On Sunday, January 16th, my friends and I decided to tackle La Plata – a 14,336 foot mountain in the heart of the Sawatch Range in Colorado. I’ve done a winter 14er summit before, almost a year ago today when we conquered Mt. Quandary. It was one of the toughest things I’d ever done and I knew I wanted to conquer another peak.
A couple of my friends had never attempted a 14er EVER and so it was their InspirACTION to move out of their comfort zones and try their hand at La Plata.
We really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. I checked the trip reports before we left and some fellas indicated that there was a snowpack trail all the way up through the tree line – and beyond that was pretty easy sailing up the rocks and onto the ridge leading up towards the summit.
La Plata in the Summer
After some debate we turned around and decided it would be best to hike back down to the trailhead and try again another day. We were proud at what we’d accomplished and I have to say, we learned quite a bit.
Things we learned:
- Start earlier. We had a pretty late start around 8:30 am and probably would have experienced greater success beginning at 5am
- Don’t believe everything you read on the trip reports! You never know, the people who went before you might be absolute beasts and they may have expressed it being much easier than you may encounter. Also, conditions can change day-to-day
- “Be Prepared” – The Boy Scout Motto. Big surprise, I used to be a Boy Scout and I love the outdoors. We were fairly unprepared and had we had snow shoes, and gaitors to keep the snow out of our boots, we would have stood a better chance. It’s better to have more than you need than to come up short.
- When everyone in the group is questioning whether or not we should continue – it’s important to trust intuition and realize there’s a REASON we’re all worried – and its best to play it safe.
Now, to anyone who has watched the video and read this post in its entirety – I hope you understand that while the portrayal is light and it looked like everyone had a good time – it is only because we were lucky and did not encounter disaster or injury.
We were EXTREMELY underprepared and made some very dumb calls in leaving some of our extra gear behind. Additionally, I am not an expert mountaineer and it was very irresponsible to even consider bringing newbies with us on the adventure. The peacefulness of those woods and that grandiose mountain lull you into a false sense of security where things can quickly go sour.
It is my caution to you that you do EVERYTHING within your power to become more prepared before attempting something like this. Do some treks in the summer, familiarize yourself with the kind of physical caliber you have to reach, get avalanche trained, talk to someone with better experience who can teach you the necessary gear to bring. I will say it again – we got LUCKY nothing terrible happened.
When it comes to winter mountaineering, there just “aint no fuckin’ around.” Please, do not take this lightly.
