Day 1: Drive to Lead King Basin and Backpack to Geneva Lake ~ 1,400 ft. elevation gain ~ 3 miles
Day 2: Snowmass Mountain via the West Ridge Route ~3,000 ft. elevation gain ~ 6 miles
Day 3: Hagerman Peak via the standard route (south ridge) ~3,000 ft. elevation gain ~ 6 miles
Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak have sustained my attention for quite a few years. Ever since I first recall setting eyes on Snowmass Mountain from the summit of La Plata in 2005, I was in awe. The massive snow field that sits in the bowl that is Snowmass Mountain is simply breathtaking and totally recognizable from the summit of many mountains in Colorado. Here are a few examples of how easy Snowmass Mountain is to recognize, from various shots I’ve taken over the past few years of Snowmass Mountain from various summits:
From Huron Peak - June 2010:
From La Plata Peak - July 2005:
From Mount Massive - October 2009:
From Mount Elbert - August 2009:
Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak have a very storied history and are deserving of a few paragraphs to paint those details:
Snowmass is the 31st highest mountain in Colorado and rises to 14,092 ft. and is the 4th highest in the Elk Mountains. Snowmass was named originally by the Hayden Survey of 1873 and was simply called “Snow Mass” because of the huge snow field beneath the summit. The Ute Indians called it “Cold Woman” because it was often believed to be the source of bad weather. Some pioneers called it White House Peak, but that name did not stick. 1 Interestingly enough, there is a restaurant in Carbondale that we ate at on the way home called White House Pizza – which was delicious by the way - I wonder if it is named after this historical fact.
Hagerman Peak is the 88th highest mountain in Colorado and rises to 13,841 ft. and is the 8th highest in the Elk Mountains. Hagerman Peak is named after the legendary Aspen, Colorado businessman and mountaineer Percy Hagerman, who was the first person to climb Maroon Peak in 1908 and the first person to climb Hagerman Peak as well. From Hagerman’s Book, “Notes on Mountaineering in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, 1908-1910,” Hagerman describes the area around Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak: “These peaks are among the finest in the Rockies for a number of reasons. They have big streams and fine large lakes; they are rugged, steep and forbidding in appearance; some of them are richly colored; and finally, the upper stretches have not been scarred with mining claims.”2
Hagerman Peak is rarely climbed due to its remote location and difficulty (and because it is not a 14er). In fact, we saw only a handful of names on the summit register dating back to 2009 – many of which I did recognize (props to Ryan Kowalski for picking Hagerman as his 99th Centennial to climb – he eventually finished on Pikes Peak of all mountains).
Enough with the history – let’s get on with the trip report, starting with a TOPO map of our journey (click for a larger version):
Day 1: Drive to Lead King Basin and Backpack up to Geneva Lake
I was desperate. Desperate for the mountains, desperate for a climb, desperate for a climbing partner. After my miserable failure on Snowmass in June, I really wanted to get vengeance. If I were to finish the 14ers this year, that meant knocking out either Snowmass Mountain or Wilson and El Diente. Due to the insane rain that the Telluride area has received as of late, and thanks to a stern warning from a friend from 14ers.com, Jim (dancesatmoonrise) about the nasty conditions of the Wilsons after a lot of rain, I opted not to head down to the Wilsons. Instead, I contacted another friend, Ryan (monster5) to see how the conditions on Snowmass’ west ridge route were. Ryan was involved in a rescue attempt the prior weekend on Snowmass for 25-year-old Sean Wylam, another 14ers.com member. Sean eventually succumbed to his injuries and died, which was a real blow to the 14er climbing community. The thought of Sean’s death on Snowmass did damper my enthusiasm to climb it; however, I was determined not to let that stop me. Additionally, I chose another, more technically challenging route, but one that did not involve the use of crampons or snow. Lastly, I knew that this route would also give me good access to Hagerman Peak, which is another mountain in the highest 100. Bonus! I searched all week long for a partner. I knew that one of my regular partners, Regina, would not be up for the challenge (too technical), and I knew my other go-to partner, Ethan, would not be able to do a multi-day trip. Another friend, Micah (mountainmicah83) was already occupied for the weekend as well.
