Before the new news, here's the old news! The first picture here is from Mount Stanley, part of a 4 summit traverse that ended at Vasquez Mountain. Starting from the top of Berthoud Pass, one walks along the continental divide and clears two unnamed peaks, which I called "Spirit of 707" and "Mount Bruplex." It was VERY windy out and I snapped this picture right before my camera blew over. Yes I was wearing headphones to block out the wind and I was listening to John Linnell's State Songs. 
This second shot is, well, about all I saw on Mount Ouray. It was a fogged in mess, with visibility getting to 30 feet once in a while. Above 12,800 ft. I saw nothing except the rock in front of me. This is the summit at 13,970 feet (though my GPS read 14,004 ft! Hmmmm!) The storm front that moved in that day ruined the weekend for any good hikes, so I sat at home and twiddled my thumbs. Now for the upcoming week:
* The push to finish the hikes is on! I'm going for Blanca, West Spanish, Golden Horn, and Cross Mountain Monday-Friday, then hoping to get Uncompahgre and Storm King peaks this weekend. A day's rest and it's off to Crested Butte to get East Beckwith, Treasury, and West Elk Peaks. The final 5 summits will be Eureka Peak and Mount Adams in the Sangres, Belleview Mountain in Aspen, then Longs and Alice in the 'Park to finish the book! I have an option on Geissler Mountain should I decide to do a hike off of Independence Pass.
* For those who donated to peaks that have been cut: I'm picking good replacements. Melissa P and Paul L: Sheep Mountain is now Cross Mountain! It's "right across the street" from Sheep, but it's a better climb with a stunning view of the fabled Lizard's Head! Heh! Kim and Brian: your new summit will be the Golden Horn! And for the Lucians, I've traded out Longs Peak for Nimbus, as Nimbus is off the list (since it shared a ridge with Lead Mountain, a hike in the book-- too close!) As for Tom and Kim and John and Karen Dziezynski & family: the humiliating costumes will take place on whatever peak has the fewest people around! Debbie S and "Chili Dave" will probably have their items brought up the Sangre Peaks. Oh, and for good luck-- Aunt Edith's cat collar will be heading with my up Mount Blanca, since Sleepy Cat Peak has recently been sold (!) for private land use.
Those still on target include Senior Mysterioso on W. Spanish and Gram B's photo on Mount Alice.
* The hikes should be done no later than September 13, which is a little later than I would have liked but bad weather and a few car mishaps haven't helped! As it is, many of the peaks I got up were pushing it when it came to crappy weather.
I want to thank all of you who have helped me stick it out through the campaign, even when things got really rough. I'm excited to finish things up in the next 2 weeks and get on with the writing of the actual book!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The picture you are looking at to the right is a good example of how to meet a firey death NASCAR-style. Those oh-so-cheerful arrows are pointing to the studs that, in theory, keep a spinning tire attached to a vehicle. Note that when they are not there or improperly secured, your tire is imbued with an inertia-based freewill. Let me explain to you how it happens from my personal experience. After I completed a sequence of tough and lonely solo hikes out in the far southwest, Jody agreed to lend me the use of her company AND her truck to hike Storm King Peak. Storm King's trailhead requires a 4x4. Since she had just gotten over $1,000 of work on her truck to get it running in tip-top shape, we planned the hike (and drive) for this past Sunday. The repairs on her truck were to her rear differential, a component of the rear axle. Because it was a progressive problem, she hadn't driven the truck much--and thus was not made aware of a problem a PREVIOUS mechanic had made in not properly securing the front left tire.
To make a long story short, we headed out towards Storm King, a very remote peak with a backwoods access road. As we headed up the highways to the back country, we both noted the tires making a "funny sound" but attributed it to low air pressure or something like that. We had (thankfully) gotten off the main highway and headed out on Fremont Pass-- to those in Colorado, Rt. 91 from Copper to Leadville. All was well as sped up the pass around 60 MPH when there was a sudden and very unexpected jarring, like hitting a mammoth pot hole-- yet there was nothing in the smooth mountain pass road. An awful grinding sound accompanied the surreal sight of Jody's front left tire bounding by us in tremendous leaps, speeding up a mountainside, completely unfettered to the vehicle.
I'm sure it was quite a thrill for the bicyclist who was coming downhill towards us, to see a huge tire flying towards him.
Amazingly, the tire didn't hit anyone or anything and Jody's calm driving probably saved our lives. She got over to the side of the road; we got out and checked the damage. First off, yes the tire was gone, a good quarter mile up the road from where we had stopped. Our silver lining to this accident came in the form of the metallic rotor--completely undamaged--meaning the brake system was not affected. The control arm and ball joint were almost completely ground away, but they had taken the bulk of the impact and prevented the brake line from failing.
