Mt. Princeton – East Slopes – Attempt

Date: March 30, 2003
Elevation: 14,197′
Rank: 20th
Route: East Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 13.0 miles, 5300ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 44.966′ W 106° 14.516′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Rickard

Pre-climb: Colleen said that she wanted to try a 14er with me sometime, and we were excited to go out and try one. With all the snow the Blizzard of 2003 dropped on us, the chances of summitting has significantly decreased, however, we still wanted to go out and at least have some fun since it had been planned for some time now.

Climb: Any trip with me, in Colleen’s words is “an adventure”, because at least one crazy thing happens during the trip. This time, we didn’t even have to get to the trailhead before the fun began.

When we came over the pass on 285 and first got a glimpse of Mt. Princeton, Co’s breath was literally taken away. I heard her gasp as she saw it. The sheer size and rise from the plains is, well…breathtaking. Not 5 minutes after we got our first sight of the mountain, I got pulled over by Colorado State Patrol for following too closely to the vehicle in front of me. What kind of an offense is this? I had plenty of time to stop if the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes, but oh well. Time to greet Mr. Highway Patrolman.

The officer asked what we were up to, and I truthfully, but sarcastically told him that we were going to go climb, “That thing”, as I pointed at Mt. Princeton. He looked up at the mountain and tipped his hat and looked back down at me and asked me if I had ever done anything like that before. I told him I did. The next question he asked was if we planned on doing the trip in snowshoes, and I told him that we weren’t because we didn’t have any. As he stood there looking at me, he then mumbled something about how I only had a half-second reaction time from the car that he admitted, “Was going quite slow.”, but that I should have had more like 4 seconds reaction time. I handed him my license and registration and he went back to his patrol car. Colleen and I took this opportunity to get some good pics of the mountain. Upon his prompt return, he again asked if we had experience climbing mountains. I told him I did, and his reply was, “But in winter?” Nodding my head, he handed me back all my stuff, and told me that he was just giving me a warning and then he goes, “Here’s our business card (Colorado Highway State Patrol), if you get into trouble, call us.” I told him ok, and he went back to his patrol car. I had to laugh because here he was, probably just so shocked that we were going to go climb a mountain and he’s thinking he’s going to have to rescue us from up there, that me following too close to a Geo Tracker from Florida seemed insignificant.

Upon reaching the Mt. Princeton trailhead, we assessed the road and it looked like it could be driven, so I took it. It’s definitely a 4×4 one lane road with a nice dropoff very tight in to the mountain. To make matters worse, with all the snow lately, the road was seriously muddy, so if I were to park my car on this road, at some parts it could probably just slide off down the side of Mt. Princeton. As we continued to climb higher, the road went from mud/snow slush mix to ice. My Blazer was squirrely and I was having second thoughts about why I thought it would be a good idea to drive up this road. However, we were committed. There was no place to turn around. Right about then I passed some hikers and once I got off the road ever so slightly I got stuck. Frantically I got out to put the chains on my front tires, but then I realized I was still in sandals! Snow was getting everywhere, and I was slipping and sliding all over the place. The hikers helped push my car out and I took off again. About two minutes later, we were presented with another problem. A car that was trying to descend as we were trying to ascend. Luckily there was the first turnoff not 5 minutes above where we were at. The car coming down backed up to this spot and let me poke through. However, as he left, I gladly parked at the first opportunity that I could as the road was super slippery. For those of you that know this road, I parked at the turnoff for the Colorado Trail, still a good couple miles short of the radio towers.

Colleen and I got out, and we were excited to finally be hiking. All the weeks of anticipating had finally arrived and we were enjoying it. Soon after hiking I was fortunate at my decision to stop driving as the road continually got worse. Eventually the tracks of vehicles stopped and Cobes and I were presented with a new situation. Un-tracked snow.

We pushed through the snow and the first five minutes were kinda fun, but then we realized how much work post-holing through snow was. I was breaking trail and I could only go about 100ft before needing another break. Colleen was a trooper following right behind me in my steps like a pro. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountains and we knew we had to hump it up to camp before it got too dark. However, the weight of our packs and the deep, fresh snow were dictating how fast we would accomplish that. Eventually, we spotted the radio towers. Finally, we were getting close!

