Tag: 14erchallenge

Mt Sneffles – 14,150

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RT Length: 6.5 Miles

Elevation Gain: 3000’

It has been a long weekend! Friday I did Snowmass and Saturday I took my High School aged Girl Scout Troop to Mt Princeton Hot Springs for the day.  That was a lot of driving, hiking, and adventure and not much sleep.  In fact, I’d only had 6 hours of sleep in the past 2 days.  That wasn’t keeping me from summiting again today though!  I had the day free, so I was going to hike!  I just picked an ‘easier’ mountain today that didn’t have much distance (I still have blisters and sores from where my boots rubbed my feet raw from that dip in the lake and long hike out).

I packed my gear the night before, including extra band aids for my tender feet and lots of moth balls. I’d heard of the trouble the marmots and other varmints do to parked vehicles while the owners are away, and I wanted to stop them before they started. Hence the moth balls.

The 2WD road in was a breeze. Nice and clear and wide enough to pass other vehicles when needed.

2 2wd road

I arrived at the trailhead and was on the trail by 5:30am. I decided to park below the lower trailhead to make up that extra 50’ in elevation gain, bringing the total to 3000’.  I didn’t want to risk having someone say it ‘didn’t count’ because I didn’t gain at least 3000’ in elevation, and this seemed like a simple solution.

There’s a fire in the area, and I could immediately smell the smoke. After about 5 minutes of hiking however I could no longer smell the fire and I couldn’t see smoke, so it couldn’t have been too close.  It was obvious a storm was moving in however, so I’d need to get a move on to successfully summit today.

There was a San Juan guide vehicle parked at the lower trailhead (there’s a clean restroom here), and people camping in the basin. Since there was only one vehicle I assumed they belonged to each other.

3 TH outhouse and van

The 4WD part of this trail is indeed 4WD. My truck could have made it, but why risk it?  There were so many opportunities for popped tires!

4 4wd road

And a few spots had snow crossings. On my way out I did see a modified 4Runner up there, a Suburban, and a few off highway vehicles, but they’d all come just to off road for the day.

5 4wd snow

In the end the hike isn’t that long: I’d suggest playing it safe and parking at the lower lot and hiking the extra mile in. I didn’t have cell service, so getting a tow truck would have been a bit of an issue.  I made it to the trail register, signed in, and looked at my route.

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I was trying to decide whether to take the Southwest Ridge or the Lavender Couloir. I had mixed feelings about both.  There was a storm coming in, and I wanted to summit in the most efficient way possible.  The ridge might take longer, but everyone I talked to said to take the ridge.  I signed the log stating I was taking the ridge but reserved the right to change my mind when I could see both routes properly.

There didn’t seem to be much to the hike. I was already above treeline.  All I had to do was cross the basin and traverse the ridge or the Lav Col.

About halfway across the basin I got a good look at the Lavender Couloir and that settled it. Nope, nope, and more nope. After Snowmass on Friday I was done with scree filled gullies for the near future.  I was taking the ridge!  I’m only sharing this post because it has Mt Sneffles in it.

8 lav col post

This trail had tons of signs indicating the route up to the saddle.

7 Trail signs

I crossed the basin following a well established trail with large patches of consolidated snow throughout.

9 Snow oon trail

I had a great view of Gilpin Peak.

10 Gilpin Peak

And the ridge I’d need to cross. At this point my camera died.  It kept telling me to switch the battery pack.  Not my phone camera, but the DSLR I lug around.  I was shocked!  I’d just charged that battery 2 days ago and it usually lasted forever!  Drat!  I was going to have to rely on my iPhone from now on for pictures (which don’t turn out nearly as well) to conserve battery power.  Hopefully I’d still be able to take a summit photo.

11 looking down from saddle

I gained the ridge and looked back on the trail

12 View of Ridge

That seemed too easy! Next I looked at the ridge before me.  This looked like fun!  I’d need to pass in and out of the towers a few times Here’s the beginning of the route:

13 Ridge route from saddle

The first part of the ridge was easy and straight forward. Even the snow along the ridgeline was easily manageable

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After the snow ended, the real work began. Luckily what this route lacks in distance it makes up for in climbing. The ridge route has gullies too.  These aren’t filled with scree, but with large rocks.  I much prefer rock scrambling gullies to scree filled gullies.  This route had a lot of scrambling!  Look at all those rocks!  And not one of them was stable.  I had to watch every hand and foothold to beware of a rock coming loose (and many did).

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What was difficult was the route finding! I’d follow the directions I had, but they never seemed right.  I kept thinking to myself “there’s no way this is the right route” and apparently everyone else thought the same thing because trails went off in every direction, looking for a different alternative.  Nope, I really was supposed to go through that notch and descend into that gully, only to climb the next gully full of snow…

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Here’s where it became seriously tricky. It was possible to climb this gully without touching the snow, but in order to do so some seriously clever moves were required on some seriously unstable rock with lots of exposure.  I know I got in some class 4 scrambling at this point.  I was going to have to figure out a safer way down when my pack put me off balance.

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My directions said to exit the final) gully (there must have been 5 or 6) at the kissing camels. I missed them but I did end up exiting the correct way.  I’d been traversing between those pillars I’d seen earlier from the basin.  Once out of the gullies I just had to follow the ridge to the summit.  This was easier said than done, as there were dozens of routes visible.  Here’s a view of the final pitch to the summit. This was the most stable rock I’d encountered all day, and FUN to climb!!!

18 last scramble to wummit

I summited at 8:30am and turned on my camera for a summit photo. I was hoping I had enough battery to get a good summit shot. I got one in and it refused to turn on again, so this is what I got.  I swear I’m not as large and awkward as this photo makes me look!

19 Mt Sneffles 14150

I took a selfie with my phone I was much happier with and a video from the summit.

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I looked back on the route down and saw what looked like people climbing. Cool, I’d get to meet people on my way down.

Following the path down was much more straightforward than following it up, but the exposure was real!

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I made it to the kissing camels I’d missed on my way in. They really were a cool sight to see!

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I was just getting to the point where I was wondering about the other climbers I’d seen? Maybe I hadn’t really seen them at all?  I turned the corner and there they were, halfway down (up) a gully.  There were three climbers: a couple with a guide, all roped in together, but not secured anywhere.  I don’t know much (anything) about roped in climbing, but this seemed really counterproductive.  If one person fell, wouldn’t they all fall because none of them were secured to anything?  Am I missing something to this?  (I know I am…).  How is this safe for anyone involved?

The couple didn’t talk with me, but the guide and I discussed gullies. His climbers looked exhausted and frightened.  I’m assuming they bit off more than they could chew.

I rounded the corner and saw the cairn I was looking for, and what looked like a rock bull standing sentinel.

24 IMG_6359 Cairn and Bull

This was the start of the gully I knew I wanted to climb down with my ice axe and crampons. I’m pretty sure I could have done it without them, staying to the rocks, but one false move/slip of my feet or the rock and I wasn’t surviving that fall.  So I did the wise thing and geared up.

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This ended up being a fantastic choice! I felt much more stable on my way down than I had climbing up.  Proper gear is the way to go!  Ice axe, crampons, and helmet all the way!  I made it down this gully and back over the notch and felt I was home free.  That to me had been the crux of this climb. From here on out I still had to watch every step, but it was all downhill from here!

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A storm was indeed moving in, and I was glad I’d gotten such an early start. I met two more hikers on my way down who’d intended to climb the gully but were turning back due to weather.  I also saw two hikers halfway up the gully.  I seriously hope they made it back down safe.

I signed out of the trail register at 10:30am

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And hiked happily back to my truck. That had been a fantastic climb!  I was so glad I took this route instead of the Lavender Couloir.  I would have been a miserable snot hiking that thing.  The ridge was much more technical, but a lot of fun!

Doesn’t my truck look like she enjoyed herself while I was away?

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Well, remember those moth balls I’d brought to toss under my truck to ward off the marmots while I was hiking? In my excitement and eagerness to get started I’d left them inside my truck during the heat of the day, so when I went to open it I was blasted by an overwhelming scent that reminded me of my granny.  That smell’s not going away anytime soon.  Note to self:  Next time put the moth balls OUTSIDE!!!

Snowmass Mountain – 14,092

1RT Mileage: 22 miles

Elevation Gain: 5800’

It‘d been a long week at work, so I needed a quick nap before heading to the trailhead. I got all my gear together and packed it into my backpacking pack and loaded it into my truck so I’d just need to get up and go.

My backpacking pack looked excessive for a day hike, but I was darned tired of carrying those snowshoes in my hands all the way up the trail again. They don’t strap to my day pack, and they’re a bugger to carry, but they fit nicely into my backpacking pack.  So today that’s where they went.  At least the pack was light.

My plan was to get to the trailhead at 1am and make it to the lake around 3:30am. That meant I needed to leave at 9:30pm.  That gave me 2.5 hours to rest if I fell asleep right now.  I jumped into bed, checked my alarm one more time to make sure it was set for 9pm, pulled the covers over my head and fell asleep.  Two seconds later I turned over and looked at my phone because I felt way too rested.  AGH!!!  10:33pm!  My alarm hadn’t gone off!  Drat!  I did the mental calculations:  Was it to late to start?  This is really a hike that needs to be started very early in the morning. Very early.  Did I just miss my shot?  I knew I could make up some of the time driving, and I was all packed, so…

I jumped out of bed, re-heated the morning’s coffee, and was out the door in 5 minutes.

Surprisingly there was no one on the road at 11pm on a Thursday night. I drove most of the way not seeing another vehicle.  I couldn’t speed however, because there were a lot of animals out.  Just after Buena Vista I saw about 20 deer trying to cross the road in front of me.  I had to slow down very quickly to avoid hitting them.  I’ll admit I was pretty close, but was able to stop in time.  I’m guessing we had 3 inches to spare.

Just as my truck came to a full stop, Wham! I heard a big thump on the back passenger side of the vehicle.  I’d just been hit by a deer!  I thought that kind of thing only happened in Gilmore Girls?  I didn’t want to get out of my truck because there were a bunch of deer around, so I slowly crept the vehicle forward and looked in my rear-view mirror to see if the deer was ok.  It was.  It had just gotten scared and done the prey thing where they try to zig and zag to confuse their predator into going the other way.  She’d zigged when she should have zagged, but all the deer were up and walking around behind me, so I continued on.  I’d look at the damage to my truck when I got to the trailhead.

My GPS stated I was making good time. I’d already cut off 30 minutes of drive time, making me only a little over an hour behind schedule.  That was promising.  Until I made it to the trailhead.  Or, what I thought was the trailhead.  Those of you familiar with the Maroon-Bells and Snowmass area might think this was a stupid mistake, but my GPS directions and the directions from the .com were pretty parallel, and after following them I ended up at the Maroon Bells Trailhead instead of the Snowmass Trailhead.  Both are referred to as the Maroon-Snowmass trailhead (side note:  there’s a sign at the park entrance saying the $10 fee to enter Maroon Bells starts June 10).

I was starting at the Maroon-Snowmass Trailhead, but apparently there are two of those?!?! Luckily I’d started the GPX file for the hike before leaving the house (something I learned to do dozens of 14ers ago for situations just like this) and saw where I needed to go to fix this problem.

It took me an hour, and just an FYI, when using the .com directions there is no Snowmass Creek Road: It’s now called Brush Creek, with no mention of Snowmass anywhere, even when it becomes a dirt road.

I made it to the correct trailhead (also named Maroon-Snowmass BTW) at 3am. I’d wanted to almost be at the lake by this point.  Now I was mad at myself.  The alarm thing was my fault (I’d accidentally set it for Friday at 9pm instead of Thursday at 9pm), and even though I’d found several different directions to the trailhead I messed that up too.  So all the time I’d “made up” driving was lost, and then some.

I jumped out of my truck, threw on my pack, and was on my way. I had serious time to make up.  Side note:  there was a huge tent set up in the parking area with a generator running?  That seemed a bit excessive.  There were 2 other cars in the lot, one I assumed belonged to the tent people and the other to another hiker(s).  The road in was a 2WD dirt road for some of the way. Here’s a picture from later in the day.

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About a quarter mile in I realized I forgot to eat my bagel, and I wasn’t 100% sure I remembered to pack my gloves. I knew they’d made it to the truck, but I wasn’t sure they made it into my pack.  I was only a little ways in, but I wasn’t turning back.  I had food with me, and if my hands got cold I had an extra jacket.  I’d improvise.

I passed several closed gates and great signs indicating the correct trail.

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It was dark but I was hiking by the light of the moon. I could hear but not see the river, and was glad the path was so easy to follow.

The trail was very well maintained

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There were several downed trees directly on the trail, but they were (mostly) easily avoided).

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There was also evidence of avalanche activity in the area.

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It stayed dark until 5:30am, just as I reached the log jam. (Note, there’s a video of my crossing the log jam later towards the end of this post for those interested in experiencing it with me).  The log jam was much easier to cross than I’d anticipated!  The only tricky part was all of the logs were floating on the top of the water, making them springy and not secure.  The lake was about 8 feet deep in the middle, so I didn’t want to accidentally fall and be a swimmer.  I just made sure I checked for stability with each step, and where possible used my trekking pole for balance.

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Snowshoes were needed about ¼ mile from the lake. I pulled them out to put them on and woot!  I had my gloves!  Things were looking up!

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I kept the snowshoes on to cross this short log bridge, which actually ended up being a great idea: they gave me extra stability.

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I’d made it to Snowmass Lake. It was beautiful in the morning light!

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I made it the 8 miles to the lake at 6:45am, when my original intention was to be there at 3:30am. I was over 3 hours later than I’d wanted to be at this point.  I did a mental sigh, knowing it was unlikely I’d summit today because the sun would melt the snow to a point that made climbing impossible.  Even knowing this I continued on, telling myself there were probably more unknowns ahead and I’d want to be more prepared next time I attempted Snowmass.  I’d just keep trekking on and see how far I could get and how much I could learn about the route for next time.

There was no evidence anyone had camped at the lake, so I assumed the extra vehicle belonged to day hikers.

There was evidence of recent avalanche activity at the lake. It looked quite recent, and was coming from the east side.  The left banks of the lake were covered in snow I was sure should have melted out by now, and attributed it to an avalanche.  There were broken pieces of trees everywhere.  I kept my snowshoes on to cross the banks, which was extremely helpful.  It looked like others had postholed.  There was still ice on some of the lake.

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Even after I made it past the lake I kept my snowshoes on as I headed towards the scree slope gully. This was 600’ in elevation gain of pure torture.  I don’t like gullies.  As far as I’m concerned a gully should either be full of climbable snow or not on the route.  It took me forever to climb this thing!  It was full of scree and large, loose rocks and boulders.  Nothing was stable.  It was like a bad Paula Abdul song:  two steps forward and two steps back.  I actually kept on the snowshoes until I was about halfway up the gully because they gave me added stability (don’t try this at home!!!).  I only took them off when the scree and rocks transitioned to boulders.   It was apparent they were now doing more harm than good and I didn’t want to risk a broken ankle.

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I made it to the top of that very instable gully at 8:30am. I put back on my snowshoes and helmet, thinking to myself it probably would have been a good idea to put my helmet on before the gully.

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I looked at the rest of the route before me. Snowmass is best done with snow in the mass, and boy did it have snow!

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I started forward and noticed a guy glissading down towards me. This really ticked me off.  I was so mad at myself!  I should have been where he was right now, on my descent, but instead I still had 3 miles of difficult terrain ahead of me.  He made his way towards me and started some small talk about the climb, how many 14ers we’d done, and the generator at the trailhead.  He hadn’t seen anyone else all day, and was pretty cheerful.  I tried to make small talk, but it was hard for me to remain upbeat.  The sun was shining, the snow was melting, and I was behind schedule.  I’m sure I came across as rude, and while I regret that I couldn’t help it.  If you’re reading this, I apologize for my bad manners!

He told me he’d started at 1am, and was just going lightweight today (he noted, looking at my excessive pack). He didn’t have snowshoes, so he’d postholed around the lake, having a miserable time of it.  The snow up towards the top of the mountain was still pretty stable, so I shouldn’t have trouble summiting. I sat down and switched my snowshoes for crampons.  This putting on and taking off my snowshoes/crampons was getting exhausting!

We said goodbye, and I looked at the route before me and the way I’d traveled thus far (with the hiker to the right).

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I steeled myself: If the snow was indeed still stable as the glissader said there was a small chance I could summit today, and I was going to do my best to make it happen if it was safe to do so. It looked like a long trudge, but doable if I could get there before the snow melted out too much.

Because the trail is covered in snow (if there even is a trail underneath?) you just need to aim for the ridge and make your own route. This mountain is much bigger than it looks, and those rocks and cliffs you see are at least 20 feet in width, some much larger.  I aimed for boulders in front of me and just kept going, making my way towards the ridge.

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All was going pretty well and I was quite pleased with my progress. It looked like I was actually going to do this!  The snow was getting noticeably softer, but I was so close!  When I hit about 20 feet from the ridge I hit a big problem:  the snow became extremely soft.  Stepping on it was like what happens when grab a piece of cotton candy between your fingers and squash it, but slushy.  This was not good.  I tried to follow tracks made by others, but that ended up making things worse.  I was now going parallel to the ridge, trying to find a safe way to summit.  It just wasn’t happening, and I was making a mess of the mountain. I hadn’t realized it while I was doing it, but I’d chosen a path that got the most sun earliest in the day.  Ugh!  I wish I’d have angled toward the right more!  Then I wouldn’t have been in this situation.  Oh well, I’m a problem solver, so I kept at it until I found a stable route.  OK, I actually just tramped down the 5 feet or so of snow until I hit rock and made my way up that way.  I apologize to those following in my steps!  If you want to avoid this just gain the ridge more to the right…

At 10:30am, despite everything I had going against me, I gained the ridge! I was elated, but I knew one thing:  I did NOT want to go back down the way I’d come up.  Not only had I pretty much ruined that line it just wasn’t safe.  This meant I needed to look for a safer route down and I needed to summit asap because that wonderful sun wasn’t on my side.  I sat down to take off my crampons and took a look at the way I’d come and the ridge before me:

It took me about half an hour to travel those .2 miles. Not because the terrain was difficult but because the wind was insane!  It was much faster than the predicted 30mph, and COLD!!!  I was a popsicle, and could barely move.  I summited at 11am.  Snowmass is a small summit, and I was frozen and in a hurry to beat the sun, so no great summit photo.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t thrilled with this summit like I usually am when I make it to the top.  I did get (one) selfie that would have to do and booked it back to the ridge.

19 Snowmass Mountain 14092

The snow came all the way up to the ridge in most areas, so finding a different route down wasn’t too challenging. What was challenging was the angle of the down climb!

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This was much steeper than the way I’d taken on the way up. I was surprised at how much firmer the snow was in this area.  The descent was easier than I’d anticipated (snow conditions wise) but it still took what seemed like forever!  Here’s a photo of the route I took:  I went to the left on the way up, and the right on the way down.

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I finally made it back to a semi level area and sat down to glissade. Drat!  I couldn’t!  Because I was wearing my big pack!  Oh well, I’d just hike out and enjoy the view while I did so.

The top of the gully had a great view.

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The trek down the gully wasn’t any better than the way up. What little snow there was was too soft to traverse.  The rocks were all unsable and it was impossible to get traction on the scree, so I had to carefully watch every step I took to avoid falling and creating a rockslide.  It was very slow-going and I couldn’t get down fast enough.  Have I mentioned I’m not a fan of gullies?

When I made it back down I got a quick video of the avalanche evidence. It looks pretty recent to me, with a lot of debris rolling on top of the snow in the wind.

23 Avalanche near lake

OK, here I was back at the lake.

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To make up for my bad attitude I decided to follow the post-holes the glissader made on his way back and trench them with my snowshoes to create a nice path for the next hikers to follow. This was slow going, and took me over an hour.  I was making a nice, solid trail though!

I was half way across the lake when it happened. The section I was trenching calved while I was crossing it, right into the lake.

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You’re probably thinking: Wasn’t the lake icy cold? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you.  It all occurred in slow motion, and luckily I realized what was happening while it was happening so I had some time to plan and prepare before hitting the water.

