Gaining Altitude

This is on the way up to Missouri Basin in Collegiate Peaks wilderness in Colorado. I chose this hike because there are lots of 14000+ ft peaks in this wilderness area. Along with all those peaks, though, comes the highest average altitude of any wilderness area in Colorado. It kicked my ass. I'm about 2/3-3/4 of the way from the valley floor up to the alpine lake we were heading for. It was one of those "it has to be just above this hill" situations. It's a good thing, though, because I would have been too intimidated to try if I'd know where we were going.