Pikes Peak Journal from overnighter
So, we really did almost die on the mountain yesterday.
This story will take some time to read, so please make sure you have a little while before starting.
We were found by search and rescue at around 2 am once our families had realized that we were definitely not coming back any time soon.
I believe that we could have lasted until morning in our situation on the mountain, but it was very tough.
The reason we were stuck was we got lost on our way down Pikes Peak around Devil's Playground. We wandered for hours before we realized we needed shelter because we wouldn't be able to find our way home on our own. It was so easy to make it to the summit, the return was not very fun.
There was so much snow that we were forcing through at least 4' of snow at a time at some points. That slowed down our return significantly and was likely the reason we weren't able to find the trail down in time to safely get off the mountain that day. It wasn't snowing that day, but the reason I was worried was the strong wind. I learned that the winds were up to 40 mph, and it definitely felt like it. I really do believe that sheltering was the best option, as none of us had the jackets or clothes to be able to hike back down the mountain on any path without suffering from severe exposure.
Ok, I will try to tell the story as best as I can with every detail:
I texted Eli the day before, late in the afternoon, to ask if he wanted to come with us to hike Pike's Peak. He surprisingly said "yes."
I prepared a rope system the night before for fun - which turned out to be very useful - I had a long rope to connect us all together, and bits of webbing to use as harnesses which we would carabiner to the long rope.
We began at 3:30 in the morning. At least that's when we woke up to our alarms. I made some breakfast and Enzo and Teo packed up the rest of their stuff. We grabbed all our things and got in the car around 4:10, then drove over to Eli's house and got there around 4:20. I later learned that he didn't tell anyone in his family where he was going. Very unfortunate, because it took longer for anyone in his family to notice something was wrong and call search and rescue. His mom only knew he really left in the morning because of the Ring doorbell footage she checked later in the day. We picked him up and got on the road to the western side of Pike's Peak at the trailhead for Devil's Playground. That early in the morning, nearly no one was on the road.
When we got to the parking lot around the hiking area, the road to the actual beginning of the trailhead was closed due to the deep snow and ice, so we had to hike about a mile to a mile and a half to the beginning of the trail to Devil's Playground.
We were at the start and I told everyone in the group to use the outdoor restroom at the foot of the trail if they could due to Enzo's incident from last time (foreshadowing). No one needed to go so we left - it turned out that the bathroom was locked anyway so it wouldn't have mattered if anyone wanted to go.
We began the hike while it was still pitch black outside - around 5:20 to 5:30 in the morning - so we had to use my headlight to see anything. I was the only one with a headlight, Eli had his phone flashlight, but we didn't even try that because i had a real light, which was powerful yet not very good for our group of 4.
We noticed deeper snow and slippery ice at the start, and after a few people slipped we put on the rope contraption that I prepared the night before. We started calling it the alpine security system or ASS for short (don't worry, we said each of the letters individually).
After a while on the switch-backs, Enzo realized that he need to go #2, so we all took a little break for him to try and figure it out. After about 20 mins, I thought something was up, so i took my 2 tissues up for him to try and fix himself up. He had made quite a mess, apparently he had moved around a bit because I almost put my bag down in a no-no area when I came up to him. He was struggling with some snow trying to figure out a way to wipe up. He said the snow was very painful for wiping and I believe him because all the rest of the snow that I felt on the trip was very painfully sharp. Anyway, he gladly received the tissues and tried to clean up. Unfortunately, he smelled like poop for the rest of the trip and he had a bit of poop on his hands until we made it to the summit so he could wash his hands.
After that incident, we moved on to more switch-backs with slightly less snow. We kept climbing for a while, then realized that Eli had dropped his phone somewhere back on the trail. We determined that it was far enough back that we should leave it and try to find it on the way down.
After some more switch-backs, whoever had made the trail on the snow since it had snowed had just cut straight up the steep part and bypassed the switch-backs into the area above the timber line. We tried this too, which was a bit slippery, but we made it up just fine.
When we got into the somewhat barren area above the timber line, we took off our security system because we had passed the danger of slipping because of the ice, it was essentially just dry grass above that point.
After what felt like some very hard work, we crested the first mountain and were on the trail that passes by Devil's Playground and leads to the Pike's Peak Highway.
Once we reached the highway, we decided we were quite tired and that we didn't want to follow the trail and therefore hiked along the highway. After quite a way, one of the park rangers drove up to us and said: "you can't walk on the highway" (most memorable) and "my boss already got 2 calls about people walking on the highway. You can't walk on the highway. You have to get up on the trail." (I know that it's technically dangerous for us to be walking on the highway, but it felt like the trail was more dangerous because it was so slick with drop-offs relatively close.) So we got on the snow-covered trail next to the highway. Oh boy, I really loved that park ranger.
