July 11, 2020
It’s been far too long since Laura and I have been in the mountains together so this weekend we planned a trip to Buena Vista. It would be Hazel’s first camping trip – she’s just 6 weeks old – and thus we drug Laura’s mother along to babysit. Both Laura and I have climbed the Colorado 14ers and now have decided that we would like to climb the highest 100 peaks in the state. We like this idea because many of them are just hikes and next year we should be able to carry Hazel on a few of them enjoying the mountains as a family.
Saturday morning we loaded up and headed west, reaching the Sheep Gulch trailhead around 10 am. Setting off on Hope Pass, it was familiar to both of us as it is a portion of the Leadville 100 trail run that Laura has competed in several times and I have paced in. Hiking up the pass we moved well considering how out of shape we felt. We reached the top of Hope pass in about 2 hours. Turning west onto the ridge toward Mt. Hope, 13,933', the off trail hiking and rock hopping began. As we ascended, a large rock came loose and careened down the hillside hitting Laura’s leg and giving her a big gash on her shin. Tough as she is, she walked it off and when the blood dried, we continued on. The scramble was enjoyable with easy route finding. We summited at 1:20 pm and hung out while Laura pumped milk for the baby waiting for us back at the trailhead with her grandmother. A quick scramble down and we were once again on the excellent trail heading down Hope pass. As Laura ran ahead I followed along and we reached the car by 3 pm. We stopped at the reservoir on the way out and soaked in the cold water before heading over to meet our friends Joe and Mareshah in Buena Vista. Driving along the forest roads, we found a great place to camp near the base of Davis Face that we would climb the next day and we set up camp. We all relaxed and had dinner and beers before retiring to the tents around 10 pm. Laura and I fed Hazel, bundled her up and finally crashed a few hours later.
Sunday morning we relaxed before heading over to climb D4 on
Davis Face. Mareshah would come along and climb with us today which was a treat
since she always has a fun outlook on everything. It’s always better when
everyone has great attitudes during days on the rock! I lead the 6 pitch route
at 5.9+ and belayed as Laura and Mareshah climbed a few feet apart on twin
ropes. It has been a while since either of them had climbed but they both did
excellent and climbed the route without any problems at all. We were up and down
in time to relax at camp and eat lunch before heading back home, souls
fulfilled from an excellent weekend outside.
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