No Cokes Starts Again Today

That is all for now.

Long's Peak Expedition

Well... not to disappoint anyone, but I survived my first big hike/climb of Long's Peak. It was a very long hike and the name does some justification. Here is how the weekend went down...

Friday night, Derek, Shant, and I left for Denver Colorado. We all used upgrade points and got to sit in first class. I'm pretty sure the people around us were somewhat annoyed since we talked the entire time... but it was good. We each had two beers with our fabulous meal (Fabulous may be an overstatement).

After landing in Denver and picking up our baggage, Webb picked us up and we headed to REI. Arrived 10 minutes before they closed and i was able to pick up a cheap pair of sunglasses (which came in handy). After that we stopped by a well known burger place and had a beer and a burger. All is good and back to the hotel we went. We were able to stay in a suite at the West Inn Downtown (Courtesy of the Green Dot).

Saturday we woke up around 8 am... packed up our stuff and headed to Boulder. We ate at a breakfast place called The Buff and had I ate some excellent french toast. From there we stopped at a famous sandwich place and to pick up our lunch which we would end up eating on the mountain. From Boulder... we drove about another hour to Rocky Mountain National Park. Drove around there for a while and saw lots and lots of people. At that point it was about 1 o'clock. At this time we remembered that at 130, they would be giving away our campsite reservation if someone was there to take it. So we headed down to the office in the Expedition and made it there about 145. A dilemma arose.

Long's peak has two main camp areas. One called Goblins Forest and another called the Boulder Field. Goblins Forest is a .5 mile hike from the trail head... while the Boulder Field is 6 miles from the trail head. We wanted to stay at the Boulder Field, but there was only one site that could handle one tent. We had one three person tent, and one 2 person tent. We opted to cram four people in the 3 person tent and make the hike.

At this point it is about 2 pm when this decision is made. So we have about a 6 mile hike with a vertical gain of 3,350 feet. We reach the trail head around 3 pm with all our gear and we are ready to go. Early on in the trail there were several spots with little waterfalls as seen below.

As we are walking, we realize at this point, everyone is on there way down... and we are probably the only ones going up at this point since it is so late in the day. After walking about a mile or so, we encounter a crazy man telling us the thunderstorms are rolling and we should turn around. Webb questions his judgement and we continue on. Rain starts to come down very lightly. Then we reached the tree line. At this point there is snow randomly spread throughout the area, but very little left.

At about mile three we could see some storms developing but figured it was best to continue as long as we moved quickly. We thought about it as you can see below.

The rain started coming down, then it turned to freezing rain, and then we realized we should probably get some shelter. The wind was blowing us around and making us pretty cold. Luckily there was a huge rock structure that had a small cave that we were able to use as shelter in order to repack and grab a snack. We stayed there for about 15 minutes to let the rain die out, and then continued on. I guess in a way that guy that warned us was some what correct, but we survived and it was actually kind of fun to experience a problem. Below is me deep in the cave and Shant closest to the camera.

The weather got colder as we went up and breathing became more difficult. We eventually made it to the Boulder Field area and an orange ten came in site in the distance. This was our campground. The sun was going down and darkness was coming. The plan was for two of to set up the tent, two people to pump water to filter it, then to cook dinner and pass out. Myself and Shant were in charge of setting up the ten which we did very easily. Derek and Webb got the water and then we cooked some Kuss Kuss and chicken that was good considering we were all very hungry and slightly dehydrated. The water was freezing cold that we drank since it was basically melted snow from higher up on the mountain.