About 10 minutes of breaking trail, we came upon the 11,000ft spot where we *think* there is camping, but with all the snow, there’s no telling. When all the snow melts we will someday find out what we were sleeping on. However, for now, we were going to pitch our tent at 11,000ft in the waning sun, and the ever-present gusts of wind. In fact, the wind was so bad, we had trouble holding anything down. The tent and the fly and all the stuff sacks were blowing away, and when I tried using the snow stakes to stake down my tent, the stakes bent!! Yikes. So, quickly thinking of what to do, I improved and tied my tent to a tree. Yes, that’s right, we were at 11,000ft, camping on about 4 feet of snow, in the wind, in the dark, without any stakes in the ground. Oh what a night this was beginning to turn out to be.

The plan was to cook dinner, however, neither of us wanted to even move, and we were having trouble even warming up. Colleen’s toes were hard and it hurt for her to try to move them, and my fingers were cold from anchoring the tent to a tree with nylon cord. It was hard to distinguish which was complaining more: our stomachs, or our extremities. Needless to say, we didn’t get out to cook that night.

As the temperature dropped, frost from the humidity of our breath was lining the inside of the tent. Our sleeping bags were rated 15-20 degrees, but the night had to of gotten down to 0-5 degrees. Not a good thing. We prayed to God to make it warmer and for the winds to stop, and somehow Co fell asleep, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to catch hypothermia or carbon dioxide asphyxiation or HACE (high-altitude cerebral edima) or even frosbite. If I were awake, I could make sure that Colleen was still breathing and that she was doing ok, and plus I could make sure I was doing ok. Eventually, we became warmer, and the winds ceased and at about 4am, I could finally start dozing off.

We woke up to the dripping of the frost on the inside of our tent, and crawled outside to go to the bathroom. Shortly after, we decided to cook the jumbalya that I was going to make for dinner last night, for breakfast. It was so tasty. So good in fact, that all the birds were swooping down to get some of the rice. No mountain lions or bears this trip, the only animal we had to fend off was a harmless bird or two. Although once it tried landing in the nest otherwise known as my hair. Granted, there was snow and mud in it, but it’s not a landing strip for birds.

Finally, at around 10am we set off for the summit of Mt. Princeton. However, the snow was relentless and trail breaking was tiresome and eventually I was walking up to my groin in snow. I told Colleen that I think we should turn back. She agreed. We both thought that we could have made the summit, which was a mere 2.5 miles from where we stood, however, we wouldn’t have much gas left once we got back to camp. Also, we would be dealing with afternoon snow instead of morning snow, which is more prone to avalanches. Just in case you need clarification, that’s not a good thing.

We returned to camp and then we decided to enjoy the warm sunshine of the day and laid out our thermarests to lay on, just as one would lay out a beach towel in summer on the beach. However, this was our beach. Nobody was on this mountain except us. We were the only tracks up here. We basked in the sun for a good 30 minutes before we finally decided to pack up the tent and start heading back to the car.

The hike down was so much easier as we could use our footsteps we created on the way up to walk down in. We were down to where we started the whole weekend in a flash. But there remained one last obstacle. Getting my vehicle off the mountain by means of a really, really slick road.

It’s times like this that I wish I were Catholic and could cross myself, but instead I broke out into prayer the entire way down. I won’t go into details here, but just know it was a harrowing descent. After reaching the bottom, we gladly took off the snow chains, rolled down our windows, turned on the air condition, and headed towards Leadville, where we could eat and also see a close college swim team partner and friend of Colleen’s. After visiting with her for over an hour we went out to eat at Tennessee Pass and it was good food. Much better than the Golden Burro.

The drive home was uneventful, but sometimes you just have to appreciate it for that very reason. We reflected back on the best and worst parts of the trip and decided to try the mountain again. But only next time, it will be in summer.

