I have to admit, when I put together my climbing schedule for this summer, one of the mountains I was least looking forward to climbing was Longs Peak. Renowned for a very long approach and a trail full of people, Longs Peak is the closest 14er to Denver, Ft. Collins, Greeley and Boulder. Longs can be seen from the I-25 corridor running from south Denver, all the way north to the Wyoming border. It is an impressive and memorable looking mountain, with it's east face holding one of the most popular and famous alpine climbing routes, The Diamond.

To start off, here is a break-down of relevant numbers from this memorable trip:

Peaks summited:

Longs Peak: 14,255 ft. (ranked 15th in Colorado)

Mount Meeker: 13,911 ft. (ranked 68th in Colorado)

Total elevation gain: 6,385 ft.

Total distance hiked: 16.52 miles

Total time hiking: Approx. 12.5 hours

Total wildlife sightings: 1 (Elk Herd)

The Diamond of Longs Peak

The Diamond.

For this particular trip, I invited my dad, Ray Payne, to join me. He had climbed Longs before, but had previously missed out on summiting Mount Meeker, one of Colorado's highest 100 summits. Ray was eager to join me so we made plans to stay the night in a small hotel near the trail-head for Friday night. Our reservations were made months in advance by my mom, since she knew the area was quite popular (thanks mom). Ray and I chose "The Loft" route since it is less popular and more challenging than the standard "Keyhole" route, and because it grants instant access to Mount Meeker. This turned out to be a great choice.

Route Map

A topographical map showing our route

Ray and I drove to the Meeker Park Lodge from Colorado Springs after work on Friday evening. Ray and I set our alarm for 2:00 AM and went to bed as early as we could. The Lodge itself is a quaint, rather rustic building with a "touristy" feel. The room itself was pretty basic and lacked many amenities; however, this was perfect for our needs. We needed a bed close to the trailhead. Mission accomplished.

The alarm went off all too early at 2 AM and we quickly woke up and ate some quick breakfast. We departed for the trailhead, a mere 3 minute drive from the Lodge. We began hiking at 3:11 AM. The parking lot was completely full already, much to my surprise. There were many groups assembled, preparing for the hike up Longs. I was not very happy about the amount of people; however, this turned out to not matter much shortly into the hike.

My legs felt amazing, and I blazed the trail at a very impressive pace. Ray, a 60-year-old hiking veteran, kept up the pace with me, requiring very few breaks on the way up. We passed several groups of people on our way up to the turn-off for Chasm Lake, which took only one and a half hours to reach. I remember stopping a few times and noticing that my breathing was completely normal, as if I was just walking down the street. I guess the week I spent just a few days prior in the Weminuche Wilderness Area had paid dividends to my altitude acclimation and leg endurance.

The turn-off for Chasm Lake is easy enough to spot in the dark. We went south and everyone else went north towards the Keyhole. Freedom at last.

We reached the base of the "Ships Prow," and got to experience one of the finest sunrises I've seen. The photos I took do not do it justice at all.

Sunrise1

Sunrise2

Sunrise3

Sunrise4

Sunrise5

Sunrise6

Sunrise7

Sunrise8

Longs Peak Ships Prow

The "Ships Prow" on Longs Peak's eastern face.

Just after heading left of the Ships Prow, the start of the Loft route begins. The route takes you below and to the right of the "Black Gate," and follows a gully up towards snow run-off at the base of a quite steep section. After reaching the head of the steep section, the route heads straight up the steep area through fun and blocky class 3 terrain. Exposure here was minimal but persistent. Once reaching the top of this section, the trail heads south along a ledge up to a boulder field. From here, the trail weaves through boulders and places you directly in the Loft.

Black Gates

The Black Gate.

Upper loft section

A view of the Loft route. Once just left of the narrowest section of snow, the route heads up and left onto a ledge, leading to the boulder field above.

Ray hiking up Longs Peak Loft

A look back at Ray hiking up the Loft route.

Once in the Loft, the views of both Longs and Meeker were pleasant. Longs looked impressive from the slopes of Meeker.

Longs Peak from near Meeker pano

Longs Peak from the slopes of Mount Meeker. Click to see high resolution version.

The hike up Meeker was fairly easy and straight forward. On the way up, I was able to finally catch view of the Mummy Range. It was really neat for me to make out the "Mummy." Can you spot it?

Mummy Longs Peak

A panoramic view of the Mummy Range and Longs Peak. Click to view high resolution version.

Mummy

A zoomed in view of the Mummy. Picture in your mind a Pharaoh encased in a mummy tomb on his back. Do you see it?

Once I reached the summit block of Meeker, I decided to get onto the summit proper, which required a fun little move to hop up onto the boulder at the top. The views were pretty good from Meeker, and it was fun to watch the crowds begin to amass on Longs. We had the summit of Meeker to ourselves. Additionally, I found someone's time capsule near the summit, which was kind of cool. I put it back where I found it and ensured it was sealed properly.

360 pano from Meeker

A 360 degree view from the summit of Meeker.

Ray on Meeker

Ray enjoying the summit of Meeker.

Down on Longs Peak Loft Route

Looking down at the Loft route below us.

Longs Peak Loft pano

A pano of The Loft.

Matt on Meeker

Matt Payne on the summit of Mount Meeker.

After enjoying some solitude on Meeker, we decided to head back down to the Loft and over to the down-climb for Keplinger's Couloir. Ray had read some trip reports of the Loft where people had missed the turn-off for the down-climb into the couloir, so we were cautious to stay low once at the western end of the Loft. We found several cairns leading down and around the backside to Keplinger's Couloir. The route itself was steep but manageable. Once at the base of the cliffs on the western side of the Loft, we headed back up the backside of Longs towards the "Homestretch." The Homestretch is the name given to the last section of the standard route of Longs - a narrow and steep section leading to the summit.

Longs Peak Keplingers Couloir

Matt in Keplinger's Couloir on the back-side of Longs Peak.

Once at the top of the coulior and on the other side of "The Notch," the route heads left towards the Homestetch. The route meets up with the Homestretch, and consequently, a huge crowd of people. This is where the trip got fun and interesting. Not so much for the rock climbing and scrambling, but for the people watching. I'll get to that more later on.

The Homestretch itself was a breeze in my La Sportiva Trango Evo Sport boots, the Vibram soles gripped the rock, allowing me to remain vertical on my feet the entire way up. I highly recommend these boots for mountaineering such as Longs Peak. If you're interested in obtaining a pair, check out this link from Backcountry.com. I passed 20-30 people that were on all-fours in tennis shoes, struggling to ascend the Homestretch. There are too many deaths and evacuations from Longs Peak each year - and a lot of it is because far too many people attempt Longs Peak unprepared. Longs Peak is the deadliest mountain in Colorado in terms of the number of fatalities each year, mostly because of the sheer number of people that attempt it. Let me be clear here - Longs Peak is probably not a good mountain for the novice hiker or climber. The standard route climbs through some relatively technical sections with moderate exposure. If you're afraid of heights, Longs Peak is not for you. Additionally, the standard route is over 14 miles long, making it a challenge for even intermediate hikers, let alone beginners. If you really want to prepare yourself for a climb like Longs - please read my Mountaineering Safety article.

I reached the summit of Longs in quick order at 11 AM sharp - a mere 7 hours from the start of the trail. There were probably over 100 people on the summit.

Longs Peak 360

A 360 degree pano from the summit of Longs Peak.

Longs Peak USGS marker

The USGS benchmark on the summit of Longs Peak.

Ray Longs Peak

Ray Payne on Longs Peak with Mount Meeker in the background.

Matt Longs1

Matt Payne on the summit of Longs Peak

Matt Longs2

Matt Payne on the summit of Longs Peak.

The Homestretch

The Homestretch - look at the people!

Mummy Range Panoramic

Mummy Range.

Chasm Lake

Chasm Lake

Matt and Ray Longs Summit

Matt and Ray Payne on the summit of Longs Peak

After hanging out on the summit and refueling with food, Ray and I headed back down the Homestretch. The plan was to take the standard Keyhole route back to the trailhead. This proved to be a good option but frustrating, due to the large amount of people - it was definately a traffic jam! The Homestretch itself went quickly - I bounded down the slopes at a fast pace. After spending the previous week on Vestal's Wham Ridge, Longs Peak's terrain was simple in comparison. After finishing up the Homestretch, the route turns north to a section called "The Narrows." The Narrows are appropriately named. This was a very narrow section, with a great deal of exposure below. I think a lot of people that attempt Longs do not know what to expect for this section - and let me tell you - if you're not used to a little exposure - this may not be a good mountain for you.

Longs Peak Narrows

A view of The Narrows.

I suppose all of the caution and concern was not all for naught for these hikers - I finally came across a section beneath what is known as The Trough. This section was narrow as well, and steep on all sides. There was a huge pool of dried blood on the trail at the base of a sharp rock, with splatter marks all over the place. I later learned from a Park Ranger that a man had died at this location just the day before. Indeed, this poor hiker, Jeffrey R. Rosinski, perished, quite possibly due to going off-route, or just plain bad luck. I had the opportunity to speak with his father-in-law via email and the family is holding up well after the incident. Jeffrey's father-in-law indicated to me in our correspondence that he had been training on Mount Washington in New Hampshire. My thoughts and condolences go out to the family for this tragic loss.

I reached the Keyhole roughly 45 minutes after leaving the summit of Longs Peak. The Keyhole is very appropriately named as well...

Longs Peak Keyhole

The Keyhole on Longs Peak

I waited for Ray here and once he arrived, we quickly hiked down the well-marked and used trail down the mountain. We passed through the Boulder Field, where permanent camping sites are located for backpackers.

Longs Peak Keyhole

A view of Longs Peak's Diamond, the Boulder Field, and the Keyhole.

Shortly after making our way down passed the Boulder Field, we encounted a large herd of 20 to 30 elk grazing on the tundra.

Longs Peak Elk 1

Longs Peak Elk 2

Longs Peak Elk 3

Longs Peak Elk 4

Longs Peak Elk Herd

Seeing the elk was a real treat!

We quickly hiked down the easy trail and reached the turn-off for Chasm Lake once again, making full circle. The view of The Loft and The Diamond from this vantage point were great in the daytime hours.

Longs Peak Loft Route

The Loft route

Longs Peak Loft Route

Final thoughts:

  • The entire Homestretch section all the way to the Keyhole is marked every 20 to 30 yards with huge yellow and red bullseye paintings on the rocks, showing people where to go. While this is great for the beginner hiker or tourist, it does detract somewhat from the quality of the hike.
  • Longs Peak is not a good hike for beginner hikers or tourists. I recommend Mount Sherman for a first 14er.
  • The Loft route is a great alternative for those looking to bag Mount Meeker or gain solitude.

There really is only one word that can aptly describe the Grenadier Range: incredible. This sub-range of Colorado's San Juan Mountains rests deep within the Weminuche Wilderness Area and sweeps up from the valley below in a gravity-defying statement of beauty, ruggedness and splendor. Sitting approximately 9 miles south-southeast of Silverton, Colorado, and 32 miles northeast of Durango, Colorado, the Grenadier Range cannot be missed. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this group of mountains should be among the places one should see before they die. Made mostly of quartzite, these mountains are the spine of the San Juan Mountains, and arguably, some of Colorado's most difficult to climb. In fact, Arrow Peak was once considered the hardest major mountain in Colorado to climb until a class 3 route was established on its northeast rib1. Vestal Peak's "Wham Ridge," impressively seen from many vantage points in the San Juan Mountains, is considered by most to be a classic climb in Colorado. Lt. George Marshall of the U.S.G.S. 1876 Wheeler Survey reported on the Grenadier Range:

No where in Colorado can be found such steep slopes, such shapeless crags, such rocky and impassable ravines, such generally detestable characteristics and features as are here seen. The hard metamorphic rocks are shivered along their cleavage planes for hundreds of feet, leaving their odd pinnacles, there the likeness of the shattered outspread wings of some gigantic bird, and again of the grim grinning teeth of death.2

Additionally, from the summit of Mount Sneffels, Rhoda of the U.S.G.S. 1871 Hayden Survey reported:

The group of quartize peaks stood out as boldly as ever about thirty miles to the southeast. In fact, I may state here that we have never yet seen a group from any station (and we have viewed it from all sides) without feeling both deep respect and awe for their terrible ruggedness. The fact already stated, that the storm clouds seem to hover about them before starting on their meandering ways, only served to add to our other feelings of uneasiness.3

Given the incredible fanfare this group of mountains has received over the years by many visitors, I made sure to include it on my summer's climbing itinerary. Scheduling the trip would prove somewhat difficult since I was relying on the 5th class climbing expertise of one of my best friends, Jeremy Park. Jeremy was able to clear his calendar and join me from Seattle, Washington for this amazing backpacking adventure. Jeremy is a highly qualified trad climber who has spent many years climbing difficult routes in the rugged Cascade Mountains of Washington. For more on his adventures, see his profile on CascadeClimbers.com.

To start off, here is a break-down of relevant numbers from the trip:

Peaks summited:

Vestal Peak: 13,864 ft. (ranked 77th in Colorado)

Arrow Peak: 13,803 ft. (ranked 104th in Colorado)

Total elevation gain: 8,782 ft.

Total distance hiked: 25.12 miles

Total time hiking: Approx. 22 hours

Total photos taken: 582

Total wildlife sightings: 2 (marmots, mountain goats)

Total distance driven:  610 miles

Trip duration: 4 days, 16 hours

Day 1:

The rough plan was to leave Colorado Springs on Friday, July 9th, 2010 and return on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010. These plans were altered somewhat; however we did end up leaving at 8 AM from Colorado Springs on Friday and arrived at the Molas Pass trailhead at approximately 3 PM.

Map of Drive to Molas Pass from Colorado Springs

The long drive from Colorado Springs to Molas Pass

After arriving at Molas Pass, I became quite excited to see the Grenadiers for the first time. The range lived up to its name, striking both excitement and awe into me immediately.

Grenadiers from Molas Lake

The Grenadier Range as seen from Molas Lake.

One of the Grenadiers, Mount Garfield, really rises quite steeply from the valley below, and is rated 33rd on my list of "most impressive summits."

Mt Garfield

Mount Garfield rises high above (right of center)

Jeremy and I loaded our heavy packs (mine was 65 pounds) onto our backs and began hiking. We started down the Colorado Trail, which leads down 1,700 ft over 2.5 miles and several switchbacks (37 to be exact) to the Animas River and to the Durango & Silverton Railroad. Generally, most people take the train to this point to avoid the downclimb (and later upclimb); however, Jeremy and I chose to hike from Molas Pass to save money and to avoid being tied to the train schedule.

Vestal and Arrow Route Map

The full route map for the trip. Click to see a larger version.

Matt heading down Colorado Trail

Matt Payne heading down the Colorado Trail.

Before long, the river and railroad tracks became visible. Our route would eventually take us to the bottom, over the river, and up the valley to the left towards the steep looking mountains (the Grenadiers) that are nearly hidden left of center.

Animas River Basin

Looking down at the Animas River from the Colorado Trail

Once lower into the valley, Mount Garfield became more and more impressive, towering over the river like a midevil castle's guard.

Mt Garfield 1

Mount Garfield

Once we crossed the river over a very well-maintained bridge and over the railroad tracks, the trail leading up Elk Creek appeared and started us up into the Elk Park valley. This trail is very well-maintained, and there was even quite a bit of evidence that trail crews had been working on it this summer to fix some washed out sections. The trail is quite steep, but very manageable with a heavy pack. We followed this trail for nearly 2.9 miles until we reached a set of beaver ponds at 10,000 ft., our pre-determined trigger to head up into the Vestal Basin.

 

Vestal from below

Vestal Peak towers above the Elk Creek valley and Vestal Basin.

Jeremy and Vestal Basin

Jeremy looking tired at the beaver ponds with Vestal Basin in the background.

After 3 hours of backpacking, we were determined to make Vestal Basin before nightfall. We headed south up Vestal Basin's trail - an unmaintained, but easy to follow trail which climbs quite steeply up towards Vestal and Arrow Peaks. Did I mention that this trail is steep? The trail gained 600 feet in 3/4 of a mile with large amounts of fallen trees and boulders to navigate around. In several other trip reports I've read, people have mentioned that the trail was difficult to find or follow; however, we did not find this to be the case at all.

After hiking another two hours into the basin for a total of 8.7 miles, our legs finally gave out at 10,620 ft shortly after nightfall. We found a cozy campsite near a small tributary of Vestal Creek and made our first meal of the trip - two packets of Zatarain's ready to serve rice and chicken. This was surprisingly good and filled with sodium (a nice thing to take in after a full day of backpacking). We decided to set the alarm for 4 AM and hit the sack around 11 PM. It was at this point that I realized that my Thermarest pad had somehow sprung a leak from the hike up and that I would be sleeping on hard ground. Yay!

Day 2:

4 AM came and went, and we finally crawled out of the tent around 8 AM. Both us were thankful for the extra rest and tore down camp and hit the trail at about 10 AM, heading for the upper sections of Vestal Basin.

Hiking up Vestal Basin

Jeremy hikes up into Vestal Basin along Vestal Creek.

Great views of both Electric Peak and Arrow Peak were had while hiking up into the basin.

Electric Pk

Electric Peak

Arrow1

Arrow Peak's steep northeast face, seen from the Vestal Basin trail.

After hiking a little over a mile and gaining 893 ft., we found an ideal campsite at the foot of Vestal and Arrow, at the end of a long clearning and in some trees next to Vestal Creek. Vestal Peak itself could be seen directly from camp, with it's "Wham Ridge" rising above us.

Vestal from near camp

Vestal Peak's Wham Ridge

Since we were planning on climbing Wham Ridge, it was particularly exciting to see it close-up.

Vestal Zoom below

Vestal's Wham Ridge zoomed in from our campsite.

After setting up camp, I repaired my Thermarest using a repair kit that I always carry with my on backpacking trips. For once the extra weight paid off! We set-up camp just in time. Clouds had been forming since we had woken up and as typically happens in the San Juan Mountains, a thunderstorm decided to develop quickly above us around 12 PM. We crawled into our tents and napped through the storm, which subsided around 4 PM. We woke up, ate a few snacks, and finished setting up our campsite. At around 5 PM, after the clouds had completely cleared out, I somewhat jokingly told Jeremy that we should climb Arrow that evening. Jeremy said, "why not," and before we knew it, we were packing our day-packs for an ad hoc summit of one of Colorado's finest summits. We departed camp at 6:15 PM, headlamps and helmets equipped, and headed up a climber's trail right next to our campsite, which went straight up the head-wall of the lower area beneath Vestal and Arrow. This trail was also easy to follow, but ridiculously steep, rising 645 ft. in just .45 miles until it reached a plateau in between Arrow and Vestal. Arrow's classic ramp was easy to spot, and Vestal's Wham Ridge continued to blow my mind.

Arrow from ridge

Arrow Peak

Vestal from ridge

Vestal Peak

Vestal and Arrow Peaks

Vestal and Arrow Peaks as seen from the top of the headwall above our campsite.

Additionally, the Trinities were quite prominent just to the left of Vestal.The Trinities are the middle three mountains of the Grenadier Range, composed of West Trinity, Middle Trinity, and East Trinity.

The Trinities

The Trinities as seen from the base of Arrow and Vestal Peaks.

Matt and Vestal

Matt Payne posing with Vestal Peak behind.

We headed up to the base of Arrow and began the climb up Arrow's prominent ramp. The ramp itself was nearly free of snow and consisted of easy class 3 climbing.

Base of Arrow

The base of Arrow Peak and the start of our route.

As we climbed, I could not help but constantly look left at the impressive nature of Vestal's Wham Ridge, which swept up as if it were carved out with a fine instrument.

Wham near Arrow

The impressive profile of Vestal Peak's Wham Ridge.

The higher we were able to climb on Arrow, the more and more impressive Vestal became. I simply could not stop myself from gazing over at its sheer beauty, and eventually, Vestal Lake came into view as well.

Wham Profile Pano

A panoramic photo of Vestal's Wham Ridge.

Jeremy and I reached a junction in our route and made a decision to stay left and continue up a class 4 variation of Arrow. This decision was one of our best of the trip, as Arrow's upper ramp provides some of the most fun, yet least exposed, class 4 climbing I've done to date. For those that do not know, exposure is defined as "the condition of being on high vertical rock with full consciousness that nothing exists between you and the distant ground but thin air4."

Arrow start of class 4

The start of Arrow Peak's class 4 terrain

Following the higher ridge to the left also provided some great views of the Needle Range to the south, and Jagged Mountain, Windom Peak and Sunlight Peak came into view for the first time, Jagged's pinnacles rising up like upside-down stalagtites.

Jagged 1st view

Jagged Mountain (left of center), Windom Peak and Sunlight Peak

Matt on Arrow

Matt Payne with Vestal's insane Wham Ridge behind him.

Vestal from Arrow

A high resolution panoramic photo of Vestal's Wham Ridge.

Jeremy on Arrow

Jeremy Park on Arrow Peak's class 4 ridge, just east of the traditional class 3 route

Jeremy Arrow Class4

Jeremy Park navigating the class 4 terrain on Arrow

Jeremy took my camera and was able to take some photos of me negotiating some of the class 4 terrain. The climbing was fun, challenging, and quite rewarding. Exposure was minimal, and various holds were quite ubiquitous.

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

Class 4 on Arrow Peak

The sun was setting quickly, which was both exciting and troublesome, as we did not look forward to down-climbing Arrow in the dark, but I was really excited to see the sun set from 13,803 ft.

sunset in vestal basin

The sun setting on Vestal Basin.

After an exhilirating climb, Jeremy and I topped out on Arrow's summit at 8:15 PM, and enjoyed the sunset from the top. This was one of the most majestic and spiritually fulfilling moments of my life.

Arrow Peak 360 Degree View

A 3600 view from the summit of Arrow Peak, with the sun setting over the San Juan Mountains.

The Needle Mountains across the Tenmile Creek and Noname Creek drainages from us were impressive, each living up to their namesake.

Needle Mountains at Sunset

The Needle Mountains - from left to right: Jagged Mountain, Windom Peak, Sunlight Peak, Mount Eolus, Animas Mountain, Turret Peak and Pigeon Peak

Pigeon Peak was quite possibly one of the most impressive mountains I've ever seen, with its east face dropping off like the edge of table.

Pigeon Peak at Sunset

Pigeon Peak

Jeremy and Jagged Sunset

Jeremy with Jagged Mountain directly behind him to the right

Jeremy and Vestal Sunset

Jeremy with Vestal in Arrow's shadow to the left

Matt Jeremy Arrow Summit

A self-timer captures Matt and Jeremy on the summit of Arrow Peak

Rio Grande Pyramid and  The Window were looking pretty awesome in the late evening sun as well. Rio Grande Pyramid has really piqued my interest lately since I am going to climb it in August, 2010 with my dad (update - completed - see the Trip Report). It should be pretty amazing to look back towards Arrow and Vestal.

Rio Grand Pyramid and Window Sunset

Rio Grande Pyramid and "Window Peak" as seen from Arrow's summit. The Window is the notch on the ridge just right of Rio Grande Pyramid.

San Juan Sunset

The sun sets behind the San Juan Mountains. Check out that lake below!

Arrow crazy fin

Arrow Peak's north face and an airy fin connecting it with the true summit

Vestal in the Evening

Vestal Peak's Wham Ridge during sunset.

After spending just 20 minutes on the summit to enjoy the sunset, Jeremy and I departed Arrow's amazing summit via the standard class 3 trail, which was marked by several cairns heading down the steep face of Arrow. Before long, we adorned our headlamps and were in complete darkness, but not before we had successfully navigated below the more treacherous sections. The down-climb in the dark provided quite an interesting challenge. The ramp on Arrow was quite solid and easy to climb down, rarely requiring either of us to sit down on steeper sections. We could see other campers much higher in the basin above our camp with their headlamps on, watching us. I thought the climbing down would be difficult in the dark; however, the route on Arrow is so straightforward that I think it could even be up-climbed in near darkness if one were experienced and comfortable. We reached our campsite at approximately 9:15, just 3 hours after we had set-out to climb Arrow.

We cooked our dinner in the dark again, this time creating an amazing medley of re-hydrated black beans, jalapenos, green chilis, velveeta cheese, and tortillas. We planned to climb Vestal's Wham Ridge the next day, so we set the alarm for 5 AM again, and hit the sack at 12 AM, snoozing the night away.

Day 3:

We awoke on day 3 and quickly prepared for what we hoped to be an amazing climb. Having read about Wham Ridge over and over again the past several years, I had mentally hyped up the climb to be an epic adventure. A small group of three climbers headed up the trail shortly before us, which was somewhat concerning to both Jeremy and I as we did not want any rocks to fall down onto us during our ascent. We decided not to deviate from our plans since Jeremy felt confident that if we bumped into the other group we could find a route around them. We left camp and headed up the steep climber's trail again to Vestal's base. I carried the 60 meter rope, a nut key for taking out nuts from the rock, as well as my personal gear, and Jeremy carried the climbing rack (a full compliment of anchors, quickdraws, webbing, camalots, and nuts). The Columbine flowers on the climber's trail were outstanding.

Columbine

A Columbine flower

We reached the base of Vestal and Arrow again and headed towards the start of Wham Ridge.

Vestal in morning

Vestal Peak in the morning sunlight

We stopped at the base of Wham Ridge and put on our climbing harnesses and climbing shoes. We decided that we would stash the rest of our gear under a large rock at this point. Jeremy went to take out the climbing gear from his backpack and opened to find... all of his food. Yes, that's right - his food bag and climbing bag are identical and he mistakenly grabbed his food bag instead of his climbing bag when we left camp. So, Jeremy needed to hike back to camp and then back up to the start of Wham Ridge before we could begin climbing. While we were both upset, I assured Jeremy that it would be fine and that I was not mad at him. He left for camp and I headed over to Vestal Lake to take some photographs.This turned out to be a good mishap as I was able to capture some of the most stunning photos of the trip.

Vestal Lake

Vestal Lake and West Trinity

Vestal Lake and Peak

Vestal Peak reflected in Vestal Lake

There was a small group of 4 men fishing quite successfully at the lake, and I stopped to talk to one of them. He was from Memphis Tennesee and explained that he had climbed Wham Ridge the day before without rope, and that he had only climbed one mountain prior to this. While this seemed rather dangerous to me, it did instill some confidence in my ability to complete the climb. He also said he saw us downclimbing Arrow the night before and that he was praying for us to make it down safely. Not being a religious person, I thanked him for the warm thoughts and headed off to take more photos.

Heading up Vestal

Vestal Peak's Wham Ridge

I headed back to the rendezvous point and waited for Jeremy to return. It was not until 10:30 AM that Jeremy reappeared and reconvened with me. At this point, clouds had already formed and we were questioning if we should continue or not. We decided to keep going and keep an eye on the clouds. With a full compliment of climbing gear, we headed up Wham Ridge in our climbing shoes. I reached the last grassy ramp of Vestal and re-evaluated the weather. Jeremy asked me what I thought and I told him that my gut told me we should bail. We both agreed that heading back would be the best choice - safer to start earlier the next day than to get struck by lightning. I took some parting photos of both Vestal and Arrow and headed back down the steep slopes of Wham Ridge, which proved to be a quite painful experience in climbing shoes.

Vestal Turnaround

A view of Vestal from the turn-around point

Arrow Weather

Arrow Peak with stormy weather forming above

The somewhat loose fitting climbing shoes were quite painful on the downclimb, and caused some very painful blisters to appear on 5 of my 10 toes. This did not bode well for my chances of using climbing shoes on the actual climb. Jeremy and I changed back into our mountaineering boots, and stashed all of our climbing gear at the same large rock at the base of Vestal in a waterproof bag for the next day.

Jeremy stashes gear

Jeremy stashes our climbing gear under this huge boulder beneath Vestal Peak

We went back down to camp and decided to take a nap. The decision to bail on Vestal proved to be a very good one, as the whole basin was riddled with rain and lightning for three hours. Fortunately, the group ahead of us had safely made it down from Vestal before the storms hit.

We got out up and cooked dinner - this time a carbohydrate-filled meal consisting of re-constituted mashed potatoes, country gravy, Spam, and cheddar cheese. While this sounds horrible - it was amazing! Go Spam! We set our alarms for 3:30 AM and crashed at a much more respectable time of 9 PM.

Day 4:

We woke up and made our way up to the base of Vestal to watch the sunrise from the final grassy ledge before the beginning of the more difficult climbing. Since my feet were completely mangled from the prior day's adventure, I decided to wear my La Sportiva Trango Evo Sport mountaineering boots for the ascent. With heavy socks on, I could barely feel my blisters. Watching the sunrise from the base of Wham Ridge was pretty awesome. The sun lit up the surrounding mountains and made for quite a peaceful start to an incredible climb.

Arrow Peak at Sunrise

Arrow Peak in alpenglow from the start of Vestal's Wham Ridge.

Vestal at Sunrise

Vestal's Wham Ridge in alpenglow, with Jeremy resting at the base.

Jeremy watches sunrise over Vestal Lake

Jeremy watches the sunrise

I even took a short video of the sunrise:

Arrow Peak at Sunrise Pano

Arrow Peak at sunrise.

