After living in Colorado for two years, one thing I always regretted not doing was doing a 14er, that is summiting a mountain peak that is above 14,000 feet from sea level. Its been nearly a year now that I've been back in Oregon and I've really grown accustomed to the thick air down here at 400 feet. Well an opportunity came up for me to be in Colorado to meet a potential client and I knew I needed to stay through the weekend to check a 14er off the bucket list.
We were flying into Denver Thursday night and was going to have the client meeting Friday morning, so I decided to stay through Sunday to attempt the 14er on Saturday. That would give me nearly 36 hours to acclimate... I hoped. My buddy Jesse was going to lead me up the mountain as well as plan where we were going. We Originally planned for Grays Peak, but it received 20" of snow the night we flew in so we changed to Quandary Peak instead.
We wanted to be above the tree-line for sunrise so we needed to hit the trail at 5am at the latest and since we were two hours away from the trailhead, that meant a 2AM wake up call. Here's an interesting fact: The Quandary Peak trailhead, were we parked to start our hike, is only 400 feet below the the summit of Oregons tallest peak, Mount Hood.
Really quickly, right from the beginning I felt the affects of the altitude, to the point were I was really getting concerned if I was going to get sick or not. Luckily I was able to push through and realized I would most likely not get altitude sickness, that I was going to mainly be dealing with the mental game and the thin air. Once we broke through the tree-line and watched the sunrise, I was completely reenergized and knew I could do it as long as I paced myself and stayed hydrated.
The climb to the top was brutal, the thin air, the elevation gain, and the blistering cold wind made things so difficult, but my slow and steady pace eventually got me to the top. It felt like the last 500 feet took the longest, but getting to the top was so rewarding. After we got to the top, all these dogs summited behind us and acted like it was no big deal to climb a mountain, they just wanted to play. After enjoying some much needed rest at the top and a few good snacks, we decided to begin our way back down and saw one of the most intense things I'd ever seen.
As we were hiking down a paraglider came flying over us from the summit with skies still attached. We all stoped and watched in awe as he glided nearly 25 hundred feet down to the frozen lake below. Then right behind him came his buddy, but his trip would be quite a different experience. The first guy slowly glided his was down, weaving back and fourth until he made it to the lake. His friend came around and just as he cleared into the air above the valley (2,500 feet between his feet and the ground) the wind shifted and started folding his parachute as he began to make quick drops out of control. Everyone on the mountain side froze in fear as we watched in horror. Thankfully through skill and quick thinking, he was able to regain control and got down to the frozen lake as quick as possible safe and sound. That could have gone so many different ways.
The way down was much more rapid compared to the accent, but I still had to remember to pace myself and take breaks to catch my breath. Overall, this was one of the most challenging things I've ever done physically. The sense of accomplishment is so satisfying when you push yourself harder than you knew you could.
