|
|
NBC PROFILE - SUMMER/FALL 2003
Program Support Office Mountaineering |
 |
Over the past several years, some of the current and former members of the Federal Personnel Payroll Systems and Services Directorate, Program Support Office (PSO - formerly the Planning and Performance Support Office) have, as a group, been climbing Colorado "fourteeners". A "fourteener" is a mountain whose summit is over 14,000 feet above sea level, and Colorado officially has 55 of them. A typical excursion involves climbers taking a day of annual leave, meeting in the office parking lot around 5:00 AM, carpooling up to 120 miles to the trailhead of the target mountain, hiking up and having lunch at the summit, and then descending and returning to Denver. Led by Terry Teed (who has climbed all 55 more than once and who also happens to be the Chief of the PSO), staff members who have done this are Rich Garver, Don Garcia, Don Engelhaupt, Mishell English, Karlan Schneider, Lee Sutta, and Duanne Serna. Occasionally, a family member or friend will accompany the group. The fourteeners scaled so far include Mt. Bierstadt, Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Bross, Mt. Democrat, Mt. Sherman, and Quandary Peak.
| On the summit of 14,293 ft. Mt. Lincoln (L-R): Terry Teed,
Don Garcia, Karlan Schneider,
and Mishell English. |
|
My First "Fourteener"
By Don Garcia
On September 4th, 2003, I climbed my first Colorado "fourteener" with several co-workers from the NBC's Program Support Office in Denver, Colorado. We left town at 5:00 a.m. from the NBC parking lot with about a two and a half hour drive ahead of us. We drove to an eastern trailhead of Mount Lincoln, at tree line (at an elevation of approximately 11,300 feet), near the small mountain mining town of Alma, Colorado and set off. The trail initially follows an old mining road through various abandoned structures from the days of silver mining. The trail later becomes a mere faint track in the tundra. I followed the others in the group up the three mile trek and kept a good pace, feeling the altitude a little. The reward is at the top - elevation 14,293 feet (recently revised from 14,286 feet, as a result of new GPS measurement technology). The view was breathtaking. It was a clear, crisp, albeit breezy morning; and you could see forever. A few patches of snow still remained from a storm a few days before. After a 30-45 minute break, the group signed the summit register and took pictures from the summit before heading back down. Registers are placed on fourteener summits and some of the high thirteener summits every year by the Colorado Mountain Club. It took a fraction of the ascent time to get back down. This was my first real mountain climbing experience, and first fourteener. I had a lot of fun and look forward to going again next summer.
|
|
|
