13er – Page 26 – Wild Wanderer

Bent Peak – 13,393

RT Length: 2 miles

Elevation Gain: 1032’

Woohoo! It’s finally summertime and I’m in the mood to start doing some serious hiking. I drove down to Lake City after work on Thursday, intending to find a parking spot on Carson Pass, spend the night, and get up early to start hiking. I looked up Carson Pass for road conditions on Bushducks and wasn’t able to find any information so I figured this was an easy 4WD road. (Note, I found out later it’s listed under Wager Gulch).

I turned left from 30 onto 36, or Carson Road. There’s a sign that says “4WD recommended”

Ha! I found out rather quickly This is a serious 4WD road. It’s narrow, has a minimum of 4 blind-hairpin turns, water crossings, and some serious rocks/trees/etc. to navigate.

The good news is if you can make it after the first mile you can make it all the way. On my drive back down I saw someone turn around just before making it a mile. It took them a good 20 minutes to turn their vehicle around. I hope they found a dispersed campsite elsewhere. Here’s a picture of the truck that turned around. My Tundra handled it famously, but this is a road better suited to vehicles with a short wheel base.

After driving for 3.5 miles I made it to Carson. It’s a ghost town, and just before reaching it there are a few dispersed campsites.

Instead of stopping I drove 1.5 miles further on the road to the top of Carson Pass. The entire drive was almost exactly 5 miles from the turnoff from 30.

There was a little bit of snow towards the top, but nothing that interfered with driving.

I made it to the top of Carson Pass, backed into in the only available parking space (I’m assuming a lot of vehicles just park on the tundra) and realized it was only 5pm.

Hmm. I had a flexible itinerary for the weekend that included up to 8 peaks depending on weather/conditions, and while I’d already done an hour on the treadmill today I was in no way tired. I decided to tackle the peak in front of me because I had plenty of time and wanted to get the most out of this trip. Read: I did not want to make that drive again (if possible) and wanted to get in all 8 peaks.

I gathered my backpack and headed west up the side of Bent Peak, following the 4WD road.

This hike is straight forward. You just follow the road until it ends

When the road ends, continue northwest up the side of the mountain

The tundra turns to rocky terrain

And then to a mix of tundra and rocks

And then back to rocks

The summit was rocky and had a bunch of cairns.

I summited at 5:50pm.

Bent Peak:

I took a good look at the conditions of the nearby peaks I intended to tackle this weekend. It didn’t look like I’d be needing traction. I turned around and re-traced my steps back to the road, and my truck (circled)

I made it back to my truck at 6:15pm, making this a 2 mile hike with 1032’ of elevation gain in 1 hour.

Here’s a topo of my route:

I was really glad I’d decided to tackle this quick peak today. Now it was time to eat some dinner and prep for tomorrow. It was now I noticed the cooler I’d brought had tumbled during the drive and leaked water all over my laptop. Oh no! My laptop was fried. Great. This was not a good start to the weekend.

The wind started to pick up and I could tell it was going to be a long night. I decided to fuel up on calories, and as I was eating dinner and sipping whiskey I thought about a movie on Amazon I’d recently watched: Ouray 100, which is about a 100+ mile endurance run in Ouray, CO. that includes 42K+ in elevation gain (84K in elevation change). I’ve been intrigued by this run, but also by one of the pacers. She’s a woman around 25 years old who at one point in the movie said “Give me some Gu, I don’t care what flavor, I just need the calories”. I need to be more on her level: I have a hard time forcing myself to eat anything while hiking, and she doesn’t seem to care; she just wants the calories. I also just want the calories but feel like I have to throw up after consuming them.

I tried to get to bed early but all I could think about was driving that road back down when it was time to leave. I was not looking forward to it. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem driving 4WD roads and I actually enjoy doing so because my truck has always done everything I’ve asked it to do. What I don’t enjoy is passing other vehicles on the roads because my truck is big and passing can get tricky when the road is narrow. There aren’t a lot of turnouts on the road to Carson Pass and uphill has the right of way so mentally I tried to figure out the best time to drive down: Do I leave in the middle of the night at some point this weekend? If I do and encounter another driver how much fun will it be backing up in the dark on that road? How likely was that to happen? Or do I leave early morning and risk early adventurers driving up? Or late afternoon? That’s when most people are driving down, right? So drivers coming up expect a lot of drivers driving down and are more likely to avoid that time? How many people would drive up to see the sunset? What time am I least likely to encounter another driver? Is there a time the Jeeps are due back when rented? Ugh. I wish I could have just turned my mind off at this point, as it was useless worrying about something I couldn’t control. I guess I’d be flexible depending on how much hiking I was able to get in.

I noticed my truck was by far the largest vehicle up there all weekend: lots of Jeeps and ATVs and OHVs were on the road, but no larger vehicles/trucks.

Oh, and the wind never stopped, but it did start snowing.

PT 13626

RT Length: 8.14 miles

Elevation Gain: 4197’

I am so glad I drove to the trailhead when it was daylight! I didn’t have good directions: google maps stopped at Alpine Lake and when I CalTopo’d the drive from there I unknowingly set my route through private property (that wished to remain private). So I drove around for a bit and eventually found a road that went straight to the Alpine Cemetery Trailhead:

Directions to Alpine Cemetery: From 162 turn right onto 292B, and then take your third right onto 292B. It’s the street that has a sign that says “dead end”, which I chuckled at because it ends at a cemetery. It’s also the only street in the area that’s a dead end.

There’s room for a handful of cars at the dead end.

I parked my truck and took a look around. The trail started at the east end of the parking area and wove through the Alpine Cemetery to begin. Yes, I was extra glad I came here while it was still light out, as I was able to locate the beginning of the trail and walk it in the daylight (tomorrow I’d start in the morning when it was still dark). I also discovered there were tons of tiny worms hanging on threads from the trees. This was also something I was glad to know: they’d be no fun walking through in the dark through the cemetery, but at least I’d know what they were. I’d be hiking and using my trekking pole as a web catcher through here. There was a sign telling the history of the cemetery at the trail entrance. It looked like the ‘headstones’ were all re-done a few years ago, and already deteriorating.

Oh, and there are graves that go right up to the road. That’s my truck, and circled is a gravesite.

I walked around the cemetery for a bit, then headed back to my truck to make dinner.

When I spend the weekends hiking and sleeping in the back of my truck I try to make meals as easy as possible, mainly because I just don’t get hungry when I hike so it’s worthless to spend a lot of time preparing them. Today I’d hiked 18 miles with 7100’ of elevation gain and I wasn’t hungry. But I knew I had to eat for tomorrow’s hike of PT 13,626 so I heated up dinner anyway. Yesterday I’d cooked some brats on the grill and put one in a ziplock bag for today. I filled my JetBoil with water, put the brat inside to heat it up, and got a glass of wine. As soon as the water was boiling I picked up the brat with a fork and poured the water into a Cup Noodles container to warm up the rest of my dinner.

