Blackjack!

Mount Shavano & Mount Tabeguache

14, 229'  &  14,155'

July 23rd, 2012

54/54/20-21

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!  Blackjack!  As easy as that right?  I wish number 21 would have been that easy.  But the hard fought victory is all the sweeter correct?  Once more down to the Arkansas Valley.   I will be happy to finish off the Sawatch Range, and get to head to another part o the state for a while.  While the views are awe inspiring,  I am just getting tired of the drive.  

 
Doug joined me on this outing.  Even though he did it last year, he thought it would be a good training hike for his upcoming trip up Mount Rainer.  We bivied the night before just below the trailhead.  Luckily I put my tarp up, as I was woken in the middle of the night by rain falling on it.  Not too hard, but steady. 
 
With headlamps on we headed out at 4:40 a.m. The clouds from the night before, were gone, and the moonless sky was alive with stars.  The seven-sisters watched our backs as we headed up the trail.  The first quarter mile of the hike follows along the Colorado trail, before branching off to the west towards Shavano' summit.  From this point the trail climbed steadily upwards, on "baby-head" (yep.. just the size you are thinking they are)  rocks for a mile.  Once again the darkness and the limited beam of the headlamp created an isolated hiking experience.  With the trail view limited to the fifteen feet in front of me, the true steepness of the trail failed to register in my mind, though the effort was felt by my body.  From the get-go I had been feeling off.  I am never quick on 14ers, but today I felt even slower.  This sluggishness lasted throughout the day, and would take me to the edge of bonking on the way down.
 
After the baby-heads. the trail smoothed out, and passes through the blow down section.  Apparently there were fierce windstorms this past winter, which blew down a significant number of trees, both conifers and Aspens.  In the dark and from the trail all we could see was where stumps where the Forest Service had cleared the trail.  It was not until coming down, later in the day, that we saw the full force of the winter storms.  My hats is off to those who preserved and worked their way through the blow downs, and continued to the summit, before the forest service did their great work.  I know I would not of had the fortitude to push through.

 
Once you break through tree line the trail moves westward, traversing the hillside above the Angel of Shavano.  With the light snow this year, the Angel was now all rock.  Doug and I both agreed that it looked like the Angel would be a great snow route.  The trail gains the saddle below Mt Shavano at 13,380'.  The saddle gave a quick respite as we turned northward for a quarter mile, before climbing again and gaining the final 900 or so feet of elevation to Shavano's summit.  Just before reaching the summit, we were past by another party of two.  I was feeling pretty beat at this point so I did not put on the afterburners to try and beat them up.  One step at a time was all I could manage.

 
Worried about the possibility of afternoon storms (the weather report called for a 69%  chance of afternoon thunderstorms) we only took a quick break on the summit before heading onward to Mount Tabeguache.  I should have used this break time better, and refueled, but I did not.  I was to pay the price of this later, as I ran out of energy and my stomach turned on me.  We reached the summit at  9:10 a.m.; five hours 20 minutes after leaving the trailhead.
 
The descent off Shavano's summit was not as steep as I had imagined.  The first section involved some boulder hoping to move along the ridge before descending 600 feet to the saddle between the two peaks.  We started off the summit with the other two climbers, but they quickly left us in their wake.  By the time we reached the saddle they were more than half way up to Tabeguache's summit.  Way to move guys!  From the saddle  Doug lead the way switching between one faint trail to another.  Once again the ascent was not as bad as it looked.  We made it up to the summit. in just under 30 minutes from the saddle, and one hour from Shavano's summit.  After a few quick pictures and a brief break (no food for me once again), we were on our way back down again, as we still had to reascend Shavano to get back to the trailhead (does this count as three 14ers for the day?).  Descending off the summit we made the saddle quickly, and I was actually feeling pretty good.
 

