Wilson Group Recon

Chalks & friends had a great memorial day weekend down in Telluride & the surrounding mtns. We tried for another 14er, Mt. Wilson, one of CO's toughest, but due to 65 mph gusts we had to bail at the 13,020' Rock of Ages Saddle. Class 4 rock/ice climbing and hurricane-forced winds do not go well together. Our good friend J did, however, go on to climb the much closer/easier Wilson Peak, his number 50 of the 55 Colorado 14ers list. Kristine & I are heading back down there July 4 weekend for some redemption and to climb Mt Wilson & El Diente, new 14ers for her. Here are some pics:

Mt.Wilson & El Diente from Rock of Ages Saddle

Me trying to stand in 65 mph winds on the Rock of Ages Saddle

K & I at our highpoint of the day

J & Jesse continuing on to the Rock of Ages saddle (taken on our descent)

Silver Pick Basin

Wilson Peak

Quandary Peak (14,265')

Our climb up Quandary Peak, Version 2.0, a mountain situated just south of Breckenridge, CO, turned out to be a great success with gorgeous weather. It was almost too sunny (well, not really) and I have only myself to beat up on for my fried forehead and neck...I guess I am a true red-neck, but we all know that. I've lost count of the number of times the Chalks have been up Quandary, but this was everyone else's 1st climb of Quandary including the Levinsons' 1st climb of a 14er and their personal altitude record as well as Tiana's (friend of Doc Giggles) 1st climb of any 14er. Doc Giggles (Jamie Buckley) hadn't climbed a 14er in a long long time and he ended up doing extremely well and dominating the mountain (as he does most things). Chris "Biz" Dutton joined us as well from CO Springs and again put the women & children to bed and went lookin' for supper on Quandary, i.e. he slayed it and climbed his 5th Colorado 14er. All in all, it was around a 7-7.5 hour climb including 45 min on top, 3500' elevation climbed/descended and about 6 miles. A great day out and congrats to all peeps involved especially those 1st 14er timers. Onto the pics:

At the 10,850' trailhead

Doctor Giggles stomping up Quandary at 12,000'

Looking up at the final 1,200' of the east ridge to the summit from 13,000' (the east ridge route is on looker's left - climbers can be seen)

Doc Giggles, Viper, & Sarah climbing the east ridge at 13,500'

Sarah & Viper staying in the game at 13,800'

Doc Giggles and his friend, Tiana, cresting the summit ridge

Viper & Sarah on Quandary's summit ridge

Group summit picture on Quandary Peak (14,265')

The Pikes at 14,265'

The Levinsons on Quandary Peak summit (14,265') - their 1st 14er!

Doc Giggles looking distinguished as always at over 14,000'

Southern view of other 14ers and low lying clouds from Quandary's summit

Parting summit shot

Rainie & Kona getting after it on the descent

Kristine's #45 & #46

Great day (5-7-2011) in the highcountry of Colorado above 14,000'. Chalks climbed Mt Shavano (14,229') & Tabeguache Peak (14,155') for Kristine's 45th & 46th Colorado 14ers. Now, she only has 9 left to have climbed all 55 Colorado 14ers. Total stats for the day: about 10 miles, 5,500', and 8.5 hrs.

Shavano summit Kristine, Rainie, & Kona traversing the saddle between Shavano (behind) and Tabeguache Tabeguache summit Tabeguache summit Kona running down to the Tabeguache-Shavano saddle Me skiing down Shavano

Training Day 13

Iron Mountain- January 29, 2011

Panoramic view to the south

This mountain is named for it large deposits of iron ore which were once mined from the mountain.  This 2700' mountain is accessed through the City of Poway's extensive trail system.

We started the hike on again a beautiful winter morning.  The start of the trailhead is relatively flat for the first 1/2 to 3/4 miles and with heavy foot traffic.  Scott and I kept a fairly steady fast pace the 3.2 miles up the multiple switchback to the summit.  The views throughout the hike are beautiful with an absolutely fantastic 360 degree view of San Diego at the summit.  We completed the 6.4 mile 1200' elevation gain out and back in about 3 hours (including a snack break at the top).

Scott enjoying his Baby Belle snack

Taking a rest about half way up

A view from the top

Enjoying the view

Exercising & partying at 12,000'

Great times at the Alta Lakes Observatory this past weekend down near Telluride!

Alta Lakes Observatory

Me drinking one of my deleicious Seagrams & Sevens

Kristine laying down some great tele turns in wonderful powder

So, unless you are acclimitized & alcoholized, I recommend not drinking twenty liquor drinks at 12,000' in a weekend :)

Hydration and vomiting

My training is off to a great start!

Last weekend while Brandon was hiking with the boys I did a very thorough job of getting rid of all the toxins in my body. . .at 3 am in a trash can outside the transportation center after dancing my ass off all night at Vail's finest establishment - The Club. I will be looking for publications to post regarding the consumption alcohol at high altitude until it induces vomiting and the numerous benefits for training. We will have some great test subjects on this matter next weekend when the Pikes once again converge at the Chalk pad for a weekend of debauchery. I'm looking forward to it! Based on this research, I believe Sutton will have the greatest chances of summiting, and he will not even be coming on the climb.

