Since this was our first winter 14er ascent, I’m going to focus on what we learned.

While we would normally share a ride, we drove separately to the trailhead and hiked 6 feet apart. We saw just 18 people over the course of the 7 miles. There were 4 cars in the parking lot at the 7 am start, 14 at the end. If you want to avoid the crowds, hike on a Wednesday. And drive carefully on the way to the trailhead – wildlife are rampant!

The forecast was 33° and sunny with scattered rain/snow showers later and a high near 50°. One of the best examples we’ve had yet of “mountain conditions change quickly”, so In the course of a single hike, we changed out:

Micro spikes to snowshoes – The first mile was crunchy packed snow and icy, so we wore micro spikes (you can find these for just $6 at WalMart in Frisco). Then we changed into snowshoes for the rest of the way up and all the way down. You’ll read other reports that you can make it with just spikes or boots alone, but it was WAY easier and really MUCH safer with the traction the snowshoes provided. I still slid onto my butt 5 times. We both had a way to quickly lash the snowshoes to the outside of our packs, which helped. Especially on the way down, it was much warmer, softer snow, even slushy when we finished. We kept the snowshoes on all the way to the Jeep.

Light leather or fleece gloves to ski gloves.

Lightweight hat ± midweight hat ± fleece hood ± shell hood.

Sunglasses to ski googles (1/3 and 2/3 since it was very windy above 12,000' and then snowy on the return)

Fleece or puffy to adding a shell or stripping down to just a long sleeve shirt at the end.

Other essential gear: Waterproof hiking boots (snow melts later), warm wicking socks. Wicking base layers top and bottom – the temperature changed a lot, and even though it was cold at times we were sweating. Hiking Poles – neither of us could imagine not having them, they helped with balance and traction constantly. Mid sized 40 liter packs proved just the right size for this day hike. Mine weighed in at 21 pounds to start counting 2 liters of water and poles. I used a hydration bladder that has not frozen on me in the last two months of snowshoeing and skiing. This time I went too long in between sips on the way up, and the bite valve froze. I put the whole tube and valve assembly into the pack close to my back, and after about 30 minutes it thawed. Next time I’ll put 1 liter in the bladder, and one liter in a bottle in the pack!

For navigation, we printed maps from Caltopo.com, downloaded the 14ers.com route to a Garmin GPS, and other info to the 14ers app on our phones. We’ve been lost before (remember Mt. Columbia?!), so we checked the route on the Garmin several times to make sure we weren’t off track. Even though the trail was obvious this day, we realized it would be so easy to get disoriented in a whiteout. The snow and wind would erase the previous tracks in no time. Plus in winter not all the skiers and hikers come down the same way, which can lead to confusing braids.

Other gear we always take: Leatherman, duct tape, extra phone battery and charger cable, headlamp + extra batteries, signal mirror, ACR Resqlink personal locator beacon, hand warmers, lighter, matches, toilet paper, heavy duty doggy poop bags (pack it in, pack it out!).

For food we just took snack bars and nuts, but one new thing we each brought was an 8 oz. can of cold brew coffee – that jolt of caffeine at the top really helped us old guys make it down!

We had a great day, and thank you 14ers.com for being such an awesome resource!