Fourteener Friday

Friday was the first meeting of the Fourteener Fridays Club. My friend, Ann, and I decided that we would attempt some fourteeners on Fridays this summer as I'm not working and as a realtor, she would likely have some free time on Fridays. For our first hike, Mount Massive, Dan came along, too.

We met in South Boulder at 4:30am and drove all the way through Leadville to the trailhead. Dan and I were pleasantly surprised by the roads, as we were on them three years when we hiked our very first fourteener, Mount Elbert. However, we kept going on the dirt road past the standard trailheads to try some 4-wheel driving and get to the North Halfmoon Creek parking lot. We saw one other truck there.

The beginning of trail was absolutely beautiful. It meandered through lush forests and a beautiful meadow. We saw a big rabbit and lots of early season wild flowers. After a mile and a half, we left the main trail and headed straight up for almost three miles.

Though the trail was very well built and maintained, it was steep and large portions were hidden under huge snowfields. Several times we got out the axes and kick-stepped up the slopes. Amazingly, we managed to keep finding the trail and followed up to the very, very long summit ridge.

Mount Massive has many small peaks along this huge ridge that are all above 14,000 (Massive ranks second highest in the state at 14,421 ft). Once we climbed one small peak, there was always another, higher one further along the ridge. We FINALLY reached the true summit at 1:30 and had a leisurely lunch as there was not a cloud in the sky.

On the way down we were determined to speed up our descent by doing some glissading down the large snowfields. After sliding down the summit ridge, we hiked over a saddle to a very steep, rockslide slope. We were actually planting our axes into the loose dirt and scree to safely walk/slide down it. We were able to glissade down several more snowfields before meeting back up with the trail back to the car.

I think Massive is probably the prettiest fourteener we've hiked, but it was also very long and steep. It took us 5:45 to travel 4 miles and ascend 4,000 ft and 3:45 to get back to the car. This coupled with a 6-hour round trip drive, made for a very, very long day.

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From the summit we had great views of the Tenmile and Mosquito Ranges. We could even see Pikes Peak! When we got home Dan identified and labeled the peaks. Use the scrollbar below to view the entire panorama, or click for a larger view:

Intermediate snow, part 2

The second field trip for the Intermediate Snow class was crampon practice in Rocky Mountain National Park. Laurel didn't make this trip since she had a pretty bad spill on her bike earlier in the week and sprained her shoulder.

To get some good hard snow on steeper slopes, we needed an early start. At 2:50am my alarm woke me up. I picked up a few other CMC'ers in Lyons at 4am then met the rest of the class at the Bear Lake trailhead at 5am. It was raining lightly but soon turned to snow as we gained elevation. We hiked to some steep slopes near Lake Helene, arriving there before 8am.

Despite the early start, the snow was not great for crampon practice, as there was 5 inches of new soft snow on top. We practiced the techniques, but unfortunately the conditions didn't always warrant those techniques. Still, it was great practice and a great experience. At the end of the day we glissaded back down the slopes and hiked back to the car. We made it to Oscar Blues in Lyons around 1:30 for lunch.

See pictures someone else took that day.

Intermediate snow

We got up not-so-bright and early Sunday morning to meet for a field trip with the CMC Intermediate Snow School. At St. Mary's Glacier we practiced building anchors in the snow using natural features, pickets, flukes, and ice axes -- standard snow climbing tools. We learned how to do hip belays from bucket seats, boot-axe belays, and a few other techniques. We also practiced traveling in rope teams and setting protection up a steep snow slope. Both of us got a turn leading our rope teams. It was fun and we met a lot of nice people. After 8 hours on the snow we unwound at Tommy Knockers in Idaho Springs.

Yay Summer!

Dan slept in a bit today, so I wen for a nice run before we headed to Chautauqua for some climbing. At lunch time we were standing at the base of The Hammerhead, a rock that Gerry Roach calls classic despite its easy rating.

I led (yes, me!) the first two pitches of the climb. I was slow, but I protected the route well, even on the 50 foot long arch in the middle of the route.

