This weekend my coworker Minesh, his wife Laura, and I climbed a couple of Colorado 14ers as training for a future climb of Mount Rainier. The first peak we climbed was one I had attempted before and failed, Handies Peak (14,048'). This time I succeeded, as did Minesh and Laura. We got started at about 6:30, were on the summit by 11, and back at camp before 2. Click on the photo for a gallery from the climb.

After the climb, we had lunch at Poker Alice in Lake City then drove up the fun 4WD road to the trailhead for Uncompahgre Peak. This mountain was the second 14er I ever climbed, back in June of 2004 with Robin. This reclimb marks only the third mountain I've ever climbed more than once (after Pajarito and Cabezon). We got to bed really early and were able to get up at 4:30 to start, though Minesh wasn't feeling well so we didn't get on trail until 6. We had to move slowly on account of Minesh's nausea, and he ended up bailing about a third of the way up the main snow slope before the summit block. Laura and I reached the summit just before 11. For some reason, I was feeling really strong on this hike. Maybe it was all that sunflower oil I accidentally dumped into my Mountain House the night before, making it a ~1000 calorie meal.

Click on the photo of Laura on the summit block to see the gallery. Scroll past all the photos from my previous trip to find the new ones.