hiking – Page 3 – Globitrotter

Hawaii

Our two weeks in Hawaii we regarded as a “vacation in the vacation”. Although we did some camping, hiking and sightseeing on the Big Island we have spent many days just hanging around the hotel, pool or beach without doing much at all. It has been great since the weather has been perfect with tropical temperatures without being too hot. The water is also warm enough for me to swim in without any larger issues (I really do not like cold water).

The pool at the Sheraton Waikiki. If you do decide to go to Waikiki we can really recommend this hotel. On the more expensive side but well worth it.

About a week we have been hanging in Waikiki which might be the most famous place in Hawaii with a nice beach, an abundance of restaurants and bars and hotels. The first two days before we went to the Big Island we actually got two nights in a luxury hotel free of charge from the travel agency where we booked our flights. That was really a treat and we hardly left the hotel for the entire time. They had a very pool by the beach and nice restaurants.

On the Big Island the main theme was volcanoes but we managed to spend some time on the coast as well. Kailua-Kona, on the west coast, turned out to be a very cosy little town with nice sunsets. If you want to escape the crowds in Waikiki this might be an alternative. Only thing is they don’t have a lot of nice, long, sandy beaches on the Big Island which might be what you are looking for in Hawaii.

Sunset in Kailua-Kona.

Unfortunately the volcanoes were not very active at this point. There was no place we could see lava which we were hoping for. We did have a pretty cool outing to the top of Mauna Loa, one of the two high volcanoes on the island. It is higher than 42oo m and we camped on the summit. It was hard carrying everything up there. Obviously we are not used to the altitude anymore after spending more than 2 months on sea level… We made it eventually and it was a lot more windy than we thought. But the views were nice and worth the effort.

Pinching the tent at the summit at sunset.

At the summit with the crater in the background. It is always cold above 4000 m, even in Hawaii.

For the last 5 days at Waikiki we had decided to treat ourselves a nicer hotel with a balcony for lazy mornings and the afternoon glas of wine or beer. We booked a balcony with pool view to avoid facing a street with lots of traffic. We were upgraded and ended up a bit higher so that we could also see the sea from our room. Nice.

The pool from our balcony at night.

The view from the balcony in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we leave for New Zealand where it is spring and probably about the same temperatures as in California. But summer is coming, again… 🙂

Here you can see more images from Hawaii:

Hawaii

Images from Jasper National Park

Before we headed out to the coast and took the ferry to Vancouver Island we spent a week or so in Jasper National Park. We climbed a few peaks, bathed in hot springs and had beer in downtown Jasper. Here are photos from our adventures.

Jasper National Park

Fish spotting

After hiking three quarters of an hour through forest we reached the Bear Falls. Andy had a cold and did not think it was very much fun at all. It was a sunny day but on this side of the river there was shade and quite chilly. I was afraid we had gone there for nothing, expecting a lot and having to hike back disappointed.

We sat down on the rocks, had a snack and watched the water fall. My tactic was to look at one spot and wait. If you have ever tried looking at running water for a long time you would have noticed that it screws up your vision. Everything starts moving when you look at something else afterwards. I looked for a long time and was almost ready to give up. But then there was the first one. The first salmon that tried to get up the water fall. He just suddenly jumped out of the water and up what looked impossible to climb.

Our hopes had been to catch a bear hunting for fish in the stream but the bears were nowhere to be found this day. But looking at the fish as they tried to get upstream was definitely worth the effort. There was salmon and trout as far as we know. Some were a lot larger than I had imagined. My guess is that they were around 60 cm and others maybe only 20 cm. It turned out to be very amusing to watch them fighting against the raging water. At this spot they tried to pass a step that was about 1 meter high. It did not look like any of them made it but they probably did. In some cases though it was obvious that they were washed down the falls and had to start all over again.

A number of years ago the water in the river was reduced due to upstream industry. It made this waterfall impossible to climb and the amount of fish was also reduced. Luckily they decided to do something about it and built a staircase for the fish. Now the numbers are back to where they were before.

