With storms brewing and moving in our direction, it was time to get down, fairly quickly. Most of the people I ran into were hiking the Northwest Ridge. It was mostly an uneventful hike back down the ridge. I moved as fast as I could with the weather dancing around. As I neared the saddle and the steep, loose trail that lead into the amphitheater, I started getting really hot. I still had my gore-tex layers on from the cold and windy summit, but I didn't want to take anytime shedding them, possibly allowing the storms to truly come alive. By the time I got back to my tent at 12,500 feet, I felt really sick. A lack of nutrition combined with the physcial activity involved with climbing, made my stomach quite upset. I hurriedly packed my tent and camping gear, and began the hot trek all the way back down to the trail head. About every 100 yards or so, I would stop and have dry heaves. Not too sure why, but I think that it had a lot to do with the way in which I treated my body that morning. Not wanting to get caught in a downpour with lightning around, I made as few stops as possbile; getting back to my truck just as the flood gates opened, and mother nature began unleashing her fury. Here are the pictures:
From the trail head looking south towards Huron, 14,003 feet.
A view west along the trail before reaching the amphitheater and treeline.
South again at roughly 12,000. Huron is in the distance.
My first view of the cliffs and ridge that make up the headwall.
Getting closer to a high camp. What appears to be La Plata on center stage.
A good view of the heart of the amphitheater.
From left to right: Browns Peak, Huron, and the Three Apostles, with Ice Mountain being in the middle.
View of Huron and the Three Apostles from my high camp at sunset.
Another later shot of sunset.
Cresting the saddle in the ridge the next morning, Saryes Benchmark comes into view. This is the same mountain that was at the head of the valley that weeks before, me and Richard made our attempt in.
On top of the ridge looking down on the amphitheater. The tiny blue speck in the shade is my tent!
Looking up the ridge at what is hopefully the summit.
Looking back at Sayres and the saddle. Sayres is such a classical looking mountain.
Reaching the top, only to find that we still have a long way to go!
The remainder is views from the top.
I hope that you all enjoyed the post.
1 comment:
It sounds like you had altitude sickness. If you're going to those altitudes and are not familiar with this, you are endangering your life. I see this a lot with people who are not from Colorado and are not used to the high altitudes or skilled in the backcountry. You might want to re-evaluate your skills and destinations if you're running into issues, like this.
It makes for an epic tale, but not eating right, getting altitude sickness, and endangering your life actually isn't that cool.
You did the right thing by heading down the mountain. Kudos for that.
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