4 pitch on a rotten cliff band.\u00a0 It was intimidating climbing up to this cliff band while on the snow field because looking up the rocks literally hung over us.\u00a0 It looked as if a rock knocked loose from the cliff band with freefall straight to the ground.<\/p>\n When we reached the cliff band, we each chose our own path, parallel to each other.\u00a0 This was a good idea, especially because Stefan knocked loose a bunch of large boulders, and I was happy I did not get squished.<\/p>\n Once at the saddle we began a time consuming traverse across snowfields intermixed with rock fields.\u00a0 This was frustrating because the snow was steep enough to warrant crampons, yet hiking through the rocks with the crampons was not very fun, but I didn\u2019t want to waste time by continuously taking the crampons on and off.\u00a0 Much of the snow was getting mushy, and Stefan and I took turns falling in up to our knees, especially when near the rock fields.<\/p>\n We traversed around a couple of the west facing gullies leading up to Snowmass and North Snowmass.\u00a0 The rock was just awful and loose.\u00a0 Eventually, I just decided to head up some pleasant class 3 slabs. And it was a good choice, although the relatively solid slabs eventually gave way to the loose, sharp, large boulders that define most of the west face of Snowmass.\u00a0 I was moving extremely slow, and I felt a little guilty that I was so slow when to Stefan everything seemed like child\u2019s play.<\/p>\n We reached the top of Snowmass at 3:37 pm.\u00a0 So the traverse had taken about 6 hours.\u00a0 Funny thing was, on my plan I had estimated 6 hours, but that was with the assumption that some of it would be in the dark.\u00a0 So I had been hoping to climb it about an hour faster.\u00a0 Of course technically I could chalk about 30 minutes of that time to the satellite tracker having troubles.\u00a0 During the traverse, Stefan had been eating a lot of food.\u00a0 Man did he bring a lot of food!\u00a0 All I had was my powder.\u00a0 When he would eat and the smell of the burrito, or salty food, or candy would drift by my nose, I admit I was pretty jealous.\u00a0 But of course, even if he wanted to share with me, he could not unless we dropped below 11,000 feet.<\/p>\n In any case, it felt late, and I sent a message to Natalie to tell James that we were well behind schedule, and to bring food, dry clothes, socks, and shoes.\u00a0 James was supposed to meet us between the Maroon Bells and Pyramid, where it would be legal for him to support me.\u00a0 However, it looked as if we would be pretty late.<\/p>\n Snowmass to Maroon Bells Traverse<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the impending sense of doom at how slow I was moving, and how we were running late, it still seemed like with nearly 6 hours of light, that we should be able to climb up and be well of the treacherous high reaches of the Bells before darkness set it.\u00a0 Especially with the treat that we were about to be rewarded with.\u00a0 Ever since the scouting trip in early June, when I had taken a good look at the East face of Snowmass, I had been salivating over sliding down thousands of feet on the sled.\u00a0 The only bad news was that we were going for a higher traverse than I had seen before, so we were only able to enjoy a 2000 foot ride instead of a 3000 foot ride all the way down to Snowmass Lake.<\/p>\n We followed the ridge south from Snowmass until we found the first break in the cliffs, and we climbed down some steep snow to gain access to the snow field below.\u00a0 Stefan had decided that glissading was not his favorite thing to do, and he could move pretty fast by running.\u00a0 So I headed straight down on my sled while he traversed across and ran down the snowfields to join me.<\/p>\n It was as fun as I had been hoping for.\u00a0 I was even getting good at controlling my direction by using the edges of my feet like edges of a ski to help direct my body whichever way I wanted to go.\u00a0 Alas, the problem was that it was over too quickly.\u00a0 Soon I had to put on crampons as we traversed steep snow toward Trail Rider Pass.\u00a0 Once on a large plateau, we found that the snow was very soft, and in several places we had no choice but to push on postholing for hundreds of feet at a time.<\/p>\n We were low on water again and refilled at a stream running underneath the snow. And continued up yet another steep snowfield.\u00a0 Now we were at a highpoint on the traverse, and were able to gradually descend, with our lengthening shadows guiding the way, to the base of the west side of the Maroon Bells.<\/p>\n The Injury of Doom!!