On Thursday, August 22, we had a company outing to hike two 14er peaks (each over 14,000 ft). There were six of us total that went on this company adventure: Craig (Owner), Matt (Operations Manager), Heidi (Amazon Manager), Jesse (Customer Service/Content), Bentley (Warehouse Assistant), and myself (Chelsea-Director of Marketing). This was the first 14er for Jesse, Heidi, Bentley, and myself; we were all excited but also a little nervous.
We started the day off by meeting at our office in Denver at 4:30am! Our owner, Craig, is a morning person, so he had no problem with the early start but I could tell that a few of us were wishing that we were still tucked in our warm beds with our favorite pillows. It only took us about an hour and a half to drive to the trail head, so we were on the trail by 6 am. It’s important to get an early start when hiking a 14er so that you can avoid the potential afternoon lightning storms.
The trail head starts at 11,280 ft and the elevation gain is 3,000 ft! Right off the bat I started feeling the elevation. It was definitely hard to fully catch your breathe, yet I felt like I still had a lot of energy and I was fully motivated to make it up that mountain!
We made it up to to the summit of Grays Peak around 9am which was great timing considering the hike is 4 miles one-way. We took a lot of pictures at the top and a few of us ate our lunch. I was shocked at how many people were at the top. There were at least 20 people at the top and everyone was so friendly. I met one man who has hiked every single 14er (that’s 54 total!) He was drinking a beer at the top, so I assumed that he must have been very confident in his ability to hike Grays 🙂
All of us on the top of Grays Peak
Torreys Peak is only about a quarter of a mile away from Grays Peak, so three of us (Craig, Matt, and myself) decided to hike to the top. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I realized later that while Grays is a class 1 in difficulty, Torreys is a class 2. The ascent looked intimidating, but I thought that about Grays too and Grays wasn’t as bad as it looked. Torreys was a very steep incline, yet much shorter. Craig, being a Marine and avid marathoner, ran up Torreys but Matt and I decided that running just wasn’t in our hiking plan.
on the top of Torreys Peak….Weeee!
The hike back down was adventurous complete with a thunderstorm. I had to run down the mountain since I didn’t bring a rain jacket with me. Of course, by the time I reached the parking lot the rain had stopped and it was sunny and beautiful!
Scary rain clouds!
The 14er hike was one of the most physically challenging days I’ve had in a while, but I felt so accomplished and loved sharing this experience with my amazing coworkers.
Blog Author: Chelsea, Director of Marketing
