Art and Lindsay Summit pic

We hiked the Sunday before Labor day 2010 and for once the temperatures were mild, 40′s at the Iowa Gulch trail head in the morning. But the news of the day was the wind.  The summit pictures don’t show it really as it was rather pleasant at the top, wind blowing perhaps 15 to 20 mph. However the reason there is no Sandy on the summit with us is that there was a narrow ridge, that ran, perhaps 1/4 of mile on the approach that was a virtual wind tunnel. I don’t have any pictures from there but it was the nastiest wind we have encountered on a ridge ever. Estimates were gusts close to 70 with the wind blowing 45 to 50 mph. I arrived at these estimates because there were places you could lean into the wind , on your toes and reach a balance point. Great fun if you are on a flat prairie.  The ridge sides ,although not cliff faces, were perhaps 60 degrees in most places, with a fairly wide craggy rock trail across the top.For a serious technical climber this trail would not make them blink however for a hiker on a calm day it would be enough to get your vertigo going. Now add a 50 mph cross wind with stronger gusts . Worse than the wind was  a bunch of people with dogs  standing in all the protected places. I have never seen so many people paused on a summit ridge.   Sandy started out, and turned back at the 13,700 foot level, only 400 feet from the top. I dropped my pack to help my balance and went on, kind of hunched down staying as best I could to the windward side. The key was not to look down to the sides and to ignore the occasional gusts that hit you between steps when you were slightly off  balance. ( yes I did fall hard but not on the ridge more on that later)

Lindsay my daughter who is a grad student in Physics and her friends made the broad summit into their personal playground throwing snowballs and acting stupid.

The Iowa gulch trail is fairly well marked and steep in places, so much so that I caught myself with my hand a couple of times on the way while leaning into the hill. I knew my 210 pounds was in for some shaky footing on some of the worn steep parts on the way down. On the way down, I decided to walk in the talus as much as possible which tends  to hold better even though you slide as you go. When you slide  in loose talus, you sort of build up a little berm in front of you consisting of interlocking fist sized rocks. With each step you slide and the berm reforms. On the trail which is not maintained with switchbacks in some places, the trail goes straight down the grade of the Talus slope, although there are no interlocking rocks under foot, just small gravel and dirt.   Walking down the talus does take a bit out of your thighs because you are always bracing and flexing your knees to arrest.   At some point I ventured back on the trail just to give my legs a break. I was trailing everybody  by about 25 yards, way too windy to talk. My feet just went out . The normal protocol, when slipping on the trail,  is to land hard on your ass and get up. This time however I was in a spot where the trail decided other wise. I hit the ground and them slammed over a few more bumps sliding perhaps the length of a kids playground slide.  I arrested naturually, stopping in rougher rocky spot.

Not seeing me Sandy kept going.  I just laid there for a few seconds rather than pop just to take stock of myself.  I slowly got up, twisted shoulder and bloody scrapped up hand (dripping blood) but other than that no harm.  I caught up to everybody and told them about my fall no big until. About 5 minutes later we met a couple huffing on the way up who immediatly came up to me and asked if I was OK ? Evidentally they saw my tumble from a few hundred feet below and immediatly double timed it to get up to help. I was fine but it did impress me that I fell hard enough to scare a a couple of people, because this fall did not even compare to my lone unwitnessed winter time fall down an icy step up on Bear peak last winter.

Lindsay being weird in snowdrift on summit ridge Mt Sherman

View from trail ascent

Art , Lindsay Jesse, Vera summit picture

Leadville is a cool little town. I must admit it has changed clientele a bit since I was last there 3 years ago. Some nicer shops and a variety of decent restaurants line its main street. The best part is ,  if you are tired of all the posing in Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen you can kick off your shoes here. It is not the Cherry Creek crowd.   Yet although I am sure it will become Schick soon as  there are not that many in tact historic towns this close to Denver left to pose in.

The main street is well preserved with the most amazing turn of the century architecture. It was  built with the money of a prosperous silver mine and maintained for the most part into the 21st century ( the mines are still in operation)

It does have it warts though. We dropped into the Safeway to pick up first aid for my damaged hand , and the stench of dead animal was everywhere. It was as if a raccoon had died in the ventilation duct.  The manager was walking around like nothing was wrong, I would have shut the store down until I found the source.