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n On this descent I started to notice a sharp pain in my right shin.\u00a0 It was the same location as the spot that had been bothering me a couple of days ago.\u00a0 The pain had gone away, but now it was back with a vengeance.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know exactly what was wrong, but there wasn\u2019t a whole lot we could do about it.<\/p>\n At 6:40 pm, I realized that my goal of glissading down the Bell-Cord couloir was fading quickly.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think it would be a good idea in the dark.\u00a0 So I stopped to send Natalie the following message \u201cHi Natalie. Rough day! Just heading to bells now. How is crew holding up? We will probably be coming off south maroon std. Route\u201d.<\/p>\n We were not far from the Bells, but that shin injury was really starting to bother me. I slowed down dramatically.\u00a0 We tried stopping several times.\u00a0 I massaged it, stretched it, and just tried to tough it out.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0 I asked Stefan if he minded if I listened to some music.\u00a0 I was embarrassed that I wanted to listen to the soundtrack of Frozen.\u00a0 So I evaded his questioned of what type of music I liked and put in my headphones.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what I was so afraid, I shouldn\u2019t have been so rude and should have played it out loud so he could hear it.<\/p>\n When the gradient turned uphill, the pain became much worse.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t deal with the sharp pain.\u00a0 The shin muscle, or whatever tendon it was, did not want to be moved at all, but it was especially when the toe rose up, as it does when you go uphill, that I experienced the worst pain.<\/p>\n I had to drop out of a previous 14er record attempt back in 2001.\u00a0 It was the first time I tried the Self-Powered 14er Speed Record realized that I finally succeeded with in 2003.\u00a0 I had succumbed to Achilles Tendonitis fairly early, an issue that always plagued me during my bicycle racing days.\u00a0 With my experience on 14er records, and with limited experience in Adventure Racing and 24 hour mountain bike racing, I had come up with a philosophy that most pain was mental.\u00a0 Usually it is just a matter of pushing through it, as in \u201cMind over Matter\u201d.\u00a0 However, I had also learned that some injuries you cannot push through, unless you really want to cause some long term damage.\u00a0 I was afraid of tendonitis because of the trouble it had caused me in the past.\u00a0 And tendon injuries take forever to heal because of the lack of blood supply that tendons receive.<\/p>\n I feared that this was no ordinary injury.\u00a0 It could be just some over-use injury that would not let me continue, I just didn\u2019t know.\u00a0 Was it caused by all of the postholing?\u00a0 Was it aggravated by all the time in crampons? \u00a0That certainly make the shin muscles work a little harder.<\/p>\n I started to question my ability to even make it up and over the mountain, and I briefly considered the consequences of calling for rescue.\u00a0 But we were so remote, rescue would certainly not be able to make it until the next day.\u00a0 No, that was not an option, I was not prepared to spend a night up here with my limited gear.<\/p>\n The closest way to get help was literally up and over North Maroon, or at least up and over the Gunsight Couloir.\u00a0 The Gunsight Couloir wasn\u2019t the exact route I wanted to take up the west side of North Maroon, but it was the easiest to find given the snow conditions, so during the traverse we had aimed right at it.\u00a0 It was horribly loose.\u00a0 We were at the base of it now, and I desperately needed to immobilize my leg so that my foot was in a permanent 90 degree bend at the angle.\u00a0 However, I had nothing accomplish this with.\u00a0 I tried tying my toe to my knee using my ice ax leash, but that was not even close.\u00a0 Stefan had some medical tape, but I was afraid to use it because I stubbornly did not want to violate the rules that I was trying to follow, even though I was pretty sure I was done, over and out, as far as the record was concerned.\u00a0 Could an exception be made for medical emergency?\u00a0 In the future I might suggest such an addendum, but I decided against it.<\/p>\n There was nothing I could do. I had to tell Natalie the bad news, so I sent the following message: \u201cNat I am having serious injury. Likely not make it back tonight\u201d.\u00a0 Then I tried to talk Stefan into leaving me behind.\u00a0 I felt responsible for him.