13828 – Wild Wanderer

Mt Silverheels – 13,828

RT Length: 9 miles

Elevation Gain: 3800’

Last night I was at an event and didn’t make it home until midnight, which meant I wasn’t in bed until about 12:30am. Nevertheless I set my alarm for 2am, got up, and headed to the trailhead. Yes, I was tired, but if I only hiked on the days I wasn’t tired I’d never get to hike. Also, today was supposed to be beautiful! I really wanted to get above treeline.

Hoosier Pass Trailhead was probably the easiest trailhead I’ve ever driven to. It was easy to find, and directly off the main road with plenty of parking space.

I arrived at the trailhead 4:45am. I parked my truck, got my gear together, and crossed the road to begin my hike around 5am.

It was about 19* outside, but for some reason it felt extremely cold this morning. So cold I didn’t take out my topo map, and instead followed the tracks that led to the left. This ended up being a mistake I noticed about ¼ of a mile in when I stopped to put on my snowshoes. Yep, I was definitely going the wrong way. So I backtracked back to the gate, got out my map, and re-oriented myself. I was supposed to go east… where there weren’t any tracks. (After the gate don’t go left, go straight). I re-started my tracker and began again.

I broke trail in the dark. This is actually much more difficult than it sounds, and the new powdered snow made it more difficult than it should have been. I’ve never hiked in this area before, but I knew there was a good trail/4WD road here somewhere. Unfortunately, with the snow and in the dark I couldn’t see said trail. Everything looked the same. I’d only notice I was “off” the trail when I’d suddenly sink to my knees in the snow. Luckily it’s really not that far to treeline so this didn’t slow me down too much.

The best part about hiking in the dark? Tonight’s Geminid Meteor shower! I saw dozens of shooting stars, maybe more. Every time I looked up I’d see another one. This had me stopping quite a bit just to enjoy the sight, and was a major plus to my hiking this morning (and one of the reasons I forwent sleep). There was no moon, the sky was clear, and there were hundreds of stars in the sky. Wow. Just… wow. Colorado is amazing!!! Why wasn’t anyone out here with a better camera than I had photographing this?!?!?

I made it to treeline and it was still very dark. I knew the general direction I was supposed to head, so I just aimed east and kept hiking up a gentle slope, enjoying the stars.

When I made it to the top of the first slope it was still dark, but it was beginning to get a little lighter out. I could see the ridge I was supposed to follow, but couldn’t really tell how deep the snow was, so I stuck to the ridge longer than necessary. This ended up being a great idea because there were cornices I was unable to see. Here’s the path I took. You’ll notice where I started heading south is further than I needed to go, but once again this had been a good choice due to the cornices

From here I was supposed to aim for the power lines (circled in red) and continue down to about 12,400’. Ouch! This meant a loss in elevation of about 500’! Here’s the rest of the route from this point

Did I mention it was WINDY?!?!? Seriously windy. The kind of wind that flings your snot into the air before you have a chance to wipe it. I had snot on my nose, cheek, eyebrow, and I’m pretty sure I’d have it in my hair too if I wasn’t wearing a hat.The forecast had called for 10-15mph winds, and they were at least that, and steady, with 30mph+ gusts thrown in every now and then for fun.

It was much too windy for me to take off my gloves, and I was happy the sun was beginning to rise so I could now see the rest of the route before me. I looked west. Again, wow!

OK, back to that wind. It was creating cornices all over the place! See this?

Here’s what it looked like on the other side

I crossed the final bump along the connecting ridge and found the rib I was supposed to climb that would lead me to the top of Mt Silverheels. This looked straightforward. Here’s the route I took, careful to avoid both gullies and the cornices

Towards the top of the rib the snow decreased and I was left with talus

Here’s a look back on the route I took to get to the top of the ridge. By sticking to the ridge I’d avoided the cornices circled in red (which are larger than they appear in this picture)

From here it was a very easy walk to the summit

I summited at 8am. It took me 2.5 hours to summit.

