still fuckin with climb cuz climb pays: the ILX hiking thread

what is the elevation?

Highest is 14,259.

I'll becoming from my home below sea level :(

yikes! you should acclimate for a day or two before attempting anything that drastic but wow... i don't know. the highest i've done any hiking was 10,000 i think, and it was definitely a lot more challenging. but i think you'd be ok if you are in good shape and remember to pace yourself/rest occasionally.

Yeah Bryce was ~9000 and both of us were puffing harder than we expected. I think we could probably get a couple of days in taking it easy to acclimate. Mostly I think probably we should not choose ambitious hikes--"moderate" hikes will feel strenuous methinks.

Hiking at altitude = "dude is this what getting old feels like?"

maybe look for a ridge trail that would give you great views but not too much intense up/down?

afaik ppls adverse responses to high altitude are pretty unpredictable if youre talking about real problems like altitude sickness (headaches or pulmonary edema). the cure of going down is pretty reliable. as far as the increased difficulty of exertion, yeah, it just IS. you can try to acclimate for a day or two which may help avoid altitude sickness, but it wont help you make red blood cells in time for your hike. you'll get fatigued faster than youre used to.

theres a bazillion hikes well below 14000 ft, which is as high as you can go here, right?

when you say go big, do you mean a 14er, or just, hiking in rmnp? cause the 14er in rmnp is not really considered the easiest. the easiest one is quandary peak right next to breckenridge. the east ridge is a long gradual walkup.

By big I kinda just mean being surrounded by a bunch of really tall mountains--not that I necessarily have to climb one all the way to the tippy-top. I'm a view (and food)-driven hiker, so a smaller and or shorter hike with a great view is perfectly fine by me. However I do like to avoid crowds and that has sometimes meant choosing a longer but less-travelled route.

what the fuck am I doing with my life

― how rad bandit (gbx), Sunday, October 25, 2009 2:42 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ahahaha, otm

Def take it eeeeasy for a while.

Yeah I mean usually I make fun of mountains with roads leading to summit (see: Whiteface in Adirondacks, Cadillac in Acadia NP) but in this case it might be kind of handy for the swamp dwellers.

i want a car i want to go hike RIGHT NOW

Yeah but you'll still feel shitty at the top. IMO I'd stay away from the heights until just normal activity feels ok

I drove up to 11k outside Santa fe after being there for only a day and just walking across the parking lot was like damn

went skiin at Taos four days later tho and it was ok

yeah my colca ridge hike was somehting i'd normally consider a walk but it definitely winded us! and that was after a few days in arequipa and then a night at higher elevation.

lol i walked up whiteface by myself, didn't see anyone all the way up and when you get to the top there's like *a crowd*. it is pretty funny.

well, i mean you can drive trail ridge road in rmnp up to 12k, so that will be nice too. you will not lack for options...

xpost

funniest automobile "summit" imo: clingman's dome, srsly.

guys i went hiking on wednesday and nothing went as planned and i ended up camping in the freezing backwoods at 6,000ft+ and was probably the highest up sleeping person in East Tennessee afaict! my face is really red today. vvvvv close encounter with a young bear who did not give an F about us, also all water was frozen and could not be drunk. hung out on this which made everything worth it:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_VMkLA7HBHmA/R56FWRRU0II/AAAAAAAACyE/DazPUpT5ppg/CIMG1432.JPG

that's charlie's bunion. kickass hike if you ever make it out here, but do it in apr-oct!

(nb that's where i've been and why ayovember has not been up to snuff the past 2 days, haw)

that picture is A++++

Sounds scary. I am glad you're OK and yeah, that pic is beautiful.

Holy shit that looks awesome but ugh cold and dehydrated not so good.

awesome, em!

i'm doing little si tomorrow morning. only a short hike, but at least i am going somewhere!

beautiful. in tn i hiked ramsay cascades in gsmnp on a midweek 95deg/95%humid day with my pops and some family. very few people that day, fantastic falls at the top.

ive never been to ramsay cascades, amazingly.

did you plan to camp there, or was it an emergency thing because it got too dark to finish the hike?

no, we planned to camp further up actually (on Mount LeConte!), but it got too dark to go up the really rocky parts. we had no idea how cold it would be.

the weirdly memorable thing about our hike to ramsay cascades was that it was maybe a coupla days after all of the rhododendrons had dropped their blossoms. it seemed like the we walked half the way on this runner of flowers.

any hiking in the rain tips?
i suppose i'll take a dry shirt or something in a plastic bag inside my pack?
is this going to be a terrible disaster? i don't think rain is avoidable at all tomorrow, but i have lots of layers...

take lots of clean socks in a ziploc! you will love yourself. and wear a poncho over your pack

ended up not going at all bc of thunderstorms :(
rain i can deal with but lightning is ehhhhh.
i'm a wimp.

no you are smart

thanks, mr. que.
feeling kinda frustrated at not getting any mountains.
i went back to bed at 6:15 and when i got up again the weather was really nice (here) so i don't know, maybe i freaked out for nothing :(

haha i was trying to post "no, you are just smart" to this thread 100x and it wouldnt let me

we sound so retarded here, blame hypothermia, but here is the bear i met

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nogDb2z1YGg

lol @ me saying its just like a dog

haha awesome. what is he eating anyways?

omg!

justine was watching that video this morning, and i thought it was from the "oh shit a bear" thread - eg: two people with a digital camera get mauled by bear, etc. knowing that it was roxy and friend doing the filming, i'm glad that's not the case.

i think he might be foraging for bugs

video captures the wtf-ness of wildlife encounters really well, so great

were you really that close or was the camera zoomed in?

It was zoomed in, but we were quite close. I could not have reached out and touched him, but I could have taken one step and done so.

damn. i would not do that. dont wanna end up like chimp lady

planning a toadtrip next week from knoxville to nyc and considering hiking the highest mountains in each state on the way there and back -- kind of a cool idea imo

imHo

awesome idea!

even new york?????

mount marcy? child's play