Throwback Post: Gaining Mountain Chops in the Adirondacks Circa 2004-2011

For a while now, we've been wanting to put up a post about our early mountain experiences between 2004 and 2011 in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Winter is a good time to dream of future adventures and engage in some reflection. So here it is...a look back on a prior chapter in our journey in the mountains.

Before Google decided to give the option to archive old "Google Sites" content, I'd forgotten that we did write-ups of our Adirondack 46-er and 46-er Winter projects. So, for the first time in years, here's the page listing our days on the rugged trails and peaks of the Adirondacks. I'm not sure if all links on the page work. If not, let me know.

Another artifact of those days is the article we submitted to Adirondack Peaks Magazine after we completed the Colorado 14ers in 2010. The text and photos of which are what follows. 

Adirondack Peaks Article: 46ers in the Colorado Rockies 
by John & Jennifer Danese

What started as a week-long trip to Colorado in July 2009 ended up leading us through the most amazing and satisfying experience of our lives. We remember when it all started, the peak-bagging and the pursuit of seemingly far-fetched goals, that is. I saw the book “Exploring the 46 Adirondack High Peaks” while browsing in a local bookstore and mentioned to Jennifer that it would be pretty neat to be able to do that...to become a 46er. It seemed out of reach at the time (late 2005), so we were really just thinking it might be fun to hike a few of them. We did Cascade on one of those perfect bluebird days in May 2006 and were instantly hooked. We were amazed when we learned that people climbed these mountains in winter, but by 2007, we were embarking on our first forays into climbing high peaks in the winter months, experimenting with and collecting the requisite gear and building up our endurance. We learned from others who answered Jennifer’s questions on the internet boards, from people we met on the trails and from experience we accumulated. By 2009, we had completed our all-season and winter rounds of the 46 ADK High Peaks, gaining an immense and satisfying sense of accomplishment and I think relief, that “the list” was completed. It was fun to plan and hike freely for the first time in a while...do whatever we liked best, rather than what we “needed”. But soon, another feeling began creeping in. What’s next? We needed a new goal. We still loved hiking in the ‘Dacks, but what else did we want to do? What was our next adventure? 

Completing the Winter 46 left us feeling very confident in our capabilities as a team. We were especially proud of our decision-making in the mountains. Our minds were wandering to the things that we might like to try in the future. Bigger mountains, bigger trips...we knew we didn’t have technical skills, but we’d come a long way since we did Cascade in May a few years prior. We starting thinking about maybe attempting something like Mt. Rainier, so we started wondering how we would handle higher elevations. We’d never hiked higher than 5344’. I’d been doing some business trips to Denver and sent home pictures of the Front Range at the western edge of Denver. Hmmm, Colorado has a lot of high mountains, maybe we’ll go climb some of them. One thing led to another and in early July 2009, we were headed to Breckenridge, CO for a week’s stay. Breckenridge is a great town with good access to some of the easier 14,000’ peaks of the Front and Sawatch Ranges. The town is at 10,000’ elevation, so you’re always acclimatized and it’s less than 2 hours from Denver airport. Plus, it has some excellent restaurants, which we utilized to the fullest for post-hike feasts! The day after we arrived, we climbed one of the easiest 14ers - Mt. Sherman. The drive in to the trailhead on a rough and bumpy dirt road was an adventure and quite different from back home. Starting off from the car, we both felt some anticipation. How would we do? How would the altitude affect us? Our legs were ready to go at the usual pace, but our lungs told us to slow it down a bit. We were slower and certainly more winded than normal, but we made the summit without any difficulties. One down, 53 more to go, we joked at the summit. We had absolutely no idea that 14 months later, we’d be atop our final Colorado 14er. Over the next five days, we hiked up 8 more 14ers, including Mts. Elbert and Massive, the two highest peaks in Colorado, the Democrat-Cameron-Lincoln-Bross four-pack, Huron and Quandary. All of the routes are non-technical and recommended for anyone who is reasonably fit. 

We were hooked on these mountains. The views were incredible and the experiences exhilarating. The sadness we felt driving out of Breckenridge toward Rt. 70 and the airport left us with no doubt that we would return. By October we were discussing a temporary move to Colorado and in early April 2010, we drove the 2000 miles to Breckenridge with our dogs and a truck full of our stuff, having rented a house for the next 7 months. Our plan was to focus on climbing 14ers and seeing as much of this jaw-droppingly beautiful place as we could cram in. Oh, and maintain our full-time jobs. Jennifer had a plan, as expected. Since we still had a solid 1½ months of winter conditions in the mountains and avalanche danger is a serious concern about which we knew next to nothing, we’d try to figure out which peaks we could safely explore until the avy danger diminished. So, we did some local hikes around Breckenridge, revisited the nearby 14er Quandary a few times, and also took a winter skills day-class with a guide. 