As the snow and ice disintegrated below me I took a deep breath, filled my lungs with air and steeled myself for the shock of landing in the ice water. I hit the water ready to spring up and stable myself.  I was still wearing my snowshoes, and had on my helmet and pack.  I stood up, made it as quickly as I could to the shore, climbed up the snow bank, threw off my pack, and rolled in the snow to dry off.  I was making snow angels and checking to make sure I hadn’t hurt any part of my body.

After a few good rolls I took off my outer layers of clothing and stripped down to my moisture wicking under-layers.   I rolled in the snow again.  When I felt I’d absorbed as much water as possible I got up and did jumping jacks for 2 minutes, warming up my body.  While doing the calisthenics I considered my options.  The next course of action should have been to start a fire and dry out my socks/shoes, but I was pretty sure there was a fire ban, and besides, it would take longer to dry out my stuff than it would take to hike the 8 miles out.  I needed to stay as warm as possible, and sitting in front of a fire would just take time and provide the opportunity for me to go into shock.  The best way to prevent shock (for me) is to keep moving.  My altruism was done for the day.  No more trenching:  I threw my wet clothes into my pack and began the long slog back to my truck in soaking wet socks and boots.  My new priority was making it back to my truck and the dry socks I had sitting on my passenger seat.

I made it to the log jam and decided to take a video of the crossing

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In case you’re wondering, these ponds have fish in them. I saw dozens of trout near the shore.

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It was a very long 8 miles back to my truck. Those 8 miles out were not as pleasant as I’m sure they were intended to be.

Around mile 18 is when I really got tired. My feet were rubbing against my wet socks and drenched shoes, creating terrible blisters.  They squished with every step, and at one point I felt my pinky toenail come off.  That stung.  My pack, now full of wet clothes, was heavy and eating into my shoulders.  Every quarter of a mile or so I had to stop and bend over to release some of the tension and weight from my shoulders.

I was following the creek back, and as I was relieving the pressure from my shoulders I heard it: singing.  I righted myself and looked around to see if anyone was there, but the forest was empty.  Yet I could distinctly hear singing.  I couldn’t make out the words, but it was a woman, singing softly and humming. It almost sounded like it was coming from a radio, faint in the distance.  I’ve often heard what sounds like music from a creek/flowing body of water, but that’s not what this was.

I shook it off and kept going, but every time I came close to the creek I heard it again. At one point it sounded like it was coming from a jukebox or an old staticky radio.  I looked over at the raging creek.  Water was a good conductor, maybe that’s where it was coming from?  I shook my head.  Ugh, not a conductor of sound Laura.

I knew what was happening: I’d only gotten 3 hours of sleep last night, and while I had food I hadn’t eaten all day because I didn’t feel like stopping to take it out of my pack (I don’t get hungry when I hike, so I have to force myself to eat).  I was in shock and suffering from low blood sugar, causing auditory hallucinations.  Not eating combined with lots of physical exercise and the distress of falling into the lake was causing me to go into shock.  That didn’t stop me from taking a video while I heard the singing to assess later (in case you’re wondering, no, you can’t hear the ‘singing’ in the video).

On the positive side, there were a lot of beautiful flowers.

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I made it back to my truck at 6:30pm and assessed the deer damage: none!

It had been quite a day: 22 miles, 5800’ feet of elevation gain, and an unexpected dunk in Snowmass Lake in 15 hours. It was 26 hours door to door, and I was exhausted!

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San Luis Peak – 14,014

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RT Length:  13.8 miles

Elevation Gain:  3600’
I’ve never had a traffic ticket in my life, but I was pulled over by two different police officers on the drive to the trailhead this morning.  I left at 12:30am for this hike, and at about 1:30am I saw police lights flashing behind me.  I knew I wasn’t speeding.  I never speed when driving in Colorado at night.  I’ve had too many rabbit, deer, elk, bear, fox, porcupine, bear, squirrel, etc. dart in front of me at close range to drive over the speed limit.  It’s a death sentence for both you and the animal.   I actually drive slower at night than I do during the day.  Confused, I pulled over into a closed Sonic and looked for my license and registration.  The officer was very nice, and let me know I had a headlight out.  After making small talk for about 10 minutes he gave me his card and let me go.

About an hour later I saw flashing lights behind me again, and once again pulled over to the side of the road.  This time I was prepared (I hadn’t put away my license and registration yet, so it was still in my lap).  The officer walked up to my car:

Officer:  “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

Me (as nicely as possible): “Yes, I was just pulled over a little while ago.  I have a headlight out”

Officer:  “Nope, you were speeding”

Me (a bit shocked): “Isn’t the speed limit here 60mph?”

Officer:  “Yes, but I clocked you coming over that hill at 62.”

I took a deep breath and apologized for going over the speed limit.  He asked me for the card of the previous officer that pulled me over, and then went back to his truck for a minute.

You can imagine all the things I wanted to say at that point, but I just put on a smile and politely waited for him to return.  When he came back he gave me his business card (and kept the other officer’s card for himself).  He chatted with me for a bit about where I was going, and then eventually…

Officer: “I’m going to let you go with a warning, but from now on keep if 5 below the speed limit.  Here’s my card.  It has my phone number on it. See, right here (he pointed to the phone number he’d written on the back of the card).  If you have any questions about why I pulled you over today, call me.  If you get pulled over again for your headlight being out before you can fix it call me and I’ll take care of it for you.  My number is right here (he pointed again).  Call me if you have any questions”.

At this point I clearly knew what was going on, thanked him, and was on my way.  I had no intention of calling him.

I’d started the drive with a full tank of gas, and planned on getting gas before the turnoff to the dirt road that led to the trailhead, but unfortunately I drove for over 75 miles and never saw a gas station.  It was going to be tight, but I thought I could make it.  Note to others driving from the North:  The last gas station is in Saguache, and it’s closed overnight, so you need to get gas in Salida.

I drove down 27 miles of 2WD dirt road in the dark to the trailhead.  The conditions were actually pretty good. There were a few downed trees in the road, and the creeks were pretty low for this time of year.  Here are some pictures from the way back (note, the creeks rose about a foot during the day)

2

There isn’t actual parking at the trailhead, you just park on the side of the road.  So I parked, got my gear together, and was on my way at 5:15am.

3 Trail in Dark

This trailhead has signs!  Woot! I love a trailhead with good signage.

4

I followed the Stewart Creek for a couple of miles on easy terrain

5

Eventually coming to an area with a lot of beaver dams.

6

I saw a beaver swimming in the pond in front of me and decided to take a quick video.  The birds were chirping, the sun was rising, and the beaver was swimming peacefully from his den when all the sudden: Whap!  This happened:

https://youtu.be/frKwkqjOevY

Hmmm… is it mating season?  I continued on, noting how most of the trees were dead here.  It was really quite sad.

7

I passed the remnants of a cabin

8

And started seeing tracks. Lots and lots of tracks.  I’d been seeing deer and cattle tracks (and scat), but these were different.  These were moose tracks.  It made sense:  The creek/willow area was prime moose habitat.  I’ve seen moose in the San Juans before, so I decided to keep a lookout for them. Oh, and there was moose scat too.  Lots of it!

9 Moose Tracks

The trail was very easy to follow for most of this hike.  The only time it was challenging was when it crossed the creek and came back.  There were so many dead trees on the trail there wasn’t a clear path to follow.  It was obvious people had broken branches and climbed over logs to try to make their way back to the trail.  This will not be fun when the trees here get their summer leaves…

I exited the trees and was immediately deposited in the willows.

10 Willows

It was here I saw the moose.  Or, well, what I thought was a moose.  I only saw it for about half a second, bounding away from me.  It looked too light colored to be a moose, and I couldn’t tell how tall it was because I only saw it’s ears above the willows.  I walked around a bit to see if I could see where it bounded off to, but was unsuccessful.  I rationalized it was probably a moose, because elk don’t usually travel alone and I’d seen moose tracks.  I spent the rest of the hike wondering if I’d seen a moose or an elk.

Well, here I was in the willows, so I decided to try out something.  I teach outdoor survival skills, and I’d recently learned you can eat willow buds, the inner bark, and leaves (remember, this is in a survival situation:  in reality this doesn’t offer many calories, but when there’s no food, it’s an option).  I like to actually try out the stuff I teach people before teaching it if possible, so I took off a few buds in varying states and ate them.

11

This is what I learned:

  • The small buds were actually not too bad.  They tasted a bit nutty.  The only problem is it would take tons of them to make much of a dietary difference.  They could be picked and put in your pocket to chew on though and to keep your spirits up.
  • As you can probably imagine, the catkins are terrible and fluffy.  Stay away from them.
  • I didn’t take apart the plant and try this, but I’d probably boil the inner bark before eating it.
  • The leaves were bitter.  Stick to the buds.
  • In the end I didn’t get sick, so I’m considering this experiment a success.

Shadowselfie with the willows!

12 Willows 1

Back to the trail.  I looked ahead of me and saw what I assumed was the peak.  It wasn’t.  The actual San Luis Peak is behind this peak (which is unnamed because it’s not really a peak)

13

From here the trail had a little bit of snow in places.  It was consolidated and limited, and more of a minor annoyance than anything.  No traction (except shoes) needed.

14

Another shadowselfie because I do that kind of thing

15

The trail was actually very well maintained.

16

I made it to the saddle and took a look back down at the basin

17

Ahead of me I could see the actual San Luis Peak.  The trail was very easy to follow, and full of talus.

18

I summited at 8:30am.

19 San Luis Peak 14014

I love the summit marker!  So few peaks still have them.

20

Video from the summit: https://youtu.be/wP-qS_WAG4Q

The summit wasn’t that cold, so I spent a few minutes doing yoga before heading down. OK, I stood on my head and balanced because I was the only one there and could.

When I was hiking down I looked up at that peak that looks like it’s San Luis Peak but isn’t, and saw something there that wasn’t before.  It was far away and I couldn’t quite make it out. It was either a person or a goat.  I hadn’t seen anyone else today, or any other vehicles, so I assumed it was a goat.  It was!  (Sorry it’s not a great pic… I was pretty far away when I took it).

22

The entire way back I looked for that moose.  I was positive I was seeing moose tracks and scat, and this was the perfect area to see a moose!  Also, I didn’t want to be surprised by one.  I saw a grouse who didn’t like her picture taken…

22

And when I was exactly 3.3 miles from the trailhead I heard a rustling, looked up, and there she was!  A beautiful cow moose!  This was not the same creature I’d seen before.  She trotted over to the opposite side of the creek and tried to hide in the trees by shielding her face with a trunk.  I found this comical, as the trees did little to actually hide her.

23

Without saying a word it was obvious we both wanted to adventure alone today, so we made a silent agreement: she’d stay on her side of the creek and I’d stay on the other. I let her win the staring contest.

24

I did my best to steer clear of her, but was able to get a few photos and a quick video.  I’ve seen moose while hiking before, and I understand their body language.  If this was a fight or flight decision, this moose would definitely have chosen the flight option.  She was skittish and wanted nothing to do with me.  She watched me carefully until I was gone.  I thought it odd she didn’t have a calf and was obviously not pregnant.  She looked fully grown.

https://youtu.be/ZNJfGE6x5ug

All in all it was a great hike today!  I made it back to my truck at 11am and checked my pedometer:  13.8 miles in just under 6 hours with lots of picture stops and summit playtime.  Total success!

I didn’t see anyone on the 27 mile dirt road drive out, so maybe no one knows the trailhead is open?  Oh, and my GPS stopped working on the dirt road and wouldn’t re-load, so I had to try and figure out directions in the daylight from the route I’d taken in the dark.  I had print directions, but they just didn’t seem right, so I didn’t use them and went by memory:  dangerous because I was very low on gas at this point.  I ended up choosing correctly, and made it to the Saguache gas station with about a gallon of gas to spare.  Next time I’ll fill up in Salida on the way to the trailhead, as apparently that’s the last stop for gas….

Mt Elbert – 14,433′

1

RT Length:  9.5 Miles

Elevation Gain:  4700’

I still have a handful of class 1 14ers I’ve ‘saved’to hike in May/early June, and after the past couple of 14ers I’ve experienced I figured it was time for a break.  Also, I had a board meeting to attend at 4pm today, so I needed something that wouldn’t take me all day to accomplish/leave me stranded on a mountain.

I woke up at 1am and made it to the trailhead around 4:30am.  There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot, and despite the signs stating “no overnight camping” it appeared someone was sleeping in their vehicle.  High-Five sir.

The road in was a 2WD dirt road.  This was the most ‘challenging’ part, so if your vehicle can make it past this obstacle, you’re good to go.

2

The parking lot is completely clear of snow and (today at least) mostly empty.

3 Parking Lot no overnight

I started at about 4:45am.  The snow cover started after the first junction (about a mile in) and was annoying but manageable without using traction.  OK, in reality, I’m just stubborn.  I should have put on my snowshoes, but I wanted to see how far I could make it without them.  The path was well defined in most areas, but in the dark and with the snow there were a few times I had to backtrack.  Nothing major though.

I was able to make it all the way to treeline without traction, although honestly snowshoes would have been helpful.  Don’t get me wrong, I HAD snowshoes, I just didn’t want to take the time to put them on because they “didn’t seem worth it”.  Every 100 feet or so I’d posthole up to my waist, which was always unexpected and a great workout, but very time consuming to extract myself.  You see, you can’t just get out of a posthole that deep like you get out of a pool by doing a push-up because your hands immediately sink in the snow (duh!).  I had to get creative.  Side note:  this would be a great idea for an exercise machine at the gym:  you’re walking and then all the sudden the machine holds you by your waist and won’t let you go until you figure your way out.  OK, probably not such a great idea.  But it was a good workout.  I digress…

Did I mention it was 5am?  (Yes, I looked at the weather, and it wasn’t supposed to get below freezing all night, but I could hope, right?).  And I should also mention it was obvious those hiking yesterday or earlier this week had it worse than I did.  Either that or they were really tall because their postholes went much deeper than mine.  This picture really doesn’t do them justice, but it’s all I have….

4

I made it to treeline just before sunrise and got my first view of Mt Elbert

5

I was excited with this view, because it meant I could most likely summit without traction (and I did).  As I started hiking above treeline the sun started to rise.  I love sunrises, and spent about 20 minutes just watching….

6

Above treeline the trail was pretty obvious

7

Well, at least for most of the way.  Once I got here I had the option of hiking on snow or trail.  I alternated between both.

My alarm rang. It was now 6:50 am and time for me to call my High Schooler to wake her up for school (I’m her 3rd alarm).  I was a little out of breath, but it looked like I was about half a mile from the summit, so I told her I was “almost there” and wished her well at school today.  I wasn’t.  In reality I was probably over a mile away from the true summit. But it looked so close!!!

The frustrating part were the false summits.  I made it around one turn, thinking I was close to the summit, but I actually had 2 more ‘summits’ and a few cairns to go….

10

I love signs.  Love, Love, Love them.  Here’s a great one…

11

You see, it told me which way to take to go when I was headed back down.  That’s not always an issue, but this peak has several routes, so knowing the correct one to take back down can save you a lot of time if you accidentally get so excited about your summit views you forget which route you took because you weren’t paying attention on your hike up.  It also indicated I was close to the summit.  Here’s the summit view

12

And picture proof I summited (8am)

13 Mt Elbert 14433

I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I get summit photos when I summit solo.  I usually get creative with my DSLR on automatic, my gorillapod and trekking pole, but today there was a post in the perfect spot, so I improvised…

14 how I take pictures

Did I mention the views were AMAZING?!?!?!?  I stopped for a minute just to enjoy (beef jerky was also involved).

15

It was COLD at the summit!  It was supposed to be 46 degrees today, and it might’ve been, but that 45+ mph wind was a killer! I couldn’t feel my fingers (OK, I actually kind of could, but it was more of a pain/throbbing/burning thing than an actual movement thing and I knew it wasn’t a positive thing…).  I took a selfie, checked in at Mt Elbert and wrote the obligatory “I’m the highest person in Colorado right now” post on facebook, and headed down so I could start thawing out my fingers.

The snow was definitely softer on the way down, but manageable without traction.

16

I made it back to treeline at 9am.  This is where the hike got fun.  I knew I was going to put on my snowshoes (I’d anticipated warmer temps + softer snow = put on those snowshoes), but they weren’t ALWAYS necessary, so I alternated for a bit between quickly trekking on lots of snow and slowly slogging through mud.

17 Start and Stop

I was now postholing with every step.  The good news?  Because of my snowshoes I was only postholing up to my knees, instead of up to my waist.  This was an improvement!  Once again, I could see others had it MUCH worse than me (or were VERY tall).

18 Postholing

This intense workout lasted for about half a mile, and then conditions alternated between snow on the trail (and pretty much only on the trail)

20 No Snow perfect

to no snow at all…

20 No Snow perfect

Did I mention I love signs?  This trail has great/amazing/wonderful/actually informative signs.  Check them out

21 signs

I made it back to my truck at 10:45am, making the 9.5 mile hike in about 6 hours, with generous time allotted for sunrises and summit exploring.

On the way out I couldn’t help but stare at Mt Massive…. Maybe next week?

22

Crestone Peak 14,294′

1

Elevation Gain 5700’

RT Mileage 14 miles

The drive to the trailhead was much easier than I’d remembered it from last time.  It’s still a 4WD trail in, but after some of the other 4WD roads I’ve navigated this one really isn’t so bad.  It was clear of ice and snow, and pretty much mud free.  On the way back there were a few more cars and a bit more mud.

I was the only one in the parking lot when I got there.  I gathered my gear and was off around 5am.  The first thing I saw after crossing the bridge were bear tracks…

4

The 2.5 miles to the junction on the old (closed) 4WD road had lots of varying conditions.  There was mud, ice, snow, and water.  I was able to hike this part without traction, but it would have been helpful.

5

I came to the junction, turned left, and headed across a log bridge and followed the service road.

The road took me to the South Colony Lakes campground.   There was a gate for emergency access only.

8

From here until I made it back to the trees traction was necessary.

9

Because of the snow it was difficult to stay on the correct trail, but that just meant a little more route finding.  When I was back in the trees I took off my crampons and made my way towards the lakes.  This part of the hike was frustrating because traction was needed for about 25% of the hiking.  Not enough to really put on snowshoes and crampons, but a bit miserable without them as well. Route finding was challenging here as well.

Here’s the trail junction.  I love obvious trail junctions!

10

I finally broke down and put on my crampons when I reached the base of Broken Hand Pass.

11

I’d been carrying my snowshoes as well, and decided to just stash them at the cairn.  It was obvious by looking at the route in front of me no one had been here in a few days at least (no foot tracks).  That meant I got to make my own!

12

I crossed the slope and looked up at the route before me.  Time for my ice ax!

13

I felt much more confident this time climbing.  I’m not sure if it was because I’d done it before or the conditions were easier (probably both) but I was much more confident in my abilities.  It wasn’t until I was at the crux I realized I’d forgotten to put on my helmet!  Whoops!  I felt like a total idiot, but at this point it would have been more dangerous to take out my pack and put it on, so I carefully navigated my way around the difficult part and climbed to the top of Broken Hand Pass.

14

The trail down to Cottonwood Lake was dry.

15

I made my way around the lake to the right, and curved towards the Crestone Basin.  Here’s where I got my first look at Crestone Peak.  It was full of ice.

I was supposed to hike straight up the red gully.  It looked daunting, but I’ve found things that look daunting from far away are actually not that bad up close, so I continued on.  Here’s the route I took.

18

This definitely has some class 3 scrambling!  More than once I patted myself on the back for joining a climbing gym this winter.  Those tiny holds (pinches) that make rock climbing so difficult and frustrating at the gym?  I encountered several of them here, and was glad I knew how to navigate them!  The only downside is my backpack made me unsteady.  I think from now on I’ll practice climbing at the gym with my backpack on.  I also would have felt much more comfortable with different shoes.  I had on my winter boots, which don’t exactly make rock climbing easy.

Much of the route was navigable without crampons until I made it about ¾ of the way up just scrambling.  That’s when I ran into a problem:  snow, and lots of it.  The last trip report indicated a dry scramble to the top, but it had obviously snowed quite a bit since then because I had to put back on my crampons and ice ax (and my helmet) to navigate this part.  I took one step onto the snow, and sank up to my thigh.

19

Ugh!  Not fair!  I was so close!  This didn’t look doable, but there was no way I was turning back now, so I kept prodding around until I found a stable route and started climbing again.  That meant being closer to the ice (which didn’t make me comfortable) but at least I was making progress.