I took a bite out of the brat. Nope, I wasn’t hungry. Ugh. Hearing a noise I turned around and saw the largest Golden Retriever I’ve ever seen trotting over to me. She sat down in front of me and smiled. Three high school aged girls came up behind her and asked me if she was my dog.

Me: “No, sorry, I don’t have a dog”

Girls: “We didn’t think so but we thought we’d check. Her collar says her name is Molly and she has the same last name as the sign in front of a house down the street, so we’ll take her there”

Me: “Good idea. Good luck!”

The girls called for Molly to follow them but Molly had gotten wind of my brat and wasn’t budging. She sat there and looked at the sausage longingly. Molly wasn’t my dog, and even though I didn’t want the brat I didn’t feel right giving it to her because I didn’t know her diet, so I did the only thing I could do: I ate it as fast as I could. I probably finished it in 30 seconds and in 4 bites. Now I really felt sick. To add insult to injury when I was done eating Molly didn’t turn and walk away: She rolled on the ground, shook back and forth and asked for belly rubs.

It took the girls a solid 5 minutes to get Molly up off the floor and to walk with them towards her owners’ house. I tried but was too full to eat my cup noodles, and after 3 bites pretty much wasted the rest. It’s weird how I can burn thousands of calories on a hike but can’t force myself to replenish those calories afterwards without feeling like I was going to throw up. A couple hundred calories wasn’t going to do it for tomorrow, but oh well; it would just be a slow day.

I’d wanted to make this an early night, but after jotting down some trip notes from today and making dinner and walking around it was getting late. After slapping the third mosquito I closed my truck and sat in the back with the doors closed. I lit a candle, writing by candlelight. I have lights set up I could have turned on, but candlelight just felt better. Ambiance = candlelight in a cemetery. Trust me.

I was finally ready to go to bed around 9pm. I blew out the candle and set up the curtains over my back window and noticed some of the graves had solar powered lights outlining them. Oh great: So now even in the dark I’ll know where the graves are (that’s sarcasm). I really didn’t think this whole “sleep at the cemetery trailhead” thing through. I went to bed wondering if I knew any good cemetery songs? I’m a Girl Scout Leader and have a song for every occasion, but currently I was drawing a blank.

Interestingly that night I slept at the cemetery was probably the most peaceful night I’ve ever had sleeping at a trailhead. You could say I ‘slept like the dead’. Seriously: no noises woke me up in the middle of the night, no wind, no animals, no chatter from dispersed campers. It was great!

I woke up at 3:45am and was on the trail by 4:15am. This was my second attempt of PT 13,626, the first one foiled due to snow in the basin and a lost water bottle. Also, I took a different route on that hike.

The trail starts at the Alpine Cemetery sign and winds around the cemetery, following a crumbling trail outlined by tree branches.

The trail is a bit rough to start but there are signs that while they aren’t the most elaborate, indicate the way

After you get past the cemetery the trail narrows and is more defined. The trail changes from pine trees to chaparral to aspens as it hugs the south side of the mountain, gaining elevation for 1.3 miles until turning left and heading north up Grouse Canyon. The trail is a little overgrown but easy to follow. I kept thinking “This route is SO MUCH EASIER than the last route I’d tried to summit PT 13,626. So. Much. Easier.” Images of bushwhacking and ticks and tons of compass time flashed through my head and I wondered why last time I’d chosen the route with no trail?

After hiking for 1.6 miles I encountered a small avalanche area, easily crossable

I hiked for about a tenth of a mile more and the trail stopped in a larger avalanche area. From here on out there was no trail to the summit. However, there is a creek. If you follow the creek it will take you through to the basin. I ended up crisscrossing it several times when there seemed to be more of a trail on one side or the other.

Here are some pictures of the route up the valley

After hiking for 2.7 miles the drainage curved to the right (east) and I followed it up to the basin. This looked like a dry creek, but was probably due to snow runout

This brought me to treeline, and rocks. I stayed high and left here and didn’t regret it, but you could also follow the drainage to the right all the way up to the basin.

The rocks turned to tundra

There are multiple ways to summit here. You can keep going northeast and follow the ridge to the summit or go straight up the face (northwest). This is all class 2.

I decided to go straight up the face. This was steep but easy to navigate, with a lot of tundra and stable sand in the gullies.

I started encountering a little bit of snow as I made it to the top. Easily avoidable snow as I just stayed to the left

There was a cornice at the top

I headed towards the smallest part of the cornice to investigate. I took off my pack and decided to put on microspikes and get out my ice axe. I realized halfway up the snow crampons would have been a better choice but I was already committed and the spikes held. Also, here it started snowing.

When I got to the top I turned right. There was still a little more snow to contend with before reaching the summit, but the summit itself was dry

I summited PT 13,626 at 7:30am. It was lightly snowing and cold and very windy. The forecast had mentioned thunderstorms after noon but said nothing about snow this early in the day. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Yes I was. Cold. I felt cold.

PT 13,626:

There was a nice summit register under the cairn. As always, I didn’t open it. Here’s a picture of the route I took in this time (taken from the route I attempted last time. Unfortunately, the way I came today didn’t afford any good views of the peak)

This wind was insane. And cold. Time to head back down.

I took off my microspikes and headed back down to the basin, following the same way I went in

Staying high and then dropping down into the drainage, following it down

Until I reached the avalanche area and once again found the trail

The trail was easy to follow back to the trailhead

I made it back to my truck at 10am, making this a 8.14 mile hike with 4197’ of elevation gain in 5 hours, 45 minutes. Here’s a topo map of my route:

Pt 13500 & Twining Peak – 13,711

RT Length: 5.39 Miles

Elevation Gain: 2443’

After summiting Sayres Benchmark I noticed the day was still nice and I had plenty of time to spare so I drove to Independence Pass to try my hand at Twining Peak. I’ve already been here once this year after another hike, but the conditions weren’t… favorable. Lots of wet marshy mush to get through to the good stuff, and I don’t like hiking with soggy socks.

When I got to the Independence Pass parking area I backed in my truck and took a look around. Yep, it was still marshy.

The weather looked good, and I could see a clear line to the ridge. I decided to gather all my gear (crampons, ice axe, snowshoes, new socks, etc.) and hit the trail. I walked west along HWY 82 until I reached this sign, which happened to be where the snow ended. From here I turned right (north) and headed for the ridge.

Yes, this was still marshy, but I could avoid the snow and getting my feet wet with careful navigation. I aimed for the ridge, intending to see what the basin looked like before determining if I would summit first via the 13500/Twining saddle or go over 13500 instead.

When I made it to the ridge I looked over at Twining Peak. If it were earlier in the day I would have crossed the basin and gained the saddle first (as outlined below).

However, it was now almost 2pm and I knew that snow was soft. Yes, I had snowshoes, but no, I didn’t want to posthole with them through the basin. So instead I turned right (northeast) and followed the ridge to 13,500. This was all class 2

There seemed to be a bit of a trail in areas that went straight up through the snow. I didn’t want to do that so when I encountered snow I just went around it. This is an easy ridge to follow.

