That's what happened to me this past week, as Hal and I were visiting Mom and Dad in Frisco, CO.
Hal got off work last Monday, and I drove up to meet him, ready to summit Mt. Sherman, outside of Fairplay. We had a relaxing start, 10am, and were back in the car by 1pm. I picked Monday and Tuesday to do our ascents because the weather, though cold and windy, was bright and clear, no impending storms. Mt. Sherman sits 14,036 ft. above sea level and was, in our opinion, one of the easiest 14ers. The entire hike was barely five miles long, with only 2,000 ft. of elevation gain. You park up by old abandoned mines, and basically walk up the road to the summit. There is one headwall you have to gain, which, with microspikes (Kahtoola microspikes )was super fun! Other than the 35+ mph winds on top, it was a pleasant hike.
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| Steep headwall leading to the ridgeline-thank goodness for microspikes! |
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| It's blurry because it's so windy it's blowing the hardpacked snow around! |
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| Summit of Mt. Sherman-took my hand the entire descent to warm back up (I need new gloves!) |
We parked below the Kite Lake trailhead, because the road is in such bad shape for the final 500 meters. We struck out straight from the truck and plodded uphill for two hours to reach the summit. I was getting cranky because there wasn't enough snow to make it easy, so we had to hike on the loose scree. One step forward, two steps back...
Until Hal had the brilliant idea of putting on our snow spikes and using them in the dirt-genius! It made the traction so much better, and at the end of the hike, our spikes still looked brand new and sharp!
We gained the summit, snapped another cold, windy pic, and headed down. Now the way down was the most fun I've had descending a 14er! We found a snowpacked gully, and ran/slid down the entire way back to the truck! Such a blast! Because my videography skills are horrible, both videos we took ended up sideways when I downloaded them, so you will just have to imagine how much fun we had ;) Also, I wouldn't recommend this route back down in a few more weeks, because as more snow settles, it will turn into an avalanche chute...
Three hours later, we were back at the truck.
Some people do all four 14ers in this area in one push-if you're just doing Bross, it was 3.5 miles, roundtrip, and 2,289 ft. of elevation gain, if you go straight up from the road.
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| So pretty in the winter...! |
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| Phew, finally some flat ground! |
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| Mt. Bross summit (14,172 ft.) and our 30th 14er! |
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| Yes, Hal is squinting... |
So what happened between dinner, hot tub, shower, and 5am????!!
All I know is that a very urgent need to empty my stomach woke me at 5am, Wednesday morning, and that was the end of it. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday sleeping, waking up only to sip on diet Sprite and munch on Saltine crackers. Some fun I was! Hal and Mom and Dad had to soldier on without me, hitting up the shooting range in freezing temperatures and enjoying more meals and coffee together. I finally rose from my stupor on Friday morning, and was able to drive myself home and am now finally recovering.
Although being sick is certainly no fun, I was lucky enough to have Mom and Dad and Hal there to take of me-such a treat!
Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out to visit and getting the condo-let's do it again soon, when I'm not violently ill! And I'm pretty sure that now I like doing the 14ers more in the winter than I do in the summer, as long as the avalanche danger is low...!
Thanks for reading!