Jennifer acclimatizing in May on the Continental Divide near Breckenridge

On the first weekend in May we started hiking 14ers, or at least trying to. On Mt. Columbia we made it within ¾ of a mile and 1000’ from the top. Concern of thunderstorms and midday warming snow on a steep slope had us turn around. It was disappointing not to reach our goal, but we were very comfortable playing it conservative as the terrain and conditions were all new to us. We were learning as we went and trusting our gut instincts. The next weekend we made it to the summit of Humboldt Peak, a milestone as it was our first 14er this trip. It was still very much winter conditions and we used both snowshoes and crampons. Start times were earlier than back home. A 3:30 am start time for just a regular dayhike (to avoid warm afternoon snow on open slopes and afternoon thunderstorms). And, the terrain was quite different from back home. Many miles and hours above treeline. And the scale of everything is Big. Huge. Impossible to describe. It had a very different feel to it than being back home, but it was wonderfully challenging and exhilarating. 

In mid-May we got turned around a second time on Mt. Columbia for avy concern and it turned out the next day there was a slide on a nearby peak. By Memorial Day weekend, we were finally starting to see signs that non-winter conditions may be approaching. 

Our plan was to get to the hardest peaks during July and August, when we would be solidly acclimatized, fittest and the weather should be best. We did break from the plan early on, though to go for Little Bear Peak the first weekend in June. Little Bear is a peak in the southern Sangre de Cristo Range, which many consider the most dangerous of all the 14ers. Its’ reputation is due not to the difficulty of the climb, but to the high risk of rockfall, which gets funneled down the steep 45 degree gully (called The Bowling Alley or the Hourglass) which leads to the summit. We decided that we wanted to get up Little Bear when there was still snow in the Hourglass so that the chance of rockfall would be lower. It was our biggest challenge to date, starting at 1:30am from our car camp. Such an early start time was chosen because we wanted to get up and down the Hourglass before the snow and ice got soft and the rocks started releasing. 

Ascending the Hourglass on Little Bear

It was hard and scary, and we made good use of our crampons and ice-axe skills on the steep traverse along the ridge and in the notorious gully. As with most challenges, what a great feeling it was to get through it! We felt triumphant (not at the summit, but once we had descended) with our success and like we had made a progression to a next level of accomplishment and experience. A sad note is that about a month later, a young climber lost his life, when he fell in the Bowling Alley. 

Snow continued to be a challenge into mid-June, but we were making steady progress, getting out and climbing 2-3 days each weekend. By the July 4th weekend, we were ready to tackle what we saw as the hardest peak left in our list...Capitol Peak, in the Elks Range, outside of Aspen. Search for “Capitol Peak Knife Edge” on YouTube and you’ll see part of the reason for its reputation. We hiked in to camp at the base of this strikingly beautiful mountain the day prior to our attempt with fellow ADK 46er, Steve Dunbar, and gazed up in awe at the challenge ahead of us until we retired to our tents. 

Capitol Peak from our campsite

The 2.5 mile climb to the summit started at 4:00 am the next day - a glorious, clear July 4th. The climb to the summit took 4 1/2 hours of almost constant intense concentration as it involved a lot of Class 3/Class 4 scrambling over large, often loose talus, and high to extreme exposure, where a fall would certainly be fatal. We thought back to being intimidated by the “cliffs” of Saddleback not so long ago. Capitol was a measuring stick that we used to gauge how we felt about being able to complete the rest of the CO 14ers. We felt that if we could handle this mountain, we could do the rest, at least from a skills perspective. We were continually challenging and pushing ourselves, and at various times one or the other would feel uncertain. We really learned to break these situations into small bits. Setting small milestones/goals that we could reach and then re-assess to see if we felt comfortable moving forward or wanted to change the plan.  

