of the
TALES TRAILS
Written, Designed & Bound by Miranda Samon
JOHN MUIR
“In every walk with nature, one recieves far more than he seeks.”
5 TYPEFACES USED: Schneidler BT Avenir Next
PHOTO CREDITS: Miranda Samon Zane Balogh
WRITTEN AS: A true account of the adventure and inspiration gained by Zane and Miranda’s experiences in the summer of 2015.
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PREFACE
Hours driving through colorful, textured mountain valleys and over the continental divide. We set up the tent before sundown with the alpine glow barely illuminating the silhouettes of the giants around us. It’s
just enough to get an idea of what’s to come tomorrow morning. The trails waiting for our footprints hold the history of the world and connect all life that has ever tread its path.
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I fall asleep wondering about those here before me and dreaming of adventure.
IN COLORADO
GROWING UP
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I was one decision away from living in the sandstricken desert of Egypt, but my immigrant parents made me lucky enough to have been born and raised in colorful Colorado. This perfect square in the middle of the United States holds over half of the tallest mountains in the country. Colorado has the distinction of 54 official mountain peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation, and I never really appreciated their majesty until recently.
Growing up, I hated the mountains. The mountains meant being stuck in the back seat of my family’s car, squished arm to arm between my siblings, getting motion sick with my ears popping for at least two hours only to stop, get out, look at a rock, and then do it again for another two hours. I didn’t understand why we were doing this. It was stupid, and that was the sentiment I attached to the mountains which ominously towered over my childhood home.
10 Now, after making twenty laps around the sun, I am finally able to comprehend
THIS IS WHY
“WHY WE ARE DOING THIS.� The answer to this question that every mountain climber faces multiple times throughout his or her journey comes in the simple forms of:
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PREPARATION
12 When we attempt to climb a fourteener, we are literally defying nature. The air is so thin at those elevations, that our muscles and lungs have less oxygen while you are exerting serious physical energy, making the climb that much more difficult. We as average human beings have to employ non-human elements in order to succeed in the task of climbing to the top of a mountain that tall. Only 20 years old, I feel like I need trekking poles to support my arms and legs in order to make it to the summit and not have my legs shake uncontrollably with every step on the way down, and that’s perfectly normal.
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Climbing a fourteener is uncomfortable. It’s our obligation to make ourself comfortable in any way we can control. We can’t control the weather, the conditions of the trail, the lack of air, or how much farther we have to go; but we can control how to satisfy hunger, thirst, and warmth needs. We can control choosing the right gear and bringing trekking poles to make yourself that much more comfortable, because at the end of the day we climb mountains to enjoy ourselves.
It is inevitable that the aspects we can’t control will present physical and mental challenges, but by doing what we can to make sure we are prepared, it makes the challenges more approachable. This is why the preparation is one of the most important, and sometimes one of the most fun, parts of the fourteener experience.
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BEFORE DRIP COFFEE
DEATH
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17 Every mountain climber has one item of luxury. It just happens naturally. If backpacking, we are conscious of the weight we burden ourselves to carry. Each ounce matters. Items generally need to serve more than one purpose in order to justify being brought along — except for the one item of luxury. For us, that item is a stovetop espresso maker. Having lived in Europe for any amount of time, one will not return home and peacefully accept drip coffee. Even in the wilderness, where personal preferences are bent, we choose to carry this heavy steel item that produces divine nectar. Coffee.
CHILI IN A BAG?
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There is nothing like waking up at altitude on a crisp morning to a majestic mountain view and savoring it over a warm cup of espresso. Some may call it an addiction, but we never forget the espresso maker. We can even argue that we are doing good for the environment by sharing our used coffee grounds, a natural fertilizer, with the Earth around us.
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There’s also the opposite of luxury, and that is dinner out of a bag. Before embarking on a full day of mountain climbing, we must give our bodies proper nourishment. A full serving of protein and other necessary nutrients are a hassle to bring along in the form of normal people food, so we buy backpacker ’s food.
We’re talking about dehydrated food in a bag that serves both as the cooking vessel and bowl to eat from. It might sound questionable, but it can actually be quite delicious. I’ve found meals which provide over 40 grams of protein that I would love to eat even back at 5,280 feet.