This gully was about 1500 feet in elevation, and just didn’t quit!  It kept going and going and going.  Just as soon as I felt I must be near the top I’d turn and see another stretch of gully.  And it was getting warmer.  The snow was melting and becoming soft underneath me.

20

I finally made it to the notch, and while crampons would have been helpful in a lot of areas, I took them off because they were a hinderance for most of the remaining route.  Check out the view from the top of the red gully!

21

I summited around 12:30pm, and stayed there for longer than I usually stay on a summit.

22 Crestone Peak 14294

View from Summit:

https://youtu.be/5QiolJ815o4

It was incredibly perfect conditions!  Very little wind, and warm but not hot.  I took some pictures and made my way back down to the notch.

This is where it got dicey.  That perfect weather I’d had on the peak was quickly melting the route I’d taken to summit.  This was not good.  I sat down and put on my crampons and developed a plan.

23

My plan?  Get down this gully as quickly as I could.  Now.

I turned and faced the mountain and began my descent.  The first bit wasn’t too difficult, but that quickly changed.  I’d step into the snow, and immediately my footprints would fill with water melting beneath me.  This was instantaneous and terrifying.  There’s just no way to describe the feeling I was having knowing my route was quickly turning to slush.

24

https://youtu.be/U81heaTYFfQ

I could hear the ice turning to water and flowing underneath me, and the ice wasn’t condensed.  Several times I thought about how to handle this situation if I got to a place where I couldn’t continue.  I was prepared to spend the night in that gully if necessary (hoping the water would freeze and I could navigate back down in the morning).

I downclimbed as quickly as I safely could, but was on edge of my comfort level the entire time.  The water just kept coming and coming and the ice and snow was rapidly disappearing from underneath me as I descended the mountain.  I was aware I needed to reapply sunscreen, but terrified to do so, as I’d have to take off my backpack to get it and I knew I couldn’t do that without falling.  I gave up and mentally prepared for a nasty sunburn on my face.

I got back to the place where I’d initially put on my crampons for the gully climb and took them off, thankful I’d made it this far.  I then looked at the remaining route below me:  waterfalls.  Lots of waterfalls and water running down the exact path I needed to take.  This is not a route you want to do when it’s raining, or now when ice was melting into waterfalls.  Added to that bouldering down rocks is more difficult than climbing up.  I was extremely careful and spent a lot of time crawling to stay safe.  Once again, I was thankful for my time spent at the climbing gym.  There were several moves I wouldn’t have been able to pull off had I not known how to execute them.  There were a few close calls and I knocked my shins a few times on my way down, but I made it safely.

25

When I turned back to look at the mountain there were waterfalls everywhere!  It was beautiful, and I was glad to be alive!

26

27

https://youtu.be/aGzm5kwfoj8

I hiked back to Cottonwood Lake and up Broken Hand Pass.  This part of the hike was difficult for me.  Not because of the terrain, but because I was physically exhausted by this point.  It was my third time going up a gully for the day, and I hate gullies.  The hike was slow going, with lots of slow steps.  I found a pretty cool jaw bone though.

28

I made it to the top of Broken Hand pass for the second time that day at 4pm.  I’d really wanted to try and get Crestone Needle today too because this route included 3 gullies and I wanted to make the effort worth it, but at this point my time was running out.  I didn’t want to hike back down in the dark, and while I knew the North Facing gully below me would most likely not have been affected like the South Gullies, I wanted to get down it just in case.

I looked down at the route below me:  still snow!

29

It was obvious I’d been the only one up today, so I put back on my equipment, turned and faced the mountain again and began my descent.  This was a breeze!  I’d done a terrific job last time making steps, and I was really getting the hang of this crampon/ice ax/climbing thing.  This was much easier than Little Bear!  The angle of the slope probably helped as well.

Now all that was left was to traverse the slope and head back down.

30

The only difficult part was avoiding the snow rollers.  They were silent, and quickly picked up both speed and mass.  I did not want to be hit by one of those things.  They ranged in size from a baseball to car tire.  I narrowly escaped at least a dozen in the 15 minutes it took me to navigate this area.  But once again, I made it!

31

The hike out was frustrating.  The varying conditions made it not worth putting on crampons or snowshoes, but they were needed as well.  The trail was mostly clear, with areas of consolidated snow, and every 100 feet or so on the snow I’d posthole up to my thighs.  It was like playing wack-a-mole in reverse:  I never knew when I was going to end up in a posthole!  Most of the time I was ok though.

The sun began to set and the mosquitoes came out.  Tons of them!  I just wanted down this mountain and back to my truck, so I picked up my speed and booked it down.  I made it back to my truck at 7:30pm.  That’s by far the longest day I’ve ever spend hiking a 14er!  Frustrating too because it was only 14 miles, but 14 intense miles with 3 gullies and a lot of work in the ice and snow.

I have a major sunburn on just my face (it wasn’t safe to stop while downclimbing to take off my backpack to re-apply sunscreen), but it was worth it!

Little Bear Peak – 14,037’

1

RT Length: 14 miles

Elevation Gain: 6200’

I’ve been obsessed with Little Bear Peak since I decided to hike all the 14ers. I knew if I wanted to hike them all I’d eventually have to hike this one, so I immediately began researching routes and difficulty levels.  I do my best to attend all the 14er Happy Hours, and pick the brains of anyone who’s done the “harder peaks”.  I read dozens of online reports, and came to the conclusion this was a summit I’d need to attempt in winter like conditions.  The only problem is this year we haven’t actually had much winter like conditions.  I’d like to complete all the 14ers by the end of this summer, and here we are in April and the conditions never really hit winter proportions for Little Bear.  This was frustrating!

I’ve been desperately looking for current trip reports, but none of them have corresponded with recent weather, so my goal this morning was to hike up Lake Como Road and see for myself what the mountain looked like. Then I could assess when I’d be able to hike it (hopefully next week?).

I woke up at midnight with a low grade fever.   This was not acceptable so I took a few Tylenol, and in the end didn’t end up leaving the house until 2am (dishes, laundry, etc. needed to be started or completed before I could head out).  That meant I didn’t make it to the trailhead until 5am, which was later than I’d wanted to start.  I parked my truck a little further up the Lake Como road than I had last time because I knew my truck could make it.  I could have driven (much) further, but I wanted to make this hike count, and I love elevation gain.

It was a beautiful morning to hike! Lake Como Road was pretty much clear of snow and mud.  If you have a vehicle that can normally make it to Lake Como the current conditions wouldn’t have prevented you from making it there.  There was too much snow however past the lake to continue in a vehicle.

2 Lake Como Road

I made it to Lake Como just as the sun was rising. I’d carried my microspikes, crampons, and snowshoes the entire way.  I never ended up needing the microspikes or the snowshoes.  Here are the current conditions of Lake Como.  Snowshoes would have been overkill (I wasn’t postholing, even on my way out).

3 Lake Como

For those of you who’ve never been to Lake Como, here’s what the camping situation looks like:

4 Camping options

If it’s free you can bunk in the small cabin, or snow camp around the lake.

5 Hut

Snow camping isn’t an option for me personally, and I don’t like to chance it on cabins, so I hiked in instead.

This is where I got my first view of Little Bear Peak. The sun was just starting to rise, and the mountain looked magnificent!

6 051

I hiked around the lake, mentally cursed myself for bringing those snowshoes all this way and not needing them, and made my way to the cairn indicating the route to Little Bear. I was surprised to see two men sitting at the cairn, putting on their crampons. We had a quick chat.  Here’s what I learned:

They’d spent the night at the lake. It seems one of them had hiked Little Bear before.  The conditions in the hourglass were perfect today (I’m not sure how they knew this) so if I was even thinking of attempting it, today was the day to do it.

I told them I was going to see how far I could get today, but I probably wouldn’t summit. I’d also try to stay as far out of their way as possible.

What I didn’t tell them was I’ve never used crampons before, and I’ve never snow climbed. In fact, the first time I’d used snowshoes was two weeks ago.  Now, I’m not completely daft.  I have a lot of outdoor skills and I’m in excellent shape.  I do 4000’+ feet of elevation gain daily (and have for 10 years), as well as an hour of yoga and 100 pushups a day.  I boulder/climb at a local climbing gym.  I’ve been mountaineering my whole life, just not in snow/ice conditions.  I have a lot of theoretical knowledge when it comes to winter climbing.  I’ve done tons of research and watched videos/talked with people about what to do in these sorts of scenarios.  I just don’t have the actual practice.

I looked up at the route before me… (no pictures at the time because my hands were frozen, so here’s one from later in the day).

7 Route

I contemplated my options. That gully looked mean.  I hate gullies.  Hate them.  I’d rather do a class 4 any day than a class 2 with a gully (I love to boulder).  This gully looked steep, but this gully had snow.  Would that make it easier? (This picture was also taken later in the day).

8 First Gully

I knew I’d need to do this hike with snow, but I have Raynauds, complicating the matter. I can’t hike when the weather’s too cold because my body over reacts and shuts down, telling itself I have frostbite (basically, that’s a condensed version). The weather today was pretty ideal for this time of year:  36* with 20mph winds.  I took my crampons out of my bag and decided to put them on.  Next I put on my balaclava, helmet, and goggles.  I told myself I could always turn back if I didn’t feel safe, but I’d kick myself if I didn’t at least try.

I did my best to keep distance between the climbers ahead of me and myself, but watched them carefully for the first few minutes. Then I got out my ice ax and began my climb.  Oh my gosh!  Crampons are phenomenal!!!  Yes, this was work, but they were actually sticking into the ice and snow, making me feel secure.  This was much better than climbing up scree!

It was actually easier than I’d anticipated, and I kind of got carried away. What I mean is I just kept going without looking back down the route, and when I finally did my heart leapt into my throat.  Holy Cow!  That looked much steeper going back down than it did when I was going up, and the route ahead of me looked steeper still.  I had a brief moment of panic (sanity?) where I thought about turning back, and then wondered how to even attempt that at this point?  I took a deep breath and figured I’d gone this far and done fine:  I’d worry about how to get down later.  (Side note:  it would have been safer to go back down at this point before the sun/shade changed conditions).

