Groundhog Mountain

Somebody said to me today, they said Pete if there is anywhere in the world that you would want to be, where would it be. I would say on Groundhog Mountain. Dad was up for a visit to meet his first grandchild and we had to get out and climb a mountain. I figured there was no better mountain then Groundhog Mountain which was just on the other side of Lone Cone. We did not know much about it but we knew that there was not any hill or mountain we can't climb. People who know me well know that Groundhog Day is my favorite movie and my dad and I love to quote lines from the movie. We had a long drive to get to the mountain though because there was no straight shot from Norwood. We were able to see the peak from the drive and it did not look too treacherous.

 We checked the weather before we left and saw that all the moisture was pushing off to the east where it would hit Altoona, so we knew that we were safe. We drove on a long series of dirt roads until we ran into some snow. Unfortunately, I forgot my booties, but it was not that cold out, but it still was not Miami Beach. We walked a dirt road until we hit a ridge and we began to follow that up through the trees. Looking up at the peak, it looked a bit more difficult then we had originally thought. We had to hit a ridge and go up from there or else we would run into a big wall and be stuck. There was enough snow to make picking a route not so easy. Looking up we had to ask ourselves "Does Pete and Roger feel lucky?" Well, we were lucky as we were able to pick a route and get up to the ridge.For quite some time, the ridge was nearly flat. It then began to narrow out and we had to pick a good route. Then we hit the last wall to the summit. It was steep and the rock was very crummy. My dad finally dropped his ski pole and I told him to just put that anywhere pal. You could tell that Groundhog Mountain was not a very desirable summit even though it was over 12000 feet. So every rock we stepped on gave the sign of not having been stepped on before. The summit top was very small with dropoffs on both sides with a steep approach. It was one of those places where I sat and ate very precariously not wanting to move around too much. The view was great and we could see all those mountains that we see from our window in Norwood, just looking across rather than up to them. It made me think, I wish we could all live in the mountains at high altitude, that's where I see myself in five years. As we got ready to go down, it was still time to be cautious. We had to especially watch out for that first step, it's a doozy. Truthfully the first step off the summit was loose rock with a big dropoff on both sides. We carefully made our way down until we were on the flat stuff. My dad wanted to make a more straight shot to the car. I vetoed one route, but he talked me into another one. The old man still has quite a bit of guts and steam as he kicked my butt down the steep stuff as I was constantly making sure that I did not get any velocity going. But it was quicker for sure and we were back to the car. As we drove back, I asked my dad who else could go for some flapjacks right now. But he said it was too early for flapjacks. Well, if I woke up and had to climb Groundhog Mountain every day, I would not be too upset about it. It is always fun to get out and explore with my dad. I had a beautiful baby at home and a beautiful wife. So what if there was no tomorrow, you know, there wasn't one today. This is one of those times where a blog fails to capture the true excitement of a couple of guys climbing a mountain. From Norwood, Colorado this is Pete.