Drive: 4h
Ascent: 3.5h
Summit: –
Descent: 1.5h
Drive: 3.5h
Total: 5h

Pikes Pk – Northwest Slopes – Winter Ascent

Date: March 8, 2003
Elevation: 14,110′
Rank: 31st
Route: Northwest Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 14.0 miles, 4110ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 50.433′ W 105° 2.633′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid)

Pre-climb: On Friday night, I went climbing at “The Spot” with my roommates and had a great time trying the new bouldering problems they had put up. Then I had to go into work and work the night shift. After work was over, I was still somehow awake after climbing and work, and I didn’t know what to do. Not much is open that early on a Saturday morning. I checked weather.com and sure enough…it was going to be a warm sunny day. Nothing more needed to be said. Today I was going to go climbing on a fourteener.

Climb: Being from Oklahoma, Pikes Peak carries the honor of being the first peak you see as you travel west into Colorado. Everytime I visted Colorado during highschool, whether it be to ski/snowboard, hike, or visit a dude ranch, I always wondered what it would be like to be on top of it. I had heard there was a road up to the top of it, and I think somebody once told me that it’s been climbed on foot before. (Little did I know, they have a whole marathon race up to the top, let alone climbers! ‘Twas but a folk tale to somebody from the prairie!)

I first attempted Pikes exactly two months ago with somebody that I had met off of 14erworld, and unfortunately we didn’t summit, however, we did have a lot of fun playing around in all the snow! To read about that trip, or see pictures of the insane amount of snow, please click on my January attempt.

So, I arrived at Craig’s Campground at 5:30am, and was climbing by ‘six. I want to point out that they do charge a day use fee to park at Craig’s Trailhead. Currently as of writing this it’s $4 for one day use. I don’t know what they do if you don’t pay it. However, last time when Andrew and I went to climb this peak in January, it was snowing so much that we didn’t even SEE the fee station. Then as we were driving away, and the snow was slowly melting off my Blazer, I noticed a ticket on my car. I pulled over, and had a look at it. Everything was filled out for me, concerning my vehicle information and date/time, etc, all I had to do was put money into it and put it into the trailhead bank. Oops, I was already all the way back out on the highway. I don’t think they would tow somebody if you failed to pay the fee as they obviously didn’t tow my car, however, since they did have the road fairly snowplowed and maintained, along with a bathroom, I gladly contributed my $4 this time.

One thing to remember when climbing Pikes from this trailhead is that a lot of snowshoers like to romp around in the snow in all sorts of crazy directions to see how well their snowshoes float. Be wary of following tracks that don’t show signs of multiple people using them or that head completely opposite of what you read in Roach’s guidebook. Thankfully, I read up on the details of the climb just before I left, and also could rule out certain tracks by use of a compass. I guess someday I’ll get a GPS unit, and guidebooks will be written with waypoints, but until then, I will rely on “primative” methods.

There were decent tracks for about 30 minutes, then as I got to the huge rock that Roach talks about, the tracks ended. I looked up, and could make out the saddle that Andrew and I climbed two months previous and headed for it. It was hard work as I was postholing, and I didn’t bring my snowshoes! After a couple hours I made it to the saddle, and all was good as I could now see the summit. How comforting this was for me! However, while climbing up the saddle, I realized I hadn’t slept in a while, and climbing Pikes Pk was probably not the smartest thing in the world to do, but it would be fun! Soberly I recognized that I failed to pack sufficient food. My supply of food for the ENTIRE climb consisted of seven Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.

The solitary aspect of climbing a mountain by yourself is both the highlight and lowpoint of a trip. There’s a sense of self-reliance along with ample time to soul search. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of time to hallucinate and begin to think your in Jamaica and see your friends there talking to you wondering why you don’t have a margarita in your hand! This is the lack of adequate sleep and food did for me. But once I saw the Summit House on Pikes, I knew everything was ok again and snapped out of it.

I crossed over to the road near Devil’s Campground and took time to read the sign about lightning and the sign that told my elevation of 13,000ft and drank some water. I hiked up the road and didn’t see anybody. ANYBODY. I kept looking back to see if there was one other person to attempt to summit Pikes and never saw anybody following me. This was extremely strange I thought for a nice, sunny Saturday. I also want to say, anybody who doesn’t fudge a little bit and follow the road for longer than they are supposed to has stronger will-power than I do. I think if somebody had driven by or a ranger saw me, I would have gotten on the side trail. However, since the road was closed for winter, and the rangers must have been slacking off this Saturday, nobody drove by. But I definitely think your mileage may vary as every trip report talks about rangers patrolling this road!

