Wednesday morning was spent gearing up for an a backpacking trip of epic proportions with Mike and Seth. Mike had a vision of four fourteeners (peaks over 14,000 ft), an unnamed thirteener, and 25ish miles, in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness.
Final trip preparations involved a stop at the Denver Federal Center's Map Store to pick up some topographic maps, and a copy of Gerry Roach's Colorado's Fourteeners, which has proved to be an awesome resource!
Dave worked out the final mileage, elevations gains/losses, evac points, and tediously, though joyfully, drew in the route on the topos.
The highlights:
- Mt. Huron - 14,003 ft
- Mt. Oxford - 14,153 ft
- Mt. Missouri - 14,067 ft
- Mt. Belford - 14,197 ft
- Unnamed Thirteener (future fourteener) - 13,938 ft
Then, with much dismay we checked the updated weather, and it looked something like this...
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| Take note.... SNOW! |
14ers, our recent luck with weather, and this forecast, do not go well together. It would be an epic trip.... but the WRONG type of epic. So phone calls, text messages, attempts are reworking the routes, reworking the mileage, and looking to other areas began. Alas, all efforts seemed futile. Despite all hopes, and attempts at optimistic thoughts and wishful thinking, the painful decision to call off the trip was made. Instead, we all settled on lower elevation and easier to escape the weather plans. However, this trip will need to be done at a later date!
Thursday morning, we woke up early, organized the climbing gear, and headed to Boulder to climb the South East Arete of the Second Flatiron (5.7).... again. Last time we had this plan our car was broken into! Today went much more smoothly.
Now, we can say we have done climbs on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Flatirons... and the only one we care to repeat again is the 3rd. The 1st and the 2nd are "ok" climbs... but not worth all the work it takes to get back to the ground!
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| The approach! |
Mike met up with us when we got down from the climb, and we planned on having lunch then heading into Boulder Canyon for some more climbing. However, once again mother nature intervened. Rain began to fall on us as we ate lunch, and "impending doom blue" appeared in the canyon. So, we picked out some climbs, and planned to meet up at 7:30 the next morning in hopes of beating the rain that has been rolling in each afternoon.
Happy Independence Day!
Happy 32nd Anniversary to Mom and Dad Matunis!