We followed trail around one of the peaks near Pike's Peak, then cut around another mountain on what seemed like the trail but because of the snow we couldn't really tell. On this second peak, the snow was hard and very slippery, and there was a very steep angle, probably around 50 degrees. I got across just fine by sticking my fingers into the snow (it really hurt), but the rest of the group seemed quite nervous about crossing. This snowy bit that I crossed was probably about 15 yards, but it was difficult enough for everyone to be nervous and tense. Below this slippery bit there was a massive drop off.
After going around that peak, we hiked a bit on mostly flat trail, then got to the base of the boulders of Pike's Peak.
The bouldering was really the same as I remembered it from the last time. Just climbing up boulders for what felt like forever.
After that long part that I mostly tried to ignore, we came to the top, where we popped up on a boardwalk that they had built on the summit since the last time we came. There were lots of tourists around. I moved directly to the summit visitors' center so we could warm up and begin to rest.
Inside, we all got something to eat, tried to use the bathroom multiple times so we wouldn't have another accident, and then rested for about an hour to an hour and a half at one of the cafeteria tables.
We decided we had enough energy to make it down the mountain - we were thinking about calling some family member to get a ride down but then decided against it. That was when we still had some battery left in our cellular watches. I guess that was the wrong plan to not contact anyone, I really regret it now. So we went back to the boardwalk thing and got onto the boulders.
We began our descent, and we were much happier on the way down, talking about all sorts of things, with the sun out of the clouds to warm us in the wind. There was a trail through the boulder section that wasn't on any of the larger boulders, but decided to skip it because there were so many switch-backs and it looked so much longer. This decision was fine because we got back on the trail right after the boulders.
We went back down all the boulders, on the trail by the highway, and back to the first of the 2 peaks between Pikes Peak and Devil's Playground. This was the peak which we had crossed around on the south (maybe?) face the first time because of the park ranger telling us to "get off the highway." So we went around the other side.
The other side was much less snowy, but I think it was much longer. We went that way because it was much less dangerous, we didn't want to fall off the terrifying cliff.
The next peak we took higher up as we went around, because when we were coming up the mountain from the other direction we were still walking on the highway. That was before we met the gracious ranger. The terrain on the mountain side was fine, still with boulders and a big slanted angle like everywhere else on the mountain.
Past this peak, it was essentially a straight line to Devil's Playground and the trail back down to the Craigs where our car was parked.
We walked the trail next to the highway and passed Devil's Playground (around where the parking lot for the peak shuttles used to be), and got on the dirt road back to the clear mountain side above the timber line. This was where things got tough.
We thought that we had found the trail around the top of the timber line, which was also where the snow began to become a constant layer. We put our rope system back on, which was brilliant. We began to go into the snow, only to realize that the sun out all day had melted the snow that we were walking on top of in the morning. We sank multiple feet every step that we took.
As we went through the snow in this next part, Eli lost his mom's new water bottle which he had brought with him (oops).
We still thought that we had the trail and began to descend through the snow, walking for a few hundred meters. After a little bit, we wondered whether we were really on the trail. At that point, I was leading in the rope line, with Enzo then Eli then Teo behind me. The snow had soaked through my pants halfway up my thighs. The same happened to Enzo, but it wasn't quite as bad for Eli or Teo (Enzo and I packed down the snow for them).
Since we believed that we had lost the trail, we debated going back up to the timber line and out of the snow so we could find the trail for sure. But because the snow was so deep and hard to move through, we decided it would be almost impossible to go back up. So we continued down, because we thought that we would find the trail if we kept moving down. We figured we were heading toward the car, and that eventually we would find the trail as it would make a V-shape in if it was on either side of us. We never found it.
We kept moving down, and found a few spots without any snow, where we could move much faster. We went so far that we decided that it would be too hard to ever go back up. We took a little break and thought about what to do.
We looked at the bank across the little ravine to the left of where we were going down and almost collectively thought that the trail was on that side. The snow in the ravine also looked much more shallow. I decided I would test the snow in the ravine with the rope on, so the rest could pull me out if something happed. While I was testing, Enzo decided to pee, so he unclipped from our rope system. As I went down, I noticed the snow was still pretty deep. I made it to the bottom of the ravine, where the snow was above my hips. Right then, Enzo fell off the snowless area where he was standing, and down into the ravine towards me. The snow all around him began to fall and gather more as it fell and he grazed his head on a tree.
