Summit a 14er in Colorado

“Above the treeline, the cramps really started to take a toll and I had to break every 5-10 minutes (at least). By the 13k mark, it was a complete shit show. I was extremely altitude sick and I couldn’t catch my breath, no matter how much I rested. Although I thought I was in decent cardiovascular shape from crossfit, my heart would race after just a few steps. If not for a stranger pushing me, I might have been up there all afternoon. Even after I reached the summit and sat down, I had an ear splitting headache and couldn’t catch my breath.”

“The climb was definitely challenging, but we reached the rocky summit at around 10:30am after scrambling up the last section of huge boulders. We spent a while taking in the breathtaking views with the hundred or so other people gathered on the summit.”

“Following a bubbling spring, we scrambled and bouldered down loose rocks and past big horned sheep on cliff faces to the valley floor. From the base, I looked up from where we came and out to where we had yet to go. It looked daunting. My legs were tired from hiking all weekend and running the Rocky Mountain Half Marathon the day before, but it was my first 14er. Turning around wasn’t an option.”