That good feeling did not last!  As soon as we began to reclimb Shavano my body slowed, and doubt crept into my mind.  It took all I had to keep moving 20 yards at a time.  Which each step I could feel my stomach cringing.  I know that if there would have been anything in it, it would not have stayed down.  While resting at one point, I looked northward to Mount Antero and could see the clouds already building and darkening over it.  Shavano's summit was still cloud free, but we could see them building to the south.  Not wanting to get caught in a storm I moved as quickly as my tired body would allow.  We barely stopped at the summit, before heading down to the southern saddle.
 

Looking north to Mt Antero

Looking south to Mt Shavano Summit (taken at same time as above)

I lead the way off the saddle back towards tree line. It took a great effort to keep pushing on.  All that was going through my mind was to keep going so we did not get caught above the trees in a storm.  I knew that as soon as we were back beneath the real trees we could relax and take a good break.   Once I felt out of the danger zone, we took a 15 minute break.  I laid back on the ground and tried to get myself back under control. I managed to eat a little bite of peanut butter crackers that Doug had given me the night before.  It helped and I started to feel a little more human.  I continued to take small bites on the cracker as we moved downward to the trailhead.  By the time we reached the trailhead at 2:40ish, I was feeling back to normal;  just tired legs.  We had managed to outrun the storm and avoid all  but a few sprinkles of rain.  Once back on the main roads the  storm let loose and we were treated to a great light show almost all the way back to Denver.
 
Two more peaks into the record books for me.  Lesson learned on these two:  Eat!, Eat! and Eat some more.  I will have to try to find some better breakfast food for me to start the day off right. I have never been a big breakfast eater, but on 14er days I better learn to be.

Postscript:  I found out from my wife that Doug had called his wife from the summit of Shavano and had her schedule a doctor's appointment for the next day to have his ribs looked at.  He had a mountain bike crash a few days earlier, and was apparently feeling it in his ribs today, though he never let on.  X-rays showed a cracked rib.  Makes me wonder what the heck I was whining about, with my tiredness and stomach.  These old guys can be tough!!  A few (well more than a few) years and I will be there.

Mt Antero

Mount Antero

14,269'

July 2nd, 2012

54/54/19

Sometimes you just have to pinch your nose and swallow your medicine.  In my quest to climb all 54 ranked 14ers in Colorado, Mount Antero seemed like it was going to be one of these times.  A ten mile round trip with over eight miles of it being on a well used 4WD road, did not sound like my idea of an ideal wilderness outing.  But remember, "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."  A last minute call to J.C. and I had a partner for this trip.  It would be his first 14er of the year. 

So once more this year I was headed back down into the Arkansas Valley.  Karen and I should have attempted this peak when we were down here two weeks ago, as the trailhead was only 10 miles or so past Mount Princeton Hot Springs.  We left Fort Collins at 4 p.m. with the hope of being able to get up the first 3 miles of the 4WD road, up to Antero, and over the creek crossing to set up camp before dusk.  We started up the road at 8 p.m. and made it into our camp just before dark.    This is the toughest 4WD road that I have driven on.  While it was wider than the road up to the radio towers at Mt. Princeton, is was much more rutted and rock studded.  I had a firm grip on the steering wheel of the X-terra as we slowly climbed up to 10,840'.  It was a relief to finally reach camp and turn in for the night.
 
With the weatherman calling for a 40% chance of thunderstorms after noon, we hit the trail at 5:45 a.m.  Trail is a misnomer, as four of the five miles up this route are on a well used 4WD road.  The road climbed a little steeper than I had imagined, but we managed to keep up a steady, but slow pace.  I was feeling sluggish this morning for some reason.  I did not seem to get my usual hiking legs, after warming up.

After climbing southwards for a mile and a half or so, the road begins a series of switchbacks leading up to Antero's south ridge.  Just past the first switchback I spied an obvious rocky wash, leading upwards to a steep grassy slope, which topped out a couple of hundred yards below the south ridge on the 4WD road.  It looked like this route would go and avoid most of the switchbacks.  I would like to say I by-passed this option because I wanted to get the entire Antero experience, but truth be told, while this route looked do-able, it also looked steep, and frankly more work than I wanted to put in this early in the day.  Jon and I continued to hike up the road and eventually gained Antero's south ridge at 13,089'.    A half mile below the ridge we were passed by an older Ford Bronco on its way down.  The driver was amazed by the fact that we had hiked up from the stream.  I was amazed  that he drove up.  While the road  was better than the first three miles we drove up, I do not think my nerves would have held up for me to drive all the way up here.  On the ridge is a sign talking about the history and gems of the area.  I noticed a patch of what looked like mountain goat hair imbedded in the wood of the sign, with a larger clump on the ground below.  It looked like a goat had used the sign as an itching post to help shed its winter coat.

We continued moving eastward on FR 278A.  To the south we had a great view of Mount White.  There was an SUV parked on the ridge below White's summit, which looked really cool in silhouette.  After a half mile or so the road once again began to switchback towards the road's end.  I ended up cutting the last switchback and headed cross country to reach the end of the road, where I was greeted by a mamma mountain goat and her kid.  I sat on a rock and waited for Jon within 20 yards of them. The kid was a little jumpy but mom seemed relaxed.  Just before Jon joined me, five minutes later, the pair had ambled out of sight.  What a treat for me!

Where the road ends, the fun begins.  The remainder of the route to the summit can be broken down in two sections: the ridge, and the rocky summit push.  The ridge consists of a class II scramble.  Nothing difficult, but enough variety to make this section fun and interesting.  Great views could be seen below each side of the ridge to the east and west.  The final summit push was through a boulder field.  There were two options for this push, a direct ascent to the summit or a traverse eastwards then a final switchback to the summit.  Once again I went with the more gentler option.  I reached the summit a few minutes before Jon, an enjoyed the solitude.  The weather was perfect; blue sky, no significant clouds, and no wind.  We relaxed and fueled up for 30 minutes, with no other company, before heading down.

Half way back across the ridge we noticed that the sky was beginning to darken.  The clouds seemed to appear out of nowhere.  We made it off the ridge and 100 yards down the road before the thunder began.  Shortly after the thunder, lightening streaked horizontally across the sky just to the west of us.  I did not need any more encouragement to pick up the pace.  I have only been caught above tree line in a lightning storm once before, but once was enough for me to know it was not a place I wanted to be.  As the road curved back onto the south ridge, Jon and I both put on our rain jackets.  Within 5 minutes the rain had turned to a hail/sleet mix.  We were passed by several vehicles that decided it was time to head down as well.  When we turned north off the south ridge we walked into the full force of the storm.  With the sky still dark and thunder rolling on I decided I needed to get down as quick as possible.

After a quick consultation with Jon, I headed down the steep grassy slope that I had first noticed on the way up.  While it was steep, the ground was solid and I made quick work on the descent.  I kept looking back to make sure that Jon was doing good as well.  The lower we got the better the storm got.

The bottom of the grassy slope gave way to the rocky gully.  Both Jon and I kept our eyes peeled for crystals as we worked down the gully.  No luck though.  The gully deposited us back on the road, at tree line.  It was great to be back below the trees again.  With a big sigh we started down the road towards the car again.  We made it back to the car by 1:30.  As happy as I was to avoid getting zapped in the storm, we still had the drive out to contend with.  I was worried that the rain would have made the road slippery, making for an interesting ride out.  turned out that it was a needless worry.  The road was in as "good" of shape as when we came up.  When we made it to the main road, there was no sign that the rain had made it that far.

Antero is not my first choice for a 14er to do again.  It would be a good first 14er to take someone on, if you drove all the way up to tree line, to avoid much of the road walk.  They would not get the '"required" 3000' elevation gain to "officially" count, but it would be a nice intro to 14ers. 

3000' elevation gain, is as Roach says, the "Purists" goal on each 14er.  Is this something I need to stick to? Does is matter if I do not gain 3000' on each attempt?  After all this is my own project, can't I set my own rules?  If I do start setting my own rules, where do they end?  Couldn't I just drive up Pikes Peak and call it good?  It may be my project, but it is their game, so I have decided that I need to play by their rules as best as I can.  I do not feel that I have to gain 3000' on every 14er separately, but rather on each outing ( for example the Lincoln, Democrat, Bross group).  Hopefully this is enough to gain the respect if the 14er community, once (if) I complete  all 54.  Respect is not why I am climbing these mountains (that is a whole separate entry someday, once I figure it out myself), but I would like to think that others would say I played the game honestly.

Check out the complete trip photos HERE

Mount Princeton

Mount Princeton

14,197'

June 20th, 2012

54/54/18

After a day off to recover from our meeting with the queen of Colorado 14ers, we decided to go see if we could meet up with the Prince.  While lounging and resting at Mount Princeton Hot Spring's pools the day before, we were able to stare up at our objective of the day, Mount Princeton, 14,197'.  The springs had done their job and relaxed Karen's knees and legs, from the Mt Massive hike, so she agreed to give it a shot.

With the X-terra doing a great job getting us to the upper Mt Massive trailhead, I decided to give it another go and drove up to the radio towers on Mt Princeton.  This also would take six miles off of our roundtrip distance.  The drive up to the radio towers was an adventure in itself.  The road is not wide at all!  I think it was about 5-6 feet wider than our car; less if you ask Karen.  She was white knuckled the entire drive up to the towers.  I think there are still fingernail marks in the dashboard.  While the road was narrow it was in good shape and relatively smooth.  Luckily we did not encounter any other vehicles coming down the road as we were going up.  I am not sure how we would have managed to pass each other, as there was only one or two good spots to pull over to let each other pass.

We headed upwards right around 7 a.m.  From the radio towers the trail climbs the road up through several sets of long switchbacks to 11,800'.  The road made for a nice warm-up, which let us work out the last our aches.  We had a black FJ pass us on the road as we worked our way up.  They said they had spent the night in the Chalet  near the top of Point 13,971, and left for the summit at 4:30 a.m.  I did not know that there was any type of shelter up there, might be worth looking into if we ever return.

The turn off the road to the trail was not as well  marked as  I thought it would be.  It looked like the cairn had fallen over and the stone steps broken down.  Must have been a rough winter up here, or we headed up the wrong trail.  And of course with the low snow year the second choice was the correct one.  We left the road about 30 yards to early, but did not fully realize this until we came down later in the day.  The correct turn off is every well marked, with a great cairn and steps.  So if the trail does not looked well maintained keep going up the road a little until you see the correct turn off.

Keep going. This is not the correct turn off!

Once off the road the trail climbs to a small ridge, before turning west and entering the rocks. The trail traverses westward below Point 13,300 through a continuous talus field.  The trail was much easier to follow than on Massive.  About a third of the way through the traverse, Karen decided she had enough.  She just got to a point where she did not feel comfortable.  Looking back now, I wish I would have stayed with her a little longer because I think I would have been able to help her get passed the section that was scaring her (it was not scary, just a loose section of dirt/scree mix).  As Karen turned back towards the ridge I continued on.

The trail through this section never felt steep.  The rocky terrain kept it interesting as I had to watch my footing.  I think I got off trail a few times, as I found myself moving up, down and over large boulders, that I did not notice on the way back later in the day.  The trail finally began to climb once it hit the "new" rerouted section up to the ridge between Point 13,300 and Princeton.  The wind, which had been minimal up to this point, was blowing good over the saddle .  Strong enough that I had to stow my hat to keep from losing it.

I broke the climb up to the summit from this point  into 3 sections: cliff band, bump, summit.  I have always found that smaller goals, make the overall progress go much quicker on 14ers.  I managed to lose the main trail on the way up to the cliffs and ended up climbing farther to the east than the actual trail.  Before I knew it I was standing just above the cliffs, looking upwards to the "bump".  I ended up combining sections two and three into one push. 




About half way up, off route again, I came to a plaque memorializing a women who had been killed by lightening on that very spot in 1995.  It was a humbling reminder of the risk we take when we enter the high country to play our games.  I carried her memory up to the summit with me and hoped she was watching out for me on this day.


I reached the summit at 10:14; my usual 1000 feet per hour pace still in tack.  Once again I found myself alone on a peak.  It has been so nice to be able to experience the summits this year with no crowds, and almost no other people around.  Shortly after arriving the winds picked up.   At one point I was able to lean into them and stay standing up right.  The wind actually knocked over my camcorder and tripod.  I ate a quick bite and headed down, because I did not want Karen to have to wait too long for me.

Heading to the western edge of the summit for one last picture, I noticed a large group coming up from a different route than I had ascended (probably from the grouse Creek trailhead).  I tried to get off quicker now, so that they could have the same solitary summit experience that I had.  I passed a lady and her dog (Aussie) on my way down before hitting the ridge again.  She had started from the lower trailhead, just as we drove through this morning.  She was making good time!  I also passed a group of three "older" gentlemen just before dropping off the ridge again.  They asked, with a smile, if they were "on the right path to Mount Yale?"

The hike back to the ridge above the road went without a hitch.  I actually managed to stay on the correct trail the entire way.  I was surprised to arrive back at the lower ridge and see Karen still there.  I had told her to head back to the car and I would meet her there.  Apparently she decided to hike further up the ridge and investigate the Chalet and surrounding area.  It was nice to be able to walk the remainder of the way back to the car with her.  We made it back by 2:30; just over six hours for the round trip. 

Once back to the car, we still had the three miles down the 4WD road to contend with.  White- knuckled and slowly we made our way back down (more of Karen's nail marks in the dashboard) to the main road.  We made a quick stop back at the hot springs to wash off the dust, and try out the water slide that we missed the day before, before we headed home.

I felt really good the entire day.  I should have eaten better, as I only had one pack of cliff blocks the entire day.  I got away with one there.  This was probably the easiest 14er I have done so far, but very enjoyable. 

Check out complete trip photos HERE

Mt Massive

Mt. Massive

14,421'

June 28th, 2012

54/54/17

Doubt -to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.

"If doubt is challenging you and you do not act, doubts will grow. Challenge the doubts with action and you will grow. Doubt and action are incompatible."

~ John Kanary ~

"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through."

~ Rosalyn Carter ~

Rising from the Arkansas Valley, Mt Massive is only exceeded in height by its neighbor to the south, Mt Elbert.  If Elbert is the king of the Rockies, then Massive must surely be its queen.  With my parents in town for a week, Karen and I were able to escape together for a few days to ourselves.  We set our sights on hiking two 14ers with rest day at Mount Princeton Hot Springs in between.  When planning for this trip I put a question out on 14ers.com on which route to take up Mt Massive:  the longer (13.5 miles) standard route, or the shorter (8 miles) but steeper S.W. Slopes.  While I got plenty of responses, I think it was the fact that I was being lazy, and did not want to hike farther than I had to, that lead us up the S.W. Slopes.  As a bonus I would get to try the X-terra on a good 4WD rode.

The road up to the North Half Moon trailhead did not turn out to be all that bad.  It was only the last half mile that I actually needed the 4WD for.   I really wanted to try the creek crossing just past the trailhead, but luckily Karen is smarter and wiser than me, and vetoed that idea.   We set up camp in the field just to the east of the trailhead, and had the place to ourselves.  We turned in early in anticipation of a 5 a.m. wake-up.

 I slept restlessly, tossing and turning throughout the night.   I think the climb was weighing on my mind.  I was not sure that I was up to the steepness of the climb.  This approach to the summit gains 3950' in four miles.  Doubt was beginning to set in. 

With the first mile being relatively flat it meant we were in store for a lot of elevation gain in a short amount of time.  The first mile and a quarter roughly parallels Half Moon Creek, which was flowing  strong for as low of a snow pack that we had this past winter. We took our time through this section, using it as a warm up.  We were passed by another couple who had left five minutes behind us.  40 minutes later I began to question if we had missed the trail turn off, when we passed two  backpackers coming down from Half Moon Lakes, who told us we were almost there.  The turn off was well signed and had a large cairn, so I doubt there was any way we could of missed it.

Once on the summit trail, the climbing began and kept up all the way to the summit.  Where the trail crossed through boulders, we had to keep a sharp eye open so we did not lose the trail, as all the rocks blended together.  Karen did a great job of keeping us on track.  While the trail did climb the entire time, it never felt too steep.  At no time did we feel like we were going to topple over from exhaustion.  However, as we climbed up doubt continued to seep into my mind.

Doubt, of if I could make it up.  Doubt, of why I was doing this.  Was my goal of completing  all 54 "official 14ers" worthwhile?  Was I enjoying this, or was I just checking another one off?  There is only one way to get rid of doubt.  And that is to keep pushing through, which is what I did.  One step at a time! 

My favorite part of the climb was the traverse to the summit after we crossed over the saddle between South Massive and Massive itself.  The east slopes of massive was laid out before our eyes.  All four of Massive's peaks above 14,000' on were laid out in front of our eyes..  As we made our way across to the summit, the couple that passed us in the morning were working their way back across it.  We ran into another couple, who quickly left, at the summit.  Once they were gone we had the summit to ourselves for 30 minutes, until we decided to head back down.

Summit

The only disappointment was that someone had left a Frisbee on the summit. While their intention was good (it was a gift for whomever found it), I looked at it as trash, which someone would have to remove (which I did). I am sure the group of "youngsters" that came up after us would have really enjoyed the find, but I could not help but thinking it as defacing the peak somehow. "Take only photographs, leave only footprints".

While prepping for this climb I had read comments about the white marmots on Massive. I began to think these were in the realm of snipe hunts. So you can imagine my surprise when Karen actually spotted one, sunning on a rock right next to another brown marmot. They do exists!! I have the picture and video to prove it.

 
The hike down was a little more challenging than we had imagined. Stepping down through the boulders, beat our knees up pretty bad, even with the use of trekking poles. We were both happy to get back down to the flats.

 Once back down to the trailhead I dropped my pack and headed to the creek to soak my feet.  The water was bone chillingly cold, but it did help sooth my tired feet.  I could not bring myself to soak any of the dust off the rest of my body.

I felt stronger on today's climb, than I did on La Plata two weeks ago.  Hopefully I will continue to gain strength of each 14er.  I love to be able to do one of these one day and say "that was easy".  Until then, I'll just keep taking it - One step at a time,

Check out the complete trip photos HERE

La Plata

La Plata Peak

14,336'

June 4th, 2012

54/54/16

The opening day of my 14er season had to be put off a week, due to bad weather being called for the La Plata area last week.  Pushing back our attempt on La Plata a week, found one of our trio on vacation, so it was just Doug H and I that headed up late Sunday night.  We did have a new member of our 14er crew, my new X Terra.  Only a week "old" and she is on her first road trip.

 An early wake-up had us on the trail just before 6 a.m.  A short quarter mile hike down the road and we turned onto the trail, and headed to the South Lake Creek crossing.  The creek was raging as we walked over the bridge.  Ten yards upstream of the bridge the creek feel over a 20 foot drop .  The spray from the falls bounced up to the top of the gorge walls.  Awed by the power of the falls we continued left on the trail, once over the bridge.  Now if I would have been paying more attention, I would have realized that the trail description said to go right once over the bridge. The left trail followed the creek eastward.  Coming to the second creek (La Plata Gulch Creek) crossing we did not see the bridge described in the trail description  and had to walk upstream a little ways to find a place to cross safely.  About 50 yards after crossing the creek  we started to question if we were on the right trail.  Doug pulled out the map and saw that we should be heading upstream into La Plata Gulch, rather than continuing eastward.  We backtracked to the creek crossing and found branches  placed across the trail were we would have crossed the creek at lower water levels.  I guess we were not the first group to make this same mistake.  We bush wacked upstream along the eastern side of the creek for a hundred yards or so and found the bridge we should of crossed over the creek on.