16 Mt Silverheels 13822

Check out some of the views!

The summit was relatively flat. Here’s a picture of the last bit of the trek up, and another of how I get those summit-selfie photos…

The wind had died down a bit, so I stayed on the summit longer than I normally do to enjoy the view.

When I did start on my way down I had a little difficulty finding the exact spot to descend. I wanted to be sure to miss the two gullies, but that exact spot was difficult to find once on top of the rib. Finally, I decided to just parallel with the radio towers and head down. This ended up being the correct choice, and I soon found my snowshoe tracks to follow back down.

The wind began to pick up again, and I noticed a cornice crumble and slide. It was a small slide, but interesting just the same. The red circle is where the snow came to a stop after falling

I continued on, aiming for the radio towers and dreading that upcoming elevation gain

Here’s a look back on the route down from Mt Silverheels

In the light of day I could see a better path over Hoosier ridge than I’d used on my trek in. I was going to stay a bit lower, now that I could see in the daylight how the snow didn’t pose avalanche danger. The dotted route is the way I hiked in, the solid line the way I hiked out, careful to stay on solid ground/snow and then on the ridge to avoid the cornices.

I saw this bone on a cairn. The bone was about 6 inches long

I made it to the ridge and just followed it back

At the end of the ridge I saw the last bit of my hike down to treeline, and the radio towers I’d missed in the dark on my hike in.

The wind started dying down and I started making tracks again. They started out pretty scarce, but got deeper and deeper as I made my way to treeline. Every now and then I’d stumble upon a willow and sink a bit

Back beneath treeline I was able to see the snow frosted trees I’d missed in the dark. Such a beautiful sight! And the trench I’d put in this morning was still there so I deepened it a bit.

I made it back down to my truck at 11am, making this a 9 mile hike in 5.5 hours, with a little bit of trenching, lots of wind, and about 25 minutes on the summit. (my first distance includes my off route hiking from the beginning, so it’s a little off).

Because they’re fun, here’s my relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/2016998888

Oh, and this was my 50th 13er. Woot!

Huerfano Peak – 13,828 & Iron Nipple – 13,500

1-15

RT Length: 13 miles (from lower trailhead)

Elevation Gain: 4400’

Today’s Easter, and when I asked my 3 (older) teenagers what they wanted to do they said “Sleep in until 3pm and stay in our pajamas all day”. This is something completely doable for them, so I decided to let them do this and go hiking in the morning by myself. I figured I’d be back by 3pm no problem.

After Friday’s hike (trudge) through lots of snow I was looking for something a little warmer. The Sangre de Cristo range looked relatively warm, so I focused on Huerfano Peak and the Iron Nipple. I figured this was a safe route to take since I’ve already done Lindsey and am familiar with the area. Also, it was supposed to be 41 degrees with 25mph winds above treeline. That was the best forecast for the state!

I made it to the trailhead at 6am. I parked in the lower trailhead/avalanche area. The 4WD road was open but there weren’t any tire tracks heading up the trail, just footprints. I debated trying it out in my truck (I’d just had quite a bit of fun racing through some mud puddles on the say in) but figured there weren’t tracks in for a reason. This ended up being a good choice. I could have driven maybe another half mile up the trail, but after that it was covered in lots of ice and snow. And a few downed trees.

2 Lower trailhead

3 4WD road in morning

Parking at the lower trailhead added 4 miles to my round trip, which wasn’t too bad because those 4 miles don’t have any intense elevation gain.

And the view was totally worth it! Check out Blanca and Ellingwood!

I stalled as long as I could with putting on snowshoes. I don’t know why I do this: If I need them early I usually need them for a while. I guess I just don’t want to stop and put them on. It was well worth the effort though: I needed them for most of the hike. (Side note: I postholed at minimum up to my ankles, and up to my elbows the entire time I was wearing snowshoes, both on the way in and out. Postholing averaged at about my knees).

