While we were at the bar, the room inexplicably swelled from around 10 people to fifty in a matter of minutes. We couldn't figure out what was going on, as most of the newcomers weren't ordering drinks. Turns out, somebody had organized a game of Capture The Flag through the streets of Aspen, and the J-Bar was the meeting point. Try pulling THAT off at Perry's Clubhouse.
As attractive as a little beer-fueled chicanery sounded, our group opted instead to polish off a remarkable three orders of nachos from the Cantina before heading over to first Aspen High School home football game of the fall. While not quite as intimidating a venue as Trenton High, the field at the high school is beautiful, and to my surprise, fans were allowed to stand or sit right up against the back of the endzone. You would think this was a recipe for a disasterous fan injury, but then you've never seen the Aspen Skiers play football. For the second striaght week they were held scoreless, leaving the endzone and all spectators in pristine condition. While the loss dropped the Skiers to 0-2, the home team had the last laugh. After the game, the Aspen parents pooled the spare change they found in in their pockets, purchased the visiting school, and turned it into a community shoe closet.
Saturday started bright and early, as Lauren, her friends Chelsea and Natalie, and I headed to yoga at 8 AM. From there it was a quick shopping spree downtown, as Labor Day weekend brings the clearance prices on all the leftover ski equipment. After picking up some essentials, we regrouped for our first tough hike of the fall, a 2200 foot climb up Red Mountain via the Sunnyside trail.
I ran to the top, and then turned back to check on my wife, who's previous record climb had been roughly half of what faced her on Sunnyside. As you would expect, she was going strong, and summitted with little trouble in a just over an hour. Little did we know, however, that our real work was just beginning.
At the summit, our new friend Chris informed us that we could avoid the steep and dangerous descent down Sunnyside if we chose to continue along the trail down into Hunter Valley, where it would eventually reach downtown. He gave us our options: hike down Sunnyside in the heat, risk injury, and make it down in 1:15, or take the "gentler," shaded path to Hunter Valley and make it down in 1:40.
As a group, we opted for the more scenic, less perilous route, figuring an extra 25 minutes was certainly worth it. Bad decision. Our guide was slightly off on his estimate, missing the mark by a mere 2 hours and roughly 7 miles. That's right, it took us over three and a half hours to descend Red Mountain into Hunter Valley and reach downtown Aspen. As you can imagine, by the time we reached the city the girls were on the verge of a mutiny. They had never hiked longer than 45 minutes, yet had just been duped into five hours and 10 miles of nonstop movement. Chris may never, ever recover.
When we finally made it back to the car, the exectuive decision was made to grab bathing suits for a much needed hot tub. That brought some measure of life back to the group, but something was still missing: sustenance. From the hot tub it was straight to the Hickory House, where I watched three girls weighing a combined 330 pound put down a truly disgusting amount of barbecue ribs.
Lauren and I pretty much crashed right away, and my wife didn't stir until nearly 10 the next morning. After a re-energizing breakfast of pancackes, we decided to go for another hike. Lauren, Chelsea, Natalie, and I would hike the Ute Trail, which leads you 1000 feet up a mountain adjacent to the ski resort. From there you can continue on another 2000 feet to the top of Aspen Mountain, where the gondola awaits to whisk your tired legs back to the bottom. The girls would hike the first part, and then I would go it alone the rest of the way.
Here is the triumphant trio atop the Ute Trail. That's Chelsea in the front and Natalie in the back. They hail from New York and South Philly respectively, thus confirming my theory that 98% of this country was born in a 100 mile radius centered around Morristown, NJ.
What happened next was shocking, to say the least. My wife, who prior to moving to Aspen would grow weary hiking the steep driveway at her parents house, decided she didn't want to stop. She wanted to make a push for the top of Aspen Mountain. Her optimism seemed to rub off on Natalie, who decided to give it a go as well.
Not wanting to repeat Chris' mistake from Saturday, I gave the girls the hard truth: it was a tough, steep, relentless climb to the top, with little shade from the midday son. The views were beautiful along the way and truly inspiring from the top, but they wouldn't be easily earned. Above 10,000 feet the air would get thin, and the total climb they were attempting was a full 1000 feet longer than anything they had attempted.
Undeterred, the girls told me to lead the way.
Here's Lauren and Natalie at around 10,300 feet, or roughly 2,300 feet into the climb. These were the first smiles I had seen in around an hour, as the steepest part of the hike had finally led us over to the ski resort. They are standing on Summer Road, a service road that runs the full face of Aspen Mountain. We connected with the road about 3/5 of the way up the mountain, and as it is significantly less steep than the single-track that led us there, the girls were able to finally do some celebrating. This was the first of several moments were my wife stopped, turned around to take in what she had done, and said aloud, "I can't believe I did this!"
About 45 minutes later, we reached the top. The girls were exhausted, and deservedly so. Despite having zero climbing background, they had just completed a 28 hour stretch in which they had hiked over 5,400 vertical feet in 16 miles.
Once at the top, the weary warriors headed straight to the sundeck for food and water, only to stumble upon the remnants of a wedding reception. If you look at the picture above, you can see the tent in the background where the band was set up. Nothing like doing the Electric Slide at 11,000 feet.
Here is Lauren and Natalie, taking in their just rewards. I really can't express just how proud I am of my wife. With each success, it's clear she is redefining her perceived physical limits. Only two weeks ago, Lauren wanted to quit halfway up the Ute Trail. Today she cruised up the same trail, then threw in another 2 hours and 2000 feet of climbing for good measure. To watch Lauren at the top, swelling with pride as she looked out at what she had accomplished, was a moment I'll never forget.
