Long's Peak Expedition 2009 Day 4

7-1-09

It is dark, raining, thundering, and lightening, but NOTHING can dampen, or take away from the fact that we made the summit of Long’s Peak this afternoon!

It was no easy task, I assure you. In fact, not all of us made it, only 3 of the 6 did. That would be Jonathan, Lamarr, and I.
I feel kind of bad for the other guys. One of them just had a “bad feeling” about the whole thing, another realized that he was afraid of heights when we got to the “narrows”, and the other guy was nervous about the weather, which was looking pretty bad and can turn very nasty, very fast. Those three DID make it up to 14,000’, which is still no small accomplishment.
These three had decided to leave while I was waiting under a large boulder/cave for the weather to clear. The other two guys came up to where I was and we waited… I told them that I was “…prepared to wait in this cave for the rest of the day if I have to, but I am GOING TO MAKE THE SUMMIT!” haha
Turned out, the weather cleared up in about twenty minutes. We strapped on our gear and climbed up a very steep 200’ snow/ice bank to the summit.
The view was AMAZING!
We found a capsule up there with a parchment inside with the scribbled names of those who had made it. Totally cool. We signed our names and the date there.








The hike up was grueling, maybe even harder that running in that 70.3 Ironman last year, but the hike back down was even worse because I started snowing pretty hard. That turned into sleet and freezing rain the further down the mountain we got. The granite boulders were really slick with the water. Not cool.

Anyway, by the time we got down, I was absolutely exhausted, just drained.
After some Excedrin migraine and a little food, I started feeling better.

The guys who had gone down before us, were flipping out a little, and really just over reacting because they had been worried about us. Apparently, we had taken too long to get down and there had been a really bad storm on their side of the mountain. I guess we should have given some sort of time frame on when we would be down. Oh well. Live and learn.
This was the best trip ever!


This was the last entry in my written journal. I'll be posting a bunch of photos and explanations from here on ou. Get ready. haha.


KoP

Long's Peak Expedition 2009 Day 3

6-30-09

I didn’t sleep so well last night, but that’s to be expected. I never sleep well on the first night out.
Tonight I will look for a site that’s not as hard, maybe on a bed of pine needles.
Rick was the first one up this morning, followed by Jonathan and Chris.
Lamarr, Blake, and I woke up about an hour later, which would be around 8am.
After a breakfast of oatmeal, granola bars and coffee, we decided to do a day hike up to Mill Moraine Pass and then go down to Chasm Lake. However, once we got up to the pass, we decided to head back to camp for lunch and then hike back up with our packs since it was also the route to the Boulder Field.
It was tough enough with just the weight of a camera. Climbing it again with a 45lb backpack will be brutal. Once we get to the pass, we’ll leave our packs there and head down to the lake, then back up to the pass, grab the packs again and make our way up to the Boulder Field.
There are tons of mosquitoes here, but they are mostly leaving me alone.
On our way up to the Boulder Field.


10:46pm
I am in my tent now, about to go to sleep. I wanted to write one more time about the day.

We made it to the Boulder Field which was about 3.5-4 miles from the previous camp site. It is definitely colder here, probably high 30s right now, and we expect below freezing temps by morning. The elevation is 12,700’, I think.
Long’s Peak looms over us.
The snow covered peak is beautiful and majestic and even a little forbidding…

After we had set up camp, we saw a group of guys coming down from the “Keyhole” pass. After a while, I walked over to their camp and asked if they were able to make the summit. They had indeed made it, but said it was treacherous and difficult..
Good.
One of the younger ones is from Houston. They looked pretty tired.
Actually, I was a little surprised that they had made it. Out of a dozen people we passed on the way up, only two had summited and they looked like serious mountain climbers.

These guys I’m with are crazy. I’m having SUCH a great time!
Hopefully, there will be many more trips in the days to come.


We saw a herd of elk today and I got a few nice shots. I’m going nuts with my camera, tons of photos coming.

Tomorrow, we summit Long’s Peak
Good Night



KoP

Long's Peak Expedition Day 2

6-29-09

This morning, we had a great complimentary buffet breakfast. After we got our gear situated and repacked, we made a few customary and essential stops at the local outfitters. I love those places, lots of big boys toys. We rented our cramp-ons (metal spikes that strap to the bottom of your boots, and are for walking on snow and ice), and ice axes for the climb that will definitely be done in the snow and ice.
After all the shopping and outfitting, we drove the 30 miles or so up to the Long’s Peak trailhead.
There was a Ranger’s Station there, and one of the Rangers told us that we MUST have “bear canisters”, no hanging food bags in the trees. SO, we piled back into the SUV and drove into Estes Park and rented bear canisters and Scot’s Sports.
When we finally hit the trail, it was 3:00pm, a little later than we had planned on, but we only had a 4 mile hike in front of us so no big deal.
Right now, we are at our camp site about to turn in for the night.
Tomorrow should be about the same distance to the Boulder Field where we we will be staying for the next two days.
Good Night.
I took this on the way up that day.
Waterfall trick.



KoP

Long's Peak Expedition 2009 Day 1

6-28-09

Long’s Peak, Co Expedition 2009 "Guy's Trip"

It’s Sunday and we are in Colorado again.
This time it’s me, Chris S., Jonathan P., Rick F., Lamarr E, and Blake H.
Great group of guys!
We’re already having so much fun and hardly ever stop laughing. Everyone seems to be a comedian.

After the flight into Denver, we all met up and headed to the car rental area. They tried to put us in two Ford Cobalts. Yikes. That would have been a tight fit. We told them we weren’t happy with that, so they hooked us up with a Ford Excursion which was much better. All the gear fits and it is much more comfortable.

After that, we went on a search for food and ended up eating at BJ’s in the plaza. Very good food. We talked about our plans, and determined a route up to the peak. When we had eaten and laughed enough, we went to the Inn where we had reservations… THOUGHT we had reservations. Turns out, they reserved Jonathan a room back in April when he had first called them. So we drove up the road a bit and finally got into a Residence Inn suite (Marriot).
Very nice.
Here's the group beneath the peak.




KoP

COLORADO!!!!!

Welp, tomorrow is the big day.
I'll be playing at church until about 1pm, then it's off to Bush Intercontinental Airport.
I'm all packed up, finally, and ready to go. The rest of the guys are excited too. They've been chattering on Facebook... don't laugh, we use Facebook to coordinate our trip... of course we also waste vast amounts of time playing and doing other things on there, but I'm not here to talk about my addictions.

We're going to COLORADO!!!


C O L O R A D OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

As usual, I'll be keeping a hand written journal on the trail. When I get back I'll have tons of stories to tell you about our grand adventure in the Summer snow.

(I didn't take this, but WOW.)

Cya!



KoP