Flooped
Sunday was the first day of this week, and coincidentally the 24th anniversary of my pal Rick’s [1,2] birth. Celebration came by the way of oxygen deprivation amidst suspended H2O. Woke up circa 4am and rolled on over to Guenella Pass just south of Georgetown, CO. The weather report said there was an 80% chance of snow after noon (! afternoon). Upon reaching the top of the pass, our notable unease toward the forecast was quickly subdued. Why? Well, turns out the forecast was wrong (surprised?) - the premature snow left us nothing to worry about - we were just going to have to deal with snow the whole way.
Our target, Mount Bierstadt, is a mountain my father would scoff at, and probably never hike. The standard route privided a trail much like a bike path you’d find in any metropolitan park: 4 feet wide, spacious room for passing. Ah, but Sunday was different. We knew the challenge would be to actually find and stay on the trail (considering the conditions) let alone stay warm. Turned out that wasn’t a problem; we rocked up that puppy in 2.6 hours. A rather unique feature to my list of mountain experiences, not once could we see further than 100 feet (something to do with refraction, reflection and some condensed water droplets). Good times, good people, good snow.
Something to note about the pics below - it seemed odd to me at the time and even more so now. Rick busted out the camera at the summit, and from four feet away snapped a picture of me. Then I took the camera from him and snapped a picture of him. Neither he nor I registerd any foot movement. It seemed to me like a photo duel. Why so strange? Well usually after climing to the top of one of these guys, you’d step back and get the fellow’s feet in the picture with a glimpse of the often breathtaking background behind him. Not us, apparently we have an affinity for torso shots. So that’s what you get. Bling.
 Torso 1
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 No Bueno
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 Torso 2
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Filed by ryanroth at October 11th, 2005 under Life