wildwanderer – Page 43 – Wild Wanderer

Democrat – 14,148, Cameron – 14,238, Lincoln – 14,286, Bross – 14,172, South Bross – 14,020

RT Length: 16 miles

Elevation Gain: 4987’

OK, I know this looks like an excuse to say I’ve hit my goal of summiting 5 winter 14ers for the year by just doing them all at once, but I’m only counting this as 1 winter 14er hike (putting me at 3 for this season… 2 more to go!).

Luckily the Kite Lake Trailhead is only 2 hours from my house so I made it there by 4:30am. Well, almost there. From turning west on Buckskin I was able to drive 2.5 miles on a bare dirt road and got my hopes up I’d be able to drive to the winter closure. No such luck. Almost immediately at 2.5 miles I ran into snow and stopped. Quite suddenly in fact.

It looked like someone had attempted to drive further and decided to back up, so I parked my truck and took a look. I was fairly certain I’d be able to drive my truck through what I could immediately see, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to drive back out after the sun warmed up the snow later in the day. I decided to play it safe and stay parked near the Paris Mill site. This ended up being a fantastic idea.

I put on my snowshoes and other gear and was on the trail by 4:45am. The dirt road in ranged from bare dirt to covered in 3-4 feet of snow. Yes, tt had been a good idea to park where I had. The jury was still out on whether or not wearing my snowshoes had been a good idea (necessary in some places, and not in a lot). I could tell no one had been on this particular trail for a few days (probably since the weekend).

The first mile and a half to the gate went by quickly

It was still dark, and here the wind picked up. It felt like I was in a wind tunnel, and the drifts on the road got deeper. I wasn’t able to see the road most of the way but I knew where Kite Lake was so I just headed in that general direction. It was still dark when I made it to Kite Lake.

From here there was no visible trail: everything was covered in snow and the wind had swept any trace of tracks away long ago. I stayed to the right and came upon a sign. Woot! Last time I was here it was summer, but I remembered there were signs indicating where the trail was. I snowshoed over to the sign hoping to see it read “trail”. Nope, it just said “no camping”. Well, at least this meant I was on some sort of trail and not on the lake. I pointed my flashlight in the general direction I was supposed to go and saw another sign. Maybe this one would say ‘trail’? Nope, ‘no camping’ again. Then I saw another sign (this one ended up saying ‘trail’). You can probably guess what I did from here: I just went from sign to sign until I was out of the basin (by the collapsed mine). Unfortunately most of the signs I encountered said ‘Trail Closed for Restoration’, but this was encouraging because I knew I was going in the correct general direction (and I wasn’t worried I was damaging the trail because I was on top of several feet of snow). Some of the time the signs actually said ‘trail’. Here’s the route I took:

Remember however, it was still dark, so here’s what I was looking at as I was hiking

I made it past the mine and the route started getting very steep. Yes, snowshoes had been a good idea. I got really excited when I ran across a cairn (I haven’t seen one of those in ages!)

Here’s looking back at the slope from my way down later in the day

Now all I had to do was hike up the slope to the Democrat/Cameron Saddle

Luckily from here most of the mountain was windblown. I only ran into one or two tricky spots covered in snow. Here’s the view from above the saddle looking left at the hike up Mt Democrat. I just stuck to the ridge.

Yes, there’s a false summit on this one. Here’s the last bit of the trek to the summit

There was more snow than anticipated on this summit

Here’s my summit photo

15 Democrat

I turned and looked back at the ridge and the route up Cameron

Here’s the route I took

From the saddle it looks steeper. The actual trail goes left and right, but I was able to just stay on the ridge (and snow)

For the final push to the summit you can clearly see the trail to the left outlined in snow.

When I gained this ridge it was like I was transported to the moon: The snow was gone and there were small rocks everywhere

I took a quick summit photo

22 Cameron

And looked over towards Lincoln

I was debating taking off my snowshoes for the rest of the hike. It looked like everything on this side of the mountain was pretty much windswept, so I took them off, walked about 20 yards, and looked down to this:

I should have kept the snowshoes on just for this last little bit, but I found a way around the stuff causing me to posthole. The path up Lincoln is obvious. About halfway up to the summit I ended up putting on my snowshoes again because the snow was deeper than it looked from Cameron.

This one had a bit of a false summit as well

Summiting Lincoln was much easier than I remembered it from last time: Maybe it was the snow? Or maybe it was because the wind this time was nonexistent. In any event, I summited

27 Lincoln

There were two summit markers on this peak

So far my day had been pretty easy. I looked across at the route past Cameron and over to Bross, debating if I needed my snowshoes or not. There was only one area that gave me pause

I made it to the Lincoln/Cameron saddle, rook off my snowshoes, and hiked south. When I got to the slab of snow I put on my snowshoes and carefully began crossing the snow. This is much steeper than it looks, but with crampons on my snowshoes I felt secure

Here’s a look at the rest of the route up Bross

I didn’t think I’d be needing my snowshoes anymore so I took them off once again. I’m not a fan of taking them off and putting them back on again, but I’m even less of a fan of holding them (they’re too big to fit into my pack, and don’t fit nicely on the sides either). Also, it felt really warm. I’m not sure if it actually was warm outside or if it was due to the lack of wind, but I was actually starting to sweat. My hands were almost too warm in my gloves. I could get used to this!

It was a very quiet day. I hadn’t seen anyone else and the wind was silent, so imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner and saw this

Hm. Someone else must be up here today. I wonder why I hadn’t heard them drive up? No matter, now I as on the lookout for people. Until I got closer and realized the vehicle had been abandoned. It looked like someone had tried to fix a flat and gave up.

What was even more curious was they left the windows open and keys in the ignition.

I’m not sure how long the truck has been here, but with the roads the way they are it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I turned around to look at the way I’d come and decided I didn’t want to traverse that snow slab later in the day: on my way back I was just going to trudge straight up the hill to the summit of Cameron.

Since this is a mining area there are multiple roads to the summit of Bross. I just kept aiming towards the top and followed one after the other.

This felt like an easy summit

Here’s a look back at the route from the summit of Bross

The summit of Bross was very similar to the summit of Cameron: barren except for rocks. It was also very large and flat

The last time I’d taken this hike I hadn’t known there was a “South Bross” and today I intended to make my way over there. There isn’t much of a trail, but the route’s obvious

I was losing elevation, and it wasn’t lost on me I’d need to regain about 150 feet in elevation on my way back (just for Bross, with more for Cameron) but the short .6 of a mile trek was worth it.

42 South Bross

Here’s a look back on the entire route

I turned around and headed back to Bross. From the summit of Bross I pondered my options. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to make this a loop and head down the west side of Bross or re-summit Cameron and head back the way I’d come. The only reason hiking down Bross sounded like an ok choice was because it was shorter. However, I’ve experienced that screet before and it wasn’t something I ever wanted to experience again, either hiking up or down. Cameron had its drawbacks too: it meant an extra 300 feet of elevation gain in a short distance, and it added a couple of miles onto the trip. However, it also meant I’d get photos of the way I’d come. That was it, I was re-summiting Cameron, and not by way of the Cameron-Lincoln saddle. I was just hiking straight up the slope.

Yes, there was some snow, and it was steep, but very navigable

Here’s a look back at Bross and South Bross

Once I made it to the summit of Cameron (again) I had a great view of Democrat

Here’s a look at the route back. You can see Kite Lake is completely covered in ice and snow. Once again, the sections of snow below the Democrat/Cameron saddle were steep.

Here’s the route from Kite Lake

The 3 miles back to my truck from Kite Lake took a while, but I wasn’t bothered: I had all the time I needed today, and it was such a lovely day I didn’t mind the hike. Another plus was the lack of people. It was obvious I’d been the only one on this trail today. In the light of the afternoon sun I was once again glad I’d decided not to drive my truck any further on this road: it would have gotten stuck. In fact, just as I could see my parked truck I heard a noise and saw a truck smaller than mine come plowing down the road. I tried to wave my arms at them to indicate they shouldn’t drive further but it was no use. They continued on and got stuck.

They weren’t too happy about the situation either, and rudely refused my help when offered as if it were my fault they’d gotten stuck. I made it back to my truck at about 3 pm, making this a 16 mile hike in just over 10 hours.

Just for fun, here’s my Relive of the hike: https://www.relive.cc/view/2117888145

La Plata – 14,366 (Northwest Ridge – Winter Route)

RT Length: 9 miles

Elevation Gain: 4524’

I have a goal of completing 5 winter 14ers this season, but that’s going to be more difficult to accomplish than it sounds. The weather hasn’t been cooperating on my hiking days, so I’ve been highpointing and sticking close to home the past couple of weeks (Manitou Incline over and over again & summiting the 9K mountains behind). I’ve only done one other winter 14er (Quandary) and my time is about to get seriously limited. This happened on Friday:

I volunteer as a cookie cupboard from mid-January through mid-March. This means Girl Scout Troop leaders come to my house to get cookies for their girls to sell. I have 2 semi trucks full of cookies delivered to my house twice a week, and those cookies are all gone by the next delivery date. (Think 20,000 cases of cookies, twice a week, in my living room, that have to be unloaded, sorted, and then loaded again when Troops come to pick them up). It’s intense, insane, and a full time job on top of my already full time job: I love it! Oh, and my house smells amazing right now! The only downside is it seriously limits the time I can allot to hiking. I had to give up my Friday hike for a delivery but the weather looked good for Sunday so I just switched days. I’m hoping to get in one more hike before sales start on February 3 (crossing my fingers).

OK, back to business. I arrived at the trailhead at 5:30am, a little later than expected. The drive in on Colorado 82 was a bit icy but manageable with no one else on the road.

La Plata Trailhead was full when I arrived. I’m pretty sure I got the last spot. It looked like several groups had slept at the trailhead overnight and were just now getting ready to hike (brave, brave souls to sleep at a trailhead in this 10* weather).

I was on the trail by 5:45am. The trail follows FSR 391 over a bridge and to the left. The bridge was covered in at least 2 feet of snow, making the railings irrelevant.

I passed an abandoned utility truck along the way and thought “that’s unfortunate”. I’m not sure if it was left here on purpose but it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I’m fairly certain several rodents and small animals have taken up residence under the vehicle.

I continued on until I came to the trailhead on the left.

If you see these signs, you’ve gone too far

It was still dark, but knowing exactly where the trailhead was made finding it so much easier this time. The last time I took this route I’d missed the trailhead and ended up hiking at least a mile in the wrong direction. The trailhead was also easier to find now because of the fabulous trench already in place. This trench went from the parking lot just about to the summit, and made route-finding very, very easy.

I crossed another snow-filled bridge

And shortly thereafter a snow covered log bridge. I remember this was very difficult to find in the early summer when it was overgrown and filled with new leaves. No problem this time!

From here I never saw the log/stone steps as they were most likely covered in snow. I followed a trench that went straight up the ridge. About halfway up the slope I smelled smoke and got a bit nervous (forest fire?) until I ran into two hikers taking a smoke break (no comment). The sun started to rise just as I was exiting the trees, but I wasn’t yet high enough on the mountain to enjoy the alpenglow.

The trench up this part of the hillside was a bit sketchy at times because it was on a steep portion of the mountain, but it did lead me here

From here I had to gain the ridge. I hadn’t expected a gully? This wasn’t too terribly difficult, but it had been unanticipated. Here’s the route up

The gully was much steeper than these pictures make it look. Here there was no trench, but instead a mixture of scree, snow, and unstable rocks that didn’t provide much traction. Wearing my snowshoes helped.

Here’s a look back down from the top

And my view as the sun continued to rise

The sun never fully rose today, as it stayed behind La Plata and the ridge for hours after sunrise and then hid behind clouds. From the top of the gully the ridge was just beginning. Here’s the first obstacle

And from there the rest of the ridge

Here’s the route

This ridge is much longer than it looks, with a few ups and downs along the way. Besides the trench there wasn’t a visible trail, but luckily it is very straightforward and all you need to do is follow the top of the ridge.

I came upon some spots where my ice axe and the crampons on my snowshoes were helpful (side note, the straps my snowshoes are still a major pain).

At about this point the wind started picking up. I wasn’t physically tired but I was having trouble breathing. Because my balaclava was covering my mouth I wasn’t getting a full breath of air, making each breath only half as effective as it normally would have been.

I kept trudging on, knowing I wasn’t in a hurry today so I could take as much time as I wanted. When I reached this cairn I turned left and wondered if the hill to the right had any significance?

From this point the wind really kicked into high gear. I was having difficulty standing up at times but wasn’t worried about falling (there was no real danger of falling anywhere that would send me very far)

I headed up this small rocky stretch

And came to a flat(ish) summit area

I’m not sure what time I summited because I’m doing this new winter hiking thing where I don’t take out my phone unless it’s an emergency, but it was most likely between 9-10am.

I’d thought about summiting East La Plata today but once I got a good view of the way there and considered the current wind conditions I thought twice about my intended second summit. It’ll have to wait for another time.

The views from the summit of La Plata were breathtaking

Because of the wind I didn’t stay too long at the summit. It also looked like snow was coming in: Not on La Plata, but the surrounding mountains. Here’s a view from the summit of the ridge

OK, time to head back

Just for fun I decided to climb the little hill before heading back down the ridge

Here’s a look at the summit of La Plata from that hill

Here’s a better look at the ridge and my way back

The sun never quite made it out all the way: it kept hiding behind thin clouds. It was about here I caught up with the two hikers (now a party of 4) I’d seen taking a break on my way up. They only had on microspikes but seemed to be doing just fine (my snowshoes were most likely overkill on the ridge). A little bit further down I saw where they’d stashed their snowshoes.

As I kept descending I started running into more hikers. I thought this was a cool pic of a young man starting his trek up to the summit

The rest of the way back was fairly straightforward. The ridge had a great trench by this point and I could tell where those who’d ditched their snowshoes or hadn’t worn them had post-holed up to their waist on several occasions. The short descent down the gully made me wish I’d brought a helmet, as now bowling ball sized rocks were set loose both above and below me as I made my way down. I breathed a sigh of relief when that was over and I followed the trench back to my truck.

Once I made it to treeline the sun stayed behind the clouds and I could tell it was snowing on nearby peaks. Despite the summit wind it had been a very nice and quiet hike. I didn’t see any animals or very many animal tracks in the snow. I made it back down to my truck at 1pm, making this a 9 mile hike in just over 7 hours. Oh, and total bonus for today: My hands didn’t freeze! They didn’t even get cold. In fact, they were sweating in my mittens when I made it back to my truck. Two of my toes were blue, but nevertheless I’m considering today a huge success in the ‘cold’ department!

2 winter 14ers down for the year, 3 to go!

Just because they’re fun… here’s my Relive (I thought it was interesting this says my elevation was at 14,338 when La Plata’s elevation is 14,336): https://www.relive.cc/view/2107811469

The views from winter 14ers never disappoint

Manitou Incline x 2 & Mt Manitou 9460

RT Length: 11.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 4865’

The weather was absolutely perfect today for a hike, but the avalanche danger was high above treeline so I decided to play it safe and stay local. I set my alarm for 3am, decided when it went off that was way too early considering I didn’t need to drive far, and set it again for 4:20am. The cats woke me up around 6am, wondering why I was still asleep. I jumped out of bed, silently cursed my alarm for not going off a second time, realized it was user error on my part, and decided to head out hiking anyway as the sun wasn’t yet up.

There was a man attending the incline parking lot when I got there. He informed me today was the last day they were allowing parking at this lot, as they were going to use the lot as a storage area for equipment needed to fix the cog railway. This was interesting information, and means I’ll have to either park at the shuttle lot (gasp!) or find other parking downtown if I want to hike the incline for the next two years. I made it to the trailhead at 6:40am and was on the trail by 6:50am.

I usually hike for time when I hike the incline, but today I’d planned on just taking it slow and steady as I planned to hike it more than once. The steps were either completely dry or completely covered in snow/ice. I was glad I’d brought my microspikes.

Just before 7am the sun started to rise. There were clouds in the sky so I never got a true view of the sunrise, but it was still beautiful

There weren’t many people on the trail this early in the morning (there’d only been one other vehicle in the lot) so the trail was nice and quiet. I only saw about 5 or 6 people on my way up. I summited the incline around 7:30am.

The 2.5 miles down the Barr trail was icy most of the way to the parking lot. Once again I was glad I’d brought microspikes.

OK, time to start this again. Once again I continued up the stairs, slow and steady. It was warmer now but microspikes were still needed. There were also many more people on the trail. I felt overloaded in my knit hat, snow jacket, and with my pack full of gear while everyone else was in shorts and only carrying a water bottle, but I didn’t intend to stop at the top this time. I summited the second time at 9:30am

I’d had enough of people (there were dozens on the trail now) and decided to try to find the summit of Mt Manitou. I had a trail map that gave me the general direction of where the mountain was, but knew there wasn’t an established trail so I’d have to get creative to find the summit. I also couldn’t find any trip reports online, so I didn’t have more than my topo map to go by. I headed up the dirt road behind the incline towards the Barr Trail. Here I found a trail that paralleled the 4WD road and decided to take it instead

It led me to a cave

And then brought me back to the Barr Trail where it intersects with the experimental forest.