There was a little bit of rock hopping, all class 2, and easy fun. The boulders are big and pretty stable. Just hug the ridge to the left and don’t try to go straight over the ridge and you’ll be fine.

Here’s the last bit to the summit

I summited at 2:15pm

Pt 13,500:

There wasn’t a summit register. Turning northwest I could see my path to Twining Peak

This was an easy ridge walk, with a little easy rock hopping and the snow was totally avoidable

The tundra changed to rocky terrain

There was some snow on the last section. I decided to drop to the left and find a gully to summit, but I wouldn’t recommend that route: the gully was loose and on my way back I found out the snow was actually solid near this boulder, so I should have just summited by walking across it.

Summit of Twining Peak

I summited Twining Peak at 3pm

Twining Peak:

The weather was starting to turn; I could see rain showers all around so I didn’t stay long on the peak. I put on my jacket and headed back down, this time going over the snow and large boulder I’d gone around on my way up.

And back down the ridge, sticking to the right to avoid the snow

I re-summited PT 13,500 as it was lightly snowing. There was a young man at the summit who was super excited: this was his first 13er! He’s never gotten this far before on this peak, and he was excited. He wanted to know what all the peaks were that we could see, and I obliged him for a bit. Also introduced him to 14ers.com because he’s interested in tackling more 13ers and 14ers (please be nice).

I headed back down the ridge

Unfortunately, at about this time I saw a flight for life helicopter whiz by. Never a good sign. Later, as I was driving back down HWY 82 I saw a police officer and a tow truck driver putting a motorcycle on the back of the tow truck, lots of lights flashing, no other vehicle/animals involved. Ouch. I sincerely hope everyone is ok. Also, the accident happened in a straight area of the HWY, so I don’t think HWY curves were involved. In any event, please adventure carefully!

I took a slightly different path on my way down than I did on my way up, as I could see a clearer path that avoided marsh/snow

I eventually came upon a trail, but it led to snow/marsh, so I avoided it and went back down the ridge

The nice thing about this hike is you can see your vehicle for most of it, and at a minimum HWY 82, so it’s difficult to get lost. I just aimed for the road, avoiding the snow/mush

Here’s an overview of my hike up to the ridge and back down more to the center (after realizing the basin wasn’t something I wanted to experience today)

I made it back to my truck at 5:45pm, making this a 5.39 mile hike with 2443’ of elevation gain in 3.5 hours. Please don’t judge the time: I’d already hiked 12.5 miles and 4652’ of elevation this day and I was a bit tired; this hike can most likely be done faster.

Here’s a topo map of my route

OK, on to the next trailhead!

Sayres Benchmark – 13,746 & PT 13,440

RT Length: 12.61 Miles

Elevation Gain: 4652’

I drove to the La Plata Gulch Traihead and then took 391 for a little over 2.5 miles to a junction with 382, 391, and 392, where I parked my truck. This is an easy 4WD road in, with a few water holes to navigate.

I parked at what looked to be an avalanche runout area.

Initially I’d intended to make this a loop and incorporate Unnamed 13,300F and PT 12,601, but the area that I’d exit the hike as a loop with had a lot of “no trespassing” signs, so I decided early on just to make this a 2 peak hike.

At 5am I gathered my gear and headed southwest, following 392, passing some dispersed campsites and wiki-ups.

I crossed a bridge and turned right, following 392. There are more dispersed campsites here. The dispersed campsites make it a little difficult to follow/see the road.

In the dark I ended up going too far south on 382, missing the obvious 392 sign, and the not so obvious road. Turn left at this sign, even though there’s no road.

And pass through a gate, now following the 392 4WD road.

Almost immediately I came to a creek crossing that required me to take off my shoes and get out my sandals. The creek was cold (especially at 5am) but the water only went up to my knees in the deepest of places.

Shoes back on, I followed the 4WD road. “4WD Road” is a bit of a misnomer. This was probably a road decades ago, but it has gone into disrepair and hasn’t been used for quite a while. It’s easy to follow, but overgrown in many areas with willows, aspens, and even 10+ foot pine trees.

At 11,950’ I came to a small cabin with a great view.

I peered inside: someone had left a peanut bottle full of trail mix (peanuts and M&M’s?) on a shelf. It was dark and cold inside and I’ve seen horror movies so I didn’t take the bait. I turned around and considered my options. Here the road still had some snow/ice covering it, but early in the morning I could walk across it when necessary without traction. On the way back I was able to see dry spots to navigate down and avoided the snow.

My options were to either take the road or follow the ridge. I decided to take the road up and follow the ridge back down. I wasn’t disappointed. I also placed a cairn here to show where you leave the trail to follow the ridge (even though it should be obvious).

The road really didn’t have much snow on it after I passed this point and was quite easy to follow all the way to the saddle. Several times I intersected with the ridge route as I followed the road.

From the ridge you can see the road, and the path you take to get to Sayres Benchmark

I was really glad I decided to take the road up. Not because it was easier than the ridge, but because it was here I saw some elk. My favorite were the calves, suckling breakfast until they noticed me and their mamas decided it was time for them to leave.

Elk:

Following the road to 13275 feel of elevation I then turned right (south) and followed the ridge, losing 300 or so feet of elevation as I made my way to the saddle. I decided to just follow the ridge, even though it meant going up and down in elevation a few times. (This is all class 2)

There was still some snow on the ridge. I made the 50/50 decision to stick to the right of the ridge and wasn’t disappointed, as later I could see the ridge to the left was impassable due to snow.

I stuck to the right of the snow

Towards the top the tundra gave way to rocks

The top of this is unfortunately not the summit of Sayres Benchmark, even if it looks like it is from far away. Nope, when you get to the top of the ridge turn left (northeast) and hike to another small saddle and then up to the summit of Sayres.

There was more snow here than I would have liked, but it was firm this early in the morning. I decided against putting on spikes or crampons and just hiked across.

After this small saddle I picked one of the many dirt filled gullies and climbed to the top

I summited at 8:40am.

Summit of Sayres:

There was a benchmark that I’m pretty sure is off by 1000’ or so…

There was a summit register, but as always, I didn’t open it. Time to head back the way I came. I turned back and headed towards the small saddle, retracing my steps. Here’s an overview of the route to PT 13460

I was glad the snow was still firm enough not to need traction. Today there was minimal exposure as well.

Here’s an overview of the route back to PT 13,430 (not considered ranked or unranked)

Notice the snow? It’s good here to stick to the left (west side)

Here’s a visual of the route to the top of PT 13,430

I took the road to the ridge, turned right (northeast) and once I was on the ridge the ground turned sandy for a bit, but mostly it was crushed rock.

Here’s a view of PT 13,460 from PT 13,430

Here’s the route I took to get to PT 13,430. I tried to stick to the ridge, but when that wasn’t possible I dipped to the left. This is all class 2, maybe easy 2D (if that can be a thing?)

