The Avid Alpinist

We were all gathered in the backyard of Walker's house on a beautiful Saturday afternoon day drinking. It was a warm, 72 degree day. Somewhere between our 3rd and 5th drink of the afternoon, Max and I started talking about what we wanted to ski tomorrow. We had successfully completed Shit For Brains the weekend before and Max had a week of rest after having COVID. We wanted to accomplish a bigger day and had heard someone had made it far up on Forest Road 189 in a car. We didn't know how exactly how far they made it and whether the information was reliable. All we went off of was one person's trailhead post on 14ers.com. We look up the mileage and vertical gain and thought... "7.5miles Round Trip? Only 3,000' of gain? Maybe add another mile and 500' to be safe with the road closures and we'll crush it". It was at this time that Lincoln and Emily were chiming into the conversation and the four of us decided, we'd all go together! We were up early an

The spring felt like it flew by. It had been a great first “big” spring ski season, and I couldn’t get enough. However, on every outing it seemed like something went wrong- whether it was my heavy ass frame bindings, falling into rivers, or forgetting keys in the car 6 miles away. Castle Peak was a turning point for me and Max, one that was extremely fun and pushed our limits.   Max and I about to begin our trek I was nervous from the start. We had bailed on Castle four weeks earlier. Was I pushing myself outside my limits? Would my legs survive the punishment of each step uphill? I had no idea. I kept on thinking positive. I left Denver Thursday around 2pm and Max was 15 minutes behind me, chasing me up the sharp I-70 curves. I had prepared so much; I had trained for this peak through skiing Hagar with Emily earlier in the week, I had also stopped earlier and ate 2 slices at Cosmos Pizza and drank as much water as possible. I instantly regretted this decision. I had to pee 20 minute