Year 3, Day 1.5: The Maiden Voyage

Like I've shared in my previous posts, I've had anxiety around learning to ski.  My first year was not so encouraging... in year two, I made a little progress... so for year three, I was hoping it would really start to feel more comfortable.  (check this past blog post: http://adventuresoftaradactyl.blogspot.com/2015/04/year-2-wrap-up-this-might-be-it.html )

Captain Obvious Observations of skiing:  1) It's difficult to catch on to;  2) It's expensive.

I had borrowed my friend Anna's skis my first year, and I had rented a pair last year.  On a teacher's salary the last few years, I couldn't afford my own gear.  This past spring, I picked out a good pair of skis that I knew I could "grow into," so to speak, and put them on layaway.  They would be longer and wider than anything I had struggled with the past two years, but I knew that in the winters to come that I wanted to be able to ski both in and out of bounds, on groomers or back country powder.  I put the final balance on my credit card, and picked them up last week.

All this past week, I just admired them sitting in the corner of my room.  I actually owned them this time!  I was excited to finally have a pair to call my own that I could learn on, but even more nervous because I didn't want to have just invested so much money into something too advanced for me.  Last week there wasn't enough snow up near Long's (my close weekend go-to hiking area) to even think about skiing, but I was determined to keep advancing and excited just to carry them on my back while I hiked up for the added weight.

In the back of my mind I was still nervous to click in for real and take a run.  Yesterday was the day to finally face any fears I was having.  Not only was I going to test them out, but I was giving skinning a go as well.

I have had many issues with my glutes and psoas muscles the last couple of years and certain exercises aggravate my muscles.  I can't work out on elliptical machines and I can't snow shoe.  I wondered if skinning would also trigger my muscles to hurt, and I was unfortunately right.  If I keep up on my chiropractic care and do dry needling to keep my muscles from seizing up, I can manage it.  I suffered through the pain to get to the top and called my doctor right away to schedule the dry needling.  After changing into dry clothes and eating a snack, I nervously clicked in and took my first run...  My "maiden voyage" if you will.

The night before it had snowed about 3 inches, so there was a beautiful layer of fluffy snow on top of the groomed run.  It was as smooth as butter.  I turned with ease and just floated down my first run.  I was so relieved.  I went down more runs.  I was in love with my new skis.  It made me so hopeful for this upcoming season.  The learning and improvements will never end, but the first day in my own set-up was a pretty good one.

(Accidental) product review: brownie batter approved.

Just because it's a pretty funny story, too.

Last year I joined the Enerplex family as a brand ambassador -- I love representing a great company that I believe makes a good and trustworthy product.

Representing on a summit nap on San Luis Peak.  

The product that I get asked about quite a bit is my solar phone case.  The extra emergency battery pack comes in handy almost every other day.  It charges with a wall plug-in, or I'll sit the solar panel in the sun while I'm driving in the car or sitting on a mountain taking in the views.

So here's where my accidental product testing comes in.  I would say my biggest weakness in this world is my sweet tooth.  I frequently make single serving brownie batter bowls, or cookie dough, or ice cream... I'll quit listing.  The other night was like any other.  I had finished my homework, eaten dinner, and had sat down to catch up on some favorite shows with a small bowl of personal brownie batter as a treat.  My message tone goes off, I reach over to the coffee table to answer a friend, and plop...

 Embarrassingly often I just drop things.  Ask any of my former students how often the dry erase markers just jumped out of my hands for no reason while I was teaching.  I had dropped my phone right into my bowl of brownie batter.  I didn't curse, I didn't yell, I just froze for a second and giggled at how that had just happened.  It was even the second phone case I've gone through.  My first still worked fine, but suffered some cosmetic damages.  I thought, worst case scenario, my case might die but it would have protected my phone in sacrifice.  I take the case off quickly to make sure my phone was fine, and then decide what to do with the case.  If I had just dropped it into the toilet like everyone else, I could put it in rice and it would probably be fine... right?  The batter was clogged into the speaker pores, and into the charger port.  You can't just wipe it off.  If I left it, it would be ruined.  If I washed it out, I might ruin it either way.  So I decided to take the kitchen sprayer and pressure wash out the batter from the speakers and charging port.  I was still annoyed and laughing at my ridiculous mistake and crossed my fingers if it worked out.  After running it under water for a few minutes, I got it all out.  I dried it off, turned it over, and realized there was water under the solar screen on the back.  I figured after its swim there was no way it could have survived.  I was feeling remorse after having lost it so carelessly.  Just for the heck of it, I put it in a bag a rice overnight.

