If you have not been following my blog by now it is Ok, let me rehash. I drove to Aspen in my Honda civic from memphis, tn, camped in Santa Fe NM and then drove to Aspen over Independence Pass the next day. i have climbed two mountains so far and have done a lot of just hanging with my temporary flat mates.
My Stuff for the climb!
Yesterday morning I woke up at 3 am, jumped up, put on my climbing gear and drank coffee. Not soon after, the three little brothers and I jumped in a car with our gear and drove to the base of North Maroon Mountain. Our goal of the day was to climb up to the base of the North Maroon assent and then make the summit (except me, I was only wanting to make it up the wall climb to the base of summit). We got to the trail head around 4 am and steadily got our gear on and started our journey to the first climb of the day, the wall to the base summit. The entire time we hiked along flat to nicely climbing single tack. It was dakr, so we had head lamps to see where to walk and what trail to take, it was a kind of fun that goes beyond saying. Not only that there were about 14 other people also chasing the trail for the same reason. We would run into a group and pass then, then another and another until we were the first ones on the trail by the time the base of the wall came to us .Before we got to the wall we had to hike around 1.8 miles and then cut over to another trail that crosses the Minnehaha Creek. Once we crossed the creek then the wall climbed started. This climb starts out into a wooded area and then the trails just start to assen straight up, it is a regular dirt trail that is long and steep with switch back after switch back. Then as we got up further we would hit a scree field then another wooded area to another scree field, scree fields suck to cross because of their nature, no easy steps. The final last push to the top of the wall I had to finally stop and rest and let the little bros keep going. There were a couple of small climbs that I had to think about and had to stop powering up the climb, we were starting to leave most of the other climbers. As I sat there I got some assistance from another couple of climbers (they were so nice and just gave me a hand up a tight climb) and watched as all the other climbers came through. I then made it to the base of the summit or the top of the wall.
There are links with photos but you may have to check back later for the full set as uploading crap loads of jpg's is slow here.
A Scree Field up to 11,904Once I got to the top of that climb i traversed (photos) up the scree field that was in that gulch. You can actually summit the top of the climb from there but I was only looking to beat my previous record of 11, 300 ft, which I got to 11, 904 ft by climbing a bit further. I poked around there and went back down since it would be over three hours before they got back or longer on their descent.
Good Lord!! going down took forever and then it took forever to hike back once I got off that climb to the flatter trail. It must have took me a good two hours to get back to the parking lot where it took us about a hour and a half to climb up to the top of the wall. It was shocking, i climbed so hard and fast through so much of the climb up and when going down I could not believe we had traveled this far that fast, we were animals.
My Brothers (photos) kept going around a ridge that has a scree field, up two massive gulches and a chimney to the top. I wish I could have made the summit but they needed their day with out me slowing them down. They were the first to reach the summit and they had fun getting it done.(14,1014 Ft)
We had a great dinner that night and traded stories of our day as the evening dwindled through.
Just a word about life in Aspen and what it is doing to me. The people here dont care about anything other than enjoying their life. Most all people are into something outdoors and if they aren't then they are feeding off the energy of every body else that is around, because the way of life here is a beautiful thing. No worries, as it is often spoke here when talking with a person. be sure to look out for my Picasa links since I have uploaded my photos there and Facefork.
I think I am going to write a separate blog on my day today. Later till then.
this is crazy and awesome. well done, my friend.
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