Darci, I hope you aren't offended by B's and my posts. . .but we need to make light of our lack of training so that we do not lose some of our less motivated fellow Killi climbers!!

Oxygen & Altitude

Just a paragraph I found on oxygen levels and increasing altitude that may be helpful to some:
First, the science. The air we breath has a mixture of gases including oxygen and nitrogen. The atmosphere contains about 21% oxygen at all altitudes. What changes as we go higher is the air pressure. Gravity pulls on gas molecules in the air. The closer to the Earth’s surface, the more pressure; the higher, less. At the summit of Everest, the pressure was measured in 1981 by a Nova team at 253 mmHG. At sea level it is 760 mmHG. The reason for the lower pressure is that there is less atmosphere pushing down from above. This reduced pressure allows the air molecules to scatter. This means that on Everest the air is not as dense or “thick”. In other words there is the same amount of oxygen but the molecules are scattered thus the term “thin air”. So in each breath there is less oxygen. To be precise about 66% less!

A short video on some cold winter camping up in McCullough Gulch on the north side of Quandary Peak (the mtn we will be climbing in 2 weeks) near Breckenridge. We dug out this camp at about 11,800' at treeline after skinning in 4 miles, but temps really only got down to about -10 deg this past Saturday night. The scotch and fire made for some darn good times. Enjoy!

Training Day 8

Palomar Mountain- January 23, 2011


The hike at Palomar Mountain State Park was by far less scenic during the hike but much more secluded than Cowles Mountain.  Palomar is about an hour and a half outside San Diego at around 5,500'.  The day was absolutely beautiful but got rather cold once we got up to the mountain.  I have to say that the drive up is something Scott will be doing again in his Porsche.  The road leading up the mountain is all switchbacks so needless to say I'm glad I don't get car sick.  I'm sure Scott had more fun on the drive than he did the hike.

Scott with Petra.  The Switchbacks await!!

The first half of the hike was mostly downhill on very poorly marked trails.  The trail follows a creek east into a beautiful open meadow.  We stopped there for a snack and to snap some pictures.  The rest of the hike was uphill through fire ravaged forests.  This part had better marked trails than the first half.  I could feel myself having to work a bit harder due to the increased altitude.  Overall this was a decent hike with varied terrain.  Some of the terrain actually looked more like the east coast than southern California.  The elevation gain is about 1,000' and total distance of 5 miles.

Scott enjoying his chocolate granola bar, YUMMM!!

Doane Pond foot bridge

Tree at Doane Pond

Vista View looking South

Training Day 1

Cowles Mountain- January 16, 2011

Scott at the starting point of the trail at Big Rock Park.

This 1,591' mountain is located in Mission Trails Regional Park.  This out and back route gains 1,400' of elevation in 2.4 miles.  We approached the trail from the northeast and head south up the winding route until we reached a dirt service road that wrapped around the east.  From here we had a fairly steep gradient up the rest of the trail to the summit.

This first hike was really a test of my new Asolo hiking boots.  Overall they worked out fairly well.  A little loose but that was more operator error then the fit of the boot.

Summary- Good cardio workout, trail is a bit crowded, beautiful scenery.  Total hiking time (with snack break at the top) 3 hours.

Scott and I atop Cowles Mountain

View to the Southwest

View to the Northwest

Altitude Acclimatization

As promised I am providing a link to download the Army's Technical Med Bulletin on Altitude Acclimatization and Illness Management. This Bulletin has a lot of great information on how our body adapts to higher altitudes and ways to help mitigate some of the ill effects.  It is a bit of a long read at 128 pages but feel free to skim through to the relevant sections.  Here are some highlights on hypoxia and acclimatization.

Hypoxia
As you ascend in altitude the partial pressure of oxygen decreases (the pressure of the oxygen in the atmosphere is required for oxygen to diffuse into the blood).  As the pressure decreases you are getting less oxygen diffused into the bllod and ultimately the tissues and organs.  At around 1,200m (4,000ft) your body begins to compensate through a series of physiological changes to improved oxygen delivery.  The amount and rate of changes will vary with each person.

Acclimatization
1. Increased breathing rate
2. Increased blood flow and blood pressure
3. Better oxygen unloading from hemoglobin
4. Decreased blood plasma volume (increases hemoglobin concentration)
5. Increased tissue extraction of oxygen from capillary blood
6. Increased carbohydrate transport and utilization

Some of these changes will take place immediately upon arrival to altitude while others take hours and days.  Overall you will see about 70-80% of acclimatization to a particular altitude with in the 1st week. 

There is also some good info on pg.41 on physical performance, weight loss, nutrition, and acetazolamide (AMS Drug treatment).  Hope you enjoy and more info on cold weather to follow.

Nice work in setting this blog up, Darci. Will be fun to follow for sure! Kristine also gives you the thumbs-up (see pic below) :) Dont worry though, Kili high camp will look alot more hospitable and pleasent than this high camp (Kristine leaving the highest camp in the world - Everest south col at 26,000' after our successful Everest summit). I like posting pics of my wife :) Can't wait to see the Hooks in a few weeks and to hike with you on your 1st 14,000' peak!