A few weeks later, we went back to the Elks for another of the legendary 14er challenges about which we had been anxious...the Maroon Bells. Maroon and North Maroon Peaks and their companion across the valley, Pyramid Peak are notorious for their crumbly red sedimentary rock, which can give-way on you, or fall on you from above. They are world famous because of their beauty and are easily photographed after a short drive from downtown Aspen. Along with Steve, we car-camped for two days in the parking lot and fresh from our success on Capitol, decided to do the two “Deadly Bells” together on day 1 by climbing Maroon, then traversing over to North Maroon. It’s considered one of the four “Great 14er Traverses” and it did not disappoint. It challenged all of the confidence we’d built up on Capitol and provided us with the best day of climbing we had on our entire adventure. It’s a memory that will last our lives. 

The Maroon Bells

We said to each other many times during and after that day that there was no way we could have been able to do that were it not for the experience we’d gained on previous hikes and climbs. It challenged us physically and mentally and our decision-making dynamics as a team. Toward the end of the summer season, tragically, another climber lost his life, when he was hit by rockfall, attempting the traverse. These events were frightening to hear about and major eye-openers for us. A total of 10 climbers were killed on the same mountains we climbed that season. 

Next we learned something else new. Colorado has a “monsoon season” and this year it lasted from about the last week in July through August. During this time, the weather patterns are very unstable as moisture from the Gulf of California gets pushed over the Southwest and dumps when it hits the Rockies. The instability theme carried from the weather patterns to the ground conditions, where the rain water caused the ground to soften and already loose and crumbling mountainsides to become even more dangerous. Several more people were killed in rockfall during this time. This weather pattern wreaked havoc with our plans to get the most difficult and dangerous peaks completed before September when the chance of snow would begin to loom. We spent more time than usual during this time checking weather throughout the state, trying to avoid bad weather and the loosest of terrain and maintaining multiple alternate plans each week. We also were burdened with significant doubts that we would be able to achieve our goal, since we were turned back on summit attempts on more than one occasion, putting us behind our planned schedule. We took what the weather gave us and climbed some of the easier and nearby peaks of the Front and Sawatch Ranges (which we had been saving for exactly this type of weather delay), before heading out at the end of August for our last set of the hardest peaks. 

The Wilson Group is comprised of El Diente Peak, Mt. Wilson and Wilson Peak, which is famously depicted on Coors Light cans. They are the westernmost 14ers in the San Juan Range, just outside of Telluride and not too far from the Utah border. It took us about 6 hours to drive to the trailhead in heavy rain and thunderstorms the night before our attempt. We had multiple options for our climb day. It’s most common to do them in two or three days, but there is also a single day route. If we got the right weather, we knew we could do the single day route. It’s a big day, but we can do long days just as long we’re not trying to outrun lightning! The key was the weather, the forecast was for a good day and if that held by what we saw in the sky, we would go for all 3 in one day. We started at 3:30 am on a cold and damp morning and summited our first peak of the day, El Diente, at 8:30 am. The weather was looking fine so we made the decision to continue along to the next peak. To get to Mt. Wilson we would complete our 2nd of the 4 Great Traverses. It was a fun route with some nice Class 4 scrambling. On top of Mt. Wilson, we again assessed weather and decided that we were going to attempt to get the three-pack in a single day. The hike covered 19 miles and 6900’ feet of ascent in 17 hours. We knew it would be hard, but the drive and approach are long and we didn’t want to risk having to come back out here for another trip in a week or two. Completing the Wilson Group felt like a huge weight had been lifted and we then knew that we were going to complete our quest to climb all 58 of the mountains we had set out to. We were at 52 with only a half a dozen easy peaks to go and it wasn’t even September yet. Even if snow came, we’d be able to do the rest! 

On September 4, we finally stood atop Mt. Columbia (the peak we had turned around on twice in May!) on a beautiful day and celebrated all that we’d done, learned and experienced together in the mountains. We had done it! It was one of the best days of both of our lives. The adventure, the experiences, the sights are truly priceless. For anyone who’s enjoyed the Adirondacks and has climbed some of the 46ers, I’d recommend getting out to Colorado and doing at least a 14er or two. The scenery is so spectacular, I haven’t even tried describing it here, since I just don’t have the skills. Be cautious, plan, ask questions (www.14ers.com is a great resource with active and helpful forums), be respectful of the dangers, but don’t be intimidated that you can’t do it physically. There are plenty of options that are straight-forward walk-ups with outstanding trails. Getting up Mt. Marcy is harder than some of them.

Recommended reading: “Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled -- and Knuckleheaded Quest for Rocky Mountain High” by Mark Obmascik is fun and informative. “Colorado’s Fourteeners: From Hikes to Climbs” by Jerry Roach is the 14ers bible, full of trailhead and route info, as well as a healthy dose of Roach’isms which are well known in the Colorado 14er community.