I nervously tested it out the next day, hoping I wouldn't electrocute myself when I plugged it back in or get no reaction if it were dead.  I tested it first without my phone in it, and the blue lights on the battery pack started blinking!  It had survived a smothering in brownie batter and a soaking bath under the faucet, and is currently sitting in the sun charging on my coffee table as I speak.  It's definitely not a traditional product testing and review, but Enerplex, you made one good and tough phone case :)

For anyone interested in anything for themselves or for a holiday gift idea, please take advantage of 20% anything at goenerplex with the code "tnichols" at checkout.  I love my phone case even more now, and they also have various other panels and battery packs.  Go check it out! www.goenerplex.com 

Earlier this summer taking an afternoon to do some summer class homework.  My first case took quite the beating too.  The poor thing suffered many cosmetic damages.

I'm not looking forward to winter.

This has been on my mind for months.  

Confession... Reflection.  Either or. 

It's officially winter in the high peaks.  Late summer and fall really held on as long as they could, and even on a nice walk to Ouzel Falls today, there was a little snow and ice to walk on after the first dumping but it was warm enough to wear just long sleeves.  When the wind picked up and the sun went down, I inevitably thought about how much I miss warm weather when it leaves each time.

I'm not looking forward to winter.  Many of my friends are posting skiing photos this week captioned with excitement about the upcoming winter season.  My ideal mountain season is anytime I feel the warm sun on my skin, and a breeze that cools me off as I walk with ease UP the peak with the power of my own two legs.  Come winter if the snowpack is hard enough, I can walk right on top of the crusty layer, but then falling through waist deep snow is inevitable.  Snow up high is supposed to mean skiing down the big peaks, not constantly sinking in trying to go up them.  So, my kind of mountain conditions are over until June.  Winter means my anxiety, nerves, and insecurities come back as I try to learn to make it down the mountain on skis for another winter.

It's really hard when the people you love to spend your time with are near expert skiers and you (let's just put it bluntly out there) suck at it.  I know it isn't my fault that I didn't grow up on ski hills in Iowa, but it's really hard to not let it bring me down each year when winter comes around.  I know that I have the determination and ability to eventually figure it out, but while I'm still learning -- throughout the massive learning curve that it is --  I let my insecurities get the best of me.  I don't want to be good at everything, that's not what I'm wishing for here; I already pretty much gave up on distance trail running because I know my body just doesn't feel the best when I do it.  But I see the disappointment in my friends' eyes when they start talking about big ski endeavors planned for this winter, and they realize afterwards that I'm in that conversation too and won't be able to join them or be excited about it the way they are.  I can't share in this part of my friends' lives that they love so much, and that's what hurts and brings me down.  Most things in life you can just learn about and be enthused about alongside your friends (like watching football on TV), but skiing takes actual SKILL and you have to do it, not just watch it or talk about it.  I just want to be able to ski down the terrain with my friends without the mental pep talk of "just don't cry, just don't cry," every time, or hold them back from the blacks they crave because I can just hardly handle the blues.  I have to try so hard every single time I make it down a run, and think about every single move and stance I have to do -- just so I don't look like an awkward starfish trying not to die.  I've appreciated the kind words of support and encouragement from those who've witnessed any part of my journey, but I'm a summer girl through and through, and I'm super super sad my season is over.  So... I'm not looking forward to winter.

This might be the last day hike I take without full on snow boots and gaiters on.  So I had to do one last thing that I can claim being good at while I still could.  And that's plank.

Ch-ch-ch-changes (good ones!)

