A woman had to brave the elements in the Colorado Rockies in a trip that almost cost her life. She decided to tackle the Colorado Trail in late August of last year.
But she was just 11 days into her trip on the trail, which spans 540 miles of the Colorado Rockies, when she realized she wouldn't make it. 36-year-old Jen Roby was out of energy and also slowly freezing to death thanks to a cold front. She had just a bivvy bag to protect her from the elements. But rain wet all her gear and led to hypothermia conditions.
She explained to Daily Mail, "I once read that hypothermia takes only a few hours to set in. In the state that I was in, I knew I wasn't going to last long. I was shivering more and more, and my breath was very shallow. I felt tears streaming down my face, freezing on my cheek as I questioned if this was how I was going to die... One single cold night, just a day before I was due to finish my cycling challenge."
At that moment, she considered that she might die. She ended up passing out several times. She said, "Panic continued to swim across my body as I failed to get my fragile body under control."
The Colorado Rockies
Her bivvy bag soon became to feel like a coffin burying her on the Colorado Rockies. She felt as if she was being waterboarded by the rain.
The outdoorswoman recalled: 'At one point, I was cramped on my side to create space for air inside the bivvy bag. It really felt as if I was in a coffin being waterboarded. I felt each pelting drop through the thin walls of the bag, and I could not retain any heat. The time moved so slowly as I contemplated how I was going to survive."
However, she soon entered a state of peace and felt like a guardian angel was with her on the Colorado Rockies. It told her that she would be okay.
She said, "Something or someone was there with me. I can't quite explain it. My bivvy bag was so small but I felt as though someone was inside it with me. I thought at the time I was either hallucinating or possibly having the worst dream of my life. I just remember feeling so scared as I felt myself slipping away from reality and my breathing was completely out of control."
Fortunately, she survived her trip to the Colorado Rockies. But she was forever changed by it.
