Tag: herman lake

The Citadel – 13,295

RT Length:  11.45 miles

Elevation Gain:  3255’

I arrived at the Herman Gulch Trailhead and was on the trail at 4:30am.  The trailhead has spots for dozens of vehicles (if not more), and the trail is clearly marked. 

I followed the Herman Gulch trail for less than a quarter of a mile, until I came to the junction with Waterous Gulch Trail, turned left, and continuing following the class 1, well-defined Herman Gulch Trail all the way to Herman Lake.

It was at about here I encountered a porcupine, which immediately turned and ran away from me. 

I continued following the trail, skirting the south side of Herman Lake

I followed this trail as it headed southwest towards the saddle of The Citadel and PT 12671.  Here’s where I was heading:

There’s a pretty good trail that goes MOST of the way, crossing the creek that flows out of Herman Lake and through the willows.  I lost a little bit of elevation during this part, but it was negligible.

At about 11970’ I came to another large creek, and here I left the trail to cross the creek

From here the trail is difficult to follow, but there are plenty of cairns to follow to get you to the saddle.

Now on the saddle, I turned right and headed west up the ridge, on a good game trail that was easy to follow.

Now to make my way towards the saddle.  The route will be obvious.

If you haven’t already, now is a good time to put on your helmet.  From the saddle, head northeast and look for a solid band of rock.  This rock band is important, because the gullies are miserable.  Once on the rock band, ascend towards the tundra, then follow the line of tundra northeast.  Once you’re on the tundra, you can stay on tundra until the top.  This is class 3, and a slip would have you falling quite a ways, like hundreds of feet before you stop, so take care in this area.  Here’s a visual representation of how I climbed from two different angles.  It’s probably a good idea to start memorizing the route as you’re hiking up the ridge from the saddle of The Citadel and PT 12671. 

And some pictures of my route:

From here, to the north, I saw what I thought was the summit.  It wasn’t, but I headed towards it anyways.

I made my way to the false summit, and could see the true summit to the west.

So, I downclimbed a bit, and headed towards the saddle ahead of me. 

At this saddle, there was what I would consider a class 4 chimney to downclimb.  I sat there for about 10 minutes, waiting for the wind to die down before downclimbing.  The wind was insane, and I had to hide behind rocks to get away from it.  The downclimb was much more difficult than the upclimb, as it was committing, and I wasn’t sure there would be adequate footholds down below where I couldn’t see (there were).  Here’s what the wide chimney looked like to downclimb.  It was probably 10-15 feet of downclimbing.

Now to head to the saddle, and summit the peak.

The summit was a short class 3 scramble to the summit block, which is a bit exposed. It was EXTREMELY windy today, and I had to hold on tight to keep from being blown over, but I was able to summit.

I summited The Citadel at 7:45am.  Sorry for the terrible picture and less than stellar video… I only took 1 photo, because I was afraid of losing my phone to the wind, and there wasn’t much room to move around on that summit block without falling (once again, wind).

The Citadel:

Here you can see the false summit to the east

I made my way back to the saddle between The Citadel and the false summit

Here’s a look at your options to upclimb.  There are two, I took the one to the left do downclimb and upclimb.

And now to make my way back to the grassy ledge.  There’s a cairn indicating where to descend.

And now to downclimb the grassy ledge.   Once again, I stayed on the tundra until I reached the rock rib, then headed for the saddle to the right.

I was now back on a trail, and followed it to the saddle of The Citadel and PT 12671.

Here’s an overview of my hike to Herman Lake from the saddle.  This was on a mostly class 1 trail, with cairns to help when needed.

Back at Herman Lake, I followed the Herman Gulch trail east back to the trailhead.  You’ll know you’re getting close when you can hear the illustrious sounds of I70 in the distance.

I made it back to my truck at 10:30am, making this an 11.45 mile hike with 3255’ of elevation gain in 6 hours.

