Bergen Peak 9,700 ft.
Mileage: 12.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 2703 ft
Hiking Time: 6 hours
Billy and Derrill getting questioned by a runner.
The summit looms ahead of us.
Hiking up one of the switch backs
Near the summit adjusting gear, eating and taking care of feet.
We headed down from the summit to the summit trail junction. From here we decided to reascend the trail to the summit to gain extra elevation and distance.
Here I am at the summit for the second time. The summit was socked in with clouds.
The climb down was long. Our knees and feet were trashed.
We hit the meadow and took the mile flat walk back to the trailhead. The flowers were beautiful in the meadow near the old barn.
Pikes Peak 14,110 ft
Mileage: 30.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 8,500 ft
Hiking Time: 17:08 hours
Ben put this trip together for us a number of weeks back. He reserved a night's stay for us at Barr Camp, a rustic backcountry cabin and camping complex. The reservation included dinner, breakfast and accommodations in the bunkhouse. Our climbing plans were to reach Barr Camp on Saturday, rest and get up at 3 am to ascend the Y-couloir to the summit (this link is a trip/conditions report the week before our attempt). This would require moderate to steep snow climbing involving climbing gear. We gathered in Lone Tree at 5 am and piled into Billy's truck. We arrived in Manitou Springs at the crowded Barr Trailhead. It was so packed with Incline Trail runners/hikers that Billy and I had to drop the team and gear off and park in the center of town. This added mileage and elevation gain for he and I while the others hung out and stretched at the trailhead. We got a start at 7:30 am.
Trailhead warning sign
Derrill contemplating his pack. We all carried around 60 lbs to simulate our first day of climbing on Rainier.
On the Barr trail dodging runners.
A nice rest break under rocks. Billy had some foot repair to do (aka blister management).
Ben found an even better rest method on the second break.
The first glimpse of the summit before reaching Barr Camp. The trail was awesome. Once we passed the top of the incline trail, we encountered a lot less traffic. We leap-frogged a few day hikers on the rest of the way up.
Ahhhhh...arrival at Barr Camp at 10,200 ft after 4 hours and 42 minutes of hiking. We were greeted by care takers Neil Taylor and his wife Teresa. They had been care takers of Barr Camp for 8 straight years before retiring last year. They were back for this week to give the current care takers a vacation.
Unpacking our gear on the deck of the cabin.
After we organized our gear inside we filtered water from the stream and soaked our sore feet in the water until our feet went numb- refreshing!
Bonus! Of course I needed a little kickback relaxation in a backcountry swing.
A colorful humming bird feeding on the deck.
We slept in the bunkhouse with one other family from Florida and a father and daughter.
The accommodations were comfy and the hospitality from Neil and Teresa was homely and welcoming. Here we are ready to nap before we began some rope rescue training.
Dinner was served at 6 pm. What a feast!! Neil and Teresa made spaghetti with meat/veggie sauce, Texas mac-n-cheese and homemade garlic bread. There rule was eat all you can, but don't bring your plate back with uneaten food on it. Needless to say, we were well fed and stuffed!
After dinner, rope rescue training continued into dusk.
The temperature dropped and our puffy jackets and pants kept us warm.
The weather, being as warm as it had, left doubts in our minds that the Y-couloir would still have enough snow to make a good climb. We came to a team decision that it would be better to ascend the standard Barr trail to the summit instead of risking a turn around on the Y because of bad conditions. Jeff and Billy had not yet summited Pikes, so we thought their chance to summit would be better with this decision (I had summited before on 9/15/01 via the Crags approach on the West side of the mountain). With our plans now changed, we decided to sleep in and enjoy breakfast that was prepared for us by the care takers. We woke at 6:30 am to the smell of coffee and pancakes. WOW were the pancakes good, packed with grains and apple pieces topped with peanut butter and syrup. Teresa even whipped up a java mocha for me. What a great way to get up before a summit bid!
We got our gear together and started out on the trail by 7:30 am. The trail was long up to tree line with numerous switch backs. I carried a 26 lbs pack.
Reaching Tree line with the summit above us.
Looking back to downtown Colorado Springs. There were many runners going up and down the upper mountain and repeating it over again. There were also a bunch of downhill mountain bikers descending the trail from the summit. I am an experience mountain biker, but that is CRAZY!
The Cirque- 1500 ft drop from the trail!
The beginning of the 16 Golden Stairs (32 switch backs to the summit).
Billy crossing the longest snow path we would encounter.
Almost at the top. We let Billy and Jeff lead to get the summit first.
Our team on the summit! We arrived at 11:45 am. We walked over to the exit point of the Y-coulior and found there to be little snow, which would have made for a miserable and difficult climb. We were glad with our decision to climb the Barr Trail instead. We headed into the summit shop for food and to mingle with all the tourists. I had a BBQ pork sandwich and the famous (I'm not sure why) greasy doughnut. We hung out on top for 45 minutes before descending. It took us 2 hours and 30 minutes to get back to Barr Camp. We spent 50 minutes packing up and saying good bye to Neil and Teresa. We dreaded putting on our heavy packs to head down to Billy's truck. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to get down to the trail head. We were moving fast 2.5-3 mph! We all walked to the truck in town together. Ugh, were we exhausted. Our legs were sore and feet were on fire. This was our climax training climb that most simulated our elevation gain that will happen on Rainier. Despite our fatigue and soreness we all felt good about our physical condition and are prepared for Rainier. We now need to make sure that none of us gets injured or sick in the next two weeks.
Bear Mountain (again) 8,461 ft
Mileage: 5.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,500 ft
Hiking Time: 5:04 hours
Back to my frequent training ground at Bear. It took me a hour and a half to get to Boulder because of heavy traffic- Ridiculous! I'm glad I don't have to make that weekday commute regularly. So, we arrived late and met our awaiting group at the NCAR trailhead.
My boys excited to be on the trail.
Loving the rock scrambling.
Amy, Ben and Guinness ascending the steep section of Fern Canyon.
Resting on the saddle. My boys cruised up Fern Canyon without one complaint. They lead the way in front of the rest of us the whole time. Ben and Amy turned around at the saddle to get back for a lunch meeting. Jeff, I and the boys pushed up the ridge to the summit.
Parker made it to the top for his first time! I'm so proud of him. He is such a strong hiker.
Dawson topping out for his third summit of Bear. Jeff left the summit before us as he had to get back home early. The boys and I took our time down together. We arrived back at NCAR tired and ready to get some Jason's Deli. I stopped off at Boulder Mountain Repair to pick up my Mountain Hardware Absolute Zero Parka. I had shipped it to them for repair of the rip it sustained from our St. Mary's whiteout debacle. I highly recommend this place to repair gear. They are fast and reasonably priced.
Training will be winding down now to give our bodies rest, recovery and prevent injury. I will post shorter segments over the last two weeks. Ciao for now.
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