I did a thing last week. I hiked up a 14er.
A 14er is a mountain that is 14,000 feet or higher from sea level. I expected it to be a bit…difficult. It was. The one I hiked up (and I am specifically using the term ‘hiked’ rather than ‘climb’ because that’s what I did…hiked) is called ‘Quandray Peak‘. By most estimations that I have seen it is one of the easiest of the 14er’s.
A good place to start with an elevation 14,272 feet. I’m not sure how much the total elevation comes into play when the class of the climb. My understanding is that there are five classes (listed at the end) and the rating system is determined by
The hike, for me, broke down into 3 parts. The first part was as trail from the parking lot to the tree line. The second was from the tree line to the where the summit starts and the third part was the trail to the summit.
Below is an image from the ‘14ers.com‘ web site showing the East approach.
The effort that I put in was a lot. From the beginning to the top I was stopping every 5 minutes to rest, sip some water or have a bite to eat. The last part of the hike was just ‘put one foot in front of another’ the rest of the way up.
Coming down was pretty much the same story except watching for loose rocks which could come out from under my foot and cause me to fall…which I did. Twice.
I was impressed by the hikers on the mountain. When they saw me sitting they asked how I was, etc. Very nice community.
I got up and down the mountain without injury and I’m pretty proud of the accomplishment.
Get out and go!
