It was early December and 2011 was winding down to an end when my girlfriend Sarah asked me how I would rate the past year as a whole? Naturally I noted that I had met her that year so it was the best year ever, but I felt that there was still a void. I had started Grad School in the Spring and competed in the Texas Mile in May, but something was missing. I thought about it for a while, before I realized that I could not recall having gone on any grand adventure that year. As we discussed the topic, Sarah casually mentioned that she would go on any adventure that I wanted to so that I could finish off the year right. After looking over several things on my Life List that I wanted to do, I came across one that stuck out like a sore thumb. Climb Guadalupe Peak. Though not a real technical climb, it was definitely a demanding and difficult expedition given the fact that I spent 12 hours a day at work and school and no hours of the day at the gym. Never one to back down from a challenge and always ready to conquer the world, I passionately pronounced that we must set foot atop the highest point in the great state of Texas before the years end.

Guadalupe Peak is approximately five hundred miles away from San Antonio which translates into eight hours of driving there and eight hours of driving back home. To do this we decided that we would need at least two days and that we would stay the night in a hotel near the mountain the night after the climb. As we looked at the calendar though, we could not put two consecutive days together to save our lives. We had family coming in for the holidays, family to go see for the holidays, and all this mixed in with work and school meant that if we were going to do this, we were going to have to do it in a single day. Sarah had her reservations about the idea but she knew it was something that I really wanted to do so she agreed to the radical notion.

Sarah had work on the night of December 14 and got off at around 11PM. I had the next day off before I would have to head to Corpus to see my family for my birthday on the 16th so the 15th had to be the day that we stormed the mountain. The plan was simple; leave San Antonio at Midnight, arrive at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park at 8AM, climb the mountain and be back to the car by 4PM, then head home and get to San Antonio by 12AM the next day. I would pre-pack the car with all our gear and sleep during the evening while Sarah was at work. When Sarah got off work she would shower, change clothes, and then we would be on our way.

We left, as planned, at 12AM on the 15th and began our journey to the Guadalupe Mountains. I’m told that the trip has some great scenery but unfortunately it was in the early hours of the morning and it was so dark out that you could not see a single thing. The hours passed fairly quickly just cruising on the highway with the music on low so that I didn’t wake up my passenger. Eventually the further west we went, the higher the speed limit crept up and I must admit that legally driving 80MPH on the highway was a little surreal. I was constantly worried I was gonna get pulled over for speeding, but sure enough every sign I passed confirmed 80MPH was the speed to go. Eventually we got to Van Horn where we stopped for one of the healthiest of pre-mountain climbing breakfasts, Egg McMuffins from McDonald’s. We then got off I10 and began our travel north up the “Texas Mountain Trail” before we began to see the prominent range jutting out of the landscape in the distance. As we drove nearer, the mountain continued to grow until we were only a handful of miles away and silently rethinking our decision. Eight to ten miles of hiking didn’t sound to bad until you factor in the four to five thousand foot elevation gain you will be making in the process. Still we were determined and moments later, we were there.

Once we arrived, we went to the park headquarters where we paid the climbing fees and toured their tiny museum. The museum was essentially a collection of stuffed animals that you might see on the mountain and a brief history of how the mountains were formed. It was educational enough but we didn’t budget time to linger much so we made our way back to the car and found parking at the base of the summit trail. Not knowing what to expect as far as weather goes, we suited up in heavy coats for the climb and began our ascent. It was about forty degrees at that point but we were dressed pretty warmly so it didn’t bother us much. The climb started out fairly easy as we made our way through a valley to the base of the trail. Once we began the actual ascent however, our lack of endurance training began to kick in almost immediately. We would walk about a quarter of mile before we had to stop again for water, food, and catching our breath. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that we live virtually at sea level where the oxygen is plentiful and now we were ascending to almost 9,000 feet above sea level where the oxygen levels are significantly reduced. Still, we weren’t in the best shape and it definitely showed from the beginning.

