My First 14er - Mt. Yale

Ever since we moved to Colorado, I've wanted to hike a 14er. On Saturday, July 16th, I finally reached my goal. Don and I climbed Mt. Yale, a 14, 233' peak in the Collegiate Peaks wilderness area. 

I had gone down to Colorado Springs on Thursday to spend some more time with April and her boys before they went home to Dallas. I had hurt my back earlier in the week and was worried it would keep me from being able to hike on Saturday. I woke up Friday and my back was still really bothering me but I decided that back pain or no, I was going to climb that mountain!

On Friday afternoon, Don rode the bus downtown then jumped on the lightrail to the end of the line in South Denver where I picked him up. Don's mom was her usual wonderful self and let Sammy stay with them overnight so Don and I could camp near the trailhead rather than have to get up at 3 am to drive 2 1/2 hours to start the hike.

Don and I had such a great time driving through South Park, and up the canyon near Buena Vista. It was so nice to have some time together to just talk and hang out alone. It's always so refreshing to get a break from our parenthood/house cleaning/life is work - partnership and remember how much we really like each other and how well we get along.

We got up the canyon about 9 pm and it was getting dark. We had planned on staying at a campsite which ended up being full. So, we didn't have a plan and it was dark and I was a little nervous. We drove up and down the road trying to find a place to camp and some water. There was no water (we only had a Nalgene bottle full with us) and we were getting a little less cheerful wondering where the heck we were going to sleep.

Finally, we saw some tents along the side of the road and pulled over. It wasn't an organized campsite - just a place where people were camping with no facilities or water. We talked to the nice couple in the trailer next to us and they offered us a gallon of water which we gratefully took. 

We then ran across the road and into the woods to take care of business and settled down for the night...

Unfortunately, we had some wild partying going on about 100 yards away from us that lasted all night. Don didn't sleep much at all and I kept getting woken up by the drunken laughing and yelling. At one point a bunch of drunk guys wandered by our tent and proceeded to attempt to chop a tree down that was about 50 feet from us. I have never wanted a campground host to lay the smack down so badly in my life. I think I mumbled something to Don about wanting to "kill them" but wasn't coherent enough to get dressed and go out there, confront them, and ask them to be quiet. I'm not sure that even if I had that it would have made a difference.

We woke up at 5:30 am just as the party was winding down. A couple guys were still stumbling around  the 10 or so empty styrofoam coolers scattered around their camp. One of the guys then set off their car alarm. I knew they were awake and since we had forgotten our lighter to start our stove for oatmeal, I went over to ask if they had one. The one guy who was still out and about said he was sorry he set his car alarm off at 3 am and I told him it was 5:30 am, which completely shocked him. When I asked if he had a lighter I could borrow he said sure and then got a devious glint in his eye and asked what I needed it for. I think he was hoping I had something exciting I was planning on smoking at 5:30 am. He looked sorely disappointed when I told him I was making oatmeal. I was grateful for the lighter. We would have had a hungry morning without it but we had a very tired start to the day thanks to the wild and craziness of this group of guys.

We got on the trailhead about 6 am and started our way up the mountain. It was a beautiful morning.

These pretty bluebells greeted us by the stream.

Looking back down to the lake which was near the trailhead.

Our first views of the peak.

Hiking through the forested section. This was one of the only sections that wasn't ridiculously steep.

We'd hike about 2 miles when we took a wrong turn and ended up hiking down for about 1/4 mile before realizing we were on the wrong trail. I took this picture of Don when we realized. Then we started heading back up...

Above treeline...

After we got onto the ridgeline to the summit, we scrambled all the way to the top. We had looked up this hike online and found that it was a "moderate" 14er. We then consulted our book about the best hikes in Colorado and read that we should take the route less traveled. The route was beautiful but it was definitely not "moderate". It was really intense and often we couldn't see the path leading through the giant boulder fields or loose shale. We ended up scrambling on all fours on steep ledges with our feet sliding as we sent little rock slides down the slope. It was exciting and I actually really enjoyed it. It just wasn't what I was expecting.

Trying to find the best path on this steep, rocky section.

Heading up the first ridge.

Beautiful views. I wish I had a wide angle to show all of the peaks stacked one after another as far as we could see.

Where is the trail? We really had no idea most of the time.

This section was really loose and I kept slipping. The crazy guy behind us was carrying a huge pack! It was hard enough to keep my balance without a heavy load. We were glad to see that he ditched the bag as we passed him on the way down.

