The necessary pre proposal story…

(I know, I know. I’ve been engaged for over two months, and I’m just now getting around to telling the story of the pre proposal. Better late than never, right?)

On August 3rd, 2008, Trevor, Scott (Trevor’s friend from high school) and I climbed our very first fourteener.

What’s a fourteener, you ask?

A fourteener is a mountain whose summit exceeds 14,000 feet above sea level. In Colorado, there are 50+ mountains that qualify as such, and it was only a matter of time before Trevor and I got around to climbing one.

Anyway, Trevor, Scott and I set out to climb Handies Peak very early in the morning on August 3rd. To get there, we had to drive north passed Silverton on a gravel road towards the ghost town of Animas Crossing. Then, we were supposed to take the four wheel drive road up through Cinnamon Pass, park and start the three mile hike up to top of Handies. Easy enough, right?

Well, sort of. Both Trevor and Scott were afraid of the four wheel drive road up through Cinnamon Pass. We had heard that the road was “a bit sketchy in places”, which pretty much spelled D-A-N-G-E-R-! for three lowlanders from Texas. So, it was decided that we’d park and take an alternate hike to the base of Handies via Grizzly Pass. True, this added a couple of miles to the trip, but we figured it wouldn’t be all that bad.

And we were right. It was worse.

To give you a better idea, we left the jeep at 10,400 feet, hiked all the way through Grizzly Pass to 13,000 feet, descended down to the base of Handies at about 11,000 feet, before summiting at just over 14,000 feet. Then, we had to do it all again in reverse just to get back to the d*mn car. It took just over eight hours AND we gained over a mile in altitude alone. And there were thunderstorms all around us making us near contenders for the Darwin Award.

Trevor and I had an especially hard time climbing the last 500 or so feet to the top of Handies. After all, we had only been in the altitude for eight days at this point. Scott, on the other hand, literately RAN to the top of the mountain. He lives in Denver and regularly runs marathons and competes in Iron Man competitions. Obviously, the altitude wasn’t a problem for him. I’ve never wanted to push somebody off a mountain so badly in my life. That is, if I could catch him (which I couldn’t).

I could barely SEE him!

All in all, the trip was totally worth it despite all the pain and blisters. I’d do it again – assuming we could DRIVE to the base of Handies instead of hiking there. The hardest part was the hike back to the jeep at 10,400 feet. In places, the trail was so steep that you had to carefully sidestep down in a zigzag pattern. I’ve never had a problem with my IT bands in my life, but *boy* were they talking to me THAT afternoon.

Some pictures from the hike:

Jump, Scott! Jump!

Incase you didn't believe me about the thunderstorms...

The actual summit (cleverly marked with a flag)...

We made it!

Requisite picture of the three successful hikers...

Hiking back up to 13,000 feet from the base of Handies was a low point on the trip.

The long, wet AND cold trip from 13,000 feet back down to the car.