Colin Does: Beginner Mountaineering
In mid-August of 2021, I took a trip out to Colorado with a friend for my first mountaineering experience and to peak my first 14ers (mountains over 14,000 feet). We packed a lot into a short trip, driving out to CO on a Wednesday, hiking on Thursday and Friday, and driving back on Friday night, managing to hike 17.5 miles with about 8,000 ft of total elevation gain over the two days. We also saw some wildlife including pikas, marmots, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep.
We arrived near the trailhead of our first climb late on Wednesday night where we set up camp at about 9,000 ft. and got to bed at midnight.
Thursday morning, after 4 hours of sleep at elevation, we woke up, quickly took down camp, and headed to the trailhead to begin our ascent before 5:00 am by headlamp. That day we did an 11 mile route that involved summiting Mt. Belford (14,203 ft), going down into a saddle between Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford at about 12,000 ft, and then summiting Mt. Oxford (14,160 ft). At that point after peaking two 14ers before 9:30 am, we were fairly tired but still had to make the decent which required us to go back down into the saddle, summit Mt. Belford a second time, and then make our final descent. The last 3 miles were absolutely grueling and by the time we reached the car at the trailhead we were struggling with each step. After sitting in the car for a little while we drove into Buena Vista, the small mountain town nearby, to figure out what to do the next day. We had another 10 mile hike planned but given how exhausted we were from the first day we settled on a easier climb closer to Denver, so we made the 3 hour drive towards Denver, and pulled off on the side of the road in national forest land to dispersed camp for the night.
Friday morning we woke up at 4:00 am again, but this time having gotten a whole 6 hours of sleep. Just as the previous day, we hustled to the trailhead so we could begin our ascent before sunrise once again. This was a shorter 6.5 mile hike with the trailhead already starting us off at about 12,000 ft. Even with the starting elevation, the climb was still challenging for us since we were recovering from the previous day and still not adjusted to the altitude. The route we followed took us up and over Mt. Spalding (13,842 ft) to then summit Mt. Evans (14,265 ft) and once again back over Mt. Spalding to return to the trailhead. Since we kept the early start time despite choosing a shorter hike than we initially planned for Friday, we decided to drive back on Friday instead of Saturday morning as we originally intended. Both of us wanted to get back down to an elevation our bodies were accustomed to and after a few hours of driving and making it below 5,000 ft, we were feeling much better.
Here are some pictures from the trip. Click on an image to see it full-screen:
