MyOptics - A Visual Record of a Journey

We got a late start, Pete and I. There didn't seem to be any reason to rush anyway. Our
plan was to climb Mount Sneffels in the morning so after a hearty meal in Durango we
set off for Ouray as the long shadows of a setting sun grew dimmer. The road from
Durango to Silverton to Ouray is one of my favorite stretches of mountainous
highway. From every direction and around every turn we become witness to one
spectacular vista after another. As we drive I think to myself a climb is going to be fun
but can it get any better than this? As we started up the dirt road from Ouray it was
dark. Actually with an overcast sky it suddenly seemed really dark. We could barely
see 3ft to either side. On one side of the road rose a shear rock cliff. As the
overhanging cliffs reached for the sky they disappear into the darkness of the night.
Literally off the other side of the road was another shear cliff, and this one dropped
away into similar depths of blackness. The road was full of gulley's to let rain water
rivulets run across. In the darkness it appeared as if the road just dropped away into
these gulley's. You couldn't see the bottom as the road dropped away the headlight
shone up into the rising mud where the road continues on the other side of the
culvert. Driving down into these small streambeds and accelerating up out the other
side was bone jarring ...and truck crunching. Pete took them faster than I would have. I
think the situation and especially the lack of visibility called for a rock crawl approach,
but Pete seemed to be trying to use momentum to carry us through the streambed
then powering the truck back up onto the deep rutted road. It was quite the drive on
such as dark night. There we so few visual clues along the route that I lost that general
sense of space from what felt like high altitude sensory deprivation. We were planning
on sleeping in the back of the truck so eventually as we got the point where you
would need a real 4WD vehicle we stopped for the night. We woke with frost before
dawn to start the climb. Details emerged in the early morning light revealing the
amount of snow in the mountain tops as they came into focus.