SLEEPING
NEXT TO COLUMBINES
20 Camping is often part of our preparation. The climbing window during summer days usually ends between eleven and noon due to the frequency of afternoon storms, meaning we have to start early. When it rains on the mountain, the trails become slippery in addition to the serious danger of lightening. Above the timberline, a hiker is now the prime target for a lightening strike. Even if one is lucky enough not to be directly struck by lightening, the electric currents travel powerfully through the ground and can still knock a climber off their feet. For those reasons and the purpose of enjoying ourselves, we camp at the trailhead the night before
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AND BRISTLECONE PINE so that we can hit the moonlit trail at about 4am. Starting that early allows us to have no worries about threatening weather, thus taking away the stress of time and justifying our stops whenever we need to rest. This may come surprisingly to non-outdoorsy people, but there is not a single negative thing about camping the night before. It takes us a record time of two minutes to set up our tent, we are prepared with the proper temperature rated sleeping bags, and we even have an inflatable neck pillow to help us sleep.
TIME
HAMMOCK
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The day before is often spent in a hammock meditating and staring in amazement at the mountain that dwarfs us, which we will climb before the next dawn.
THE NIGHT PRIOR
24 The moon, or lack thereof, is a beautiful addition to the evening. On moonless nights the sky is overwhelmingly bright with details of the Milky Way, and on full moon nights I occasionally turn half asleep to my climbing partner and ask,
“Should we turn that light off?” and he responds,
“That’s the moon.” The brightness of a full moon can be blinding when there is no light pollution from civilization. It sits in the sky powerfully glowing and watching over us.
25 Often we don’t stop at the first campsite we find. Many are unaware that they are able to camp anywhere their hearts desire within Colorado’s national forests. There is always a lingering curiosity for what new home for the night we might discover. We have never failed to find a good campsite…because there is never a bad place to camp. We’ve camped at the base
of alpine lakes at over 12,000 feet and nestled between boulders inside of dense forests.
No matter the specifics, we are privileged to sleep under the Milky Way.
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UNDER 12,000 FT.
THE CLIMB
28 It’s dark. The only light is that which glows from the moon and vivid Milky Way above us. We make breakfast and coffee by headlamp. Our bodies shiver with the cold of the early morning as we layer on pants, jackets, socks, gloves. We adjust the size of our trekking poles, backpacks, shoelaces, then start walking toward the trail. This is the moment where it all begins. The first mile is always a little bit challenging, just as starting anything else. I always find myself out of breath in the beginning even though the trail is flat. That comes with much of a mental battle as I know I’ve only just begun. However, our first steps on the trail come with the unspoken commitment to persevere and battle the physical and mental challenges that are to come. Our steps are illuminated primarily by headlamp.
29 The nature around us is hidden in darkness. Excitement builds as we progress through the typically long, flat portion of the trail. The flatness we traverse between bushes and shrubs, which are not much taller than we are, is always an encouraging part of the hike. We warm up our bodies and heart rates among them. Shortly afterward, we need to stop and remove layers due to generating body heat. We try to control what we can to make ourselves comfortable, because we can’t control the inevitable discomfort that comes with climbing a fourteener. We accept this difficult task and choose to persevere until the end. The sense of gratitude for having a body and mind capable of accomplishing the climb and pure elation at the summit washes away hours of discomfort.
The key is to find joy in the discomfort.
12,000 - 13,000 FT.
THE CLIMB
30 Plant life gets shorter as we go higher. With no trees or bushes to diminish its force, the wind hits us with direct power. After passing the 12,000 ft. mark, we end up putting more layers back on. At this point we’re in the groove. Maybe the sun has risen by now. Maybe we get to watch the moonrise over the sawtooth portion of the mountain. Or maybe it’s still dark. If it is dark, it’s better. We have something to look forward to besides the distant peak we’ve been keeping on our minds. We can’t see how far we have to go, so we can use that to our advantage in the mind game. We trick ourselves into thinking we are almost there, when really, we need to endure at least 2,000 more feet of elevation gain.
31 Our legs just seem to move on their own now. They want to keep moving. Stopping for too long is borderline uncomfortable. We don’t want to remind our bodies what it feels like to be at rest. The air is getting thinner. We’re getting slower.
That’s why the analogy of “climbing a mountain” exists; because it’s hard, and once you succeed, you feel like you can do anything.
13,000 - 14,000 FT.
THE CLIMB
32 Each step is now its own personal battle. At about 13,000 feet, I might need to rest a little longer due to coughing uncontrollably. This doesn’t happen every time, only the first elevation ascent of the season, but it is a moment of fear. After having made it this far, to have to turn back because my body decides it has to cough instead of breathe with every inhalation, would be devastating. We intentionally breathe slowly after 13,000 feet — so that we know we are breathing. The mental battles become the most difficult at this point in the climb. Another hiker, or group of hikers, passes us. Trail runners zoom past us twice before we’ve even made much progress. We feel like we are too slow.