I made it to the top of the gully and was surprised to see the two hikers ahead of me taking a break at the top. In fact, they kind of startled me.  I took a picture of where I came out of the gully to remember it for my return (the exit was at a notch, parallel to a small pond) and sat down to take off my crampons

9 Pond after notch

And looked at the ridge ahead of me.

10 West Ridge Route

This was the west ridge. I was to follow it to the hourglass.  It was actually pretty easy to follow, but had several cairned routes, making a direct route confusing.  I have to say, this part of the hike looked nothing like any of the photos I’d seen of the route before.  Probably because today the route had snow off and on.  I ended up putting my crampons back on about halfway across the ridge, and then I just followed the ridge until I came to the base of the hourglass.  Here’s what the route looked like turning back.

11 West ridge route look back

Woohoo! I’d made it to the hourglass!  Over the traverse I’d played leapfrog with the other hikers a few times.  I hate playing leapfrog with other hikers!  It’s why I like to hike early and alone.  I decided to sit and wait for a bit and let one of the hikers start up the hourglass to try and put some distance between us.  (They weren’t hiking together at this point).

I gave him about 10 minutes and then looked at the route before me.

12 hourglass

This looked sketchy, and it was. There wasn’t really enough snow to make this easy.  The ice and what snow there was made crampons necessary, but cumbersome/slippery on areas where there wasn’t ice or snow.  It was steep, and those ropes did not look safe.  I didn’t use them, but for anyone thinking about using the ropes keep in mind several parts of the rope were secured to the rock by ice formed from melting snow, and that connection wasn’t very thick.  In other words, by pulling on the rope you could dislodge the rope from the ice connecting it to the rock and fall back a foot or two (it would knock you off balance).  Also, weather isn’t your friend and these ropes are left outside 24/7/365.

The hiker ahead of me was using the rope, and unbeknownst to him making my climb all the more difficult. The rope would swing back and forth, getting caught in my crampons as I tried to climb. Added to that he was kicking snow and ice down onto me.  I decided to book it and climb past him.  This ended up being a fabulous idea! I felt very confident at this point of my climbing abilities, and I was able to climb the rest of the way at my own pace.  Oh, and the snow increased, making it that much easier.

A huge downside to the hourglass are the rocks that fall through the gully and down on you when you’re climbing up, and I have to say this isn’t just because of hikers above you. I was the first climber at this point, and the wind was so strong above the hourglass it was pushing rocks down into the gully.  Big rocks.  Wear your helmet, even if you’re the only one on the mountain.

I looked down and saw four climbers below me instead of two. Next I looked up at the rest of the route and decided to exit left.  I love scrambling!  This was going to be fun!  I took off my crampons and had at it.

13

There was no clear path to the summit, and in fact what was South Little Bear actually looked like the summit and was confusing until I checked my topo map. After rounding a couple of outcroppings I found the correct summit of Little Bear and climbed to the top.  Woot!  I’d made it!  I looked back behind me and saw climbers scrambling towards the summit as well.  You can also see a look back at the west ridge route (the snow free part).

14 Cadets

I had one of the hikers take a summit photo of me

15 38 Little Bear Peak 14037

Here’s South Little Bear from Little Bear

16 South Little Bear

We chatted for a bit. It seems they were two cadets stationed at the USAFA.  They seemed like great young men:  very nice and respectful, but obviously kids having fun.  I thought how nice it would be to have one of them date my 19 year old daughter…

I’d debated taking the Little Bear / Blanca traverse, but decided not to because I knew the way down and the conditions were already sketchy enough. It did look enticing though!

17 Little Bear Blanca Traverse

I don’t stay at summits long as a rule because I freeze, and I knew the hardest part of my hike was yet to come, so I was quickly off and on my way back down. I made it to the hourglass just as the last hiker was making it up.  I called down and listened to make sure no one was below me, and then began my descent.

I’m not gonna lie, I slipped a few times. Down climbing is much more difficult than climbing up.  The ice and crampons complicated matters.  I slipped, but I didn’t fall.  Actually, the scariest part of this part of the climb were the people down climbing above me.  Just as I was finishing they started, and I’m sure they didn’t realize it, but they were kicking down quite a few rocks that chipped against larger rocks and started small landslides.  More than once I heard the whooshing of rocks tumbling towards me, ducked, hugged the mountainside and put my hands up to protect my neck from rocks raining down.  Several hit my helmet.

The traverse back to the notch took a lot longer than I’d remembered hiking in. I was really glad I’d taken that picture of the pond to remind me just how far I had to hike.  I made it to the notch and looked down the gully.  This picture does not do it justice!  It.  Was.  Steep.

18 Looking back at first gully

Well, there was nothing for it. I had to make it back down, and to do so I had to start.  I turned and faced the mountainside and slowly began down climbing.  The first 20 feet or so was pretty easy and I was able to figure out what I was doing.  I practiced securing footholds and locking in my ice ax inbetween taking deep breaths.

And then everything changed. The snow became very consolidated and the tracks from this morning disappeared.  I had to kick my crampons into the ice no less than 20-25 times to get each foothold.  I mentally praised myself for investing in 14 point crampons.  It was slow going and very physically exhausting.   I could have used two ice picks instead of one ax.  Despite what you may be thinking of me at this point, I’m overly cautions by nature.  These toeholds were exhausting to form.  I felt as if I was vertical down climbing, and the angle was very steep so I made sure each step was extra secure before starting on the next one.  My footholds were probably 6-8 inches apart, and I had about 600’ to get through.

At this point I made the mistake of looking down behind me. In reality it was unavoidable because I had to make sure I was on a safe route, but the magnitude of what I was doing hit me, and hit me hard.

I’ve done some pretty scary things in my life: I’ve been shark diving without a cage, cliff jumping off 50 foot waterfalls, I’ve been in a car accident that took me off a gorge and into a raging river (I wasn’t driving), and I’ve raised 3 teenagers. This was by far the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

Here are some things that went through my head:

“That’s a very long drop. A very, very long drop”

“I can’t slip, and I can’t fall because I’ll just keep sliding”

“OMG, ok, if I do slip remember to self arrest”

“You’re wearing crampons, if you fall your feet need to be up in the air”

“Why am I not secured to a rope? This seems like something I should be roped in for”

“The mountains are very unforgiving of mistakes:  One wrong move and I’m dead.  I can’t be wrong”

My adrenaline was pumping. I decided the best thing to do was to focus on the task at hand and take it one foothold at a time.  About halfway down the cadets made it to the top of the gully and began their descent.  I tried to yell up at them to wait.  All I could think about was them falling and sliding into me and me with nowhere to go to avoid this from happening.  It wasn’t like I could dodge out of the way or anything.  But they couldn’t hear me and began their descent.  I’m sure they weren’t meaning to, but they were raining snow and ice down on me as they descended.  I tried to move sideways and out of their direct path when possible.

Eventually I climbed out of the shadows and into the sun and the snow became softer and more pliable. This was great, except now I was postholing and it was hard to get a direct grip with my crampons and ice ax.  This is when the cadets caught up to me (they’d been using my footholds so they were much quicker than I’d been).  It was another 200 feet before it became safe to glissade (the slope had been too steep prior).  They slid down (I didn’t because I had on crampons).

Once I made it safely to the bottom I took a good look at what I’d just done. Pictures simply do not do this feat justice:  Down climbing that gully was much more dangerous in my opinion than anything the hourglass had to offer.

19 First Gully at the end

I’d been exposed for quite a long time on that slope. But I’d made it. I made it up and down that gully, and I’d done it on my own.  I felt extremely satisfied with myself, and could now breathe a sigh of relief that the worst it was over.  It was now I felt like I’d truly completed a summit of Little Bear Peak.

I chatted a bit more with the cadets, and then was off to hike the rest of the way back down to my truck. Along the way I came across several hikers who’d attempted Blanca but hadn’t summited due to wind.   I’d had perfect weather on Little Bear, and thought how funny it is two mountains right next to each other can have such different weather, and then of how ‘smart; I was not to have taken the traverse.

I made it back to my truck and started the long drive home. It was 8pm before I realized I hadn’t eaten anything today:  Nothing besides half a cup of coffee this morning and 4 small pretzels from a leftover snack pack at 2am.  I’d brought food with me, but I never get hungry when I hike, so I never eat.  I stopped at a Subway in Pueblo and got a 6 inch sandwich before finishing the drive home.

When I finally made it to bed I couldn’t settle down. My body was singing, but in a good way.

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!

4

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!

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The Lily Lake turnoff was covered in snow.

7

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).

8

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.

9

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

12

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.

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That was a long trek up a steep slope!

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

4

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.

16

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

17

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.

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Here’s what that looked like up close

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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.

20

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.

21

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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.

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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

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And some views of the surrounding mountains

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Check out Lindsey! Almost no snow!

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

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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.

28

29

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

30

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

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And Blanca as well

32

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

33

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.

35

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

Mt Belford – 14,197, Mt Oxford 14,153

1RT Length: 11 miles

Elevation Gain: 5967’

I’ve been saving this hike as a practice hike for winter conditions, since the route is relatively straightforward and it has a 2WD trailhead. Unfortunately I don’t have much time in the winter to actually hike, so it had to wait until early spring.

I woke up at 3am and drove to the Missouri Gulch trailhead. There were a few easily manageable mud puddles to avoid, but nothing anyone would get stuck driving through.  I made it much faster than I thought, as I was honestly waiting for daylight for this hike.  After seeing a herd of elk on 390 I made it to the trailhead at 5:45am.  There was one other vehicle in the parking lot, and it looked like it hadn’t been there long (no frost on the windows, etc).  This would make my family happy, knowing there was someone else out on the trail today.  They hate that I hike alone.

I usually love hiking well before sunrise, but today for several reasons I decided to sit in my truck for a bit and wait:

  • I’m not a fan of hiking by graves in the dark. Does anyone else think it’s weird the baby’s grave is so far away from all the others? I mean, it’s across the street and up the hill and everything…
  • I really didn’t want to play ‘leapfrog’ with whoever was already hiking on the trail. I figured I’d give them some time to get far enough ahead of me so we wouldn’t need to pass each other/hike together the whole time.
  • I’ve heard reports there’s a mountain lion that frequents the area, and I’d rather not run into one in the dark. (side note: I’m not afraid of mountain lions, in fact I’d love to see one while hiking, I’d just rather it be in the daylight)
  • But seriously, that baby grave in the dark freaks me out.

