I sit here listening to “The Most Relaxing Waves Ever – Ocean Sounds to Sleep, Study and Chill.” 21M views. I have returned to the digital ink and paper – I will be returning to the regularly scheduled programming hereafter, so I implore you to hold off on canceling your subscriptions. I want you to get your money’s worth. I have one final hike report of the season with some complementary ponderings ~
Today I aimed to complete the Decalibron Loop, which consists of four 14er peaks: Mount Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross. The loop is roughly situated between Leadville and Alma. It was another 4-hour pre-hike sleep night, and I left around 4am, with about a 6:15am trailhead arrival time. I have grown fond of the long, dark drive to the mountain as well as the pitch black start to hikes under the great canopy of stars.
One of my favorite moments is when I slowly realize I don’t need a headlamp anymore, and I turn around to see the reddish tint gracing the mountaintops.
It was an especially cold day, about a 5° F chill, with lots of snow and ice around. Based on what I’d read, I decided to do the loop counter-clockwise, starting with Bross.
Bross Summit
Under a spell of sadness in recent weeks (on the up and up), I have occasionally yearned to go into the mountains and disappear, even to just simply find a nice spot to lie down and close the tired eyes for a while. There is certainly a tint of carelessness to some of these mountain jaunts flavored by this existential congestion – but it was maybe halfway through the loop that I was humbled by two happenings:
Firstly, my Camelbak tube and hydration pack completely froze. This initially caused me concern, and I was cursing a bit at my ill-preparedness, as there was no probability of the temperature rising above freezing for this hike. Granted, the chances of the Camelbak bladder completely freezing were low, but it would’ve been very inconvenient to take off the Camelbak and awkwardly drink out of the giant bladder opening whenever I needed a drink. I bent the hose around to try breaking up the ice, then moved the camelbak from outside my jacket to inside my jacket so that it would be closer to my body. Luckily, despite the low temperature, I was under the sun for the rest of the loop. Eventually the hose thawed, and I prevented the hose from freezing back up by blowing the water back into the bladder after each use.
Note: I was originally thinking, there’s so much snow around me, I could just eat the snow, right? Apparently this is not what you want to do in an emergency situation. Put simply, consuming snow will take more energy from your body – if you’re dehydrated already, it will make you more dehydrated. If there’s one takeaway from this report, let it be that.
The second happening: There was a section from Bross to Lincoln that I needed to traverse across that consisted of slick, hardpack icy snow. I’d estimate it was about a 35° angle, with, of course, a cliff at the bottom of this slope. One traverses across it, not up it. I had spikes on me, but I foolishly started walking across without putting them on – a mistake – the snow was even slicker than I estimated. About halfway across this 20 yard section, I start sliding on my hands and knees down the slope towards the cliff edge. After sliding 10-15 feet, I thrust my arm with gumption into the snow as a mock ice-axe, putting myself to a temporary stop, my feet providing some support. With my nerves on edge, I stayed as still as possible while fishing my spikes out with my free hand, and wrestling them over one boot at a time as best I could. After a couple minutes, they were on, and I marched carefully back up and across this section to make my way towards Lincoln. I didn’t take the spikes off until getting back to the car a few hours later. I don’t want to make myself out to be some Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible – it probably wasn’t as harrowing as I’m recalling, but it gave me a fright.
Despite these couple of concerning moments, part of me was glad that I hadn’t seen a single person on the mountain. It felt like I was in the wild country.
Just about to the summit of Lincoln
The wind’s snow poetry – just before Cameron summit.
Looking at Mount Democrat, the fourth peak, from Cameron. It’s a wonder to me, on any 14er hike, when I see an epic peak in the distance and think, “Am I really going over there?” And, one step at a time, one finds themselves there.
Mount Democrat Summit
I was back to the car at 11:45am. It’s felt good to do some adventuring and climb lots of 14ers in the past few weeks. I may move on for the season and see what calls to me next. I wasn’t completely sure I could complete this loop, but lately, with all things, I’m aiming to just find out rather than wonder. I think this is good practice. Go find out. Better to live until you collapse rather than wither away in worry. I could use this reminder often.
I had been wrestling in recent weeks with the question of, “Are we permanently stuck on repeat, unconsciously or subconsciously resigned to repeat the same patterns we and our brains/minds have forged years ago?” It’s a loaded question that I’m not equipped to answer, but I believe the answer is no. Even just having the awareness of potential patterns and biases is massive, which can lead to choosing differently, as much resistance as there may be. I can’t really expound on this question at the moment – long day. These are elementary ponderings anyway – though I will say: I’ll sometimes have a question or insight within myself, and a voice will say “Someone’s thought this before, and articulated it much more eloquently.” But I say to that: billions of tables have been built before – what does that do for me? If I build one single table with my own hands, I learn profoundly more from that one table than all the tables that have been built before combined. Thus, if I come to a conclusion within myself, of my own accord, that is worth one million times more than some old eloquent quote repeated to infinity. Likewise, I am one thousand times more inspired by the people in my daily life than all other inspirational figures known the world over.
Still listening to “The Most Relaxing Waves Ever – Ocean Sounds to Sleep, Study and Chill.” Clocks going back tonight. I don’t endorse that. Many whimsical topics in mind for future newsletters. Thank you for being here.
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