Dan led the next half pitch to the the back of the rock and then led up behind the summit block to the top. The summit was huge and flat (hence "Hammerhead") and we hung out for a while.

Great views of the Fourth Flatiron from this summit:

Fields of wildflowers on the hike back:

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

After our awesome hike on Saturday, Sunday we took it easy. Dan and I both went for easy runs Saturday morning as a last prep for Monday's race. We cleaned the house (very exciting) and waited for my parents to arrive from Florida.

On Monday Dan and I got up early for the Bolder Boulder. We jogged down to the start (less than a mile from our house), and got in our waves. The race was as exciting as last year with 50,000 runners and walkers and probably that many people lining the race course. There were 29 bands playing on different street corners (including the Blues Brothers and Elvis), not to mention the belly dancers and people with slip 'n slides on their front lawns. There were even two houses handing out bacon. We both had PRs for the race, Dan at 48:40 and me at 55:32. Mom and Dad made their way to the stadium and we hung out a while with them and Ann watching the runners finish. We stayed around for the professional race and the Memorial Day ceremonies. I even got to see some of the kids that were in the BBRacers Club that I trained the last two months. They did great!

Later in the afternoon we took Mom and Dad to the Boulder Creek Festival and then we went out to dinner with Tim and Jill for birthday spaghetti and garlic knots. Yum!

Mount Sherman

Laurel wanted to hike Mount Sherman for her birthday -- the closest 14er she hasn't summited yet.

We got up at 4am, packed up the Xterra, and hit the road. By 7am we reached the trailhead at the end of the 4x4 road. Amazingly, there were only a handful of vehicles up there.

Every other 14er we've hiked has been a parade up an obvious trail. When we started up Sherman though, the trail was mostly buried in snow and there was only one other group of hikers who chose a different route.

Two Ptarmigan followed us at the start of the trail.

We decided to aim for the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. Once atop that saddle, Gemini Peak to the north caught our attention. Instead of heading right up Sherman we adjusted course for Gemini.

The twin peaks of Gemini look similar from a distance, but each has its own character. The first we summited was not very steep-sided, and there were actually two smaller sub-peaks nearby that we also hiked up. The view was fantastic from these summits.

The main Gemini Peak is taller and fairly steep. We decided not to hike the steep southeast rock slope right in front of us or the equally steep south snow slope. Instead we hiked around to the east side of the peak and went up from there. On the topo it doesn't look any less steep, but it seemed to be in the field.

We took a short break on the summit of Gemini. At 13,951' elevation, it is almost a 14er itself. Our next stop was Mount Sherman.

The most remarkable thing about Mt. Sherman was that we were the only people on the summit for 20 minutes! That's a first for us on a 14er.

We hiked down the southwest ridge of Sherman. This was a nice part of the hike -- good exposure on either side of the ridge, but flat enough on the top that it was a hike and not a scramble. It was neat to look off to the distance and see a distinct line cutting across the Sawatch range.

As we were hiking down Sherman and towards Sheridan (another 13er), we crossed paths with two CMC folks hiking the other way. The girl had just finished WTS and the guy was an assistant this year to the instructor we had for WTS last spring. Small world in the mountains.

The summit of Sheridan was spectacular in its own way. From there you could see clear across the trough containing Leadville and the Arkansas Headwaters to the Sawatch 14ers.

We were getting tired, so after a short break atop our third real summit of the day, we headed down Sheridan's south ridge. This slippery slope of scree required careful footing. From the bottom of that slope we followed an old 4x4 road and some snow slopes back to the car. The snow was soft enough in the afternoon that we had to get out the snowshoes.

At the end of the day we had covered just over 7 miles. Since it was mostly off trail it took us 8.5 hours. We were above 13,000' elevation for over 6 hours.


View Mount Sherman in a larger map

May Hail

Denver got some weather today -- hail between golf-ball and baseball size!

Here in Boulder we just got a minute or two of very small hail. After it seemed to be over we went for a walk and took pictures of the clouds out East.

As giant as that cloud looks in the picture above, it was probably 50% taller when we first set out! We had to walk a ways to get a good look at it. You can see the same cloud deflated a bit more in the left side of this panorama:

Later in the evening I saw this monster outside our front door:

It was getting dark out but the cloud was high enough to still get lit up by the sun.

