Day 1: Cold Springs to Lunch Counter
On our way to the trailhead we had to do the usual stop at the ranger station to get climbing permits. There we learned about the hordes of people going up the mountain. Apparently, they had about 300 self-issued permits overnight plus about 100 they had filled out that morning. That got me a bit worried about being able to find campsite at lunch counter. There are a lot of sites but they are still limited. We that in mind I wanted to get up there quickly, not rushed but quick. With permits in hand we drove to the trailhead which was, as I was recalling, rough ride. The campground is completely changed. I do remember some shade and sites where people would camp the night and just climb for the day. No is all exposed and dusty and barely a place to set up a tent. Even if you did, you would be covered in dust in about 10 minutes. Aside from that, there were cars parked down the road for quite a while. Lots of people on the mountain! So, we started the trail and right from the beginning, since there’s no tree cover now, it got hot. Luckily we were heading up so we knew we would be hitting snow patches that would provide some level of coolness. We got lots of beautiful flowers on the way and soon were hiking on snow. Rather than taking the winter route, we did a slight variation of the summer route which goes over the Crescent Glacier. The route was easy to follow as you had always people in front or behind you. Some puffy clouds started passing by but weather was pretty good. We finally made it to Lunch Counter in the early afternoon and were able to secure the three sites we needed. Interestingly enough, there were a lot of empty sites so I’m not sure how that worked. Either way, we set up camp and rested for the rest of the afternoon. I can’t say that all of us felt stellar. Either the altitude or just being plain tired got to us. Pete commented that he didn’t recall this being so hard while I was a bit dizzy and recovering. We didn’t find running water so part of the afternoon was spent melting snow for cooking and drinking. Later that day we enjoyed a magnificent sunset and then an incredible starry night. Temperature wasn’t that low that night and wind kept very calm so I was able to get out in the middle of the night for some night photos of the milky way. I was able to stay out for about half an hour until my toes started to freeze.
Day 2: Lunch Counter to summit and back to Cold Springs
We woke up early on Sunday with the plan of starting to climb at around 7AM. As we were getting ready, packing and having breakfast, we enjoyed a nice sunrise with light hitting the side of the mountain and casting a shadow all the way to the horizon.
I still find it incredible how the shadow projects all the way into the sky. It’s a pretty amazing sight. Right before starting I turned and looked towards the climbing route and could see a line of people going uphill like a line of ants. There was a lot of people on the mountain. Our march was slow and steady and like that, we reached Pikers Peak, the false summit, at bit after 9AM. Wind was blowing a bit harder at that point so we ate a bar, put on some new layers and then continued up on our last push towards the summit. About 40 minutes later, we finally made it to the top with a bright sunny and spectacular day. There was a considerable number of people to the point that there was a line to get on top of the chalet to take the famous victory photo.
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