Base of Wham Ridge

A closer view of Wham Ridge - looks like fun!

Jeremy watches

Jeremy watches the sunrise over Vestal Lake

Jeremy Sunrise

Jeremy warms up

Matt Sunrise

Matt looking cold

Jeremy and Wham Ridge

Jeremy poses in front of Wham Ridge

Matt ready to begin

Matt looks ready to begin Wham Ridge

We finally started up Wham Ridge, making our way quickly up the small ledges and cracks. The going was pretty easy and unexposed for awhile, with plenty of great hand and foot holds to be found.

Heading up the ledges

Jeremy heads up the ledges

We continued up into some 4th class sections, with exposure and steepness increasing gradually as we climbed.

Class 4 begins

Jeremy climbs the lower Class 4 section of Vestal Peak

Before long, Rio Grande Pyramid and the Window appeared, looking really cool in the early light.

1st view of Window

Our first view of the day of Rio Grande Pyramid and The Window

Wham Ridge continued to become more and more steep, decreasing my comfort level of being unroped.

Wham side profile

Wham Ridge's profile

We reached a great stopping point with plenty of room at our feet for belaying, and prepped the rope and our gear for 5th class climbing. Let the fun begin! While I did the route in my La Sportiva EVO Mountaineering Boots, Jeremy did Wham Ridge in his Evolv Bandits. According to Jeremy, they were quite comfortable shoes and he felt like he probably could have gone without a rope (being that he is very experienced and the shoes made for great traction).

1st Pitch Prep

Jeremy prepares for our 1st pitch of Wham Ridge

Jeremy led the first pitch as I belayed from below, only placing two pieces of gear for protection on the way up - a camalot and a nut. Once Jeremy arrived safely at the next obvious stopping point above at about 55 meters up from me, he created an anchor and signaled me to begin climbing.

Vestal 1st Pitch

The first pitch

I easily ascended the first pitch, removing Jeremy's protection as I climbed. I reached the anchor and Jeremy prepped for the 2nd pitch. Meanwhile, I decided to take a few photos from this vantage, looking down.

Looking Down Wham1

Looking Down Wham2

Looking down Wham Ridge

Arrow side profile

Arrow Peak's profile from about 3/4 up on Vestal's Wham Ridge

We cruised up the 2nd pitch in quick order and set-up for one last pitch, which proved to be quite difficult in one section. I found myself at a point where there were no foot-holds and only one hand-hold - a large inset section holding a rusted cam. Having on mountaineering boots and not climbing shoes made the climb much more difficult than it needed to be, but I welcomed the challenge. The move required me to do a one-armed push-up with my right arm in the inset section and to reach up with my left arm to a hand-hold. Once in this position, I pulled myself up and placed my feet where my right hand was previously at. This was probably the crux of the entire route. It felt much harder than 5.4, but I suspect that was because I was wearing boots.

Matt Wham

Matt on Wham Ridge

At this point, Jeremy and I both felt comfortable being unroped and headed up the class 4 / low class 5 remainder of the route. There was only one other section that was greatly exposed, which required us to do a really crazy move with about 1,000 ft. of exposure below us. The move was on a completely solid rock, so I felt comfortable enough to make a go at it without rope. This proved to be OK, as the move was totally solid, and fun to say the least.

Jeremy final push Vestal

The last section of Wham Ridge proved to be a very fun class 4 and 5 playground.

We finished up to the top of Vestal, and I celebrated. Since I had been dreaming of doing Wham Ridge for quite some time, this moment was especially exciting for me. I thanked Jeremy for leading the climb and began to go crazy with my camera. Smile

As expected, the views from Vestal were outstanding. The Needle Range and the remainder of the Grenadier Range to the east were quite the sight!

From Vestal Looking South

A view of the Needle Range to the south of Vestal Peak.

Pigeon Zoom

A zoomed in view of Pigeon Peak

Jagged Zoom

A zoomed in view of Jagged Mountain

Sunlight Sunlight Spire Windom Zoom

A zoomed in view of Windom, Sunlight, and Sunlight Spire

Eolus Zoom

A zoomed in view of Mount Eolus

Needle Mountains Super Zoom

A zoomed in panoramic of the Needle Range.

 

La Plata Mountains

The La Plata Mountains seen in the distance to the southwest, including Hesperus Mountain

Vestal w to n ver2

A panoramic photo looking west to north from Vestal Peak.

Vestal Peak Pano Looking East

A fully zoomed in panoramic view looking down and east from Vestal Peak, with Vestal Lake below. Seen at far right are the Trinities, Storm King Peak, Mount Silex, and The Guardian.

Jeremy and Pigeon

Jeremy sits on the summit of Vestal Peak with Pigeon Peak behind him.

Matt and Jeremy Vestal Summit

Matt and Jeremy are captured in this self-timer from the summit of Vestal Peak.

Matt Vestal Summit

Matt looking proud on the summit of Vestal Peak.

Matt Vestal Summit 3

I think I see my house from up here!

Needle Pano2

A panoramic photo of the Needle Range

Vestal N to S Pano

A panoramic photo from Vestal Peak, looking north to south - with Basalm Lake between the Grenadiers and the Needle Mountains.

Grenadier and Needle Range Pano 3

With more sky this time...

After a great time on the summit, we decided to descent via the "class 3" route of Vestal on the south side of the mountain. I put class 3 in quotations marks because this was the worst, chossiest, nastiest, most unpleasant class 3 climbing I've done in my life. The route was unmarked, with no trail, and no cairns until the bottom. We weaved in and out of gullies, unsuccessfully finding one dead-end after another. Finally, as we were nearing desperation, Jeremy found a narrow but climbable gully leading down to a large cairn below. The climbing on the backside of Vestal reminded me of Crestone Needle, except steeper and looser. Not a good combination! We finally reached the saddle between Arrow Peak and Vestal Peak and descended via the "Dues Collector Couloir." I've often wondered why it was called this, and realized it was because it was loose talus and dirt, not the most enjoyable stuff to climb up or down.

Jeremy in Dues Collector Couloir

Jeremy in the "Dues Collector Coulior"

We reached the end of the coulior and headed towards the end of the base of the mountains where we would down climb back to our campsite.

Vestal on way down

A view of Vestal's Wham Ridge on the way down

Vestal and Columbine

Vestal Peak and some Columbine flowers

We reached our campsite about six hours after we had begun, still high from the amazing climb. We prepped our dinner - this time a hearty meal consisting of tortellini and pasta sauce with chicken. Yum.

Vestal Creek

A view of Vestal Peak from Vestal Creek near our campsite. It should be noted that the steep section between us and Vestal (right of center) was the trail up from our campsite.

The flowers were incredible in the afternoon sun, so I took some time to photograph them after dinner.

Flower with blurry vestal

A purple flower in front of Vestal Peak

Lower Vestal Basin

Lower Vestal Basin, where we were camped

We hit the sack around 10 PM, and set the alarm for 5 AM, tentatively planning to do the Trinity Traverse the next morning.

Day 5

We awoke around 6 AM, seeing that the clouds had already formed in the basin. We opted to cancel the Trinity Traverse and head back to the car. We packed up and left camp around 11 AM, making our way back down the steep trail and to the beaver ponds. The view from the beaver pond was incredible as ever.

Vestal and Arrow Reflection

Vestal Peak and Arrow Peak are reflected in a beaver pond

We cruised back down the Colorado Trail, meeting up with the train around 2:30 PM.

Train1

Train2

Train3

The Durango & Silverton Narrowgauge Railroad

We reluctantly trudged back up the 1,700 feet to our car in a matter of 2 hours and drove into Silverton, where we dined on Elk Burgers and French fries.  The drive home was uneventul yet completely satisfying.

Vestal marked the 60th mountain of the highest 100 in Colorado for me. 40 to go!

References:

1. The San Juan Mountains - A Climbing and Hiking Guide. Robert F. Rosebrough

2. Wheeler, Annual Report of the Chief Engineers for 1876, Appendix JJ, p. 101

3. Rhoda, Summits to Reach, p. 75

4. http://climb.mountainzone.com/glossary_a_l.html

The Sawatch Range of Colorado is known for its long, gentle giants such as Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, etc. It would also seem that most visitors to this area of the state are solely interested in climbing only the 14ers, due to the popular sport it has become to summit all of the 14ers in Colorado. I must admit that I have been caught up in this craze myself; however, one of my favorite climbing past-times is to spend time tackling some of the lesser-known 13ers, and that is just what Ethan Buete and I did this past weekend.

To start off, here is a break-down of relevant numbers from the trip:

Missouri Mountain: 14,067 ft (ranked 36th in Colorado)

Iowa Peak: 13,831 ft (soft-ranked)

Emerald Peak: 13,904 ft (ranked 71st in Colorado)

Total elevation gain: 5,612 ft.

Total distance hiked: 13.44 miles

Total time hiking: 10 hours, 10 minutes

Total photos taken: 554

Total wildlife sightings: 2 (marmot and beaver)

Total distance driven: 124 miles

Trip duration: 27 hours

Ethan and left his house at 5:30 PM on Friday evening and stopped in Buena Vista at the Eddyline Brewery for dinner. The selection of food was superb - Eddyline supports local agriculture and the green movement - a definite bonus. I ordered the "Mount Princeton Calzone," which seemed quite fitting. After chowing down at the brewery, Ethan and I departed for Chafee County Road 390, just a few minutes North of Buena Vista, and headed up past Clear Creek Reservoir to find a camp-site next to a beaver pond along-side the road. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a friendly and noisy beaver as we began un-packing. We quickly set-up camp, set our alarm for 4 AM, and drifted into the always welcome pre-summit slumber.

We woke up at 4 AM and made some quick oatmeal and broke-down our campsite. Shortly afterwards, we departed for the Missouri Gulch trailhead and began hiking at 5:15 AM.

This particular trailhead provides access for several fourteen-thousand foot mountains, including Mount Belford, Mount Oxford and Missouri Mountain. We were hopeful that most other hikers would be aiming for the ever-popular Belford-Oxford combo and that we would be provided with some solitutude. Our goal was to climb the standard route of Missouri and then follow the ridge over to Iowa Peak and then Emerald Peak. We were not sure on our route quite yet, but figured we would have it solidified upon getting a full view of the area from each peak. Our eventual route took us up Missouri, over to Iowa, up Emerald, down into the Missouri Basin, and finally over Elkhead Pass back to the trailead.

Missouri Mountain, Iowa Peak, and Emerald Peak Route Map

A topographical map with our route shown in purple. We began and ended near Vicksburg at the Missouri Gulch trailhead.

Elevation Profile for Missouri Mountain

A vertical profile of our chosen route up Missouri, Iowa and Emerald.

The trail going up Missouri Gulch starts out very steep and does not relent until after treeline. Ethan and I made excellent progress up the trail and only stopped a few times before reaching treeline shortly before the sun began to rise.

sunrise

The sun rises below over the Clear Creek valley.

Matt Payne hiking up Missouri Gulch

Matt Payne hikes quickly up Missouri Gulch

 

Shortly after reaching treeline, some favorable campsites appear near some old mining cabins alongside the Missouri Gulch drainage. It is at this point that you can begin to see Mount Belford above and to the east. Ethan and I both stopped to take some pictures of Mount Belford and the surrounding area.

Matt Payne near Mount Belford

Matt Payne stops to take a few photos of the Missouri Gulch and Mount Belford.

Mount Belford and Missouri Gulch

Mount Belford is illuminated by sunlight near Missouri Gulch

After hiking a short was further up into the basin, our first views of our first objective for the day, Missouri Mountain, became available.

Missouri Mountain first glimpse

Missouri Mountain appears before us, basked in early sunlight.

At this point, we were closer to Mount Belford. Ethan explained to me that when he climbed it, he climbed up Elkhead Pass, where most other hikers chose to go straight up a muddy slope on the northwest slopes, making for a terrible climb. It appeared that others were attempting to do just that on this day as well.

Mount Belford

Mount Belford with hikers on the northeast slope.

Mount Belford climbers

Climbers are seen going up the gentle northeast slope of Mount Belford.

As we climbed higher, Missouri became more and more impressive. The light also afforded somewhat better views of the mountain, and afforded us with some photo opportunities.

Missouri with water and flowers

Missouri Mountain with a small water flow with alpine flowers

At this point, were were passed by a group of 4 hikers heading up Missouri. I hate to judge people that I don't know, but I could not help but wonder about this group. It was a friendly but fairly odd group, all wearing cotton sweat-shirts (cotton is often considered a very poor choice for any article of clothing worn during high-altitude hikes due to its inability to quickly dry). One gentleman was wearing flip-flops and playing music out of a small radio in his backpack. I was both perplexed and annoyed - I really don't want to hear your music when I'm hiking, and I won't feel pity if Search and Rescue are called because you obtained frostbite on your toes. We later learned it was his first 14er and he had switched into ascent shoes, which made me feel a little better.

Ethan and I continued up the trail and kept our eye on Missouri, hoping to catch a view of the trial heading up to the ridge.

Belford and Missouri

The sun rises over Mount Belford with Missouri to its immediate right.

The extra light from the sun also revealed to us that there were many types of wildflowers in bloom, much to our surprise. The basin was covered in whites, purples, yellows, and blues.

Missouri and Flowers

Wildflowers cover the Missouri Gulch basin in late June.

The trail heading up towards Missouri was in great condition, often weaving through thick tundra grasses and around willow bushes.

Missouri Green Trail

Shortly before reaching the base of Missouri Mountain, the trail hits an intersection. Heading left takes you up Elkhead Pass and heading right takes you up the standard trail for Missouri Mountain. Ethan and I refueled with nuts/fruit/powerbars and began our ascent up the relatively steep trail for Missouri.

Elkhead Pass

Elkhead Pass can be seen to the right of Mount Belford (left of center).

Matt crests ridge

At this point, Ethan and I kicked it into high gear, heading up the rocky, but well-maintained trail up Missouri's long sweeping north ridge. The trail takes you up very quickly, and before we knew it, we were cresting the ridge.

After reaching the ridge, awesome views of Huron Peak, La Plata Peak, and the Three Apostles, including Ice Mountain and North Apostle were revealed.

This was particularly exicting for me since I had just been on top of Huron Peak just a few short weeks previous to this trip.

Huron first view

Huron Peak comes into view upon gaining the north ridge of Missouri Mountain.

 

Huron Peak zoomed in

Huron Peak - zoomed in

 Ethan Beute looks at La Plata Peak

Ethan Buete looks over towards La Plata Peak (ranked 5th highest in Colorado).

Missouri Ridge

Missouri's Ridge is revealed.

