My husband Bob has discovered mountain climbing.
At first it was 14ers. He climbed Mt. Bierstadt last fall with a networking group and got hooked on 14ers, vowing to try to climb every one in Colorado. For those not “in the know,” 14ers are mountains over 14,000 feet high. Colorado has more than 50 of them. (You can learn all about them at http://www.14ers.com/.)
Anyway, after a couple of 14ers spent with crowds of others also trying to scale the highest peaks, Bob bagged a 12er and had a revelation – the view from the top of a 12,000-plus-foot peak is still amazing – but without the crowds. Even a relatively shrimpy 8,700-foot or so peak like Mt. McClure, near Marble, which we climbed a couple of weeks ago, is amazing.
Now Bob is hooked on hiking Colorado. Every weekend he attacks a mountain. His only criteria – it should have a peak to aspire to. Recently my daughter and I joined Bob for a stroll to the top of Colorado Mines Mountain, which many will recognize as the peak with the weather station on the way to Winter Park Resort. It was amazing up there. We walked to the edge of a rockslide and sat on small boulder to eat our lunch. We gazed down upon two emerald green pools of water below with a lone tent set up between them, and pondered how it must feel like camping at the edge of the earth. In the dappled distance, we watched storm clouds rumble in. We breathed in the thin air, and stood atop the Continental Divide. We saw a marmot. We could see countless small trails on peaks all around us that we could hike on future trips, and our hiking thirst grew.
Perhaps I’m starting to understand those Mt. Everest idiots.
Naaah.
A couple of days ago, we scrambled with visiting friends up a short, rocky trail to St. Mary’s Glacier, which is actually a snowfield. The rain fell, lightning flashed and thunder cracked, and we scurried back down. We could have continued on past the glacier and hiked a 12er, but the weather conspired against us. Still, despite the wet and the chill, people were there with babies in backpacks, and with dogs on leashes. And the view was magnificent.
