Culebra Peak 3/6/10 : Photo Albums : SummitPost

You just can't put a price on self punishment

These photos are from a winter ascent of Culebra Peak. 16 people showed up at the trailhead at 6am with snowshoes, snowmobiles, skis, and a snow-cat! Carlos opened the gate and took $200 from each with a smile. We followed a well-packed trench to Four-Way, where we donned snowshoes for the arduous trek to the first heartbreaking false summit. We continued under blue skies and sunshine over the next 12 false summits (Ok, so there were maybe 2 major false summits and several more minor ones). When I finally reached the peak 8.75 miles from our trailhead I was really pushing the envelope of my capacity for cardio punishment. After some time on the summit we returned to the bunkhouse for snacks and drinks and reached the trailhead shortly after 6pm. The 17.5-mile round-trip was the longest car-to-car summit assault in my short peakbagging career and well-worth every penny of the price tag.