Before summer, I had found out that I wouldn't be returning to teach again in the fall for the next school year.  Spring was very rough, and transitioning into summer was all about figuring out the "what's next."  I had a pretty enjoyable summer with a few summer classes mixed in with camping and climbing.  Despite the curve ball my life was thrown in the spring, it was a very easy decision for me to make the choice to return to school as a student again, this time working toward an accounting degree and eventually a masters.  I have always enjoyed school and learning, as a student and as a teacher.  Working with kids has always been my first love, and part of me still doesn't think I was ready to put that hat away and try something new this soon in my career, but I've been so excited and happy with where my new path is taking me!  I have had nothing but positive and unconditional support from friends and family with this new change, and I'm so thankful for it all.  My new routine has settled in and life is (as always) good.

This is my 4am excited ready for work face

I'm picking up my AAS in accounting from Front Range, and then on to a masters.  My fall class schedule is (dare I say?) fun!  The prospects are good, and I'm thankful for my nerdy number-oriented organized brain because I feel like after teaching, this is what I am meant to do.  Always a reassuring feeling right?  I picked up a part time job working as a breakfast cook at Embassy Suites.  This company is great, and even though my alarm goes off at 3:45am and I work up until I go to class for the rest of the day, my jam-packed schedule is manageable and enjoyable.  Instead of coming home from work with pen and marker ink all over my hands, I now go to school with pancake batter on my hands.  I get to flip made-to-order omelets for the guests right in front of them; I get to go out to the hotel garden and pick fresh herbs when we are out.  I am busy, but it is a blast.  I have also joined the mentoring program our church has with one local school in town so that I can still meet once a week to help a kiddo in need with school work and life.  The best news of all is that I only work weekdays along with school, so I still have my weekends to go escape to the mountains and play :)

This month, I also got to take my childhood best friend up a mountain!  I love having family and friends visit me from back in Iowa, especially when they say, "can we go to a big hike?!"  It's never an easy feat to come from lower elevation and hike a big mountain, but we had amazing weather, and Karla is a marathon runner back home, so we made it up without any major problems.  Anyone else want to come join next time?!

Excited to check back in later in the fall with the coming of winter.  It'll be another big learning curve with skiing on a new pair of my own skis.  I'm still the most comfortable on my own two feet, and can't wait for the snow to hit the high peaks for those crisp post card views again.  Keep an eye on my instagram @taradactyl02 where I share my favorite pictures at least weekly.  Have a great fall!

Dinosaur, CO is a real place!

Over the last three weeks, maybe even longer, I've been doing things and going places that I wanted to write down and share about on my blog...  so this one is going to be a conglomerate of a couple of things from this summer.

In mid July, I had a girls trip to the Sangre de Cristos with my good friends and climbing partners Anna and Lisa to climb Culebra -- the privately owned 14er that costs a small fortune to climb.  This is the only Colorado 14er that has a permit system regulating when and how many people are allowed to climb (the permit costs $150 to climb the mountain -- storms or shine, and there's no refund.  When I climbed Kilimanjaro and Rainier, the permits cost less than that.  They are making bank on this mountain).  It's on a family cattle ranch and there's no regulation on the climbing itself -- there's no defined trail so as far as preserving the environment and "treading lightly," the system doesn't protect the tundra, it just caps the number of climbers at 20 or 25 per day.  The forecast wasn't terrible for that day, but we ended up starting in a low cloud and it never burned off or lifted.  So, the views were nonexistent and it was our one shot.  A peak-bagger would have been content to cross it off the list, but I do repeat climbs all the time, so it's not about just crossing if off my list.  The mountains are my lifestyle and it was a bummer I couldn't enjoy it like the rest of the mountains I climb.  That's only happened one other time on Kit Carson, and I finally got to climb that one again this summer too and it was a beautiful and clear day!  Regardless, we made the most out of the trip and had too much fun.

The gate that's supposed to be unlocked to keep you off the ranch...

We had several hours to kill at the trailhead before we went to bed.  So why not role play?

Not only were the views hidden, but it got pretty cold up on the ridge in the fog

Lisa paints the views on the tops of 14ers.  She said she was painting me this time since there weren't views, and I'd say it's pretty accurate!

Our summit shot!

After the climb we all visited the sand dunes for the first time.  It was a ton of fun!

