At the suggestion and encouragment of several others, I am reposting this TR in the Trip Report forum because it kind of got buried as part of a gear discussion post: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/3765/index.html
I spent the night on Grays Peak on Aug 12-13th. I was on the summit of the 14er for 14 hours!
I was not backpacking light. My pack was about 45lbs but only a fraction of it was mine. The rest was gear that I was required to carry.
We were on the summit for 14 hours.
It rained. It snowed. The Perseid meteor shower went on above us when the sky was clear. We watched the lighting all around us in the far distance). We didn’t really sleep. We were camped at the true summit with the tent only 3ft from the summit register.
Here are some pictures:
Ruby Mountain
Alpenglow on Ruby Mountain
The Sunset from the Summit at 8:40PM
Moonrise over Denver and the Front Range at 9:30PM
Moonlit Lighting Storm 11:30PM
(Bierdtsat, Evans, and Pikes Peak visible)
Dawn 6AM
Sunrise 6:10AM
Front Range
Iry
20 Mile Shadow
Definately Not Backpacking Light…
Ruby Gulch
Summit Camp
Cloudbank at 13,500ft
Descending into Horseshoe Basin 11AM
(Grays Lake, Argentine, Squaretop, Bierdstat visible)
I was up there in support of: http://www.montezumasrevenge.com
The most brutal 24 hour bike race in existance. Nobody has ever completed the course in 20 years.
I sure as heck wasn’t carrying a bike! That is only for the masochists’ masochists.
Carrying all the medical gear was enough (including a metal O2 cylinder and reg; luckily nothing was used). I took up so much space that I couldn’t bring my real camera gear!
I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I was able to get.