Thankfully, he seemed ok and the snow hadn't piled on top of him. We stood up, but now we were both stuck at the bottom of the ravine. Teo was at the top, Eli was halfway down, both connected to my rope, with Enzo isolated. We planned to pull Eli and me up first with the rope then throw it down to Enzo.
Teo was the only one on the top, so it told him to wrap his rope around something so he wouldn't get pulled down and trap us all.
Eli's foot was deeply stuck in the snow, and he was nervous because of how stuck it was and the cold. He tried to dig it out (the snow was very sharp), and after a long while, he got his leg out, missing the shoe.
We pulled him out and planned that I would pull out his shoe as I came up. Once he was out, they pulled me out and i got over to the shoe. It was visible but so tightly stuck that I broke the tab on the back of the shoe trying to pull it out. It took a little while, but I dug around a pulled it out. I tossed it to Eli, and he immediately dropped it back down into the ravine on accident. Thankfully, it landed next to Enzo. After I was out, I unclipped from the end of the rope and tossed it down to where Enzo was in 2 tries (pretty good, huh?). We all pulled him up and regrouped.
We saw more snowless, dry ground, so we thought to keep moving down to try and find the trail on the side we were still on. We all clipped back into the rope so we wouldn't have another "Enzo falling" accident.
The trail we thought we had seen on the other side of the ravine was probably animal tracks anyway.
We moved down the mountain side.
Eventually, we were sure that we saw human footprints or manmade tracks on the other side of the ravine. There were some footprints and a flat trail that we thought was the form of a sled they were dragging behind them.
We moved across the ravine, Teo first with Eli following and Enzo and I staying at the top to pull them out if need be. The snow was fine here (not too deep), so we all moved across.
On the other side, the flat track we found moved down the mountain, so we were certain that we had found a trail down to the car. After following it for a while, it just ended. Without a trace of where the track-maker had gone. We figured that whoever made the trail must have been a snow boarder, who just turned around and hiked back up after going as far as they had (but we didn't know). We thought we were stuck. We tried to move back up the "snow boarder's" trail, thinking it would be more firm, but we still sank with every step, at least to our knees.
Up the snow boarder's trail, we made it to the edge of the trees to a clearing. We saw rocks sticking up and out of the snow and what we thought was the trail (again). Eli, Teo, and I really wanted to go check it out. We all 4 decided that at least making it to the rocks and out of the cold snow was a good idea. We began to go, and the snow in the clearing was solid enough to walk on for around 70 meters up the hillside. Then we sank as we went again.
Teo became tired, so Eli switched out for the lead position on a rock sticking out of the snow. Eli would lead us the rest of the way out of the snow, which was an unimaginable amount of effort to probe every step and sink, often hitting legs on rocks (we had lots of sores on our ankles from whacking them on rocks hidden in the snow). After pushing through thoughtless steps towards the grouping of rocks we had seen, we eventually made it out of the snow, now crossing over rocks. After quite a while on the rocks, we made it out of the deepest snow and began to walk up together. Now out of the snow, the rope tripped us occasionally. Then more and more the closer we got together.
We moved to were we thought we saw the trail, but found nothing. We then understood the best option was to go to the crest of the mountain side we were on, back to the edge of Devil's Playground. There we could find the real trail more easily, walking across the mountainside on dry ground instead of going down, or to try to find the road and ask someone to use their phone since all ours had been lost or died, or maybe even ask for a ride.
Later, as we walked, we decided that we couldn't look for the trail, it was too dangerous. We took a long time to trek over to the road. For the last section, the sun set and we had to take out my headlight again (we had been out hiking for all the hours of daylight in the entire day). This is where it felt like we were really in a survival situation for me.
We made it to the Pike's Peak Highway, but it was dark and all the people were gone. We were nervous. It was very cold and the wind was painfully strong. We found a concrete block next to the highway and laid behind it so we could think while out of the direct wind.
Eli thought to run down the highway and look for someone to give us shelter, dive us down, or at least call our parents (it was probably cold enough and far enough that this could have seriously injured or killed us). Teo wanted to find the trail back to the car, but Enzo probably wouldn't be able to do either because his hip was sore from hiking and falling on it earlier when we were in the snow. I knew both Eli and Teo's options were very dangerous, so I said we should go back to the crack in the rock Enzo had seen as we were leaving Devil's Playground on our way back to the road this last time up. This spot was pretty close to the Pike's Peak Highway, so it would be convenient if anyone was passing by.
