Day 1: 7/25/08: Mount Evans and Mount Bierstadt: 14,264/14,060

Stats

9.5 miles	West Ridge from Guanella Pass	Company: Jeff Sanders Wildlife: deer, elk, marmot, pika, squirrels
3900 feet	Start: 5:15 am Summit: 9:45 am/2:15 Stop: 4:00 pm	Weather: Clear/cool – 6:00 am Cloud formation – 11:00 am Thunder/rain – 12:00 pm

Another year, another project. Climbing will be different this time around. The peaks are longer and harder and rather than going it solo, I will have a climbing partner in Jeff for the duration. Oftentimes, big events begin with some extravagant kickoff. In our case, 14.14.14.2 commenced captive in the car. In the rain. Under volatile cloud cover. A no-cook dinner of left-over pizza accompanied by route finding through a drop-spattered windshield and a misty curtain was followed by wonder of wonders! Our big send off! Bon voyage – champagne broken on the hull of our two-week project: two arcs of promise tied neatly over the basin of Guanella Pass. A double rainbow emerged from the condensation, linking two mountains in front of us, linking two years of climbing, and two people set on the satisfaction found only after time together doing deserved deeds.

The morning always arrives too soon on these climbing days. Alpine start! Ha! Why doesn’t Colorado weather cooperate with a brunch start rather than pre-breakfast starts? Despite the bleary eyes, we were able to disengage from the car trunk and head out into the willows pre-dawn. These willows now, they star as the villains in all 14er guides of climbs from this basin. I must admit, the guides seemed a bit melodramatic, however, soon after a left turn at a large boulder, the willows came to life as a giant, wind-powered, nature-made carwash. The willow limbs seemed to shrink together at the precise moment of our passage – on demand, reaching, shimmying, rotating like giant scrubber brushes. I’ve heard that the road to hell is paved in good intentions and landscaped with willows. For eternity, we sloshed through boot sucking muck being washed continuously with last night’s rain. By a mile into our route-finding up to a gully to find access to Evans back side, we were bushed from bushwhacking: cold, soaked, abrased, tired.

This is no way to start the first hike of the first day! What we didn’t know then, we know now. The willows and the war we waged with them set us up to handle anything these climbs could throw our way. And on Day 1, throw they did. Patches of columbine too large to take in in one gaze, wet socks, frozen hands, soggy underwear, folks in motorcycle helmets at the top of a mountain, an elk hiding behind a rock (Jeff swears it was there!), the four hour scramble of the Class 3 Sawtooth traverse, electricity in the air, sore knees, sick stomachs – all those things that comingle to make experiences epic. So in this way, the first day did start with a bang – as all good events do (dinner, dancing, drinks, revelry). Our long day on the mountain provided something for everyone - a very real preview into the possibilities of the open trail.