UIS XC Conquers Pikes Peak

July 16, 2019

5:27 a.m. The adventure begins

20 minutes later we are watching the sun come up

Early on in nice shaded woods

3 miles. Look at those smiles. “Fools. They have no idea what lies ahead.”

Sporting UIS gear

5 miles. We see Pikes Peak. But it still looks really far.

Is that Bigfoot on the right?

It’s a mirror image of the same pose

Abbey Road

Barr Camp

Arriving at Barr Camp after 2.5 hours

Halfway and happy to be here

Breakfast before we head out. Who brings tortillas on a hike?

Back to the grind

Notice they forge far ahead with no regard for their poor old coach

We are tired of these switchbacks

Notice those faces aren’t as happy anymore

Hey let’s pretend we are balancing this tree on our head

Timberline

So little oxygen, trees die. Let’s see what happens to people.

A break before we get above timberline

Our last views of trees up close

Going from trees to small shrubs

2 to go

It’s called Likes Peak

That’s the trail we came up. Notice how far the trees are.

1 to go

They look much better than I feel

Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care anymore

These rocks may not look big but they feel big

The Summit

Elated to make it

Looking out from the summit

Looking back down

The Pasley Files

July 10. This trip we pushed the pace early so I didn’t have the energy to take as many pictures.