At this point the trail started to climb steeply.  "Someone" had done a great job of creating a series of steps out of logs.  It must have taken some serious work to do this quality of job, but we greatly appreciated their hard work.    Above the steps the trail continued to climb on a great trail, eventually leveling out into a high valley.  The trail stayed on the east side of the creek as it worked its way up the valley.  We passed four backpackers who were on their way down after an overnight.  Chatting with them we learned that they had not attempted to summit the peak.  About half way up the valley the trail turns eastward  and enters into the steep switchback section.

For almost a half mile the trail climbs steeply through a series of quick switchbacks.  Throughout this section I kept my head down and kept putting one foot in front on the other.  One step at a time; the only way to make it up.  It was not until later in the day on the way down,  that once again I actually realized how steep this section actually was.  Once topping  out on this section the trail traversed southward, working its way up to La Plata's northwest ridge.  We took a quick beak at the 6 foot square boulder, before heading up the final section up to the N.W. ridge.  At this point we crossed over a couple of remaining snowfields.  A one point I post holed crotch deep.  All but one of these could have been avoided.  But where would the adventure be in going around them?

Looking down the
switchbacks

The trail up the N.W. ridge was good until we reached the boulders.  Once there we managed to lose the trail, in some snow patches,  and ended up doing some class II boulder hopping as we slowly continued upwards.  We were passed by a trail runner, clad only in shirt and shoes, who quickly left us in his wake.  I think is was ultra-runner Anton Krupicka  (Bad Ass!!!).  He was on his way back down while we were still over 1/4 mile from the summit. 

We made the summit at 10:45, almost 5 hours after leaving the trailhead.  The weather had been perfect on the way up.  Only cool enough that you noticed the temp. when you stopped for more than a minute to rest.  We had the summit to ourselves, and lounged about for 30 minutes or so.  We could easily identify  Mt Belford and Oxford, Missouri Mountain and Huron Peak to the south; Mt Elbert and Mt Massive to the North.  I am sure there are many other peaks that were visible but we did not recognize them for sure.  To the north-west there is a red mountain that we noticed from the summit of Huron last year as well.  Anyone know what it is?  Both the summit register and the USGS marker were missing.  However, some dumbass did write "Darrell O was here 6/3/23" in sharpie on one of the rocks on the summit wind block.  Some people have no sense of respect of nature or others experience of it.  Besides this, the entire trail was incredibly clean; very little trash.  Thanks to all of you doing your part to keep the area clean.

Upper section of N.W. Ridge, just below the bolders

The way off the summit and down the N.W. ridge was once again slow going.  We managed to lose the trail AGAIN, an  ended up doing some boulder hopping.  Wherever we found the trail it was in great shape.  By the time I was off the boulder section both legs were shaking , and I was looking forward to flushing them out on some flatter ground and getting rid of the shakes.  

Below the N.W. ridge we ran into a couple who were still on their way up around 1:30 p.m. when we passed them.  As we chatted with them  dark clouds we begin to roll over La Plata's summit from the south.  I think they decided to just make it up to the start of the ridge and turn around.

The remainder of the way down was uneventful and we arrived back at the trailhead at 3:05 p.m. Nine hours round trip.  Not as fast as I would like, but not too bad for opening day.  Overall I felt  good.  I did not notice any effects of the altitude except moving slow.  I still need to work on my food.  The cashews I had at the summit did not set well in my stomach on the way down.  However, the shots blocks seemed to keep my energy level up, so they are coming along on future trips.  Until next time... See Ya!!

