State Highpoint Number One

TEXAS

Date: Thursday—October 7, 1999
Peak: Guadalupe Peak
Height: 8,749 feet
Vertical Climb: 2,950 feet
Round-trip Mileage: 8.4 miles
Peak Class: #5
Height Rank: #14 of 50
Difficulty Rank: #13 of 50

I spent the night tent camping in Guadalupe Mountains National Park and logged in on the trail register at 7:12 and started climbing the mountain—I decided to leave my lunch in the cooler and just took four 1-pint bottles of water strapped to a waist pack plus I carried my camera over my shoulder. The Guadalupe Peak trail was 8.4 miles round trip and rated as “very strenuous” so I started early in the morning to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and was the first one on the trail that particular morning. The ranger at the visitor’s center had told me the day before that she hiked it round-trip in six hours and most people took 6-10 hours. Despite my training, the hike started off badly. The trail started at an elevation above Denver's mile-high elevation and rose over 3,000 feet abruptly. I couldn’t get my breath and was stopping about every fifty feet to gasp for air. From the foothills, the trail was a steady uphill series of switchbacks that were difficult walking and involved a lot of “stepping up” over rocks and gullies.
After about 30 minutes two guys passed me and we talked briefly. They were from California and gave me some suggestions about regulating my breathing then went on ahead of me. By this time, my heart was pounding and my pulse was racing. I continued on and after 45 minutes considered giving it up but somehow managed to get my “second wind” about this time and from then on my breathing was fine and I only had to deal with leg fatigue.
The trail continued upward and around one mountain before I could see Guadalupe Peak. At the two hour point I drank one pint of water and stashed another on the trail so I wouldn’t have to carry it up.
The two guys who had passed me were always ahead but never out of sound and I knew that they had left only two minutes after me so I figured I was holding out pretty well to stay that close to them.
I was thankful I had left so early in the morning---much of the trail on the backside of the mountain was in shade and cool. There was always a steady---and sometimes strong---breeze, but I was comfortable in my shorts and tee shirt. Still, because of the constant climbing, I was sweating in the shade.
After passing around the backside of the mountain, I crossed a small log footbridge and entered over to the side of Guadalupe Peak. At one point the two guys ahead of me were visible and shouted down that we only had 500 vertical feet left. Turned out they had altimeter gauges. That 500 vertical feet, however, took another 45 minutes and as could be expected, were the most difficult part of the climb.
Near the top it became very windy---the rangers had warned me of this---and it became very difficult to stand upright on the trail. Very close to the peak, I lost the trail for the only time on this hike and briefly got into a side canyon and had to literally climb hand over foot over loose rock but quickly got back on the main trail and was never in danger of losing it.
When I reached the summit at 9:55 am, the two guys were already there---had been there about five minutes---so I figured I had done well time-wise. We started talking again and they turned out to be “high pointers”---climbers who were going to every state in the union and climbing the highest peak. They were really nice guys and we talked awhile and shot pictures of each other beside the stainless steel triangle that marks the peak of the mountain and they let me use their sign showing the altitude and date of the climb. According to them, Texas has the 10th highest peak and the 7th or 8th most difficult to climb. For one of them, it was his 13th peak and for the other it was his 41st. They gave me a business card with their website and were doing a video-audio record of the summit so I walked around and shot some pictures for about a half-hour.
The weather at the peak was bright and sunny but the distance was clouded by haze and a dark cloud was forming to the east. After a half-hour, I said goodbye and headed back down. The trail down was steep and faster but hurt my feet more. So far, my new hiking boots were doing a great job.
As I descended, I began meeting more and more people on their way up: A young woman in her 30’s; a young couple; an older man in his 60’s or even 70’s; two cute teenage twins who were dressed identical down to their backpacks; and a guy who had gone to Texas A&M at Galveston and was struggling to breathe like I had been earlier. Everybody was real friendly and there was a real sense of camaraderie on the trail.
Because I was concentrating on where I was stepping on the loose rocks, I missed the spot where I had stashed my water bottle which wasn’t a big loss but I felt bad because I basically had littered the trail and someone else would eventually have to carry it back down.
My legs were getting extremely tired. I slipped several times but always caught myself and a couple of times I twisted my ankle but again caught myself before I got hurt. Finally, near the end, my feet went out from under me and a fell on my hands and butt but didn’t hurt myself---especially my back. By the time I got to the bottom and the trailhead, the muscles in the front of my upper thighs were quivering.
At the bottom, I logged out on the trail register and sat down on my tailgate, removed my boots and ate a banana and apple and then the sandwiches and drank some cranberry juice. I had done in it 5hours and 23 minutes including the time on the peak. It was an incredible time and I hadn’t been specifically pushing myself---there really hadn’t been other people to pace myself with. I felt like I was in wonderful physical shape and my feet were puffy and red with three minor blisters otherwise I had done fine on the trail.
I noticed the sky was turning dark up around the peak and put on my shower shoes and drove to the Visitor’s Center, took two Advil, and bought a patch to celebrate my climb. I had not showered since New Mexico and was covered in sweat and already exhausted so I decided to drive east and find a motel with a hot shower for the night.