We stayed at the falls for an hour or two, spotting one fish after the other jumping more or less successfully through the water. After a while though the cold got to us and we hiked back through the beautiful forest.

Hiking in Grand Teton National Park

After visiting an over crowded Yellowstone it was nice coming to Grand Teton where it was easier to escape the crowds. Although some places were also here very popular, like Inspiration point.

The second day in Grand Teton we decided to do a proper hike. I thought we had decided that anything more than 25 km was a too long day hike. But somehow we ended up hiking a loop that was totally 32 km and with an elevation gain of about 1800 m. Surprisingly it went very well. I was still fresh after 25 km and it was only the last few km that were hard. For some reason it is always the last few km no matter how long the hike was. I am guessing there are two reasons we so easily walked over 30 km. First reason is that the maximum elevation was only 10700 feet and not over 14000 feet that we are used to from Colorado. Second reason is that the views were amazing, this is the kind of hike that just makes you happy. We passed small lakes, high mountains, wild animals and everything was surrounded with an incredible amount of wild flowers. It was just so beautiful everywhere.

Here are images from our Grand Teton stay.

Once we got down I was pretty tired though and it was nice to have some dinner along Jackson Lake in the evening sun.

To hike a 14er

By now we have been on the peak of half of the 55 14ers in Colorado. You might wonder why we have to climb that many. Once you have hiked a few you get hooked and want more. Although they are all about the same height they are all different. The hike itself can be easy walking or partly technical climbing. There are usually several ways up a 14er and we have chosen both easy and harder routes. The harder ones are the favorites since they feature less people and more fun. The view is different on each peak even if they sometimes are very close to each other. Sometimes there are green rolling hills around, sometimes rugged ridges and rock faces. The crowd is always different, you might be alone on the peak or trying to find a spot to sit down among dozens of people.

Below is a photo album from this years adventures in Colorado.

Since there are many thunderstorms in the mountains this time of year it takes some planning to avoid getting stuck on a peak when lightning strikes. According to our experience the clouds starts forming around 10 am and usually the first rain starts somewhere between 12 and 2 pm. We do not like hiking in rain so naturally to avoid it we get up very early in the morning to make it to the top when the sky is still blue and start heading down when we see small fluffy clouds that in no time will transform into dark rain clouds. This means that for a longer hike where more peaks are combined or there is a very long approach we start hiking before 4 am. Just after 5 am it is light enough to hike without a head lamp and usually the first part of the hike is not so difficult to find. Another good thing about starting early is that it is cool and very nice hiking temperature. For easier hikes we might not start until between 6 and 7 am.

On the trail as the sun is rising. (Mt Bierstadt)

The weather seem to be something that people does not care much about until they are in it. We are usually among the first ones on the trail. Does people not read the weather report? Have they not seen what the weather has been like the past weeks? It is always the same according to our experience. On basically every peak most people will barely make it to the top to get a good look at the view before the clouds roll in. These people will most probably get caught in the rain coming down but will at least be off the peak before the thunderstorms hit. Then there is always the guy we call the 11 o’clock man (or woman). Usually this is one person hiking alone who starts heading up the mountain around 11 am as we are almost down again. He will definitely not make to the top before it starts raining and will have to turn around without even reaching the peak unless he wants to risk getting hit by lightning. This must be very frustrating, going through so much for nothing. We are equally fascinated every time.

It is very obvious which are the popular peaks and not. On a few peaks we have been alone, maybe meeting a few people on the way, and on other there have been crowds. The popular ones are naturally those where you can reach a trailhead with a normal 2wd car and still do not have to hike too far. It is amazing though what people put their 2wd’s through to reach a trailhead. We saw one very sporty car, probably even lower than the original model, on a very obvious 4wd trailhead. He must have damaged his car driving to and from this trailhead. Is it worth it?

One of the more popular peaks, Grays Peak.