Sugarloaf MTB

This is Sugarloaf Mountain, as seen from the Betasso Preserve:

We put the bikes on the Xterra and drove up to the Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead. Laurel went for an hour-long run down Glacier Lake Road. I had run 7 miles the day before, so I hiked up Sugarloaf Mountain instead. The mountain is very visible from Boulder, and from its summit there are fantastic 360 degree views.

I took a bunch of pictures from the summit to make panoramas. The wind was intense! At least 50 MPH.

Laurel arrived back at the car about the same time I did. We took the bikes down and headed out the same road she had just run on. It's a pretty tame road for mountain bikes but it was a fun ride -- about 6 miles west to the Peak-to-Peak highway, then back.

The ride back home took us right by the turn off for the Betasso Preserve, so we parked there and hiked for a short while.

Fourth Flatiron

Today we climbed part of the Fourth Flatiron. The rock is split into three pieces separated by gullies. We climbed the first piece in 5 pitches (about 700' over 5 hours).

This was our first climb anywhere near the Fourth, so we weren't even sure where the rock was or what it looked like. Typically we waste a lot of time trying to find the right starting point, but this rock was easy to locate and identify -- right off the trail with a big cave 200' up.

The routefinding was surprisingly easy. The landmarks we were aiming for (cave, ledge, face, ridge) were all oversized and obvious, so there was no question we were on route. The climbing itself was enjoyable too -- mostly friction work (typical for east face routes) but there were occasional sections that were more vertical and definitely felt harder than 5.4.

The climb isn't far from the Royal Arch. It was neat seeing it from afar -- when you hike to it you don't get a good look until it's right in front of your face. To the north we could see the Third Flatiron and to the East was NCAR.

Once we get our climbing chops back we'll have to return to do the entire East Face of the Fourth. From the rock's summit it isn't a far hike to the summit of Green Mountain, which sounds like a very fun hike!

Snow in May

Bike, Hike, and Climb

It was another good weekend in Boulder. On Saturday, we biked 17 miles to the Hall Ranch in Lyons. We hiked 9 or 10 miles and then biked all the way back. The ride back is rough -- basically all the elevation gain (over 400') occurs over 3 miles.

Today we climbed a route on the First Flatironette. Lots of fun!

At the top of the climb there were huecos which had collected rainwater. Surprisingly there was something swimming around in there!

Bird Update

The damn bird is still flying into the window. Who needs an alarm clock, or a clock at all for that matter, when the bird wakes you up at 5:30am and flies into the window at dinner time.

Morning robin

Yesterday afternoon there was a nice robin cheeping outside our window. This is the robin:

This morning at 6am there was an aggressive robin thwocking into our window. This is the robin:



The robin apparently isn't afraid of the big owls that live across the street, so it's no surprise that it isn't afraid of the 8.5 x 11 owl I printed out and taped to the outside of the window either.

Teller Lake trail run

We were going to bike to Chautauqua today to run the Mesa trail, but once we got on our bikes and started heading West we noticed it was misting in the mountains. So instead we drove East and ran the trails around Teller Lake. Despite the advancing clouds it never rained, lucky us!

Boulder day

We stayed local today. First we headed out on our bikes to Wonderland Lake. We saw the hang glider from last week, but this time he was actually up in the air. After parking our bikes at the trailhead we hiked the Kiln loop trail. The kiln was kinda neat, there were some strange black and white rocks along the way, and we got to see a hummingbird very close up.

Next we biked down to the library and then the farmers' market for lunch. While downtown I got my new free Newton Running shoes. It's a neat store -- they let you take the shoes outside to test drive.

From there we headed home. I biked to the Bolder Boulder store to pick up my race packet. Back at home I tried out my new shoes on a 1-mile run. They'll take a little getting used to but I think I like them.

Later in the evening Laurel and I headed out for a walk and ended up at the Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. Good food. It was a bit chilly walking home.

New shoes!