Enter Sarah Musick, friend, musician (no joke - that is really her last name – check her out on YouTube), ball-smasher (ask me later about that one) and last-minute climbing partner hero of the year! Here's Sarah on YouTube:
Sarah was able to get the green light at the final hour to join me on my trip to Snowmass – and I was totally excited! I really was not sure if I would be able to go without a partner because my wife might have just taken my car keys away if I didn’t have a partner lined up. After watching Sarah perform at Stargazers Theatre on Thursday night, I was able to pack for the trip. I had Friday off of work and was ready to rock. I picked Sarah up at her house at 10 AM and we departed for Carbondale. We stopped in at a burger joint in Carbondale and headed for Marble. The drive up from Marble was interesting. I was definitely glad that I had my lifted Jeep Grand Cherokee. I would rate the road a 6/10 on the difficulty scale for off-roading, as it did provide some rocky sections and a pretty formidable creek crossing. I think most stock SUVs could handle the road with caution. We found what we thought was the trailhead, but were not sure since it said “Silver Creek Trail.” We confirmed that it was not the right trail and kept going up the road another 2 miles up. All-in-all, the road into Lead King Basin is a good 15 miles of off-road adventure. I have never seen an area so full of wildflowers in my entire life! Wildflowers were everywhere, and the Lead King Basin offered spectacular views in almost every direction, all filled with flowers. Especially amazing were the views of Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak. A huge waterfall crashes down from the Geneva Lake Basin into the Lead King Basin beneath the mountains.
Wildflowers galore in Lead King Basin with Snowmass Mountain (left) and Hagerman Peak (right) in the background. Our route for Snowmass Mountain would take us right up that steep left side.
My Jeep’s temp gauges were all going into the red and I was perplexed. Well, it turned out that I had burned / leaked all of my coolant. No big deal, I had extra in the back. We parked at the real trailhead, which was totally obvious and labeled as the Geneva Lake trail. We headed up the trail at about 5 PM.
Some of the wildflowers that we saw on the trail were actually taller than me! The Wilderness Designation for this area is completely appropriate, that was obvious.
Along the way, there was an incredible opportunity to take photos of the wildflowers. We found ourselves standing smack dab in the middle of a field the size of three football fields, all filled with huge wildflowers. It was incredible. I was thankful that I had packed in my tripod (thanks for the advice Kane Englebert).
I brought the tripod for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that HDR photos are much better with a tripod since the tripod reduces and prevents movement of the camera, making the HDR photos easier to combine. The second reason is to do better panoramic photos.
The use of the tripod for this field of wildflowers proved great and I put together an HDR version and a non-HDR version for you to see the difference. By mousing over the photo, you can see the HDR version. You can really see how the HDR processing allows for a richer texture and you can see how the dynamic range of the darks and shadows are brought forward.
What was even more exciting was that the Maroon Bells peak through on the way up the trail to Geneva Lake as well. Thanks to the rift caused by the Fravert Basin, views of Maroon Peak were spectacular from the trail.
The wildflowers continued as we climbed up towards Geneva Lake. It was madness, truly.
This was the first time I had seen the Maroon Bells this close up with a decent camera and I was not going to let the opportunity go to waste!
We reached Geneva Lake in quick order (about 2 hours) and found one of the six designated campsites near the lake. We opted to camp in site #2 even though we later found site #4 and #5 to be the superior sites. Site #2 sat on a large hill above the lake’s western shores and was right off of the trail. It was highly impacted, and offered several trails down to the lake for water fetching purposes. We found it to be quite a nice site. Camping at sites that are not designated for camping is prohibited at the lake; however, we noticed that it really did not deter others throughout the weekend from making sites of their own. Tisk Tisk!
After we got all set-up, I decided to go check out the lake and stumbled upon a huge waterfall near the mouth of the lake’s south shores. The waterfall was really rushing quickly and difficult to get down to, but I managed to get my tripod and camera into place for some fun shots of the water.
Next, my attention was on getting set-up for the sunset and for star trails photography, which I was pretty excited for. I set-up my tripod on the shores of the Geneva Lake and went to work.
I was so busy checking out the lake that I almost missed an opportunity to catch the last of the sun's light on some clouds over the lake. I think if I were to take this shot 3 minutes earlier, the clouds would have been even more vibrant. Oh well!
