Mt. Princeton

After rafting, we drove Katy's grandfather's Jeep up a sketchy 4WD road from the base of Mt. Princeton Rd. near Buena Vista (8,000'), past a radio tower at 10,800' and camped for the night at 11,000'. We woke up at 5:15am the next morning and hit the trail at 6:35am. We're not exactly morning people - this was our shortest time from wake up to trail for the trip. While hiking above the tree line in Colorado, it's a good idea to give yourself enough time to get below the tree line by 3pm or so to avoid afternoon storms. We followed Mt. Princeton Road up past several switchbacks and snowbanks, and hiked through our first snow of the trip at the intersection of Mt. Princeton Rd. and Mt. Princeton trail (around 12,000').

The Mt. Princeton Trail is pretty much at the tree line, and the brush line is not too much higher, around 12,200'. From there, the last 2,000' are a scramble through a talus field to the summit at 14,167' (1 foot taller than Mt. Yale). Fog obscured our view at the beginning of the climb, and the sun only teased us occassionally during the first half of the climb. Fortunately, things began to clear up as we hit the final ridgeline (13,000') with an awesome view westward to Mt. Antero (above). The last 500 feet or so (elevation-wise) to the summit were brutally strenuous - steeply sloped, and not a whole lot of oxygen to help you out. We summited at 10:25 am. The view from the top was breathtaking (literally - more on that in a bit) - we could see about halfway across Colorado in all directions. 10:30-11 is peak summiting time, so we shared the summit with about 10 other people and a few dogs. We hung out at the summit until 11:15, eating lunch and taking photos with Alex's Princeton 2008 banner.

The descent was much more challenging than the ascent because all three of us were affected to one degree or another by mild acute mountain sickness (AMS). It turns out that hanging out for an hour above 14,000' does not so great things for bodies acclimatized to sea level. According to the OA Guide to High Altitude (and personal experience), symptoms of mild AMS include "headache, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, nausea, [...] and a general feeling of malaise." We also experienced some mental status changes (i.e. becoming disoriented and/or irritable). I'm not exactly sure what went through my head at the time, but I decided I was getting down the mountain as fast as I could, without paying much regard to where nebulously defined trail was. It turns out that following the nebulously defined trail would have been significantly easier than cutting my own shortcut through loose rocks, but that thought didn't cross my mind in my altered state, and Katy and Alex, in their altered states, didn't think to stop me before it was too late.

Around 13,500', I was the first in the group to begin experimenting with ibuprofen, which quickly became our group's crack. In any case, headaches and morale quickly improved as we went below 13,000'. The rest of the descent was uneventful, but chilling at a coffee shop at 8,000' has never felt so good. To read more on AMS, check out the by Rick Curtis.

Bottom line: climbing 14ers is tough but worth it for the views. Mild AMS is a bitch - ask your doctor about Diamox. [Picasa]