Laurel and I went to a panel discussion at Alta Physical Therapy on the merits of barefoot or minimalistic running vs. shod running. There was a raffle and I won a new pair of sneaks! Need to go down to Newton Running to get fitted sometime.

M+D vacation, part 2

My parents returned from Colorado Springs last Tuesday evening. Wednesday was rainy, so it was a quiet rest day for them. We had dinner at Turley's (many gluten free options!). Thursday they went to Cheyenne to see the buffaloes and got soaked by a heavy rainstorm. That evening, Laurel went to a talk about swimming and triathlons. The three of us went to Neptune for a short movie about some climber who apparently didn't die when aid climbing in the Italian Dolomites. My parents stayed in Boulder on Friday, checking out Pearl Street and a new exhibit at the Boulder History Museum.

Saturday morning I went on the first long run I've done in a while (7.5 miles). Then the four of us headed downtown: We got bacon cupcakes at Tee & Cakes, had breakfast at Lucille's, and then walked the farmer's market. In the afternoon we did a hike around Wonderland Lake. That evening we heard Carmina Burana performed by the Boulder Philharmonic. It was fantastic, what an experience!

For Sunday, Dad and I had a big hike planned. We left the house at 7am and hiked Bear Peak. We were lucky to have great hiking weather the whole day, and only a few fresh inches of snow at the top. Mom and Laurel hiked the Eagle and Sage trails and then did a little shopping at Celestial, Pekoe, and Savory and Spice.

Monday I took my parents to NCAR, where Dad and I had started our hike the previous day. We followed the trail a bit to show Mom what we had hiked. After that we had lunch at The Med and walked around the Sturtz and Copeland greenhouses. Mom assembled a beautiful bouquet for us and I got some information about our "Christmas tree" (a Norfolk Pine we've had for years).

Tuesday was my parents last day in town and the first day that the weather was really nice. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and checked out the planes at the local Boulder airport before they took off for the big airport in Denver.

Weekend visitors

Mark (a friend from UConn) flew in Friday, a few days early for his GIS conference in Ft. Collins next week. We took him on a hike up to the top of the First Flatiron and then got dinner at Himalaya's. My parents are also visiting next week, so we lent Mark our Echo and some hiking gear for the weekend and made a few suggestions about where to go in RMNP.

When my parents arrived on Saturday they brought rain -- first we've seen around here since September! It didn't last long so after lunch we walked the Cottonwood Trail. We met a local farmer with a stand on Jay Rd. and got some fresh produce. It was sunnier in the afternoon.

Sunday we headed for the hills! We took the scenic route to Idaho Springs for a little shopping, lunch at Beau Jo's, and a gold mine tour. We drove up to Berthoud Pass for pictures and got to see some back country skiers making turns down a nearby slope. Then we got ice cream in Winter Park. On the way home we drove through Rollinsville and took Magnolia back to Boulder. Not a 4x4 road but it is mostly dirt, and very steep!

My parents took a side trip to Colorado Springs on Monday and Tuesday. They walked around Garden of the Gods, took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, and visited the Cliff Dwellings. Back in Boulder, I went for a hike with Mark on Monday, where we saw tons of ladybugs!

Anne U. White trail-run

Today Laurel and I rode our bikes 45 minutes to the Anne U. White trailhead and did our first trail-run of the season (not counting Cottonwood, which is flat). We're going to be doing a lot of this in the coming months to prepare for the Pikes Peak Ascent -- a half marathon up a 14er with 7800' elevation gain. Fortunate for us we're just running up the mountain; for the full marathon, runners turn around at the top and run all the way back down too.

Compared to Pikes Peak's Barr Trail, our run today was more moderate in elevation gain -- around 500' gained over 1.6 miles going up -- but still quite strenuous! The winding, narrow trail requires 10-20 stream crossing each way. Most crossings have a few rocks to hop along. Doing this at speed without getting wet can be a challenge. Parts of the trail were still snowy too.

Longs Peak trail

We did some hiking and snowshoeing Saturday, starting from the Longs Peak trailhead. Weather was beautiful -- definitely starting to transition from Winter to Summer. Hopefully when there's less snow we can try running this trail.

Our new ride