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Base Camp
Up
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: July 4, 2004
- Miles Hiked: 8.0
- Elevation Gain: 3,060'
- Hiking Partner(s): Stuart Glass
- Description:
- I
had family in town for July 4th, and my brother-in-law surprised me by
saying he wanted to go hiking. After discussing our options, he
decided to attempt a 14er even though he is a flatlander from
Nebraska. I considered Bierstadt and Evans, but thought Grays
would give us the most bang for our buck considering the amount of time
we were allotted. We headed out of town at 5:00 am and were hiking
by 6:15 am.
- Stuart
wasn't sure what to expect, so I just said we'd just see how he felt as
we went along. He did very well to begin and before we knew it, we
were at 13,000'. I was pretty confident we could make it
considering our progress during the morning. Things slowed a bit,
and he even felt a little light headed a couple of times, but we just
kept plugging along. By the time we reached 13,900', the frequency
of the breaks increased, so I pushed him a bit and informed him of our
advancement at every couple of switchbacks.
- Only
100' below the summit, I told him we were practically there and he
needed to make the final push in 10 minutes if he wanted to do it in 3
hours. Sure enough, we made it with 5 minutes to spare. We
had a snack, took some photos and made our way back down passing a train
of people along the way. I stopped off at "The Rascal"
on the descent to scramble to the top and peer down into the Lost Rat
Couloir to take a look at the route I had done earlier in the
year. From this point on, I had to put my running legs on to keep up
with Stuart on the way out. He picked up the pace considerably and
we made excellent time back to the trail head. We were back in
Denver at 12:00 pm. Not bad for a cowboy who chewed Copenhagen and
drank Mountain Dew all the way to the top.
- Maps:
- Click here
to view a 2D
map of the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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www.
just
hiking
.com
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