CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
    For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
Aardvark
Posts: 60
Joined: 10/28/2009
14ers: 17 
13ers: 7
Trip Reports (1)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by Aardvark »

While I can't help, I'm excited to hear that you want to try again. I hope the good people on this site can assist you. If you do start on the 18th, check the USA Pro Challenge web site for road closures associated with the bike race.

Overview of USA Pro Challenge Routes: http://www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/route/stage2
Last edited by Aardvark on Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
buckeyejes
Posts: 11
Joined: 8/14/2011
14ers: 31 
13ers: 7
Trip Reports (14)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by buckeyejes »

I am so excited to hear I get to take more time off working and just stare at the delorme webpage!! :lol:

I don't think I will be able to help crew, but maybe I will be able to cheer you on at some point along the way! Keep us updated with the planning!
User avatar
JQDivide
Posts: 1350
Joined: 6/25/2007
14ers: 58  33 
13ers: 115 1
Trip Reports (58)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by JQDivide »

Brett M wrote: So, um, does anyone feel like helping? There's a good chance the experience will be memorable. :-D As always I'm eternally grateful for any help people can provide. In a perfect world there would be a sort of "crew chief" who would be around for a big chunk of the time but then again beggars can't be choosers!
I'd love too, but I'm taking a week off next week, so can't get another week off that soon.
If there is a weekend I could help with, let me know.
Good luck.
JQ
User avatar
drewski
Posts: 95
Joined: 4/13/2010
14ers: 47  6 
13ers: 77
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by drewski »

Keep in mind too that Salida has the HUGE Mumford & Sons events/concerts the 21-23.
I can't help, but I Look forward to following it and cheering.
User avatar
justiner
Posts: 4397
Joined: 8/28/2010
14ers: 58  8 
13ers: 138
Trip Reports (40)
 
Contact:

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by justiner »

Also Leadville Trail 100 is ~Aug 22nd
Brett M
Posts: 37
Joined: 9/27/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by Brett M »

OK, here is the asthma post. Prior to the last 14ers attempt I had no idea I had asthma. I struggled to figure out how I could not have realized I suffered from exercise induced asthma (EIA) for so long. After reading about the condition and speaking with others I suspect this a common situation. I’m not a medical doctor and I don’t play one on TV but I am under the impression that many people—perhaps even a large majority of people—who have this condition are not aware of it. How can this be? Well, first of all many people who would get EIA simply don’t exercise enough to trigger major symptoms. Secondly, people who do get symptoms don’t realize there is a problem because the symptoms are simply “normal” to them. I fell into this latter camp. Why am I coughing you ask? I’ve been hiking/running in the mountains for three days. Isn’t coughing and wheezing to be expected at this point?...

Regarding my personal experience with symptoms, I think there have been three instances when I experienced major symptoms.

1.) Hiking the John Muir Trail in 2009. The trip took about 3.5 days. In hindsight I was probably moderately impaired starting at the beginning of day 3. I was completely crippled by the asthma for the last 0.5 day. I experienced a tremendous amount of suffering due to the asthma on that trip.

2.) CO 14ers attempt 2014. Going up to Challenger Pt. at the beginning of day 3 I was concerned that I was a few percent slower than expected. I now think this was the beginning of when the asthma began to impair my climbing rate. When I reached the ridge I was confronted with a strong, cold, and dry wind. This likely greatly accelerated the worsening asthma. I was significantly impaired by the time I reached Crestone Peak and was completely crippled by the time I was at Crestone Needle. At the time I thought it was dehydration and much comedy ensued.

3.) CO 14ers attempt 2015. Identical to 2014. The consistency of the timing of the symptoms was remarkable. During the traverse from Peak to Needle I tested the dehydration hypothesis from the previous year. By the time I was descending the Needle I knew it wasn’t dehydration and so grasped for another hypothesis—hyponatremia. More comedy ensued. It wasn’t until the ascent of Antero did I finally have the epiphany that I had EIA.
Apparently in my case, I don’t experience major symptoms until the third day. It’s hard diagnosing problems that only seemingly begin on the third day. This is an illusion though because for long duration events people operate far below (~2/3) of their aerobic capacity. You only begin to slow down when you have lost 1/3 of your oxygen uptake capacity. So, the asthma is likely really starting at the beginning (or rather when I first encounter cold and/or dry air). By the time I was at the top of Shavano I estimate I had lost 80% of my normal oxygen uptake capacity. I estimate that a 93% loss would equate to an oxygen uptake capacity just sufficient to satisfy basal metabolic functioning. That is the truly unsettling aspect behind all of this. People with “regular asthma” who get acute, abrupt asthma attacks experience rapid reductions in their oxygen uptake capacity—sometimes with tragic consequences. Having a relatively slowly evolving asthma condition seems comparatively benign, but there is still real risk.

Lastly, in hindsight the most apparent signal that I potentially had EIA was that I would cough after intense workouts, more so in cold weather. Again, if this is always what one experiences then one naturally thinks that it is just normal. If you experience this and if you care to know whether you have EIA you may want to see a doctor.
User avatar
GeezerClimber
Posts: 567
Joined: 8/9/2011
14ers: 58 
13ers: 24
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by GeezerClimber »

Hi Brett,
The question I'm sure many of us are wondering is if your condition can be managed well enough for you to continue your passion?

