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Ok, this is my first post on FourteenerWorld.com. Someone I met on Belford last Friday mentioned this website, so I thought I'd take a look. I liked what I saw, so here I am!
To-date I have hiked 14 Fourteeners. I'm not a power-hiker-climber, so it takes me longer than most of you (I'm sure!) to hike up one of those. So which Fourteener should I write this Trip Report about? Well, I hiked up all the Front Range last year, except Pikes Peak and Longs Peak, and I hiked up all the Mosquito/Tenmile Range as well. My first Fourteener was Mount Bierstadt, in October 2000. Having just moved to Colorado in August, I didn't know how COLD it would be on top of one of those! I was ill-prepared, wearing only a tee shirt and jeans. A kind woman took pity on my plight and lent me her fleece pullover so I could summit, then she waited at the trailhead for me to return so I could give back her fleece. I am ever grateful and thankful to her act of kindness! Needless to say, I now pack proper layers of clothing!
Then last summer the Fourteener bug bit me big-time, and I hiked eight. This summer it continued, and it was now time to hike the Sawatch. Along the way I did catch Pikes Peak from the Crags Campground. So I had to decide which Fourteener to write about. I decided on La Plata, because it is to-date my proudest achievement in Fourteener-dom.
I set out from the Winfield trailhead, which puts the elevation gain on this hike at 3,960 feet, just west of the Winfield Cemetery (I couldn't drive to the actual trailhead because I only have a regular car), on July 26 (Saturday) at around 8:00 a.m. I was under a false sense of safety due to last year's drought, and monsoon storms didn't enter my mind. Anyway, I set out and hiked up to the real trailhead, signed in, and took off.
The trail climbs on the steep east side of a beautiful drainage below timberline, and at one point the view opened out to the west up another gulch, and it was superb! At around 11,500 feet the trail gets into a gulch (I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know what it is), which was just a flurry of colorful wildflower blooms! The trail crosses several swampy wetland areas, and there are also a lot of Bierstadt-like willows (I'm sure you've all experienced those!) as well. The trail crosses to the east side, then back to the west, just before it climbs a steep slope up a crack in a ridge running southwest from La Plata's lower flanks. That climb was the first really difficult part of the hike, but the view back to the meadow from the top was just gorgeous! I could see Huron, The Three Apostles, Browns Peak, and all kinds of other mountains! Elevation at this point was about 12,750.
The trail heads northeast from the top of the crack across a grassy shoulder, then it hits what I'll charitably call the Rock Pile! (I called it something else at the time, but it isn't fit to print!). This is 800 feet of boulder going up steeply, with barely a hint of trail anywhere. Finally I reached the top of that pitch, and it proved to be the worst part of the whole trail. Elevation now was about 13,700.
I caught up with a couple of other hikers on the Rock Pile, and we all reached La Plata's southwest ridge together. That's when I heard -- distant thunder. I looked west, and there was a smallish cloud hanging over probably Independence Pass, but it didn't look that bad. Well, the three of us continued along the ridge. One of the hikers was a stronger climber than us other two, and he went on ahead and summited. The other hiker and I had just reached the bottom of the second false summit when the first one came racing down like he'd seen a ghost! The time now was about 1:00. I asked, "Are we aborting?" He said, "He**, yes! There were blue sparks coming off the rocks up there, my hair was standing on end, and my trekking poles were crackling!" I asked, "Is anyone else up there?" "No." "Then I'm staying with you, just in case something happens."
We raced down as fast as we dared on the now-rain-slickened rocks, staying below the ridge. Many times I would place my fingers on a rock, and they'd tingle and I'd hear a faint crackling sound. Once the hair on my hands stood up. We eventually got away from the storm when we got to the Rock Pile. I never saw lightning hit the ground, and I seldom even saw it flashing in the clouds, but it was there as real as can be.
Well, I decided to try La Plata again the next weekend. So having survived a near-frying the week before, I knew I needed to get an early start. So on August 2 I got back to the trailhead, this time at a nice early 6:00 a.m. and started out. And this time I made it! I summited around 11:00. The most "Awww geez" moment occurred when, after I hiked up the second false summit, I saw just how close the true summit was! It was only 30 feet away with a 6-foot dip between. I was that close the weekend before! Needless to say, I really savored my time up top this trip! The weather clouded up again, but no thunder came to my ears until I was well back down to the meadow, then that cloud just dissipated.
The top of this mountain is, so far, the highest I've ever been on land. To that date it was also the highest elevation gain I had done for a single peak (since eclipsed by my hikes up Pikes Peak, Missouri, and Belford). But since I went back a second weekend to try again, I think that's what made it so special and my proudest achievement!
Fred |
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