Here you dip down to the left and climb back up through a short gully

The final trek to 13,460

I summited PT 13,460 at 10:20am. There was as a summit register here.

Summit of 13,460:

Here’s looking back at today’s peaks

I made my way back to PT 13,430, retracing my steps. Here’s an overview of the route back down from the ridge before PT 13,460. You can clearly see the road at the end of the ridge. I circled where my truck is parked.

The ridge started out as rubble and turned to tundra before making it back to the road

Here’s looking back at the ridge. While hiking the ridge I ran into another hiker! I hadn’t expected to see anyone at all today, and as we passed I was thrilled to see she was another female solo hiker. It’s nice to see other women out rocking the mountains. We talked for a bit. I was probably a bit clipped because I had other plans for today and wanted to keep moving, but she did too so after chatting about the weekend weather around the state and other peaks for this weekend we were both on our way.

I followed the road back to the creek crossing, through the gate, turned right, and followed the trail back to my truck. I kept my sandals on after the creek crossing, since it was such a short distance and I’d be changing back into them when I was done anyway.

I made it back to my truck at 12:30pm, making this a 12.61 mile hike with 4652’ of elevation gain in 7.5 hours.

Since it was still early, the weather seemed to be holding up, and I wasn’t yet exhausted I decided to drive over to Independence Pass and see if I could hit a few more ranked 13ers today. As I drove out all of those empty dispersed camping spots were full.

Mt Parnassus – 13,580, Bard Peak – 13,641 & Woods Mountain 12,940

RT Length: 10.25 miles

Elevation Gain: 4965’

This was my third attempt going for Bard Peak. The first time I made it as far as Parnassus, but the wind and cold temperatures (and Raynaud’s) prevented me from going any further. My second attempt was from the Berthoud Falls area, and the snow just wasn’t cooperating. Imagine my surprise when I found out today this is actually an easy trail when not in full winter conditions!

I parked at the Herman Gulch trailhead and was on the trail by 4:30am. This trailhead has tons of parking, but beware: it fills up fast. There was a full moon and I could see by looking at the mountains I wouldn’t be needing snowshoes today, so I left them in my truck.

The trail starts in the middle of the parking area. I took the Herman Gulch trail to begin, which is just behind the information signs.

After hiking .2 miles I turned right (east) at this junction to follow the Waterous Gulch Trail.

This trail is an easy, class 1 trail all the way to the basin. Last time I was here the area was covered in snow and I had no idea there was a trail that went that far. Today the hike was easy! No real route finding below treeline.

After hiking for about 1.5 miles I came to a creek crossing in Waterous Gulch, crossed the creek on an icy log by sitting down, straddling the log, and shimmying across (due to the ice I would definitely have slipped if I’d tried to cross standing up). I turned left and headed north through the gulch on a great trail (still the Waterous Gulch Trail).

Starting here there was snow on the trail, but just enough to be annoying: I could still figure out where the trail went

I crossed a small stream and continued on the trail. Note: You can also choose to go right and not cross the stream here and take a parallel trail that leads you to the exact same place as the Waterous Gulch trail. I stayed straight here and continued to the end of the gulch on the way in and took the parallel trail on the way out. They were similar, but the one that follows the gulch also follows the stream, which was nice.

I followed the class 1 trail to the end of the gulch, and after 2.2 miles of hiking turned right and continued following the trail up to the saddle of Woods/Parnassus. There are a lot of ways to gain the summit of Parnassus. Last time I hiked further south, avoiding the saddle, and I would not recommend that route. Instead, take the easy gully and aim for the saddle and go as far as you can before turning right and heading southeast towards the summit. This is where the intense wind started and didn’t stop. Forecasted winds were 17-24mph, but those winds don’t knock you over. For the rest of this hike I was using my trekking pole for stability, hiking sideways into the wind.

The trail stopped here somewhere under the snow. I paralleled the snow to the saddle

At the saddle I turned right and headed southeast towards the summit of Mt Parnassus. This is an easy hike on tundra.

The terrain gets a bit rockier near the top.

The summit is relatively flat. I summited Mt Parnassus at 6:40am, after just over 3.5 miles and 2 hours of hiking. Since this is my second summit of Mt Parnassus I’ll spare you the selfie and let you watch the summit video instead.

Mt Parnassus:

Bard Peak is just over a mile east of Mt Parnassus.

There’s a bit of a trail from Parnassus to Bard. I followed it where I could. It was faint, so sometimes I lost it, but mostly followed the ridge. It’s important to follow the ridge when snow is present. This ridge is easy class 2 ‘scrambling’. Just watch for loose rocks. I could see a faint trail go to the right of the ridge (south), but it became covered in snow and would have been difficult to cross. Here’s an overview of my route

And some close-ups in order:

When I got to this section I did not feel comfortable traversing without crampons and my ice axe (luckily I had both). I sat down, strapped on my crampons, and crossed the snow. The snow was slippery at this time in the morning (not mushy, more like icy). You could probably traverse this section with just microspikes if you were here at the right time of the day.

Because I could I kept the crampons on until the last of the snow.

Here’s looking back on the section you want to avoid, and the reason I stuck to the ridge. You can also see a slip here would take you a ways.

After taking off my crampons and putting them away I headed up to the summit of Bard Peak, keeping close to the ridge

I summited Bard Peak at 7:50am, after 4.7 miles of hiking.

Bard Peak:

There was a broken summit register and a benchmark on the summit

Now to head back to Mt Parnassus. I backtracked down to the saddle, put on my crampons again, got out my ice axe, and crossed the snow.

It was easy to avoid the snow on the rest of the way back to Parnassus

From the summit of Mt Parnassus I descended the way I’d summited, back down to the Woods/Parnassus saddle

When I made it to the saddle I still wasn’t tired so I decided to summit 12er Woods Mountain as well. This summit doesn’t require much guidance: it’s an easy tundra stroll to the top. This added 460’ of elevation gain to the hike. This is where the wind became the most intense (yes, it was still blowing). It was so windy I was hiking sideways with each step, and had to over-compensate each step to stay in a straight line, crisscrossing my steps as I went.

I reached the summit of Woods Mountain at 9:40am. I’ll spare you the selfie of this one as well, since I’ve already summited this peak. Here’s the summit register and a video

Woods Mountain:

This wind was insane! Time to head back down to the saddle and back down to the gulch

I followed the trail back down the gulch, over the log bridge, and back to the trailhead. This is where I started seeing a lot of other hikers. When I made it to the trailhead the large parking area was completely full.

I made it back to my truck at 11am, making this a 10.25 mile hike with 4965’ of elevation gain in 6.5 hours. Here’s a topo map of the route:

I felt really good about the hike today: The weather had been warm, no clouds, not much route finding, and when I made it back to my truck I wasn’t even tired yet. The only thing that could have been better was the wind. It’s amazing how good conditions can change the outcome of a hike!