After eating and wrapping everything up, Webb and I head to the outhouse (yes, believe it or not, they have outhouses at this elevation). It is at this point that Webb pulls me aside to tell me that he is concerned with Shant's health. He was having a much harder time breathing than the rest of us, and was freezing cold. It looked to be early signs of HAPE. If he began coughing excessively after laying down to sleep, this would be the real sign that we would have to hike down at night in order to get him to a better altitude. At this point, I was thinking there would be a chance we would have to go down that night. After getting back to the tent, it was time for bed. Shant and Derek were already in their bags, Shant was shivering like crazy. Lucky for us we had 4 people in a three person tent, so the body warmth of us all was able to help him warm up eventually. (pic of our tight sleeping arrangments)

Sleeping. This is something I was not able to do very well that night. With Webb's snoring and everyone else's inability to sleep, it was not the best sleep ever. I continuously woke up with shortness of breath and was forced to take deep breaths in order to get back to regular breathing. Altitude sickness also kicked in right before I went to sleep. The headaches came and went with severe pain which made sleeping not very easy. I do recall waking up at 1130 PM to go to the restroom, there were so many stars it was amazing. Most likely more than I have ever seen since we were in the middle of no where.

5:30 AM came very quickly (The pic above is the sun coming up over the mountain, difficult to tell, but i'm peeing in the urinal in the outhouse while webb is in the one next to me), we had to get up and start getting ready to be on the trail by 6:15. NO breakfast was needed, just pumping water and and packing up our packs. We brought two liters per person which was pretty necessary. Up we went through the boulder field and up to the Keyhole (picture below).


After reaching the Keyhole, Shant had had enough. In my mind the next piece was probably more than i could handle, but i decided it would be come to push my limits. After the Keyhole, there is really only 1 more mile to go, but more than 1000 ft of elevation to go up. The terrain between the Keyhole and the Trough doesn't really have a name, but definitely has some ridge line exposure. At one point, we noticed some iron bars coming out of the rock about a foot. We asked Webb about them, and this was his answer: "Most likely those are old cables that used to connect things, or possibly this is a spot that a lot of people fall off and die, so the bars can be used for support." Not something I wanted to know, but I made it past them. After the section of ridge line, we finally reached the trough (Pic below is of me scrambling up the trough, pictures do not justify the amazing views and steepness in the mountain)

The trough starts around 13,300 feet and increases 600 feet reasonably quickly. The trough consisted of lots of loose rock at a steep angle which made foot placement very necessary. Few icy patches still existed which we avoided. We made it to the top of the trough and to the start of the narrows. The narrows is only a 250 yard piece and after that the homestretch to the top. After looking at the narrows, and then feeling how rubbery my legs felt, Derek and I decided it would be best to head down. Webb continued and succeeded. As I look back, I feel like i should have pushed my limits more and continued up. The weather was perfect, but my legs were hurting and my mind headache was hurting. My mind over powered myself and i got psyched out. Derek and I started heading down... which was way harder than going up (pic below is Team SCS on the way down).

Overall, the trip was a great success in my mind. Going down the mountain was very rough on the knees, but we made it down in about 3 hours. Breathing was a lot easier, and headaches were all gone. I recommend this challenge to anyone, I don't recommend carrying as much stuff as I did.

Next mountain... we'll see. Maybe completing a fourteener would be good for me first before I move on to anything to excessive.

FCP

It has been a week full of learning and good times I guess is one way to put it. I started at my new client on Monday... we will call them FCP. They are a Retail Electricity provider that is looking to move into the wholesale market. However, the way that energy is bought and sold is changing from a Zonal Market to a Nodal Market in order to make the market more efficient and supposedly be better for everyone. My role will initially be to gather the business requirements for these changes and create a document outlining the scheduling part. After that, hopefully, FCP will select us to do the development of the system.

Anyway, tonight i leave for Colorado. We are going to Long's Peak and hopefully the weather will cooperate and there will not be any snow. Should be a good time.

Mozzarella Portabella Chicen Sausagella

Last night I created a new creation. I went to whole foods and bought a portabella mushroom top, Italian chicken sausage, olive oil, and mozzarella cheese. First I sliced the sausage into about half inch thick pieces and threw it in a pan and cooked it for about 5 minutes (or until golden chicken brown). After that I placed the sausage on top of the mushroom to cover the entire thing. Cooked the two together for about 20 minutes... added some cheese on top... and Voila, Mozzarella Portabella Chicken Sausagella. Try it out... hopefully ours will look better than mine: