Great American Road Trip Part 4- In Which I Nearly Fall off a 14,000 ft Mountain

(The Mountain pictured as my friend almost fell off it)

Upon arriving at the hotel in Boulder Colorado we found a place to park and one of my friends and I walked into the lobby while the other two remained in the car. We were doing this trip on the cheap and only had the budget for one hotel room split between the four of us. The plan was to check in at the front desk, go up to our room and leave one person while the other ferried up the remaining two through a side entrance or something since we were only paying for two people to stay at the hotel. As it turned out, the hotel was not what we were expecting. The guy on the night shift manning the front desk told us that the pool was temporarily closed and would be unavailable for our stay. Inconvenient and annoying but not a big deal. We probably wouldn't have used it anyway. What was a big deal however was that the elevator didn't work, the hotel had electrical problems, and there were piles of dirty dishes in the dimly lit, low ceilinged 5th floor hallway. The entire hotel complex had an eerie, creepy haunted feeling to it. The condition of the hotel was not what we were expecting.

It was almost three in the morning and we weren't changing hotels at this point so I went back out to the car and got my buddies who followed me up the freight elevator from the sketchy back parking lot by the dumpsters to the fourth floor where we got off and took the stairs to the fifth. Don't ask me why, but the freight elevator didn't stop on floor number five. We got to the room, dropped our bags on the floor and passed out.

When we woke up we drove into downtown Boulder and took an Uber to the base of Green Mountain. This mountain was a fun day hike, but nothing compared to what we would be doing the next two days. Green Mountain was beautiful. The mountain wasn't particularly challenging but we had a fun time climbing on and around the flatirons, ridges and peaks of this mountain. The view of the city of Boulder and the University campus was also amazing from the mountain.

After returning to the base of the mountain, we spent the rest of the day wandering around Pearl Street. We went to the Rocket Fizz candy store, met a local businessman creating his own camping gear, and of course checked out the recreational marijuana stores. (We didn't make any purchases though).

After our day in Boulder, we drove a couple hours to the base of the mountain where we would drive a windy dirt road for 30 minutes traveling only 5 miles or so due to the rough conditions and washouts. On the way to the campsite however, we stopped at a Wal-Mart and bought marshmallows, graham crackers, Cliff Bars, canned chili, Fritos, Ramen, Gatorades and Jiffy Pop - A healthy climbing diet. The Wal-Mart parking lot had extremely scenic views.

After arriving to base camp, we set up our tents, cooked food and ate by the fire as we acclimated to the extreme elevation.

When we woke in the morning, the stream near the base of the mountain was frozen solid. We were shocked as this was not the August weather that guys from New Jersey are used to. We quickly broke cam, cleaning the dishes with toilet paper and camp suds before hitting the trail.

As we began to hike we quickly felt the effects of the elevation taking their toll on our bodies. My legs felt heavier and my breath shorter than ever before. For the first hour of the hike I was so cold that I could barely move my fingers and toes. My friend Chris forgot gloves and ended up wrapping his hands in extra socks to stay warm. Eventually however we made it to the snow line. The grassy slopes turned into bare rock faces which in turn became loose rock, and finally ice and snow.

Everything was going fine until we heard a yell and looked back. My friend Kyle had slid down the mountain and grabbed onto someone else's boot. Teo and Chris quickly helped him back onto the trail while I snapped the pic seen at the beginning of this journal entry thing that you chose to read. Anyways, we were shaken by the incident and made a conscious effort to hike more deliberately after this.

I soon became dizzy and a halo of darkness formed around my eyes. Dehydration combined with altitude sickness made sharp pulses of pain shoot through my head. My brain was throbbing in pain. I hiked on.

After more strenuous hiking my memory began to fade although I do remember summiting. The group that reached the top with us is pictured below. At this point I felt extremely sick and just wanted to take a nap at the summit. I knew however that I couldn't let myself take a break. I needed to get off the mountain soon or things would end poorly.

On the hike down we did encounter Mountain Goats which were really cool. I remember thinking that I wish I was like a mountain goat. I wish I had the balance and lung capacity of one of these amazing animals.

Base camp was now in sight and I knew I could make it with one last push. It looked so close while in reality the hike was still pretty far. I now felt like I was in a permanent state of head rush (you know, that feeling when you stand up quickly and everything goes black). I felt my legs get weak and...

To be continued in part 5.

link to part 3 below
https://steemit.com/travel/@aaronburt/great-american-road-trip-part-3-chicago-to-denver-in-24-hours-the-people-of-iowa-welcomed-us

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--Aaron