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Mountaineering, Chicago Basin Peak Bagging Extravaganza, Day 2

Friday, September 7th, 2012

CMC Peak Baggers on Windom Peak
Kay, Dave, Clare, and Wesley on the Summit of Windom Peak

CMC Peak Baggers Summit of Sunlight
Dave, Wesley, Clare, and Kay near the Summit of Sunlight Peak

For the CMC Centennial Celebration, we attempted to summit all 4 of the Chicago Basin 14′ers in one day. We made it within a few hundred feet of Eolus and had to turn back to camp. However, we did manage to back Windom and Sunlight, which was a great success. The following pictures are from the efforts of our fantastic day in Chicago Basin!

An extra special thanks to Dave for being such a gentlemen and offering a helping hand as I jumped off of Sunlight. That was a leap of faith which I was not quite ready to take without a spot from a friend! (more…)

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Mountaineering, Chicago Basin Peak Bagging Extravaganza, Day 1

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

CMC Hikers Ready to Ride the Rails
Pictured: Dave, Wesley, Dennis, Clare, and Kay

Dennis & Clare in Chicago Basin
The Chicago Basin is Beautiful!

On September 6th, I led a CMC mountaineering trip into the Chicago Basin. As part of the 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebration, it was my 3rd, and final, trip to help the club attain all 100 of the highest peaks in Colorado over the course of 2012.

The posse of people I assembled to conquer the mountains were: Wesley, Dave, Kay, and Dennis. Dave was attempting to climb all the 14′ers in one summer and is a super fit guy from Texas. Wesley had done most of them already and had climbed Ellingwood Ridge of LaPlata with me in July. Kay had just done Little Bear. But most of all, I was psyched Dennis was hiking this trip! It was nice to be sharing a tent with my hubby vs some random CMC person.

I was also excited to ride the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad for the 2nd time. It was totally neat-o the first time so I was sure I’d have fun on the train again! (more…)

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Mountaineering, Mount Bancroft Attempt

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012

Climbergirl Shadow on Mt. Bancroft
Climbergirl Shadow Pointing the Way

Erin Scrambling Up Mt. Bancroft
Erin Enjoying the Scrambling on Mt. Bancroft

Erin and I attempted to climb Mt. Bancroft (13,250 ft). We did not have a 4WD vehicle, so we drove as far down Loch Lomond road as possible. We parked at the first gate, after chickening out and turning around after 0.5 miles of driving down the boulder and potholed road. Later, we discovered a Subi which made it to the 2nd gate, so either they have insane car maneuvering skills or they had wooden planks and props in the back… (more…)

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Pigeon and Turret Peaks, San Juan Mountains, Day 4

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Turret and Pigeon Peaks Panorama
One Last Look at Turret and Pigeon Peaks (Taken the night before!)

Ruby Lake at 8am
After bagging both Pigeon and Turret, we were all ready to hike out of Ruby Basin and back to civilization. We woke up rather early and broke camp. On our way hiking out, I got this amazing picture of Ruby Lake at 8am.

Georgia Crossing the Creek
We crossed a couple of streams on our way back to Needleton Station. Here’s Georgia traversing a log.

Climbergirls at Durango and Silverton Railroad Stop at Needleton
At Needleton Station, after descending for about 5 hours from Ruby Basin high meadow base camp.
(more…)

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Pigeon and Turret Peaks, San Juan Mountains, Day 3

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

Pigeon Peak Summit Smiles and Sunshine
Our Centennial Celebration Climb for the CMC 100 year anniversary was a resounding success! Here we are soaking in the sun on the summit of Pigeon Peak (13,972 ft).
Front: Linda (Co-Leader), Clare (Trip Leader), Steve
Back: Nancy, Jeff, Georgia, and Erin (Leader In Training!).

Clare on the Summit of Turret Peak (13,835 ft)
On the Summit of Turret Peak (13,835 ft)

The San Juan mountains are so remote my cell phone was confused and thought we were in the Pacific Time Zone. As a result, my phone did not sound the alarm at 3:30am. We were supposed to leave base camp at 4am and instead Erin and I were dozing in sweet slumber.

Finally, my team decided they had waited long enough and (thankfully) came to wake us up. At 4:10, Erin and I jumped to action. We got dressed and grabbed some food and suddenly we were vertical…and moving forward. Since I was the trip leader, this was a particularly bad way to start summit day.

I apologized profusely to everybody and even showed them my stupid cell phone. I’m happy they woke me up instead of just going for the summit sans leader! I felt even worse because Erin didn’t get to eat breakfast and deprived of food, it really affected her hiking. At 4:15am I can’t eat much of anything except maybe fruit and pretzels, so it wasn’t a huge bother to me, food wise. (more…)

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