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Trailhead: Barr Trail
Route: Barr Trail to A-Frame, A-Frame to the Cirque, East Face of Cirque to South Ridge
Mileage: 9.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 7600'
5am...Start
9am...A-Frame
10am...Cirque
10:45am...start of wall
11:45am...start of snowfield
12:20pm...ridge
12:45pm...summit
Climbing the Cirque has been on my mind ever since Dani and I first hiked up Barr Trail in 2005. After cutting across the huge east face of Pikes, you get to this sign and a great view down into the cirque. The views of the steep snow and rock are awesome and very different from the views you've had for the past 12 miles. I've looked down into the Cirque a bunch of times and always thought how cool it would be to be down there.
If you're not a resort skier, the weather has been a mess the last month. I was hoping to climb Longs or Holy Cross this weekend, but had to pass again because of heavy snowfall and hurricane force winds. I took a look at the Pikes Peak forecast. It was going to be windy, but at least it was going warm and dry. It didn't take me long to decide to give the Cirque a try. I couldn't find any information about routes, so I just decided to wing it.
View from the top of the incline.
View from the Experimental Forest. As usual, the trail was packed and icy in sections. Microspikes helped a lot.
Sunrise
Alpenglow on the peak. The Cirque is the snowy and rocky area just to the left of the big east face.
I took a nice, long break at the A-Frame. Called my Mom and my wife...and waited for the wind to die down a little.
From the A-Frame you leave the Barr Trail and head directly across the face. I'm pretty sure there is a trail here somewhere. I ran into it a few times, but never saw any signage. I put my snowshoes on here to get across the willows, but could have done without them. Just didn't want to carry my snowshoes up and down the mountain and not use them once.
Once you get to the ridge, the views of the Cirque open up. The views were not disappointing. I felt like I walked onto another mountain. Getting down into the Cirque is not difficult. I just hugged the right side and gradually made my way down to the bottom (I've heard this area called the crater). I immediately started to scan the area for possible routes. The yellow line shows my first and eventual route choice. But I didn't make the final decision until I got all the way in and could look at every angle.
Here's a closer look at the east face of the Cirque. The bottom is mixed rock and snow and the top is a steep snowfield. The hardest climbing (noted in red) are the sections where rock was exposed. I would say the climbing never exceeded class 4, but it felt more like low 5th class when you throw in the the exposure and the snow.
I considered 2 other ascent options...
The first was this left angling snow climb on the left side of the Cirque. It looked like fun, but was north facing, didn't top out very high, and would put me the furthest from the summit in the windiest spot on the mountain.
This was the other option. This is the couloir directly under the Cirque sign on Barr Trail. It looked steep, but not too difficult. I have always wanted to climb this, but the face just looked way too fun and the snow conditions on the east aspect were perfect.
I started up the lower section of the face around 10:45am. The climb from here to the ridge is about 1500'.
Climbing left up the first snowfield
Looking down at the first difficult rock section...the first snowfield is in the sun, middle of the picture
Looking up at more mixed terrain. I went up this strip of snow and then up the rocks to the left. The inset gully to the right might have been another option, but it's farther than it looks and would have involved an exposed traverse.
Looking down from the top of the last picture
Everytime I thought I had passed the difficult climbing, I would look up and see more rock
Relieved to be finally above all the rock and on the upper snowfield
Still a long way to go though and I was really starting to feel the elevation gain at this point. I felt like I was never going to get to the top. This is a feeling we all know well. It's such a mental battle and can feel overwhelming...especially when you are by yourself. The only thing I've found helpful is to keep my head down and pick small battles...make it to that rock then rest...make it to that snow feature then rest...take 30 steps then rest...etc
I finally got to the ridge at 12:20pm and was greated by 40 - 50mph winds. I had completely forgot about the wind for that last few hours. The walls of the Cirque created a perfect shelter. The other thing I noticed was that there were cars on the Pikes Peak Highway. I never even considered that this would be a possibility. Hmmm...hike 9 miles back down the cog track in the wind or get a nice, warm ride down with a tourist. This was not a difficult decision.
I took a couple pictures on the true summit and hailed the first car that passed me. I was back at my car before 2pm. Thanks for the ride Scott!
This was one of my most memorable days on Pikes Peak and I would recommend it to anyone that is up for this kind of climbing. I will be back again for sure.
Thanks for reading.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Pike's winds are no joke. I summited on Monday via Crags TH and we had sustained 40 plus and insane gusts up higher. Hailed a ride w a dude that had heated seats. A difficult choice after 5ish miles in the winds.
Thanks for sharing.
Great job and VERY nice pics Mike! I summited via Barr Trail yesterday, and the wind was definitely no joke! Because it's a west wind, I was somewhat protected by the east face, but yeah, you're right - total different story once you're on the summit!! Keep me in mind whenever you decide to do some more ”off-the-grid” routes on Pikes!! And thanks for the trip report.
Your speed and drive never ceases to amaze me. Congrats on getting this stellar route climbed. I've wanted to go explore that area myself. Now seeing your report, I may just have to go do it.
Wow, 7:45 via that route is fast! I'm sure you were feeling doing the incline on those upper snowfields. I always have to laugh when the incline baggers make a big show when they get to the top of it. Little do they know what adventures Pikes has! Thanks for the beta on the Cirque. I seemed to recall seeing 3 prominent couloirs on the right side of the Cirque face. Were those not in yet?
Like you, I had looked at the Cirque for many years and finally put together a plan about ten years ago. We had seven and all were pretty experienced mountaineers, so we split up into three groups. Interestingly, we did almost exactly the route you did essentially up the far end of the Cirque, and the other two routes we did were the two you mention as interesting-looking possibilities. All three went well, with the route on the left up the couloir past the ”cave” maybe being the diciest. The guy who did that one solo was quite strong...in fact, he was in training to be a guide at the time.
Hey Kev...
The only couloir I noticed was the one that I think leads up to the Cirque sign. I didn't see any other continuous snow lines.
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