Mt. Princeton

Guess what mountain I just climbed?

Photos
Strava

My brother Chris was so swamped with work that he could not go on his family trip down the Grand Canyon. That was unfortunate for him, but incredibly lucky for Derek, for they tapped him to fill the open spot. Hence, it was just Sheri, Danny, and I for some 14er bagging this weekend. The target was to do the peaks named after college where Danny was accepted. First up was Princeton.

The only other time I climbed Princeton was in late September, a couple of months after I broke my back in a climbing fall. I went with Homie and remembered verglas over talus. Just like last time, we drove the 4WD road to 10,800 feet. It's only 3400 vertical feet from here to the summit and about 7.5 miles roundtrip.

The climb was pretty uneventful, but enjoyable. We passed a number of parties on the ascent and were first on top. The climbing/hiking on this peak isn't very enjoyable as it is so much talus and a significant amount that is a bit loose. Doing peaks like this sure puts m in awe of the Nolan's 14 finishers.

For as long as I've been hiking mountains with my boys I've always tried to engage them in interesting conversations to take their mind off the arduous hiking. Most of the time these have discussions have taken the form of a lesson about math or science. As my boys getting older and wiser, the tables are turning. They've mostly turned when it comes to Danny. While I still strive to engage in interesting conversations, it is now Danny teaching me. On this hike we derived the distance formula in three dimensions. Typical stuff. Sheri usually remains silent for these discussions, only speaking up when Danny fails to take into account an obscure singularity, gets the sign wrong on an integral, or fails to notice that the limit actually diverges instead of converging.

This was Danny's 20th 14er. On the summit of each 14er Danny and Derek like to form the ascent number with their bodies. With Derek absent I had to fill in and form the zero of "20".

Forming a "20" on the summit of Mt. Princeton