Mt Blaurock – 13,626 & Ervin Peak – 13,538

RT Length: 6 miles

Elevation Gain: 3821’

There’s currently a curfew in place in Colorado Springs, so the beginning of the drive felt a bit ominous: I didn’t see any other vehicles on the road until I made it to the freeway, and even then there were very few vehicles compared to normal, even for 1am, and even when compared to being quarantined. I’d stopped for gas the day before so I didn’t need to stop at all this morning. With less people out I felt like I saw more wildlife: 4 foxes and a dozen or so elk. I made it to Winfield around 4am and decided to take the easy 4WD dirt road a little further, past the cemetery to some dispersed camping spots .85 of a mile from Winfield. You can park at Winfield and it won’t add more than 2 miles to this hike.

Looking at a topo map, I wanted to follow Grey Copper Creek to begin. After finding a dispersed parking spot I headed northwest in the dark, following game trails, zig-zagging in what felt like I was in a horror movie until I hit the creek. The creek was easy to find because there’s been a recent avalanche in the area. This also made the creek easy to follow (after initially climbing over some downed trees).

I crossed the creek and stayed on the west side, startling a porcupine as I went. There are new game trails starting here that parallel the creek.

There are a few ways to summit Mt Blaurock: You can follow the creek until it ends and continue climbing until you make it to the Blaurock/Ervin saddle, or gain the south ridge and follow that route. There was still some snow in the gully so I decided to take the south ridge route.

There is no special point to gain the south ridge. I turned and headed west after a little over a mile of hiking, aiming for the ridge

From treeline it was easy to see the route, following the ridge northeast

The first part of the ridge is an easy stroll on tundra

Once the tundra ended the loose rock began and didn’t quit until the hike was almost over and I was back at the avy area. I’d call it rotten rubble, or choss most of the way. I rounded the first bump in the ridge to the left, climbed straight over the second, and then took a gully up to the top. There is some loose rock here.

Here’s a look back down to this point

Turning left (northwest) I dipped down to the left a few times to avoid snow and unnecessary ridge crossings

Of course, the summit is the furthest ‘hump’ on the ridge

I followed a small, rock filled gully to the summit

I summited Mt Blaurock at 7:30am

Mt Blaurock Summit:

There are some great views of surrounding peaks, a few of which I visited last week;

I headed back over the ridge on the same path I took in:

Here’s looking down at the traverse between Blaurock and Ervin Peak. The hike down to the saddle from Blaurock is easy

I met a nice ptarmigan along the way

Here’s a look from the saddle of the ridge to Blaurock and Ervin

This is where it gets tricky. Here’s the route I took to avoid the snow:

It looks like there might be a class 2 path here along the right (south) side, but with the snow in key areas I wasn’t able to take that route. There was snow in this section, turning the rest of the hike into class 3 on loose rock. I had one rock the size of a microwave fall while I was testing it. Luckily, I was just testing and didn’t have any weight on the rock. It scared me though. A helmet would be a good idea. Note which areas actually “go”: The dirt gullies here make it look like there are trails where there are not. Here are pictures of how I navigated the ridge. This took quite a bit of careful route finding.

This is actually easier than it looks. Class 3, and I placed a cairn here so I’d remember how to get back (there are a lot of drastic drops in this area).

The last hurdle was unavoidable snow just before the summit. I tested the snow and honestly considered turning back. The snow was slippery and a fall would have took me a long way. In the end I strapped on my crampons and got out my ice axe, glad I’d brought both. I traversed these two areas (about 40 feet each) gingerly.

The last bit up to the summit was full of loose rock but was straightforward

I summited Mt Ervin at 9:30am (that’s Mt Hope in the background)

Ervin Peak Summit:

I didn’t stay long on the summit. The day was warm and the snow was melting fast: I wanted to cross the snowy areas as quickly as possible to avoid slipping. I turned around and headed back the way I’d come.

I was making this a loop, so when I hit the westernmost part of the ridge I turned and headed southwest down. This ridge was easy to navigate but full of loose, rolling rocks. It was slow going because I had to be careful with foot placement. This ridge kind of turns right as it goes. Here’s a hint: If it’s daylight, just keep heading towards the switchbacks that you can see in the middle of the picture below.

From about halfway down the ridge here’s looking back at Mt Blaurock and Ervin Peak. The blue arrow points to where you could hike from the landslide area straight to the saddle instead of taking the ridges up and down

Here you can see you want to meet back up with the landslide area, and that to do so you’ll be bushwhacking through dense aspen. I could still see the switchbacks, but only just barely and only because the aspens aren’t completely full of leaves yet.

There were enough game trails here to follow not to make this too difficult. It would have been easier if I were 2 feet tall though, because those trails go under logs and through brush.

I made it back to the landslide area, took a picture of it in the daylight, and turned and headed south towards my parking space.

I made it back to my truck at 12pm, making this a 6 mile hike/climb with 3821’ of elevation gain in 8 hours, most of it spent route finding and watching for rolling rocks.

Here’s a picture of the saddle, should you choose to ascend that way

When I got home and started jotting down notes I realized today I’d hiked my 145^th unique 13er, as well as my 145^th unique bicentennial. Pretty cool!

Also, it’s time to retire my hiking boots, as they are no longer waterproof. They almost made it a year….

Rinker Peak – 13,789, Twin Peaks B – 13,333 & Twin Peaks Northeast – 13,270

RT Length: 10.5 Miles

Elevation Gain: 5471’

Wow, what a difference a couple of months make! I’d attempted Rinker Peak back in January but didn’t get very far. Today there was no snow on the ground at the Willis Gulch Trailhead and I was easily able to get a parking spot instead of parking on the side of the road. I gathered my gear and was on the trail by 3:30am.

The trail begins at the south end of the parking area by crossing a bridge over Lake Creek and turning right.

At this sign turn left and follow Trail No 1471

This will lead you through some Beaver Ponds on a nice trail. In the dark of the morning I heard a beaver sized splash about 4 feet away from me, stood in place for a second making noise, and for the next 15 minutes hit my trekking pole on every rock/tree I saw. I’m pretty sure it was a beaver, and the beaver didn’t care.

I followed the class 1 trail and stayed right at this junction to stay on Trail No 1471

After hiking for 1.3 miles I turned right off the trail and bushwhacked my way up to the top of the slope. And I mean bushwhacked.

This was harder to do than it sounds, and I’m glad I did it at this time of year (before the bushes have too many leaves). There was a 20% chance of rain here last night and it looked like this section of the mountain got it: The branches and groundcover were wet and slippery and the slope angle just enough to keep me on my toes. There were tons of trails here, but they were all game trails and frequently and abruptly stopped. I just kept heading southwest, doing my best to find the path of least resistance, thinking to myself this ‘wet’ is the reason I could never do a thru hike, as I’d never dry out. Give me snow any day! (Also, I truly do want to do a thru hike…). It was quite an experience running into so many spiderwebs in the dark…

At 9275’ and after about half a mile of hiking off trail I came to the top of this part of the mountain, a kind of ‘ridge under the trees’. I wouldn’t call it a ridge per se, but from here if I would continue heading southwest I would have started losing elevation, so I turned left (south).

