A great day for a 14er!

Last week (June 18) I went with Allen Welch to tackle my next 14er. He was going with a group from his work to climb Mount Evans for a team building exercise, so naturally I tagged along.



We left Denver at 5 a.m. and the trip started out somewhat ominously with a flat tire on the way up. Allen changed it Old Man Parker style ("A Christmas Story") minus the flying lug nuts and expletives and we were quickly on our way.

At the trailhead to Evans and Bierstadt

The hike started off at a chilly 35 degrees, but we quickly warmed up in the sun




The first several miles were flat hiking through the marsh and willows. It ended up being a lot of bushwhacking and the going was slow, but we made it through.



We then got the the extremely steep portion of the hike where we bouldered up for about another mile.

A friendly marmot on the trail

The views were beautiful with peaks surrounding the whole area.






After trudging through a lot of snow and more bouldering, I finally made it to the summit at 14,264 feet. Mount Evans is one of the two 14er peaks where a road goes (almost) to the top, and is actually the highest paved road in the country. It takes a little away from the feeling of accomplishment when there are hordes of overweight people drinking beers at the top, but I knew I had hiked it and that was good enough for me.




Most of the group decided to drive down with a co-worker who met us at the top. Three of us hiked down and the descent was much, much, MUCH faster - let's just say some of the dead weight ended up driving down.




It was another great hike and as always harder than I had anticipated. I think the snow added a lot to the strenuousness of the hike, but made it more of an adventure. That's 8 down and a whole lot more to go.

Latest Adventure!

Last month I decided to try my first winter ascent of a 14er. Dave Koeing, his brother, Allen Welch and I set out to snowshoe up Mount Quandary and then ski down.





At the trailhead we had blue skies and what appeared to be smooth sailing.





After snowshoeing for a while I began to realize that it wasn't quite as easy as hiking with a light pack. The skis and boots added some serious weight!





As we neared the timberline the clouds rolled in and we started getting some snow. The high winds made hiking that much harder.





We plodded along, but the wind got worse and worse. There wasn't much visibility at all and I was getting completely worn out. We made it to about 13,000 feet but at that point I was exhausted and couldn't really go any further. We were never able to see the top of the peak . At that point we decided it wasn't our day to make the summit and we would turn back.




High winds, snow and cold temperatures didn't make it any easier to get into our boots and skis, but we managed and started heading down. We had planned on skiing down the trail, as we wanted to avoid avalanche danger.










Not surprisingly down was much, much easier than up.





As we went down the skies cleared up and we again had some nice weather. I think it took us about 20 minutes to get all the way down. Could it really have taken us that long to hike up???






Allen had a blow-up hiking sled that he pulled out near the bottom.




After all was said and done it was a fun trip. We didn't make it to the top but I got some good snowshoeing experience and some motivation to get into ever better shape. Next year I will conquer a winter summit!

Trevor James Christensen

Trevor James Christensen. Born April 13, 2010. 6 pounds, 9 ounces. 19.75 inches. Delivery was a little dicey and gave us a few scares, but everything turned out great. Mom and baby are as healthy as can be!

Easter 2010!

The kids in their Easter outfits.

The Easter Bunny brought Lance some new puzzles...

and Russell a new bike for Spring.

My cake I made for Easter dinner - pumpkin with orange cream cheese frosting and toasted walnuts. I have to say it was pretty delicious!