Silver Summit: Summer Fun In Colorado (2014): Getting Ready For Some Big Mountains

View From South Arapaho Peak

So far I have written very few posts that do not involve my highpointing goals. I have decided to change that. My Colorado summer with friends Paul Puhr and Ted Bieber was fun in it's own right, but it was also spectacular training for the three major highpoints I went to this past summer. Paul was a tolerant and gracious host. I spent several weeks at his place. I used the stays with him in Boulder to acclimatize and train while Paul was at work. Bear Peak (8,461') was my favorite jaunt. I could walk from Paul's house an reach the top in about two and a half hours. I climbed it four times during my stay with Paul. It's elevation gain of just over 2700 vertical feet in a little over two and a half miles was a great training climb and being in Boulder meant I stayed above 5000 feet even when I was sleeping. It was the perfect prelude to the other things I did in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho during the summer.

Summit Bear Peak

Paul and I climbed Mt Audubon (13,229 feet) on July 3rd. By July 5th I was in Bozeman MT getting ready to climb Gannett Peak the high point of Wyoming (see the post after this). While I waited for my partner on this climb Woody Connette and guide Sam Magro, I spent time visiting Yellowstone National Park and climbing Mt Washburn (10,243') to acclimatize some. After the attempt on Gannett Peak I returned to Boulder to meet up with Paul again, and later Ted. Paul and I spent several days at the Bouldering Gym with Dawn, Chris and Davian. I had not bouldered before. It was challenging but rewarding. The progress I made after three or four days there was encouraging and exhausting.

View From Mt Audubon

Selfie on Audubon

When Ted arrived we first hiked Herman's Gulch in the Arapaho National Forest July 22nd. It was a beautiful area and a great training hike (6.5 miles round trip and about 1800' of elevation gain). It tops out at 11,987'. Three days later on July 25, 2014 we climbed Gray's Peak (14,270') together. This was my second summit of Grays. It is a tough climb with 3000 vertical feet to gain over about the 8.35 mile round trip, but the weather was clear at the top and we had great views from atop the Continental Divide. Two days later we climbed Mt Arapaho (13,397') in the Indian Peaks. Following Arapaho Paul, Ted and I climbed Mt Stuart (13,983) in the La Garita Wilderness, a subsection of the San Juan Mountains. We also got very high up on Horseshoe Mountain and Redcloud Peak but were turned around by building thunder storms. Not a bad stretch in Colorado with successful summits of five mountains. I was in great shape to move on to successes in Utah and Idaho with my climbing partner Matt Powell!