Rocky Mountain High – My First 14’er!

Have you ever wondered what three nutrition gal-pals talk about while eating lunch?

In my world it goes something like this:

The men in our lives— Our work projects— Our favorite digestive enzymes (occupational hazard)— Mammograms vs thermograms— The rapid pace of our world today— The wisdom and fun gained in your 40’s versus your 30’s (or so they were trying to convince me)— and hey, how about we all climb a 14’er next Sunday for the heck of it!?

and My Dear Readers that’s how this all began.

One week to the day later I was ascending a Colorado Mountain known as Mt. Bierstadt.  I huffed and I puffed all the way to the top of this mammoth mountain.

Okay, that sounds a bit melodramatic, but it really is true!  We started at 11,000 feet (which is already 6,000 feet higher than my normal oxygen level) and by the time we reached the top we were at 14,000 feet.

I am a little ashamed to say that even though I am a Colorado native, I have never been to 14,000 feet. Granted I live at approximately 5,500 feet. I’ve skied to 10,000 feet and I’ve driven to the top of Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park which is 12,000 feet, but that’s as far, and as high as I’ve gone (minus pressurized airplanes, of course).

Helen, Cheryl and I (aka the three nutritionists) planned our adventure all week long. We hiked Mt. Sanitas in Boulder on Wednesday for a trial climb, which really isn’t a trial because we only climbed from 6,000 to 7,000 feet, but we deemed ourselves ready anyway.  We talked extensively about what to pack, wear and eat (occupational hazard).  And of course I told them, “You know that I have to blog about this, right?”

We met at the Morrison exit off I-70 at 7am on Sunday and piled into Cheryl’s SUV to drive another hour and 4,000 feet up into the Rocky Mountains.

We arrived at the base of Mt. Bierstadt.  That tall peak was our destination.

We started to climb.

We crossed a creek.  Cheryl a powerhouse climber, former professional skier and trail guide led the way.

Helen, who has done three other 14’ers, and I, the total novice followed.

Colorado has had an abnormally high rain fall this summer so the green views were spectacular.  These photos don’t do it justice!

We weren’t even half way there and this blog writer was saying, “Am I really going to be able to do this?”

We kept climbing…

Just for a point of reference, the total ascent was 3 miles.  Under “normal” oxygen levels I can walk 3 miles in approximately 45 minutes.  At high altitude (12-14,000 feet) it took us 3 HOURS to walk 3 miles.  Cheryl and Helen could have done it faster but I.Was.Moving.Slow.

We kept climbing…

The final ascent was a big rock scramble, We stepped, crawled and pulled ourselves up this part.  At sea level this could be “fun”, at high altitude… not so much!

Eureka!  We made it… 14,060 feet.

If it weren’t for my climbing companions I don’t know if I would have gone to the very top, but they cheered me on when I stalled and doubted.

View from the top of Mt. Bierstadt

We couldn’t stay on the top very long.  The dark clouds were starting to swirl around us and lightening strikes are always a concern.

We turned around and began our decent.  The more we went down the more it sunk in as to what I just did! Cheryl said, “how you do somethings is how you do everything” We chewed on that philosophy for awhile. We talked through our personal metaphors, how we climbed the mountain that day and how that experience paralleled our individual lives.  Here’s some of the questions we pondered:

1.  What do you do when things get “hard”?

2.  Do you makes excuses? Create a drama story? Quit? Get sick? Get angry? Blame others? Expect others to “carry” you? Talk excessively about the situation?  Shut down and say nothing about the situation? Or do you relentlessly push through all by yourself and mentally and physically burn yourself out?

3.  Do you have a pattern of starting a lot of things but then stop half way through or do you quit just before reaching your goal?

4.  Do you stop because you are afraid of success?  Failure?

5.  Do you accomplish things but never stop long enough to “smell the flowers” and celebrate?

6.  What’s the story you tell yourself as you’re climbing your own “personal mountain”?  Is it positive or negative, good or bad?

7.  Do you need the support from others every step of the way or do you take the solitary path?

This climb was no doubt a physical challenge, I expected that.  But I didn’t expect the blatant parallels of how I climbed this mountain to reflect how I live my life.  Some parallels I’m proud of and then there are some I’d like to change.

I want to do another 14’er before summer ends for a couple reasons.

• It motivated me to physically train next time and see if I’m able to climb faster/easier.
• I want to integrate some of the personal insight I gained on this climb into my life.  When I climb again, I’m curious to see if my reactions are the same or different and what, if any new insight I gain?

As far as my physical experience here’s what happened:

1.  A good night sleep before climbing a 14’er is crucial.  I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve, if there is a big event or excitement the next day I don’t sleep well. While I felt fine during the hike I was queasy-sick from total exhaustion a couple hours after the hike and into the evening.  Granted the altitude can take its toll but lack of sleep combined with high altitude was not good!

2.  Electrolytes and quick sugar were my friends! I packed some fruit, energy bars, crackers and cheese, chicken and a lot of water.  Yet during the climb none of those helped or even sounded good. High altitude and physiological responses are interesting.  People say you burn through energy really fast when climbing 14’ers.  I now wholeheartedly agree, YOU DEFINITELY BURN ENERGY REALLY FAST WHEN CLIMBING 14’ers!  I didn’t really feel hungry but when my head began to feel “fuzzy” or I just lost my steam, I’d mix a packet of electrolytes into my water bottle and within 30 seconds I felt like a new women.  Quick sugars (Luna Sport Chews) and powdered electrolytes made a dramatic difference for me.

3.  Drink water! Helen had to keep reminding me.  I don’t know if other things were on my mind, like putting one foot in front of the other 🙂 or what, but I estimated I only drank 50-60 oz during the five hour hike and I didn’t pee once.  I think I should have/could have drunk a lot more water for those conditions!

4.  I recovered well.  I went to bed early that night and slept for 12 hours.  My whole body felt a little weak the next morning and my shoulders were a bit sore from pulling myself up the rocks.  However, I was surprised that my legs, feet and hips weren’t very sore. I easily fell back into my normal Monday routine.

5.  I’m curious to see how I feel on my next 14’er after I focus on building up my lung strength capacity.  I plan to do the elliptical machine on a daily basis along with local hikes a couple times a week to prepare.

6.  Sunscreen is a must at that altitude.  Again, I was *told* to wear sunscreen but…I didn’t.  I think my sun-burnt/overheated face contributed to my queasy state at the end of the day.

In the end, I am continually in awe of the resilience of the human body and the power of the mind, but mostly I’m just gitty from my Rocky Mountain high accomplishment this weekend.