14ers done the right way

Last Saturday, I roused a few of my friends out of bed at an ungodly hour of the morning, and we took off in my little Subaru to Fairplay, there to tackle Mt Sherman. Granted, it's a relatively easy 14er as they go, but it was fun nonetheless.

There was a 12 mile dirt road on the approach to the mountain. The only bit that was at all tricky was in the last mile. But my little car handled it like a pro, without a dint. Gotta love her.



The first stretch of the trail was really a road up to the old mine. Not so tough. And the altitude (around 11,800' or so) wasn't affecting me at all. But I figured that couldn't last.



Looking up at the mine.



A little after that pic, the trail split up two different ways. My friend Jonathan and I opted to take the route that went straight up the gully. It was a little steep.



It was very steep. We ended up having to go on all fours much of the way up, and even then, we slid back half a step for every step we went forward. And it was more than a little muddy.



And the summit was a little bit snowy. The amazing part was, the altitude didn't seem to affect me at all. I was running along the summit ridge, singing, and not getting out of breath. It was fantastic, and it bodes well for the possibility of running the Leadville Heavy Half in July.

And then came the fun part: going down, via the snowfields. This time, we got video:



And yes, that odd sound is me trying not to laugh.

Like I said, 14ers done the right way: straight up the side, and straight down the snowfields. 2 hrs up, 30 minutes down.