I'm back from a superb mountaineering/backpacking trip. Laura, Minesh, Laura's summer student Andy, and I spent four days up in Chicago Basin climbing 14ers and hangin' out with mountain goats.

Andy walking towards Sunlight and Windom

The trip was pretty epic in that Andy and I managed to climb 3.5 fourteeners (Eolus, Windom, and Sunshine; North Eolus doesn't really count) in two days, after having packed heavy camp packs in six miles and 3,000' of gain. It was the most physical effort I've ever undertaken in such a short period of time; the 10,300' of gross elevation gain beats my previous record (6,300' on Kit Carson) by quite a bit. We hiked a total of 28 miles. We also rode the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which was interesting.

Anyway, I'm all kinds of sore now and I leave tomorrow to go make fun of Dan be Dan's best man.