We got up from the concrete and pushed through the cold wind back to the rock to take shelter. I saw a hole in the other side of the crack, so we gathered our bags and tried to plug it. I got in first and we all tried to pile into the small space, trying to make as much contact as possible so we could be warmer. The bottom of the cave was covered in snow and there were rocks sticking up so that it was painful and cold to lay anywhere. There was barely space to fit (someone was always at least slightly out of the cave).
We were all cold and I forced myself to shiver so that we could be warmer. I told everyone to move their toes in their shoes, as they were all scared about frostbite. Teo said he couldn't feel his toes, and Eli was also very scared about frostbite.
We had to move all of our bodies every few tens of minutes because someone was always painfully uncomfortable. It felt like the rocks were always draining our heat, and the hole in the other side of the rock wasn't perfectly plugged, so wind still got through. Essentially, there was nothing we could do to maintain our temperature, it felt like we were getting colder and colder.
We got into the cave around 9 pm, and were in it for hours shivering on top of hard, cold rocks and bits of snow. It was very painful.
We heard a helicopter overhead, and were sure we were saved, so we turned the headlight to the flashing mode and I aimed it to where I heard the helicopter. By then the sound was gone, but I saw lights high in the sky. I kept the light trained on them, then realized it was a plane, which made no signs of noticing our light. I left the light pointing up and flashing outside the cave as a signal.
At that point our plan was to wait in the cave till morning and wave someone down on the road to rescue us. It was many hours till then.
I found my watch booting up (apparently it had died earlier because of the cold), so I ran with the flashing headlight, because my fingers were too cold to push the button to change the mode back to normal, down the trail to the mountainside were Enzo had signal earlier in the day and I could see city lights (about 200 meters from the cave). The wind was frighteningly powerful and cold. It was scary to see civilization and know I could die in the could without any of them knowing. By the time I had gotten to the place with signal, my watch had died again. I ran back to cave, stumbling. I was very cold when I got back to the cave. Teo had wanted to get out of the cave to run around and warm up. Getting out of the cave would only make you more cold.
We waited in the cave a few more hours, shifting who was sitting where and our body positions often. The snow we had hiked through earlier had completely soaked our shoes, pants, and bits of our other clothes, draining the heat from us even more.
My watched started booting up again, so I ran to the road where we thought there was signal. I saw the city lights again. My watch died again. I decided it wasn't worth it anymore and ran back to the cave. I was freezing when I got back, making everyone else even more cold.
We all decided that it was too cold outside and that we would have to sit tight till morning. We occasionally woke each other up so that we would shiver and move our toes.
We sat for many more hours.
Between 2 and 2:30 in the morning, I heard voices outside the cave. Apparently I just shouted randomly, but the others yelled for help. 2 search and rescue men had found us. They moved us to their car, with all of us stumbling through the snow in the strong wind. The search and rescue guys and snow shoes and full snow gear among all their other equipment, while we were only wearing jeans or hiking pants, shirts, and thin jackets. I wish we had prepared for cold just a little better.
At first they thought their car battery was dead when we got into their car, and that the car wouldn't start, but it eventually did. Even while the car was off, the complete lack of wind in the car made it so much warmer.
They checked for frostbite and gave us food before they moved the car. We were all miraculously ok. They began to drive us back to the Craigs trailhead.
They told us some of our family had come out to look for us, and radioed everyone on the team to say they found us. The 2 that found us were named or nicknamed Axel and Cosmo (I am pretty sure, but not certain).
They told our family we were found and sent a vehicle to pick up the two from our family that were looking for us from the trail.
We made it back to the minivan and turned on all the heating systems.
Our mom and grandpa were the ones on the trail and they eventually made it back down on an all terrain vehicle. One of the members of the search and rescue team brought over a phone and we discovered that it was Eli's, a hiker had apparently found it earlier in the day.
I hugged my mom for about a minute. We thanked the search and rescue team as much as we could. I love them so much.
Mom and Grandpa drove home in their car and I drove all of us home. We dropped off Eli first, then went home. I showered, talked with mom for a bit, then went to sleep sometime in the early morning.
climbing mountains unprepared is very dangerous.
always tell someone where you are going so you can be saved faster.
your family is very important. love them.
written by italo bongioanni.
In this image, the green trail is the way you are supposed to go
The blue are potential offshoots that we did on our way down, leaving the intended trail.
(We may never know which way we went because of the snow.)