I’ve hiked in this general area dozens of times and I’ve seen the sign for the experimental forest every time, yet I’ve never taken that route. Today was my day! I knew this trail would get me close to Mt Manitou, so I followed it and quickly came to the old experimental forest area.

I continued to follow the dirt road covered in snow up and around past the experimental forest. When I was sure I was close I got out my phone and pulled up my Peakbagger app. It showed Mt Manitou as being NWN from where I was, so I aimed my compass in that direction and started hiking off trail. This is where I really could have used snowshoes.

I was sinking up to my shins in show but the good news was there wasn’t any wind so it would be easy to find my way back just following my tracks. I could tell I was getting close to the summit when the snow lessened.

Still no trail, I kept hiking upwards, and soon I was at the ‘summit’. This was a treed summit with a lot of rocks. One of them held a cairn and that was my only indication of a summit (that and it was the highest point around)

I climbed up on the rock both to make sure I was on the highest point

And to get a picture

And a video:

Mt Manitou Summit:

From the summit I could also see Cameron’s Cone, Almagre, and Pikes Peak

Ok, time to head back down. This was super easy as I just followed my earlier tracks back to the 4WD road and the 3.5 miles back down to the parking lot. This time the Barr trail was slushy and I was kicking up rooster tails of dirt onto the back of my pants. I made it back to my truck at 12pm, making this a solid 4865’ of elevation gain 11.5 mile hike in under 6 hours.

The relive on this one is kind of fun

Relive:

https://www.relive.cc/view/2092516509

Black Mesa – 4973’ Oklahoma Highpoint

RT Length: 8.6 miles

Elevation Gain: 734’

Once again the weather in Colorado was terrible, but at least I had a few days’ notice to make other hiking plans. I have backup plans for when the weather isn’t swell in the high country, and today’s plan was to drive to Oklahoma to do some highpointing.

The highest point in Oklahoma is (not surprisingly) close to the Colorado border. I left the house at 2:30am and quite enjoyed my commute until I turned off the main road and onto a dirt road with 26 miles left to the drive. Also, I completely lost cell service. This wasn’t a big deal as I knew my GPS would get me to the trailhead, but I was worried about finding my way back to the paved road on my return. It was quite dark and I couldn’t see any landmarks to guide me back. There were 6 or 7 turns, and I mentally thanked myself for printing out directions and bringing them with me. The dirt road was littered with cow patties and I could see cow eyes glowing at me in the dark.

The last bit of road took me down a one way dirt path with 2 foot tall grass growing between the tire ruts and then through a stream crossing I was sure was over a foot deep, but I made it without a hiccup. I arrived at the trailhead at 7:30am (after crossing a time zone, so it was 6:30am to me), gathered my gear, and was on the trail. It was still dark out.

My vehicle was the only one in the medium sized parking lot. There was a bathroom that was open and a wheelchair accessible parking space.

The trailhead started behind a gate that ensured only foot traffic proceeded. I signed my name in the trail register and was on my way.

It was still dark when I started and I was a bit worried about forecasted wind and the potential for rain later in the day. Route finding ended up being no problem at all. The trail follows an old 4WD road with signs every quarter mile or so marking the way.

So even though it was dark it would have been difficult to get lost

At mile 1, 2, and 3 there were benches where you could potentially sit and rest, but since this was a fairly level hike I just took pictures and kept on

After mile 3 the trail took a sharp turn towards the mesa and up what the instructions called switchbacks but the route never really switched back: instead it was a trail that circled up the hill.

The trail up to the top of the mesa was washed out but it was still easy to follow.

In no time at all I’d reached the top of the hill

From here there was another mile or so to trek, but it was across the flat mesa

Once again, the path was clear and easy to follow. I made it to the summit at 8am after 1.5 hours of hiking.

The summit was… flat. It didn’t feel like a summit at all. I was surprised to find a summit register and elevation marker.

Summit 1 :

Summit 2:

The obelisk at the summit was rather detailed and contained information on how far the different states were away from this point as well as a few other state facts

Ok, now it was time to head back down. I enjoyed the views on the mesa

Here’s the route back to the trailhead

I made it back to the trailhead at 9:15am, making this an 8.6 mile hike in 2 hours 45 min. Back at the trailhead I saw a bench I’d missed in the dark, dedicated to an avid highpointer

This hike was very easy. There was minimal elevation gain, and you could probably push a stroller on this hike and get it to the summit without too much difficulty. I didn’t see another person all day, but I did see dozens of cows.

Cows:

Oh, and in the light of day there weren’t any landmarks to guide me on the dirt road back home either. Once again, I was very glad I’d pre printed out directions to assist me on the way back.

I made it back to the paved highway without making a wrong turn, and just in the nick of time too because it started raining violently. The weather back home was much worse, as the snow anticipated for 4pm came roaring in with a vengeance around 10am and closed the freeway north of my house. I’d made the correct choice today to head south and go highpointing instead of into the mountains near home.

Here’s the track of my route and stats for the day

Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/2087219413

Hoosier Ridge – 13,352 Red Mountain C – 13,229 Red Peak A – 13,215

RT Length: 12 miles

Elevation Gain: 4000’

I was really excited to get to go out above treeline for the second time in as many days, but my feet were not. They still hadn’t recovered from yesterday’s trenching up Quandary. The entire drive to the trailhead my left pinky toe kept cramping up and I had to wiggle it to get the sharp pains to stop. It was still a bit swollen, red, and tender to the touch. This is normal for me the day after a winter hike and it’s usually better within a few days, just in time for my next hike. I’d recently bought some toe guards and new compression socks I was hoping would help today.

The roads this morning were much better than yesterday but due to ice I still didn’t make it above 40mph for much of the drive. I realized when I was about halfway there I’d forgotten to take my vitamins before I left the house. I hope that didn’t come back to haunt me later. I arrived at 5:30am and was on the trail by 5:45am. I put on my snowshoes in the truck with my microspikes on underneath once again (I’d not worn spikes with my snowshoes yesterday and the straps had still come undone, so I decided wearing microspikes didn’t have an effect on the snowshoes).

While it was 1* outside I was happy to discover my toes stopped hurting before I’d even crossed the street to start on the trail, and they didn’t bother me for the entire hike. I quickly warmed up as I started hiking.

Today I planned on trying out an experiment. I was going to keep my phone in my pocket on airplane mode and I wasn’t going to use my phone today for any reason until I made it back to the trailhead. I wanted to see if this helped retain battery life in the phone. The downside of this is I wouldn’t know what time I summited or have the ability to take videos of the summit. (side note: my phone is normally on airplane mode when I’m hiking).

While I was hiking Quandary yesterday I studied Hoosier Ridge. It was snowing lightly on the summit so I knew even if there had been a trail it was gone now. Also, the conditions looked favorable for a climb.

I was pleasantly surprised to find someone had trenched a trail through the willows yesterday, and it was intact until I made it to the towers area. This made the beginning of the hike easy. From here I zig-zagged and trenched my way up the slope to the beginning of the ridge.

At the top of the slope I followed the ridge. At the top of each bump there are cairns, making route finding easy.

Here’s the route I took along the ridge.

There weren’t any tracks to follow for the rest of the hike, but the snow wasn’t too deep, making trenching easy.

I looked back over my shoulder as the sky lightened. The mountains were amazing this morning!

I reached the top of the slope just as the sun was beginning to rise over Mt Silverheels. I love alpine sunrises!

As I said before, I just followed the ridge… and kept following it, and followed it some more. There are tons of ups and downs on this hike. With each new bump in the ridge I kept thinking I’d made it to the summit: it’d felt like I’d hiked far enough, and the cairns/rock shelters must mean I’d summited. I’d take a picture, take out my map and look around, just to realize I still had more of the ridge to go. This happened twice. Oh, and those little bumps go up and down in elevation about 200’ each. Here’s a photo for reference…

Here’s a false summit

And another one

Oh look, a few more…

The ridge is longer than it looks, but there’s nothing technical about it. The only downside is all those hills! Every time I’d head down one I just knew it was going to haunt me on my way back. One cool part were the shadows all the slopes created. Of course I took a shadowselfie

Here’s a look back on that ridge

And here’s the final push up Hoosier Ridge

Woohoo! I summited!

I knew I was at the summit this time because I could see Red Mountain C and Red Peak in their correct positions on my topo map (one of the reasons I’d known I hadn’t summited prior to this was their absence).

Side note: Couldn’t they have been more creative than “Red Mountain” and “Red Peak”? Seriously.

