It has been a good summer for climbing my beloved 14ers – I have 8 new climbs with a few repeats. My goal is to climb the 58 peaks above 14, 000′ however more importantly I am working on various aspects of my climbing skills for the upcoming 7 Summits journey to raise $1M for Alzheimer’s research.
This week, I will be traveling to southern Colorado to climb 3 peaks in the Sangre de Cristo Range: Blanca Peak, Ellingwood Point and Little Bear Peak. My regular partners, Patrick and Robert will join me for two of these.
These are not difficult climbs but Little Bear has a scree coulair that takes you to a feature called the hourglass that most people prefer to climb when snow is present. This is due to potential rockfall. Also it is sufficiently steep that there are ropes in the hourglass. However, few people use them since you have no idea how well they are secured or how old they are – nylon lines can become weak and fail after a short time in the direct sunlight.
If I get these three, that will leave only 5 to reach my goal – a nice way to spend next summer – in between Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro and Vinson!
Climb On!
Alan
