Climb of a Lifetime

Dean Potter gave a slide show presentation this Friday at my local climbing gym- Planet Granite in San Francisco. He is a rock star! He really inspires you to get out there and climb!!

Jeep World of Adventure Sports recently aired a show on Dean Potter and his free soloing of the Eiger.



Jeep World also recently aired the 3 week climbing trip of Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell and Chris McNamara in the Grand Canyon with their free climb of Grapevine Buttress.

I was in Keystone, CO this past weekend for a friend's wedding and decided to take a couple extra days to climb some 14ers. This time of year in Colorado is absolutely gorgeous with sunny, cool days-perfect for hiking. In addition, you don't have to worry so much about being off the mountain by lunchtime since there arent too many afternoon thunderstorms this time of year. I was extremely happy not to have to start hiking in the middle of the night.

I found a fabulous website:  http://www.14ers.com

The site contains details on every single Colorado 14er including route guides and classifications, trailhead access status, weather reports, detailed photos of each route, driving directions, you name it. You can even create your own checklist to chart your progress on the quest to climb all 58. Has anyone made an equivalent for the California ones?

The first day I climbed Grays and Torreys. Tons of people were out as it was the weekend and a pretty nice day, albeit a bit windy. Grays and Torreys are connected by a saddle so you can climb both in one trip. Supposedly most 14er purists say you need to have 3000' of elevation gain on each peak climb to count it but I didnt feel like hiking all the way down to the trailhead and back up again! Neither did anyone else it seems.

The next day I climbed the highest peak in Colorado- Mt Elbert. This was a gorgeous hike through the forest (which is sadly dying because of the pine beetle) then above the treeline with unlimited views of the rest of the Colorado range. I ended up hiking with Rocky- the awesome Texan who has climbed 37 of the 14ers- and a couple from Scotland-Ian and Jasmin- who were vacationing in the US. We had a blast chatting about everything from guns to Prairie Home Companion.

Only 55 more to go!

Not only have I become addicted to Geocaching lately but I am now determined to climb each Highpoint in all the 50 States. My obsession started with Mauna Kea sort of by accident and now after a recent monster roadtrip, I have added Nebraska, Iowa (yeah those aren't too tough you can imagine) and South Dakota. I am hoping to tick off Mount Elbert and a couple other 14'ers in Colorado over the weekend as well. Looks like I have no choice but to head back to Denali!

Harney Peak stands at 7242 feet above the surrounding Black Hills National Forest. I have to say this is my favorite Highpoint hike so far as the scenery is absolutely stunning and we had such a perfect day. This is supposedly the highest point East of the Rocky Mountains and West of the Pyrenees. Nothing is higher in New England? Greenland? Interesting. Anyway, if you find yourself in Rapid City, SD for some reason- definitely head to the Black Hills for some hiking and great rock climbing. 

While taking a quick break on the Big Island in Hawaii, I decided we might as well climb Mauna Kea! At 13,796 ft, Mauna Kea is the highest mountain (volcano) in the state of Hawaii. The hike starts at the Visitor Information Center at roughly 9600 feet and climbs over 7 miles through nothing but volcanic rock to the summit cone. The true summit is another mile up the road- a jump over the barriers and a short rock scramble up the hill and you have reached the summit pyramid! At the top you have spectacular views of Mauna Loa, all the telescope and observatory buildings and down the East side of the island. The day was particularly windy so we had to use all our might not to get blown off the side.

I am a believer now that you feel the altitude much more the further you move away from the equator. I felt pretty good on this climb which would be the equivalent of being flown into Camp 2 on Denali and told to immediately hike up to Camp 4- a place that took us almost a week to climb up to.

I have a new summit dance to add to my collection and I guess I can now officially join the Highpointers. Only 49 more mountains to go!

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/vis