Long story short on how I ended up on this adventure- meet Joe and Hannah, they are easily in my top 5 best friends, we met in college and they lived half way across the country from me in Colorado this past year. Joe came to visit the east coast this summer where he dropped the news on me that he and Hannah were moving even FURTHER away from me to California in the fall. 'Well I guess I'm visiting you next month then' I said to him.. and it was agreed upon. Now my friends and I aren't the type to just visit each other and mosey around the downtown of whatever city we are in. We do shit. And by shit I mean, like shitttt. I thought it would be super cool to either hike a 14er (mountain in Colorado over 14,000 ft) or do an overnight hike. Joe decided that we could do both by hiking this mountain, Mt Sneffels (or Mt. Sniffles if you think that's as funny as I do). 14,157ft in the air this beast is. That's higher then they skydive out of airplanes, by the way. And we were going up it in 2 days. Remind me again, why I wanted to do this...
After I peeled my face off the windows of the bus that brought me to Gunnison and an embarrassingly long and aggressive reunion with my best friend we go some sleep in anticipation of our adventure the next day. The plan was to hike in about 3 miles and maybe 1000-1500 ft of elevation, camp overnight at these beautiful alpine basin lakes, rise before the sun, and hike the rest of the way up then all the way back down- collecting our campsite on the way out.. all before a storm was supposed to hit the area around midday. Seemed doable.
Since we were only hiking briefly the first day we got to wander around town for a little bit in the morning and take our time getting started. Our friend Nick was working in Moab during the day anyway and was meeting us at the trail head in the evening. We drove for about 3 hours away from Gunnison (a 'short trip' to an adventure spot according to Joe) and as we got closer and closer to the beast I couldn't help but to think... I'm climbing THAT?! We parked in the lot and knew that Nick would be arriving shortly so ate a little bit and killed some time. As any woods enthusiast knows the trail head is usually a good spot to use some sort of designated bathroom for the final time before embarking. At this particular trail head there was a beautiful bathroom that was clean and spacious, four walls and a door. I was, just SO excited to use this bathroom that I decided to run there. As I was running through the parking lot a pot hole just came out of no where and took me right off my feet. Entire left side of my body was soaking wet and a little bit scarped up. Hadn't even started hiking...
Nick showed up within a few minutes and we were off. Interesting thing about Colorado that's different then hiking on the east coast. Well besides the whole 10,000 feet more elevation thing. There is so much space, and not as many trees- so you can see where you are going for almost the entire hike. We spent most of our breaks along the way, just bowing down to her majesty the mountain, begging for her mercy as we attempted to summit her. We also spent much of our time avoiding looking up the trail to far, afraid that Nick would pull his butt out for us to see.
So we hiked in and set up camp at the base of the mountain goddess to pay tribute to her all night. After a dinner of tuna, a clif bar, and some dried cranberries, the boys told ghost stories and the girls tried to stay warm as we drifted off to sleep. 5am came pretty quickly and with the sun still an hour away from coming up, it was difficult to get moving. After strolling alongside some of the most beautiful lakes I've even seen and discussing the difference between 'hiking' which we thought we were doing and 'walking' which the Australians apparently call it we got to the switchbacks going up the mountain side to a huge ridge. This all was happening while the sun was just starting to kiss the tops of the mountains that we were surrounded by.
Once getting onto the ridge and avoiding Nick's.. 'morning ritual', we ended up on the most difficult part of the climb. They call it a scramble and let me tell you something, we were doing just that. Hand and feet both required for this part and pack your extra courage. The only way to survive this part of the climb was to KNOW that the rock that you were putting all of your weight onto was going to support you. And if it didn't? Well, that just wasn't something you could safely have going through your mind.
At least 2 hours we spent climbing these huge and only mostly stable rocks up to the summit. This was the part of the trip that you proved to yourself just how much you can mentally and physically handle.
Once we reached the summit there was enough time for a quick summit dance, a photo op, and a deep breath before we needed to start moving to get down before the storm. The way down proved to have just as many, if not more challenges then the way up, but we made it through, hit a little weather once we got off the ridge, and made it down to camp just in time for the sun to pop up. By this time the altitude was starting to catch up to me and I felt something brewing. I took a quick nap while the others cleaned up and fueled up only to wake up to my body rejecting everything I put into it earlier in the day. Sometimes the mountains demand a sacrifice.. We got down off the mountain and closed out our adventure with some of the best tacos I have tasted in my life, but it might have just been the fatigue talking.
As I reflect on my time with ol' Sneffels I came up with a few observations:
Some things are meant to be left in the woods.
And I don't just mean, take out you trash and leave no trace. I mean some moments need to be left there. There were moments of that trip that I will never be able to put into writing and I probably shouldn't try. You become a different person when you are 24 hours deep in the woods. And this produces something special. And when you are at the base of nature's beauty, it's even better.
Hydrate.
There is a good chance that the reason that I was chosen for nature's sacrifice was because I was coming from the lowest elevation and I was the one that ran out of water (sorry Dad). I had all the capabilities of making more, and definitely did eventually. That was a live and learn moment.
When nature brings you to your knees, stay there for a minute.
I didn't know what the term 'awe-inspiring' was capable of describing until I walked in the shadow of Mt. Sneffels for 2 days. If something is so beautiful that it is going to take your breath away. Let it.
This is Kaya. She didn't even come with us up the mountain, but she knew how we felt the next day.