Another big event from my summer was taking my sister and Charlie on their first 14er!  The majority of my family lives in Iowa and the Chicago area, so I love sharing my mountain pictures for them.  Leah has wanted to come out and hike with me for a little while, so at the end of her week vacation out here, I picked a relatively short  14er for them -- Quandary.  Mileage-wise it's quicker at just a hair over 3 miles up, but it has a few steep places and can be tough.  The weather was great and we had no impending storms to rush us, we steadily made it up, and it was a successful climb!

View the video on youtube here

The next day Jon and I took off for a week of camping and climbing to do Kit Carson and Challenger, visit his Uncle Rich in GJ for a day at the lake, Kings Peak in Utah, and we ended up at the OR conference in Salt Lake.  To keep it short(er), I'll just tell the stories with photos and captions...

Hiking up to Willow Lake for KC.  It was unfortunately down pouring.  The glamorous side to my hiking adventures.

This is right after Jon turns around and says, "Do you want my raincoat?" ... Death stare... "What raincoat?" I ask.  Why, only the one I've had in my pack the entire time it's been raining, Jon says.

Once we got to camp, we built a fire for dinner and clothes drying.

The next morning's sunrise from Challenger

From Kit Carson's summit at 7:00 am, looking over at my favorite mountains, the Crestone Peak and Needle.

Two years ago, Jon said he loved to "surf on his uncle's lake."  I didn't know that this was even possible, and didn't understand how surfing could happen on a lake and not the ocean.  I more or less water skied because I wasn't skilled enough to stay in the wake without the rope.  But hey, hooray for more first experiences!

On the way to Utah, we stopped in Dinosaur, Colorado!  The street names are named after dinosaurs.  Life.  Made.

I couldn't justify splurging on a giant stuffed Pterodactyl... so I settled for a travel sized plastic Pteranodon.  

Meet Ptaylor the Pteranodon.  He's named after his favorite singer.  Stay tuned for the new adventures of Tara Dactyl and Ptaylor the Pteranodon.

Summit of Kings Peak, the tallest in Utah at 13,528ft

Summit of Kings Peak, the tallest in Utah at 13,528ft

Sunset on the Salt Lake, Antelope Island

Sunset on the Salt Lake, Antelope Island

Wrapping up the week at Outdoor Retailer, visiting with Kelty, Zeal, Epic, Enerplex, and a million others!

So this one time, I got to go camping with Kelty and we took some lifestyle camping photos.  It was nuts to see myself all over the booth!

Alright.  Wrapping it up.  I shared a few too many photos from the last month, so thanks for making it all the way through.  School starts in two weeks, but I still have plenty of time for more summer adventures!  Stay tuned, get outside, and have a wonderful week.

One year ago, I was standing on the summit of Kilimanjaro

One year ago today, I was standing on the highest point in Africa and the tallest free-standing volcano in the world: Mt. Kilimanjaro 19,341 ft above sea level.  Below is the write up that I wrote for the Dirtbag Darling blog, and also for my hometown newspaper.  Long story short -- dream come true.  Thanks for reliving it with me...

I had always had this inexplicable love and fascination with this corner of the world and its culture, and felt like a little piece of my heart has always been there. 

Growing up in the hilly countryside of the Mississippi River Valley, I always had a love for the “unplugged” life and the outdoors.  If I woke up and the sun was shining, I was always pestering my dad to take me outside and explore the woods around the English Bench in northeast Iowa.  I was never the typical 4-sport athlete growing up, but I excelled at swimming which made me strong and taught me more about my own strength.  Two months after graduating from college with a teaching degree, I landed my first job as a middle school math teacher in Loveland, Colorado.  It was the best decision I’ve ever made for my life.

The Rocky Mountains lure a lot of Midwesterners out to Colorado, and I was no different.  Two weeks after moving, I went and climbed the highest peak in Colorado.  Even though it's the highest, it's one of the easiest mountains to climb – dubbed a “walk-up” hike that requires no technical skill or climbing, just the ability to walk at an incline.  It takes the body several weeks to months to fully adjust to altitude and start producing more red blood cells, so it was one of the hardest things I had ever done.  Climbing mountains in Colorado is like being part of a club; lots of people try it, but others, like me, get hooked in an addictive sort of way.   Of the 58 Colorado mountains exceeding 14,000 feet above sea level, I have climbed 38 in the almost 4 years that I’ve been here, and almost 10 more that are between 12.000 and 14,000 feet.  