For this trip's star trails photo, I decided to do something a little different based on some techniques I've been reading about. Instead of just doing the night sky, I wanted the scene to be a bit more interesting this time. I decided to start the process earlier and take it deeper into the night, so I set-up before the sunlight had totally faded and started - ending after an hour and a half of photos. I opted for an f-stop of 5.6 instead of 3.5 (to allow for a slightly better depth of field) and I stuck with 30 second exposures. All-in-all, this photo is a compilation of 115 photos. The North Star is just out of frame on the top-left.
I really loved how the stars reflected in the lake too!
After nearly falling asleep while sitting next to my tripod in the dark, I decided it was time to hit the sack. Knowing that we were entering dangerous and unknown territory to ascend Snowmass Mountain's west ridge, we opted for a slightly later start, but not too late so we could be down before storms. Before our 3:30 AM and 4:00 start came, we were both awakened by a really pissed off coyote across the lake from us. That guy was howling and barking for a good 30 minutes and would have startled anyone, I don't care what you say!
Day 2: Snowmass Mountain via the West Ridge Route
Hiking in the dark is always interesting, especially when you don't know where you're going. We had the description from 14ers.com in print and on my Android phone 14ers.com app (thanks Bill), and headlamps with fresh batteries. We were able to find our way pretty easily though, and before we knew it we were heading up the insanely steep slopes of Snowmass' west ridge. The trail to this point had been very easy to follow except for a few spots and the route finding had begun since there was no trail after we crossed over creek that feeds Geneva Lake coming down from Siberia Lake. It was all scree, boulders and dirt from here on out. I made a quip to Sarah: "Welcome to the next three hours of your life!" We both laughed and continued up to a flatter section that was clearly perfect for a tripod. Since the sunlight was getting a bit better, I decided it was prime time to set-up for some HDR panoramic photography. The clouds and sky were an orange-pink-purple color to the south and west over the Raggeds Wilderness Area and Treasure Mountain. Additionally, Little Gem Lake was barely in view, which we had passed on the way up. Lastly, "Siberia Peak," a quite prominent and impressive mountain connected via a ridge with Capitol Peak was in the right 1/3 of the frame. Hauling a tripod up the side of a mountain is a pain in the butt, no question about it; however, the rewards are well worth it. Click on the photo for a much larger version.
We hung out in the cold for a bit longer, allowing the sun to just paint the tops of "Siberia Peak." You can really see the difference between HDR and non-HDR in the below photo (non-HDR) and the above photo (HDR).
I packed away my tripod and woke Sarah up and defrosted her (just kidding on both accounts). We headed up the side of Snowmass and located the obviously correct gully that was full of vegetation at its base. The climbing from here on out was quite enjoyable, despite what I had read about the route. You could choose between loose dirt and scree (great for coming down, not so much going up) or huge boulders and class 3/4 scrambling. We opted for the fun scrambling and it was one of the most fun routes I've been on. Sarah was loving the terrain too, which was a relief since you never know if a new climbing partner will like this sort of climbing or not. It takes a different breed to enjoy scrambling on steep boulders.
Sarah and I also have another thing in common - we both love taking pictures of wildflowers. She recently just gave her partner one of the coolest birthday presents there is - a bunch of framed photos of wildflowers that her partner had taken on 14er hikes.
As we climbed, the views became progressively better. Finally, Geneva Lake came into view for the first time and Sarah and I stopped to admire it, as seen in the below panoramic which includes Geneva Lake, Little Gem Lake and Sarah. Sarah (and anyone else) - click to see a much bigger version!
We were both just loving the scrambling!
We kept climbing up, opting to stay close to the tops of the higher ridge that was on the left side of the gully. Sarah was able to document my climb up.
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And of course, I was able to photograph her photographing me - man we are nerds!
The rock was more solid than advertised, but we were very careful to test every hold and every step. Every once in awhile we were surprised by a loose rock or two, but so far, nothing had really warranted the dangerous warnings that I had read about on numerous sites and trip reports.
Staying near the ridge's top proved to be a great strategy because it offered us some really early views of the magnificent Capitol Peak, which I climbed last year and subsequently won a copy of Gerry Roach's 14ers guidebook through contest put on by his publisher for the efforts I put into my trip report. Not to digress, but I am really glad that people read, enjoy and use these reports, considering the fact that a report such as this one takes me roughly 16 hours of work between photo editing and writing.
Both Sarah and I were excited to see Capitol Peak... maybe me more than her - what do you think?
Pierre Lakes came into view as well, sitting below Capitol Peak.
Sarah caught me gazing at Capitol:
I felt this was also a great time to stop for a minute to get a really awesome panoramic. The basin below had really opened up quite a bit and the contrast from the low sun had made for some nice photo conditions. Click on the photo for a much larger version!
Continuing up the ridge line felt like the best way to go, despite the fact that we often ran into some obstacles that were challenging. Someone else must have agreed since we found a really groovy cairn up there too.
We finally crested the ridge and the first views of North Snowmass came into view. North Snowmass is one of two points that makes up Snowmass Mountain and is not ranked, but is 20 ft. above 14,000 ft. and has a whopping 40 ft. of prominence.
Sarah and I decided that on our way back we would for sure venture over to it, but for now we would concentrate on getting to the real summit of Snowmass Mountain. Here's a view of North Snowmass from the top of the ridge with Capitol Peak rising in a quite intimidating fashion to the north of the connecting ridge between North Snowmass and Capitol Peak.
From here, we opted to stay high on the ridge, which I affectionately nicknamed "Exposure-Palooza" after the famous rock band tour of the same namesake. The exposure from this ridge was fabulous. I was totally loving it despite Sarah telling me I was out of my mind. It was perfect exposure - totally manageable on one side (west) and totally freakishly nuts on the other (east). Sarah was a trooper though and kept up with me through the exposure-filled ridge scramble.
I think the exposure had grown on Sarah too, and before long I caught her flirting with it.
We reached the summit just shy of 9 AM, which meant we had made excellent time. There was still no sign of storms and we had the summit to ourselves. We could see some people below starting to make their way up, so I knew my time was limited to get a panoramic photo with my tripod. I set the tripod up right on the summit block, with one of the legs about 6 inches away from the greatly exposed face. This made for some adventurous maneuvering around the tripod as I shot. Sarah thought for sure I would step off the side and die. I'll admit, it was a bit surreal operating a tripod on the summit of Snowmass!
I tried to do some HDR work, but I don't think the lighting was best for it, so I opted to post-process a non-HDR version and an HDR version.
260 Degree Panoramic from Snowmass Mountain - at left - Capitol Peak - center - Snowmass Lake - right - Hagerman Peak
360 Degree HDR Panoramic from Snowmass Mountain
This was Sarah's 15th 14er and she was pretty excited. As for me - it was #48. Another advantage of having a tripod on the summit - it makes for great summit portrait shots! Hooray for self-timers and tripods!
Eventually another climber (a 14ers.com member but I can't recall his user name) joined us on the summit from the standard route and took notice of the crazy guy behind the camera on a tripod. It was a pretty funny conversation:
Me: "How's it going!?"
Him: "Great man, you?"
Me: "Could not be better!"
Him: "What's your name?"
Me: "Matt."
Him: "Matt Payne?"
Me: "Yep!"
Him: "Oh cool - I love your pictures!"
Me: "Awesome - thanks man!"
He must have figured that I was the only person crazy enough to take a tripod up Snowmass Mountain. Haha. Either way, it was quite flattering and I really thought it was awesome that he knew who I was.
He reported to us that he wore only microspikes up the huge snowfield and that it was a challenge but doable. He had wished he had crampons but it seems they are not necessary at this time. Good to know for other climbers doing the standard route. He departed after only a few minutes and Sarah and I watched as another climber came up the snowfield, except this time, this climber went all the way up the basin and ascended North Snowmass via a very steep and sketchy rock face.
My attention was kept by the powerful Maroon Bells to the east of us, and so I decided to try my hand at a zoomed-in panoramic at 105mm. You can also click on the photo to view a larger version of it on Flickr in a new window - feel free to comment!
Sarah and I figured we had spent enough time on top - so I took some shots of the USGS marker. The second one has some split toning applied to it in Adobe Lightroom.
Sarah packed up and re-attached her helmet to her dome. She asked me one last time if we should do the traverse to Hagerman Peak from here. I explained that I had read several reports of that traverse and that it did not sound like something we would want to do. Take a look for yourself, or read lordhelmut's trip report.
I thought that the exposure was just as fun on the way down as it was on the way up. Sarah agreed.
Sarah and I reached the joining saddle between the down-climb back to camp and the traverse over to North Snowmass. The terrain below looked loose and nasty. We took our time and staggered it so that I would go down 20 feet and then step to a side, let her know she could come down while I stayed put, and then repeat until down to the saddle. The reason for this strategy is to prevent rockfall injury. It worked wonderfully.
