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Bark Eater wrote:Hey, Jow. Congrats. Hope you had fun on Whitney and Boundary. I hope you got to see the wild horses. I am holding at 45. Did my best on Rainier two weeks ago but it wasn't meant to be. Got to the top of the Cleaver and had balance issues. Didn't feel it was safe to continue so stopped 2K feet short of my goal. Disappointed but happy I still tried. Off to Hawaii in October for #46.

We did see wild horses on Boundary about 8 I think. They blocked the path on return and one looked like he was rearing up to kick at us if we tried to pass so we took detour.

That's too bad on Rainier but that certainly happens. One of the guys on top of Boundary had turned back on Rainier as well due to weather I believe. Also met someone else on top of Boundary who was highpointer named Rich from AZ. He was big into club and had climbed Whitney like 41 times and Boundary 13. His license plate on truck was 4ever49 since he attempted Denali twice without success and isn't going back.

While work allotted some time and being close by I was going to try to do Boundary Peak this weekend for HP #34, but roads are closed to snow coming from California and not prepared to go so remote with snow. Keeping an eye on Humpreys in AZ 10 days out or so.

I'll be high pointing in East Europe between Oct 1-11. If anyone is available to join, hit me up.

atavist wrote:I'll be high pointing in East Europe between Oct 1-11. If anyone is available to join, hit me up.

I would love to but alas family has forced me to reign in my country highpointing aspirations. That being said I am relocating from NYC to Florida next week and will do a little National Park highpointing on way down just Shenandoah & Congaree

Mount Humphreys today for HP #34!!

Really packed on Sunday. Outstanding views 360 degrees.

Jow wrote:

atavist wrote:I'll be high pointing in East Europe between Oct 1-11. If anyone is available to join, hit me up.

I would love to but alas family has forced me to reign in my country highpointing aspirations. That being said I am relocating from NYC to Florida next week and will do a little National Park highpointing on way down just Shenandoah & Congaree

Jow, where in FL are you moving to? Good luck. Not many nearby climbing opportunities (says he with former experience).

Bark Eater wrote:

Jow wrote:

atavist wrote:I'll be high pointing in East Europe between Oct 1-11. If anyone is available to join, hit me up.

I would love to but alas family has forced me to reign in my country highpointing aspirations. That being said I am relocating from NYC to Florida next week and will do a little National Park highpointing on way down just Shenandoah & Congaree

Jow, where in FL are you moving to? Good luck. Not many nearby climbing opportunities (says he with former experience).

Yes I remember the FloridaFrank days. I'm going to Orlando job transfer an economics too good to resist. Yes flattest land in country isn't best for aspiring mountaineer but alas I'll make most of vacations and cardio opportunities good weather provides.

Revisited Mt Rogers a couple Sundays back. Foggy most of the time and we got soaked second half of the hike. We did this same hike back in 1999 and we both swear the trail was not this rocky and not as wooded. We remember the spur trail at the top being wooded but not much anywhere else. We wondered if the AT got rerouted or something

JohnMcPike wrote:Revisited Mt Rogers ca ouple Sundays back. Foggy most of the time and we got soaked second half of the hike. We did this same hike back in 1999 and we both swear the trail was not this rocky and not as wooded. We remember the spur trail at the top being wooded but not much anywhere else. We wondered if the AT got rerouted or something

Did the same thing several years ago in the fog/rain/wind and had the same recollection. Came in late and spent a cold night in a crowded AT cabin. Then dense forest just the last 30 minutes thought.

Was able to to summit Mt Washington, NH - Mount Mansfield, VT - Mt Frissell CT this weekend in a blazing fast 1,200 mile round trip drive Fri-Sat-Sun. Actually had to return to CT because it got really stormy last time and had to bail without walking down to the actual slope of Frissell to get to the border marker!! Didn't realize it was 5 minutes away at the time arghh!!