From the summit of Hoosier Ridge looking at Red Mountain I could see I was going to run into some difficulties and considered not even attempting the summit. It had already been what seemed like a long day. There was more snow than I’d anticipated on the route up Red Mountain, and from where I was I couldn’t tell if it was stable or not. I could see a bunch of goat prints along the mountainside. As with all of my hiking decisions, I like to wait until I’m right up against a problem to make a judgment, but from this elevation I started devising my plan. I intended to hike down to the saddle (a good 500’ elevation drop) and then traverse to the slope. From here I wanted to ascend the slope along the ridge. Here’s my intended route.

I was worried about the stability of the snow, but knew from my research I shouldn’t need to worry too much about avalanche danger here today. Still, I planned on being careful and staying alert to my surroundings. I deviated from my route a bit due to snow conditions, but was happy with my choices.

Everything went to plan until I reached this area.

It was much steeper than I’d originally thought

I stood here for a few minutes and contemplated what I wanted to do. The goats had traversed further southwest, but if I took their route and slipped I’d keep falling for hundreds of feet, if not more. I saw the same consequences with going to the east. That meant I’d need to climb straight up this wall of snow, given that if I accidentally slipped I wouldn’t have far to fall and the snow I’d land on wouldn’t be filled with rocks.

I made my way towards the wall. It kept getting steeper the closer I got. Not only steeper, but softer as well. The sun was warming up the mountainside and the snow was quickly condensing under my snowshoes. I made it about halfway up the slope and slid down about 10 feet. Frustrated, I made my way back down and considered calling it a day. I looked back up on what I’d done.

This was frustrating. I knew if I could just make it over this wall the rest of the hike would be easy (don’t ask me how I knew this, I just knew). I was mad at my situation and got to thinking: I had an ice axe, and I’d been holding onto it and kind of using it. Why wasn’t I using it more aggressively like I was supposed to? This in no way compared to the difficulty I’d faced on Little Bear or Snowmass. I wasn’t trying hard enough.

The sun wasn’t getting any cooler: If I was going to do this I was going to have to do it now. It was time to turn around and try again. So I got out my ice axe and went to work. Crampons would have been much more helpful than my snowshoes, but I made it work. I’d drill a hole for my left hand, kick one of my snowshoes in, plug my ice axe in a little higher, and hauled myself up one step at a time. It was work, but I had the best feeling when I made it over that wall! I’d done it! Woot! And I was right, the rest of the hike up the ridge to the summit was a piece of cake.

I haven’t felt that good about earning a summit in what feels like a long time. I was exhilarated and thrilled with myself for not giving up.

Here’s a look back at the route

I was excited to head over to Red Peak, but didn’t want to re-summit Hoosier Ridge in order to do so if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Here’s the route I intended to take around Hoosier Ridge and over to the Red Peak saddle.

As I was heading back to the Hoosier/Red Mountain Saddle I looked back on the route I’d taken. It looked so much easier from this angle! The arrow shows where I stopped and re-started again.

For the first time today I put up my heel risers. Those things are amazing!

Traversing to the Hoosier/Red Peak saddle didn’t work quite as planned. I was trying to avoid the rocky area altogether, but as I got closer I found there was a ridge that with snow was steeper than it had looked on the map, so I had to ascend further than I’d originally anticipated, but I was still able to make it to the saddle without backtracking.

Once I gained the saddle I followed some goat tracks to the summit

This was the easiest part of my day by far

Here’s a look at the route I took from Red Mountain and the route I took back

At about this time I heard a buzzing sound and saw a flight for life helicopter heading towards Quandary. This was never a good sign. I said a silent prayer and began my hike back.

Re-summiting Hoosier Ridge wasn’t difficult, but by this time I was getting tired. I made it to the top of the ridge and started traversing. Once again heard the helicopter.

I turned back and got a good view of all 3 summits

The ridge back took what seemed like forever to cross.

Remember all those ups and downs from the ridge before? Well, they were still there and I got to re-summit each of those little slopes. Again.

Just as I was almost done with the ridge I came across a pair of hikers who were on their second hike of the day. They’d attempted Drift Peak earlier this morning but due to multiple cornices were unable to safely summit, so now they were attempting Mt Silverheels. I thought to myself “maybe that’s why it’s called ‘Drift Peak’?” and mentally wondered why no one had posted a recent conditions report? These were the third people I’ve heard from this week stating Drift Peak isn’t summitable, yet no one had added a conditions report. I wondered how many others had attempted and turned back as well? I wish more people would put in condition reports instead of just talking about the conditions to their friends online.

In any event, luckily someone had started after me and it looked like they’d veered off to summit Mt Silverheels, so these two hikers would have a trench to follow. They seemed in good spirits, despite already hiking since 4:30am. I wished them luck and was more than ready to finish my hike.

It was a lovely day, sunny, with no wind. I wasn’t the only one who’d thought so: the trench I’d made on my way in was now very well packed down, and there was evidence of skiers everywhere.

I made it back to my truck at 2pm, making this a 12 mile hike in just over 8 hours. The parking lot was full.

I looked at my tracker: It had worked! However, today’s hike had felt like more than 4000’ in elevation gain. I’d actually thought it was closer to 5000’, but maybe that was just leftover Quandary talking from my hike yesterday.

Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/2076882046

My phone said I had 22% battery and hadn’t turned off once the entire time I’d been out. Usually when it’s cold it it turns itself off each time I take it out of my pocket. When I plugged it in it immediately went to 77%. What I’ve learned is when it’s cold the phone isn’t out of battery, it just doesn’t operate well in the cold, so it shuts itself off (even though it really has plenty of batter life left). The only way to keep it from “running out of battery” and turning off is not to take the phone out/use it.

I quickly took off my outer layers and put on my sandals for the drive home. As soon as I pulled out of the parking lot I felt a sharp pain in my left pinky toe. Ow! Ow! Ow-Ow-Ow!!! It felt as if I’d been stung by a scorpion! Immediately I pulled over to the side of the road to inspect my foot. My pinky toe was completely blue but as I watched it slowly turned to a bright red, starting from the base of the toe and moving up like a thermometer. What had felt like venom spreading like fire through my toe was actually just the blood re circulating through my feet. Though my other toes were partially blue, they didn’t hurt. Bright red is normal for me after a hike. I sat there fascinated as I watched my toes turn colors, and belatedly thought to take a picture. (This picture was taken about half way through the process).

The pain was intense, but within a few minutes my foot was back to normal and I drove the rest of the way home. It seems the reason my toes hadn’t hurt during my hike was because they’d had an attack as soon as I’d started hiking this morning. Also, my new tricks (toe guards, compression socks, etc.) hadn’t done their job. Or maybe the attack was because I’d forgotten to take my vitamins this morning? In any event, I’m going to have to watch my toes this week, especially the pinky. It’s currently in the same condition it was in before today’s hike (red and swollen and a bit painful to the touch), but this is ‘normal’.

A man died on Quandary today. It’s a sober reminder the mountains aren’t forgiving of mistakes. Make good choices and wear your helmet friends. Sending prayers to all involved.

Quandary Peak – 14,265 (winter)

RT Length: 7 miles

Elevation Gain: 3450’

The weather just about everywhere in the state today was forecasted as miserable. Everywhere except for Quandary (even the 13ers and mountains adjacent to Quandary were forecasting snow). Quandary showed clear weather from 4am-2pm so I decided to make the best of the situation and work on my winter 14er goal for the year.

I slept an extra hour this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve hiked in the daylight, and now that my youngest has her license and I don’t need to be home quite so early every time I hike. I had the ability and wanted to start out hiking today with light. The roads were terrible on my drive in for most of the way. The worst tended to be in the cities (looking at you Woodland Park) but surprisingly the back highways were mostly clear. In any event, due to ice on the roads I didn’t go above 30mph the entire way so I didn’t arrive until after 6:30am.

The upper trailhead was closed so I parked at the lower trailhead. This adds about 100 feet to the hike so it was no big deal.

I was surprised to find 3 other vehicles in the parking lot when I arrived. I reminded myself this was a popular 14er, even in winter time, and I’d gotten a late start.

The path was easy to follow up the dirt road to the start of the trail. It was just beginning to get light out, so I didn’t need my flashlight (woohoo!).

I’d read from a conditions report yesterday there was no trail, but quickly found the upside to others being here before me: They were trenching the trail! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had someone else trench a trail for me. In fact, it was only one other time and I can name the date: Evans, my 2^nd 14er, June 2017, and it wasn’t the trail they trenched but the last bit to the summit.

The trail today was quiet and peaceful and I enjoyed just walking through the snow.

