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15 miles
6200 ft
Difficulty: Class 3, with one class 4 move
TH: Lake Charles 2WD
Partners: Ben, Indy
Pika Peak would be my 292nd 13er, meaning I had now climbed half of Colorado's ranked 13ers.
I was unsure whether I would be able to climb this group this summer, because a perfect forecast is needed, and that is what we got. We camped at the campground and got a leisurely start at 6:20. I debated for a while whether to climb this group clockwise or counterclockwise. Finally I decided climbing them from Pika to Fools would be best because we would ascend the worst talus and descend mostly on a trail. The hike up to Lake Charles went quickly. Our stay was short because of a cloud of mosquitoes. In fact about the only clouds we encountered were of the mosquito kind. So up we went through the trees and into a small bowl below the west ridge of Pika. The parasites followed. Ascending the talus to Pika was not terribly difficult but it would have been annoying to descend while tired. We topped out at 9:30, a fine summit for a halfway mark.
Fools Peak Ascending to the ridge West ridge of Pika Nearing the summit
The traverse to 12940 was pretty easy on mostly stable talus, at 10:30 we summited. Our stay was short.
Pika Peak 12940
Let the fun begin, I knew from Furthermore's trip report that this ridge held lots of fun solid exposed class 3 climbing. The class 3 begins on 12800, I dropped below the ridge and followed grassy ledges to save some time, thank you Furthermore for mentioning the ledges. Shortly after the saddle the class 3 begins in earnest and doesn't let up until the summit of Eagle. I only felt like one move warranted a class 4 rating about midway up the ridge. We crested the summit ridge and were greeted with a false summit. It took 20 minutes to navigate the high ridge to the summit. At 12:30 we finally reached the summit.
Eagle Peak Start of class 3 Class 3 ridge Looking down the ridge Seeing if gravity still works Exposure Nearing the false summit Damn, that's the summit sandwich time
Feeling good Ben and I made the short talus hop to 13100. It took an hour to get there and back to the small upper saddle where Indy was waiting for us. A small ledge provides easy passage to the talus slopes which lead to the saddle with Fools. There is one major ridge bump which we bypassed on the south side on stable talus. The heat of the day and endless talus were starting to wear on us.
On 13100 chilling at the saddle Mystic Island Lake
The 600 foot climb up Fools felt like a death march. We made it to the summit at 4:00, mosquitoes were there to great us, so we didn't stay long. The west ridge of Fools is steep but stable and went quickly. Grassy slopes were a welcome change to all the rocks. Once we reached the trail we had one more decision to make, whether to climb Charles BM, which would add 350 feet of climbing but would be shorter or descend the trail to Lake Charles and and about .75 miles. We decided to go down rather than up. Finally at 7:30 we arrived back at our car. What a great day.
Only 650 feet class 2-3 gully Upper ridge mosquitoes not pictured West ridge of Fools Lake Charles
A special thanks goes to Furthermore for his excellent beta.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
And all before the age of 30. When I was that age, I was only focusing on a few 14ers here and there. Times have changed, I suppose.
Nice job on all your climbs.
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