Pikes Peak

On Saturday the 14th Ryan and I completed our 4th 14er. We climbed the ever popular Pikes Peak, which was the most challenging so far. We went up the northwest slope / Crags Campground route, which starts from 10,100 feet and climbs to 14,110 ft over 5.25 miles. The trailhead is extremely easy to climb and follow except for the area around 13,200 ft. The photos in the route description help out there. The trail starts out rather gently and then cranks up the difficulty from the .5 mile to the 2.5 mile mark. You gain most of the 4000 ft in those 2 miles, but past there you find a welcomed flat (valley?) area that lasts for almost 2 miles. I actually jogged parts of that flat stretch (partly to catch up to Ryan but mostly to push my body and see if I could jog at 13,000 ft), which the church leadership group (of ~75 kids!) called the "sound of music" part of the hike. I really enjoyed seeing the orange-red sandstone rocks compared to the other mountains of this summer.

It was fairly cloudy and 38 degrees at the top, so we didn't stay long. It might have also had something to do with the fact that there were cars and people everywhere. [I definitely know I am a solitude snob... but SERIOUSLY, it was a zoo up there.] Note that aside from the church group mentioned above, the trail to the top was relatively quiet, so I would imagine this would be a serene hike on a weekday. Ryan and I both made good time and felt really good (but exhausted) after the 11 miles roundtrip. We actually did so well that we both ended up pawning most of our water and PowerAde on members of the church group struggling to get to the top as we passed them on our way down... which brings me to my next point.

[lecture start]
Leaders of large groups should NEVER assume their group members are capable of knowing what they need to climb a mountain or are acclimated and able to climb a mountain after getting off the plane from St. Louis the day before. No-no's:

• We passed a girl less than a mile into the hike complaining that she felt like crap and couldn't make it much further. Instead of listening to her, her fellow hikers basically told her she was fine and pushed her on. I assume she made it ok, but that doesn't mean she should have continued. She could have easily had altitude sickness and passed out 2 miles from the road.
  
• On our way down we passed kids who were out of water with 1,000 ft of elevation still to gain. I gave away a liter of PowerAde and a lot of water. Ryan gave away at least that. I don't know who thought a 20 oz bottle of water would suffice, but that's just dumb. Look at how many times the word "water" is used at http://www.wikihow.com/Climb-a-14er.
• It was cloudy, and there was no way the stragglers were going to make it to the top by noon. I doubt the whole group was done by 3pm.
  

Kudos to the kids who made it up, but un-kudos to the leaders for not properly assessing the group prior to sending them up the hill.
[lecture end]

But I digress... here is our summit photo -

Now we're halfway (3 of 6) done with the Front Range's 14ers! 49 more to go in all :)

We stopped by Garden of the Gods but decided that would need to devote another day to that park. When we made it back to Denver we cleaned up and headed to the Black Angus to devour beef and potatoes. Afterwards I pondered how many hiking miles my Vasque Sundowner boots have carried me now that they're 10 years young. I think I decided a good bare-minimum estimate is 300 miles (at least 50 miles this summer, 50 miles last summer in the Smokies, 30 miles (approx ?) in the Olympics and Rainier area in Washington, at least 100 miles on various MUOAC trips at Miami, etc). Woohoo! Those boots are the best gear purchase I've made so far, with my Mountain Hardwear Windstopper Jacket coming in a somewhat close second. I have only had 1 blister in all those miles. I guess it's true - Whatever you do, take care of your shoes (Phish Cavern reference anyone?).