Well, all except for my snowshoes. Today I’d decided to see if my microspikes had any effect on the bindings of my snowshoes, and apparently they didn’t: They come undone whether or not I’m wearing microspikes. Sigh. Oh well. It’s not too big of an inconvenience, but they should really replace these things with ratchet bindings so they don’t come undone. Or add another way to secure the straps.

I was appreciative of the group before me, trenching lazy ‘S’ curves up the mountainside.

But just after I took this picture I caught up to the group and decided to take over trenching: They’d done such a good job and must have been tired. They deserved a break and I wanted the exercise. The difference between their trench and mine was theirs gradually gained the slope: I just trudged straight up the ridge.

I continued hiking until about 13,100’, crossed a flat ridge and saw the rest of the route before me

It was here with 1000’ left of elevation gain I decided to try out the heel lifts on my new snowshoes. I take back everything negative I’ve ever said about these snowshoes… well, everything except the need for ratchet bindings. Those heel lifts are amazing!!! Where have they been all my life? They made an insane difference, and I was flying up the mountain.

About halfway up I turned and looked around. I knew there were at least 5 people behind me, but they were nowhere in sight. They must still be below the ridge.

OK, this was all I had left. Time to book it to the summit

OK, maybe a little more

Wait, what?!?! What’s this? There was a large grouping of snow where the summit should have been. I was going to need to cross this in order to officially claim I’d summited. I took one step and sank up to my knees. Hmmm. This snow was not stable and I wasn’t sure what was beneath (I found out later it was just a flat summit and I most likely could have walked straight across). I decided to play it safe and stick to the right. It was slow going, slippery, and unstable. Here’s looking back from the true summit.

I set up my camera to take a photo and got one shot before my camera died (well, stopped working until it warmed up again). So here’s my one summit photo… Good thing this isn’t my first summit of Quandary.

It was snowing on all the mountains all around me, and while the snow was headed towards Quandary it didn’t look like it would make it here. It seemed like I’d chosen the correct peak to summit today! And: Quandary with no wind? That’s unheard of! I started my trek back down. I made it halfway down the ridge before seeing anyone else.

I’d wanted to hike Hoosier Ridge today, but the weather was forecasted as better on Quandary, and indeed the forecast had been correct as it was now snowing on Hoosier Ridge. I took a good look at it for tomorrow and marked in my mind the features I could see.

I stopped along the flat section to get a few pictures

And noticed some goats!

I was only able to see them due to the trails they were making in the snow, otherwise I’d never have known they were there.

OK, time to get serious about heading down. Check out that trench!

As I descended I kept seeing more and more people working their way up: snowshoers, skiers, and some hikers just wearing microspikes. I wasn’t sure there was enough snow to ski, but there sure were a lot of skiers out today. I don’t really understand 14er skiing. It’s not that I don’t like to ski, it just seems like a lot of work for a “you get one” kind of experience. Also, I don’t want to become addicted to another sport, especially something that involves snow, so I’ll leave the 14er skiing to others for now. There was plenty of skiable snow just at and below treeline, but it seemed these skiers intended on summiting as well. I saw at least two dozen people, if not more, and was glad I’d gotten an ‘early’ start. Boy was that trench looking good now!

I saw a group of three men on my way down working their way up. They’d found my bandana and the microspike I wasn’t aware I’d lost. Thanks guys!

I made it down at 10:30am, making this a 7 mile hike in 4 hours. The parking lot was packed.

This really is a straightforward hike: make it to treeline and follow the ridge. With clear skies (at least over Quandary) and no wind it was a perfect hike for today. I’d like to summit four 14ers during winter this year. 1 down, 3 to go!

North Star Mountain – 13,614

RT Length- 9 miles

Elevation Gain – 2400’

First hike of 2019! I’d spent the past week at sea level and once again my time was constrained (I needed to be back by 2pm because my daughter had her final driving lesson) so I chose something I knew I’d be able to complete before noon: minimal elevation gain with moderate mileage at an open trailhead seemed a good choice, just to get me back out above treeline. I was debating doing Quandary to get in my first winter 14er of the year, but the wind looked more favorable just a little to the south on North Star Mountain, so I decided to save Quandary for later.

Monitoring the temperature while driving I was a bit put off when it reached -2* around Hartsel but felt better when it rose to 27* in Alma (it was 20* when I arrived at the Hoosier Pass trailhead).

I arrived at 4:45am to an empty parking lot full of ice and decided to just put on my snowshoes while sitting in my truck (with spikes underneath so if I needed them I wouldn’t need to take off my gloves to put them on). For Christmas I bought myself a new pair of snowshoes (EVO ASCENT MSRs) and was anxious to try them out.

I started on the trail just after 5am. The 4WD road was blocked off by plowed snow, but easy to follow and packed down by previous hikers/skiers/snowboarders/etc. The road starts just beyond this sign.

This part of the trail was great, as it followed a well packed and wide 4WD road. I followed it as it curved to the left. It was sill dark out, but I could faintly make out the sledding/skiing hill ahead of me.

I stopped briefly to fix my snowshoes (the band had come loose on one of them). It was cold but clear and every time I looked up I saw meteors from the Quadrantid Meteor Shower. I kept stopping to watch and just absorb the night and finally had to kick myself in gear and tell myself to get going: I was on a time schedule.

As many of you know, route finding is different when it’s dark: there aren’t many visible landmarks, and even the easiest route can cause you trouble when you can’t see what’s ahead of you. Following the road around 12,000’ I suddenly found myself on the side of a mountain, road gone. I looked at my map and compass, knew I was heading the right way, and continued on. It seems the road was covered in snow, making it indistinguishable from the hillside. This made me a bit uneasy as it was exactly where the avalanche danger was forecasted for today, and I couldn’t quite make out the angle of the slope or consistency of the snow. I got out my caltopo map, noticed it was less than a 20* angle, and just decided to be careful and stay as close to the road as possible. Bonus points if I could actually find it (which I could once in a while). Once again I looked down, and the band had come undone on my left snowshoe, so I put it back into place.

As I rounded the corner the road became visible again and I breathed a sigh of relief, until the wind picked up. It started out strong and didn’t let up until I made it back to that spot on my way back down. Here’s where the route finding truly got fun. I still had over an hour of darkness, and with the wind I could no longer see clearly what was ahead of me as the wind was ferociously blowing up the snow and made everything appear… grey. When I turned around and looked back at Mt Buckskin I could see much better. The sun was rising and there wasn’t much wind behind me to obscure my view, so I kept looking back to give me a visual reference for later. I took out my camera and kept trying to get a picture of the moonrise as well (just to the right of Buckskin), but the camera had a hard time focusing with all the wind.

OK, back to route finding. I was now at the 4WD parking area, although I didn’t know it. In the dark and with the wind I couldn’t’ see much, so I just kept heading west. Good news: I came to a road! Bad news: it was the wrong road. So was the next one, and the next. Apparently there are tons of mining roads in this immediate area, all parallel with each other, and none of them were the correct “road”. However, heading up and west seemed to keep me on the right track, so I did so, even though I couldn’t see much.

I lightened this video on my computer to give it more visibility, but here’s an idea of the terrain and mild wind in the dark (well, I guess not “dark” because I lightened it, but this shows where I was at)

VIDEO

At about this point my phone shut off. I’d been trying to take videos/pictures, and it decided it was too cold to continue. Hmph. I stuck it in my backpack to let it ‘warm up’ and hoped it’d turn on again later, looked down, and once again fixed the band my snowshoe (both sides this time).

Up and west ended up being the correct navigation, and soon I was at the top of North Star Mountain’s shoulder. The snow was about a foot thick in most places and consolidated. It was perfect for a winter hike: Not tiring or difficult at all. I never did see the gate that was mentioned, or the ‘parking area’ but it was getting lighter out and I could now see the rest of the route before me

I had several options, but decided to head towards the old mine

When I got there the mine was mostly covered in snow. I traversed above it to the ridge.

Wow. I mean, just. Wow. I needed to cross this ridge to make it to the summit, and I was excited! From a physical standpoint this had been an easy hike so far, and I wasn’t even close to being tired: I was ready for a challenge. Due to the wind, most of the snow had accumulated on the south side of this slope.

Check out my morning view of Quandary! I kept thinking to myself the wind on Quandary HAD to be better than the wind I was experiencing on North Star Mountain. It just had to be.

I turned around to look at the route I’d taken and was surprised to see a well established mining road. Hmph! I wondered if it led to the old mine I’d stopped at? In any event, I’d taken the higher trail to get to where I was now, and took it on my way back as well

Woohoo! The sun began to rise! Oh, and did I mention that wind?!?! It hadn’t let up yet… and each one of those ice crystals is deceptively a chard of glass, waiting to cut you down. Luckily I was wearing goggles and my balaclava.

