To: nolans14@yahoogroups.com From: "tlerunner" | This is Spam | Add to Address Book Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 20:56:57 -0000 Subject: [nolans14] N14 2002 Report (long) Hello N14'ers, Short Version: 5 Summits (Mt. Shavano, Mt. Tabeguache, Mt. Antero, Mt. Princeton, Mt. Yale) About 40 miles (wild guess) About 18,000' climb (wild guess) Long Version: I first heard about Nolan's 14 last year when Fred Vance asked for volunteers to help out with backcountry aid stations. I was still new to ultra running then and this sounded like a good opportunity to learn more about it. So I volunteered to do an aid station and was awarded with the one in Missouri Gulch. It was a great experience and fueled the fire. I applied for Nolan's 14 2002 in December and was accepted in. Over the course of the next year I trained by hiking mountains at night with Ulli Kamm (a fantastic mentor). I also averaged about 30 to 50 mile weeks, all on steep, rocky trails west of Denver on my lunch hour. Last spring I completed the Squaw Peak 50 miler in 13:20. Luckily I was able to train on the Nolan's 14 course a few times over the summer and do some scouting. Like all of the other runners, I spent many hours studying maps, researching route descriptions, and reading trip reports from the web. It is very helpful to have a crew at Nolan's and somehow I was able to convince my Mom and Step Dad to step up. The only condition was that my Step Dad, Don, would be able to climb a few of the peaks with me. We climbed Mt. Yale together a few weeks before Nolan's 14 so he would know what he was getting into. He loved it! My Mom was nervous about finding all of the crew access points but we spent several sessions together going over maps and route descriptions and she felt better. The morning of the run was clear and cool. There had been sporadic rain for the past week and it was relatively humid. A group of 11 mountain runners congregated at the start (Blanks Cabin) and took off up the trail at 6:00 a.m. I did not see very many of them again until the post race dinner at the run head quarters. Time passed quickly on the way up Mt. Shavano and I reached the summit at 8:07 a.m. with Don, Dennis Hopkins, Richard Hypio, and Matt Mahoney. I took a few pictures, called in my summit time, and headed toward Mt. Tabeguache. When I reached the saddle between Shavano and Tabeguache I looked back and did not see Don so I waited a few minutes. When he popped up from around a large boulder I could see the pain on his face. He had twisted his ankle pretty bad. I asked him if he could go on and he said that he could. Luckily he was only planning on climbing the first three peaks. The trip up Mt. Tabeguache from the saddle went quickly and I reached the summit at around 9:15 a.m. Don showed up shortly after that. He was able to climb pretty good but the descents hurt. We left the summit and traveled back down to the saddle. From there we followed the runners in front of us down a steep scree chute to Browns Creek. We crossed Browns Creek, refilled water bottles, and picked up a jeep road that took us up the south and then west side of Mt. Antero. When the jeep road reached a saddle at 13,200', Don told me that he was skipping Antero and heading over the saddle and down to the next aid station at Alpine. I continued up the jeep road to a ridge which took me over to the summit block. The summit block was a large pile of rocks but at least there was a climbers trail to follow. I reached the summit around 1:00 p.m. There were clouds building up to the south west but none close by. The trip down the summit block started up painful and got worse. The IT Band in my right knee started hurting. I have been plagued by that problem before so I started stretching every few minutes. It helped but not much. The descent would take a while but I would get there. It was around 3:30 p.m. when I reached Alpine where my crew was waiting. After eating, resting, and taking some ibuprofen I started getting ready for a night ascent of Mt. Princeton. It was about 4:15 p.m. when I left and started up Grouse Canyon. Near tree line it started to rain so I waited for 25 minutes and it passed. The lights went out just as I reached a ridge at 13,000'. So far my IT Band was holding up. I followed the ridge up over several bumps (I found out later that it would have been easier to go around them) to an unnamed mountain called Point 13,971. The night was clear and there was a full moon. Also, there were numerous bats flying around, something unique to Mt. Princeton. From the summit of Point 13,971, it is a short hike over to Mt. Princeton. I reached Mt. Princeton at 10:30 p.m. and called in my time. My experience on the summit is hard to describe. There is nothing quite like being on top of a 14'er at night. The whole Arkansas Valley spread out to the east under a full moon. A lightning display was taking place to the north-east. The descent took a longer than the ascent. The map showed a ridge heading