I debated for a while which hiking boots to wear (my regular ones or my winter ones) and whether or not to bring my snowshoes. There wasn’t a recent conditions report in the past week or so, and the last one said none were needed.  I left the snowshoes in the truck and headed out at 6:15am in my snow boots and winter gear.  It was still dark.

I made it about .25 of a mile when something told me to turn around and go back and get those snowshoes. It’s tough to head back after you’ve already started, but the feeling was strong and I thought how mad I’d be at myself if I made it up the trail 3 or 4 miles and needed to turn back because I didn’t have the proper gear.  So I hiked back to my truck, pulled them out, and was on my way again.

The trail was covered in slush that quickly turned to packed snow. As I looked on the ground I could see clearly defined mountain lion tracks (noted by size and lack of claw marks) on the trail.  Cool!  I also saw trails made in the snow that were obviously from a large animal (the mountain lion?) that detached from the main trail and went off into the hillside.  The tracks were going the opposite direction, but that didn’t stop me from looking all over for signs of animal life/more tracks.  After about 1.5 miles in the tracks disappeared.

2

20 minutes into my hike I passed the couple belonging to the truck. They didn’t look like they had snowshoes and I felt a bit foolish for carrying mine.  The trail was pretty hard packed here, and snowshoes didn’t seem necessary.  I briefly asked them if they’d seen the animal tracks, they had, and I was on my way.  I never saw them again.

I crossed a small stream and decided the snow was thick enough to put on those snowshoes I’d been carrying.

3

The snow got thicker, but luckily others had been here in the past few days because there was a pretty good trench all the way to the cabin.

4 AM Trenches

I made it to the cabin much faster than I’d anticipated. I took this trail on my way to Missouri Mountain last summer, and from what I’d remembered it had been a long slog full of switchbacks. But for some reason today it didn’t seem to take me much time at all.  The cabin was surrounded in snow.

5

From here on out snowshoes were mandatory. There was no trail from the cabin through the willows/gulch area, so I had to make my own trail.  Luckily I kind of knew how the trail went, since I’d hiked this area before.  It was really cool to be breaking my own trail, and doing so successfully!  This was the first real time I’ve broken trail: I hiked Humboldt Friday and broke a little bit of trail, but mostly followed others’ tracks.  In fact, this was only the second time I’ve ever been snowshoeing, and I kind of liked it!  It was so cool to be 5 or more feet above the trail in the snow, traversing over willows instead of around them.   There was no way I could have done this a year ago, and I was proud of my route finding.

When I turned around I saw the alpine glow of the sunrise

6

I stayed by the creek and headed towards the Elkhead Pass/Belford Summit Junction.

7

The sun was really starting to come up, and the view of Missouri Mountain was fantastic!

8

This is where the wind really started to pick up. It was relentless for the rest of the day, hovering around 35mph.  It looked like all that snow in the gulch was directly blown down from the mountains.

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I looked at the route before me up Belford, and as I was ascending thought not for the first time how grateful I was to have gone back for those snowshoes.

10 Belford AM

The hike up Belford took forever. It just kept going and going and going up, up, and up.  And that wind!  Without the sunlight that wind was chilling.  I just kept moving, pretending it was the Manitou Incline, and trudged up that mountain wearing those snowshoes, breaking trail.

11

There were several false summits to Belford, which were a bit annoying but anticipated.

12 False Summits

Finally (and I mean finally, as I was exhausted) the real summit of Mt Belford came into view and I thought to myself: 4500’ in snowshoes for 4 miles was exhausting!

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I was frozen, but set up my gorillapod and camera and took a summit photo.

14 Belford

15

and just because it was there (they usually aren’t) a photo of the summit marker

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I took a look around. The view was magnificent!!!

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I didn’t take out my instructions/map, but remembered the route to Mt. Oxford would be clearly visible from this location. It was just 1.5 miles away. I followed the clearly defined path with my eyes and my jaw dropped.

18

No way! There was no way I was doing that today in these conditions!  That’s when I took a closer look, realized I was looking at Mt. Harvard (which I’ve already hiked), breathed a sigh of relief and looked east.  There I saw the second summit I was after today:  Mt. Oxford.

19

It looked doable in today’s conditions. That is until I made it to the ridge.  The ridge down from Belford to Oxford was covered in snow.  There weren’t any tracks to follow (either no one had taken this trail in the past few days or that relentless wind had covered the tracks with snow).  As with any hiking/climbing challenge, I don’t make a decision to hike/climb until I’m right up next to the obstacle.  I often find it’s easier than it looks when you’re up close.  I decided to just take this ridge one obstacle at a time, and if I felt uncomfortable gave myself permission to turn back.  This was supposed to be an easy winter 14er, so I should be able to do this, even in these conditions.

I looked for the areas with the least exposure and least snow, and began my descent. It was really cool making tracks!  I carefully made each foothold by drawing a line with my trekking pole and stamping it down with my boot, making sure I had a firm stance before traversing.

20 Making Tracks

It was more than I’d anticipated running into today, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Microspikes/snowshoes weren’t needed.

I made it down to the saddle and looked back up at Belford, and then up at Oxford. Wow.

21 Back at Bel up at Ox

The saddle was dry and came with absolutely amazing views! I stowed my snowshoes and was off.

22 Saddle Views

To the north there was a small cornice that provided interesting views as well.

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I looked ahead of me at the route up Oxford. Piece of cake.  And it was.

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The summit was actually closer than I’d anticipated (the first outcropping, not the second). I took a summit photo.

25 Oxford

And another one of the summit marker (because it had one too!)

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I turned around to see what I’d accomplished thus far today. What a view of Belford!

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I started back, ready to tackle that ridge again head on, and this time uphill. I gathered my snowshoes and kept an eye on the weather, since it was supposed to snow after 3pm (it was currently around noon).  While all morning it had been windy and clear the clouds were now starting to form.  I hiked back up the ridge using the footsteps I’d made on my way down.  It took a while but I was successful!

At the summit of Belford the second time I stopped for a bit to really take in and enjoy the view. Since now the hardest part of the hike was behind me, I felt I could afford to rest for a bit.  I sat down at the summit marker and took a deep breath.

After a grueling and extremely windy 6000 feet in elevation gain in 6 miles (in snowshoes) I sat at the summit of Mt Belford, my 3rd 14er Peak today (out and back, so 2nd time here today). Suddenly the wind stopped and all was still. This is what I saw.

28 IMG_5026

Immediately tears came to my eyes. It was like God knew I was the only person in the world with this view and he wanted to show off just for me. I was absolutely mesmerized by the intense beauty before me. It’s the closest thing to a religious experience I’ve ever had.  All the hard work of the day and the frozen extremities that came with it was worth it!  I sat there for 5 minutes before he picked up the wind again and reminded me to get my butt off that mountain: a storms coming in.

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Of course I took another photo, trying and failing to capture the beauty around me.

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I walked over the summit and took a look at the rest of the route down to the gulch. It looked like the sun had melted some of that earlier snow.

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I was making good time, so I decided to have a little fun and use my remoteness from any other human being to practice some winter skills without embarrassment. Much of the earlier snow was gone, so I was able to safely practice glissading and running down the snow without worrying about sliding too far or out of control.  I did this for most of the hike back down, laughing as I went.

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Back down at the gulch, this was my view back down towards the cabin and back up at the route I’d come. As you can see, clouds were just beginning to form for that storm anticipated for tonight.

33 Missouri Gulch Front and Back

I put my snowshoes back on, crossed a frozen river of ice, and waiting for me on the other side was a ptarmigan. I knew he was a male because he had a red stripe over his eye.  He just stood there, looking at me, and then slowly turned towards Missouri Mountain and looked over his shoulder, as if he was beckoning me to follow.

34 Ptarmigan

I took several pictures, thanked him for being so cooperative, and followed my snowshoe tracks back through the gulch and down the mountain. It looked like several people had actually hiked up to the gulch today, as around the cabin there were several new ski and snowshoe marks, but no people to be seen.  The trench was also a bit more compact than it had been earlier.

35

The hike back down seemed longer than the hike up, and I kept my snowshoes on for most of it. Somewhere along the way I lost my beanie which was unfortunate (I’ll make another one).  As I was nearing the end of my route I kept looking for signs of a mountain lion (nope) or any other form of wildlife (again, nope).  As I approached the area with the grave in the daylight I realized I was ‘told’ to get those snowshoes exactly as I passed the grave… Hmmm.

I crossed clear creek and my days hike was over.

36 Clear Creek

On my drive home I thought about the details of today’s hike, and how this is something I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish a year ago. I was glad I’d saved these ‘easy’ 14ers for winter-like conditions, as it allowed me to apply the knowledge I’ve learned thus far (snowshoeing, traversing ridges covered in snow), while giving me time to practice more intense skills in a safe environment (glissading, self arrest, running down a snow field).

Here are some summit videos. The views were amazing!

Video of Mt. Oxford –

Mt Humboldt – 14,064′ – Second Summit

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Humboldt Peak – 14,064

9 miles RT (East Ridge)

5000’ Elevation Gain

I’ve been itching to do a 14er, but my schedule and the weather hasn’t been cooperating. My hiking days are typically Friday, and for some reason the weather in the high country’s great all week, but when Friday rolls around the temperatures drop, the winds picks up, and it starts to snow.

The weather didn’t look too great today, but I’d been following the weather surrounding Humboldt all week.  Humboldt is the only 14er (out of 35) I haven’t hiked solo, and to make this whole thing official I figured I’d try it from the winter (East Ridge) route since I took the West Ridge last time. The weather wasn’t great, but I had noticed in the past few days the predicted snow levels had gone down consistently (from 4-7 inches to 2-6 and finally down to 1-3) so that was a plus.  Unfortunately the wind levels were picking up (those rose to 55mph).  The temperatures hovered around the low 30s, which was great except that meant post-holing.

I didn’t need to summit today.  I’ve already summited this peak, so I figured I’d go into this as a learning experience.  Kind of a way to test my skills and see how far I could go without needing to commit to summiting.  I don’t have a ton of winter 14er experience and I wanted to see what a hike would be like in these conditions.  I could always turn back when I felt I’d had enough or if I didn’t feel safe.

