The Sawatch Cowpoke

I checked my watch nervously for the third time in thirty minutes. I took a deep breath and continued up the slope from where I was standing in the middle of the blown-over skin track. I couldn’t help but feel like the cornice above me was going to let loose at any moment. I’m no genius, but I wasn’t going to be wrong that day. I had begun my journey up to the cirque from the trailhead a little after dawn, after dropping off a close friend at Copper Mountain for work. The stretch of the tenmile range I found myself in being a little ways south from I-70 towards Leadville. It was a bluebird day, and I couldn’t ask for much better weather. I just wished at the moment that it was a little warmer. I would come to regret that wish as the day dragged on. I was in the Mayflower cirque to claim the two peaks making up the south end of the massive bowl, starting up the southwest ridge I would scramble my way to the small hump of a summit that made up Drift Peak, and then continue upward

I do at times have the ability to entirely baffle myself with the things that come out of my mouth. In a recent conversation this past Good Friday, I found myself, as I have quite a bit as of late, upset over the phone. It wasn't the person’s fault (they know who they are) on the other end of the line, it was mine. I just was not willing to admit that out of my own ignorance. I have the tendency to wrap myself “too much” into emotions, and at many times, I let those same emotions dictate the actions that I take. This is me admitting that is not a good thing. It is one thing to feel, it is another thing to let passion take over. Regardless, during the conversation, the two of us turned to reflecting on how God feels about the situation that we were addressing, and I found myself regrettably becoming even angrier at the mention of God in respect to all of it. The individual on the other end of the phone even reminded me “be careful what you say, He might just give you the