Snowshoeing Fun at The Crags
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I haven’t done much snowshoeing in the past primarily because up until now, I’ve been mostly a fair-weather hiker. Last year was the first time I actually started buying more gear for inclement weather. So far in 2010, I’ve been buying a lot of snow gear. My aversion to snow sports in the past has been price and health (I have asthma that is aggravated by cold weather). Between April and September of 2009, I managed to lose 50 lbs through a change in my diet and by sticking to a regular exercise routine. Losing this weight has improved my health in ways I never would have thought of — including a decrease in exercise- and cold-weather-induced asthma. Because of this, I decided to give snowshoeing a try.
Through recent purchases (REI owns my soul), I now have the proper gear to start venturing out into the snow. In the above photo, I have approximately $780 worth of gear (snowshoes, trekking poles, and mittens — which I had already removed — adds another $388). This doesn’t include the gear that I have in my backpack. Hiking is one of those activities which I consider to be like a front-end load investment. If you purchase a front-end load stock or fund, you’re paying a sales commission up-front. I know the price of the gear I’m wearing seems ridiculously expensive, but it’s high-quality stuff. If it lasts over five years (which I fully expect it to do) or beyond, the investment doesn’t seem all that bad. And, especially important, if it helps keep me safe and all of my fingers and toes intact, it’s worth its weight in gold!
On Saturday morning, I drove up to The Crags trailhead on the west side of Pikes Peak to get some snowshoeing in. It was a balmy 5° when I got there at 4:30 AM. I didn’t start getting ready until 5:00 due to lack of light and was on the trail at 5:20. It took me about ten minutes before I realized that I was on a wrong trail, so I backtracked and found the correct one. Once I realized that the gate to The Crags campground was open, I hoofed it back to my truck. I figured I could park at the campground trailhead.
That was a mistake.
Once I made it to the campground trailhead, I decided to pull around to the other side of some public toilets and park there. Well, I ended up getting stuck in the snow. Fortunately, I have a winch and there were plenty of trees close by. I anchored to one of them and was able to extricate myself. I drove forward about twenty feet and got stuck again, so I repeated the process. After about twenty minutes of this, I was free!
Feeling like an idiot, I headed back to the first trailhead that I found. On the way up before I got stuck, I drove by a car parked in the road. Now, on my way down, I saw someone standing outside. I pulled up next to him and advised him not to try and go any further. I asked him what his destination was and he told me that he wanted to try and summit Pikes Peak. Since he was by himself, I asked if he wanted some company and he was fine with that. John was his name.
I met John back down at the first trailhead. We geared-up and headed back to the campground trailhead. I had my snowshoes strapped to my backpack as the snow was compacted enough to walk on. John and I talked for awhile; I found out that he is from Los Angeles (originally from Washington state) and that he had only arrived on Friday! Normally, I wouldn’t encourage anyone to try and summit a 14,000-foot peak after being here for less than a day, but I figured I would keep him out of trouble should he encounter any.
As we ascended the trail, it became more and more apparent that the altitude was affecting him. I was going at a much quicker pace, even with a 30 lb backpack. Why 30 lbs? Well, for one, I have a complete change in clothes — base layers, insulating layers, and shells (tops and pants). I was also carrying about 10 lbs of water in a bladder and a Nalgene bottle. I have emergency warmers, emergency food, medical supplies, a water filter, etc. Plus, my snowshoes were strapped to my pack at the time and they weigh close to 4 lbs. Had I been alone, I would have made much better time, but I wasn’t going to leave him behind me. The whole point in hiking with someone is to actually spend time with him along the way.
John and I eventually reached a creek crossing which was completely iced-over. I gave him one of my trekking poles and gingerly made my way across to the other side. There was a really slick spot that I slipped on, but otherwise I made it across just fine. I wasn’t sure how much experience John had crossing ice, so I watched him carefully. He had a lot of problems from the get go. At about half-way across, John tried to step to the right off of the ice and ended up putting his foot into the creek. This was going to be a problem given the air temperature. He quickly tried to cross the rest of the way with me holding out my trekking pole for him to grab on to, but slipped and fell. He scrambled to the other side without any more trouble.
I asked John if he had a change in socks. He did, but left them in the car. He needed to get out of his wet socks quickly. I instructed him to get out of his boot and socks and dug through my backpack for the extra wool sock liners and socks that I had. I gave him half of both pairs and a toe warmer to stick in his boot as well (he forgot those). He thanked me and after a few minutes, we continued on.
The trail we were following was made by previous backcountry skiiers and snowshoers. It was, however, not the trail that I remembered taking multiple times to the summit of Pikes Peak. My initial goal was to get to Devil’s Playground right along the Pikes Peak Highway. Since the best trail was the one we were on, I figured that it must eventually lead there.
John and I eventually hiked up into the sunlight. His left foot (not the one that was plunged into the icy creek) was starting to get extremely cold. I offered-up the other toe warmer that I had in my pack. My feet were getting cold as well, but my boots were better insulated than his. We stopped and he put the other toe warmer into his boot. He was really slowing down, though, so I was getting a little concerned. By the time we made it to right about treeline, he began to feel pain in his toes. It was time for him to turn around, but I wasn’t going to let him go by himself. The mountain’s not going anywhere. Safety should always be first.
On our way back down, we ran into a couple of hikers. I told them of my plight at the trailhead and they laughted because they had gotten their truck in the same area a month prior — except it cost them $500 to get pulled out! They were headed to the summit (I later found out that they made it, too), so we parted ways and continued back down to the trailhead. About ten minutes later, I decided to stop and put on my snowshoes. The conditions didn’t warrent them, but I just wanted to! I also let John borrow the YakTrax I was carrying in my pockets (my Microspikes were in my other shell). We made good time down and didn’t even have any ice troubles!
Back at the trailhead, we passed a couple of snowshoers who said that a Jeep Liberty was stuck in the snow further down. We discovered two women at the Jeep. Apparently, the driver decided the road was too treacherous and tried to back out, but got to close to the side and got stuck. I informed them that I had a winch and could pull them out. When John and I reached our vehicles, he drove back up with me and we pulled them out.
Since John was heading back to Colorado Springs, I suggested that we should grab some lunch. He also wanted to buy me a beer for helping him out on the trail. Driving out would prove to me more of a challenge than we thought, though. We encountered a Taurus stationwagon driving up. Because he had just passed a parking area, the driver graciously decided to back-down. There was a Honda Accord behind him, though. The driver of the Accord obviously didn’t have a lot of experience backing-up. She got too close to the side and became stuck. The driver of the Taurus thought he could back up around her, but promptly became stuck. I was able to winch-out the Accord and the Taurus driver backed it down to the parking area. By this time, there were two more vehicles behind John. The Taurus was far enough to the side that I could drive past it down to the parking area and let the other vehicles go by. Once they did, I drove back up to the stranded Taurus and winched it out.
What a day! I was hungry and ready for some lunch. John followed me down to Manitou Springs where we ate at The Loop, a Mexican restaurant. We decided to part ways for awhile, but made plans to meet for drinks later that night. February 6, 2010 was certainly a day to remember!
Themocracy