On the way over to North Snowmass I had to perform some last minute heroics to prevent the mountain from falling down. Good thing I drank some gatorade!
We were able to join the solo hiker that had gone up to North Snowmass via the standard route just as another climber hit the summit of Snowmass Mountain.
Let me know if that is you on top of Snowmass and I can show you a larger version!
The reason I wanted to head over to North Snowmass was because I knew the views of Capitol Peak and the Pierre Lakes basin would be great - and I was totally right about that concept, no question!
Sarah was really in love with this place and commented that it was easily the most gorgeous 14er she'd been on to date. The connecting ridge between Snowmass and Capitol was quite intimidating. I know of only a handful of people that have successfully completed that traverse, and I am certain that each of them is either certifiably insane or... as Samuel Jackson would say, "One Bad Mutha $%^&*#."
Even without the tripod set-up, I was able to get a decent panoramic from North Snowmass, which included both Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak.
The last order of affairs was to get a really good glimpse of the valleys below, which Sarah caught me in the act of doing.
We decided to head back to the ridge for our downclimb. Now - this is where I made a critical error in judgement and should be critisized repeatedly, especially given my propensity to evaluate mountaineering accidents. Let me be clear - I was an idiot. A moron. A completely foolish jack-ass. There, I said it. Now you don't need to. If I had not made it out alive, I would fully expect someone to write an entire article about how stupid I was and how ironic the death was given my mountaineering safety articles. It really goes to show that even the most experienced people can make errors and find themselves in a bad place. There's no question in my mind that no one is immune to it. When Sarah and I head back towards the saddle between North Snowmass and Snowmass, I decided it would be a fine and dandy idea to take a short-cut to re-join the ridge for our descent. Instead of going back up the ridge we came down, I thought we could get away with going around the side and to the ridge. I figured that if we encountered anything too crazy that we could turn around and go back the way we came. From my vantage point, it looked totally doable to just skirt around the side. If you look at the photo below you can see what I saw - the ridge where we needed to head down from and the ledgy system that connected us to it.
What we found was something totally inviting yet progressively challenging. It was kind of like each time you passed an obstacle it got easier for a moment and then you found another slightly harder obstacle until you were up against an almost impossible one that was slightly more psychologically reasonable than turning around. I am not sure if that makes sense or not, but it did to me at the time. What we found ourselves in was a mess - a real pickle. The rock was loose. Insanely loose. Dangerously loose. And it was exposed with class 5 sections. Each foothold and handhold was tested by both of us with great diligence - which is probably what saved our lives. Eventually, I found myself perched on a ledge with nothing but veritcal rock above and below me, with a huge boulder between me and the next part of the ledge. The only reasonable foothold was a large protruding boulder below me that looked to be held in place by air and spiderwebs. I knew it would not hold, but I also knew I had no where else to go. So I asked Sarah what it looked like from her point of view. "It looks like it is going to go at any second." Crap. I triple tested all of my holds again and put a small amount of weight on it with my right foot. Sure enough - the huge rock went crashing down the mountain. I still get chills even thinking about it. I could feel the mountain shake each time it bounced below me. Not a good feeling. Too late to turn back. In what felt like a move out of a Spiderman movie, I crouched backwards while holding solid holds with my hands and found myself on the other side of the boulder obstacle in a move that must have looked like a circus act to Sarah. My heart racing, I stopped to take it all in and relax for a bit. What the hell were we doing? Why was I risking my life for a short-cut? So stupid. I kept saying it out loud too. "Sorry Sarah. I'm stupid. Sorry. Ahhhhh why am I so dumb!?" I think Sarah was regretting this climb now. I didn't blame her. The terrain we found ourselves in was rugged and surreal, sure - but wow - death defiance was not what I signed up for this week. Sarah smartly resigned to down-climbing below my spot and up a gully nearby, where she rejoined me at another crux. A small triangular rock was wedged vertically into the ledge, held in by only a half inch of rock. It was the only handhold between me and death. Footholds were scarce too - a small patch of dirt and rock about half a foot in diameter terminating in air. After this move, the route was clear to the ridge. I tested everything over and over again like Howard Hughes washing his hands. When your life is at risk a little OCD goes a long way. I nailed the move and breathed deep sigh of relief. Sarah watched me and gave it a go. Before she could even get to the crux, she stepped on some rocks and sent about 20 large rocks crashing down - with quite real psychological demoralizing impact. Sarah was freaked out. I talked her through getting to a safe place. Fortunately, her OCD rock-testing was on par with mine. She decided (smartly) again to down-climb for a safer area and eventually we were able to re-join each other on the ridge. Some short-cut. Lesson learned. Short-cuts are stupid, especially in the Elk Mountains! Here's some views of what we found ourselves in.