to the north east down to the Maxwell Creek drainage that looked reasonable. I followed it for a while (IT Band complaining) until it got too steep. From there I traversed back to the left until I found a scree chute to descend to the relative flatness of Maxwell Creek. From there the route down to the Colorado Trail is straight forward. Once on the Colorado Trail it is about an 8 mile hike over to Avalanche Creek, the next aid station. It was 6:00 a.m. when I finally came into Avalanche Creek. My crew was waiting for me (complete with RV! :) ) and I decided to take a break to see if my knee would calm down. After a dose of ibuprofen, some scrambled eggs, and toast I slept for a couple of hours while my crew went off to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs. It was tempting to go with but I could not leave the course if I expected to continue. After sleeping for a couple of hours I got up, walked around, and tried self-massaging my IT Band. It seemed to help. My crew came back refreshed from their multi-hour soak and we had a late lunch. Plans started to firm up in my head and I decided to continue on to Mt. Yale and maybe Mt. Columbia and Mt. Harvard. I timed my departure so that I would see the sunrise from Mt. Yale. A coyote was howling as I started up the Colorado Trail to the east ridge of Mt. Yale. The sound was beautiful in the clear, still night. He (or she?) howled a few times as I passed and I did try and howl back but was ignored. I was climbing steady and soon found myself on the east ridge of Mt. Yale. From here it is a steep and rocky climb over several ridge bumps to the summit. As I looked up the ridge I could see several set of eyes looking back at me. I figured at this elevation they must be Big Horn Sheep or Mountain Goats. The climb went well except for the time I wandered too far to the left and ended up in some big, unstable boulders. Carefully I climbed back up to the ridge proper. The summit came shortlythereafter at about 5:25 a.m. I called in my summit report and heard on the radio one runner was experiencing hypothermia a few peaks further up the course. It was indeed very cold and windy, the coldest I had felt so far. I crouched behind a windbreak while I waited for my crew to respond to my summit report. As soon as they did, I was off down the west ridge toward Kroenke Lake. Descending off the west ridge of Mt. Yale was fun but my IT Band pain came back with a vengeance. I really had to slow down quite a bit on the really steep sections. There was one major ridge bump, Point 13,605' but it passed without too much difficulty. Once I was in the valley it was time to find the trail. After filling my hydration bladder and flushing a coyote out of a thicket, I headed north until I found the trail. It took me east past Kroenke Lake (gorgeous valley and lake!) toward Mt. Columbia. At 10,200' I started up Mt. Columbia. Unfortunately, I was not to climb this mountain. The 6:00 p.m. deadline was still several hours away but I did not want to inconvenience the organization by getting back too late. It was a hard decision but in hindsight I think that it was for the best. I was still climbing good but the descents were tough. The route to Mt. Columbia is very steep and would have taken my a long time in my present condition. So I hiked out to the North Cottonwood trailhead and met my crew. We traveled back to the RV and I took a shower before heading off to the post run dinner. Fred Vance was busily entering summit times when I arrived at the race headquarters. Richard Hypio was helping out. Fred's daughter was busy picking up pizzas. I enjoyed watching all of the runners trickling in. They all look tired but very alive. Even those that had been awake for 60+ hours. Amazing! I can't wait to try again next year. Definitely I will need to strengthen my IT Band but fitness wise I felt pretty good. My eating and drinking strategy was sound and I did not have any equipment problems. I do need to continue to scout the course also as I made a significant number of navigational errors. This is a fantastic event on an amazing course run by a dedicated group of volunteers. I can't thank them enough for continuing the tradition of Nolan's 14. I also want to thank my crew for all of their support. I could not have done it without them. Tim Erickson Littleton, CO If you are interested: Pack - Ultimate Directions Warpspeed Clothes - Marmot Windshirt, Marmot Precip jacket and pants, Patagonia silk weight tee shirt, Addidas shorts, Thorolo socks, Manzella windproof gloves, REI balaclava, REI cap, North Face wind pants Headlamp - Photon Fusion Handlight - Princeton Tek Surge Shoes - North Face Ultra 100 and OR gaitors Drink Mix - Clip 2 (carried in a hand bottle) Food - Power Bars, Mojo Bars (YUM), salty snack mix, sunflower seeds, Tumms Gel - Hammer Gel, Clif Shots Electrolyte Tablets - Succeed Survival - Bic lighter, OR bivy sack, compass, altimeter, appropriate maps, iodine tablets, FRS radio, extra batteries