Mt Washington is its own experience with the auto road and had to help a guy who got blown over on his motorcycle at the top, and the hike up Mansfield (with a couple hundred other people) gave 360 views with autumn leaves in all directions. HP #38

New to state highpointing, just did Washington DC last weekend, going to Mt Rogers in VA this coming weekend. A few weeks ago I ran across a list detailing how to reach each states summit, (drive on asphalt road, short hike, long weekend hike) and I cannot remember which website that was on, does anyone know where I can find such a list. Thanks!

Hi guys. Finally made it up Mauna Kea last week for #46. The hike up and back from the visitor center was really fun. 3h56m up, 2h45m down. My wife and friends drove up and met me at the summit. I had great weather until about 11K ft on the descent. Descended into clouds and drizzle. Luckily the pouring rain waited until I got into the rental car at the visitor center. Got a kick out of seeing all the tourists piling into vans paying $$$ headed up into a thunderstorm to see nothing.

Cypress and I did three more high points this summer. It was an epic trip, up there with the best we ever did.

First, I drove to Denver, where I picked her up around 10 am. Then to Leadville, where we hung out at a street fair for a few hours before camping on Half Moon Creek near the trailhead.

On the trail up Mt Elbert by 7, the parking lot was nearly full already, and the first mile or so I felt okay. Then the trail went seriously uphill and I got real, real slow. Like molasses slow. It was unbelievable. People starting passing me left and right, and for the next six hours I walked about a minute before I needed a minute to rest. People were asking if I was okay. I started wondering if I could even get to the top. Out of about 400 people to start the climb that day, I was literally the slowest person on the mountain- a combination of no acclimatization, knee injury, age, weight, and lack of fitness. I don't know if I ever felt so bad on a climb as I did spending seven hours to ascend what should have taken less than four.

But the weather was okay, and there was plenty of daylight, so Cypress and I just kept going. One thing that kept me pointed upward was knowing that if we turned around for any reason, we would just have to come back and do it again, and what was the point of suffering twice?

Cypress was never strained at all, though if anything she had less acclimatization than I did.

That night we drove all the way back to Denver to hang with my brother and his family.

Next morning we slept in a few hours then went east to Kansas, where we were totally charmed by Mount Sunflower. This is one of my favorite highpoints for all the neat little things the owners thought to do to enhance our experience, from the books to the signs to the sculptures. The ghost towns south of there were sad and spooky.

The next morning we parked at the Nature Conservancy parking lot and did the very very nice 8 mile hike to Black Mesa highpoint of Oklahoma. This one also exceeded our expectations, as the hike and trail were very nice and the area is the intersection of three different plant zones.

Driving back toward Denver, we had a bad weather forecast. The original plan had been to climb Long's Peak, then hang with my bro for a day or two before maybe doing Capitol. This honestly was probably shot when i had such a tough time on Elbert, but we were still considering it when we go the forecast that pretty much the whole Front Range and Northern Colorado were going to rain for a couple days.

So we go the hot idea to turn around and head south to Mount Lindsey, where the weather was supposed to be good.

Next morning we couldn't drive all the way to the Mt Lindsey trailhead with our low clearance 2WD so we parked and walked two miles to the trail, where we took on a slightly bigger, tougher climb than Elbert.

It was really scenic, and we saw maybe a dozen people all day. I was still really really slow, but not quite as slow, and still really suffered, but again not quite as bad as the day before. However, when we got onto the rock at 13,500' we found it really tough going, and when we got a little rain at the top of the gully, I knew I was in danger. We were probably 100 vertical feet from the top, but I was totally fried, we didn't know if the rain would get worse, and we both were uncomfortable with the scrambling and exposure. So we turned around and we were SO CLOSE to the top.

Next day we rested, then we took my brothers kids up the Flatirons in Boulder, a great little hike.

Finally on our last day we climbed Gray's and Torrey's Peaks, which also saw many many people (we guessed 350) and again I was the slowest one on the mountain.

All in all we climbed seven mountains in seven days, with six summits. It was an awesome trip, and Cypress really did great and really liked the mountains. Now we are excited for Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona next Spring!

GEM, it's never easy climbing to 14K ft when you are coming from sea level without acclimation. Well done. Thanks for keeping in touch! It's been a long, long time since you started this thread....which by the way was what got me interested in highpointing in the first place!