Capitol Peak

I'm WAY too big of a chicken to climb this mountain, but my husband hiked it with some friends and the GoPro footage is incredible (and terrifying)! Check it out! 

Gosh! Between those camera angles and that commentary, I bet you're speechless right now! :)

Saturday Sopris Summit

"The early bird gets the summit," is the mantra I repeated to myself as I rolled out of bed at 2:30 am. Hitting the trail at 3:00 am was rough, and even though there was a full moon, we still needed headlamps. The trail was rocky and hiking it in the dark was not ideal, but we hiked on.

Finding ourselves above tree-line as the sun began to rise made hiking in the dark for 3 hours totally worth it! It was a magnificent sunrise; one I won't ever forget.

Sopris defeated me last summer, and I was determined to summit that stubborn mountain this summer. From the trailhead to the summit the hike is around 13 miles roundtrip. When you combine that with the intense elevation gain it makes for a really long day. The summit of Mount Sopris stands at 12,966' high.

We reached the summit around 9:00 am, and were happily surprised by the lack of wind - and people! We spent an hour alone on the summit of Mount Sopris sharing snacks and celebratory beer!

We began our decent at 10:00 am and were thrilled when we made it to Thomas Lakes around noon. We took a long break at the lakes and as the storm clouds began rolling in we decided to keep heading down to the car.

The last 2 1/2 miles of the hike felt like an eternity, but we kept trucking none-the-less. It was the perfect Saturday to summit Sopris, and I couldn't be more excited to have made it to the top!

One Day, Four Fourteeners

We loaded up in The Vansion and headed to Alma, CO to hike the Decalibron Loop. The Decalibron Loop gets it's name from the four fourteeners you summit during the hike: Mount DEmocrat, Mount CAmeron, Mount LIncoln, and Mount BROss. I have no idea why there's an "n" at the end, but we'll go with it.

The Kite Lake Campground was overflowing with hikers and climbers looking to get an early start on Saturday morning. But we were lucky enough to find a nice spot to camp just off the road on the way to Kite Lake on Friday night. We enjoyed a small fire and a beer and went to bed early. We woke up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and were on the trail by 6:00 am.

We decided to hike the trail backwards, starting at Bross and finishing up with Democrat. The trail to Bross is all loose rock and gravel; I was glad to have my hiking poles on that ascent! The summit of Mount Bross is closed currently, and the trail takes you about 300 feet below the summit and over to a saddle that leads the way to Mount Lincoln.

Once you've made it up to Bross, the hike over to Lincoln is relatively easy. I enjoyed the ridge walk and the view from Lincoln. It was the perfect spot for a snack, and we spent some time hunkered down in a rock shelter before continuing on to Mount Cameron.

Mount Cameron is classified as an Unofficial Fourteener, because of it's proximity to Mount Lincoln, but I'm counting it nonetheless! The wind kicked up on top of Cameron, and we didn't hang out too long before deciding we ought to start our ascent of Democrat.

Mount Democrat was a struggle for us to do at the end of our day. It's steep and rocky, but not too long. I definitely understand why the majority of people begin their hike with Democrat - and not end it there! We made it to the summit just as the clouds began to move in, and after snapping a couple of photos we headed on down to beat the storm. To our surprise it began to snow instead of rain as we made our descent.

The dogs found a patch of snow near the top of Democrat that was begging to be frolicked in, and they took that opportunity to frolic indeed! In all, the Decalibron Loop took us 6 hours to complete. We took our time, stopped on the top of each summit and really enjoyed our time above 14,000'!

We camped again on Saturday night on the road to Kite Lake. We celebrated the epic day of fourteener summits with chilled wine and a delicious dinner. 

Mount Quandary

Mount Quandary: 14,265 feet

Whenever I get a holiday off of work I try to make the most of it, so as the Fourth of July rolled around I decided I better do something special. My husband had to work all day, but I called up an adventurous friend and spontaneously asked if she wanted to climb a fourteener with me on the 4th! She said yes, and we quickly figured out a plan.

I left Carbondale at 5:00 am on Friday and picked my friend up in Minturn at 6:00 am. We made it to the trailhead at 7:15, and began climbing. The overflow parking lot was already full, but luckily we found a spot to squeeze into. We knew going into the hike that it was going to be a busy day on the summit of Quandary!

We didn't hike through the trees long before popping out above treeline and into the steep rocky trail that made up the majority of the climb. I had heard mountain goats are a common appearance on the trail up Quandary, and we were delighted to spot so many on our way up the mountain. They are really spectacular animals; to be in the presence of so many was almost magical.

We summited Mount Quandary at 10:30 am and celebrated with a beer! We took several photos before finding a great spot to hunker down out of the wind. The summit was crowded when we arrived, but it slowly thinned out until there were only a handful of us left. As the afternoon clouds made their way towards us, we packed up and headed back down the mountain.

For a fourteener, the hike up Quandary is short and relatively easy. It was the perfect first fourteener of the season, and I'm looking forward to summiting more!