Share and Voice: Climbing My First Mountain

     

     Yes. A mountain :) Have you ever heard of a fourteener before?  This is the term people from Colorado use to describe mountain peaks that exceed fourteen thousand feet in altitude.  There are fifty three fourteeners in Colorado and some people conquer each one before they die (and it is pretty much against the rules to repeat the same one, don't ask me why).  
     This summer, I had the pleasure of climbing three of these mountains, and will tell you about my experience on the first one.  Being from Minnesota, I thought a hike meant strolling along with some trail mix and water, stopping here and there to enjoy the sights.  How much different could climbing a mountain be? VERY.  I started getting the hint when my friend (who lives in Colorado and hikes  regularly) told me to start drinking a gallon or more of water three days in advance to prepare my body.  Altitude sickness is not something to mess with, and water is the trick to preventing/reducing it.  
     Hike day came, we got up at five in the morning and drove up to ten thousand feet and parked our car. The reason for starting out so early was to beat the heat and storms (you do not want to be stuck on a mountain in a storm).  I had four water bottles, three granola bars, and a bottle of sunscreen in my backpack.  We started out and holy wow, after ten steps I was panting.  Altitude gets you quick if you are from somewhere flat like Minnesota.  Whenever I couldn't breathe, I would stop and drink water and just take in the view.  
     Four hours later, we arrived at the peak of the mountain.  I cannot describe to you how incredible of a feeling this was.  The work and energy it took to get up was so worth it, in fact I forgot all about the pain once the view was before me.  Imagine hundreds of miles of mountains, rivers, valleys, and clouds surrounding you, it felt like I was in another world.  
     We did not stay at the summit too long because we could see a storm in the distance that was heading our way.  I ended up going back to Colorado a month later to climb a few more fourteeners and would recommend it to everyone.  One of the best parts about it is that you meet so many incredible people on the way up who are there to encourage you and who have the same goal in mind.  I could not have done it without other people saying 'keep going, I can see the summit'!