Tomorrow is day 1/2 for the big climb up Longs Peak. I woke up this morning to take Pepper on a walk (I am housesitting for one of my coworkers--Andree), and looked out on the clear blue skies around Mt. Meeker which is one of Longs' neighboring peaks. I was imagining myself standing up on top and being able to see all around down below me while Pepper and I continued the walk home. This afternoon, I headed to REI in Boulder to pick up some last minute things for the trip and decided to take a new way home since I was going back to Andree's house. As I drove up the canyon on Highway 7, huge, heavy drops of rain began to pound down on my windshield. The mountains in front of me (including Meeker again) disappeared into the clouds and a foreboding shadow covered the valley.
The thunder is rumbling still outside and I am starting to get nervous about the weather for our trip. The LAST place you want to be in one of these storms is in a tent above treeline, at an elevation over 10,000 feet! I keep thinking that this has to be a test--a challenge to see if I will go through with my journey or cancel at the last minute. Well big guy, you should know by now that I am fully prepared to follow through!
The plan as of now is to meet John at noon tomorrow at work so we can repack our bags/share the gear, fill out a backcountry travel plan, and pick up a radio so we can help if there are any SAR (Search and Rescue) missions going on up there. There has already been that death this year and multiple SARs, so we figured we should make ourselves available since we are going to be up there. After we leave the BCO and hit the trail, we are heading up the six miles to the Boulderfield to pitch the tent and stow our gear for a while. We will probably head up to the keyhole to look around and then get into some dinner action.
After dinner, we are planning on summitting Storm Pass (elev. 13,326ft) for sunset. After the hike back to camp with our headlamps, we are going to get a short sleep before waking up at 4am to be on top of Mount Lady Washington (elev. 13,281ft) for sunrise so we can stare face-to-face with the diamond on Longs that glows red when that early morning sun hits it. After returning to camp (where hopefully Laura will meet up with us after leaving the TH at 2am!) we will head up to the summit of Longs Peak (elev. 14,259ft). We very well might be biting off more than we can chew by climbing two 13ers and a 14er in less than twelve hours, but I feel a lot better now since we will have the radio with us.
This whole trip is a huge mental game for me, but I know I can do this if I just talk myself into it. Slow, easy coaxing is going to be my mantra, and I already told John I don't want to much help--I need to do this myself. If I can conquer this fear, who knows what lies ahead for me!!
I've been reading Into The Wild, Edward Abbey books, A Sand County Almanac, The Last Season, and similar books, so I will leave with this excerpt today from Edward Abbey, Tufts III, June 1982:
"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am--a reluctant enthusiast...a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for natural land and the west; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizzly, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound men with their heats in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
Saturday, July 25, 2009
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