I followed this ridge south and then west as it rounded to treeline. There wasn’t a trail and I only saw 1 cairn all day (on the ridge)

I came to an area with a lot of downed trees (which was fun to navigate at night, easy during the day)

And headed straight up the mountain to treeline, passing through pine trees, dense aspens, and some loose rock piles

The rocks were large but many were loose. Be careful of your footing here: I don’t think any rocks will tumble down, but they will roll out from under you.

This brought me to treeline, where I found what looked like maybe an old structure (or windbreak) covered in snow so I couldn’t really tell. There were also rusted cans scattered all over and an old coffee pot. That means there had to be a better trail to get to this point than the one I’d taken, as it was obvious this area was once used more frequently.

This was basically treeline, but there was just enough snow that I skirted it for a bit to make it to the ridge.

The ridge is straightforward. I thought the top would be Twin Peaks Northeast (it’s not).

There are a couple of goat trails on the left side of the ridge, and one area where I had to dip down to the right to avoid a gully

There’s a cairn at the top. I reached the ridge after 3.75 miles of hiking

And from the top of the ridge you can see Twin Peaks Northeast

From here there are a lot of ups and downs to the rest of this hike. This is a class 2 ridge, and nothing too difficult presents itself. I went right here

But mostly just followed the ridge. I made it to the top of Twin Peaks Northeast at 7:38am, after 4 miles of hiking. It was windy and thus cold, and here I put on my outer layer and balaclava and extra gloves. I got selfies here and at the next peak but I’ll spare you those and just let you see the videos, as these are unranked peaks.

Twin Peaks Northeast:

A storm was coming in, or at least it looked like clouds were rapidly forming, so I had to make a decision: Should I continue along the ridge or turn back? In the end I decided to continue to Twin Peaks and make the decision at that point. This is a long ridge, and requires commitment on the weathers part. I continued southwest along the ridge to Twin Peaks. The hardest part of this ridge was over and it was a simple trek (or it would have been simple without all that wind!!!). I made it to Twin Peaks B at 7:50am after 4.5 miles of hiking.

Twin Peaks B:

The weather seemed to be holding so I headed over to Rinker Peak. This was an easy class 2 ridge hike to the saddle

Here’s the route I took up to the summit of Rinker. Snow was (mostly) avoidable, and while I did some minor postholing, no traction was needed

There was a tripod at the top, so if you brought up a tarp and rope you could have a nice shelter from the wind. I summited at 8:50am, glad I’d decided to continue this hike. It was 5.35 miles to this point and the weather was great.

Rinker Peak:

Here’s looking at the route to this point

And the route back along the ridge (there are goat trails in areas to follow here)

As on the way in, the only really tricky section (if you want to call it that) is between Twin Peaks Northeast and the point on the ridge to head back down

Go right around this rock

Left here (just before the saddle)

And this is the route to the top

Be careful of loose rock here

This will bring you back to the cairn

Just follow the ridge back to treeline

And back through the rocks, aspens, and pine trees

That will lead you to the ridge to follow below treeline

And eventually back to the trail

I passed the beaver pond in daylight (I didn’t see any beavers)

And crossed Lake Creek. It had more raging water than I’ve ever seen there before but to be fair, I’m usually in this area in winter and it’s mostly frozen.

I made it back to my truck at 1:30pm, making this a 10.5 mile hike with 5471’ of elevation gain in 10 hours. I didn’t see another person all day, even when I was on the class 1 trail. It started raining as I left the parking lot. Here’s the route to the ridge as seen from Twin Lakes

And my topo

Tijeras Peak – 13,612 & Music Mountain – 13,365

RT Length: 12 miles

Elevation Gain: 4587’

I’d intended to be on the trail by 4am, but the last 2.5 miles of 4WD road past Grape Creek TH to Music Pass TH took longer than I’d anticipated. It is indeed a 4WD road that requires some clearance. It was better than South Colony Lakes though. I brought snowshoes but decided to leave them in the truck. I was the only vehicle in the very large parking area when I left. I put on my helmet and was on my way by 4:30am.

The trail starts at the west end of the parking area.

The trail is class 1 all the way to the Lower Sand Creek Lake. I came across a (full) trail register quickly

And continued on a well-maintained trail west 1.2 miles to Music Pass, where there was another (full) trail register.

From Music Pass there’s a great view of the entire route:

From Music Pass the trail loses 450’ in elevation as it brings you to the valley below.

Stay straight at the first junction (2 miles)

And turn left at the second (2.3 miles)

I quickly crossed Sand Creek on a bridge put together by fallen logs, and continued along the class 1 trail

The trail was easy to follow, but, ah, spring conditions. If there wasn’t water on the trail there was snow. More than once I regretted leaving my snowshoes in the truck: It was posthole city at 6am.

I swithchbacked up to the lake, where the trail ended (or was covered in too much snow to follow). I made it to the lake after 3.5 miles of hiking. My next objective was to skirt the north side of the lake and ascend the gully to make it into the upper basin. Here’s an overview of the route:

Here’s where I began the ascent. Note, that big rock to the left is basically a waterfall. On my way down it was nice letting the water sprinkle over me in the heat. There is a gully to the right that is an actual waterfall with lots of flowing water. If it were winter or no flowing water it could be an alternate route to the basin.

The rock to the right has a huge cave underneath it (big enough for several people to fit inside). It looked perfect for a mountain lion or bear den so I chose to hug the opposite rock more on my return.

The gully only goes for about half a mile before you turn left (south) and cross the basin

There was a lot of snow here, and it was impossible to avoid it. It was still early morning but there hadn’t been a freeze the night before so the snow was soft. Postholing was terrible and I knew it was only going to get worse so I chose to ascend via the first ramp I saw instead of inspecting the others. As I was postholing I aimed for this rock, which was visible above the willows.

I made it to the ramp, a bit displeased to find the snow just kept getting softer. Before making the decision to ascend I made sure I had an exit route. I knew if I ascended here the snow would be too soft to descend, most likely at about the time I reached the top. If I was going to continue I was going to need to make this a loop. I looked over to Music Mountain and the way down, took some pictures for further reference, looked at pictures of the route I’d taken from this morning, and consulted the sky (70% chance of thunderstorms after 4pm today, I so needed to be able to make it down well before then). I saw a viable route to descend via Music with avoidable snow and decided to go for it. Note: you only have two options to ascend and descend this loop, as it cliffs out everywhere else. Before committing know your options. I strapped on my crampons, got out my ice axe, and went for it.

The snow was soft, so kicking in steps was easy (almost too easy at times and I had to re-make them when the snow turned to mush under my feet).

A view from inside, looking up and looking down

Eventually the snow ran out and I scrambled on rock/tundra to reach the top of the ledge. Here’s the route from the ledge to the summit

Note: This is NOT the only route. You could make this easier by hiking to the saddle and then turning left and hiking up the class 2 (possibly easy 3) ridge. I chose instead to go up the face and get in a little scrambling. As with a lot of scrambling routes, there is no exact route; you need to pick it and choose it carefully. Here’s how I went, once again, sticking to the center as much as possible.

