Tuesday - Woke up late, had some breakfast and then sat around for a while playing Xbox. On monday night Phil walked in from Glenwood Springs with an Xbox in hand. So we hooked it up that night and played FIFA 2010 and Madden 2010 a while. So this morning it is a continuation of that result.
I did not do much that day other than climb to around 10,000 ft for a short walk up to the village mall in upper Snowmass Village (photos), past all the housing and up a maintenance road to the correct footage. Went home, ate, played some more Xbox and slept.
Wednesday started out very similar to Tuesday. Woke late and so on....but this time:
Around noon I set off with Jethro, we picked up some girls that he works with (he is a server at the country club and Katie A. & Katie G. work there) and headed to Aspen to climb Ute Mountain. We drove into Aspen, made a short stop and then off to the base of the trail, also in Aspen. This was not the highest climb in the world but it was short and steep. I wanted to test my hiking boots out because I would really need them for tomorrow. We travel 1200ft up in less than a mile. That is steep and it was for sure a lung burner. Once we got to the top the views were awesome. I can't name all the mountains off this second but what you saw was magnificent. I dissented the mountain ahead of my friends, got to the bottom and waited for 25 minutes for Jethro and 45 minutes for the two katies and another dude?? What?? Well, Katie G's boyfriend was suppose to meet us at the top but he took a wrong turn to another climb on an adjoining mountain top. So after a few phone calls he was back on his way though we had already gone down.
We finally got everybody rounded up and went into town for some grub and shopping. I bought a new backpack for tomorrow's trip and a fleece hoody. We drove back to Snowmass, dropped off the girls, went back to the condo. Photos.
When I got back to the condo around 5 30 Bill called me. He wanted to know if I was ready for my assent on La Plata, a 14ner 40 miles away in the Sawatch Range. I had planned this climb to the very details. I knew routes, driving directions and statistics, my down fall. My hike from earlier today told me that I was maybe not fully prepared to Hike La Plata. La Plata is over 4,000 feet in elevation gain and the round trip on the hike is 9.5 miles. I have this web site that shows me pictures of the route up close so I have an idea of what kind of footings to expect. Well, once you climb La Plata up to 12,000 then you have to start climbing through a lot of big scree fields and then some gulch climbing with loose rock. It is very mixed going to the top. I was not sure I could A: do the 4000 ft up and B: have comfortable feet. I could wear my running shows but I need the boots so I dont roll an ankle, the boots should have been worn much more before i went to Aspen but when I got to Aspen I thought I would ride my bikes everyday not climb mountains.
After I had decided that was not going to be a good idea I quickly came up with another hike, one where we could just roll up the road, park and hit the trail head right here in Snowmass Village. There is a huge ski mountain across the street, why not climb it.
We headed out up the mountain, parked and hit the trail head around 930am. The trail head is on the upper north side of the mountain, around 8900 ft. The main goal of the day was to climb up to the top of a ski lift called Big Burn (11,835 ft), this would give me close to 3,000 elevation gain then on the dissent we would travel down a different route that we came. The dissent would end up in the Village Mall, another 500 or 600 feet down.
It took us around three and half hours to reach the top of Big Burn. We started on trails that we kept following up until we came to a service road which we followed up to the top of the ski lift. We stopped there and had lunch. I carried bread, peanut butter and jelly to make some sandwiches, which we had two a piece. See Photos...
On the route down we veered our path slightly further center of the mountain in order to follow trails to the village mall, where once there we caught a bus back to the condo.It was 2:45 when we boarded a bus.
We cooked dinner, Bill baked chicken, mash potatoes and veges. It was very delicious, Bill can really cook. Watched some TV and retired.
Urhmm, today - Have not done much, it is raining. I did give my flatmate, Phil, a hand in getting the internet going after making a visit to the Comcast office and such. I had to do bit of TS on the router they gave us but it is working well now. Other than cooking a few flat-mates lunch that was it for today. I did pull a muscle in my back this evening from a violent sneeze. I might be nursing that tomorrow. After all that and a sneeze hurts me the worst??
Only here for one more night after this, I guess it is getting time to return to the real world. Hmm... I wonder when I will be back or what my next adventure could be? I might not have time to write again until I get home.
I leave Saturday morning! Tonight we are cooking spaghetti and meat sauce with a side of garlic bread! Yummm!! What else?? 3 on 3 online FIFA 2010 with Phil and Clayton, fun times!
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