Saturday, July 19, 2008

Snowdrift Peak

I learned how to climb in the summer, usually in late July or early August, with two of my climbing buddies, Mike and Jack. They're almost one entity, MikeandJack. Dad met the two on a hike, and as we got more experience and began climbing harder and more remote peaks, we started to plan out our trips together.
Jack, an English professor who writes historical novels, now lives in Estes Park and Mike comes back for a month.
Even when I moved here, and Dad had a baby and stopped hiking, and I began chasing the 14ers, I met with them for a few hikes every summer.
It finally slowed, but never stopped, even when I had kids. It did slow to almost a crawl, once a year, and last year the twins were born and I didn't go at all.
Friday, at 2:30 a.m., I left my house to do another hike with MikeandJack (and Paul, a retired doctor who lives in Estes Park).
We climbed Snowdrift Peak, a mountain that gets climbed maybe 10 times a year in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a long, hard, epic day, and today my body is yelling at me at times.
But it was worth it.
Why?
Here are the photos.

New Album 7/19/08 10:18 AM

4 comments:

katitude said...

Now that looks like a pretty awesome way to spend a day!!

peacecorn said...

Stunning.

Riggstad said...

dude! My wifes family had a house in Estes Park, and when we visit, we head up there.

I've fished in and near Estes Park, Winter Park, and farther north past Granby to fish the colorado river.

One of the best times we had in CO was when we traveled to Keystone during May (a few years back).

I have a friend who lives in Breckinridge right on the blue river and we hung out with him for a bit.

Even though it was May, we still had the ability to go up to St. Johns and xcountry ski up to the top of Montazuma (11k was the elevation I believe. skiing down was more fun.

Sick sick trip as I packed in the fly rods and fished a pond on top of that mountain. Just awesome stuff.

My bro in law and some cousins still live in the Denver area. I was supposed to come out this week actually, but have had some coolers business wise here.

When I do come out, I'll let you know. I know we head up to

Unknown said...

Sounds great, Riggs, I look forward to hearing from you.