So I just got back from Pikes Peak and the Royal Gorge area of Colorado with the Tulsa Ski Club. Pikes Peak is called a "fourteener" since its over 14K feet high and is fairly challenging to climb and we had no time to get acclimated to the thin air so I started doing the stair climber at the gym in the prior month. I'm not a cardio guy and that stair climber is HARD! It took a lot of persistence and sweat but I got in fairly good shape on it. So out of the 25 people on the trip 13 of us went to climb the mountain and met at the Barr trailhead at 3:45 am which is about 7K feet high. You need to start early so you don't get into the afternoon storms above the tree line and become a human lightning rod. We head up the mountain and I was the only one not wearing a head light(big mistake) and within a short period of time 2 people already drop out, a 65 year old guy who was out of shape and a 25 year old guy who threw up from possible food poisoning. About six hours into the hike everyone was doing pretty good but getting tired. After ten and a half hours we finally made it to the top and I think that was the most tired I've ever been in my life! The final hour it started hailing on us and we all had rain jackets and gloves but other hikers not in our group were wearing shorts and T-shirts and they were miserable. I was so darn glad to be at the top and then it started snowing but there's a nice new building to go in and relax and get something to eat. The next day we go white water rafting, ride 11 zip lines, then free fall (kind of like bunjee jumping) off of a 7 story tower. All in all a pretty action packed trip and some beautiful scenery.
Hiking Pikes Peak vacation
- Thread starter Farmer17
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meaneyedcatz
Member
That sounds really cool and adventurous!!!
Wish I could do it but I'm glad I won't.
Wish I could do it but I'm glad I won't.
bigwheelzip
Absent Comrade
Waaay to much effort. 
Drove up it 37 years ago. Huffing and puffing just walking across the parking lot.
Drove up it 37 years ago. Huffing and puffing just walking across the parking lot.
9mmPatriot
Member
I get to look at the peak every day of the week on my to work, from multiple roof tops, and we watch the fireworks every New Years at midnight.
I'm not a hiker but I've driven the highway and taken the cog railway.
Glad you enjoyed your visit!
I'm not a hiker but I've driven the highway and taken the cog railway.
Glad you enjoyed your visit!
I went there several years with my sister and family . Good thing my conservative BIL was driving I would have had everyone screaming.
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
I have done the Barr Trail route several times, but not in the past 40 years! As a young cop on the Colorado Springs Police Department I would take extra-duty assignments on Pikes Peak to keep tourists out of several reservoirs that make up the city's water supply. We camped out, fished, and kept all the looky-loos moving along, and got paid to do it. As I recall, it was about $50 for each 24-hour cycle, back in the mid-1970s. May not sound like much today, but when your monthly salary is under $700 and your house payment is almost $200, that extra money was very welcome.
Also used Barr Trail as weekend training activity for my Army Reserve unit, for which I was the training officer. Reported activities were mountain climbing, extended route march, land navigation, and wilderness survival, all of which translated as a hell of a nice weekend on the mountain for a bunch of young guys.
Afternoon storms are to be expected. Rain, snow, or hail just about any day of the year. Large mountains seem to have their own weather systems. Mid-summer might offer 85F days, but the nights could easily get down to 35F.
Still live within an hour drive, but I won't be climbing that trail again!
Also used Barr Trail as weekend training activity for my Army Reserve unit, for which I was the training officer. Reported activities were mountain climbing, extended route march, land navigation, and wilderness survival, all of which translated as a hell of a nice weekend on the mountain for a bunch of young guys.
Afternoon storms are to be expected. Rain, snow, or hail just about any day of the year. Large mountains seem to have their own weather systems. Mid-summer might offer 85F days, but the nights could easily get down to 35F.
Still live within an hour drive, but I won't be climbing that trail again!
Pretty sure I couldn't hike it. I don"t function well at that elevation. I have ridden up there on several different motorbikes. The most fun was a Honda CA160. Rode up once in February, but the road was closed at the coffee shop.
That is where the rangers check your brakes on the way down, and have you pull into the parking lot if your brakes are hot.
That is where the rangers check your brakes on the way down, and have you pull into the parking lot if your brakes are hot.
That sounds like a fine adventure. My outlook was formed during a trip to Tahiti many years ago. My wife asked a Tahitian if they liked to climb the spectacular peaks that jut straight up from the ocean. His reply was, "No. It's easier to go to the beach." I found it hard to argue with that logic.
Glad your workout paid off. I think I'd need 4 burly guys and a sedan chair to do that one.
Congratulations, Farmer17! Very impressive! You certainly proved all of us naysayers, including me, wrong. Way to go!
http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/651574-hiking-first-time-14-000-feet.html?highlight=Pikes
http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/651574-hiking-first-time-14-000-feet.html?highlight=Pikes
OP
Yeah, you guys had me pretty worried so I was taking every possible precaution. I worked up to one hour on the stair climber machine at level 8 and was taking Nitric Oxide, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Vitamin C, Ginko Bilboa, and other products that help with oxygen in the blood for an altitude change. My girlfriend and I also took a prescription altitude sickness pill but no one else on the trip did and nobody had trouble with altitude sickness. Maybe breathing the thick, humid air in Oklahoma helped us
Old Arkansawyer
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I'm impressed and was one of those thinking your GF was trying to
kill you. Good job.
kill you. Good job.
OP
I guess you never know how people will be affected by altitude. My girlfriend is 53 and a cross fit competitor and works out 6 days a week and can squat 250 lbs, do 12 pull ups, and push a stack of six 45lb plates quickly from one end of the gym to the other. She then does an hour of rowing and stairmaster after her workout! I thought she leave would me way behind but she was struggling more than me at times and I'm 62. Another guy in his late 40s does road bike and mountain bike races and trained for two months getting ready for the climb. He was really struggling. Another 39 year old muscular woman played college rugby and goes to a personal trainer six days a week and she struggled the most. Then we had one 57 year old woman who finished over an hour sooner than the rest of us and I think we slowed her down until she got tired of waiting on us.
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"He's 62! I can take him!" Whack, whack, whack! "I was wrong." Thump.
Congrats on a wonderful experience and for proving even an old goat can still get to the top of the mountain!
Congrats on a wonderful experience and for proving even an old goat can still get to the top of the mountain!
len917
Member
Went there a number of years back. Drove up, got to top. got sick from lack of oxygen and it was snowing and a thunderstorm. It was July.
Once is enough for me.
Once is enough for me.
ancient-one
US Veteran
I second what he said!!!!!! Good going!
Congrats on the hike. Wife and Ill be out there come September -October visiting brother in Divide. Wont hike it probably drive up or Cog. Most of the hiking will be at the Santa Fe ski basin. Some gorgeous views if a clear day at Pikes.