A second problem arose when we found out that when thieves had broken ito Jody's truck a few months back, they had stolen her jack. Wanting to relieve the pressure on the damamged components, we flagged down a fellow Toyota driver and borrowed a jack. Using a big rock and the jack, we got the truck high enough off the ground to get a good look. I ran up and retrieved the errant tire. Again, here we had a bit of good luck--using the lugs from the remaining attached tires, we were able to refit the stray tire onto the remaining studs. In this sketchy manner, we were able to drive at walking speeds to the town of Frisco--a drive that was no more than 10 miles away and took us over two hours to complete. Once there, the mechanics were amazed at the extent of the damage--over $2,000--as well as the fact we didn't get hurt AND we limped the truck down from the pass.
Again, to summarize--we ended up getting a $450 tow into town, directly to the Toyota dealerhsip in Longmont. Thanks to Jody's presuasive (and ultimately accurate) assesment of mechanic error, Toyota has agreed to repair the truck and reimburse the tow charges for free. While that's a pretty strong admission of error on their part, it's still a good PR move, as tires detaching from vehicles is not the best word of mouth.
In the end, the only thing lost was a few good hiking days, though the very next day Jody and I salvaged a hike of the Citadel (using my car). It was good to get some stress-relieving fresh air, plus it gave me an excuse to use another fat photoshop arrow. The shot is Jody scrambling down from the east summit of The Citadel, which was no where near as scary as this photo makes it seem. So tomorrow, I'm back on the road to get Bill's and Byer's Peaks, then Mount Ouray and perhaps give Storm King another shot this weekend. I'm glad I'm not a cat, as I would have used at least 6 of my 9 lives writing this book (this of course, implies humans have many more lives than kitties--let's hope so!)
Thursday, August 17, 2006
In my line of work, this kind of update is important! I have a ton of pictures and stories to post, which I will in time. Suffice to say, the picture you're looking at was taken on one of the last sunny days I had in the mountains--about a month ago! This is my 10/10 difficulty hike, Mount Lead in Rocky Mountain National Park. It seems like a long time ago, and it was. I've gone one to do a bunch more hikes, including 3 full off trail treks at Lone Cone, Hesperus Mountain, and Summit Peak--all three of which I almost got killed upon by fast moving Eastern storms.
I haven't been afraid many times in my life, truly afraid, like the time I thought Coolio was going to kill Weird Al. Eastern storms always invoke that kind of " I hope they spell my name right in the obituary" fear. Out in Colorado, like 98% of storms blow in from the west or the north. They pass predictably, like oversized bullies whose lack of stealth gives you ample time to prepare. But these eastern storms! They are like ninjas, veiling themselves in the stratosphere and attacking without warning, often catching the unwary hiker with his proverbial Gore-Tex pants down. They DO usually give you the courtesy of soaking you with flood rains first, to make you as electrically compatible as possible, as well as to ensure every capillary in your skin will explode should a robust bolt find its way to your soggy body. They are nasty things these eastern storms...
Oh, and by the way-- a HUGE thanks to the folks who've donated in the last few weeks: Uncle John and Aunt Karen+ family, Uncle Tom and Aunt Kim+ family, the Lucians, and Chili Dave! And late breaking e-mail news tells me the Shupanis family (please tell me I spelled your last name right, from someone whose last name is equally confuddling) has sent a cool donation as well. You guys are keeping the hikes rolling and my spirits from sagging! Extra thanks to John Ragozzine for an especially encouraging email. You're all sort of like the wind beneath my wings; more like the vibram beneath my boots!
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
IT WAS WONDERFUL! BRAVO!
In the past week, I've gotten up Mount Lead, Mount Ida, Mount Yale, Mount Shavano + Tabeguache, East and West Sopris, and Mounts Chapin, Chiquita, and Ypsilon--6 hikes, 10 summits! I've been very busy collecting my life here as well as organizing photos, GPS tracks, oh and writing an article about St. Lucia for Mountain Biking magazine. In short, the web gets no love during these time periods. Also, the clutch on my car is no more, so 700 bucks later it should be working again later today. Ugh! Thank goodness for credit cards, I guess.
Anyhow, the shots from these hikes are awesome, I may post them in their own photo show later. I'm gone now until Sunday or Monday, off to Durango-area hikes. I just wanted everyone to know I'm still alive.