VIDEO

OK, back to the ridge. This is what I got to follow

Traversing this ridge was tricky, as in many places the passable area was no more than a foot wide. I decided to keep on my snowshoes (after fixing them once again), even though they obviously weren’t needed or indeed helpful for the entire route. I started and looked down: ugh! They’d come undone AGAIN. I stopped and put them back into place.

I knew I was straddling the Park and Summit county lines, and when safe decided to hop back and forth as often as I could, just because it sounded fun. I kept encountering several different kinds of snow, from soft and sugary to tough and consolidated, and most of it was wind blown. At this point I started seeing goat tracks and could tell they weren’t very old (due to depth of prints, current wind conditions, etc). There must be a goat ahead of me! Awesome! I also encountered several medium sized cornices, and this one as well (picture taken on the way back down)

This cornice gave me pause, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to continue. I stopped and traded my trekking pole for my ice axe. I could see the cornice from earlier on the ridge, and I’d been mentally planning out my route. I’d wanted to traverse under the cornice, as it didn’t look that steep, but when I actually got there and started my horizontal traverse I realized what a terrible idea this had been! The snow was soft, and I could tell if I made a trench I’d be undermining the stability of the cornice.

Immediately I turned back and thought about my options. This seemed to be the ‘crux’ of this route. I felt if I could cross this cornice the rest of the route would be wind blown in enough areas to make traversing it easy. But I wasn’t sure about the stability of the cornice. As with most of my hiking decisions, I didn’t actually make one until I was close to the issue. I ended up going over the top to the right where it was easy to climb up and delighted to find it eventually became consolidated and climbable with crampons and an ice axe. I’d been following a goat’s fresh tracks this morning and could tell the cornice was eventually consolidated because the goat hadn’t sunk in the snow: however he was more comfortable on the cornice and went even further right. I was up and over it in 20 seconds and mentally thanked myself for keeping those snowshoes on (with built in crampons).

I was super proud of myself for making it over that obstacle, hiked about 20 yards further to the next ledge, and looked at the rest of the route before me

This looked very doable, and like a lot of fun! The only downside? The wind!!! I’d known to expect wind, but this was insane, and much more than the anticipated 14-18mph

Video

I stopped here because I was actually being blown a bit sideways. This was not good. I was close to the summit but worried about the wind. With a light pack (5-10lbs?), myself weighing 105lbs and winds stronger than forecasted I just didn’t weigh enough to keep from being blown sideways. I decided to pick up some rocks to add weight to my empty pack (I’m guessing about 30lbs worth). That seemed to stabilize me a bit.

My weight and confidence up again I kept traversing…. And came across the goat!

I stopped and enjoyed the experience. This is the first time I’ve seen a mountain goat while climbing in winter, and I intended to enjoy it. We looked at each other and sized each other up.

I didn’t want to disturb the goat, but also wanted to traverse the ridge, so I slowly kept inching forward, stopping every once in a while to fix my snowshoe (this was seriously getting annoying!). Eventually the goat looked back at me as if to say “are you joining me or not?” and continued across the ridge. I took my time (and the opportunity to take dozens of photos). The wind was intense and I was trying to get the goat/wind thing, but in still pictures you just can’t really tell how windy it is…

I followed quietly behind, and the goat didn’t seem to mind. I spent much more time than necessary slowly following in its tracks, careful not to disturb it but thankful for the photos. Just before the final summit push it seemed to have had enough and deviated off the ridge. I took advantage of the photo opp…

And finished the short distance to the summit on my own

I summited at 8am

Video

I dropped my bag to get out my phone for a video and realized I’d lost my trekking pole at some point on the route. Drat. I’m assuming the wind had blown it out of my pack. Next time I need to be sure to clip it on with a carabineer. Luckily my phone wasn’t so cold anymore, and I was able to get a quick video of the summit before it died again, but on the downside my DSLR was showing low battery now as well. Drat! So I only took the time to take one summit photo and decided to start taking photos of the peaks around me to help out friends who wanted to hike in the area tomorrow. Here’s what I got…

The ridge to Wheeler

Drift, Fletcher, Atlantic, Pacific & Crystal Peaks

Quandary

Democrat, Traver, McNamee, & Clinton

OK, time to head back. I took a look at the route back across the ridge. It looked so much easier from this angle!

I looked down at my snowshoe and thought fixing it again was more trouble than it was worth.

I appreciated the fact it was easy to ‘fix’ while wearing gloved but was disappointed I’d needed to do so so often. I left them undone for the rest of the hike down.

On the way back I took a picture of one of the fun cornices I saw on the way in

And another at the exposure… not too terrible, but those rocks wouldn’t be fun to land on if a gust of wind decided it was necessary (hence loading my pack with rocks)

On my way back I took some pictures of some of the more fun small ridges I gained

And once I was done with ridges a look back on the way I’d trekked…

Here I unexpectedly found my trekking pole lying on the ground trapped between some rocks. Woot! This was great! Not only had I found my trekking pole, but I didn’t need to pay penance for leaving something on the mountain. I clipped it to my backpack, took out the rocks, and headed down the slope. The sun was great on the way down, even if the wind decided to join her. I mostly just followed the tracks that were still there (surprisingly with the wind I could still follow most of them). Oh, and there were cairns! Imagine that! In the dark I hadn’t noticed any of them, but once I made it back to the shoulder in the daylight I could clearly see large ones placed about 200 feet apart.

Here’s looking back on the route I took to the summit

On my way back I kind of followed the cairns to the end of the shoulder, and looked over at the rest of the route before me. The gate and road were clearly visible in the light of day

And looked back at the way I’d come.

I found that gate I’d missed in the dark. It was actually two very large gates, and looking back, I seemed to pass them unseen by taking a path to the south of them and then just gaining the ridge.

Here’s my path up (solid) and down (dotted)

I found some pretty cool inverted tracks on the descent

Here’s looking at the route I took. Notice how traversing too far to the right (north) would have ended badly in the dark?

And here’s a view of the unstable area I was worried about at 12,000’: It didn’t look stable in the daylight either, but at least I could see a road.

Here’s a great view of most of the lower route (once I got back to the road the wind stopped)

I didn’t see anyone all day until I made it back down to about ½ a mile before the trailhead. There I saw several skiers, a few snowshoers, and about a dozen hikers enjoying the morning out.

I made it back to my truck at 10am, making this a 9 mile hike with 2400’ in elevation gain in 5 hours. I’d made it back 2 hours ahead of schedule. I was a bit bummed to find I’d forgotten to pack my beef jerky (I make a fabulous jerky for hiking and must have left it in the bread box) but overall pleased with today’s hike.

I took off my snowshoes and was a bit upset to notice they’d taken more wear than I’d anticipated from such a short hike and such expensive snowshoes! The plastic bottoms were ruffed up in a lot of places, but at least the metal pieces were completely intact. I’m still not completely sure they’re worth the money. I didn’t use the heel lifts (they weren’t necessary today), but overall they didn’t work any better than the $50 pair of trekkers I put 200 miles on and enjoyingly destroyed this year. I had to continually re attach the straps, and missed the ratcheted bindings of the cheaper model that didn’t need to be continually adjusted. I’m a bit worried I paid too much for a nice pair of snowshoes I’ll destroy in a year, when I could have paid just $50 and destroyed another pair of cheap snowshoes this year. This is something I’ll closely monitor: I’d rather destroy a $50 pair of snowshoes every year rather than “baby” a $200 pair of snowshoes that still end up needing to be replaced in a year.

But back to the peak: In the summertime this would be a great intro hike for someone looking to get into easy ridge climbing.

Also, my phone “died” several times due to the cold, but it wasn’t actually that cold, just windy (which made it cold). Do phones suffer from “wind chill factor” as well? It kept turning back on again after some time being in my backpack, but it was annoying when it kept dying during a video, etc. especially when it wasn’t that ‘cold’ out. Also, it lost track of my navigation when it turned off, so I don’t have a track for this hike.

Mt Buckskin 13,871 & Loveland Mountain 13,692

RT Length: 7 miles

Elevation Gain: 2950’

I thought I was done with summits for 2018. I’ll be gone next week on a road trip visiting my family in Mississippi for Christmas, and along the way picking up my son from his base in Texas to join us (I’m so glad he got leave for the holidays before transferring to Alaska!!!). I’d just been hiking yesterday, but today I noticed the weather for tomorrow was perfect for hiking as well. I did some mental calculations, and then had this conversation with my youngest (a sophomore in High School).

Me: What are your plans for tomorrow?

Her: I was planning on sleeping in and then studying for finals. And I’d like to get in some rink time if possible.

Me: Do you want any help studying? I did graduate with my undergrad 2^nd in my class. And I have an MBA. I’m pretty good at the whole ‘studying’ thing.