\u00a0 At his speed he could probably be up and over and down to the cars by midnight.\u00a0 Why should he have to suffer out here with me because I was so slow?\u00a0 I guess it may have been a silly thing to ask.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine ever leaving an injured friend behind, and that would only be to get help.\u00a0 But we had the tracker and could communicate, so there was no need for him to leave.\u00a0 Still I hated the horrible guilt that I felt.<\/p>\n Stefan never once waivered with his positive attitude, and consistently told me there was nowhere he would rather be.<\/p>\n We began the steep, loose ascent of the Gunsight couloir.\u00a0 It was mostly melted out.\u00a0 Normally I would have preferred snow, but in the current condition my foot would have had trouble ascending with crampons on because of the steep angle of the foot at the ankle.\u00a0 Stefan eventually decided to go up and wait for me at the top of the couloir.\u00a0 He would never admit it but he must have been frustrated by the slow pace.\u00a0 I did the best I could, one slow excruciating step after excruciating step.\u00a0 When I reached the top of couloir he had been waiting for a long time.\u00a0 I sat down next to him feeling demoralized, I needed a nap.\u00a0 I asked Stefan for a 5 minute nap and he patiently agreed.<\/p>\n When I woke up, I remembered something!\u00a0 I had duct tape!\u00a0 I had completely forgotten about it.\u00a0 It was wrapped around a container of chapstick that James had lent me.\u00a0 I only had a small enough, but it was worth a shot.\u00a0 I took the tape and wrapped it tightly around my ankle, just above the ankle bone.\u00a0 (Later I would find out that this was a bad idea, more on that later, but I had to do something).\u00a0 I tried it out, and took a couple of steps.\u00a0 This could work! I thought.<\/p>\n I noticed that Natalie had tried to send me a message on the tracker.\u00a0 All it said was \u201cWhat\u2019s up\u201d.\u00a0 I started typing in a response, but I was too tired and it seemed too difficult, so I gave up on it.\u00a0 I had been trying to save battery power, but in hindsight I wish I would have just paired the tracker with my phone, which makes sending messages as easy as sending a text on your phone.\u00a0 Trying to type in messages on the tracker itself is pretty tedious.\u00a0 Lacking a response from me after the serious injury, she was quite worried.\u00a0 However she could still follow us and see that we were moving so she at least knew we weren\u2019t in imminent danger.<\/p>\n We started up again.\u00a0 I was tired, the leg still hurt, I was horribly demoralized, but there was a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n Stefan commented later that it was frustrating waiting for me to find the right path up the maze of cliffs and cracks that make up the North West Ridge.\u00a0 He could immediately tell where to go, but I was slow to figure it out.\u00a0 I was trying my best.\u00a0 Stefan, if you are reading this, I am sorry! \u00a0He was careful to let me believe I was leading the way, as required by the rules, however I suspect he may have been trying to guide me by pointing his light in the correct location.<\/p>\n The Maroon Bells Traverse<\/strong><\/p>\n We made the summit at 11:40 pm.\u00a0 I did the math in my head, and really it wasn\u2019t that bad.\u00a0 Sure, we had lost a few hours.\u00a0 But I had a huge lead on the record.\u00a0 Perhaps I could push on.\u00a0 If we could just make it down to James, perhaps he could properly tape up my leg, so that the foot wouldn\u2019t bend.\u00a0 Maybe I could continue and still take a stab at the record.<\/p>\n So, with this faint glimmer of hope, rather than descending North Maroon\u2019s standard route and giving up on the record, we went for the traverse to South Maroon.\u00a0 I had never intended to climb this traverse in the dark, especially go north to south, in that direction all of the hardest parts are downclimbs.<\/p>\n The intense feeling of being responsible for Stefan, and at least keeping on the correct route gave me new life, and I awoke from the stupor that I felt I had been in for the last couple of hours.\u00a0 However, it was difficult finding the route in the dark.\u00a0 And I know the route very well in the daylight, having completed the traverse at least 8 times.<\/p>\n We slowly made our way across the ridge.\u00a0 Every part was a challenge.\u00a0 Snow complicated the routefinding, and we tried to avoid it.\u00a0 The most difficult parts were 3 sections are often rapelled.\u00a0 \u00a0We of course did not have the option of rapelling and had to downclimb carefully.