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| Fear and Loathing Winter Redemption on La Plata |
6-7 Feb La Plata First attempt called at 13,300' due to weather conditions (Matt and Micah)
19-21 Feb Shavano attempt called at 12,200' due to black avalanche conditions (Matt, Sean, and Micah)
28 Feb- Shavano gear recovery mission (Micah, Matt, Baz)
13 Mar- La Plata Success (Micah, Jeremy, Baz)
The plan at the beginning of this year was to bag at least 1 14er summit in every calendar month. Note the term "at least" because spring, summer, and fall will obviously be more peaks. With success and a fun trip climbing Kelso Ridge at night, camping on the summit of Torreys, and bagging Greys the next day in January, the year was off to a good start.
Then came February. Even with starting off with the first week in February, I had no success with my goal that month. It doesn't help that I have had college classes every other Sat until noon. Why go to college? All of this gear is friggin expensive and has to be paid for.
Like many times, my friend Matt and I over-aspired and decided that we wanted to conquer the coveted route of Ellingwood ridge in calendar winter. While I am confident in our abilities that we have the skills and are fully capable, our first mistake was that we attempted this on one of those weekends that I had school. We arrived at the La Plata TH at about 3:30 and were on foot by about 4:30 PM on Sat 6 Feb to find some of Matt's church friends that just finished snowshoeing at the TH. This was awesome because it wasn't planned. You must understand that along with camping gear, and winter gear, we were required to carry mountaineering ropes, harnesses and some other climbing accessories to weigh us down...
Link to rest of TR here
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Hey, seriously, nice job on that moonless mission. Camped on Kelso, camped on Ellingwood, camped on La Plata, ..hey, remind me to bring spare batteries if we climb together! No wonder you got that nice hotel there in image #23. 