The Upper Huerfano / Lily Lake trailhead actually looked pretty clear (it was just the trail getting in that was difficult to drive). I signed the trail register, noticed no one had signed it in quite some time (10 or more days) and headed out.

5 Upper trailhead and register

The meadow was pretty clear of snow, but it was here I saw my first mosquitoes of the day. They were everywhere below treeline, and didn’t let up!

The Lily Lake turnoff was covered in snow.

At this point I saw the stream for the first time. It was beautiful, covered in snow, with holes where the water flowed. It was not completely covered in ice (as I’d read in previous conditions reports).

This is where the hike got a little sketchy. I was following a poorly defined trench, and at one point it split: one patch going towards a river, the other up this gully.

Neither paths were correct on either my map or GPS. Since I’d seen the river wasn’t completely solid less than ¼ of a mile ago I decided to take the gully, but when I got halfway I realized what a mistake that was. I was way off route, and not sure the way I was headed up would connect with where I needed to be. So I backtracked and tried to follow my GPS through the trees.

This was as really, really bad idea. I was on course, but the snow was soft and powdery and up to my elbows (yes, I still had those snowshoes on). And it was slippery. I kept sliding, and I was on a steep hillside. Added to that I was making a trench others may think was safe in what was actually a dangerous place. This was not good. I chose the safest path I could, exited the trees, and came to the river.

At this point the river was completely frozen, and I could see faint tracks where others had walked up the river in days prior. I walked up to the edge, used my ice ax to pound on the ice a bit and estimate the thickness of the ice, and determined it was much thicker here than the 3 inches necessary needed to hold my weight.

This was something new! I was hiking over a solid river (hey, walking on (frozen) water on Easter…) covered by about 2 inches of powdered snow. It was a bit slippery in places, but manageable. Crampons would have made this easier, but my snowshoes worked just fine. At places I could hear the water running under me, and the ice was so blue/teal/clear!

10 River morning

I kept following the river, and quickly came to the mine. I’d wanted to explore the mine a bit today, but obviously that wasn’t going to be possible since it was almost completely covered in snow. Yes, the whole Easter/tomb thing came to mind here as well…

11 Mine

The trail continued up, up, and up, over what felt like a waterfall and eventually came to a gully. All the visible tracks (they’d been gone for a while) showed footprints going to the right, up the gully. Even though I knew I was supposed to go left eventually, I followed the tracks.

That was a long trek up a steep slope!

It was a long uphill battle that put me on the far west upper end of the basin when I was done.

I side tracked and snow-shoed my way east towards where I knew the trail picked up on the other side of the basin (there weren’t any trails visible due to the snow). I needed to use my GPS to find the exact location of the point where the trail climbed the mountain, but once I did the route wasn’t difficult to follow.

I took off my snowshoes at this point and headed up the mountainside. Now I was starting to get a bit tired. All those gullies and postholing in snowshoes was starting to take its toll!

When I made it to just below the saddle I had a good view of Mt Lindsey

At the saddle at 13,100’ I turned north away from Lindsey and headed towards the Iron Nipple. The trick is to aim for the U-shaped notch in the center.

Here’s what that looked like up close

This is where the wind really started to pick up. It was way more intense than the 25mph predicted, and turned the snowshoes I was carrying into a kite. I stashed my snowshoes and trekking pole, got out my ice ax, and started towards the Iron Nipple. I’m not a big fan of the name (it gets its name because from far away it looks like a big nipple (just the nipple) and it’s a mountain made of iron. I know, who’d have thought?). From here I think it kind of looks like a Jaguar taking a rest.

Anyway, I didn’t want to climb this peak first because they I’d have to refer to it first in all of my postings, and I mentor Junior and High School aged adventurists and I really didn’t want to keep bringing this up when talking about summit Huerfano, so I descended some class 3 boulders down the side of the cliff and followed the ridge towards Huerfano Peak.

