After hiking a couple of Colorado's incredible 14ers (mountains with an elevation greater than 14,000 ft.) I knew I wanted to do the highest - Mt. Elbert. Talking to Nikki one night I mentioned this desire and we decided to do it the next weekend. Why not?! Within minutes of hanging up the phone Nikki had already looked up the trail, figured out where we could camp, and decided it was happening. We recruited a few other people to join us on the adventure and the next Friday we packed up our gear and headed off to Leadville, CO!
We were able to get a campsite within 100 ft. of the trailhead. So convenient when you need to hit the trail before 6am. We quickly set up camp before we lost our sunlight.
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| Girls' tent...looking a little pathetic |
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| Boys' tent...nice and crisp looking |
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Lovin' our campsite: views of the mountains,
an infinite number of stars, and a toasty fire
provided by the manly guys! |
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We semi slept through the night and then were awakened before the crack of dawn to hit the trail. We layered up, packed the packs, and got the hand-warmers going.
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Me, Shannon, and Nikki. This was Shannon's first time
to ever hike or camp! Go big or go home, right?! :) |
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We had read up on the trail a little bit. The whole trail was only 9 miles round trip, which is shorter than many of the other 14ers. We assumed this would be an easier hike...wrong! Shorter distance just means that it will be a steeper trail because you still have to get the 14,440 ft. Lesson learned here! Anyways, off we went!
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The trail started off easy enough. Just a
creek my short legs just barely made it across. |
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| The sun just starting to peak through! |
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I'm always amazed at the beautiful flowers
that are able to grow on mountains. |
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| Mt. Elbert, here we come! |
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| Our first encounter with snow! It really made it quite fun. |
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| Nikki, the hardcore mountaineer! |
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| It got pretty deep at times |
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| Is that where we're going? |
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| What a backdrop!!! |
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Once we were above treeline we could start to see the weather turning a little nasty off to the side. That's Mt. Massive being taken over by some dark clouds. We later all confessed that it made us a little nervous, but it didn't stop us from continuing the ascent! Our mountain still looked ok, plus we were determined to make it to the top.
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| We met the guys as they were making their way back down... |
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| we still had about an hour and half climb left. |
The weather did clear up after getting snowed on for a good 15 to 30 minutes. The snow and harsh winds made us feel even more hard core! But we were praising God for the way it cleared up as we reached the summit. What a blessing! It allowed us to see some of the most breath-taking views I've ever seen.
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My affection for cairns continues. We added our own rock
to the cairn before making our final climb. |
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| The end is in sight! |
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| The final push! Just keep going legs :) |
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We did it! We are standing on the highest point in
all of Colorado! |
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And check out all that you can see when you're that high in elevation:
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| It feels amazing! |
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The best adventure buddy in the world! You'll see us on
Amazing Race someday! |
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Many of the mountains have a log at the top to record that you were there. This was the first time I got to do it.
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| It's official; Laurie Eastup climbed Mt. Elbert |
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Nikki was great and brought me a MANGO fruit strip so
I could eat it on the summit! |
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She even enjoyed on with me while the wind whipping us
all around. |
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One of the hardest parts for me is that after you reach the peak of your excitement because you made it to the top, you still have to go all the way back down.
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| Down we go! It's quite rough on the worn out legs. |
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| The after shot...can you tell we've shed about 5 layers? |
At the end of the day, it's worth all the pain. There's just something absolutely incredible about standing on top of one of the tallest mountains. Any direction you look is just another view of God's amazing creation. You can't help but stand in awe and try to soak it all in. We had a great time and I'm so thankful for the people I got to share the experience with too!
I got to spend the rest of the weekend with Nikki in Boulder. One of the highlights of the weekend was our trip to Sherpa's Adventurers Restaurant. It's a fascinating little house decorated with all kinds of hiking stuff from Nepal and the Himalayas and an outside eating area. The waiters are super friendly guys from the Himalayan region. Their food was absolutely delicious and gave us the opportunity to be quite adventurous!
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The stew in front is Sherpa Stew with
YAK! |
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| Nikki's trying the Yak! |
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And yes, I ate the Yak too! It was tasty...somewhere
between lamb and beef. |
I think Nepalese food may be one of my favorite world cuisines. So much flavor! Next time you're in Boulder, give Sherpa's a try!