Your cough certainly concerned me when I drove you up Baldwin Gulch and I grew more concerned as your speed dropped off during the night. Anyway, I'm hoping for the best for you.

Dave
User avatar
mtnhigh358
Posts: 105
Joined: 7/18/2015
14ers: 58 
13ers: 16
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by mtnhigh358 »

GeezerClimber wrote:Hi Brett,
The question I'm sure many of us are wondering is if your condition can be managed well enough for you to continue your passion?

Your cough certainly concerned me when I drove you up Baldwin Gulch and I grew more concerned as your speed dropped off during the night. Anyway, I'm hoping for the best for you.

Dave
+1
You should consider a speed record for Nolans14- you could put a dent in those numbers
User avatar
justiner
Posts: 4397
Joined: 8/28/2010
14ers: 58  8 
13ers: 138
Trip Reports (40)
 
Contact:

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by justiner »

I doubt you wouldn't be able to overcome EIA.

Perhaps there's something that triggers it? For my own, I was under the impression that it was too much milk or wheat in my diet so I cut that back a lot, then slowly brought it back.

I mean, I was eating so much dairy, I smelled really bad. Think I subsisted on yogurt and pizza.

It hasn't come back in years - but it seemed one summer, it was just awful. It dawned on me when I was racing the Colorado Trail, and then it came back just like it did before about a month later, on similar terrain during a similar effort for a race. I almost couldn't believe it. I barely finished both races.

The other idea I had was it was triggered by pine tree pollen.
Brett M
Posts: 37
Joined: 9/27/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by Brett M »

So preparations are underway. I'm going to try and wage total war on the asthma. In addition to the meds I am planning on wearing masks as much as I can endure during the attempt. I have begun training with them and although they are quite annoying it sure beats asthma. The hope is that they will increase the temperature and humidity of the air I inhale and thus delay or prevent the onset of the asthma. I plan to wear light pollen/dust masks during the day and insulated ones at night. If people have any recommendations for masks and additional asthma mitigation strategy I'm all ears! I figure if I can make it past the long Elks and Sawatch linkups at the end of day ~6 without serious symptoms then I may be able to hobble to the finish even if the asthma monster strikes after that. Fortunately, the trips in the last 3 days are all relatively short which means I may be able to stabilize the asthma if it is present.

But, at the moment I don't have enough crew to mount this attempt. I have been dependent upon the CO climbing community for support for the previous two attempts and have been tremendously grateful for all the help. Unfortunately since this attempt was not planned I need even more help to pull it off. The ever reliable Sheldon has volunteered to help at the beginning with the San Juans (he's 3 for 3!) but beyond that everything is up in the air. Given all the efforts to tame the asthma I'm cautiously optimistic that those efforts will work. I really want to try this again without being doomed before the start with asthma. If you can help in any way please contact me. I can't do this without the support of the CO climbing community.

The current plan is for me to start driving to CO next Thursday to do some last recon (Bells Traverse, NW face LB, Lindsey, possibly Gash). I plan to start on August 18th. A crude itinerary is below (I have a much more detailed excel sheet). As usual, the Sawatch and Elks orderings will likely get significantly reshuffled based on timing and weather for the big Elks day.

Start date August 18th
Day Mountains
1 Windom, Sunlight, N. Eolus, Eolus
1 El Diente, Mount Wilson, Wilson Peak
1 Sneffels
1 Handies
2 Sunshine, Redcloud
2 Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn
2 San Luis
3 Challenger Pt., Kit Carson, Humboldt, Crestone Pk., Crestone Needle
3 Lindsey, Blanca, Ellingwood Pt., Little Bear
4 Culebra
4 Pikes Peak
4 Yale
4 Princeton
5 Antero, Tabeguache, Shavano
5 Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, Belford, Missouri
5 Huron
6 La Plata
6 Elbert, Massive
6 Castle, Conundrum
7 Pyramid, Bells, Snowmass, Capitol
7 Holy Cross
8 Sherman
8 Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross
8 Quandary
8 Grays, Torreys
9 Evans, Bierstadt
9 Longs
User avatar
painless4u2
Posts: 1298
Joined: 7/14/2010
14ers: 58 
Trip Reports (8)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by painless4u2 »

Best wishes on your next attempt!
Since the road to Upper Huerfano/Lily Lake TH remains closed, how do you plan on gaining Lindsey, or at least leaving the area? It's quite a diversion, unfortunately.
Bad decisions often make good stories.

IPAs + Ambien = "14ers" post (Bill M.)

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
User avatar
speth
Posts: 684
Joined: 4/16/2010
14ers: 58  5 
13ers: 44
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: CO 14er FKT Attempt (Maune)

Post by speth »

Awesome! Best of luck, Brett!

All I want is to just have fun, live my life like a son of a gun
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sarcasm or not, it's not even funny to post something like this. Not at this time. Reported.
Post Reply