Roland and I awoke at 3 am and were on the road from Boulder at 3:30 am. We took the CO 285 which was a beautiful drive, but was a long 3.5 hrs. We arrived at the trailhead at 7 am and were on the trail at 7:30. The weather was beautiful but the wind was going to be an issue. This was the first trip that we brought snowboards for the descent, and frustratingly my board sliced right through the straps holding it on my backpack. I was just going to ditch it but Roland offered to carry it at long as he could. We aren't quite sure on time, but we exited the trees at around 9 am.
The wind in the gully was really strong, and Roland was struggling pretty bad with the boards, as they were acting like sails in the wind. I took over carrying the boards. We made our way up the steepest section of the route. With the boards this was tough. I was almost ripped off my feet a few times. Once I got to the top I decided to ditch the boards since the wind only seemed to get stronger. Wish I hadn't though cause the wind only got better toward the top. We made our way up the gentler slopes below the summit and soon were on top.
We summited at 10:40 am. Three miles and 4600 ft of elevation gain in 3 hr 10 min. We stayed on top for about 20 min. and contemplated climbing to Tabeguache Peak (14155 ft.), but we opted not too.
We got back to our boards, put them on and road down the short but steep chute back to the trees. We were back to the car by 1 pm and home by 4 pm. All in all a good day.
Thats so sick, you've been talking about that for a while!
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