| |
Terri, Satchmo, and I climbed Mount Sherman yesterday. We picked Mount Sherman because it is one of the easier 14ers that we had not yet climbed it in winter (only 10 days left you know). Having climbed Horseshoe Mountain a couple of weeks ago, we knew the road to the Sherman trailhead was pretty clean. It had gotten a little more snow since then, but we were still able to get within 1.8 mile of the summer trailhead.
I was a little apprehensive about us making the summit yesterday because of the wind. Although it wasn’t too bad down low, we could see plumes and snow devils on the summit ridge and it got windier the higher we climbed.
But we kept going and by the time I got up to the ridge it wasn’t terribly horrendous, and anyway by that time summit fever kicked in. I waited a few moments for Terri to catch up and I asked if she wanted to go on. As usual she said “sure”. I was actually worried more that Satchmo (our 130 pound chocolate lab) would balk, but he seemed OK so we forged on and made it.
The wind seemed to get even worse as we hiked back to the car, and we could see the clouds rolling in. We were back at the car 6 hrs and 25 minutes after we left it. We were happy for it was another winter 14er for Terri and myself, and a brand new fourteener for Satchmo.
Our happiness was cut short by ski traffic and a near accident on the way home. Some jerk (probably drunk) was speeding on the wrong side of the road. He clipped the car in front of us who didn’t get out of his way quick enough (completely tearing off his rear bumper), and drove us and the car behind us off the road. Thank god no one was hurt. We were only five minutes from home. Needless to say we were pretty shook up. |
|