Mt Sneffels is a long hike, makes me cry like a child, remains the greatest mountain ever

My single goal for this summer -- nay, this year, or this lifetime -- was to climb Mt Sneffels, the most beautiful, distinct mountain in the world. As you can see from the 10,000 pictures I took of it, which are displayed below.

Early on Sunday morning over the Labor Day weekend, we set off into the Mt Sneffels Wilderness. We were going up the Blue Lakes Trail and then up the Southwest Ridge, which was going to be my first Class 3 route. This path was longer than the usual Yankee Boy Basin approach, but, having been up the other to about 13,000 ft, I think that Blue Lakes was much prettier and well worth it.

Here's some shots from the trail up.

Summer was clearly on its way out.

However, there were still some wildflowers to be seen.

Here's Lower Blue Lake, the bluest of the lakes by far.

Here's the uppermost, where Nathan and I stopped to have some lunch.

Then we began a switchback ascent up the side of the mountain, passing from a beautiful field of wildflowers into barren scree as we gained altitude.

All around were views of the rugged Sneffels Range, which is an igneous intrusion into the western San Juans. These mountains are primarily made of crumbling rock.

From the saddle looking down in Yankee Boy Basin, this was our route up the Southwest Ridge. At this point I was feeling very good about the hike, having just made good time up from the Upper Blue Lake. I figured Class 3 couldn't be too hard, right? Or else they would have called it Class 4?

Turns out I was wrong, and Class 3 was HARD. The rock was crumbling and prone to tumbling down the mountainside, and the slopes were steep. Class 3 means some actual climbing. One portion really freaked me out and I had to take a quick breather afterwards and calm down a bit.

Then we came upon this formation, which is known as the kissing camels. I dunno if they really look like camels...

Nathan standing by the kissing camels.

The next portion of the climb was very exposed, meaning that there was a big drop off behind me at all times. At one point we came to a small portion where there was a big drop off on either side, and I hit a huge psychological barrier. For a few minutes, I wasn't even sure if I could make myself go across it -- but as Nathan pointed out, it would be a lot harder to go back than to go on. Watching four other climbers go across this portion also helped. So by crawling on my hands and knees and clinging to this rock for dear life, I made it across, and after that nothing else about the climb seemed scary.

Here's some views from the summit! Looking down to the Blue Lakes: 

Looking towards the Wilsons (other 14ers) to the right and the slopes of Telluride to the left:

Looking north, towards 13ers Potosi and Teakettle:

Above the Blue Lakes, there is another 13er, this one being Dallas Peak:

Here we are at the top.

Now, we started our descent. Here's Nathan about to go back down a Class 3 climb.

Looking down the rocky couloir towards Lavender Col:

The view from Lavender Col starting down into Blaine Basin:

The view back up the couloir:

The views descending into Blaine Basin were amazing, but descending was difficult due to shifting rocks and steep slopes.

Looking back up the descent:

Once in Blaine Basin, we found ourselves on a rock glacier that also wasn't very much fun for walking. However, there were beautiful columbines, only a little bit tattered:

This is looking back at the rock glacier:

Finally we got off the rocks and descended back below treeline. It had taken us nearly 12 hours to go 11 miles. 

There was also a beautiful aspen grove.

We fell asleep almost immediately after returning from the hike. The next morning we took some photos of Mt Sneffels from different angles and then went to Telluride. 

The addendum to this story is that three weeks later, this is what this area looks like: http://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=11051

Madison and Chi-Town

Our second, considerably less epic road trip of the year was to Madison, WI and then Chicago, IL. It was like 14 hours each way. No big.

Oh wait, that was 14 hours through the most boring scenery on the face of the planet, and the worst state in the entire Union. 

The most notable topography on the entire journey was the disappearance of the Rockies somewhere around Ft Morgan and their reappearance, three days later, again somewhere around Ft Morgan. 

Here's some pretty industry in Julesberg, CO, just over the state line from Nebraska. We stopped here to get gas as the sun was starting to get into the sky.

I started off taking pictures of state signs but by the soul-crushing end of Nebraska, 300 miles later, I just didn't care, so this is the last state sign you'll see. And Nebraska = way nicer than anything that came after it. 

Much like on our last trip, we followed Louis and Clark, on this one we followed the Oregon Trail. Luckily, no one died of cholera. I did, however, get a speeding ticket in Iowa. God, what an awful state. 

That evening we arrived in Madison. The town itself is very pretty, and reminded us a lot of Boulder -- college town, obviously liberal, lots of bicycles... Except unlike Boulder, it has some very pretty lakes.

Also unlike Boulder, it has crushing humidity.

This view is looking up State Street towards the capitol building, where Scott Walker was ensconced in his evil lair. Becca showed us around State Street and the University campus, including her office, and we saw many cool and cute shops and ate some Thai food. We also briefly lost the car keys, which would have been xdisastrousx, but luckily a nice couple found them on the beer terrace at the university and the day was saved. That night we went out for a bar crawl and enjoyed Wisconsin's famous beer. Or, I should say, I enjoyed it, and Nathan drank lots of rum and orange juice and Becca drank lots of gin and tonic.

The next morning, Nathan and I drove to Chicago. The drive should have been quite short, but traffic meant that it took forever. I was getting hungrier and hungrier and crankier and crankier and by the time we made it to Maeve's place (where, though she was out of town, she was very kindly letting us stay), my hunger was sitting right around "homicidal". This was our first view of Chicago, through a rainstorm.

We met up with Devin once we got there and he showed us around the city. Here we are about to take the "Loop" on the El. The "Loop" is very cool because, since it is elevated, you see all sorts of cool views of the big buildings of downtown. Chicago reminded me, more than any other city, of New York in terms of age, big buildings, and close space. Also: size. Chicago is HUGE!

We took the El to a stop near downtown and then walked over to the Field Museum. Here's the view looking back towards town.

Inside the Field Museum, Devin and Nathan show off their best T-Rex poses with Sue, the famous T-Rex.

Once the museum closed, we walked along the shore of Lake Michigan a bit and saw some absurd party boats before Devin took us to see The Bean, which sounds stupid -- it's a big reflective surface -- but actually... it's pretty awesome. I can't really explain why. Here's Devin in front of it.

From there, we went to a bar and met Nathan's friend from college, Rachel. We hung out and they caught up for a while before parting ways. Devin took us to Hancock Tower. Here's the view from the base, a cool old church.

And here's the view from the top! I took this photo with my cell phone from the ladies' bathroom, which had really magnificent views. Apparently the mens' bathroom just has walls, no windows. Sad!

After having cocktails there, we went and ate delicious pizza and bruschetta before Devin showed us the mansion (like, really, it's a mansion) where he and a lot of the other people working on the Obama campaign are temporarily living. We met the owner and her daughter and their various pets, including two incredibly cute golden retrievers, and then sadly had to leave. From there it was a taxi ride back to Maeve's apartment, where we fell asleep, exhausted.

The next day, we drove back to Denver -- whirlwind trip! -- and the only thing I found notable to take a picture of in 14 hours of driving was the Mississippi River. Which was pretty big. But man, the Midwest is boring.

However, it was fantastic to see Becca and Devin, as well as to meet Rachel. I'm just sad Maeve wasn't there that weekend or things would have been perfect! Thanks to everyone who showed us around and gave us a place to stay.