It was really irresponsible of me to put Sarah's life into this sort of danger and for that I will always feel bad.
After we rejoined on the ridge, we talked about the adventure we just had and how stupid it was. We were both pretty shaken. We were overly careful after this point and it slowed our descent a bit, but that was OK by both of us. Finally, we were able to reach the vegetation at the bottom of the 2000 ft. gully and enjoy more solid ground.
The wonderfully gorgeous flowers almost calmed my nerves, almost.
It was an impressive mountain to downclimb. Looking back, you really gained a sense of accomplishment at how far we had gone and how steep the mountain really was.
We ran into one other guy heading up as we were coming down. I was not quite sure what he was going to accomplish since storm clouds had already began to form in the area, but he seemed quite determined and I felt I had no place preaching to him about safety after the complete debacle I had just escaped (turns out he came walking by our campsite a few hours later stating he was turned around by weather - I was glad he made it down safely).
At this point I was just happy to be alive and enjoying the multitude of incredible wildflowers.
Speaking of wildflowers - I had never seen so many Columbine flowers. They were everywhere!
I stopped for one last look back up Snowmass Mountain. The gully with all of the green at the base was the one we went up.
We reached Little Gem Lake in no time at all and enjoyed the views from there.
Below Little Gem Lake was a really nice mountain creek draining out - it was surrounded by flowers, making for a really nice scene!
I could not help myself from stopping several times on the way back to Geneva Lake to take photos of the wildflowers and waterfalls that were everywhere. What a magical place!
The ubiquitous columbine flowers made for great backgrounds and bokeh subjects for other flowers in the area, which I accentuated in this desaturated photo. A lot of people ask me what bokeh is. According to Wikipedia, bokeh is is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye (or not pleasing to the eye). Further research on the origin of this word took me to this article, where the author goes on to explain that, "it is a Japanese word meaning, roughly, "fuzzy," and it is used to describe old people with cobwebs in their heads among several other things — including the out-of-focus areas of photographs, which, I'm told, might more specifically be referred to as "boke-aji." So, long story short, the correct pronounciation is: BOW (as in bows and arrows) KUH (like Cuss). They even did a YouTube Video on it...
We finally reached our campsite at about 2:30 PM and cooked some delicious food. By now, other groups had made their way into the basin and a family of four had made camp just above us in a site out of view from our campsite. Sarah and I were pretty tired, so we took a nap while a thunderstorm rolled through the area. I've always loved sleeping in a tent during the rain.
Here's an elevation profile of our long day up Snowmass Mountain. Feel free to click on it for a larger version.
For day three, we decided it would be best for a 2:30 wake-up and a 3:00 start in hopes of catching the sunrise at some point for photography purposes.
Day 3: Hagerman Peak via the standard route (south ridge)
2:30 AM came pretty quickly and when it did, I asked Sarah if she wanted me to hit snooze. Hilarious half-awake banter ensued:
Me: "Want me to hit snooze?"
Sarah: "I don't want to ruin your sunrise."
Me: "That sounds like a tragic country song."
Sarah: (laughter)
Me: (singing voice and fluctuating notes) "Don't wanna ruin your sunrise."
Sarah: "It could be a song about a one-night-stand - leaving before the other person wakes up."
