An Intro to My Summer Sabbatical....From the Summits

Hello friends –

As some of you know, I will be taking a sabbatical from work starting June 14, 2013 to October 7, 2013.  During this time, I hope to climb a bunch of 14,000’ mountains (“14ers”) here in Colorado.  I have already summited 9 of the official 54[1] peaks, so the general goal would be to climb the rest.  But first and foremost, the goal is to have fun, be safe, and recharge while doing something I love.  If that results in climbing all the remaining 14ers…great! 

I will be tracking some of my progress here on this blog, so feel free to follow along with me.  I am mostly keeping this blog for myself, so I can memorialize the adventures (the good, the bad, and the ugly), but I know some of you are interested in hearing those stories as well.

As for the schedule, I expect it will change from my initial plan depending on weather and how I feel, but the general plan is to hike 3-4 days a week.  I have included a rough itinerary below of when I plan to do which peaks.  Definitely let me know if any of you would like to join me on one of them (even if the date I have listed doesn’t work since most of them are weekdays, I am flexible to change it to another dayJ).

Also, for those of you who are interested in the technical stuff, just an FYI that I will not be following the “Colorado Rule”.  The “Colorado Rule” has been established as a standard to measure completing a peak, especially for those that are working against, say, a record.  The rule states a climber must ascend at least 3,000 (net) vertical feet on foot from the base of the first peak in a series, and descend at least 3,000 feet at the end of the series. But the climber can traverse between peaks in the series without descending 3,000 feet for each.  This means that, at times, a climber would have to start below a standard trailhead in order to gain the appropriate amount of elevation for the peak to “count”.  Anyway….I don’t really care about that.  My approach will be to hike from the standard trailheads (mostly).  Again, I am doing this more for fun than anything elseJ

So, here goes nothing.  Thanks for everyone’s support and encouragement, and I hope to see you on the trail!

Tentative Schedule

Date	Mountain(s)
Wednesday, June 19, 2013	Mt. Lincoln Mt. Cameron Mt. Bross
Thursday, June 20, 2013	Mt. Sherman
Friday, June 21, 2013	Pikes Peak
Monday, June 24, 2013	Mt. Antero
Tuesday, June 25, 2013	Mt. Princeton
Wednesday, June 26, 2013	Mt. Yale
Friday, June 28, 2013	La Plata Peak
Sunday, June 30, 2013	Missouri Mountain
Monday, July 1, 2013	Mt. Harvard Mt. Columbia
Tuesday, July 2, 2013	Huron Peak
Sunday, July 7, 2013	Mt. Elbert
Monday, July 8, 2013	Culebra Peak
Tuesday, July 9, 2013	Humboldt Peak
Friday, July 12 – Saturday, July 13, 2013	Challenger Point Kit Carson
Tuesday, July 16, 2013	Mt. of the Holy Cross
Wednesday, July 17 – July 18, 2013	Snowmass Mountain
Monday, July 22 – July 23, 2013	Capitol Peak
Thursday, July 25, 2013	Castle Peak Conundrum Peak
Saturday, July 27, 2013	Mt. Massive
Tuesday, July 30, 2013	Pyramid Peak
Wednesday, July 31, 2013	Redcloud Peak Sunshine Peak
Thursday, August 1, 2013	Handies Peak
Friday, August 2, 2013	Uncompahgre Peak
Sunday, August 4, 2013	Wilson Peak
Monday, August 5, 2013	Wetterhorn Peak
Tuesday, August 6, 2013	Mt. Sneffels
Wednesday, August 7, 2013	San Luis Peak
Saturday, August 10, 2013	Mt. Lindsey
Sunday, August 11, 2013	Ellingwood Point Blanca Peak
Tuesday, August 13 – August 14, 2013	Sunlight Peak
Thursday, August 15, 2013	Mt. Eolus North Eolus
Friday, August 16, 2013	Windom Peak
Monday, August 19, 2013	Mt. Wilson El Diente Peak
Thursday, August 22, 2013	Little Bear
Friday, August 23, 2013	Crestone Peak Crestone Needle
Tuesday, August 27, 2013	Tabeguache Peak
Wednesday, September 4, 2013	Mt. Belford Mt. Oxford
Friday, September 6, 2013	Maroon Peak
Monday, September 9, 2013	North Maroon Peak

[1] Note that some lists have 53 peaks and others have 55 peaks as “official” 14ers in Colorado.