After taking a lot of photos, Ethan and I headed up and along the long ridge towards Missouri. The second and third objectives for the day finally appeared as well, with Emerald peaking over the top of Iowa.

Iowa and Emerald Peaks

Iowa Peak mostly obscures the view of Emerald Peak to the south of Missouri Mountain.

Missouri Ridge Pano

From the ridge of Missouri, views of Emerald Peak, Iowa Peak, the Three Apostles, Huron Peak, and La Plata Peak (among many others) can be seen in great detail (click to see the full resolution version).

Ethans_Missouri_Ridge_Pano

Ethan's photo of Missouri's Ridge with Emerald and Iowa in view (left) and Missouri's Ridge behind us (right)

The ridge to Missouri was nothing harder than class 2 the whole way, and was quite simple to navigate. I've read reports of people calling the ridge class 3, and I can assure you, it is not even close to class 3 unless you stay high at the jagged rocks (seen above). Those rocks are easily navigated around though...

After 3 hours of hiking, we reached the summit of Missouri Mountain at 9:15 AM. Naturally, the flip-flop guy had his music playing on top and he was enjoying a beer. Ethan and I exchanged summit photos, took some 360o panoramic shots, ate some food, and quickly departed, knowing our day had really just begun. Later in the day, I was able to capture a nice view of the route we took up Missouri from the Missouri Gulch.

Missouri Mountain Route

The route up Missouri Mountain.

Matt Missouri Summit

Matt Payne on the summit of Missouri Mountain, his 38th 14er climb (37 total 14ers).

Ethan Missouri Summit

Ethan Beute on the summit of Missouri Mountain. Ethan was unsure of how many 14ers he has climbed, as he is not keeping track. Cool

Iowa and Emerald

Iowa Peak (closest) and Emerald Peak (left and behind Iowa) drew our gaze.

Missouri Basin from Missouri

Mount Harvard (left) rises high above the Missouri Basin (middle), with Emerald Peak and Iowa Peak sitting above pristine alpine lakes.

Emerald closeup

A zoomed in view of Emerald Peak from Missouri Mountain

Missouri Benchmark

The USGS marker for Missouri Mountain with Mount Harvard in the background.

missouri marker

Ethan Buete captured this great macro shot of the Missouri Mountain USGS marker.

 

Ethan and I decided to pack up and head on over to Iowa Peak, leaving the summit of Missouri Mountain.

Iowa Peak, Emerald Peak, Missouri Basin

Matt Payne descends towards Iowa Peak - photo by Ethan Buete

The climb down to the ridge and up Iowa was fairly straight forward on a primitive trail.

Matt up Iowa

Matt Payne halfway up Iowa Peak.

Missouri Mountain from near Iowa

A look back at Missouri Mountain from near the top of Iowa Peak.

It took us about 30 minutes to reach the top of Iowa Peak, where we stopped to take more photos and re-hydrate.

Iowa Matt Summit 2

Matt Payne on top of Iowa Peak.

Ice Mountain and North Apostle

Ice Mountain and North Apostle sit above the valley just below Iowa Peak.

Iowa Peak 180

180o view from the summit of Iowa Peak. Looking left to right - Missouri Mountain, Buffalo Peaks (in far distance), Mount Harvard (center), Mount Yale, Emerald Peak (above near snow).

Huron Peak and Clohesy Lake

Huron Peak rises high above Clohesy Lake as seen from the summit of Iowa Peak.

After a few minutes on top of Iowa Peak, we made an assessment on the weather. The cloud patterns had not changed since leaving Missouri Mountain and we were fairly confident that the weather would hold long enough to summit Emerald and make it down. So, we headed on down to the saddle between Iowa and Emerald.

Emerald Peak

Emerald Peak and its grassy slopes.

Emerald Peak and Ethan Buete

Ethan made it down to the saddle first, and promptly began photographing the area. He was able to capture some amazing photos, including the next one - one of my favorites from the trip. I love the images Ethan produced from this trip. The colors are astounding. I believe that Ethan uses the Olympus E-30 DSLR with a circular polarizer. I wrote a quick follow-up article about the use of circular polarizers here.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers in bloom - photo by Ethan Buete.

After reaching the saddle, we began hiking up Emerald's steep face. It was a fairly straight-forward climb requiring a few breaks on the way up.

Iowa Missouri Belford

A look back at Iowa Peak and Missouri Peak from the base of Emerald Peak.

After reaching the summit of Emerald Peak at 10:30 AM, Ethan and I both agreed that the views from Emerald were the best of all three summits. Unabated views of Yale and Harvard and the surrounding basins made for a great resting spot. We probably spent about an hour on top, enjoying the views and taking photos while eating. I chowed down on some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, which made for an even better experience Wink

Matt and Ethan

Matt and Ethan enjoy the views from Emerald Peak.

Matt on Emerald

Matt Payne signs the summit register of Emerald Peak, one of the 100 highest mountains in Colorado.

Matt Photo Action 2

Matt Payne scouts for more Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Emerald west to east

Views from Emerald Peak, west-to-east (left to right).

Ethan gazes on Emerald

Ethan Buete gazes west from the summit of Emerald Peak, with La Plata Peak behind him.

Matt Emerald Summit 3

Matt Payne on the summit of Emerald Peak, with Mount Yale in the distance (far left).

Emerald East to North

Views from Emerald Peak, looking east-to-north (left to right).

Missouri to Harvard

A view back at Iowa Peak and Missouri Mountain, with Mount Belford to it's right. Mount Harvard to the far right.

Ethan and I planned our route back to the trailhead from the summit. We decided that we would drop off of the east face of Emerald Peak and to the lakes below us. From there, we would aim for Elkhead Pass and head back down Missouri Gulch.

Matt on Emerald Photographing

Matt Payne shooting some photos of flowers on Emerald Peak's east ridge.

And here is what I was photographing...

Harvard Flowers 2

Wildflowers growing on Emerald Peak with Mount Harvard blurry in the distance.

We continued down the ridge from Emerald and through a small snow field. The snow was solid and we were able to walk right on the top of it. No need for the ice axe after-all!

Matt Emerald 2

Still plenty of snow melt on Emerald Peak's east ridge in June.

At this point, the hike became incredible. The lower lakes came into better view, and the alpine surroundings continued to amaze both of us. One of the lakes in particular had an island of snow still sitting in it, making for a very bright blue hue around it. It was fascinating and gorgeous.

Blue Lake

Lakes sit at the base of Emerald Peak.

Blue Lake Zoom

A zoomed in view of the odd and gorgeous blue lake.

bluelake ethan

Ethan captures the blue slight better than I through the use of a circular polarizer.

Yale Lakes Ethan

Ethan Buete captured this great photo of some small lakes.

We were able to connect with an old game trail and head down to the lakes.

Missouri Basin from Emeralds Base Pano

The Missouri Basin.

Ethan and Harvard

Ethan hikes towards Mount Harvard.

Ethan and I were continually impressed with the views of Mount Harvard from this area - a much more impressive view than you get when you actually climb it.

Matt and Harvard

Mount Harvard towers above Matt Payne

Ethan down into the basin

Ethan descends down into the basin towards the awesome blue lake.

Matt and Lake

alt

A panoramic photo of the first of three lakes found in the Missouri Basin, with Missouri Mountain at center.

Ethan and Lake Pano

Ethan Buete checks out the snow melt coming out of the 1st of three lakes at the base of Emerald Peak.

We made our way across the long basin and found the 2nd of three lakes. This lake had some snow that had begun calving from the rock face, much like a glacier would.

Glacierlike Lake Pano

A glacier-like calving on the 2nd of 3 lakes below Emerald and Iowa Peaks.

Lake Pano

The water was quite still for this panoramic shot of a small lake below Missouri Mountain, Iowa Peak and Emerald Peak (right to left).

Matt in Action 2

Ethan catches me in action at the 2nd of 3 lakes.

We headed on over to the 3rd lake, finding it to be the best of three due to its larger size and excellent views below Mount Harvard.

Matt and Harvard 2

Matt Payne in front of a large apline lake and Mount Harvard.

Lake Harvard Ethan

Ethan Buete next to a large lake with Mount Harvard in the background.

The sheer size of the Missouri Basin makes it a wonderful place to hike. With alpine vistas in every direction, it was tough for Ethan and I to leave. However, with weather looming on the horizon, we decided to head towards Elkhead Pass. Once reaching the end of the basin, looking back at Emerald left a great feeling in us. We had traveled a great distance today, and it was hard to believe just how far away Emerald looked already.

Matt and Basin

Matt Payne boogies on out of the Missouri Basin

 

Harvard to Emerald

A look back across the Missouri Basin. Mount Harvard sits as the basin's monarch to the far left with Emerald Peak and Iowa Peak resting at the far right.

After hiking more or less straight across the back-side of Missouri Mountain, we were able to connect back up with the trail leading up Elkhead Pass.

Matt and Harvard 3

Matt Payne with Mount Harvard behind him.

Matt and Emerald 3

Matt Payne on the Elkhead Pass trail with Emerald Peak at far left.

Near the top of Elkhead Pass, I noticed a giant waterfall below Emerald Peak, so I took several fully zoomed in photos of the basin and waterfall and composed them into one giant zoomed in view of the basin.

Missouri Basin Waterfall Pano

A super-zoomed in view of the Missouri Basin, with a giant waterfall flowing at far left. Emerald Peak sits above the basin at far right.Click on the photo to see the full resolution version.

A short while later, Ethan and I managed to reach the top of Elkhead Pass and see down into Missouri Gulch where the whole day began.

Matt Elkhead Pass

Matt Payne at the summit of Elkhead Pass.

It was nice to hike downhill again and see the valley in the middle of the day with more light. We were also lucky to see the entire route up Missouri from slightly below the pass, as well as views of Missouri's class 4 northeast face.

Missouri Mountain's class 4 north face

Missouri Mountain's class 4 northeast face (far left).

Missouri's Class 4 face

A zoomed in view of Missouri Mountain's class 4 northeast face.

Ethan and Missouri close

Ethan poses in front of Missouri Mountain.

We headed on down the pass and noticed a large waterfall coming down Missouri as well.

Missouri Waterfall

A large watefall flows down the face of Missouri Mountain's ridge.

After a short time, we reached the trail turn-off for going back up Missouri Mountain. We had made a full circle at 1:30 PM, a full six hours after we first encountered this split in the trail.

Turnoff for Elkhead Pass / Missouri Mountain

The trail forks - heading back up Missouri Mountain or down to the start of Missouri Gulch.

Matt on Trail

Matt Payne hikes down the Missouri Gulch trail.

Missouri and flowers high

A look back at Missouri Mountain and the Elkhead Pass trail.

Ethan and I made excellent progress down the trail and made it back to a large stream crossing. Ethan took this time to train me on photographing water flows.

Missouri Gulch

Water flows down Missouri Gulch.

Ethan and I made excellent time back down the trail and to the trailhead. We made a quick stop at a small gravesite in the Vicksburg cemetary. The grave marker reads: "Vicksburg Cemetary. William Huffman, Born 1884. Died of Pnemonia. One Month Old.Father was a miner and mother ran a boarding house in Vicksburg."

Cemetary1

Cemetary2

We crossed Clear Creek over the bridge and made it to Ethan's car. All in all a very successful and aesthetically pleasing trip.

Clear Creek

Clear Creek was still running fast near the end of June.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report. If you are interested in any of the photos, please contact me. If one of the photos belongs to Ethan Beute, I will forward your message to him.

Stay safe!

Hiking in the San Juan Mountains was quite possibly the best gift a dad could get. Make that two dads.

My dad is who introduced me to climbing mountains at the young age of six, and it was fitting that we spend Father's day climbing a mountain that we had both had our eyes on for quite a few years. While my dad had originally planned in the 1980's to save Handies Peak as his last 14er, he decided to give up that idea. The last time my dad climbed a 14er was Uncompahgre Peak in 2001 - another father-son outing in the San Juan Mountains, nearly 10 years ago. Having prepared for the past two months through rigorous training and exercise, my dad, now 60 years old, believed he was ready again for climbing. Since all I talk about anymore is climbing mountains, it was no surprise that his interest in climbing is renewed and I was very pleased that he asked to join me on my attempt of Handies Peak. My dad (Old Climber on this site) and I debarked from Colorado Springs at roughly 5:00 PM on Friday, June 18th 2010, heading straight for the rugged San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. We drove south down State Highway 115 and connected with Highway 50 heading west. We stopped for a bite to eat in Salida and drove to Gunnison and south towards Lake City. The drive up towards Cinnamon Pass from Lake City was a somewhat confusing one in the dark - there are a couple points where you can make a wrong turn - neither intersection having been mentioned on the route description at 14ers.com. To top things off, the road was pretty rough, but my Jeep handled it like a champion. We managed to find our way to the American Basin near Handies Peak and began setting up camp with our headlamps on at around 11:30 PM.

Here are some interesting statistics from this amazing adventure:

Total elevation gain: 3,629 ft.

Total distance hiked: 8.22 miles

Total time hiking: 8 hours, 15 minutes

Total photos taken: 346

Total wildlife sightings: 3

Total distance driven: 480 miles

Trip duration: 28 hours

Drive to Handies

A map of our driving route to our campsite in the American Basin  from Colorado Springs

As we began setting up camp, I turned back towards my vehicle to see two glowing eyes about 20 feet away. These were no ordinary glowing eyes - these were quite large and clearly fit a very large animal. I whispered to my dad, "Ray - look - there is an animal over there!" Ray got out his flashlight and revealed a giant moose! We were both in shock, as neither of us had seen a moose in the wild in Colorado before. The moose walked around our campsite for much of the remainder of the night and at one point got within 5 feet of the tent before walking away. I decided to name the moose "Tim" since I thought it would be funnier and more convenient to refer to the moose by name instead of "it" or "moose."

The moon was about half-full and lit the basin up quite well. We could make out the ridge line of Handies Peak and the American Basin crags (American Peak, ranked 102nd highest in Colorado).

We enjoyed the views of the basin in the moonlight and set the alarm on my Suunto Core watch for 5 AM.  The tent was sitting on a lot of wierd bumps, so sleeping was not the easiest of tasks. I think I did get a few hours of pretty spotty sleep before the alarm went off. We woke up and broke down our camp pretty quickly while eating some oatmeal. "Tim" was still hanging around, eating some willow trees 50 or so yards away from our campsite. We prepared our packs and debarked up the road towards the trailhead, but not before taking a photo of the basin around our campsite.

American Basin early

Handies Peak seen at left of center with American Peak at dead center and UN 13,512 at far right. The American Basin is a very peaceful locale.

The plan for the day was to ascend Handies Peak (14,048 ft. and ranked 40th in Colorado) via the standard trail and then to traverse over to Whitecross Mountain (ranked 222) to the northeast of Handies. Starting the hike pretty early and at a respectable elevation, I believed that the itinerary would be quite manageable.

