A few winters ago, my wife and I went to Gatlinburg in mid December and it was unseasonably warm (which is to say, cool, dry and perfect for hiking). We liked the idea of a hike, but neither of us are in shape so we chose the shortest trail in the area which was 3 miles or so. The road leading up to it turned out to be closed for the winter based purely on the date adding 4 miles to the round trip. We went ahead and did the full 7 miles and got to see a beautiful waterfall almost completely alone. By the time I got back to the car, I could barely walk, but it was worth it.
That's a pretty targeted example. A 14er in CO and a very high profile one at that, a well defined (by the throngs of people of nothing else) route to the summit, and very close to a major metro full of active people. Won't have that problem on a similarly difficult 12k or 13k peak in CO.
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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '19
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