Well, we didn't summit Mt. Meeker. The route we took became impassable at 12,500 feet. All that water from the September 2013 flood event had deposited a ton of rocks along the way. I would say it was 90 percent rocks. Even within the tree line it was all rocks. From the point where we cleared the trees to where we stopped, it was about 1,000 feet elevation-wise; just really steep! So we were 1,000 feet above tree line when we started turning around.
We climbed a sea of rocks; big, huge rocks. I got a little taste of rock climbing, pushing with my legs while pulling myself up at the same time (sure glad my shoulder was 60 percent better at this time); trying to be nimble and quick with my steps when needed; hopping from one rock to another, so as not to fall. But I was very cautious, which made me very slow. Dave and Nate of course were as sure-footed as mountain goats. As the climb became very steep, I was mostly on all fours because I didn't trust myself to walk upright. When we got to 12,500 feet, we encountered more and more loose rocks. Dave decided to recon the area to see if there was any safe route we could take. He came back saying there was no way around the rock outcrop, and it was too dangerous to continue. So, disappointed, we headed back down.
I would say that going down was harder than going up, for me. I am not much for height. If we had summitted Mt. Meeker, we would not have come back down the same way we came up. But at that point, there was no other way. It terrified me, but I kept on—on my butt most of the time, crabbing down those big, huge rocks. After a while, my palms became raw from holding on to the rough rocks.
When we finally cleared the pile of rocks (it seemed to take forever), we set out in the direction of the ravine we crossed earlier. Again, because there was no trail, we bushwhacked our way down to the ravine. When we finally got to the ravine, we had to find the area we crossed earlier that would put us back on the way to the trailhead. This proved to be a challenge because the ravine was so long and we couldn't remember where we had crossed it earlier. Finally, we decided to just cross a low point of the ravine and bushwhacked it again on the other side and hoped to come across the trail to the trailhead... which we did, thankfully!
With legs tired and feet sore after an 11-hour hike, Dave's white Lexus sitting next to the trailhead was sure a welcome sight!
