#16 - Climb the Manitou Incline

When I first moved to Colorado, I nicknamed the stairway at Red Rocks Amphitheater the "Staircase of Death."  My first weekend here, I checked out the amazing landmark, but I wasn't at all used to the altitude, so I had to stop a lot on the way up.  Well, little did I know, the stairs at Red Rocks were nothing.  Weak.  Easy.  An hour south of Denver lies the real Staircase of Death - the Manitou Incline.

The Manitou Incline is basically a downtrodden staircase that climbs 2000 feet in a mile.  Because of its location to the Olympic Training Center, it is known for having some olympians racing up the incline.  If you're doing it properly, you're supposed to time yourself from the trailhead to the top.  They say that world class athletes can do it in under 20 minutes.  It is my sad duty to report that my trek confirmed that I am, in fact, NOT a world class athlete...

I was planning on doing the Incline in the fall, but I found out that it would be closed for 4 months starting in August for renovations.  So... now or never.  When looking at weekends that I would have the time to do it, the best case scenario ended up being Friday... before a wedding... that I was doing a reading at.  So in the wee hours of the morning, I trekked down to Manitou Springs, conquered the Incline, then headed back to Denver for the wedding festivities.  A crazy day, but a memorable one nonetheless.  And another item off the list.

My time was 56:40... I'm coming for you Apolo Ohno! (17:45)

First Glimpse!

It begins...

All done!