33 We’re not fit to be here. We’re not fit to be doing this. Why are we doing this? We are so close, yet so far. This is the last stretch of the climb. The wind howls a little bit louder and a little bit stronger. The weight on my back reminds me of it’s burden and contributes to my fear of being knocked off my feet. I start to think negatively about the previous night when the winds were so strong they kept waking me up by blowing the tent into my face. That one negative thought grows into a negative attitude. We need to gain 1,000 more feet in one mile. One mile seems doable, but the 1,000 vertical feet are like a last punch in the face by mother Earth
prior to a tiny human being conquering the mountain. Maybe we see the summit now. Maybe we don’t. Why are we doing this again? I know why, but in this moment it’s harder to believe the reasons that brought me here. I ignore the fact that I am passing people, too, and only focus on the self-doubt that comes with watching others pass me. I ignore the majestic rock formations in the distance that only a person ambitious enough to climb to this exact point on the mountain would be privileged to look up and see. I ignore the
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I hope it’s never made easier to get up here. You have to earn this place. You have to earn this view.
high mountain succulents that grow between the rocks my feet find. I ignore the things we can learn from the mountain. Life only exists attached to or between rocks after 13,000 feet. The living organisms
attach themselves to solid rock, or shelter themselves from the high winds in order to survive. They live peacefully among their howling circumstances and in their quiet place close to the sky.
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THE SUMMIT
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Now I can see where the mountain greets the sky. Scale is becoming more relevant and in my head and in my heart I know this time when I say it, I am truly, almost there. My body still wants to move slowly and breathe with intention, but my mind wants to move faster and push myself that much harder now that my goal appears to be standing still, right in front of me. One step at a time. I keep moving one step at a time. As I get closer, I can’t deny the fact I now know with complete certainty that I undoubtedly can do this. My chest starts to tighten, and I hold back tears.
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All those moments of doubt I faced on the long ascent have blown away on the winds that now seem to be carrying me to the summit. Feeling so completely in doubt about myself is now powerfully reversed with an undeniable success that is to come. I try to hold in my tears until I get to the top… and then all of a sudden, we’ve made it. I am standing at the top of a fourteen thousand foot peak with a wet face from a runny nose and running eyes. I try to wipe my eyes so as to be able to take in the view I’ve earned without blur. I am so overjoyed. My tiny speck of a human body has conquered the majestic, intimidating mountain on
which we spent the past days meditating. One of the tallest mountains in our entire country! Any other climbers we might meet at the top are so excited and happy to be there that we become instant friends. It’s a tradition to take a picture with a sign denoting the elevation, and crack a Colorado beer at the summit. All negativity on the way up fades away into the wind and high altitude gazes that we earned with our own two feet.
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SUMMIT
PERSON
YOU EARNED THIS
HALFWAY THERE
44 And now we go down. Many people think that getting to the top is the end of the journey, but in reality it is only half the way. The descent is a very magical part of the fourteener experience that usually reaffirms why we did it in the first place. As we started the climb in the dark, many wonders of nature were hidden in the predawn darkness. The journey downward reveals more new beauties and reasons to stop than the journey upward. The light of the afternoon sun illuminates the mountain valleys, alpine lakes, wildflowers, streams, and rocks colored with lichen. Each second that passes reveals something new for the eyes to feast on as the clouds and light and wind are constantly at change. We look at this mountain so far away, and it
45 stands tall and still with impressive beauty and dignity. The climb down always reminds us of the life that is active on the mountainside.
There is a sense of peace and happiness that can only be gained after being baptized by the sun at the top of a fourteener and embarking on the decent. We are now in the role of “encouraging by-passers” as we go down and others go up. We say, “You’re almost there,” because we know those few words will go a long way coming from someone who has already made the climb. For miles,
this special kind of happiness does not fade. Conversations that were turned inward on the way up so as to preserve breath are now joyfully shared with climbing partners on the way down. We climb through large rocks, then dirt, then into the shrubs and trees. We hear the streams fueled by high mountain snowmelt beneath the rocks under our feet, and follow the sound on the trail. We made it, and now we can revel in the primal joy that comes with splashing pure Colorado water onto our faces and dipping our bare feet into a stream that adorns this magnificently beautiful place.
ONLY
ON A
MOUNTAIN
46 I’ve traveled to many countries and have seen the sun rise at different points around the world. I come home to say there is nothing like watching the sunrise in Colorado. We take the magical experience of climbing fourteeners and occasionally, when we’re up for it, attemptto summit before sunrise. We hike for hours under the vivid Milky Way and in freezing temperatures waiting for the sun, and when we make it to the summit to watch the warm, colorful glow change the sky and magnificent landscape, there is nothing on Earth that can compare.