Handies and Whitecross Route Map

A topo map with my route shown in red. We began the hike near the word "Fork" on the map.

Ray and I quickly began the hike up the trail at 6:15 AM and within minutes, the sun began to light up the surrounding peaks, including American Peak.

American Basin Crags

American Peak gets a healthy dose of sunlight.

The basin itself was quite serene, with waterfalls everywhere and green slopes and orange mountain tops surrounding us in all directions.

Ray in Basin

Ray Payne with an awesome waterfall in the background

We probably could have made better time, but I was taking tons of photos the whole way up!

Matt Payne with American Peak

Matt Payne with American Peak in the background.

The trail was mostly snow-free, with a few sections of snow obscuring the trail. We were able to quickly follow the trail up the side of Handies Peak, weaving our way up towards Sloan Lake.

Ray Payne sillouhette

Ray Payne gazes up the side of the relatively steep trail leading up Handies.

Shortly before reaching the turn-off for Sloan Lake, I stumbled across a beautiful ptarmagin, still in the process of changing out of its winter coat and into its summer colors.

Ptarmigan

A ptarmigan rests on rocks near the trail leading up Handies Peak.

Ptarmigan

The ptarmigan peers back at me, wondering if it is on the menu for dinner.

The ptarmigan made a loud squak and flew down the trail and away from our threatening gaze. What a pleasure it was to see wildlife!

Shortly after heading away from Sloan Lake, the trail turns back towards Handies and down through a small snowfield. The snow was steep but easy to navigate.

Ray Payne down some snow

Ray navigates through a steep snow field.

The trail quickly zig-zags up Handies and before we knew it, we gained some incredible views back down into the American Basin.

Halfway up Handies Pano

Sloan Lake sits in front of American Peak, with the Handies standard route trail below. The first view of distant San Juan Mountains is revealed.

We rested in the shadows for a bit and resumed the hike up towards the saddle between Handies Peak and American Peak. Once gaining the saddle, views east into the next valley over were presented with the morning sun welcoming us.

Handies Saddle 360

A 360o view from the Handies - American Peak saddle. As a reminder - many images can be clicked on to view the full resolution versions!

We continued up towards the summit of Handies and were wildly surprised with a view of Rio Grande Pyramid, one of the top 100 summits in Colorado (ranked 97).

Rio Grande Pyramid

Rio Grande Pyramid sits prominently in the far distance to the south of Handies Peak.

This was a particularly exciting discovery for Ray and I since we are planning to climb Rio Grande Pyramid at the end of August of this year. Getting a first-hand view of this magnificent mountain was quite awesome.

We also could not help but notice the other quite prominent mountain sitting in front of Rio Grande Pyramid Peak on the near side of Pole Creek Mountain (ranked 138th in Colorado) - Half Peak (ranked 86th in Colorado).

Half Peak and Rio Grande

Half Peak (left of center) sits left (northeast) of Pole Creek Mountain, and Rio Grande Pyramid.

Additionally, views of Mount Sneffles (ranked 27th in Colorado) and the surrounding mountains came into view.

Ray gazes to Mount Sneffels

Ray Payne gazes towards Mount Sneffels to the northwest.

Ray snapped a shot of me before I continued up the trail.

Matt Payne with American Peak

Having gained the amazing views of the San Juans, I was re-energized to hike faster, so I quickly made my way up towards the summit of Handies. I peered back to catch the first glimpse of the Grenadiers and Needle Mountains near Silverton. I have always been completely awe-struck by these mountains, so seeing them from here was quite exciting for me. Views of Pigeon Peak (ranked 57), Vestal Peak (ranked 77), and Arrow Peak (ranked 104) were impressive. Due to the fact that I am climbing Vestal's Wham Ridge and Arrow Peak in three weeks, this view was especially awesome.

First view of the grenadiers

Ray Payne ascends Handies with the Grenadier range and Needle Mountains showing themselves above American Peak. Pigeon Peak seen just above American Peak, with Arrow and Vestal Peaks to its left.

I was able to complete the climb of Handies at 9 AM, a brisk 2 hours and 45 minutes after we started, and was greeted at the top by Ray within minutes. Handies was the 48th 14er for Ray and the 36th 14er for me.

Matt and Ray Summit Handies

Matt and Ray Payne celebrate on top of Handies with the Grendiers and Needle Mountains in the background.

The wind on top was fairly chilly, so Ray and I found shelter on the eastern side of the summit. Ray got out his topographical maps and I began to take my ritual photos for the 360 degree panoramic photo from the summit. The views from Handies were much more impressive than I could have ever imagined.

Handies 360 degree Pano

A 360o view from the top of Handies Peak. The views of the mighty San Juan Mountains were astounding. Click on the image for the full resolution version (very large).

Handies Summit Northeast to West

A 180o view looking northeast to west from Handies Peak.

I continued to marvel at the sheer impressiveness of the Grenadiers. The thought of climbing them in a few weeks seemed very surreal. Vestal's Wham Ridge looked impossible.

Grenadiers zoomed in

The Grenadiers and Needle Mountains zoomed in.

Views of other areas of the San Juans also did not disappoint. The Ice Lake Basin and Wilson group were quite impressive as well.

Handies looking West

Looking west from the summit of Handies Peak

In my office at work, I have a framed topographical map composed of many different 7.5 minute maps of the Grenadiers and Needle Mountains. I had always wanted to capture a comprehensive photo of that area, showing the various summits of the region. I had a great time using the 100summits.com Google Earth plugin tool to attempt to correctly identify all of the mountains in the following giant panoramic photo. I would greatly welcome and appreciate any feedback or corrections to the labels, as the viewpoint from Handies made for a distorting and confusing process for peak identification. Be sure to click on the images to see the full resolution versions and the labeled photo (2nd photo).

San Juan ultra pano

A large zoomed-in panoramic photo of the San Juan Mountains.

San Juan ultra pano with labels

Many mountains are labeled in this version. Send corrections to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For a more natural way of viewing this photo, check out THIS PAGE.

Views of both Wetterhorn Peak and Uncompahgre to the north were also outstanding.

Wetterhorn Peak

Wetterhorn Peak

Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre

Wetterhorn Peak (left of center) and Uncompahgre Peak (right of center) rise up impressively to the north of Handies

Looking further west, were able to identify Mount Sneffels and Teakettle Mountain (ranked 98th).

Sneffles and Teakettle

Mount Sneffels (largest at center) and Teakettle Mountain (right of Sneffels)

Due west of our position on Handies, were caught view of the Ice Lake Basin. We originally thought this was the Sneffels group; however, upon further investigation, we believe we have correctly identified the mountains west of Handies as U.S. Grant Peak (ranked 119) et.al.

Ice Lake Basin Group

The Ice Lake Basin - send corrections to Matt at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

After the whirlwind of photo taking, I decided to sit-down and eat some food. Ray ate his hard-boiled egg (apparently a long-standing tradition for him), while I chowed down on a Clif Bar and some cashews.

Ray lunchtime

Ray chows down on a hard-boiled egg with Wetterhorn Peak behind him.

matt relaxing

Matt Payne relaxes on the summit of Handies.

Sitting on the east side of Handies to eat, we were able to get a great view of Grizzly Gulch, Sunshine Peak and Redcloud Peak (ranked 53 and 46 respectively).

Redcloud and Sunshine

Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks rest just east of Handies.

Additionally, I was able to get a good glimpse of my second objective for the day - Whitecross Mountain. Whitecross looked further away than I thought it would, but with the insanely great weather we had and with my legs feeling superb, I was not concerned.

Whitecross Mountain

Whitecross Mountain and the traverse to it (partially obscured by snow).

We were joined on the summit by Ben Smith of 14erPlatinumTeam.com. Ben was with his friend Don, and they were quite friendly. We chatted for a bit about our climbing adventures and plans and exchanged website information.

I took more photos of the surrounding peaks.

Half Peak

Half Peak

Rio Grande Pyramid 2

Rio Grande Pyramid

I had Don snap one more photo of my on top and Ben volunteered to take some photos with his camera as well. He was kind enough to email me the photo he took of Ray and I on top.

matt summit shot

Matt Payne on top of Handies Peak

BFSmith_HandiesPK_061910_091

Matt and Ray Payne atop Handies Peak - photo courtesy of Ben Smith.

Ray and I packed up and got ready for our traverse over to Whitecross Mountain. Ray informed me that he would probably not go to Whitecross but would wait for me at the saddle between Handies and Whitecross. This sounded like a good plan and we began to head north after bidding adieu to Ben and Don.

Shortly after making our way down towards the Handies - Whitecross saddle, we gained an excellent view down to the west into the valley we started in. Lo-and-behold we could see my Jeep way down below. 

Matt's Jeep below Handies

Matt Payne's Jeep far below in the American Basin.

After making it down the steepest section from Handies' summit, we gained excellent views of the Whitecross traverse and the terrain we ultimately needed to navigate across.

Whitecross traverse

Whitecross Mountain's traverse terrain

By this point, we could look back at Handies and get a really nice profile of it from the north side.

handies in rear view

Ray Payne traversing towards Whitecross Mountain away from Handies Peak

Being mid-June still, we encountered some difficult snow on the traverse and at one point I fell up to my hips into a snow bank. This was rather uncomfortable, being on a quite steep section with about 100 feet of run-out below me. I decided to pause to gather my wits and to get out my ice axe. I used the ice axe as a safety device as I faced into the mountain and slow kicked steps into the snow while heading down at an angle towards the saddle. Ray followed in my footsteps and we both decided that it would have been smart to just stay high above on the ridge proper instead of angling around the side of the saddle near PT 13,577.

After successfully making it past the snowy sections, I once again stumbled upon a ptarmigan. This time, it let me get very close to it before I even noticed.

Ptarmigan

A Ptarmigan feeds upon the tundra near the saddle between Handies and Whitecross

Ptarmigan

The views down into Grizzly Gulch were great during the traverse and I paused several times to get photos of the area.

ray traverse

Ray Payne, traversing towards Whitecross Mountain, with Redcloud Peak left of center.

Most of the way to the saddle between Whitecross and Handies, we encountered some nasty scree below the ridge that we were forced to cross. The rock was the kind that when you stepped on it, huge sections of rock would slide above and below your feet. While this terrain is rather fun when down-climbing, it was not so fun while going across it.

Whitecross traverse scree

Scree with a red hue made for an interesting traverse to Whitecross Mountain.

ray whitecross trav

Looking back towards Handies Peak - Ray Payne welcomes the break in crossing the awkward terrain.

Ray and I reached the saddle near some fun rock outcroppings and discussed my plans for heading to Whitecross. I told Ray to "send the cavalry if I'm not back by midnight." I took off most of my gear and left it with Ray so that I could increase my speed for the traverse.

whitecross obstacle

Whitecross Mountain sits above interesting terrain

the waiting place

Ray Payne nears our meeting place

I started my traverse over to Whitecross at 11 AM. There were no threatening clouds and I felt solid.

Matt Payne heading up Whitecross

Matt Payne poses on top of a rock formaton on the way up Whitecross Mountain

About halfway up Whitecross, I was able to get a better view of the cornice across the way and Golden Horn (ranked 116) behind it in the distance.

Cornice with Golden Horn in distance

Cornice with Golden Horn behind it.

I made my way up Whitecross quite steadily and quickly. I made great time to the tundra field below it and could see the route up the summit block.

Whitecross summit block

Whitecross Mountain's summit block

I also could see some amazing views of the western ridge of Handies and a couple lakes below it.

Halfway up Whitecross

A small lake rests in the basin below the western ridge of Handies Peak.

I made my way up towards the top of Whitecross rather quickly and was greeted with views of another neat cornice sitting in front of Uncompahgre Peak and Whitecross (to its left).

Whitecross with Uncompahgre

A cornice sits below the summit of Whitecross with Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn in the distance.

I finished up the climb up Whitecross and enjoyed views of Handies and the valley below Whitecross which was obscured before. The traverse from the saddle took 30 minutes on the mark.

Handies from Whitecross

Handies as seen from the summit of Whitecross

From Whitecross

The summit register lays out on the summit of Whitecross.

I signed the summit register (first to do so in 2010), and gathered a few more photos for a panoramic photo and a self-timer summit photo.

redcloud sunshine from whitecross

Redcloud and Sunshine are seen in better detail from Whitecross Mountain.

Whitecross summit north east south

A view north, east, and south from Whitecross Mountain.

Whitecross summit self-timer

A self-timer summit shot on top of Whitecross Mountain.

After spending a few minutes on top, I headed back down the ridge towards Ray, stopping once on the way to capture a shot of some wildflowers on the ridge.

Purple Flowers

A macro shot of some purple flowers on the ridge between Whitecross and Handies.

After 20 minutes of down-climbing, I reached Ray again, having spent a total of 50 minutes on the traverse from the saddle and traveling a distance of 1.11 miles with 558 ft. of elevation gain. Ray and I packed our belongings and headed down the steep scree to the north of the saddle. We had studied our maps and determined that this route would get us back to the road eventually and that it was the safest descent route. The only downside was that we would be required to hike back up the road to my car. A small price to pay for a great traverse.

Ray descends scree

Ray descends the steep and loose scree below the Handies-Whitecross saddle.

Ray with Cornice

Ray Payne with the Whitecross-Handies saddle above

On the way down, we captured one last view of Uncompahgre.

last views of uncompahgre

Uncompahgre Peak pokes above the surrounding ridges.

The route down towards the road was straight-forward and enjoyable. We made awesome time down towards tree-line.

Whitecross descent

A look back towards the Whitecross-Handies saddle and the steep terrain negotiated on the way down from Whitecross.

We made quick time to tree-line, and after less than an hour, we were entering the trees and much steeper terrain.

ray downclimbing

Ray Payne down-climbs from the Whitecross-Handies saddle.

The wildflowers on the fridge of the forest were amazing -yellow flowers were blooming everywhere on the mountainside.

Yellow Flower zoom

A yellow flower blooms in this macro shot near tree-line.

Soon after entering the trees, the terrain became much steeper and was littered with huge deadfall and other fun obstacles. We negotiated through the deadfall for about 20 minutes until reaching somewhat of a clearing.

Deadfall bushwhack

Deadfall on the descent of Whitecross and Handies.

From this clearing, we were able to find a small service road on the mountain side. We aimed for this road, hoping we were not trespassing on private property, and followed it down. We were grateful for finding the road, as it had a bridge across the Lake Fork Gunnison River where it connects with the main American Basin road.

We also saw a large mine shaft with railroad tracks leading into it - evidence of that at one time this region was heavily mined.

