By Trevor Bockstahler
About four and a half years ago, just as I was just beginning to seriously get into the outdoors, I set off on an impulsive trip to climb Mount Holy Cross, one of Colorado’s classic 14er's. It turned out to be one of the coldest, dangerous, and downright scary nights that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, something to learn from. Preparedness is important, good decision making is key.
Rarely is it one bad decision that gets somebody killed in the backcountry. Rarely is it the one piece of gear they forgot at home that gets them killed. Typically, it is a combination of those factors, with a bit of bad luck mixed in. Fortunately, luck was on my side…
It was mid-October in the Vail Valley; I had a long night planning out the multi-month trek that I had in sight for next Summer. I overslept my early alarm but remained overzealous. In a mad scramble I threw on shorts and a t-shirt grabbed my small string backpack, threw in it a bit of trail mix, a liter of Gatorade, then ran off to my car to get going. I made it to the trailhead just before noon, what is generally considered much too late to start a 14er, especially a difficult one. But what's the worst that can happen, right? As I drove up to the washboarded forest road, I pulled out my phone to check where the trailhead was. Unfortunately, I forgot to plug it in the night before, so the already weak battery was dead. That’s fine, I’ll just pull out the map and check that… Whoops, only trail mix and Gatorade. I found what I thought to be the trailhead and rationalized my desire of continuing. I had told people I was going to do it… How dangerous could it be anyway? I’m in decent shape, if something goes wrong, I can just jog out. If I can’t do this, then how could I expect my summer trip to be a success?