Her (with a terrified look on her face): No mom. Just… no. I get straight A’s and have my academic letter to prove it. I’ve got this.

Me: I was thinking of hiking tomorrow, but I’d also like to spend time with you. What do you think?

Her: You should go hiking. That way I can sleep and study. I’ll probably still be sleeping when you get back anyway.

Me: How much studying do you need to do? Is studying more important than sleeping?

Her: Mom, I’m a teenager. Teenagers gotta sleep. At this point I need more sleep than study time.

Me: OK, but that still leaves rink time. How about we go to the rink tonight from 7-9pm, tomorrow I’ll hike, you’ll sleep, I’ll wake you up to study, and we’ll have dinner together.

Emily: Deal.

Woot! It looked like I was going to get one more hike in this year after all! The weather looked great, and my schedule for the morning was cleared. Because of rink time I didn’t make it to bed until 10pm, which meant I only got 4 hours of sleep, but that seems to be the norm for me these days. I’ve discovered the hike is always worth the lack of sleep.

Once again, I woke up at 2am and drove to the trailhead. I encountered a herd of about 40 elk at the same place I had on Friday, and this time I was prepared when I saw them in the center of the road. I slowed down and waited for them to budge, but they didn’t seem concerned with doing so. They were quite happy to stand in the middle of the road and just watch me wait. It seemed I was in more of a hurry than they were. Luckily there were no other vehicles on this road. After two minutes I did something I knew would make them move: I took out my camera. Sure enough, before I got the chance to take picture they’d scattered to the sides of the road. I was on my way!

I haven’t been to the Kite Lake Trailhead for what seemed like ages. The last time I was here was back in June of 2017. The 2WD dirt road was icy but clear and plowed up to the gate closure, about a mile from Kite Lake.

This was also a pleasant surprise: I’d expected to park about 3 miles from the trailhead, and here I was, just 1 mile away. This day just kept getting better and better!

There was room for about 5 cars at the gate, if everyone cooperated and parked nicely.

I was the first vehicle there, so I tried to pull up and leave as much room as possible for others. Also, about 40 feet before the gate the road isn’t plowed, and a few vehicles tried to drive past a snow drift and obviously had to turn back. My advice: Don’t even attempt to drive past where it’s plowed. Your vehicle might make it, but there’s no parking in front of the gate so you’ll need to turn around and park lower anyway.

I gathered my gear and began hiking towards Kite Lake at 4:45am. Just after the gate I had to stop and put on my snowshoes. I left them on for the entire hike.

The hike up to Kite Lake was simple: I just followed the road.

The sky was clear with no moon, and when I looked up I often saw leftover shooting stars from Friday’s Geminid Meteor Shower. The only downside was the wind! Wow! It sure wasn’t the forecasted 8mph, and it wasn’t letting up. It was like I was walking headfirst into a wind tunnel: the wind was funneling down the mountains and straight towards me as I trudged towards the lake. I remembered last time I was here the wind was intense as well, and hoped it died down at some point.

OK, I made it to Kite Lake.

My directions said to look for the trail to Lake Emma, which was supposed to be highly visible behind the bathrooms to the left. Hmmm. No trail was visible, just a lot of snow.

I hiked around for a bit, looking for an obvious trail sign, tracks, path indentations in the snow, etc, and when I didn’t find any I just headed southeast.

Before long I was in a basin, and thankfully here the wind stopped. Even though it was dark I could tell I was in a basin because the ground was relatively flat, and there were outlines of the mountains surrounding me. I’d been told there were willows here, but they must have been buried under all the snow.

I crossed the basin to the south, squinting in the dark, trying to see Mt Buckskin before me. From the basin I’d wanted to get a good look at Mt Buckskin so I could pick a safe line to climb, but in the dark all I could see was there were a lot of snow covered slopes surrounding me. I couldn’t be sure in the dark how stable/deep/etc. those snow covered slopes were. In fact, I couldn’t see much but lots of white surrounding a few areas of black shapes. I was pretty sure the dark areas were cliffs, and not climbable. Imagine seeing this (which is actually more than I was actually able to see at the time), and trying to decide which path was safest to take.

I kept slowing my pace, hoping the sun would rise and I’d be able to see what I was up against conditions wise. Why wasn’t it getting light out? This would be a whole lot easier if it were light out.

After checking my watch and realizing it wouldn’t be light out for quite some time I decided to aim left, where it looked like there was tundra near the snow. I looked at my topo map and it seemed to have the least drastic slope angle. I figured if I stuck to that path I’d have firm ground to hike up if the snow wasn’t stable. This ended up being an excellent idea. The terrain was quite steep but not as steep as in other areas, and no cliffs. Here’s the route I took. In the daylight I realized I’d made the correct choice.

About halfway up the hill I could see power lines in front of me, and decided this would be an excellent point of reference. I aimed for the power line with 3 poles (and discovered later all the others only had 2).

This was a very steep section. Here’s the look back down (from later in the day)

When I made it to the power line I set my next goal of making it to the top of the summit ridge. While the sun hadn’t risen yet, the sky was beginning to get light and I could see better than when I was down in the basin.

Here the snow was firm and I wanted to keep my snowshoes on so I looked for a continuous line of snow to the ridge. Here’s the path I took

Once again, pictures don’t do the steepness here justice.

The snow at this point was consolidated and I was glad my snowshoes had crampons: microspikes wouldn’t have been sufficient. I was also glad I had my ice axe.

After what seemed like forever I gained the ridge just as the sky began to turn pink.

I stopped for a minute to admire the view, and then realized if I hurried I’d be able to make it to the summit to watch the sunrise. I quickly sauntered in my snowshoes the last hundred yards or so towards the summit.

I summited at 7am

18 Mt Buckskin 13965

Mt Buckskin:

And yes, I was able to watch the sunrise (it rose directly from behind Pikes Peak, which was cool but not something I was able to capture with my camera)

I also wanted to summit Loveland Mountain today, so I turned and walked back the way I’d come. The trail over to Loveland Mountain looked very straightforward. I could see the path outlined in snow

I made my way to the Buckskin/Loveland saddle, careful not to trip in my snowshoes.

From here there was a rocky section to navigate

And then I had the choice to summit via the trail to the right or the hard packed snow to the left.

I had on my snowshoes, so I decided to take the snow route, which has more snow than it looks like from a distance

I gained Loveland’s ridge and walked to the cairn on the relatively flat summit

I summited Loveland Mountain at 7:50am

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Loveland Mountain:

Now that the sun had fully risen it was time to apply my sunscreen. This has been problematic in the past because a tube of sunscreen freezes in the winter above treeline. Using an aerosol spray isn’t practical for obvious reasons (wind) and the sunscreen that comes in a deodorant-like stick doesn’t apply evenly. Yesterday I’d visited my new esthetician and we’d had the usual sunscreen talk. I’d told her I usually just keep my face completely covered when above treeline, since I’m unable to apply sunscreen when it freezes. She told me about something she’d recently heard of, and I decided to give it a try. I went to the dollar store and bought a compact, took out the powder, cleaned the compact out, and filled it with my favorite sunscreen. Then I placed a new compact sponge over it (30 for $1 at the dollar store as well) and let the sponge absorb the sunscreen.

I had the compact in my pocket as I was hiking this morning (inside of a plastic ziplock as well) and now was the time to take it out and see if the sponge had kept the sunscreen from freezing. I sat on the summit cairn, took out the sunscreen filled compact and applied the sunscreen to my face using just the sponge. I was amazed at how well this worked! The sunscreen hadn’t frozen! Using the sponge it was easy to apply the sunscreen to my face, and my fingers didn’t get cold because they weren’t in direct contact with the sunscreen. I hadn’t expected this to work so well. This is life changing. I took a picture to prove to her I’d tried out her idea.

OK, that had been fun, but now it was time to head back down. Here’s a look at the ridge back to Mt Buckskin

Yes, I had to regain some elevation, but at this point I was feeling great so it was no big deal. When I reached the top of the Mt Buckskin ridge I noticed a few cool looking cornices forming (these were small, only a few feet wide)

Here’s a look at the view from the Mt Buckskin Ridge

On my way back down I once again aimed for the power lines, which were much easier to see in the light of day.

Here’s looking back up the slope to Buckskin

From the power lines I headed back into the basin.

And from the basin a look back up at the route I’d taken

Wow, what a basin! In the light of day I could full appreciate how vast it was. I stopped to take some pictures and admire the view

I realized I’d made the right choice in choosing the line I had to ascend Buckskin’s slope, and now aimed for Kite Lake

Once at Kite Lake, and while hiking the road back to the gate, I got a really good view of Mt Buckskin and the path I’d taken to the top. I had the realization this hike would have been much more straightforward in the dark if I’d just followed the power lines up the ridge.

