One of the big highlights of this year’s trip were the usual assaults on the 14er’s  The first attempt was quite a setback, as Darol, Jonathan, Elizabeth and Benjamin launched out from Frisco at just before 4:00 AM.  They arrived at the trailhead and were started just before 6:00 AM.  Making good time, they were above timberline by 8:30 AM.  However, the weather was questionable all along, and at around 12,000 feet, they regretfully decided to turn back.  They were surrounded by dense fog and cloud cover, and it just didn’t look like things would clear up.  Dejectedly, they descended back down.  This was the second time for failure on La Plata for Jonathan and Darol, who had tried the same mountain 4 years earlier.  Now to the word, “failure”, was it really?  For the Christian, there really is no failure.  Failure has much to do with the way that we view a potential setback.  Because of the hope and victory we have in Christ, there need be no view of failure for the believer.  Hence, Darol encouraged them to give it a shot on another day, and Donna was gracious enough to allow that.  4 days later, they set out again, and this time they tried a different route. This was a more direct route, and the weather couldn’t have been much better at the beginning.

This time, they made the peak at around 11:00 AM, and just before bad weather set in.  Elizabeth was an incredible trooper, as altitude sickness really hit her hard at around 13,500 feet. With 2 false summits, it was all she could do to stay on her feet.  You can also see that we brought along a visitor for this ascent.  Benjamin and Jonathan were trying to win a picture contest hosted by their orthodontist’s office.  Though they didn’t win, I would be surprised if anyone else tried any harder than they did.

The boys must have taken 50-75 pictures of Dr. Hull over the course of the trip!

Here we have a view from the peak.  Pictures just don’t do justice to the view when you are at 14,335 feet, on the 5th tallest mountain in Colorado.

On the way down,Elizabeth was quite nauseated.  Fortunately, once we got down to tree level, she was feeling much better.  Good enough for the required celebration trip to Punky’s in Buena Vista!

Way to go team!

Another reward for completing a 14er is always to see the name of that particular 14er on the list that is posted on the walking bridge going into Breckenridge.

In addition, the whole family gave a shot at climbing Mt. Democrat, a nearby 14er to Frisco that has a very high starting point.  Even Chloe started out in the backpack for this one. In the end, only the boys made the peak on this one, and Levi was able to claim his first 14er at age 5!  The mountain straight way in the background is the one that he tirelessly zipped up.

This peak had one of the best views of so many of the surrounding 14ers.  We were able to see another 20-25 of the other 14ers in the Rockies fro the summit.

At the bottom, we got a shot of each person holding up their current total of peaks completed (22, 11, 5 and 4).

Even though Chloe and Mommy didn’t make it up this time, they still look good in the pictures!