my friend lily's dad was in vail for a lacrosse tournament that he plays in every year. he rents this really nice condo, and lily and he go to the tourney, then hike and raft after the games. this year i went with lily as a nice mini vacation (one of many so far this summer). i planned to do a 14er as well since i haven't done any yet this year. i was going solo since my regular 14er partner ditched me for the tetons... then we went rafting in buena vista, followed by a house party in vail complete with bbq and bluegrass. got up sunday to watch a lax game, go for a hike, and pick up my friend zach (!) who was visiting from alaska. then we cooked out and hot tubbed it up before driving back to boulder. whew!
the indoor pool at the hotel. you can barely see it, but to the right is the outdoor hot tub we used quite a bit in that short span.
sunrise over buena vista as i headed up the road to get to the trailhead. it's a 3+ mile trek up a curvy, one-way mountain road. quite the experience to do by yourself at 4 in the morning.
more sunrise on the trail.
when you hike by yourself, this is how you have to get pictures
of your own awesomeness.
this was around 5:15 am.
these were the first people i ran into on the trail, and father-daughter pair. the girl was in front with a makeshift splint and crutches. she was hobbling along the trail, and apparently she had gone off-trail to pee, and a boulder came out of nowhere and rolled over her knee and dislocated it. her kneecap was hanging off to the side. she seemed to be holding up fine, but yikes. it made me be extra careful since i was alone with no trekking poles.
on the way up. that's the summit on the right. you switchback up to the ridge on the left, then ridge walk the rest of the way up. it's a fun climb with lots of loose scree to watch out for. this is also the second time i attempted princeton because we tried it last year in early spring, and got turned back because of whiteout conditions and ice covering all the rocks.
me on the way down. happy to be going down. there were easily 100 people i passed going up. many of them wearing shorts, jeans, and no packs. it always amazes me how little respect people have for the seriousness of these mountains: how the weather can change in an instant, even a prepared hiker can dislocate a knee, or taking a tumble down the scree. oh well. natural selection at its finest, i suppose.
my awesome blisters after the hike. i never get blisters, especially not with those shoes, but i'm pretty sure all the loose rock and bending and twisting of my ankles made my shoes really loose. they felt fine, so i didn't tighten them up. this is the result.
a note: i picked these with a pin before we went rafting because i knew they would undoubtedly get popped when i jammed my feet in the raft. each blister resulted in a spray of at least 4 feet. i was pretty proud of myself.
lily getting ready to go rafting and looking hawt.
"these are expensive ray-bans, jackass."
lily soaking up the sun at her dad's lax game on sunday morning.
they won handily. (look at that hair!)
a nice aspen grove on our hike up to some falls near vail. a great hike
with some good people. a bit unnaturally green for colorado, but it was late june!
p.s. can i just say that i'm pretty proud of my summer so far that i can get so many pictures in one post that talks about one weekend? and in the few weeks since this adventure, i've done a lot more! stay tuned for the rest of my kick-ass colorado summer.
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