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Bucket list thing.
Jul. 10th, 2016 08:14 pmDisclaimer: I don't actually have a bucket list.
But I did do something pretty cool today: I summitted a 14er! "What's a 14er?" I hear you ask. Well, it's one of the 58 peaks in Colorado that is taller than 14,000 feet. It's a Colorado thing to try to climb them all. I don't know if that's ever going to be my goal, but at least I can say I did one.
Bobo Bro picked me up at my house at 5 AM this morning & we drove two hours to the Fourmile Creek trailhead on the southwest side of Mount Sherman. We started hiking right about 7:05 AM.
Folks -- this was tough. The starting elevation was about 12,000 feet. At this altitude, there is about 65% of the oxygen that would be available at sea level. While I am somewhat acclimatized to altitude because I live in Denver (83% of the oxygen available at sea level), I could still definitely feel it. The beginning of the hike was awful - I was literally taking about 10-20 steps, then stopping to gasp for air, then continuing.
But it started to improve - I adjusted the straps on my backpack so they weren't constricting my breathing & I got warmed up. Bobo Bro was super-supportive - he kept picking landmarks on the trail & encouraging me to "just make it there, then stop for a bit". We passed some old mines works, traversed some remnant snow fields, saw lots of other hikers. We weren't going fast but we steadily made progress.
About two miles in, we got to a saddle between Mt. Sherman & Mt. Sheridan. The wind blowing over the saddle was ridiculous! 50 mph at least. Bobo thought it was more like 70-80 mph. It was definitely strong enough to make walking the ridge at the top a little dicey. Lots of people were turning back there. But we decided to try it & obviously we made it successfully.
We spent about 15 minutes on the summit:
The whole experience was quite a mixed bag. It was physically quite unpleasant. The whole "gasping for air" obviously got worse as we went up (14,035 feet = 60% oxygen). Then my fingers swelled up with edema - they looked like sausages. If I had been wearing rings they would've been excruciating. Then on the way down, I started coughing. I sounded like I had a chest cold with a wet, nonproductive cough. My heartrate spiked & I felt like I was going to blow a blood vessel. But we made it back down. As we drove back down to Denver, the swelling in my fingers receded & now (8 hours later), the wet feeling in my lungs has gone away.
So. It was an accomplishment. It was pretty exhilarating to reach the summit & the views were spectacular. But the edema & the cough were painful & frankly a bit scary. I don't think I'll be rushing back up to that altitude again soon. Plenty of great hiking down lower.
But I did do something pretty cool today: I summitted a 14er! "What's a 14er?" I hear you ask. Well, it's one of the 58 peaks in Colorado that is taller than 14,000 feet. It's a Colorado thing to try to climb them all. I don't know if that's ever going to be my goal, but at least I can say I did one.
Bobo Bro picked me up at my house at 5 AM this morning & we drove two hours to the Fourmile Creek trailhead on the southwest side of Mount Sherman. We started hiking right about 7:05 AM.
Folks -- this was tough. The starting elevation was about 12,000 feet. At this altitude, there is about 65% of the oxygen that would be available at sea level. While I am somewhat acclimatized to altitude because I live in Denver (83% of the oxygen available at sea level), I could still definitely feel it. The beginning of the hike was awful - I was literally taking about 10-20 steps, then stopping to gasp for air, then continuing.
But it started to improve - I adjusted the straps on my backpack so they weren't constricting my breathing & I got warmed up. Bobo Bro was super-supportive - he kept picking landmarks on the trail & encouraging me to "just make it there, then stop for a bit". We passed some old mines works, traversed some remnant snow fields, saw lots of other hikers. We weren't going fast but we steadily made progress.
About two miles in, we got to a saddle between Mt. Sherman & Mt. Sheridan. The wind blowing over the saddle was ridiculous! 50 mph at least. Bobo thought it was more like 70-80 mph. It was definitely strong enough to make walking the ridge at the top a little dicey. Lots of people were turning back there. But we decided to try it & obviously we made it successfully.
We spent about 15 minutes on the summit:
The whole experience was quite a mixed bag. It was physically quite unpleasant. The whole "gasping for air" obviously got worse as we went up (14,035 feet = 60% oxygen). Then my fingers swelled up with edema - they looked like sausages. If I had been wearing rings they would've been excruciating. Then on the way down, I started coughing. I sounded like I had a chest cold with a wet, nonproductive cough. My heartrate spiked & I felt like I was going to blow a blood vessel. But we made it back down. As we drove back down to Denver, the swelling in my fingers receded & now (8 hours later), the wet feeling in my lungs has gone away.
So. It was an accomplishment. It was pretty exhilarating to reach the summit & the views were spectacular. But the edema & the cough were painful & frankly a bit scary. I don't think I'll be rushing back up to that altitude again soon. Plenty of great hiking down lower.