Finally, after about 5 hours I reached the summit! What a view! I think the view I liked the most was overlooking east out onto the plains back towards Oklahoma, and then doing a 180, and looking west and seeing the beautiful snow-capped peaks of Colorado. The wind was blowing tremendously hard at this point. Along the final bit to the summit it was pushing me sideways as I climbed. For some strange reason, I half-expected one of the buildings to be open as sort of a shelter from the elements. However, this was not the case for me, but if you climb in summer when everything is open, I’m suspecting you can go inside and act curious about buying a ticket or something for the cog, warm up, and then jet back down the trail to Craig’s! Enough for devious plans, it was time for me to eat my nourishing meal of seven cold, brittle Girl Scout cookies. MMM…(not)

Eventually, as I started walking down the road this time, the cookies must have thawed and I began to reap the benefits of the taste-less sugar I just consumed. You see, I have been training to run a marathon in Steamboat Springs on June 1st and have been running 4 days a week, and because of that my cardio has increased exponentially. I naturally broke out into a gait, that somewhat resembled a man running downhill with an ice axe and backpack. Hehe.

However, that officially ended as soon as I hit the warm afternoon snow. Post-hole city! I followed my tracks making sure to step exactly where I had walked coming up, and I was still sinking further into the snow. My main concern, at this point, was not to set off an avalance or something! The snow was really unstable as I slowly headed back down into the trees.

Upon reaching the basin, I saw the first sign of other human life the entire trip, and who where they? Snowshoers! I said my hello’s and told them about my day, and continued on to my vehicle. I was ready to put on my sandals! The bottom of the basin was 45 degrees and it was so warm that the road to the trailhead was WORSE leaving then it was coming. The sludge (melting ice, snow, mixed in with soggy mud) was really slick, but luckily I had four wheel drive and made it out of there.

Overall I think Pikes is a beautiful mountain and the views are tremendous. Try and follow the main drag at the bottom if you’re leaving from Craig’s. Hopefully you brought your snowshoes, especially after a week of fresh snow has fallen and remember $4 to pay the fee. It took me longer than most people to climb because well, as much as I like the summit, I also like finding a nice shady tree in the snow and sitting back and admiring how amazing it truly is to be halfway up a mountain with nothing better to do.

Drive: 2.5h
Ascent: 5.25h
Summit: 30 min
Descent: 3.75h
Drive: 3.5h
Total: 9.5h

Brrrrrrr!

Here we are, training for a marathon! Don’t mind the snow collecting in my hair! Colleen and I just finished running 10 miles in the foothills of Boulder while it was snowing! If you would like to donate some money towards our marathon…proceeds would gladly be accepted! Contact Matt if you wish to submit a donation, as the marathon is expensive, and so is the hotel he has to reserve. I would like to view this as a sponsorship. You could even make a payment for every mile of the marathon Toid makes it through! How cool would that be!? I would even print your name on my website, as an official sponsor of me and the Steamboat Springs Marathon! Or maybe I will write your name on my race t-shirt! The race is June 1st, so you have plenty of time to find $5.

If you don’t want to donate…that’s fine. I understand. But while you’re at the drive-thru at Wendy’s, getting a Super-size on your value meal, think about how I had a severe calf cramp from two miles on; encountered gale force winds of sixty miles per hour in whichever direction the run was heading; struggled through hail, snow, thunderstorms and locusts at various times during the race; had a body temperature of 103 degrees and had just gotten over walking pneumonia; my feet were bleeding from blisters halfway through the race; there were no aid stations as the volunteers didn’t show; I couldn’t see my split times because sweat was pouring down into my eyes; I had Montezuma’s Revenge requiring twenty two bathroom breaks and the run was dramatically uphill at all times. Yet, despite all these obstacles, I persevered in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity and set my PR by 6 minutes. And if you can honestly tell me your five dollars is better spent on getting some extra grease on your fries, I have nothing more to say. Hehe.