We originally expected the climb to take about fours hours up and around two hours down but our sluggish pace was really taking a toll on that timeline. We were moving so slow in fact that we were passed by a middle-aged man shortly after we started the trail who then passed us on his decent as we were just reaching the half-way point of our climb. We were also passed by an older couple who were already descending the mountain and yet they looked ten times less worn than we did. Needless to say, we definitely underestimated the climb and we were definitely feeling the pain associated with that type of ignorance. Still, we pressed on and continued our journey upwards.

As we climbed the south face of the range, the sun began to come out and the temperatures rose to almost sixty degrees. Our heavy clothes caused us to get really hot and sweaty so we stopped and changed in to our lighter coats. As we reached the top of the first portion of the trail however, we began to curve around into the middle of the mountain range where clouds had begun to accumulate dramatically quick. The temperatures rapidly plunged back down into the thirties and after about twenty minutes on this part of the trail, it began to snow. Being from South Texas, we rarely ever got to see any snow so the sudden downpour of flurries was a real surprise and it made the trip even better than we could have imagined but the snow quickly began to fall at an increasingly alarming rate. It got so bad at one point that we could only see about ten to twenty feet in front of us.

We quickly switched back to our heavier coats and pressed on. The snow began to accumulate in some areas and prior snow from other such storms was still covering different areas along the trail. Initially this did not seem to be much of a concern but as we emerged from the section of the trail that cut between different valleys of the range and came out high up on the side of the south face again, we found ourselves walking on frozen narrow pathways flanked by a steep inclining mountain on one side and a vertical drop of several thousand feet on the other. This part of the trail was a bit unnerving to say the least but low and behold, the summit of the Guadalupe Peak was now in sight. The closer we got the the peak, the more difficult the climb became and the harder it was to ignore the dramatic drops next to you. The trail became rocky and at one point we were even on our hands and knees trying not to slide off ice covered rocks. Finally, before would could realize how close we were, we turned a corner and about twenty yards away stood the monument capping the top of the mountain! We were standing on the top of Texas!

Proud of our triumphs we put our gear down and took a break as we looked out into the distance. The only problem was that the peak was shrouded with cloud cover and we could not really see anything at all. Though this did not change what we had accomplished, we were agitated at the fact that we had come all that way and were not rewarded with the great view that one would associate with such a climb.

Finally, after about thirty minutes of lingering on the peak, the clouds dispersed just long enough for us to gaze out across the vast surrounding lands of Texas and New Mexico. To our delight it even began to snow again though this time very lightly, giving us a very dramatic summit experience. We took some photos and shot a few short videos before we packed up and prepared for our descent. We did not pay attention to how long we were spending at the top of the mountain but as we began to depart, we realized it was about 4PM and we only had two hours left before it was going to get dark.

We began down the mountain as quickly as possible, racing the clock so that we were not stuck thousands of feet up in the black of night. What earlier seemed like a nightmare of a climb was now a struggle of trying not t0 go too fast downhill. At about half way down I accidentally made a misstep and severely sprained my ankle. I could not let it slow me down though and we pounded our way, lower and lower until we were making our way down the face that looks over the park headquarters. About two thirds of the way down that last part of the trail night abruptly crept up on us. Not anticipating being on the mountain in the dark, we did not have a flash light so we had to walk by the dim light of the moon for the last half mile. We made it back to the car at about 6:45PM and just as we arrived another huge downpour of snow began to fall on us. We clambered into the car and threw our gear in the back seat so we could get out of the mountain pass as quickly as possible. The wind was blowing something fierce and we had to drive extremely slow so that we did not get blown off the road. Thankfully, it was only about thirty minutes before we were out of the pass and making our way back down the “Texas Mountain Trail” towards Interstate 10. After an uneventful eight hours of driving back across Texas, we arrived in San Antonio at 2AM and crawled into bed, thoroughly exhausted but fully satisfied with what we still feel was one of the greatest single day adventures of our lives.