There wasn’t a lot of snow here, but just enough to make me need to watch every foot placing. I stayed towards the top of the ridge, ice ax in hand (and used several times). When I got to the saddle I took a look back… it kind of looks more like a nipple from here. The black arrow points the route I took to descend.

The rest of the route was pretty straightforward: I just aimed towards Huerfano and walked towards the peak for about half a mile. Here’s a summit photo to prove I summited

And some views of the surrounding mountains

Check out Lindsey! Almost no snow!

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the basin I’d entered through

And now I was on my way back towards the Iron Nipple. Did I mention it was windy? I’m guessing winds were at 50-55mph, and they didn’t let up. This wasn’t a big problem while I was hiking the saddle or talus below the ridge, but once I reached the ridge I had to keep my profile low.

I know this is going to sound like a bad joke, but the nipple actually had a lot of exposure. I wasn’t prepared for this, and it was quite exciting! I tried to get a picture to prove I was there and experiencing this exposure, but the wind kept knocking over my gorillapod with my DSLR camera. The third time it happened I almost lost my camera down the side of the cliff (ice ax to the rescue!) and I gave up getting the photo (I probably should have quit a bit earlier). There was a very substantial drop on either side, but especially the northeast side of this part of the route.

I summited and took a picture back at the ridge and Huerfano

I turned around and started heading back towards the notch. Mt Lindsey looks beautiful!

And Blanca as well

I hiked past the saddle and down the hillside towards the basin. The end provided some fun glissading!

From here I didn’t want to hike back down that gully I’d hiked up, mainly because it meant hiking up out of the basin just to hike back down the gully. So I took a look at my topo map. It looked like the gully in front of me was less steep and connected with where I needed to be, so I took that route instead, and indeed ended up where I needed to be: right back on that frozen river. It was beautiful! I couldn’t help but take more photos

34 Up and down river

And a video

https://youtu.be/YDJ8fHkVQqk

I decided the smart thing to do would be to follow the river down past where I’d entered and look for a logical exit point. I followed it for much longer than I felt comfortable, but a look at my topo map kept telling me I was on course with picking up the actual trail. The river did begin to open up due to weakness in the ice and I needed to exit to stay safe, but where exited was very close to the actual trail.

This was close to the Lily Lake trailhead, but 3 miles from where I’d parked my truck. Those last 3 miles took FOREVER! I don’t know if it’s because my 9 mile hike turned into a 13 mile hike, because I’m out of shape (I’m most definitely not) or because I was postholing in heavy winter boots and snowshoes up to my knees for most of this hike (that’s my story) but I was physically exhausted. My back and shoulders hurt, not to mention my quads. This isn’t normal for me while hiking: I loved every minute of it! What I didn’t love however, were those mosquitoes! It was actually quite pleasant outside, but I refused to take off layers because they were keeping me from getting bitten. I kept swatting the little buggers out of my face. I could see them everywhere (there were birds feasting everywhere as well).

I made it back to the trailhead and signed out of the register.

The ice on the road had melted a bit on the way out

37 Uper 4WD trail out

Here’s a daylight view of the avalanche area at the lower trailhead.

There was a lot of mud on the trail on the way out. I had fun driving through several very large mud puddles in my truck, making a mess of things. I absolutely LOVE my truck, and this was fun! Side note: everyone should own a truck for times like this.

I didn’t get any great photos of the big puddles or videos while mudding (because that required two hands on the wheel) but I did get a short video just driving out. The deer weren’t planned

https://youtu.be/vjg2uA114Cs

I made it back down to my truck at 4:15pm, but didn’t get cell reception until about 5pm (that dirt road and drive in takes forever!). When I finally was able to call the kids and tell them I’d be home around 7pm I found out they’d just woken up, so no worries. Oh, to be a teenager again! It seems we all enjoyed our holiday!