Initially upon seeing a huge spider like this between the rocks, Don and I were pretty excited. We were amazed that anything could survive at this elevation. Then, we discovered that these spiders were all over and built their webs across the gaps in the boulders so at any time an unsuspecting bug (or hiker) would wander through and get caught in their web. I hate spiders so I was really freaked out about these spiders being all over (seriously - you had to be constantly watchful so you didn't walk through a web). Don usually doesn't mind spiders but these even gave him the willies. Looking at this picture even gives me the chills. Ugh.

A beautiful view of Mt. Harvard. We were in the collegiate peaks wilderness area (thus Mt. Yale, Harvard, and Princeton...)

Coming up to a false summit. 

Trying not to get caught in the spider webs or fall to my death...

This was the only reprieve from the scrambling and wicked steepness. We ate a bunch of food here and then headed up the final section.

Snow!

Pulling myself up the boulders.

Once we were over 14,000', it became amazingly hard to breathe. I would count 50 steps before I'd let myself stop moving and it was really hard! I was so, so tired.

A picture of Don's watch at the summit - 5.56 miles and 14,233' elevation. I think we gained about 6,000'. That is one steep hike!

A few pictures from the top... Look at those peaks stretching out in the distance. It was breathtaking.

The wildflowers that live in the tundra are so beautiful!

I love this picture of Don.

We met a man and a college girl who had flown out from Ohio to hike and bike around Colorado. We had passed them previously and ended up talking to them for quite awhile at the top. As we were hiking down, we saw the girl going the wrong way by herself (it really was impossible to tell where the trail was - if I hadn't had Don the walking compass, I would have been lost from the beginning) so we yelled to her to stop and come to where we were. We then hiked down together. It was fun getting to know her. Her friend she was hiking with would hike really fast for a few miles and then would wait for her for a half hour and ditch her again. Luckily, her friend gave us some water or we would have run out. We had our water purifier thinking we would be able to fill up at a stream but our trail didn't follow a stream after the first 1/4 mile. We would have been in trouble without these two (and she would have been in trouble without us) so we all were lucky to have found each other.

These blue flowers were my favorite!

We hiked pretty quickly on our way down and by the time we made it to the stream near the base of the trail, our feet were hot and tired. We took off our boots and soaked our sore toes in this freezing cold stream. It felt so good and hurt so much. Don could only put his feet in for about 3 seconds because it was so cold.

I was really lucky that my back hardly hurt at all on the hike. We had such a great time and I was so pleased to have accomplished my goal to climb a 14er. We said goodbye to our Ohio friends (don't know their names) and got into our car.

As we were driving down the canyon, there were two older guys on motorcycles who passed us on a double line on the two lane highway. Neither of them had helmets and one of them was wearing flip flops. We commented on how dangerous what they were doing was and I thought to myself they looked a little drunk.

We came around the next corner to see that one of the guys had laid his bike down and his buddy was waving for us to stop and help. We were the first people on the scene and I grabbed my bag of baby wipes and ran across the road to see what I could do. The man who had crashed stood up and came stumbling towards me and told me to get all the f*&#(*% blood off of him. His forehead, nose, and face were shredded and he was gushing blood all over. He then nearly collapsed and Don and couple guys caught him and I told him he was in shock and needed to lay down. It was amazing the man wasn't paralyzed or more severely injured as I'm pretty sure he hit his head on the curb (which ripped his face open). 

In college, I took a full semester advanced first aid class. I had never been in a true emergency situation before and had always thought I was queasy around blood. But, as soon as this man was on the ground, I became efficient and capable. I asked his friend for his shirt and used it to apply pressure to the wounds on his face while someone called 911. The man had a chunk missing out of his nose and had ground his big toe to the bone and was bleeding profusely. I talked to him and kept him calm. He was pretty out of it and was swearing up a storm (his friend kept telling him to watch his language around me. It was sweet of him to be concerned but there was no stopping the torrent). Neither he or his friend knew exactly what happened but the guy who had crashed said he saw something in the road and tried to swerve to miss it and then couldn't remember what happened. They had been at a wedding and I think they were both a little drunk.

The ambulance finally came and they took the man away on a stretcher and Don and I drove to a gas station so I could wash the blood off my hands. 

This was a really important experience for me. I now know that I can handle blood (and lots of it) and be  calm and clear headed in an emergency situation. Now I feel a lot more confident in my desire to pursue a future career as a physician's assistant, nurse practitioner, or nurse. I'm so glad that this man was ok and I'm glad that I was there to help and gain this knowledge about my capabilities.

So that was our awesome adventure climbing a 14er. I loved it and can't wait to climb another one!