I think I’ve taken to this sport because I can be so successful at it without having been the superstar athlete as a kid, you just need the knowledge and time it demands.  Yes, it really is a sport.  It takes practice and strength, but unlike other sports, there’s no competition in it; it’s a conquering of personal weakness and self-doubt. 

Last fall when I ran across the opportunity to go to Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, it was the easiest yes I’ve ever had to say!  It was a combination of a lifelong love and a more recent passion rolled into one.  I was confident that I would be successful in this climb because of all the “training” I had here in Colorado above 14,000 feet.  It’s no Mt. Everest, but it’s definitely a huge time and financial commitment – and most importantly a privilege to get to have the chance to travel and climb overseas.  The route we took, the Machame route, was about a week long, taking almost 5 days to slowly trek up and acclimatize, and I felt fantastic the whole time because we were at elevations that I was already used to.  It started off rainy, and it was a light mist for the first 3.5 days… I wasn’t having very much fun in those conditions!  It was constantly damp and just dreary.  

Finally by the 4^th day we were high enough that we were above the rainforest cloud layer and dry – yet cold.  Only above 15,000 feet on the night that we planned to summit did I finally notice the lack of oxygen.  From the high camp at 15,000ft, we got up at 2:00am to start the 4 hour trek to the very top.  I don’t have asthma, but now I think I had a good idea of what that might feel like!  Every step was painfully slow, so slow that my body never warmed up from moving.  I was breathing so hard for air and wondered if this is what suffocating must feel like – not being able to take in a full and satisfying breath.  I wanted to hike faster so that I could keep my blood pumping to stay warm, but I was already using all the energy that I had to keep me going at my slow and steady pace.  I struggled to keep feeling in my hands and feet by wiggling them but they inevitably went painfully numb.  I am always naturally a cold person, and I was wearing every layer that I had that night, so I don’t know what else I could have done to stay warm.  

By sunrise, our group was cresting the crater rim, and there were already quite a few people there.  Kilimanjaro is a giant volcano, so where we crested wasn’t considered the true highest point; we needed to keep walking around the rim another 20-30 minutes to the other side of the crater.  The wind was definitely stronger at the top.  While hiking, I had looked down at my feet most of the way as I walked up and didn’t even notice that the rest of my group in front of me had stopped behind a huge rock to take a break from the wind.  When I looked up and didn’t see anyone from my group I figured I was just too slow and that they had all had a sudden burst of energy and raced the last 20 minutes to the other side of the official summit, and I was left in the dust.  This climb was absolutely a humbling experience.  It was never about who could get there the fastest, who was the strongest, or about proving one’s strength and fitness.  I was the caboose of my small group by choice.  I was physically struggling and I was almost at my limit.  I wasn’t ashamed to admit it.  I knew I could still do this and so one step at a time, I’d get there and I’d be proud at what I’d accomplished and I wouldn’t compare myself to anyone else. 

Photo: Jon Kedrowski.  Looking back at the summit heading back down

I got within view of the summit and saw the sign that marked the official summit in the distance, and I didn’t see anyone else at all.  Where was my group?  Where was anyone?!  I was hiking with one of the local porters that was accompanying our group, and the two of us were the only two people in sight.  We slowly trudged closer.  I heard someone calling my name from behind me, and our group leader was actually running up to catch up with me.  He had climbed to the top of that big rock that everyone else had taken shelter behind to keep an eye out for me, but when I kept walking past it he didn’t see me and had thought I didn’t make it and that I had to turn back around… I didn’t see everyone pause behind the rock and no one else saw me continue on past the crowd of other people.  I truly felt like I didn’t deserve it, but I ended up being the first person to reach summit that day, out of hundreds of people, just past 6:30am on June 26^th.  

The three of us enjoyed almost 10 minutes all to ourselves on the rooftop of Africa before the others in our group made it up one by one for our group summit photo.  I was more concerned that I wasn’t with my group that I didn’t even realize that I was the first person there that morning.  Talk about a summit high!  This climb will go down as one I will never ever forget.  My first big international climb - of many I hope! 

