Hello!!!! (This is Brent) I am honored to have the opportunity to once
again write for the Cycle for the Summit blog.
(My last post was to announce my retirement from riding with Michael in
late October, due to achilles tendonitis)
But as I said, the fact that I’m not riding anymore isn’t going to keep
me from helping Michael out and serving the ultimate purpose of fundraising for
Big City Mountaineers (BCM)…which is exactly what I’ve been doing. (while waiting to hear back from job
applications ;-) I work to find Michael
to find places to stay every night as well as try to drum up some media
coverage for him. (I am going to work at getting better at the media part)
Another way I hope to stay active
with Cycle for the Summit is to join up with Michael for some of the larger
climbs as often as I can. (I fear this
will be harder once I land a job) So
while I don’t currently have a job, it was the perfect time to drive out to Colorado and join Michael for Mount Elbert, the second highest point in the contiguous
United States at 14,433 feet. (to
Mount Whitney, California 14,505 feet)
Luckily within Colorado’s 14’er
(Mountains over 14,000 feet, Colorado has 53 of the 88 fourteeners in the US)
community, Elbert is considered one of if not the easiest. While it is
considered to be one of the easiest, it still should not be taken lightly and I had a
number of worries in the back of my mind leading up to the climb. Was I physically conditioned to make it to the
summit? Due to my achilles injury I had
done little to nothing in terms of physical activity for about two months, a
bit of swimming, but that’s all…my quads and calves had only been used for
daily walking. Another worry was
completely out of my control…altitude sickness.
I would be coming from St. Joseph, Missouri, 885 feet above sea level
and climb to 14,433 two days later.
Everyone reacts to altitude differently and there is no way to prepare
for it or project how you will react.
While climbing I had to make sure to listen to my body and pay attention
to altitude sickness symptoms so as not to put Michael or myself in danger.
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| Mount Elbert is the furthest right. |
I drove in and met Michael at the
home of Jim and Cathy McKeen, whom we had contacted via www.warmshowers.com. Like so many other hosts, they were an
absolute pleasure to stay with. We
camped out Monday evening at the entrance of the four-wheel drive road at the
base of Mount Elbert, so we could rise with the sun to begin our ascent as we
expected it to be a full day affair.
I could hardly sleep, as I was
extremely excited to climb the next day.
Michael is an experienced mountaineer, having participated in a month
long mountaineering course with the National Outdoor Leadership School, and climbed
such icons as Half Dome in Yosemite and Kilimanjaro, the highest point in
Africa to name a few. I on the other
hand grew up in the rolling plains of Missouri and this was only the third time
in my life I had been to Colorado. The
largest “climb of my life was when we rode to the top of Clingman’s Dome, Tennessee
6,643 feet. The largest hike of my life
was only 7 miles with 1,700 feet elevation gain, on Calloway Peak in North
Carolina. (It was beautiful!) So I was about to shred a lot of personal
bests as we climbed Elbert.
Everyone’s thoughts, prayers and
good vibes were with us for the summit day as the weather was absolutely
perfect! Days before the highs were in
the low 30’s and lows nearing zero degrees, days after our summit the temps
were colder than that…but for the Monday we camped and the Tuesday we climbed,
the highs were in the mid 40’s and lows near 20.
We hit the trail Tuesday morning at
6:45am. Starting at 9,500 feet we had
two relatively easy miles to hike up the four-wheel drive trail before we
reached the trailhead. We were taking
the East Ridge trail. Which was going to
be 12 miles round trip with 4,900 feet of elevation gain. We were extremely grateful for The Trailhead
in Buena Vista, CO for lending us snowshoes and poles for the climb. The snowshoes helped us conserve a good deal
of energy below the tree line. We had to
cross a couple small snowfields where the snow was a couple feet deep in some areas.
Once we made it above tree line, we
no longer needed the snowshoes but still had a lot of work ahead of us. Overall I was feeling good, but would have to
catch my breath every once in a while.
Which I would do as we stopped to snack and drink water, keeping
hydrated is the best way to fend off altitude sickness. Michael told me that every time he felt
symptoms of altitude sickness on Kilimanjaro, he would take a drink and feel
better. Sure enough I would always feel
really good every sip I took. Not only
was water a must for general survival, it was a great mental tool to keep morale
high.
I finally found my pace and just
focused on small steps one after the other and was able to climb without
getting too winded. It was by no means
an easy feat, I had to dig deep and think lots of positive thoughts to keep
driving. It was these thought of my
girlfriend, family and friends that helped me push thought the fatigue. About 300 feet or so from the summit we heard
yells of elation and looked up to people celebration, who had come up a
different trail. Combining that with the
adrenaline of being so close we pushed through and made it to the top at
12:45.
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| Grilling on the Summit |
We were welcomed by an unexpected
sight…the group we heard celebrating were grilling burgers and brats on the
summit! It was awesome! They were celebrating one of the girls 100th
climb over 13,000 feet. We celebrated
with them by taking some funny pictures on the summit. (They were taken by the other group, I tried to hold off posting this so I could use their pictures, but we'll post the funny ones at another time)Thanks to the amazing weather, we were lucky
to be able to spend 30 minutes on the summit.
Combine the altitude with the hamburger and my stomach began to feel a
bit funny, so we began our descent…and we were trucking it. My legs were super shakey and worn out from
the ascent, so I was extremely thankful to have the poles. We trucked it on the way down and were back
at camp as the sun was beginning to set at 4:30. Up in 6 hours and down in 3; 10 hour round
trip. We were worn out, but excited to
have reached the 10th summit of Cycle for the Summit
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| The view North |
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| This is the side we climbed up, the first picture on the blog is from the far side of that lake you see in the valley and we camped in between the large and small lake. |
To close out this post with more
good news we were able to reach $1,000 before reaching the summit if Elbert, so
we maximized the full $1,000 match from a private donor. Thank you to everyone who helped to make the
possible the Big City Mountaineers, the youth they serve and Michael and I are
extremely grateful for you support. Our
total now sits at $2,215! Only 40 more
summits to go; up next it Mount Sunflower, Kansas. It will be downhill all the way for
Michael. Until next time!
Brent
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