Tiger

This past Saturday my hiking partner and I summited Mt. Princeton - one of Colorado's many 14'ers. Hitting the trail probably an hour late meant that we had light and lovely weather on the ascent, but a stormy and fast descent. Here are two pictures relaying the climb up and down, showing the weather that had moved in.

Summiting involved working through much scree. First, wrapping alongside the basin, then along a ridge-line, and, finally, up a very steep slope that was exhausting.

Upon reaching the summit we noticed that a storm that had been moving to the northeast had veered off course, and was suddenly headed directly towards us. We'd been watching the storm clouds develop and had been ready to head down as soon as things got sketchy. However, the combination of pretty and seemingly innocuous clouds (see picture below), as well as a prevailing wind moving in the other direction made a summit attempt seem doable.

Soon, snow was falling, and our stay on the summit was literally less than two minutes long.

Having a good sense that staying exposed was not a wise course of action, we made our way down very quickly. Hearing thunder bursts directly overhead, lightning strikes coming down by the summit, my partner's hair standing on end due to the static electricity in the air, and the panicked descents off-trail of hikers behind us was unnerving to say the least. In retrospect, an earlier start would have been a lot wiser. Next 14'er, I suppose.