Im relatively new to this Hiking world. Ive been hiking these last few months, but this was my first “real hike” (more than 9 miles). I had some issues getting to the start of the trial, for some reason my navigation sent me to another location. After 40 min I finally made it to the start of the trail. As I began the hike it was fun seeing the snow, using my trekking poles for the first time. It was a great adventure but little by little I started feeling the weight of my backpack. When we were half a mile away from the summit my friend wanted to come down because it was getting late but I insisted that we hadnt hiked all this way up to come back without reaching the top. So we finally we made it to the top. It was great seeing other people there with their flags. I brought hot chocolate in my backpack inside a thermo. Drinking hot chocolate at 9000+ ft up and 36° was an amazing experience. On the way down I figured I wasnt prepared for a hike like this. I had a hard time going thru the ice. I had no chains (spikes) for my boots. The battery on my phone was dying I was at 15% and at this point I had one mission only. To make it to my car before the sunset. The temperature started going down the wind was super strong and I was super focused on just going home. We took one little break but decided to get back in track because when we stopped the wind felt 10 times worse. As we were finalizing our hike and spotted my car at distance I just felt so relieved and although I was sore the next two days but it was totally worth it. Im ready for the next peak.