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  • Mt. Bierstadt Group Summit - Front Range, Colorado
  • A rest before the summit push on Dallas Peak - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Broken Ankle + 6 Miles = Tired
  • The classic San Juan approach - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Overlooking Noname Basin from Twin Thumbs Pass - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Upper Noname Basin - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Nearing Noname Cabin - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Twin Thumbs Twins - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Nearing the summit of Pt. 13,736 - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Blustery day on Iowa Peak - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Morning snow at 15k, Cerro Ramada - Cordillera Ramada
  • Artesonraju from the summit of Nevado Pisco - Cordillera Blanca, Peru
  • February crowds on Gray's Peak - Front Range, Colorado
  • Kicking steps on Cerro Lliani - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
  • Final traverse to the summit of Wheeler Mountain - Ten Mile Range, Colorado
  • The long walk to Pachanta - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
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    Afternoon at 17k on Cerro Ramada - Cordillera Ramada, Argentina
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    The final ridge on Iowa Peak - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Summer summit on Longs Peak - Front Range, Colorado
  • A rest day at the Pachanta Hot Springs - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
  • Mind over matter on Mt. Parnassas - Front Range, Colorado
  • Rest stop on Cerro Lliani - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
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    Post nap surprise on Cerro Ramada - Cordiller Ramada, Argentina
  • Summit on Cerro Lliani - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
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    Ridge walking on Grizzly Peak - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Enroute the summit via the West Ridge on Pacific Peak - Ten Mile Range, Colorado
  • Mule train bound for Chilca - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
  • Taking in the view from Fletcher Peak - Ten Mile Range, Colorado
  • Hiking on Silverheels - Mosquito Range, Colorado
  • Traversing! Gladstone Peak - San Juan Range, Colorado
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    The best of times at Willow Lake - Sangre de Christo Range, Colorado
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    High Altitude Cerebral Edema? - Cordillera Ramada, Argentina
  • Bound for Chilca - Vilcanota Range, Peru
  • Going alpine light, Holy Cross Ridge - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Cumbre! Campa I - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
  • Roadside lunch with the best of company - Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru
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    Long ridge walk to the summit of California Peak - Sangre de Christo Range, Colorado
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    Crossing el Rio Colorado . . . in the afternoon - Cordillera Ramada, Argentina
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    Dealing with Fall snows high on Casco Peak - Sawatch Range, Colorado
  • Moonrise over Mercedario - Cordillera Ramada, Argentina
  • Still climbing at 20,900 on Cerro Ramada - Cordiller Ramada, Argentina
  • Talus on Halo Ridge, Mt. of the Holy Cross - Sawatch Range, Colorado
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    Deteriorating conditions on Mt. Arkansas - Ten Mile Range, Colorado
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    After the climb - Cordillera Ramada, Argentina
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    Taking in the view from the summit of Crystal Peak - Tenmile Range, Colorado
  • Topping out on Mt. Arkansas' North Couloir - Mosquito Range, Colorado
  • Glissade on Mt. Arkansas - Mosquito Range, Colorado
  • Hard snow morning on Teakettle Mountain - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Spring snow announces the start of the climb on Dallas Peak - San Juan Range, Colorado
  • Crossing the Eolus Catwalk - San Juan Range, Colorado

Mount Yale

August 11, 1988 - Avalanche Gulch

Two days before this climb I was totally acclimatized for sea level and one day before, Dan and I had climbed both Tabaguache and Shavano without any problem. Mt. Yale, however, would be a lesson in the effectof altitude on the body of a Cottoneer. Following our previous day's climb, we shifted camp from Angel of Shavano campground to the Collegiate Peaks campground, on the road to Cottonwood Pass. We'd had a good meal in Buena Vista and shifted our meagre camp to be ready for an early morning departure for our next 14'er.

We left the campground at first light and climbed steadily up the obvious trail at first and later up endless scree to the saddle separating Yale from its sub peak.  In today's guide books, it says that the trail to the saddle is the easy to see and follow Colorado Trail but when we climbed, I just do not remember a clear and obvious path to follow. I do not recall our exact path but it was likely on the proper route, though I recall more scree than trail. However, the toll exacted by the previous day’s score, became evident at the saddle when just figuring out which way was up became a bit of a challenge.  The fatigue and altitude hit us and hit us hard as we struggled to make the final push to the summit of Yale.  It is a long ridge walk to the summit and I recall feeling what I would later come to know as the sure signs of hypoxia later in my climbing career.

Nevertheless, we kept walking the ridge, with its steady climb and occaisional steps here and there until we reached the summit. As we topped out, we noticed the approach of an electrical storm from the west, with the steady report of thunder giving us fair warning that it was time to make for a lower elevation. We knew enough to know that the ridge that lead us to the summit was a long path at elevation and that the storm would be on us well before we made it to the drop off from the saddle. Instead we took a diagonal route to the head of Avalanche Gulch and then followed that course down until we intercepted the established trail much lower and closer to the trail head.

We still managed to get a good soaking on the way down but no close lightning strikes to raise the hair on our hands or make that single snap link sing St. Elmo's song. We walked back to the camp spot and broke camp, having bagged our third 14'er in about 36 hours. What we'd lost to the lack of oxygen at 14k came back by the time we reached the campsite and we were off to the summer trailhead for a Grays and Torreys combination the next day. We might have come as Cottoneers but now we where morphed into peak bagging Cottoneers.

We drove the two hours or so to the Stevens Gulch trailhead and set our tent in the rocky parking lot, which at the time had just a car or two. The night turned cold and by the time we settled into the sleeping bags, there were no stars to be seen. The alarm the next morning did not bring the promise of a sunny day during which we would gain two more summits, but instead a low rolling mist and skud of cloud just a few hundred feet above our camp. We were pre-Gore-Tex and our idea of rain gear was getting in the car before the Carhart pile sweatshirts got totally soaked through. We knew we had no business trying to score two summits in this weather and instead went to nearby Georgetown to play tourist and, later in the afternoon, ridge the Georgetown Loop steam railroad as a fitting end to the trip. 

In hindsight, just four days in Colorado seems like too a fast trip, but such was not the case.  Neither of us had climbed a 14’er in five years and it was worth it.  To this day, I have Colorado locals ask incredulously if I drove “all the way” down from Cheyenne to climb for the day, and I answer yes.  I know that if they compared that extra 90 minutes from Cheyenne to a 1600-mile plane ride (or worse yet a 5 year drought), their appreciation of their backyard bounty would jump up a notch or two.