Check out the complete trip photos HERE

Into the Steep

1/16/2012

2008 Picutre of our Route - More snow this year

The 2011-12 winter has been slow to come into full force.  While this is bad for the ski resorts, it is  good for summiting 14ers;  not the I have ticked off any winter ascents.  But the trip report section of  14ers.com is  full of people getting  up numerous summits.  Little Bear, one of the toughest 14ers in Colorado has seen numerous ascents over the past several weeks.  With the relatively stable snowpack, Doug and I headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to try a snow route that we had spotted a couple of winters ago.

Bear Lake parking lot was relatively empty when we arrived around 9:30. Only a few souls out on this MLK holiday Monday.  Our plan was to snowshoe past Nymph and Dream Lake up to Emerald Lake.  Though we used snowshoes on the way up, it was more an exercise in winter travel than of  actual need, as the trail was well packed down. 

As we approached Emerald Lake, Hallet Peak could been seen above the frozen lake's surface, trying to emerge from behind clouds.  The big snow route up in this area is the Dragon's Tail Couloir, however, this was not our destination for today, but hopefully sometime in the future.  Our route lead out of the SW corner of Emerald Lake, following a couloir that topped out on Hallet's SE ridge. 

Learning from Mount Sherman last year, I actually rented crampons for this attempt and brought along the new ice axe.  After some instructions from Doug on using the crampons and a little self rescue practice with the  axe, we headed up into the steep.  The route started out gentle, with minimum amount of snow.  As we headed higher the snow became deeper which made for better footing with the crampons.  Soon we were having to plunge the handle of the axes into the snow to make upwards progress. Plunge, step, step.... Plunge, step, step.... Plunge, step, step....

The crux of the route was a 30 yard section, with only a light covering of snow, over lose talus.  We could not plunge our axes in to get a good support while we stepped up.  Every step had the talus moving beneath our feet.  We ended up using the axe's head to dry tool behind the larger rocks.  Even with this we were afraid to put too much weight onto the axe, in case the rocks they were wedged behind, broke out of their icy hold, leaving  us tumbling backwards down the couloir.  Once past this section, we traversed right into deeper snow and made good progress upward.  I tried to avoid looking down below us, as the pitch had steepened to 45 degrees or so.  Looking down only lead  to second guessing my decision to tackle this climb.

The final section of the climb moves into a narrow gully and kicks back a little more steeply.  By this time Doug had climbed about 25 yards above me, and was ready to enter into the final 30 yards.  Up to this point the weather had been on our side. Today was the first time, on a winter hike, that I have come over Dream Lake and not been pushed around by a strong wind.  The overcast skies kept us from overheating despite our constant movement.  Just before he entered  the final section to the top, as strong wind blew across the surface, covering us in snow and dropping visibility to 15 yards for a short period of time.  With my nerves beginning to fray, and the energy draining from legs I told Doug I was done.  Perhaps if I would have been up next to Doug I would have chosen to push on to the top, but I decided to listen to my body and mind and head down, with Doug following.

Going down seemed to be slower than going up.  The wind had blown over our steps higher up, so with each step down I had to once again kick new steps to stand in.  Much easier to kick steps going up than down.  The crux section was definitely slower going on the way down.  The talus seemed looser, and there were less obvious rocks to dry tool in.  Below the crux we took a more easterly route back to the lake.  I gracefully slide down on my butt over the lower angled talus.  Doug got a great glissade in on the final drop to the lake.  Being beat, and not all the sure on my glissading ability I trudged down all but the last 15 yards of this section.

The hike back to the car went fairly fast.  We left the crampons on, to make quicker progress over the lakes.  Even though I was beat I, I kept telling myself that I could make it, and to stop whining in my mind!  I can't wait to try some snow again.  Unfortunately the week since we did this climb has brought snow to the high country and high avi danger.  My future plans may have to wait until the more stable spring snow.

Until next time... "watch your top knot!"