We still had one week left in Africa after we descended.  We got to go on three days of safaris through Tanzanian National Parks, and spend a few days in the local villages experiencing the real, authentic local culture that I always dreamed about.  The days we spent touring the local villages made me feel like I was on a National Geographic documentary.  I had just summited the tallest mountain on the continent of Africa.  We were driving through a park and had to stop to let an elephant (not a deer, or family of possums) cross the road.

After returning back to the US, it was only one night’s rest before I was back out on another 14er.  I had the rest of my summer in front of me and nothing else on the calendar and I got to live out every day doing what I have absolutely fallen in love with.  I felt so spoiled!  I didn’t go more than three days between mountain summits;  I only spent a total of 6 nights not in a tent somewhere around the world.  I climbed more relatively “easy” 14ers, and even more that were labeled as dangerous and deadly, totaling 16 more after Africa.  I finished up my summer with a bang - two more glacier climbs in the Pacific Northwest, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams.  I camped overnight on Mt. Adams for my first summit sleepover, and arrived back home on a Sunday night where school started the next morning!  By the end of this summer, I climbed a grand total of 20 mountains. 

Five years ago I never would have pictured myself being where I am.  I keep proving to myself what I am capable of and getting to newer heights that seemed so unattainable for someone like me before.  I will always love northeast Iowa as the place I was raised, but from the start, Colorado has felt more like “home” to me than anywhere else. 

"This is how I train for 8000m peaks!"

I'm so excited to have finally made a second successful summit of Long's Peak, via the Keyhole route on 6/24/15!  This peak and I have a pretty decent history; I have a love/hate relationship with this mountain.

My first experience with this mountain was in 2009.  I was working on a guest ranch in Allenspark and would take guests on guided horseback rides throughout the National Park and surrounding national forest lands.  I remember how excited I was to finally take guests up the legendary Long's Peak trail to the boulder field.  We always got nasty comments from the hikers about having horses on the trail, because it doesn't happen often at all and the hikers dislike our horses pooping on the trail (#getoverit).  I climbed from the boulder field to the keyhole in my cowboy riding boots; I also got a few funny looks for that.  I remember how amazing the view on the other side was, and it got me to thinking about how it's like God's secret.  Very few eyes see that kind of beauty and wilderness -- only the ones that deliberately climb to those spots to see.  Yet, they're always there and unchanging.  Wild and relentless.  Created there for our human eyes to enjoy, but so few people get to.

I had heard all of the stories of this peak -- the deadliest mountain in Colorado.  It's an arduous hike and quite dangerous.  Without experience, the cliffs and drop-offs can scare people.  This front range 14er also literally creates its own wild weather system.  In a day you will see it all.  Hurricane winds, sun, hail, snow, rain, more sun, more wind, etc.  You can be climbing in great weather, a wind and ice storm can literally come from nowhere, throw veriglass on a rock, and a person will either be blown off by the sheer strength of the gust or slip off to their death.  Considering all the factors and its history, Long's remains the most climbed 14er in the state as well.  Moral of this story, I respected this mountain from day one.

In the summer of 2013 I had done quite a bit of hiking.  Leading up to August, I had done 5 other 14ers, so when it came time to try and climb Long's for myself, I thought I was in pretty decent shape; it was going to be my 11th 14er overall if I made it.  Long story short, I woke at 1:00am, started climbing at 3:00am, summited 8 hours later at 11:00am, and was finally back down at the car around 6:00pm, 7 hours after that -- a total of 15 hours pounding on my joints.  I had never hurt so bad in my life.  Climbing Long's was a full body experience -- my core and arms hurt just as much or worse than my legs and knees did because of all the scrambling I had to do.  It was hot in August, but on Long's that day, I was wearing every layer I had packed, and even had to borrow spare socks that someone else in my group had packed to put over my cold, already-gloved hands.  It was so cold and windy, and I had no idea why it was so much colder than all the other peaks I had climbed in the weeks before.  I had made the summit that day, but it was the hardest thing I had done in my life; Long's made me work for it.