Mine shaft

Railroad tracks lead into the darkness of an abandoned mine shaft.

Once back on the main road, we were able to get a good view of the valley and mountainside we had come down.

Down Route

Ray and I hiked back up the road towards my Jeep. The road was pretty long and we needed to hike about a mile or so. American Basin was looking impressive in full sunlight.

American Basin lower

American Basin

We crossed the head of the river near a large snowbank we had noticed on the way up the night before.

American Basin snowfield

I took one more photo of the American Basin on the way back up to my Jeep. The waterfalls and surrounding terrain were very aesthetically pleasing after the long day of hiking.

American Basin pure

We finally made it back to the Jeep at 2:30 PM and I took one final set of photos to illustrate the daytime views from where we camped.

American Basin from camp

We packed up our gear after eating some snacks and headed back down the road in my Jeep. This is one of the best hikes up a relatively easy 14er with highly rated views. Given the ease of climb and the rewarding views, I would say that Handies Peak should be on all beginner and serious hikers' to-do lists.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report for Handies Peak and Whitecross Mountain. Next weekend: Missouri Mountain, Iowa Peak and Emerald Peak with my friend, Ethan Buete.

Interesting statistics:

Start time: 5:30 AM

Summit time (Huron): 9 AM

Summit time (Browns): 11 AM

Finish time: 1:20 PM

Mileage up: 3.6

Mileage down: 4.2

Total mileage: 7.8

Huron Peak Elevation: 14,003 ft.

Browns Peak Elevation: 13,523 ft.

Total elevation gain: 3,900 ft.

Total photos taken: 219

GPS map of our route (ascent in red, descent in blue):

Huron Route

This trip report begins with an interesting back story. I had a new member join my site in May from South Dakota. This member eventually messaged me on Facebook and asked if he could join me on some of my climbs this year. After learning about my plans to attempt Huron that very weekend, he decided to join me. Mike Vetter drove all the way down from Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Saturday, June 5th to climb with me. Mike is the CEO of DataSync - a successful start-up software company. Our route to reach the trail-head was very simple: we drove west on Highway 24 to Buena Vista and turned left on Chaffee County Road 390 heading west. After driving about 14 miles on a dirt road, we turned left at the old mining town of Winfield and continued west another 2 miles to our campsite near the trail-head. We left my house at about 6:30 PM and reached our campsite near the Huron trail-head at approximately 10 PM.

On the way to Buena Vista, we were able to get some great views of the sun setting over the Northern Sangre de Cristo Mountain range:Sunset over the Northern Sangres

We set-up our tents in the dark and set our alarms for 4 AM and hit the sack. A few cars drove past during the night, presumably looking for camp spots. Fortunately, the vehicles did not disturb my sleep too badly and I was able to get some quality rest. The alarm sounded at 4 AM and I hurried to get dressed and tear down my tent. As we were getting camp taken down, a skiier passed us, informing us that he was going to ski down Ice Mountain. I'm pretty sure this person was "benners" from 14ers.com. We were able to quickly break down our campsite and cook some oatmeal for breakfast before debarking for Huron's trail-head at 5:30 AM.

Mike and I were able to make quick work up to the trail-head and soon there-after, the sun broke through to light up the tips of the surrounding peaks in Silver Basin, including Virginia Peak and Granite Mountain:

Reflection

Silver Basin illuminates a small lake

Reflection2

A closer look at the sunrise

Virginia Peak and Silver Basin

Virginia Peak (right of center)

Virginia Peak

Virginia Peak

Sunrise hits Granite Mountain

Sunrise hitting Granite Mountain

Sunrise hits Granite Mountain and Virginia Peak

Sunrise hits Granite Mountain and Virginia Peak

Mike and I were energized by the great views of the valley across from us and made excellent time up the steep trail. Mike kept up with me as we blazed the trail. He did amazing considering he lives at 1,442 ft. and was not acclimated to the high elevation of Colorado yet.

<pMike

Mike Vetter proves he's got what it takes to climb mountains in Colorado

Matt Hiking Up Huron

Matt Payne (author) hiking up Huron

An hour and 15 minutes after we started hiking from our camp, the first view of the Three Apostles came into view. The Three Apostles are a group of 13ers located up the valley from Huron, and contain two of the highest 100 in Colorado, Ice Mountain (13,951 ft.) and North Apostle (13,860 ft.). West Apostle is also respectable at 13,568 ft.

3 Apostles First View

The Three Apostles come into view for the first time

Soon thereafter, one of our objectives for the day came into view as well: Huron. Huron appeared above us like a giant pyramid, as if it were guarding some ancient treasure within its rocky shell.

Huron First View

Huron Peak comes into view for the first time

Moon over Huron

The moon sits over Huron Peak

Huron early

Huron Peak in the early light

Huron in the dark

Huron, the Three Apostles, and Granite Mountain greet the rising sun

Now that we could see the beginnings of the amazing views, Mike became more and more awestruck by the Colorado Rockies. It was a real pleasure hiking with someone that shared the same level of appreciation for Colorado's awesome peaks. Mike and I exchanged photos of each other.

Mike with 3 Apostles

Mike Vetter looking excited in front of the Three Apostles

Matt with Three Apostles

Matt Payne with the Three Apostles in the background

As we gained more elevation, views across the valley were getting even better. I noticed a long waterfall snaking down the side of Granite Mountain and decided that I wanted to try to capture a zoomed-in view of that waterfall. I took about 10 photos of the side of the mountain at 200mm and combined them into this photo:

Waterfall on Granite Mountain

Snow forms a waterfall down the side of Granite Mountain

I also wanted to get a zoomed in shot of the Three Apostles using the same method. Here are the results (click on the photo to see the super-hi-res version):

3 Apostles Zoom Pano

The Three Apostles in high detail

We continued to climb past treeline and up to Huron's base. I took some opportunities to take multiple photos of the views and stitched some photos together for a panoramic view.

Hurons Shadow Pano

Looking South and West, Huron casts a shadow over Granite Mountain

We quickly made our way up into the basin below Huron and were greeted by a giant snowfield. Normally, I welcome the sight of snow; however, the snow we encountered was very soft, with marshy streams and pools of water beneath. It was very much like crossing a field filled with 7-11 Slushies.

Slush on Huron

We made it through the slush and continued up the basin beneath Huron. The terrain was solid and only mildly wet from snowmelt. At this point, the sun had crested Browns Peak and began to heat the surrounding area.

Mike Vetter

Mike Vetter squinting into the sun on our approach of Huron

We continued to climb up towards Huron, following the trail through and around large snow fields. At this point, it was clear that snowshoes or other assistive devices would be fairly useless and I was glad I brought neither. As we gained elevation, the views of Browns Peak as well as the Elk Mountains began to get better and better.

Browns Peak

Browns Peak sits to the North of Huron Peak

We made really great time up Huron, despite its relative steepness and other aforementioned challenges (did I mention Mike lives 13,000 ft. lower than Huron). Huron's summit block loomed over us, making us feel pretty small compared to this giant choss pile. The trail up this section of Huron was clearly maintained and the efforts of Colorado Fourteeners Initative to improve the trail were apparent.

Huron's Summit Block

Huron Peak's summit block

Matt Hiking Up

Matt Payne (author) hiking up Huron's Peak

We finally reached the ridge between Browns Peak and Huron Peak and were warmly welcomed by a giant cornice sitting at the top of the ridge.

Cornice on Huron

A giant cornice on Huron's ridge

The final push to the top of Huron took exactly 10 more minutes. The views from Huron Peak were absolutely outstanding. Being somewhat more isolated than most of the other 14'ers in the Sawatch Range, Huron Peak offers excellent views of the rest of the Sawatch Range and the Elk Mountains as well. Mike and I were the first to summit that day, and spent an hour on top celebrating, eating, and taking large amounts of photographs.

Matt Huron Summit2

Hero shot of Matt Payne on top of Huron Peak

Matt Gazes2

Matt Payne gazes South towards the Three Apostles

Huron 360 degree pano

360 Degree View from the top of Huron Peak (click for full resolution version)

Huron S-N 180

A 180 Degree View from North to South from Hurons Peak. The Three Apostles at center.

Mt Hope

Mount Hope (the flat topped mountain) rests right of center. La Plata Peak rests far left.

Elk Range Zoomed In from Huron

The Elk Mountains loom in the distance, covered in snow.This photo is zoomed in at 200mm. Pyramid Peak, Maroon Peak, Snowmass Mountain, and Capitol Peak can all be seen from this vantage. Click on the image for the super hi-resoltution version.

Taylor Reservoir Pano

Taylor Reservoir can be seen in the distance, reflecting the surrounding mountains (click for full resolution version)

Huron South Zoom Pano

A closer look at the Sawatch Mountains south of Huron. Mount Antero, Mount Shavano, and Tabeguache Peak are all recognizable.

North Sawatch Zoomed

A zoomed in view of the Southern Sawatch mountains

Shavano and Tabeguache

Shavano and Tabeguache (high pointed peak and flat snowed peak respectively)

North Apostle and Ice Mountain Zoomed

North Apostle and Ice Mountain zoomed in. If you click on the image you can see the full resolution version (and the climber atop North Apostle. I've confirmed that this climber is "Mad Mike" from 14ers.com

Yale and Princeton

Mount Yale and Mount Princeton seen in the distance

La Plata

La Plata Peak seen to the North of Huron across the valley

3 Apostles from Huron

A great view of the Three Apostles from Huron

Huron 90 degree 3 apostles

A 90 degree view looking Northeast, North, and Northwest from Huron

3 Apostles Vertically

A vertically-oriented panoramic view of the Three Apostles

Matt leaning

Matt Payne leaning to allow for a better view of the Three Apostles

Matt and Mike

Matt Payne and Mike Vetter on top of Huron Peak

At this point we decided that after an hour of being on the summit we should head down to the ridge and make an attempt on Browns. Once down-climbing to the ridge, we were able to get a view of what we just climbed, decorated with a fair amount of snow still.

Snow

Still a lot of snow on Huron's eastern face

We took a look at our route - a straight ridge scramble to PT 13,518 and then to Browns.

Browns, Mount Hope, PT 13518

PT 13,518 and Browns were a straight shot from Huron's ridge. Mount Hope seen in the background.

We quickly scrambled up PT 13,518 without any problems and looked back at Huron. The further away we got from Huron, the more we could appreciate just how steep it was.

Looking back on Huron

Huron rises high above PT 13,518 to the Northwest

Huron up close pano

A zoomed in view of Huron from PT 13,518

Huron full Pano

A wider view of Huron and the surrounding terrain

After reaching PT 13,518, we took a look over to our next and final objective: Browns Peak.

Browns

Browns Peak looked fairly easy with La Plata Peak behind it

On the way over to Browns, we were able to get a really awesome view of a nasty cornice, which looked more like a frozen tidal wave.

Browns Cornice 1

A huge cornice sitting in the saddle between PT 13,518 and Browns

Browns Cornice 2

A closer view of the cornice

Browns Cornice 3

A super-zoomed in view of the cornice

After a bit of mild scrambling, Mike and I reached the summit of Browns in quick order. The clouds were looking to get worse and worse, so we decided that after Browns that we would go ahead and head back down to the trail below us, making our own route down off of Browns and connecting with the Huron trail.

Mike Hero Shot

Mike Vetter celebrating on the summit of Browns

Matt Points to Huron

Matt Payne points back to Huron from Browns

We dropped off the north face of Browns just a few hundred feet and went straight down a scree gully. The dirt was quite loose but manageable. Soon after reaching the basin for Huron again, we were greeted by another large snow-field, which presented some pretty awful post-holing up to our wastes. Fortunately, my boots and gaiters kept my feet completely dry!

Matt descends Browns

Matt Payne descending from Browns

After reaching the trail again, we headed back down the way we came and crossed the insane snow-field at the base of Huron. After a days worth of sunlight, the snow-field was quite soft and presented us with some unique and 'wet' hiking challenges.

Matt in the snow

Matt Payne crossing the slushy on Huron

Once we reached the bottom of the snow-field, the way down was pretty quick to treeline and below to the trailhead and eventually my vehicle.

All-in-all, this was an amazing trip filled with great views. And I must say, I could not have hiked with a better guy. Thanks for driving down and climbing with me Mike!

To complete the trip report, here are three HDR photos I combined. I am new to HDR but I do like how it can enhance the light.

Huron HDR 1

Huron HDR2

Huron HDR3

Until next time, enjoy Colorado's summits!

My goal for my first 14'er of 2010 was to summit Mount Shavano (14,229 ft) and then traverse over to Tabeguache Peak (14,155 ft). I had made this attempt last year at the end of May and was able to make it to the top of Shavano but was pushed off the summit by weather, subsequently postponing my summit of Tabeguache. Last year, I climbed the standard route of Shavano, which was a good adventure; however, I wanted to attempt the Angel route this time. Having watched several people ascent via this route last year, I was both intrigued and puzzled as to why someone would put themselves through this much torture. Then after a summer of climbing harder climbs, I figured out why - the challenge and diversity of a new route and the fun of going up a snowfield with an ice axe! Here are two photos from last year's climb, looking down at the Angel route:

Angel of Shavano

Climbers on the Angel of Shavano

My adventure began by driving from Colorado Springs to the Trailhead on Friday, May 21st, 2010. First, let me apologize, I believe that my camera's sensor needs to be cleaned, as many of my images have a slight smudge that is in the middle near the top. Having created this website since last year, I decided that on my way over that I would get a few photos of the Sawatch and Mosquito/Tenmile range from the top of Wilkerson Pass. Fortunately, the weather did cooperate for a few great photo opportunities: Sawatch Range Pano

Sawatch Pano

Sawatch.Mosquito.Tenmile Pano

After a quick drive through South Park, I made it to the turn-off for the Trailhead near Salida. Near the beginning of the road, I took the time to take some photos of Shavano. The Angel was looking great!

Shavano

I even played around a little with some bracketing on my camera for this so-so HDR product:

Shavano HDR2

The road was in great shape and it seemed as if there were far less cars this time around. Heck, there were even some deer hanging out!