Both: (heavy laughter)
We opted not to hit snooze and embarked on another darkness-filled adventure. I had copied the notes from Gerry Roach's Colorado Thirteeeners guidebook as a reference, which proved quite handy despite the fact that we were in complete darkness all the way to the base of Hagerman. Despite our success in reaching the base of Hagerman, it did not come without some really tough route finding. For starters, the route was quite confusing and after the turn-off from the Trail Rider Pass trail, there was no trail. We found the creek drainage Roach describes in the route easily but were somewhat astounded and questioned the route when we found ourselves walking IN the creek since it was quite a narrow drainage (photos of the route during the daytime can be found later in this report). Additionally, the route went straight up the side of a hill through steep willow trees. Trails are for the weak, I suppose. Fortunately the willow trees were sturdy and we could use them to aid our climbing. Next, we found ourselves on top of a small 12,000 ft. mountain thinking it was the ridge after following the directions in the route description, only to realize it was opposite our current location. All was well though. We found what we thought was a gully Roach describes in the route, which turned out to be a much harder gully to the west of the actual gully. According to Roach, the gully was supposed to lead us to a "commodious grassy bench" but we had no idea what the hell a commodious grassy bench looked like, so that was not much help. Turns out, by the way - that commodious means spacious. Who knew!? We found ourselves on the south ridge pretty quickly. Unfortunately, because of the poor quality of the route and our misdirection, we did not reach the top in time for sunrise; however, we were able to make it to about 12,500 ft. and in view of the Maroon Bells and Pyramid Peak. There were some clouds hovering around Maroon Peak and it made for a very dramatic morning at first.
We were in pretty good position for sunrise and it was decent lighting for an HDR panoramic attempt. I feel like it turned out pretty well. The HDR process brings out all of the dynamic range of each bracketed photo, and in this case, it made for a graduated sunrise effect, ranging from pink to orange to purple. Quite stunning. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
Once the photo session was over, Sarah and I packed up and headed up Hagerman's south ridge, which we found to be pretty straight-forward and enjoyable. It was quite similar to Snowmass the day before - offering a choice between dirt and scree or boulders. We once again opted to up-climb the boulders and later down-climb the dirt and scree.
We reached the saddle between Hagerman Peak and Snowmass Peak (not to be confused with Snowmass Mountain - Snowmass Peak is an un-ranked 13er to the southwest of Hagerman, named only due to its dramatic view from Snowmass Lake) and enjoyed the amazing views below, as seen in the below panoramic from the saddle (click on the photo to see a larger version).
We stopped short of the summit for a bit to take it all in. What an amazing weekend we had had.
We reached the summit of Hagerman in no time at all from here after scrambling over a very small false summit. We could see a group of climbers below, heading up Snowmass Mountain from Snowmass Lake. I was pretty sure that this was the group that had talked to me earlier in the week about joining them, including Kara Bauman.
Sarah was pretty excited to reach the summit of her first 13er!
Once again, I was blessed with the powers of the tripod to ease my summit panoramic photography. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
If you'd like to see a very large version of this photo in flash with the ability to zoom in and out and move around, check out this page, but be warned - it is 22 megs!
We set-up for a summit portrait with Snowmass Mountain behind us.
After a few more minutes on the summit, we decided to head down the same way we came up.
The downclimb was quite a bit easier due to the slightly wet dirt and scree, which made for quite an enjoyable boot ski down.
During the downclimb we finally properly identified the commodious bench, which quickly became the subject of many jokes. The "commode" as it was referred as from now on served its purpose well.
The commodious grassy bench offered one other benefit as being a great place for photography of the Maroon Bells.
Directly next to the grassy bench was the gully we were supposed to take up earlier in the dark. Here's what the gully looks like if you are wanting to know.
We followed some rocky ledges (as described in Roach's book down and the rest of the route was fairly easy to follow back down the drainage.
Here are some photos showing the route down, obviously in reverse order if you were coming up. Hopefully these can serve as a better guide to you than Roach's book did for us.
The "trail" for Hagerman going up a "narrow drainage."
The willows you must upclimb for the standard route of Hagerman Peak.
The "excellent campsite" on Hagerman's standard route
This is where you turn off to go up the creek and faint trail for Hagerman's standard route.
The hike back to Geneva Lake was pleasant and the views along the way were great. Here's another vantage of the Fravert Basin.
And a sweet view of Siberia Peak from a clearing on the trail.
And back at Geneva Lake!
After reaching our campsite, we quickly tore down camp and packed out, making it back to the car just shy of noon - making for a great weekend of climbing!
These two mountains will forever hold a special place in my memory and my heart - if you've never been to Geneva Lake and the Lead King Basin - you really should! It is a magical place.
Here is an elevation profile of Hagerman Peak and then one of the entire trip - feel free to click on each to see a larger version.
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References:
- http://www.tosv.com/uploads/FileUpload/mtnnames.pdf - Snowmass and its peaks: the name game. Catherine Lutz.
- Notes on Mountaineering in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, 1908-1910. Percy Hagerman.
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