Pikes Peak Climb

The Nitty-Gritty

Height: 14,110 ft.

Elevation Change: 7,410 ft.

Distanced Hiked: 12.9

Time: 10.5 hours

Date Climbed: July 22, 2012

Climbing Partners: Mia Mastracchio, AJ Yingling, Will Yingling, Megan Yingling, Paul Yingling

We started at the Manitou Springs Trail Head and followed the Barr Trail all the way to the top. 

The Story

We rose bright and early around 4 a.m. to start getting ready. It was all business and excitement as we were eating and loading up. AIS (ass in seat) was 5:00 a.m., but we weren’t in the car until about 5:20. It was fairly quiet in the car on the ride there. I think we were all waking up and contemplating what was ahead. I was feeling the pressure of being the person who had done all the research for the trail.

We arrived and were out of the car and moving by 6:00 a.m. We started walking and were moving pretty quickly, we saw the sun rise a couple minutes into the hike. It was beautiful and a reminder of exactly how early it was. In my head it was just the time we had to start, I wasn’t tired. That would come later.

We were moving fast for a couple hours, averaging about 2.5 miles per hour. After a couple hours Megan’s ankle was really swelling and hurting. She had major surgery about 6 months ago. So at that point Megan and Dad decided to turn back. Mia, AJ, Will and I were ready to soldier on. We had to do some backpack rearranging. As we were pausing, we talked about some ridiculous projections of how long it would take us to get up. I expected between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., we didn’t make it to the top until 4:30 p.m. Turns out elevation can be a pretty significant factor.

We moved along pretty nicely, taking a few short breaks here and there. Mia had an app on her iPhone that told us how fast we were moving and how far we had gone. We called her Amy, every five minutes she updated us. Sometimes when we were getting tired I would wait until she spoke up again, then stop for a minute. We had to turn her off because Mia’s phone was dying. We were averaging about 2 miles per hour with our stops, and still feeling good. Maybe a little extra winded because of the elevation, but nothing too bad.

A little after 10 a.m. we got to Barr Camp, which is about halfway up at 10,200 ft. We ate lunch among the chipmunks and were very ready for it. I was hungry and knew we still had a while to go.

 Barr Camp was a little camp nestled among the trees (and the overly friendly chipmunks), a retired couple runs the place. We each carried about 3 liters of water and all of us had finished half of that or more by lunch. To refill at Barr Camp we had to rent a filter for $5 and pump all of containers full. It took about a half hour, which was way longer than we hoped to stop for lunch. It also was a little tiring for the arms.

At the end of lunch, around 11 a.m., we called my mom, who was planning to meet us at the top to drive us down. We told her we would be at the top in four hours. I thought this was a fairly reasonable estimate, we had been going at a steady 2 miles per hour since the beginning without too much trouble. I had been leading up to this point, AJ lead us out of Barr Camp and then things started to get hard.

We were at our pre-lunch pace for a while and quickly realized it was getting a little harder. The trail was still the same incline and difficulty, we were going the same pace. The only explanation was the increasing elevation. At 10,200 ft. we were higher than I have ever been on foot. That is higher than any mountain we climbed in Germany, and higher than the Zugspitze (highest mountain in Germany). For a couple hours after lunch the trial was still nice, we were breathing hard and struggling, but still joking during breaks. The confusion and fuzziness of elevation hadn’t set in yet but we had started to keep an eye out for it. The views were beautiful and you could really tell how high we were getting. We were getting close to the tree line and that was our next big goal. It took longer than we expected but we made it.  

From here on out distance we were climbing was a little confusing. Will took the lead at some point after lunch, and he kept a good pace for us. The pace was a little slower and steady, it felt sustainable. We kept moving and were tired but okay. We started talking about the phases of hiking, when the swearing would start, and when the very serious complaining would start. It is easy to talk about these things when you still have air to spare in your lungs.

We didn’t get any signs until after the tree line, and the suffering makes things a little blurry. With three miles left, I know we were tired and I know it was about to get really tough. I had read and heard that the last fourth of the hike was by far the toughest and that proved to be absolutely true. We were stopping often, and having trouble catching our breath when we did stop. I had a headache, and Mia said my eyes were swelling. I know they were heavy and a little hard to keep open.


 We all had strong moments. Will did a great job keeping us moving for a lot of the time. Mia was encouraging and upbeat. AJ had the quiet determination needed to keep us going. We all had our low moments too. Will rolled his ankle, Mia was having trouble with her hip flexor, AJ hurt his knee. I stepped on an unsteady rock, when it rolled I decided I didn’t have the energy to catch myself. So I fell, a guy hiking behind me was very concerned and helped me up. Towards the end I had a really hard time. I was nauseous and dizzy, we all had dizzy spells and confusion that made it hard to find the right words for whatever we were talking about. We were swapping back and forth leads with another group of guys, they were nice and having just as much trouble as us. Which was great because so many people ran, I mean literally ran, and then turned around and ran past us down. They were super human freaks, I will never understand.

We reached a sign that said two miles, and as were approaching it we guessed (and hoped and prayed) that it was .5 miles, or maybe 1 mile. Two miles, cue swearing. Cue throwing rocks in the general direction of the sign. Two miles, after already hiking 11, was long and it took about two hours. We started setting little goals, maybe a couple hundred yards away. We would say, “When we reach that big boulder there, we can stop and take a breath.”

We couldn’t drink from the camelbacks while we were walking because that would mean our nose had to do all the breathing, that wasn’t working at all. The little goals helped, it was still taking forever. Our feet were barely moving, but we were going up. We knew we were getting close, a really nice runner came down and said, “1.3 miles guys, your doing great.” His encouragement came a great time. He kept us going for a bit.

The last sign said “16 Golden Steps,” when I saw that I knew we could do it. Up until that point, I wasn’t sure. The Steps were a short distance with a lot of elevation increase. After just a hundred yards of walking, we were way above that Golden steps sign. By that point we had decided crying at the top would be a completely appropriate reaction.

We just kept pushing on and then I saw my mom waiting on a rock. I was so happy, I kind of collapsed on a rock a bit. Then let out a pretty pathetic “Help!” The entire rest of the way, I looked at my feet and thought about what we had done. Walked more than 12 miles, climbed a fourteener for the first time, climbed the mountain in Colorado with the biggest elevation change.

We finally got to the top, and we hurt. We were tired and we had done it. That was all that mattered

Taken as soon as we all reached the top. 

We planned to feast at the top but exhaustion and nausea made that less appealing. Getting below 10,000 feet was top priority. We came home and nursed our wounds. It was hard being proud when it took us so long, and so many people ran past us. But when we were out the top, a cog train full of people came up. I felt deservedly superior to the riders.

I never really smiled big and basked in the awesomeness of what we did until the next day. My mom and Megan told two different (fairly fit) local people that we climbed Pikes Peak, and they were proud and said it was impressive and that they hadn’t done it.

I also didn’t realize how much elevation fuzzied our thinking until the next couple days. We talked about a bunch of things, and giggled at very silly things. I can’t think of a single one of them. There are no quotes of the day or big lessons learned because our brains were oxygen deprived.

I am so so proud of us. It was by no means fun, it was an adventure I will never forget. I am so glad I did it and another fourteener is in my future.

Happy Trails 

Kate