The power lines start on the road and lead up the mountain, avoiding the basin altogether. I’m not sure if they cross private land (etc.) but this seems a much easier option that would have made the hike quicker as well.

In any event, the weather had been perfect today once the wind had stopped. Not a cloud in the sky, and as I was walking from Kite Lake back to my truck it got really warm out and I was able to take off my hat and balaclava.

I made it back to my truck at 10:30am, making this a 7 mile hike with 2950’ in elevation gain in 5 hours, 45 minutes. This gave me plenty of time to drive home, get the truck washed and gassed up for the road trip, and to wake my still sleeping daughter up to start studying. All in all, an absolutely perfect day!

And just because it’s fun, here’s my Relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/2020503730

Mt Silverheels – 13,828

RT Length: 9 miles

Elevation Gain: 3800’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s what it looked like on the other side

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

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

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

From here it was a very easy walk to the summit

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

16 Mt Silverheels 13822

Check out some of the views!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I made it to the ridge and just followed it back

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

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

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

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

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

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

Colony Baldy – 13,705’

RT Length: 13 miles

Elevation Gain: 5100’

The roads on the drive in were insanely icy all the way from Colorado Springs to the trailhead. This was unexpected because it hadn’t snowed/rained lately: the ice was all due to a low lying and heavy fog. This was serious ice too! I didn’t even really notice the ice until I narrowly avoided sliding into a mama raccoon crossing the street with two of her babies. From then on I couldn’t drive faster than 35mph the entire way, which meant I didn’t make it to the trailhead until 5:30am (I should have been there around 4:30am). Luckily today was one of those rare days when I didn’t have a serious schedule or need to be home at a specific time, so I took it all in stride.

Besides being icy the road to the trailhead was a paved 2WD road. There was about 3 inches of snow in the parking lot and no other vehicles. The bathrooms are locked for the season.

There was snow on the ground so I decided to just put on my snowshoes in the car so I wouldn’t need to later. I kept them on the entire hike. I started at 5:40am, following the mud, rocks, ice, and snow that today was the Rainbow Trail. Despite what you may think by the name of the trailhead, you actually turn left at this sign and take the Rainbow/Macey Trail #1336.

There are two creek crossings on this hike. The first is Horn Creek. Cross this bridge and take the trail to the left (Macey Lakes Trail)

The trail weaves around the mountainside, so it varied from mud and rocks to 2+ feet of snow, depending on which side of the mountain I was on at that point. I decided it wasn’t worth taking off and putting my snowshoes on every ¼ mile or so, so they stayed on. I hiked in silence, all except for the sound of ice crunching underneath my snowshoes.

The sun was beginning to rise, and with it the low-lying fog.

The second bridge is over Macey Creek. It is very similar to the first bridge.

Here I got my first view of Colony Baldy

At the Macey Creek bridge the snow was deep and from here to the summit I broke trail. Once you cross Macey Creek you’ll follow the trail down to the bottom of a long hill, losing about 200-300’ in elevation (thinking WHY?!?!? the entire time). Just before you get to the bottom of this hill there’s a path to the right. I was unable to see it as the path was covered in snow and I had to backtrack and look for it, knowing from my topo map it was there. If you see the drainage you’ve gone too far.

On my way out I noticed the path is directly opposite of this sign, and I took a picture of my GPS coordinates

This is where the trail ends. I followed the drainage west through a heavily forested area until I came to a small clearing.

From here I could see Colony Baldy, and turned south (left).

I was supposed to follow the ridge to treeline, but the trees were so dense it was difficult to see anything, let alone a ridge

Instead of following the ridge I followed the drainage, which was a great idea since I couldn’t see the ridge: all I could see were hills and trees. The drainage didn’t have water, and didn’t look like it ever held water, but it gave me a nice, stable ‘V’ to follow up the hillside.

From the small clearing to treeline was the most difficult part of this hike. The snow was about 3 feet deep and like cotton candy: I’d take a step and sink to my knees, sliding backwards. Every step was like this, and as I made it higher up the mountain my steps became deeper and the snow became softer. The snow also made the angle I was climbing much steeper.

It seemed to take forever to make it to treeline! Each step was exhausting. The angle of the slope is much steeper than these pictures suggest. Many times my snowshoes would slide backwards as I tried to take a step forwards. It was like climbing on a treadmill at elevation that isn’t turned on.

I made it to the bristlecone pine trees and was only halfway done with the hardest part of this hike. That bristlecone pine area is a good half mile of very steep elevation gain.

This was the largest dispersion of bristlecone pines at treeline I’ve ever encountered, and it all goes straight up. Just when you think you’ve made it to the top of the bristlecone pine area you encounter more. Once again, the steepness of the slope cannot be stressed enough, especially with the added snow. I was using tree branches as handholds to keep myself from sliding backwards.

This is also where the wind picked up and didn’t stop. It was only about 20mph, but it was a steady 20mph with no breaks between gusts. On the plus side it was beautiful to watch the snow get thrown into the air and fall back down.

I put on my goggles and pulled my balaclava up over my nose and kept climbing until I was finally out of the bristlecone pine area and just needed to finish gaining the ridge. I kept looking back at the route I’d taken thinking to myself how it all looked the same: There were so many tree covered hills at seemingly equal elevation below treeline. I seriously hoped the wind didn’t cover my tracks with snow or I’d be using my map and compass to find my way back as well.

Once I gained the ridge I had a great view of Colony Baldy

And the route before me

From here to the summit it was an easy hike over rocky tundra. Easy, yes, but it took me forever to complete. The hike thus far had completely worn me out. I haven’t been this tired/slow going on an alpine hike in a very, very long time. I’d take 50 steps (yes, I’d count them) and then reward myself with a rest to breathe for 10 seconds. And all the false summits! Here’s the first one

And the second one

I gained the second false summit after a battle of wills with myself. I was exhausted. The wind coming straight at me and the intense elevation gain up the ridge and through the bristlecone pines had seriously worn me out. I kept telling myself it was almost over and I just needed to gain this one last hill and I’d be done. I promised myself I’d take a break once I’d summited and rest a bit. Imagine the words that went through my head when I gained the ‘summit’ and was met with this

Argh!!! Nope, I didn’t stop, even though my legs were screaming and I was having a difficult time catching my breath (something else that hasn’t happened on an alpine hike for me in quite a while). I kept going: 50 steps, 10 seconds to breathe. 50 steps, another 10 seconds to breathe. And you know what? When I finally gained that last hill to the true summit it was all worth it: I was met with the most fantastic view of the Crestones I’ve ever seen!

The downside? It was freezing cold! And windy. I took a summit picture

And a quick video before my cell phone went from 49% battery down to 7%

VIDEO:

I plugged in my cell phone to the charger and it immediately went back up to 15% and just stayed there, so I put my cell phone back in my pack and headed down, as my hands were starting to burn inside my mittens.

Here’s a look at that long, wonderfully ‘easy’ ridge. While it looks flat, it’s really just an easy slope.

The best part about hiking down? I was using different leg muscles and now I wasn’t tired at all. Each step downhill it became easier to breathe and I started picking up the pace (being careful not to trip on the rocks poking out from between the snow with my snowshoes). At the end of the slope I turned right (northeast) and followed the slope back past a small outcropping and to the bristlecone pine area. My tracks were all still (mostly) visible. Woot!

This is where I decided to have a little fun. The trench I’d made on my way up was steep and I kept slipping and sliding forward on my way back down because the snow was really, really soft. So I decided to just glissade on purpose because I was doing it by accident anyway.

I ended up doing this almost the entire way back down to the meadow. The path I’d taken was steep enough for me to slide down the entire way, but the snow was deep enough not to let me go too fast (an ice axe wouldn’t have been much help in this snow).

I made it back to the meadow and turned right and headed back to the Rainbow Trail. The 3.5 miles back to the trailhead seemed to last forever. It still wasn’t worth it to take off my snowshoes for the help they gave me in the shaded/snowy areas, so I kept them on. Wearing them included the added bonus of not needing to carry them. I didn’t see anyone else all day, and my tracks in were still the only tracks I saw on my way out, so I’d been alone all day today on the mountain.

I made it back to my truck at 3pm, making this a 13 mile hike with 5100’ of elevation gain in approximately 9.5 hours.

Here’s the relive video of the trek : https://www.relive.cc/view/1972846660

I made it back home at about 6pm and when I went to jump out of my truck my entire body groaned as I touched the ground. That soreness is something else I haven’t experienced for a long time, and an indication of a fabulous hike and a day well spent!