Laboring in the Weminuche: Ruby to Chicago 13ers
After our return from the PNW in June Brian and I began laying down an itinerary for a summer backpacking trip to the Weminuche. We reached out for partners and established a group of ten highly interested, which would ultimately be reduced to a final list of seven. None of us had climbed any of the Ruby Basin 13ers previously with the exception of Brian, who headed in a few years ago and hit Pigeon, Turret, and the Animas Group with some fellow 14ers.com members. Matt, Mark, and Tim have been fast at work on the Centennials so their interests in a Pigeon/Turret/Jupiter combo were very high. Keep reading…
Well here we go . . . I‘m not even really sure where to start with this one. When we returned from South America two Sundays ago and I was driving home from DIA with my wife in the passenger seat, I remember thinking, “this will likely be the wildest story with my name it that I will ever tell.” From a myriad of logistical problems getting to the mountain, to losing my only partner two days into our climb, to joining a Brazilian expedition and then a rescue operation at 20,000‘, to being mugged in the streets of Mendoza and spending five days in a third-world hospital, to sitting and having coffee with a two time K2 summiter and veteran Himalayan guide, this one certainly had enough to write a short book about.