How hiking the 4 Pass Loop with my dad changed my life

Kyle Clements
Aug 28, 2017 · 5 min read

Last week I climbed the 4 Pass Loop around Maroon Bells (outside Aspen, CO) with my dad. We hiked the 27 mile loop from Wednesday night — Saturday morning; 4 days hiking, 3 nights camping. The crown jewel of the trek were four seperate passes over 12,400 feet in elevation that we climbed.

I’ve backpacked and hiked through the Andes in Peru, the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and even volcanoes in Guatemala. I was not prepared for what these mountains had in store. This hike changed my life.

West Maroon Pass. The place that changed my life.

My dad and I both flew in to Denver, CO Wednesday AM (we both live on the East Coast), and drove the 4 hours it took to get to Aspen. After stopping for last minute supplies at REI, we finally got to Aspen Highlands Village — our parking spot for our shuttle.

We loaded our heavy 70 Liter Osprey backpacks (full of enough food and supplies to last two weeks — we definitely overpacked) onto to the shuttle and headed off to the 4 Pass Loop trailhead in Maroon Bells. Our driver went on to tell us how lucky we were to get there by 4:25 PM since his last ride ended at 4:30 PM. Near miss I thought. I was just happy to finally be using my legs after traveling all day.

Upon arriving at the trailhead, we hiked 3 miles in to Crater Lake and set up camp. After making some steaming hot Mountain House chicken and noodles, we passed the whiskey around before heading to bed by 7:30 PM (we were very tired if you couldn’t tell). After a sleepless night in our two person tent, the next morning we were up by sunrise. We took a brief moment to explore the beauty around us with our nice warm coffee and actively packed up our campsite to get on the trail by 7:30 AM. We were anxious to begin our journey.

Warm coffee views, Thursday AM at Crater Lake.

Our plan for the route was to climb two passes on Thursday and two passes on Friday. That would leave us back at Crater Lake for the final 3 miles into the trailhead on Saturday and give us the rest of the day to get back to Denver.

The 4 Pass Loop — lots of up, lots of down.

For some context, my dad is 54 and has never been on recreational backpacking trip in his life. Although a West Point grad and multiple time Ironman finisher, backpacking at 12,000 feet elevation with a 40 pound pack on is something that you can only really prepare for by actually doing it. No matter how good of shape you are, you don’t really know how your body will react out there until you actually get out there. That’s what makes what happened next, so scary.

We finally just about gotten up to our first pass, West Maroon Pass, and were proud that we had covered so much distance by lunch time. As we got to the summit, a couple solemnly greeted us, “Just so you know, there is a deceased man 1/4 mile down the trail. He was hiking with his son and just had a hard attack. He was 68.” Um. What. I’ve never seen a deceased man before. And also, another father son trip? This is weird.

We hiked down the trail and saw the deceased man. He was just off the trail and had a sheet covering his body. Across from the deceased man was a guy in his 30’s who looked like he just seen a ghost. The man at the top of West Maroon Pass said that the son had gone down to the nearest town to reach authorities while another hiker had stayed with the body. As I walked down between the body and the man, I nodded to the man who nodded back. “I can’t imagine what the son is going through right now,” I thought. “One minute he is hiking in one of the most beautiful areas of the world with is father, the next his father is gone.”

I walked for a few more moments, before turning back to see where my dad was. At this point I was about 30 feet ahead and when I turned around, I saw my dad kneeling next to the deceased man saying a prayer. After a minute of praying for the deceased man, my dad proceeded to talk to the guy sitting across from the body. “You have no idea how much that means to me. That was my father.” The man, who turned out to be the son, started crying.

A few miles after passing the deceased man, me and my dad on Thursday afternoon after West Maroon Pass.

The next 2 hours my dad and I hiked in silence. That could have been him. That could have been me. I will never understand why that man had to die on that hike with his son. Why then? Why did his son have to be there? Life often has more questions than answers; more unknown than certainty.

As I reflected the next day on that moment with my dad, one thing kept coming back to me — we aren’t promised tomorrow. I became very grateful for my relationship with my dad at that moment. Our relationship wasn’t always perfect but I loved him and he loved me. I felt at peace with that no matter what happens tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that, I will felt at peace with my relationship with him.

Maroon Bells, Saturday morning after finishing the 4 Pass Loop.

This hike changed my life. It was a gentle reminder that we aren’t promised tomorrow. It was a reminder to me, that you may never get that second chance to tell someone you love them. You may only have today.

After we finished our hike Saturday morning, my dad and I were at breakfast together in Aspen. Two biscuits covered with gravy, 3 slices of bacon, two slices of ham, a bowl of grits, a large Coke, an iced coffee, and Bloody Mary in to our feast I finally got the courage to say, “That was an amazing trip, Dad. Thank you for going with me. I love you.” “I love you too, son”, he replied.

I learned a life-changing lesson in those mountain at Maroon Bells. Life is fragile and uncertain. It’s often scary. But for all the tragic things that can happen in this world, I do know that I can control how I show my love for those around me. And after this trip, I know that my dad knows I love him. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip.

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Kyle Clements

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I love building amazing technology products and climbing mountains. And popcorn.

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