\u00a0 Through the first section we found the chimney and descended it carefully, but why did it seem so much harder than usual?<\/p>\n The second and third sections seemed nearly impossible.\u00a0 This ridge is supposed to be 4th<\/sup> class, with a class 5.0 move here or there.\u00a0 Stefan was calling this stuff 5.7, and coming from Stefan that says something.\u00a0 On the last of these hard downclimbs Stefan and I got separated, and I found myself hanging on for dear life by virtue of a single hold that I had to pinch with my thumb and forefinger.\u00a0 Somehow I stretched my legs down and found a foothold, with the presence of a dark abyss, descending thousands of feet below me looming behind me.\u00a0 Stefan found another way down and we were together again.\u00a0 We passed the lowpoint where the Bell Cord couloir joins up with the ridge.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t get a good look at it, but the snow was so hard by now I wasn\u2019t really interested in that route anymore.<\/p>\n We were on the last part of the traverse now, a series of rock steps on the 500 foot climb to the summit of South Maroon.\u00a0 These steps were complicated by the presence of hard snow and very slick ice.\u00a0 This was my best performance of the night as I managed, with a great deal of luck to always find a way around the ice and snow, even in some places where at first glance it looked difficult.<\/p>\n We reached South Maroon at 2:12 am.\u00a0 Two and a half hours is not generally considered a poor time for the traverse.\u00a0 However, normally I would have expected it to take no longer than 45 minutes.<\/p>\n To Hug, or Not to Hug<\/strong><\/p>\n My mind lost some focus once we reached the top of South Maroon.\u00a0 We started to descend the South Ridge.\u00a0 We had both climbed the route before, and it was still relatively fresh in my mind, because that was the day that we met Kim and Andrea.\u00a0 However, it didn\u2019t take long before we were helplessly confused.\u00a0 We were following cairns here and there, but sometimes they didn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 And there was steep snow, both blocking the route and complicating the routefinding.<\/p>\n We were also cold.\u00a0 There was a very stiff, cold wind blowing from west to east, and if we stood still we immediately became uncomfortable.\u00a0 I started losing the ability to think clearly, and was shivering pretty badly.\u00a0 We were both completely confused as how to proceed, the only thing we could think to do was to try to take cover until first light, which was only a couple of hours away.\u00a0 We made our way around to the east side of the ridge to try to get out of the wind.\u00a0 We found a little bit of cover but we were still relatively exposed.\u00a0 We sat down next to each and were both trying to keep warm.<\/p>\n At 4:00 am, I sent Natalie the following message \u201cHi. Stefan and I on south ridge of south maroon. My leg is so bad can barely move. Can you reach James?\u201d<\/p>\n I thought about survival shows I had seen like one of my favorites: \u201cNaked and Afraid\u201d, and remembered how a guy once was docked points because he didn\u2019t cuddle up with the woman in order to stay warm.<\/p>\n So I asked Stefan if he wanted to cuddle, and so we cuddled.\u00a0 I could immediately feel the warmth emanating from his body.\u00a0 I was like a baby wrapped in my mother arms, and fell asleep immediately. This is a work in progress.\u00a0 Sorry it is so long, I know I am very wordy, I can’t seem to help myself.\u00a0 It is very detailed, and I am sure there are still plenty of grammatical errors.\u00a0 I know I am a terrible writer as every paragraph and sentence pretty much starts with the … <\/p>\n
\nWindom, Sunlight, North Eolus, Eolus:\u00a0 The Race to the Train<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 2, June 19, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 3, June 20, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 4, June 21, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 5, June 22, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 6, June 23, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 7, June 24, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 8, June 25, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nDay 9, June 26, 2014<\/strong>
\nComing Soon: Descending South Maroon, Pyramid, and Castle.
\n
\nDay 10, June 27, 2014<\/strong>
\nComing Soon: Holy Cross, Sherman, and calling it quits
\n
\nAftermath<\/strong>
\nComing Soon: The injuries healing, and lessons learned, and thanks to everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"