This picture was taken at the summit of Castle Peak.  Many of you close to us have heard the story and so applicable to our mindset Monday quote! 

 

When Chad and I decided to move to Minnesota, we also decided to take on the ultimate grand slam! Climbing all 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado! 

 

Why we decided to do this after we moved to Minnesota I’ll never know! Being able to bag some of those peaks while living in the state would’ve been a whole lot easier on the logistics! But we never do things the easy way! 🤦‍♀️

 

Any who… we decided to take on Castle Peak in 2014. It was late July we had a beautiful camping spot in a lush green valley just outside of Aspen. Anyone who climbs knows you have to get started early. You should be on and off the peak by mid to late morning because afternoon thunder storms roll in and it is not a safe place to be! 

 

We got off to a great start. About 5 AM headed up the 4 Wheel Drive Road to make our way to the trail head. 2 miles down the four-wheel-drive road we realized there was no more road. It had been washed out. So we made our way back to camp, parked the forerunner and started the 12 mile trek up the road to the trail head!

 

As you can imagine hiking 12 miles just to get to the trail head was going to complicate things.  It was a beautiful day, we scurried as fast as we could and felt like we’d be OK. 

 

Heading up the trail we continue to see people coming down…. One by one everyone had bagged the peak and was on their way down.  

 

The sky started to cloud over and get dark. Soon not a single person was left on the trail.  We’re looking at the distance, wondering if we can make it in time. We are now above tree line and all there is is huge granite boulders.  As we continue up the final push to the summit we see metal plaques drilled to the granite boulders in memory of people who have died on the mountain. Struck by lightning 😳. The sky is getting darker, we’re starting to hear thunder, there’s lightning in the distance… The drops begin to fall. Within five minutes it’s pouring rain and there is more lightning than we’ve ever experienced! 

 

Clearly, we decide even though we are sooooo close to the peak we have to go down. Or do we hunker down and try to get low?!?? We’re so torn about what to do. And yet the plaques just keep sticking in our mind. Did they hunker down, did they stay and that’s why they didn’t make it!?!  

 

We’re doing our best to make our way down these huge granite boulders that were now soaked and slippery with rain.  Hands and shins getting shredded from slipping and falling on the boulders.  Lightning crashing all around us! So close that our hair was full of static!! 😳

 

Neither of us have ever been so terrified! By the time we got to the bottom of the boulder field we had experienced such an adrenaline rush we were both absolutely shaking!  Chad had expended so much energy just getting down those huge boulders he could not even stand up. The only way for him to be upright was to lock his knees out completely. The moment he would go to bend his knees he would collapse!  

 

And we were only at the bottom of the Boulder field. We had the entire 6 mile trail and 12 miles of road to hike back to camp! 

 

It was terrifying, demoralizing, and humbling! 

 

As we got back to camp thankful to be alive and in a safe place we questioned whether we would ever climb another mountain!  The next day after a good night’s rest we got up, headed into Snowmass to do some mountain biking & had an absolutely beautiful day riding the Rim Trail! 

 

The conversation kept leading to… “are we going back up!” We knew we had to. We knew we had to! We had to get back on the horse, climb the mountain and face our fears!  We had to continue to remind ourselves we are capable, we are resilient, we can do this! Not allowing that fear to take over was so difficult. 

 

We want to remind you that As YOU go through life… climbing and ascending difficult moments please remind yourself…. 

 

YOU ARE CAPABLE.

YOU ARE RESILIENT.

YOU CAN DO THIS.