Three.
And Long’s Peak was an incredible hike, the summit was absolutely worthwhile. Breathtaking. 14,255 feet. Whoo!
Here’s a picture of Long’s Peak, from the base:
I somehow managed to roll out of my tent by 3:30AM this morning, and started on the trail by 4:00AM. In truth, I was one of the later starters– the parking lot was nearly full by the time I arrived.
I’d like to take a moment to thank the find folks at Petzl– you make wonderful headlamps, and your handiwork was greatly appreciated this morning.
The sunrise was beautiful.
I set a good pace, and kept moving, such that by 7:00 or so, I had passed everyone on the trail (35 or so people). Literally, although I didn’t know it at the time.
The interesting thing about being at fourteen thousand feet is that there’s about zero oxygen. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration, but it was an interesting sensation– being short of breath, having a headache, having my stomach feel like A Perfect Storm, and my oxygen-starved brain functioning not quite as well as it should have. The fortunate upswing of this, however, is that I believe my lung capacity has doubled, tripled. As a matter of fact, I took one breath at about the time I reached Cheyenne, and I suspect I may need to take another one later on tonight, but only needing to breath a couple times a day is quite nice. (ok, well, I’m exaggerating again, but I think you get the point.)
After ~3 hours and 35 minutes of steady hiking, I reached the summit at 7:38AM. On July 28th, 2005, I was the first to arrive– both an honor and a privilege. I had the whole summit to myself, and the view, the experience, the lack of oxygen, the early morning breeze… all amounted something of an incredible moment. I must admit being nearly euphoric as I filled out the hiker’s register, and was the first one to put an entry under 7/28…
The next group arrived about twenty minutes (thirty minutes) after I did. They told me that they had left about ten minutes before 2:00AM. One of them was kind enough to take my picture:
(for the record, the hair style you’re seeing is called the “I just climbed Long’s Peak in 3 hours 30 minutes” look, and by brain was too oxygen starved to think of smiling for the picture.)
I was sitting next to the USGS elevation marker:
which marks Long’s Peak as 14,255 feet above sea level.
The trailhead was at 9,400 feet, and it was 7.5 miles to the summit, so I covered 15 miles and ~9,800 vertical feet, between going up and coming down (I made it down by 11:20AM).
Most of all, I was thrilled to have accomplished a goal that I set. I’m rather new to this goal setting bit, but I had made Long’s Peak one of my goals for this summer. The sensation of having accomplished a goal of mine… was just the best feeling in the world. Not only did I accomplish it, but (all modesty aside), I did so exceptionally well. Speaking of which, I’ve removed “climb Long’s Peak” from my goals for summer of 2005, and I’ve added “climb Mt. McKinley” to my list of life goals.
After getting back to Cheyenne, I took what might have been the best nap of my entire life, and now I’m off again–