The rocks were surprisingly stable, although there were several areas that looked as if they’d recently experienced a rockslide. I made it to the summit at 9:30am

Tijeras Peak:

There was a water bottle summit register at the top, and great views of the surrounding mountains.

I turned northwest to head down the ridge of Tijeras towards its saddle with Music Mountain.

Here’s the route I took in a nutshell

For much of this ridge walk I stuck to the ridge, but there was a time I dipped to the left a little. This is not a simple ridge walk, and did require some scrambling. Nothing that gets your heart going like on the way up Tijeras, but scrambling nonetheless.

Here’s a look back up the ridge of Tijeras

Once down on the saddle the walk to the base of the Music Mountain climb was easy.

Here’s a look at my route down Tijeras and over to Music

Climbing up Music Mountain was the biggest challenge of my day. The entire route was scrambling that took committed attention to each and every move. Luckily the rock was solid and there were many hand/foot holds. Since I climb solo I was extremely careful and tested each hold several times before committing, which made the process slow. Also, I didn’t look down: This ridge was spicy. I began by going straight up the ridge and staying on that ridge through class 3 and 4 sections, only altering one time to use a gully because I felt the ridge was too dangerous (but I’m sure you can make it go all the way because I had no problem downclimbing the entire ridge). Here’s an overview

And step by step, straight up and over. It’s more committing than it looks

At the top of the first ridge I saw a lot more scrambling (and what looked like a knife edge from below but really wasn’t) and decided to divert the main ridge by finding a gully to climb instead. This is the area I had no trouble downclimbing.

And then more ridge work. I’m standing on one of three ‘highpoints’ on Music Mountain, taking a picture of the other two. This was the easiest part of the ridge

I couldn’t be sure which point was the actual summit of Music Mountain: There was no summit marker/cairn and all three points seemed to be the same height, so I just made sure to hike to the last one. On my way back I took altimeter measurements of all three. Surprisingly, the point in the middle measured highest, and the first point measured lowest. In any event, I hit all three and took a picture at the furthest point because it offered the best views

Music Mountain:

Time to head back. I took Music’s East Ridge down. those grassy ledges and rock faces are steep! Nothing compared to the previous ridges of the day, but they still took careful planning and foot placement. Nothing special to add here except watch out for the gullies and try to stick to the tundra or ridge when possible. Here’s the route I took down

And a look back up at the ridge

Here are the current options for gaining the ledges on Tijeras. I took the smaller one to the left

I made it back down the gully to the lake and followed the trail back to Music Pass

Re-summiting Music Pass was a bit of a buzz kill after such a long day, but this would still be high on my list of most beautiful places to hike. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous!

I made it up to Music Pass and opened the trail register to sign out, but when I did so no less than 10 miller moths flew out at me. I slammed the lid and said ‘no thank you’ and was on my way. There wasn’t really a place to sign out anyway, just a record of who’d been there. I didn’t bother signing out of the second register, not wanting the same experience.

I made it back to my truck at 3:15pm, making this a 12 mile hike with 4587’ of elevation gain in just under 12 hours.

Here’s a topo of the route

I saw some wild horses on my way out… either that or the horses got out. In any event, we chatted for a bit until it started to rain. It seemed those thunder storms were going to happen today after all!

Carbonate Mountain A – 13,663, Cyclone Mountain A – 13,616, & Grizzly Mountain – 13,708

RT Length: 8.75 miles

Elevation Gain: 4090’

I made it to the 1 vehicle trailhead early the day before after hiking another peak in the area. I had a lot of time to kill before heading to bed for the night and enjoyed every minute. The Cyclone Creek Trailhead is located at 10750’, where the Cyclone Creek and CR 240 meet. It’s located 8.25 miles after turning onto CR 240 from HWY 50. The road is 4WD (not too rough, any stock 4WD should be able to make it).

Since I made it here early I decided to check out the area. The trail starts just on the other side of the road, but isn’t marked well. In fact, the sign just says “closed to motorized vehicles”

I woke up at 2:45am and was on the trail by 3am. The trail started out decent, but quickly deteriorated and became difficult to follow.

After hiking for about half a mile I turned right (east) and headed up the side of the mountain. There was no trail here and it was dark so route finding was tricky, especially in the avalanche area (11,150’). I found a small stream and followed it until it went away, right at about treeline

Here the terrain became very, very steep (scree) and at times I crawled to continue moving forward. The wind was intense and cold, cold, cold. My nose started dripping like a faucet and yes, that’s snot you see on the lens at the bottom of the next few pictures. The scree gave way to some of the loosest talus/rubble I’ve ever experienced as I made my way towards the ridge thinking “there has to be a better way to ascend the ridge than what I’m doing, there just has to”. I probably would have altered my course a bit if it were daylight and I could see.

This ridge seemed to last forever, with a few small false summits

I’m not sure I’d ascend Carbonate this way again: I’d instead ascend the ridge to the right (start ascending directly from where I parked my truck). Here’s looking back at the way I ascended. The dotted line is how I’d do it if I were to do this again.

I summited Carbonate Mountain A to frigid winds that just wouldn’t quit. There was a summit register, but I didn’t even try to open it.

I couldn’t feel my lips or fingers and decided I’d just take a quick selfie with my camera and not stop to set the camera up for a better shot. This is also when I noticed the snot on my camera lens and cleaned it off…

I needed to keep moving and I needed the sun to warm things up and the wind to die down. The only thing I could control was my pace, so I kept moving. I followed the ridge north to Cyclone. The terrain was full of loose rocks but was straightforward

This was easier than it looked and didn’t take much time. Here’s looking back at the decent off Carbonate Mountain, and the ascent route up Cyclone Mountain

Somewhere along this route I stopped to put on my balaclava, and things immediately warmed up a bit. Here’s the talus filled final push up Cyclone

There was a summit register but it was open and empty. The wind hadn’t stopped but I was a tad bit warmer. I set up the camera, but only took one shot. This is what I got

Here’s the route to Grizzly Mountain. I was especially concerned with the area circled in red, as that’s the scrambling section and I was worried it had some snow I couldn’t see from my view atop Mt Aetna yesterday.

It looked good from this angle. I kept going, looking for possible bail out routes should I need one. I descended Cyclone Mountain, which was once again composed of steep and loose rubble

The rest of the trek was on more stable ground as I headed towards the traverse.

Here’s looking back on Carbonate and Cyclone

From the beginning the traverse over to Grizzly Mountain doesn’t seem that intimidating

But as soon as you round the first corner things get interesting. I began by sticking to the ridge

But that quickly became impossible. The rock here is very, very loose, large, and ready to fall. There are tons of rock-filled gullies and route finding can be tricky. I stayed to the left of the ridge the entire time because the right side was full of varying amounts of snow. I definitely experienced some class 4 sections. Here’s the way I went:

Here things got spicy, as I encountered a gully with several options for descent. There seemed to be three possible lines. I felt the safest route was the middle route and aimed for the snow

It’s steeper than it looks. Here’s looking back at the route I took. I’m thinking it was about 35 feet of downclimbing

I continued to make my way down towards the snow filled saddle. Luckily it was firm and easy to cross. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I made it here, but the dangerous part wasn’t over yet

Here’s an overview of my way to the saddle (looking back on my route)

The rock was still loose and I had to be careful to triple check every hold so as not to dislodge a rock. I went slowly here, carefully choosing my route.

