Triumph and Humility on La Plata Peak
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 2:19 pm
Last Saturday I climbed La Plata Peak (via SW ridge) with my parents. While I managed to take them to their first 14er summit ever, I was humbled by the experience in I way I hadn't anticipated.
They have lived in Colorado for 24 years. They have hiked all over the state, and last year they hiked to Chasm Lake and back. They were confident of their ability, having recently lost weight and ran/walked a 5k race in Loveland. I told them that I thought a 14er would present a new challenge to them, but they tried to downplay the difficulty I was suggesting.
I was expecting based on my other 14ers this year that I would require about 2L of water. I brought 3L in my bladder and also (2) 12 oz bottles of Gatorade. My plan was to share with my parents. Anyway, long story short, the hike ended up taking much longer than anticipated (especially on the way down) and I ran out of water. I only drank about 25 oz of water (give or take) in the 5 hours and 30 minutes it took us to summit. I was pouring water out of my bladder to fill the 12oz gatorade bottles (now empty) to give to my mom. Well, while juggling the bottles and my bladder I ended up DUMPING about 12oz or so of water on the La Plata Peak summit- making a bad situation even worse.
Some nice people on the summit offered up some additional water which I accepted- although somewhat embarrassed. Me, an in-shape young guy needing to get water from other climbers. One person in particular gave me 1L of water on the summit which I dumped into my platypus and thanked him.
Well, that 1L of water really saved our hides. By the last 1.5 miles of the hike everyone was out of water. I had some water purification tabs but I didn't use them (stupid decision, in hindsight; although they do take 4 hours to work). While it wasn't a hard or long hike, it was for my parents. The extreme length of time eventually took it's toll on me and taught me a valuable lesson. 2L of water in 10.5 hours of hiking (and waiting) is enough to harm the hardiest of hikers. Also, in hindsight I should have hiked down the last 1.5 miles as fast as possible and loaded up on water, then hiked back up to supply my parents with food/water to aid their final push back to the vehicle. It was difficult for me to think of leaving my parents alone when I told them I would guide them.
At the end my mom (56 years old) told me it was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life. I should mention that she gave birth to me without any painkillers in a birthing clinic. I really should have picked an easier mountain for their first 14er. (lesson #2)
We ended up taking 5.5 hours to summit, and about 4.5 hours to decend. I thought that once the summit was reached, we could quickly descend to lower altitudes and immediately feel relief- but my mom moved at a slow pace even on the flat parts and took frequent breaks, which I told her were somewhat counterproductive over 13,000 feet. She said her legs felt weak and it was nearly impossible to even walk at that point. If you can't do it you can't... just no way around that.
Thank you to the person who donated a liter of water to me on the summit. Probably didn't seem like a huge deal to them, but it made it much better for me. On one hand, I was extatic that my parents summitted their first 14er, but I am humbled by my imperfect planning and questionable decision-making on my part. The most constructive thing I can take from this is the lessons I've learned. After all, how much do you "grow" when everything goes according to plan?
They have lived in Colorado for 24 years. They have hiked all over the state, and last year they hiked to Chasm Lake and back. They were confident of their ability, having recently lost weight and ran/walked a 5k race in Loveland. I told them that I thought a 14er would present a new challenge to them, but they tried to downplay the difficulty I was suggesting.
I was expecting based on my other 14ers this year that I would require about 2L of water. I brought 3L in my bladder and also (2) 12 oz bottles of Gatorade. My plan was to share with my parents. Anyway, long story short, the hike ended up taking much longer than anticipated (especially on the way down) and I ran out of water. I only drank about 25 oz of water (give or take) in the 5 hours and 30 minutes it took us to summit. I was pouring water out of my bladder to fill the 12oz gatorade bottles (now empty) to give to my mom. Well, while juggling the bottles and my bladder I ended up DUMPING about 12oz or so of water on the La Plata Peak summit- making a bad situation even worse.
Some nice people on the summit offered up some additional water which I accepted- although somewhat embarrassed. Me, an in-shape young guy needing to get water from other climbers. One person in particular gave me 1L of water on the summit which I dumped into my platypus and thanked him.
Well, that 1L of water really saved our hides. By the last 1.5 miles of the hike everyone was out of water. I had some water purification tabs but I didn't use them (stupid decision, in hindsight; although they do take 4 hours to work). While it wasn't a hard or long hike, it was for my parents. The extreme length of time eventually took it's toll on me and taught me a valuable lesson. 2L of water in 10.5 hours of hiking (and waiting) is enough to harm the hardiest of hikers. Also, in hindsight I should have hiked down the last 1.5 miles as fast as possible and loaded up on water, then hiked back up to supply my parents with food/water to aid their final push back to the vehicle. It was difficult for me to think of leaving my parents alone when I told them I would guide them.
At the end my mom (56 years old) told me it was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life. I should mention that she gave birth to me without any painkillers in a birthing clinic. I really should have picked an easier mountain for their first 14er. (lesson #2)
We ended up taking 5.5 hours to summit, and about 4.5 hours to decend. I thought that once the summit was reached, we could quickly descend to lower altitudes and immediately feel relief- but my mom moved at a slow pace even on the flat parts and took frequent breaks, which I told her were somewhat counterproductive over 13,000 feet. She said her legs felt weak and it was nearly impossible to even walk at that point. If you can't do it you can't... just no way around that.
Thank you to the person who donated a liter of water to me on the summit. Probably didn't seem like a huge deal to them, but it made it much better for me. On one hand, I was extatic that my parents summitted their first 14er, but I am humbled by my imperfect planning and questionable decision-making on my part. The most constructive thing I can take from this is the lessons I've learned. After all, how much do you "grow" when everything goes according to plan?