Clothing is another interesting thing. I think it is quite cold on a 14er, the wind is usually strong and the air cold. I could not make it without long pants and long sleeves, usually a windstopper on top of a long sleeved and a short sleeved merino wool shirt. The most Americans though are wearing short (for girls usually very short) pants and often tank tops or t-shirts. My body would scream and refuse to work if I would wear that. I can not possibly hike fast enough to warm my body during these conditions. Maybe on the peak they will put a thin wind jacket on before they hurry down again after taking the obligatory peak photos. It was very obvious as we were hiking Mt Shavano. A lady started just after us and had about the same pace. As the sun came out we stopped to put on sun block on our faces and put on a extra jacket because we were now above the tree line and the temperature had dropped and the wind was chilly. She stopped at the same time, also to put sun block on but she also took her jacket off and zipped off her pants! Does the American bodies work differently or are we just incredibly cold??

The summary is that we can only warmly recommend hiking 14ers in Colorado. It is a beautiful and friendly area with peaks that will fit everybody.

10 14ers in 6 hiking days

It might sound better than it is. We actually did 10 peaks in 9 days of which 3 were resting days and 6 hiking days. That means we did 3 peaks one day, 2 peaks 2 days and 1 peak 3 days. It was our goal to do another 10 14ers this year, like we did last year. However, when we have read our guide book a bit more carefully we found a few peaks that just sound like fun so we decided to aim for another 8 peaks. That will bring us up to a total of 28 peaks and just about half of the 55 14ers in Colorado. I believe we will be content with that for now and have to come back for the rest of them another time.

We believe that we are making a pretty good job climbing these 14ers. Most people that we have talked to hike maybe one or two a year or so. But there are also those who are quite extreme. One guy we have read about did all 55 peaks in 10 days!! He trained for years and had a crew of 6 or so people supporting him during this time. He was also true to the 3000 feet rule which we have not been. This means that for one hike to count you have to climb at least 3000 feet for each peak. We have not done this since some peaks are close to each other and you do not have to loose that much altitude to reach the next peak. We are also willing to use our car in any way to make it easier. Our goal is just to reach all summits at some point. We will probably try and do the rest of the peaksduring a longer holiday in a few years.

So far this year we have hiked Mt Sneffels, Blanca, Ellingwood, Missouri, Oxford, Belford, Huron, Shavano, Tabeguache and Massive.

Mt Sneffels was the easy first peak. We could drive up to over 12000 feet which made it an easy hike.

Blanca and Ellingwood were hard because of the very long approach along a 4×4 road. But the peaks were nice and had some fun scrambling at the end. Also the last part of the hike was nice along a number of lakes.

Missouri, Oxford and Belford were 3 peaks in one day and this was a hard one because of the length and elevation gain. After Missouri we had to drop quite a lot in elevation before we could make it up towards Oxford. It was about as long as Blanca and Ellingwood but even more elevation gain.

The view from Mt Missouri as the sun is rising.

The ridge over to Mt Belford from Mt Oxford.

Mt Huron, which we did the day after, was like a rest day. Short and easy hike, beautiful grassy slopes and a nice view from the top. I would definately recommend this one for a first 14er.

The nice trail up Mt Huron.

Shavano and Tabeguache we climbed together. It was a fairly easy hike but also quite boring. A lot of it was in the forest that seemed endless. Shavano has a pretty cool peak and the hike along its ridge towards Tabeguache was fun. The drive up to the trail head was also very nice.

The sun is rising as we are hiking up Mt Shavano.

On Mt Shavano.

The view towards north from Mt Tabeguache.

Mt Massive was interesting. We chose to climb the south west slopes because we could drive to the trailhead with our car. This way is shorter but steeper than the standard way. This particular day we were happy to have chosen this way because of the traffic on the standard trail. As we reach the top there was a group of about 10 there which left a few minutes after we got there. From the top we could see the standard route and the amount of people coming up. After a little while a teenager reaches the top and says he is the first of a group of about 50 (!) coming up. This was the time to leave and head back down before the rain clouds came in. Mt Massive is the second highest 14er and very close to Leadville which is a popular place to stay. It was obvious how much more popular this peak is although there are so many other peaks in the area.

On our 20th peak, Mt Massive.