Deer

I decided to drive up the road a-ways to check-out the camping areas. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few spots to camp and decided on a spot at the end of a huge meadow. Here is my sad attempt at an HDR photo of that meadow. I really like the way the tree turned out. You can see my vehicle in the far distance on the right:

Shavano Camp Area HDR

Since I had some time to kill, I decided to take a few photos of the surrounding area. Hunts Peak:

Hunts Peak

Hunts Peak and surrounding area:

Hunts Pano

Mount Ouray HDR's:

Ouray HDR Ouray HDR2

Mount Shavano is the little bump in the middle:

Shavano HDR1

I decided to hit the sack early and sleep with the rainfly off of the tent. This proved to be a great idea because the sky was clear and the stars were bright and numerous! I set the alarm for 4 AM, since I wanted to get up, cook breakfast, and pack my tent before hitting the trail. The alarm sounded and I woke up and fired up some water and ate some pretty decent oatmeal from Costco. I packed up and drove the very short distance back to the trailhead and was on the trail by 5:15 AM. The parking lot was still surprisingly empty except for two other vehicles. I soon was feeling the negative effects of packing so heavily - I had brought my snowshoes, ice axe, trekking poles, crampons, water, lots of food, and warmer clothes. The trail was as steep as I remembered and the snow was showing up on the trail far sooner than my trip last year. Before long, snow drifts blocked the trail in several places. Fortunately, the snow had hardened from the previous day and was passable without the use of snowshoes. I followed the trail until it began to become harder and harder to follow. I made sure to follow other climbers up the valley and towards what I knew was the Angel. Instead of heading North along the standard trail, I kept South and ended up at the start of the large boulder field before the Angel begins. As I climbed to the top of the boulder field, the Angel came into view and I was able to really see the challenge for the day. The Angel route takes you directly up the center of the Angel and then up the right arm or straight up, depending on the snow and your preference.

Angel of Shavano from low

I kept heading up and soon was greeted by the nasty wind that was forecast for this weekend - up to 60 MPH gusts of wind. Oh joy! As I continued up the boulders and snow fields, I was finally able to reach the base of the Angel, where I decided to put away the trekking poles and get out the ice axe. I use an old Chouinard ice axe that was passed down to me by my dad (Old Climber on this site). The reasoning for the use of an axe while going up the Angel is two-fold: 1) For self-arrest if I were to slip and 2) Aid in climbing. A few skiers and snowboarders were ahead of me, making it somewhat easier to follow their footsteps instead of creating my own steps in the snow.

Angel of Shavano from high

I quickly discovered that crampons were not needed, so that was somewhat of a bummer realizing that I had lugged them up there for no reason. I was beginning to think the same about my snowshoes, but they actually proved quite useful later on. The Angel of Shavano was not a terribly difficult climb, but it was taxxing on my legs and lungs. I was quite aware that this was my first climb of the season. I persevered up the Angel and decided to stay in the middle of the Angel, despite all other groups going to the right or left on the arms of the Angel. What can I say - I'm a rebel. The snow in this part was pretty good and traction was easily gained with my La Sportiva Trango boots. The hardest part of this climb was my lack of stamina and the wind. The wind really took a toll on my strength and took every opportunity to sap me of any will I had to continue past Shavano. After hiking for 6 hours, I finally gained the summit and celebrated with two outstanding gentlemen that had skied up and were planning to ski down. One skier identified himself as 'steventraylor' from 14ers.com. They were both very friendly and it was a pleasure sharing the mighty summit of Shavano with them. I explained to both of them about my website and am hopeful that more and more people can take advantage of this platform to post thier reports and photos. The wind had really caused quite a bit of dust to fill the air around the state, and visibility was not as great as I prefer for photography; however, it was still great getting to see all those white-capped mountains! I was able to get Steven to take this summit shot of me, with Mount Antero and the rest of the mighty Sawatch range behind me:

Matt Shavano Pose

I took a few looks over at Tabeguache and declared that I would not have the energy to make it over. This was quite demoralizing for me since Tabegauche was the whole reason I had done this climb. Tabegauche is now my nemesis and will be conquered in 2011! Here is a shot of Tab:

Tabeguache

The Sangres shrouded in dust:

Sangres from Shavano

And of course I did some fun pano photos:

Shavano Summit Pano 1

Here is a zoomed in look of Antero (far right), with Columbia and Harvard to its left:
Shavano Summit Pano

Since I had decided that I was not going to head over to Tabeguache, I spent some time enjoying the views and snacking on some chocolate covered espresso beans. I took a couple more "artsy" photos using my ice axe as a prop:

Ice Axe

After about an hour, I decided to bug-out and head down. The descent was pretty straight forward; however, being in boots and not skis, the snow proved slippery and was soft, making for some interesting post-holing. I quickly decided that this was a perfect opportunity to test my skills in glissading. I sat on my butt and ensured that my ice axe was securely attached to my wrist. I placed the axe to my right side like a parking break and used it to control my speed going down. I made a quick detour over to the top of Point 13,617 just to say I was on top of it. The wind over there was outrageous! I was only able to take a few photos from there. The first photo is Shavano and the second is Antero:

Shavano from PT 13617 Antero from PT 13617

I began glissading again, but the snow was more like ice on the North arm of the Angel, so I foolishly decided to scurry over to the standard trail once I crossed it. The trail looked really clear but this proved false. As I continued on the trail for about 200 yards, the snow fields became un-crossable. The snow had covered the snow and was so soft that it was a post-holing nightmare and a safely concern. I decided that I might as well make use of the snowshoes I had carried all this way and put them on. I wore them and used them to safely cross Shavano's shoulder down to some snow-free areas. I took off the snowshoes and went straight down the mountainside and down into the valley near where the Angel route begins. I followed some tracks back down the valley until I was able to meet up with the main trail again. I would highly recommend that if you ascent via the Angel, you also descent the same way. The snow on the trail coming down was very soft and post-holing was common past your knees. It was not enjoyable to say the least. I concluded my adventure and drove back to Colorado Springs, and hope to tackle Mount Huron in two weeks!

Sentinel Point is a fairly unknown mountain on the west side of Pikes Peak. One can access the mountain by driving to Divide on Highway 24 and heading South on Highway 67 just past the old tunnel. The "Horsethief Park" trailhead, which provides access to both Sentinel Point and Pancake Rocks can be found roughly halfway between Divide and Cripple Creek. Having just purchased new snowshoes, my friend Ethan decided that he wanted to test them out. We departed Colorado Springs around 6:30 AM and began hiking around 7:45 AM. The trail begins fairly easy and we did not put on our snowshoes until we crossed the creek onto trail 704C to head North into Horsethief Park.

Sentinal1

After crossing the stream, the trail brought us right up into Horsethief Park and provided us with some great views of some frozen over beaver ponds.

Sentinal2

The views of Sentinel Point were great all day, and as we ventured up into Horsethief Park, the mountain seemed to keep an eye on our progress, measuring our worthiness.

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Sentinel Point was very close!

Sentinel Point

Once in Horsethief Park, the trail splits and we stayed to the right and began bushwhacking up the steep slope of Sentinel Point.

Sentinel Point

Sentinel Point

In retrospect, it would have been prudent to stay to the North side of the mountain; however, the very steep and powdery west slope of Sentinal proved to be a great test for our snowshoes and our endurance! Once at tree-line, the terrain leveled out and we were able to make our way to the ridge-line and up to Sentinal Point proper. The views on this hike were outstanding, including some very uncommon viewpoints of Pikes Peak and Almagre Mountain. Sentinal9

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I highly recommend this as a quick day-hike all year round.  

Sentinal41

What an adventure! Never in my dreams did I think I would ever conquer the mighty Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak. After seeing them from two years ago, I figured I’d never have the testicular fortitude to attempt them. Here is Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak (right of Crestone Needle) as seen from the summit of Humboldt.

Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak

Alas – when I read my friend's itinerary for his mountain climbs back in April 2009, I saw the Crestones and decided it would be the best chance I’d get to give them a shot…

My friend Terry picked me up from my house at 5 AM on Thursday morning. We headed out for the long journey towards Buena Vista and eventually the small town of Crestone. The route Terry chose for these climbs was a rarely traveled backpacking trail from the west side of the mountains, up the Cottonwood Creek drainage.

The trailhead is on private property owned by the Manitou Foundation, a religious organization set-up to provide property easements for the purpose of religious worship and pilgrimage. Earlier this month, Terry was able to obtain written permission from the Manitou Foundation to park on their property and begin up the trail towards Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak. Below is a map of the route we ended up taking on our adventures.

Crestone Peak and Needle Route from Cottonwood Creek

We arrived at the trailhead around 10 AM after driving around the area looking for the proper place to begin our hike. Due to the fact that this trail is off-limits to the general public, trail maintenance has not occurred on the trail for many years. The trail was very primitive and at many points in our day we lost the trail due to having to hike around heavy deadfall (basically a ton of dead trees blocking the trail). In addition to the trail being very faint, the trees in this forest were covered in heavy moss and spider webs. The spider webs were getting all over us and getting in our face, making the hike up quite the annoying yet adventurous journey.

This was quite possibly the most intesnse bushwhacking, insane trail I've been on with a heavy backpack. At many times, the route was not visible at all, and the trail is lost easily. Take caution! The trail led us to a very pristine waterfall, one of many.

Waterfall at Cottonwood Creek

We scanned the area constantly for cairns in order to find our way. Unfortunately, a set of cairns led us up a very steep and rocky section that lasted for at least thirty minutes, but allowed for us to avoid some wet slab-like rocks that would have presented their own unique challenge. The rocky section was quite difficult given the fact that I had a 60 pound backpack on.

During our trek up the trail, I kept a close eye on my GPS, which has the TOPO! maps from National Geographic synced up with it. I monitored our position to ensure we were heading the right direction. As we approached a split in the trail that was critical to our route, I became nervous as the GPS showed our direction

heading up the wrong trail on several occasions. This resulted in Terry and I doing some bushwhacking through some heavily wooded areas and up a very steep gully towards our proper destination. Finally, our bushwhacking paid off when we found the proper trail leading up towards Cottonwood Lake

(where we had tentatively planned on making camp). Terry noticed that the trail we had found was the very trail we had left to do the bushwhacking, so it would seem that the trail splitting to the southeast was never revealed to us. After a very short time, we came to a very ideal campsite underneath a waterfall at the base of a large boulder field. At this point we had been hiking for 5 hours and decided we would camp here.

Here’s a nice 360 view of our campsite.

Camp near Cottonwood Lake

 

After setting-up camp, eating, and taking in some pretty sweet views of the waterfall right next to our camp (pictured below), I decided to take a quick hike up to see if I could get a sneak peek at Crestone Needle. (pictured below the flower). Seeing Crestone Needle brought some anxiety mixed with excitement to me, and I began thinking about the difficult climb we were about to attempt.

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Crestone Needle

Terry set his alarm for 5 AM, which came way to soon given the level of exhaustion we had reached during our backpack up that crazy trail. We quickly ate breakfast and started up the steep trail above our campsite towards Cottonwood Lake. The trail was once again poorly maintained and poorly marked. We followed some cairns here and there up a large basin full of willows, spiders and steep waterfalls. Terry got a cool photo of one of ths high-altitude spiders we saw:

High Altitude Spider

We decided to head east once we were quite high in the basin below Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. About 3/4 of the way up the basin my daypack decided it would break, so I was forced to jerry-rig it so that it would still work. The shoulder strap ripped from the hip area, so I tied it to another strap coming up from the hip belt. Whatever works! We reached the top of the basin and realized we were quite high above the lake and that we would need to down climb to the trail leading up to Broken Hand Pass. Unfortunately the photos I took from this vantage point did not come out as intended; however, Terry got a great shot of the vantage we had of Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak:

Crestone Needle Pano

Once we down climbed to the trail leading up Broken Hand Pass, we were able to get to the far east area of the basin and head up towards Broken Hand Pass. Terry and I felt sorry for the climbers that chose to climb these two mountains from the other side of the pass, as they would be required to climb up it twice for each mountain – ouch!

Climbing up Broken Hand Pass, one does not have to stretch their imagination too far to see why it is called Broken Hand Pass, as you can see a view of some rock that looks exactly like a closed fist that is next to what appears to be a second arm that has the hand broken off of it.

Broken Hand Pass

At the top of the pass, a large pulley system is set-up, with ropes and an intricate system of PVC pipes. Terry and I did not have much of a clue as to what this was for, but we later found out that day that the Rocky Mountain Field Institute uses the device to hoist large rocks from the top of the pass down the north side of the pass to fix the trail to prevent erosion.

From the top of Broken Hand Pass, we were able to check out the lower South Colony Lake and Humboldt across the way. Here’s a nice panoramic photo of that view:

 

Broken Hand Pass

 

At this point, Terry and I decided it was a good time to don our climbing helmets, a first for me in all of my mountain climbing adventures. From here we could see Crestone Needle looming above us, taunting us with its intimidating rock formations that we would be forced to carefully scale.

Crestone Needle

 

You can see two distinct gullies, one directly facing us, and another to its left, obscured by a rib running the length of the Needle. The standard route up the Needle takes you half-way up the east gully and then over the rib to the west gully and up to the summit. It sounds a lot more simple than it really is.

We followed the well-established trail over to the base of the east gully and started up. The rock on Crestone Needle is most impressive, a climber’s dream.

 

The entire mountain is made up of a mixed conglomerate of granite, quartz, and other rock. The rock had numerous large rocks cemented together making it quite easy to locate hand-holds and foot-holds for climbing. Here is a view up the east gully.
Up the Gulley

Terry and I were quite pleased with how solid the rock was and how stable the route seemed to be.

The hard part of climb was finally upon us – the transfer from the east gully to the west gully. The east gully takes you to a large dihedral with a large amount of snow at its base. We were forced to cross right at this snow over to the other side of the gully. This required a very unstable move by which we were forced to smear ourselves to the side of the wall, reach up, and push off and up at an angle to the more stable ledge just above the end of the dihedral.

We scrambled up the side of the gully up to a notch leading over to the west gully. Here is a shot of me climbing up the west gully courtesy of Terry. You can tell that this was not a good place to be for someone that is afraid of heights.

Matt Payne in the West Gully of Crestone Needle

I was able to take some nice shots combined into pano of the gully looking down towards the basin we came from to give you a good idea of the steepness of the climb.

Looking Down the West Gulley of Crestone Needle

After climbing up the west gully for about 600 feet, we reached the summit block of Crestone Needle! I was very eager to gain the summit, so I passed

Terry and celebrated on top.

This was probably one of the most invigorating climbs of my life. Here’s a 360 degree panoramic photo from the summit. Apologize for some image quality issues...

I have since figured out how to use my camera... Colony Baldy and Humboldt can be seen on the left to the left of Terry. The southern Sangres can be seen in the distance including Blanca, Little Bear, and Ellingwood Point and of course the Sand Dunes National Park. At right are Crestone Peak with Kit Carson, Challenger Point, and Kat Carson to its right. Finally, Mt. Adams can be viewed at far right.

Crestone Needle 360 Degree Pano

Here’s another pano to the north and northeast showing Crestone Peak, Kit Carson, Challenger Point, Mount Adams, Colony Baldy, and Humboldt.

 

Crestone Peak to Humboldt

 

And another view north and northwest of Broken Hand Mountain, Milwaukee Peak, Pico Aislado and of course the Southern Sangres.

