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📍 denver, colorado
lifestyle, adventure, + travel
tiktok: lauradaughtry
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If you thought I was going up Lake Como Road with the intent of making it one time and one time only... you were absolutely correct. 😅

✔ Colorado 14er 47/58: Blanca Peak ⛰ #blancapeak
✔ Colorado 14er 48/58: Ellingwood Point ⛰ #ellingwoodpoint

I mentioned in my last post that I had been putting off the Lake Como Road three-pack because of, well, Lake Como Road. I won't divulge too much here, but rather simply iterate that it is as awful as everyone says it is—both driving and hiking. So I only wanted to attempt this group when I had timing align to be able to summit Little Bear, Blanca, and Ellingwood in one fell swoop.

The stats and fun facts:
↠ According to my watch, we clocked a total of ~8 miles (roundtrip from Lake Como) and a 4,000 feet of elevation gain/loss for the day. We started with Blanca and traversed over to Ellingwood (losing and re-gaining a fair amount of elevation)
↠ While the route up to Blanca is very straight-forward, the route-finding over to Ellingwood was arguably the most difficult thing we did during this trek. The GPX track from 14ers.com of just the standard route down from Ellingwood was very easy to follow—I *highly* recommend downloading it and using it if you decide to go for Blanca first and then head over to Ellingwood! (Do *NOT* use AllTrails for this one.) The last photo truly depicts how I was feeling upon reaching the Ellingwood summit. 😂
↠ Blanca and Ellingwood were my 5th and 6th peaks in the Sangre de Cristo range
↠ Blanca is the 4th highest peak in the state of Colorado!

10 peaks left—can y’all believe it? Because I kinda can’t.

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#14er #14ers #co14ers #14ersofcolorado #colorado14ers #fourteener #colorfulcolorado #coloradolive #getoutside #optoutside #forceofnature #choosemountains #mtnchicks #mountaingirls #wildernessbabes #womenwhohike #womenwhoexplore #outdoorwomen #sheexplores #keepitwild #neverstopexploring #alpinebabes #outtherecolorado #womenwhoexplorecolorado #coloradohikes #sangredecristos

$4.5 months after snapping two leg bones in half, it was only appropriate that the king of the 14ers be my comeback peak 👑 ✔ Colorado 14er 41/58: Capitol Peak ⛰ #capitolpeak If someone had told me—while I was laying in a hospital bed having just had surgery for a joint tibia/fibula fracture—that I would summit Capitol Peak four-and-a-half months later, I would have never believed them. But in that timeframe, all I dreamed of doing was getting back on the peaks of mountains. So I put in the work. I attribute the recipe for success being consistent physical therapy, overloading my bones and muscles with heavy weights to force them to grow stronger, and a relentlessly positive attitude. But don’t get me wrong: the latter was the toughest to achieve most days. The stats and fun facts: ↠ 17 miles round trip/5,300 feet of both elevation gain and loss ↠ My 2nd to last peak in the Elks (Snowmass is next!) ↠ This was my 5th peak with my dear friend and incredible climbing partner, @naturemonsterr—we were the only all-female team on the mountain! ↠ Capitol Peak is the most difficult summit of all of the Colorado 14ers, without question or argument. It is known for its class 4 technical route, rotten/loose rock, dramatic exposure, the infamous Knife Edge (a 100-foot section that has 1,000 foot drop-offs on either side of an extremely narrow, exposed ridge), and—sadly—the number of lives this peak has taken. It is the ultimate test of mountaineering prowess. I hope this post serves to inspire and motivate any of you who have been effected by an injury. Stay positive, keep putting in the work, and be relentless with your dreams. Your better-than-before comeback is there for the taking. ——— #14er #14ers #co14ers #14ersofcolorado #colorado14ers #fourteener #colorfulcolorado #coloradolive #getoutside #optoutside #forceofnature #choosemountains #wildernessculture #mtnchicks #mountaingirls #wildernessbabes #womenwhohike #womenwhoexplore #outdoorwomen #sheexplores #keepitwild #neverstopexploring #getoutstayout #wanderwomeninc #alpinebabes #outtherecolorado #womenwhoexplorecolorado #coloradohikes$

$Tomorrow officially marks 3 years of living in Colorado. Every Colorado-rsary of mine, I like to take a look back and retrospect on the life that I've lived here so far. It hasn't always been pretty or easy. Some of the hardest life challenges I've ever faced were in the last three years; but there has been beauty in absolutely all of it—the good and the bad. Here's a little compilation of some of my Colorado life lived with some incredible friends and loved ones, mostly in chronological order: 1️⃣ Loving life up here at 10,152’ (📸 by: @thefoxnamedreda at @rruokyte.photo) 2️⃣ I joined my uncle @soyanarchisto in Boulder at the start of a global pandemic, but we managed to eat sushi and love life anyway 3️⃣ My first climb of the second Flatiron with miss @bronsonmacd17 4️⃣ Traversing Telluride’s via ferrata 5️⃣ Sunrise on Longs Peak 6️⃣ Horseback riding in NoCo with my fav adventure gal, @michelle_sroda 7️⃣ Winter hiking with the Mountain Mamacitas, @kaylees_wild + @hilaryhikes 8️⃣ Leadville livin’ with my bestie @emma.g.sull 9️⃣ Summiting my favorite mountain with my favorite climbing partner, @naturemonsterr 🔟 Skiing @skicooper with my dear @gracehubbard._ This slideshow is only a tiny fraction of the best memories of my entire life—all shared with some of my favorite people. Life is so, so wonderful. Here’s to the many more years of Colorado life I have to go. 🥂$

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$One week. It's been one week since my injury. For those of you who might have missed my Instagram story updates last week, here is the TL;DR: I had a freak ski accident on Sunday, March 12th. My right boot popped out of my binding; my left boot did not pop out of its respective binding, sending me tumbling. The result was my left leg getting twisted in my ski. I sustained a joint tibia/fibula fracture. Yes... I broke two different bones in my leg (and fractured my ankle, too). I had surgery the very next day. Creating content feels extremely insincere right now. Instagram is everyone's highlight reel... but it's not going to be mine for awhile. It's going to be an attempt to be brutally honest with you all as I go through this inevitably tough road to recovery. If any of you athletes that have ever been injured, you know that the mental blocks are arguably more difficult than the physical ones. I've cried so many tears in the last week. I mourn my loss of independence; I mourn my ski season being cut short. I worry about my big plans to summit the remaining 18 Colorado 14ers; I worry about the hospital bills I have coming. But despite it all, I have so much to be grateful for: my wonderful life in Leadville, the roof over my head, my full fridge of food, my sweet mother flying out here to take care of me, the incoming love and support I've received from so many of you—and that's just scratching the surface. Yes, this is a set-back; but I will fully heal. I will get back on my skis. I will summit more mountains. I will be myself again. So this post is to remind myself of that. 📸: the ever fabulous @thefoxnamedreda at @rruokyte.photo$

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LAURA DAUGHTRY ILIEVSKI

@laura.daughtry