First of all, that drive to the trailhead:  Insane!  I have a Tundra, and that thing can handle a lot.  I’ve done the South Colony Lakes 4WD trail in early June, and it was nothing compared to this!  I put my truck in 4WD and tackled it head on.  I wouldn’t recommend it an any time of year if you don’t have a high clearance 4WD, but particularly not now when the trail was covered in ice and mud and slush, and in the dark it was difficult to tell which was which.  I’m pretty confident driving off road, but I’ve never done the whole off-roading in this much  ice/mud/slush before, so I didn’t want to push it too far.  I probably drove further than I should have, and parked about ¼ of a mile before the Rainbow Trail Trailhead.  There were no tire marks after this point (note: I took most of these pictures on the way back because it was snowing too hard or too dark to take pictures in the morning).

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I started at 6:45am.  The trail at this point was pretty dry.  I crossed South Colony Creek and turned right.

3

There were tons of downed trees on this trail!

4 Downed Trees

After hiking about a quarter mile I saw a cairn to the left.  It’s small, and you really have to be looking for it.  With more snow it’s most likely covered.

5 IMG_8600

This was my indication to start hiking northwest through the trees.  This is what that looked like.

6 IMG_8601

Obviously I wasn’t hiking this trail in “winter enough” like conditions.  I hiked up towards the ridge, and then followed the ridge southwest.

I was fighting putting on my snowshoes, but I was postholing.  Each step put my boot at least a foot under the snow, and finally I said enough is enough!  I’d paid for those snowshoes and hiked them in this far, I might as well put them on!  So I did.  Woot!  This was great!  I was still postholing, but only about 6 inches or so instead of a foot or more.

7

The snow on the ground got thicker and so did the snow falling.  I made sure to step extra hard into the snow so it’d be easy to find my tracks on the way back down.  I wasn’t necessarily breaking trail, but there wasn’t a clear trail to follow either.  The last tracks were old and most of them had been covered by snow or melted.  The snow was falling as predicted, but it wasn’t intense.  It was actually kind of nice because it wasn’t freezing out.  The snow cooled my face.

8

As I hit about 11,500’ the wind started picking up.  I headed west until I made it to treeline.  At this point the snow had been thick, but abruptly stopped here, so I took off those snowshoes and put on my balaclava and goggles.

9

From treeline there was no direct route to the top: you’re supposed to make your own trail.  My directions said from here the rest of the route would be visible:  Just look for the peak and head towards it.  Um… not possible.  This was my view:

10

The wind was really insane here and there was no visibility.  Wind was blowing at a constant 35-40mph with many wind gusts (I’m guessing 55mph+, as predicted).  I could feel the wind gusts approaching.  After the second one knocked me down I decided to anticipate them and lie flat whenever I felt one approaching.

The only good part about those wind gusts was it cleared the visibility to about 50 feet in front of me for 2 or 3 seconds after it passed, so I’d hunker down, and then look up towards where I wanted to hike to see what was ahead of me.  I never was able to see the top of any mountain.  I took this selfie because I noticed everything about me was frozen and I thought that was pretty cool because I wasn’t that cold!

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I couldn’t see where I was supposed to go, or even more than about 10 feet in front of me, so at this point I had a choice to make.  Turn around and head back, wait out the weather (it was supposed to clear around noon and it was about 9:30am) or pull out my map and compass and practice those orienteering skills I teach to others for situations like this. You can guess which one I chose.  (Note:  I should have turned back).

I headed northwest up the ridge, being careful not to get too close to the edge of the ridge and trying to stay away from large areas of snow (I used those as landmarks).  I kept trudging on, following the ridge.  I’m 95% sure I made it to the summit, because when I pulled out my phone and looked at the GPX file it said I was there.  You’d never guess though by the picture…

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I went to get some pictures with my cell phone, and before I could do so noticed I was at 41% battery.  Time to head down.  Wait, 37%… 35%… 31%… all lost within about 10 seconds.  Argh!  No!!!  This was insane!  I turned off my phone and booked it down that ridge!  I have a lot of great survival skills, but knowing my phone was going this fast made me start to worry.  It’s like a safety blanket I didn’t want to lose. Yes, I know, I know, (I know!!!) but when it hits you as reality in these types of conditions your priorities change:  you really do want that phone to work!  (I’d left my portable charger in the truck because this was only a 9 mile hike:  never again!).

That ridge lasted forever.  Did I really hike all this way up?  It felt like it would never end, and without visually being able to see how much route I had left I kept checking my compass to make sure I was headed in the right direction and my altimeter to see how much further I should have to go.

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I made it back down to where I’d exited treeline and looked for the snowshoe tracks I’d so carefully made.  They weren’t there.  Drat.  The wind had completely filled in those 6 inch post-holes with fresh snow! This is what I saw…

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I quickly put on my snowshoes and started jogging as fast as I could carefully jog down.  I wanted to get off that mountain.  At this point the visibility was great… there just weren’t any tracks to follow.  I headed towards the ridge, and when I made it I breathed a sigh of relief!  Now all I had to do was follow the ridge until it ended and head southeast.

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At this point my anxiety dropped because I could see where I was and I knew where I was headed.  But I was also exhausted!  I was wearing winter hiking boots, trudging through the snow in snowshoes that were postholing, and that wind took a lot out of me.  I haven’t been this tired at the end of a hike in a very long time.  And it wasn’t even that long of a hike!  I’d guess it was less than 9 miles total, but in those conditions, it was insane!

I noticed a small dam at the bridge…

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I learned so much from todays hike. I really tested my abilities, and I’m proud I was able to use the skills I have to stay safe in a not so safe situation.  Also, I don’t think I’ll be purposely doing that again.  Anyway, I’m back at it!

Oh, and the weather cleared up as I headed back down.

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Climbing Gym

I’ve been thinking about joining a climbing gym for a few
months now, but the closest one is about 30 minutes away from my house.  It’s about $60 a month to join, which didn’t
seem too appealing since I just discontinued my actual gym membership.  They did offer free yoga classes and one free
massage a month with the membership, which was really appealing, but I didn’t
like the distance.  Plus if I were paying
$60 a month to climb I’d be there several times a week, which would mean an
added cost in gas as well. Did I mention I’d have to pay to park too? Ugh!  But I really need to develop my rock climbing
skills for my 14er challenge:  I need to
feel safer out there while climbing, and that’s only going to come with
practice. 

So I did some research, and found a much cheaper option:  A ‘punch pass’.  I pay up front, get 10 visits, and can use
them for anyone I choose (I can bring a friend with me, etc.).  I was trying to justify time for using the
pass when I remembered Thomas has scouts Monday nights directly across the
street from the climbing gym.  Duh!  I could just go with him to scouts and while
he’s there walk across the street and get in some climbing practice instead of
sitting there at the meeting knitting hats. 
Brilliant!  Why did it take me so
long to figure this out?

Anyway, tonight was my first attempt at this whole climbing
thing.  I’ve been to this gym several
times, but I’ve never actually climbed here. 
I’ve always been a chaperone taking scouts or for birthday parties.  I’ve never climbed in any gym before, but I
have been rock climbing at Red Rock Canyon a few times. 

Emily went with me. 
We dropped Thomas off at Boy Scouts and then walked together to the
gym.  I bought the punch pass and we used
two immediately.  They let us use a
harness and shoes for free (the harness is always free, the shoes were to make
up for the fact we had to fill out liability forms again). 

It was Monday night at 7pm, and this gym was packed!  There were tons of climbers there!

I found the last cubby open to store our stuff and we put on
our climbing shoes and harnesses.  Normally
when I’m attempting something new I stand around for a bit and watch everyone
around me to see how it’s done, but there were so many people I figured it was
best to just jump right in and find a place to climb.

I found an open area and attached the carabineer to my
harness.  This was actually a lot more
difficult than I’d thought it would be: 
It wasn’t a simple push down and turn like I’d expected, and despite
trying my best I never quite got the hang of it.  I was able to eventually clip in, but I’m
sure I looked like I had no idea what I was doing, even toward the end of the
night after doing it several times. 

Climbing was much easier than I’d anticipated!  I made it all the way to the top in no time
at all, and was quite pleased with myself. 
However, I wasn’t ready to just jump off and let the pulley carry me
down, so I ended up climbing back down the way I’d climbed up, and told myself
I was practicing because while outside I’d need to climb back down the way I
went up (yes, I was lying to myself, kind of).

OK, this was fun!  I
was actually able to climb to the top without stopping, and on my first
try!  I went to find Emily (she’d been in
the bathroom taking care of a bloody nose) and challenged her to climb with
me.  We did a couple of runs together,
and she convinced me to jump backwards and fall all the way down.  From the top of a climb I took a leap of
faith and jumped backwards, letting the pulley slowly carry me back down to the
floor.  It was actually quite fun!  Just make sure you’re actually secured and
clipped in first…

Now on to bouldering, because this was why I was actually
here.  This scared me more than climbing
because I wouldn’t be clipped in.  Once
again, this was easier than I’d anticipated, and I was able to quickly catch on
and climb up and over the wall(s).  I
went to take a break and find Emily.  She
was climbing the same area we’d been climbing before, and it was here I realized
something:  when climbing the walls you’re
supposed to stick to one color of holds as you progress up.  Whoops! 
No wonder everything seemed so easy! 
I’m going to have to spend some time learning about different classes
(etc.) of climbing.

OK, so I felt a bit silly about my climbing optimism (no
wonder it’d been so easy!) and decided to try it for ‘real’.  I took a few runs, sticking to only one
color, and while it was more challenging I was able to climb them all successfully
except one.  I kept trying that one over
and over again, but instead of getting easier it was just getting more
difficult.  I was getting tired!  I knew what I needed to do, but my arms were
worn out.  We’d been at the gym for about
an hour, and I’d been climbing almost continuously.  Now even runs I’d done successfully earlier I
wasn’t able to climb.  I told myself to
stop now because I was wearing myself out. 

I went down the slide one more time (I can’t remember the
last time I went on a slide!) and we changed out of our gear.


All in all I learned a LOT tonight.  Everyone was pretty friendly, and even though the gym was packed it didn’t feel too crowded.  I want to eventually learn how to belay (including putting on the ropes, etc) and I need to get better at bouldering.  I think it will just come with more practice.