We climb to greet the sun from on top of the world.
47 Sometimes we are pleasantly surprised by the privilege and opportunity to watch the moonrise over the barely illuminated, jagged mountain face. The light and life we encounter is never predictable. A moment I will never forget is the moment my climbing partner suddenly gasped as we were climbing through tall bushes wearing headlamps under the dark sky. I asked if he hurt his foot on a rock, and he responded in a short breath, “Yeah.� After passing that section of the trail, he admitted to me the true reason he gasped. He didn’t want to tell me in that
moment, because that was the moment he discovered we were being watched by the fierce eyes of a predator through bushes only a few feet away. His headlamp had shown directly into the eyes of this unknown wild beast and illuminated them enough to provoke a gasp of fear. We just kept moving along the trail with the underlying knowledge that we might very well be stalked by this big eyed creature.
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49 On Quandary Peak, there was a mountain goat walking down the trail as we were on our way up. We got off the trail and waited for it to pass so as to not disturb it or make it feel threatened. This large mountain goat stops about four feet in front of us and we simply make eye contact for what seems to feel like quite a long time. I slowly turn to my climbing partner and ask, “Now what?” He responds, “I don’t know,” in a half whisper. Then I slowly turn back and try to take in the reality that is in front of us. The eye contact between us and this wild animal persists in stillness for a little while longer…
Then the mountain goat just continues on his way down the path and that’s over and we keep climbing. Yep.
We walked away in amazement and almost speechless at the recent encounter. This beautiful animal was curious and confident enough to come and check us out from only a few feet away. This interaction exemplifies the kind of experiences hikers will have with omnivore beasts. Moments like these motivate us to keep going and remind us why we enjoy doing this so much.
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Some call us crazy, and some admire us. We are people of all walks of life with the same goal — to climb fourteeners.
“Fourteener Fever” consumes us after our first summit, and from there the obsession grows into pages of notes planning routes and mountains to climb, lists of gear to bring and calendars with days marked for adventure. Our bodies take us on journeys where we earn views and experiences that are difficult to describe. John Muir put it this way:
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
JOHN MUIR
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COLORADO
___Mt. Sherman 14,036’ ___Mt. Bross 14,172’ ___Handies Peak 14,048’ ___San Luis Peak 14,014’ ___Grays Peak 14,270’ ___Quandary Peak 14,265’ ___Mt. Cameron 14,293’ ___Mt. Democrat 14,148’ ___Mt. Bierstadt 14,060’ ___Pikes Peak 14,110’ ___Huron Peak 14,003’ ___Mt. Elbert 14,433’ ___Torreys Peak 14,267’ ___Mt. Lincoln 14,286’ ___Culebra Peak 14,047’
___Redcloud Peak 14,034’ ___Sunshine Peak 14,001’ ___Mt. Evans 14,264’ ___Mt. Princeton 14,197’ ___Mt. Belford 14,197’ ___Conundrum Peak 14,060’ ___Mt. Oxford 14,153’ ___Humboldt Peak 14,064’ ___Mt. Columbia 14,073’ ___Mt. Shavano 14,229’ ___Tabeguache Peak 14,155’ ___Mt. Antero 14,269’ ___Missouri Mountain 14,067’ ___Mt. Yale 14,196’ ___Mt. Massive 14,421’
14ER CHECKLIST
___Mt. of Holy Cross 14,005’ ___La Plata Peak 14,336’ ___Uncompahgre Peak 14,309’ ___Mt. Harvard 14,420’ ___Windom Peak 14,082’ ___Challenger Point 14,081’ ___Ellingwood Point 14,042’ ___Castle Peak 14,265’ ___Mt. Sneffels 14,150’ ___Blanca Peak 14,345’ ___North Eolus 14,090’ ___Mt. Lindsey 14,042’ ___Kit Carson Peak 14,165’ ___Wetterhorn Peak 14,015’ ___Longs Peak 14,255’
___Wilson Peak 14,017’ ___Snowmass Mtn. 14,092’ ___El Diente Peak 14,159’ ___Mt. Eolus 14,083’ ___Crestone Peak 14,294’ ___Maroon Peak 14,156’ ___Sunlight Peak 14,059’ ___Crestone Needle 14,197’ ___Mt. Wilson 14,246’ ___N. Maroon Peak 14,014’ ___Pyramid Peak 14,018’ ___Little Bear Peak 14,037’ ___Capitol Peak 14,130’
NEVER STOP EXPLORING.