Blanca, Little Bear and Ellingwood Point from Crestone Needle

And yet another view of the upper South Colony Lake beneath Humboldt and with the Sangres to our south.

Upper Colony Lake

Terry was nice enough to take a shot of me on the top, with Crestone Peak behind me.

Matt Payne on Crestone Needle Summit

 

After spending about 30 minutes on top, we decided to head down. It was pretty cool having the summit of a 14er to ourselves. On the way down,

 

Terry snapped this shot of me looking up the west gully.

Matt Payne in West Gully of Crestone Needle

We were able to reach the bottom of the gullies without incident. The rock was super stable and I really can’t say enough good things about how fun this climb is.

From the start of the gully section, I went over to a spot where I was able to look down upon Cottonwood Lake and the basin we climbed up from.

We climbed up from the basin on the right.

Cottonwood Lake
We got back down to Broken Hand Pass, chatted with the Rocky Mountain Field Institute for a bit, and headed down towards the lake. We passed a few people that had been on Crestone Peak and learned that we would indeed need our ice axes for Crestone Peak. Due to how tired we were, we decided that we would have to do Crestone Peak on day 3. We got near the lake and I decided to take some shots for this pano of our surroundings.

From Cottonwood Lake

 

On the way back down the basin towards our camp, I decided to build some cairns to ensure we would be able to find the best possible route up the trail again in the morning. We made it back down to our campsite, ate, and went to sleep. We were both really tired and decided to get up an hour later the next day so that the sun would have more time to soften up the snow on Crestone Peak for our ascent.

Day 3 – Crestone Peak. We woke up at 6 AM and headed back up the basin towards Crestone Peak.

 

We followed my cairns and made great time, reaching the base of Crestone Peak at about 7:30 AM. There was a couple of groups ahead of us in the “red gully,” the standard route up the peak. Due to this, we knew that we would have to be cautious of rock-fall from above during our climb up.

At the base of Crestone Peak, I took some photos for this pano. You can see the red gully running right up the middle of the mountain with snow lining much of the route.

 

Crestone Peak

 

We started up the red gully, which was a tiring and difficult task. Right before we reached the main snowfield near the top, the group above us kicked down a very large boulder and screamed “ROCK!” It spun rapidly towards us down the gully. It passed about 20 feet away from us and Terry yelled below to warn those behind us coming up the gully.

The rocks falling down from above were fairly common, so we were forced to remain very vigilant going up.

We were able to avoid the first two snowfields but the third and largest we decided to go right straight up. We got out our ice axes and began our ascent,

with a group on our heels. Terry kick-stepped up the mountain slowing, driving his axe into the snow in between each step. It was an arduous but very fun process.

I was just totally excited to be using my dad’s ice axe for the first time. At the top of the snowfield, we were about 200 feet from the top of the gully. We made it to the top, avoiding the looser rock in this area in order to prevent us from killing those below us.

The pucker factor was not as high as I thought it would be despite the steepness and exposure, as seen by this shot Terry took:

Crestone Peak Gully

Once at the saddle at the top, it was a quick scramble to our left to the summit. From the summit, you gain pretty sweet views of Crestone Needle pictured at left of this pano.

Crestone Peak Summit Pano

You also get some nice views of Kit Carson and Challenger, which would be our goals for next weekend.

Challenger and Kit Carson

And of course the obligatory summit pose:

DSC05601

We spent almost an hour on top, most of which was in the company of several other climbers. We decided to head down as the clouds began to build near us.

We decided to decent the snow, and I wanted to go all the way down the snow, while Terry departed the snow as soon as he was able. I really felt like the snow as soft and that there

was no risk of falling. I felt pretty comfortable about going down the snow, especially with my new best friend – the ice axe. Here’s a picture Terry took of me having a blast going down the snow.

Matt Payne down-climbing the red gully with an ice axe
We passed several groups going up and then stopped at the bottom of the red gully and beyond to take a photo of the basin, the peak, and the red gully above.

 

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We slogged back down to our campsite and decided to pack-up and head back down the 3.5 miles back to Terry’s truck. It took us 3 hours to reach his vehicle at 8 PM and we left for Colorado Springs. Terry got some awesome shots of the sun setting to our west as we drove off into the sunset.

Sunset from Crestone

What a great trip, one I will remember for the rest of my life!

The La Plata Mountains are a small sub-range of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado. The mountains are roughly 13 miles Northwest of Durango, CO and span about 20 miles north-to-south. The best-known peak in the La Plata Mountains is Hesperus Mountain, which is the Navajo sacred mountain of the North, and is the high point of the range. To the Navajo people, Hesperus is also known as: Dibé Nitsaa (Big Mountain Sheep) - Obsidian Mountain

 

Short story: One of the most scenic and enjoyable hikes I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing.

Long story: On Friday evening I drove via I-25, C-470, and I-70 past Vail to the Tigwon Rd. near Minturn, CO. The total drive time was 3.5 hours.

I think I arrived at the trailhead at about 9 PM and prepared my luxurious accommodations:

Sleeping Accomodations for Holy Cross

I’ve been wanting to do Holy Cross for a long time. The famous views of the Cross Couloir are something I’ve been wanting to see since I was a little kid.

Not that I’m religious, but the mountain is probably one of the most recognizable peaks around due to the snow couloir shaped like a cross.

Apparently many people used to do pilgrimages to the Notch Mountain Shelter which was built in 1924 in order to see the famous peak. I chose the Notch Mountain trail and Halo Ridge route for this very reason – it brings you up to 13,000+ feet and keeps you there for 4-5 hours of hiking… sweet! Some more history about Holy Cross:

In the mid nineteenth century, as the high country of Colorado was being explored, reports of a peak with a cross on its side began to circulate. A while later, it became clear that there was a high mountain with a large cross on its side formed out of snow. Finally in the August of 1873, a survey party led by Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, and including the photographer William H. Jackson, ventured into the wilderness above the Eagle River and located Mount of the Holy Cross. On August 24, two parties set off in different directions, the first to attempt to climb Mount of the Holy Cross, and the second, which included Jackson, to climb Notch Mountain and hopefully photograph the cross. Both parties were successful that day; one making the first known ascent of Mount of the Holy Cross, and the other reaching the top of Notch Mountain.

In the decades that followed, the area became a popular destination for religious pilgrimages. In the mid-1920’s a stone cabin was erected on top of the southern ridge of Notch Mountain to accommodate visitors. Due to the popularity of the area, in 1929, the area was declared a national monument by Congress. In 1950, the national monument status was rescinded. – Photo and history credited to summitpost.org and Aaron Johnson.

This weekend promised to be one of the best weekends for climbing – the weather was projected to be totally clear and there was a near-full moon on the calendar. Due to these factors, I wanted to get up super early and try to catch the sunrise from 13,000+ feet – something I’ve not done in over 10 years. So I set my alarm for 3 AM and hit the sack. I woke up at 3 AM and got ready, groggily. It was kind of strange being all by myself in the dark, but I was excited to begin my adventure. Hiking solo was a perk because it meant I could set my clock for whatever time, spend as little or as much time as I needed to get to my destination, and not rely on others for anything. I could also listen to my I-pod, which was kind of fun. The only drawback was that I was doing a lesser-used route by myself and so I would need to be very careful not to get injured. I started at the Fall Creek Trailhead at 3:30 AM and hastily made my way up the side of Notch Mountain.

I counted over 40 switchbacks to the top of the ridge.

As I neared the top of the Notch Mountain ridge, I could not help but look back behind me to see the light change as the sun started to light up the horizon:

2 Early Glow

From the trailhead to the shelter was 5.1 miles, and I was able to get to the shelter at 5 AM, which means I made super-good time – 3.4 miles/hr.

with 2,673 ft. of elevation gain. The wind was really cold at 13,077 ft. (elevation of the shelter) so my hands were pretty much frozen – taking pictures

was pretty challenging… The good news was that my legs felt ridiculously strong and I was jamming out to some Solas – which totally reminded me of my friend Rob, who introduced me to that music a very long time ago. Jamming out to Irish music while watching the sunrise was pretty darn awesome. Anyways, here’s the shelter.

3 Notch Mountain Shelter

That little bump of a mountain at the end of the trail would be my first challenge of the day – UN 13,248. So the shelter was pretty awesome – it had steel cable attached to it at numerous locations leading to the ground, which acted as lightning protection.

I was pretty impressed with how sturdy it was, given it was built in 1924. Another neat feature of the shelter was that it had windows – windows that were clear enough to see a reflection in. I could not help but take my first photo of the famous Holy Cross:

5 Notch Mountain Shelter Holy Cross Reflection

The sun still had not crested the horizon, but the light was still amazing. I decided to get a nice panoramic photo of the shelter and Holy Cross – you can also see the reflection in this one:

6 Notch Mountain Pano

And just before sunrise… with the moon above.

7 Holy Cross Pano

I’ve got to tell you – watching the sunrise over the Gore and Tenmile Ranges was pretty spectacular.

8 Notch Mountain Shelter sunrise pano

360 degrees of sunrise awesomeness:

9 Shelter Holy Cross pano

Wait for it… wait for it… Woohoo! The sun rises! Amazing stuff.

13 Holy Cross sunrise

I decided to start hiking towards my first destination but I kept stopping like every few feet taking photos – I was addicted to the insane light I had all around me despite the fact that my hands were frozen. My route would take me all the way up the peak to the left and up and around the ridges to the right of there and finally to the top of Holy Cross. The summit was a good 2 miles away and the route would never drop me below 13,000 feet for the rest of the day. alt The lighting on Holy Cross was very impressive – I really liked the red hue the sun was producing.I slowly made my way over towards PT 13,248. I finally made it to the top of PT 13,248 after about an hour of slow scrambling and photography, and took more pictures of my view – my favorite part about this hike was that my perspective was constantly but slowly changing.

Holy Cross as seen from UN 13,248

Just on the other side of PT 13,248, I was able to see the rest of my route for the day – the ridge looked very straight-forward but LONG. And long it was…

Holy Cross Ridge

My next objective was to conquer PT 13,373. The trek over to the base of PT 13,373 was very easy, but the route description states that reaching the top of PT 13,373 is the crux of this route. It was a very steep and rocky boulder-filled summit, with loose rocks and spider-webs everywhere.

The moon was in sharp contrast with the rock here…

Moon and Holy Cross Ridge

Here’s a closer zoomed in view of the moon and cliff:

Moon and Holy Cross Ridge

After some fun class 2+ climbing up, I reached the top of PT 13,373 and took some time to get a full view of my surroundings – 360 degrees worth:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

You can really see how far I have climbed now – the shelter is just a small dot in the distance. This shot shows the route pretty nicely – with where I came from to the right and where I was heading to the left:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

Check out how far away the shelter looked, zoomed in:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

Well, time to head on over to the next goal – a ranked centennial – Holy Cross Ridge. Apparently my dad climbed Holy Cross via Holy Cross Ridge, and he did it via Tuhare lake, seen in this pano of Holy Cross Ridge (far right):

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

And here… with Holy Cross in view at far right and lower Tuhare lake at far left:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

On the way over to the Holy Cross Ridge, I was able to get some really cool views of both Lake Tuhare on my left (south) and the Bowl of Tears to my right (north). This is one my favorite shots because you can see my shadow and I look super crazy, plus you can see both valleys (Holy Cross Ridge right down the middle):

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

And just because the view from here was so awesome, here’s another shot… :-)

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

And a look back at the Bowl of Tears and the Notch Mountain Shelter above it:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

After making it across the long boulder field leading to Holy Cross Ridge (which would later prove to be the hardest part of the climb due to numerous false summits), I took one last set of shots of the Tuhare lakes and, much to my excitement, the Maroon Bells, Snowmass Mountain, and Capitol Peak in the far distance.

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

Man, the Maroon Bells are some of the coolest mountains I’ve ever laid eyes on, and Snowmass and Capitol are just ridiculous looking. Here’s a zoomed in view of them. The ‘Bells’ are left of center, and Snowmass is right of center with Capitol at right of Snowmass looking like a sore thumb sticking up. Truly – seeing the Elk Range pretty much made my summer. As I approached the very top of Holy Cross Ridge, I saw the first living being since the night before: a marmot guarding the boulders:

Marmot on Holy Cross Ridge

Once I reached the top to Holy Cross Ridge, I basked in the insane view. The valley on the other side (west) of Holy Cross and Holy Cross Ridge was really cool – full of lakes and waterfalls. Here’s a 360 view from the top of the 91st highest mountain in Colorado:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

The really cool part of being on the Holy Cross Ridge for me was seeing where I had came from and being so close to my final destination. This pano shows the route, starting at the shelter and ending at Holy Cross:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

From Holy Cross Ridge, Mount of the Holy Cross was just one hour away, a quick boulder scramble down and then up. I started down, following the crest of the ridge (no trails) and up Holy Cross. I finally saw people… seeing other people motivated me to move even faster, because I thought they were the first people to hit the summit block for the day, and I wanted to beat them :-)~

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

I did end up beating them, but there were already others on top – oh well. Most people climb Holy Cross via the Halfmoon Pass trailhead, which is totally beyond me because going that way completely robs you of the spectacular view of the Cross Couloir from the Notch Mountain shelter. I hit the summit at 10:30 AM, which means it took me 7 hours from the trailhead. Anyways, I had a nice young lady take a few shots of me on top and then it was off to take some pano shots!Look at all the people!

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

From the top of Holy Cross, there is a small point jutting to the east. I took a quick walk over there in order to get some photos of the entire route I was on for the day. Here it is! The 2nd photo shows the actual route I took.

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

And the route outlined in black:

Mount of the Holy Cross Panoramic

That photo really shows the length of the day and was a rather proud moment for me. It felt great to be able to accomplish that, thinking back to May for my 1st climb this year, Shavano, and how tired I was just after a few miles. Ha-ha – looking back I realize now how much better I am now at using my camera too! Apparently the more you use it, the better… imagine that! After spending some time on top, I made the decision to return back the way I came. Apparently this route down is 1.5 miles further than the standard route but less overall elevation gain (remember, I had to go back over all three of the 13’ers again to get down).

After a beautiful day of hiking back over the 13’ers, I made it to the shelter at about 2 PM. Here’s a self-timer shot of me from there.

Mount of the Holy Cross Notch Mountain Shelter View

I rested and refueled at the shelter and had a short but pleasant conversation with a family that was also from Colorado Springs who were on a day-hike to the shelter. I started back down the trail (it was nice to be back on a trail after 8 hours of no-trail hiking) towards the trailhead.

Flowers near Holy Cross

After reaching the trailhead at 4 PM, I headed to Buena Vista and stopped in at Panchos for a burrito before the long drive back to Colorado Springs.

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