Warm Weather 13er Summit

High Altitude Itineraries
Written By Jason Kolaczkowski

Sample Itinerary

High Altitude.jpg

Itinerary for Our Warm Weather 13er (a mountain at 13,000 feet altitude or taller) Summit

All itineraries need to placed into a context. The kids would have been five years old at the time, limiting the amount of ground and vertical we could ask them to cover. This would also be a “first” 13er, so we would have wanted to limit the variables: make it easy footing, low mileage, and limited vertical gain. In other words, make the altitude the only thing “new” for the kids. We would have hiked in the summer, at an altitude fluctuating between about 11,000 and 13,000 feet (summit at 13,006’). About a third of the hike would be on class 1 trail and the rest across native grasses with a little alpine tundra. There would have been no water sources in route, so we would carry our own water. As always, we would follow Leave-No-Trace principles. Conditions would be dry, but afternoon thunderstorms are a constant threat above tree line in the summer; so we would want to ensure we were back below tree line before noon.

Day -1: Packing and food preparation

Day 1: Segment One

  • 2:00am - wake up; gear up; load car

  • 3:00am - drive to trailhead (breakfast in route)

  • 5:00am - arrive at trailhead, gear up

  • 5:15am -begin summit bid (~2.5mi)

  • 6:45am - above treeline (~1.0mi)

  • 9:45am - summit (13,006’); snack

  • 10:15pm - begin return hike (~2.5mi)

  • 12:00pm - back to treeline (~1.5mi)

  • 1:00pm - back to trailhead (~1.0mi)

  • 3:00pm - arrive at home (lunch in route); unpack

Jason Kolaczkowski