14'ers in the Sangre de Cristo's

For two straight weekends in July, Team Hayduke was fortunate enough to find itself in the stunning Sangre de Cristo range of southern Colorado. Bordered on the west by Great Sand Dunes National Park and the San Luis Valley, and hemmed in on the east by the breath-taking Wet Mountains, the Sangres are a very unique and beautiful range. Here are a few images from Google Earth that give an overview perspective. Overview. Crestone Needle & Peak. Kit Carson.

The way the mountain rise directly from the surrounding plains with basically no foothills is what I like most about the Sangres. The conglomerate rock is really fun as well. It's crazy to think that those huge walls were once the bed of a prehistoric river.

The first weekend Aaron & Arne climbed the Ellingwood Ledges route on the Crestone Needle. It's a really fun route, and one of the better moderate rock routes on any 14er in Colorado. Here's the GALLERY of the day on the Needle.

The next weekend Team Hayduke packed the truck with Meredith, Rebecca, Steve, Aaron, and their fearless leader Hayduke. Not only was Kit Carson to be Rebecca's first 14er, but it would also be HER FIRST TIME EVER BACKPACKING! But I know her, so I wasn't that worried.

Here's the pics from that weekend, and here's the MONTAGE!!! that covers both trips.

4th of July '09

Certainly one of Team Hayduke's very favorite holidays, we were really looking forward to the 4th this year. We began with two days of kayaking and rafting on the Arkansas with our good friends Brandy and Spencer. We ran Brown's Canyon on Friday and Pinnacle Rock Saturday. Meredith even got behind the oars a couple times.

After a couple days of paddling we met up with our long-lost friends from the ATL, Jordan and Melanie and their beautiful malamute Duncan. Jordan got a job professing at Georgia State a couple years ago, and they moved out to the dirty-dirty the same time we did for nursing school. We spent many fun nights together reminiscing about the Colorado Rockies and playing Dance Dance Revolution until our calves ached. They normally spend the summer relaxing in Estes Park, so hopefully we'll get to see them a lot during the coming weeks.

After camping near Alma we climbed the very leisurely 14er Mount Democrat. Melanie had just returned from two weeks in China and another week in Thailand, so she was concerned she might not have her mountain lungs/legs back yet, but she did great. We miss you guys!

See the PHOTO GALLERY. Montage to follow!