I told myself I would never climb that peak again -- because I already had once, and the distance and suffering just wasn't worth it to do it again!  I went back and did Meeker, Long's conjoined twin, three months after.  In the fall of 2014, I was playing with the idea of going for it again.  My mindset about my hobby and my athleticism had changed and it was now my full-on life style, so to use the excuse that I already had done it was irrelevant - I don't bat my eyes at any "repeat" climbs anymore, it's second nature now.    Three other times, I attempted to climb Long's a second time.  The first time with my friend Tiffiny, I ended up getting food poisoning (which she so hilariously reminded me of just the other day) and we couldn't make it much higher than Chasm Lake (we were going for the loft route).  The second reattempt was on the cables/north face route.  It was just too icy and there wasn't a good route to go up.  Just when we started harnessing up and roping in to try and find a way, a freak snow storm came and scared us down; by the time we got back to the boulder field, it was sunny again.  The third time, we went up the lamb's slide couloir and dabbled with trying to cross broadway and up Keiner's, but it was freshly winter in the mountains and still too icy; we didn't have the right equipment to do it.  We went over and finished up to the saddle through the loft, and instead of getting Long's, the group (who outnumbered me) voted to tag Meeker a second time instead.  That day, the summit was within my reach, so I was disappointed I had to give it up.  Don't get me wrong, I love Meeker and no day hiking is wasted, but considering no attempt on Long's is guaranteed and I had already tried twice again before, I hated knowing I could have had it and didn't take the opportunity.

We had a snowy spring this year, so it's not really even full on summer hiking season on most high peaks because you still need gaiters or at least waterproof shoes for most of them.  It has been hot and sunny this week, and I'm on summer vacation, so I had a crazy idea to ask around for friends that might be crazy enough to say yes to climbing Long's this week.  Thanks Alan, "Moe," Leonard, and Jane for agreeing to go :)  We knew there would still be snow in spots, so we packed our winter climbing gear, and in the back of my mind I was nervous.  I can do exposure, scrambling, cliffs, all that no problem when the rock is dry.  Knowing people have died from one small slip, I was not confident that we could summit this without a hitch; I was even in the mindset that I wouldn't be upset if we ended up climbing most of the way and then might need to turn around if it were too dangerous.  For starters, after having such a rough first time on the keyhole route, it was not my first choice to do that again.  I know there are other routes that are more direct and different that I'd love to try, but the conditions weren't good for any other routes, so we knew the keyhole would be the easiest and safest.

Alright, it's 3:00am my alarm goes off, and I was packed so that all I had to do was grab my breakfast, wash my face, and drive to meet my friends; we planned a 5am start.  We get out of the car at the trailhead, I grab my pack from the trunk, and then I remember:  I left my bag of food for the day sitting on my kitchen counter.  When I'm NOT hiking one of the hardest mountains all day long, I eat almost every other hour.  Now, I had just screwed myself for the whole day by not having vital fuel for such a strenuous day; how could I go the entire day with no food?!  I was kicking myself, because I had grabbed a cutie and half a banana to eat in the car and my bottle of water from the fridge, but left my snacks and sammiches on the counter.  Would I have to accept my mistake and just wait in the car or climb something small nearby while I waited for the rest to climb Long's?  Would I be able to go all day without food and climb safely while fatiguing myself that much?  My second thought was, hey, there are extreme athletes that climb harder things than this and go without food, I'm obviously not the first to have to do this and I won't die from starvation.  "This is how I train for 8000m peaks!"  I said to myself.  Another friend and I make this joke whenever we do any random exercise for no reason, or anything that wouldn't be typical healthy "training" for this type of exercise.  Anything that would test your body's limits and deprive it of something you would normally deem pretty important for good performance: adequate sleep, food, water, or even strenuous back to back to back hard days.

The snow wasn't so bad; we had a little bit of a chilly and windy start up to the keyhole, and shortly after we strapped on the crampons to maneuver through the occasional snow patches.  The trough and homestretch felt like really shallow couloir snow climbs.  It was pretty soft and in a few places we were sinking up to our hips.  I'm still in a little disbelief that I made it to the top in the end, because it's such a privilege on Long's Peak.  Throughout the day, my friends were able to donate me a small cliff bar, a Gu pack, and a few pringles during the day, so I at least had a few bites of sustenance in my belly.  And that view from the other side of the keyhole -- one I'll always love, still will never disappoint:

And I don't ever take selfies, but here you go, my signature "summit jumping" shot.