On to the next trailhead!

Pettingell Peak – 13,559

RT Length:  9.89 miles

Elevation Gain:  3407’

I was surprised to find a few other vehicles at the icy Herman Gulch trailhead when I arrived.  Two looked abandoned, and the other looked like someone was sleeping inside.  Brave, considering it was 12 degrees outside (which seems to be the magic number this season).  I parked, gathered my gear, and was on the trail at 5am.  This time of year it’s very cold in the mornings, which means it’s very difficult to motivate myself to get out and hike, but I always know I’ll be glad I did later.  Such was the story this morning.

The trail starts just behind the information sign at the north end of the parking area.

I followed the Herman Gulch trail for .25 miles before turning left and a junction and following Herman Gulch Trail 98 (the signs are obvious)

I followed this well packed, class 1 trail for 3.5 miles to the upper basin.

Once in the upper basin the trail ended and the fun began!  I put on my snowshoes for this part. I knew there was a lake here (Herman Lake), but with the snow I wasn’t sure of it’s exact location/outline, so I skirted the lake to the right, staying on what I knew to be solid ground.  I’ve fallen into a snow covered lake before, and didn’t want to repeat the experience.   Here’s an over view of my hike.  I took the solid line up, the dotted line down

And step by step, first skirting the lake

Then finding an access rib, and following it west

The snow here was sugary and I kept postholing/treading backwards.  I’d forgotten my ice axe at home and only had my trekking pole.  The trekking pole worked, but if I’d slipped it would have been nice to have had my ice axe (especially just before the summit).  Here are some pictures of the way up the rib

The further up I hiked the less snow there was.  Here I kept on my snowshoes because they were helpful more than not.  I aimed for the saddle

Once at the saddle I had to take off my snowshoes because they started getting in the way.  Here I turned right, and followed the ridge northeast to the summit.

There was snow at the summit, but it wasn’t worth putting on my snowshoes.  Here is where I would have liked my ice axe as well. Instead, I held my snowshoes in one hand, trekking pole in the other, and climbed up.  The snow here was very sugary and at times I sank up to my waste.

But this wasn’t the summit… Here’s the actual summit

I summited Pettingell Peak at 8:50am

Pettingell Peak: 

Here’s looking back at the ridge I took in

It was a beautiful day so I sat for a bit on the summit, enjoying the view. (I was so glad I’d gotten out and hiked!)

From the summit I continued hiking northeast, making a little loop of the ascent.

Looking back, you can see a cornice is beginning to form near the summit

Here’s an overview of the route I took down from the ridge, back into the basin, and out through Herman Gulch

The initial descent didn’t have much snow, so I scree surfed down.  Here’s a visual of the fun

Scree Surfing: 

After the scree ended I put on my snowshoes as I descended into the basin.

Here’s a look back at how I ascended (left) and descended (right) Pettingell Peak

And now, back to the basin (following my tracks in)

I once again skirted the lake and made it back to the basin, where there were dozens of people, several dogs, and a well packed trail awaiting me. 

Here’s looking back at my tracks coming down from Pettingell Peak.

I took off my snowshoes and followed the trail southeast

Here are some pictures of the well packed trail out.  I passed dozens of people on this part of the hike as well

Back to the junction, where I turned right and hiked the quarter mile back to the trailhead

I made it back to the trailhead at 11am, making this a 9.89 mile hike with 3407’ of elevation gain in 6 hours.  When I made it back to the trailhead all of the dozens of parking spots were taken.

Autocorrect is the bane of my existence (especially with Raynaud’s, as my fingers don’t register on touch screens very well).  When I saved this trip via Strava and named it, I made sure I typed in ‘Pettingell Peak’ under ‘title your run’. I checked more than once to make sure I’d spelled the peak correctly.  Unfortunately, it autocorrected once I hit send, and got titled instead ‘Petting Elk’.  If you see any, don’t pet the elk.