Here’s the final route up Grizzly. The terrain became more stable as I continued, but the rocks were always loose

I summited Grizzly Mountain at 9:30am.

Grizzly Mountain Summit:

Here’s a look back at the ridge traverse as seen from the summit of Grizzly Mountain

While on the traverse I’d studied my intended route down. I was able to avoid most of the snow to head down into the basin.

While avoiding the snow I instead descended on scree and loose rock: I wasn’t sure which was worse, the ascent up Carbonate or the descent down Grizzly. I took it slow to avoid rolling an ankle and headed towards the basin. Here’s the route out:

I did have a little snow to contend with, but only for about 100 feet or so. The conditions were perfect to cross without traction.

Here’s a look at the rubble

And a look back at my descent route.

Once in the basin I knew I wanted to stay just to the right of the trees and follow the creek back to my truck. There was supposed to be a trail here, but I was unable to see it from above. Either that or it was under one of the dozens of small streams of water. What I hadn’t known until I’d made it down into the basin was the ‘dry’ area between the trees and the creek was actually a boggy mess! The mountains were melting out. It was impossible not to get my feet wet. For a while I tried hiking in the trees but the snow was just soft enough to make postholing miserable and snowshoes overkill. So I stayed in the marshy area, following game trails through the willows. I even saw two elk bounding away from me as I sloshed along.

I passed an avalanche area (not the same one as in the morning) and rounded a small boulder field, always keeping the creek to my right

In this area I was almost done with the hike but somehow I came across an actual trail and followed it back to my truck.

I made it back to my truck at 1pm, making this an 8.75 mile hike with 4090’ of elevation gain in 10 hours.

Looking from Mt Aetna, here’s an overview of the route

And my topo

Mt Aetna – 13,745

RT Length: 8 miles

Elevation Gain: 4103’

I’m not a fan of couloir climbs, but feel they are something I should practice. I intentionally chose to climb Mt Aetna when there wasn’t a ton of snow so I’d have the option of hiking on either snow or rock.

I left my house at midnight to a swirl of thousands of Miller moths. I’m not exaggerating; as I opened my garage door they swarmed my truck and at least 5 made it inside the cab with me. I spent the next few hours doing my best not to get frightened when one flew past my face.

The drive was uneventful, but I saw no less than 6 police vehicles in the short drive from 285 to the Boss Lake Trailhead (seemed excessive for such a remote area at this time of night). Memorial Day weekend should be interesting. I parked at the lower trailhead so I could add the 1.4 miles each way and hopefully some elevation gain: I’m still trying to keep my average at 10 miles per hike with 4000’ of elevation gain and I’m a little under that right now so every little bit helps.

I parked and was on the trail by 3:15am.

The 230 4WD road isn’t that bad to drive or to hike. I was glad I’d parked where I did because there were downed trees on the road before a little ways before the trailhead

At the trailhead sign I went right

And at the fork in the road I went left (the road has a chain across it and a “no trespassing” sign to the right)

The trail follows the 230 4WD road for 2.5 miles from the lower parking area. At 2.5 miles if it were light out you could see Mt Aetna on your right. I could have driven the entire way to this spot if there hadn’t been downed trees in the way.

I turned right and crossed a boulder field. These rocks were loose and rolled. Since it was still dark I couldn’t see where I was going, so I headed northeast. As the sun started to come up it was obvious I had a lot of options for today’s summit. Here’s an outline of the route I took:

There is actually a lot more snow than it looks like from far away. I followed the gully about a third of the way on rocks and tundra until I had a decision to make: take the ridge to the left, the ridge to the right, ascend the scree just to the right of center, or put on crampons and go straight up the snow

I decided today was a good day to practice my couloir climbing. The snow was firm and I wasn’t the slightest bit tired yet. I strapped on my crampons, got out my ice axe (I brought along two proper ice axes this time but only needed one) and got to climbing.

I changed my intended route several times because the snow was steeper than it looked in some sections.

Once I made it to the ridge I found it was easier to keep my crampons on and walk along the snow than it was to walk on the loose rocks, so for as long as I could I stuck to the snow

Eventually the snow ran out and I followed the rocky but (mostly) dry ridge to the summit

I summited at 7am and kept thinking to myself “that was much easier than I’d anticipated: why don’t I like couloir climbs again?”

Mt Aetna Summit:

I stayed longer at the summit than I usually do, taking a good look at the nearby mountains I wanted to summit tomorrow, checking to see if the crux area was free from snow. It looked like it was, but a lot of the area seemed to be hit or miss with snow and too much was still in shadows to be completely sure.

Here’s the route I took down, keeping to the snow as much as possible.

Make no mistake, it’s steeper than it looks but the snow was still firm and I was able to walk down the entire way without turning to face the mountain.

What’s nice about this climb is you have a visual the entire way up and down of where you need to go.

I made it back to the road, turned left, and followed it back to the trailhead.

I made it back to my truck at 10am, making this an 8 mile hike/climb with 4103’ of elevation gain in 6 hours, 45 minutes.

Here’s a topo map of my route.

Now I was off to the next trailhead. As soon as I came to an area with cell-service I pulled over to text my kids and see how they were doing (they were still sleeping). As I was sitting there an undercover cop pulled someone over for speeding right behind me. At first I only saw the flashing lights and thought I was in trouble for something. I sat there for a good 20 minutes and luckily for me, I was never approached and the police officer left before I did. But I got to see him again.

I turned onto CR 240 as I was headed to my next trailhead and saw two police vehicles parked on either side of the road. There were two police officers standing outside of their cars, stopping vehicles. I panicked and turned right into the (semi) residential area, drove for a bit, parked, and thought about my next move. Should I try to continue on to the trailhead, or turn around and go home? In the end I chose to continue to the trailhead: If I got stopped and ticketed or told to turn around at least I’d have beta for the next person.

I drove back the way I’d come and slowed down when I came to the police officers. I waved to them, and for some unexplainable reason, they waved me on! Woot! Maybe because I’d turned from the residential area and not the main highway they assumed I was a local? In any event, I drove the rough 4WD road to the next trailhead, found a place to park, made dinner, jotted down some trip notes, set out my gear for the next day, walked around the creek for a bit, knitted a hat for tomorrow, read a bit from a Colorado History book, had a few glasses of whiskey and went to bed early (tomorrow was going to be a long day). Oh, and I didn’t see one other vehicle drive down the road the entire time I was there, and it’s Friday to Memorial Day weekend at a well known dispersed camping area.