| Peak(s): |
Chipeta Mountain - 13,495 feet Carbonate Mountain - 13,662 feet Cyclone Mountain - 13,616 feet "Lo Carb" - 13,598 feet Grizzly Mountain - 13,722 feet Mt. Mamma - 13,672 feet Boulder Mountain - 13,530 feet Unnamed 13786 - 13,786 feet |
| Date Posted: | 12/29/2014 |
| Date Climbed: | 11/09/2014 |
| Author: | SnowAlien |
| Fall Hikes in the Sawatch |
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UN 13,472 near Mt. OurayDate: October 5th, 2014 Trailhead: Marshall pass @10,800 ft Mileage: 9.5 miles Vertical: 3,700 ft Time: 6.5 hours Party: Solo After hiking Rito Alto-Hermit-Eureka the day before I felt complete lack of motivation that morning. Colony Baldy was on the agenda, but I decided to head up north to Salida to get closer to the western side of the Sangres, since Jason and I had plans to hike Cottonwood A the next day. Once in Salida, I still couldn't find any motivation to hike, so I decided to go to brunch. While waiting to be seated, I looked through a local newspaper, hoping to find some good local scoop on foliage. And I did! The article mentioned a few areas with the editor's pick being the Marshall Pass area. I happened to agree, since last year we had an enjoyable hike up Mt. Ouray around this time of the year. After a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns (they didn't serve Bloody Mary, unfortunately), the mojo came running back around 11.15am and I decided that I didn't want to be like normal people, enjoying a lazy Sunday, but that I'd rather take a stroll in the alpine. I quickly dug up some beta on my phone on a 13er next to Mt Ouray. Piper14er described it as a fairly easy outing, and I was hoping for a short day with exorbitant amount of leaf viewing. From Salida, I set off in the direction of Marshall pass around 11.30pm and started hiking at an "alpine" hour 1pm (the forecast was expected to stay clear).  Mt. Ouray on the drive in Before departing the TH I studied the map of the area, noticing there was Colorado trail going in the direction I needed. Lacking any good beta on CT, I decided to follow the route up the ridge, described in several trip reports. There is no trail, but the route is fairly straightforward.  Initial ascent of the ridge  Mt. Ouray comes into view  Long ridge to my destination PT 13,472  Looking back at the ridge En route stumbled upon an interesting marker for the Chaffee county   A disheartening view from the 12er at my destination. Given the amount of ups and downs, I was running an hour behind my schedule.   The ridge almost in its entirety I didn't stay on the summit too long and hightailed back to the 12er as quickly as I could. Then it was a decision time. I didn't want to repeat all the ups and downs on the ridge, which almost certainly meant descending the last off trail section in the dark.  Instead, I took a hard look at the Colorado Trail in the valley. Found the gentle descent slope and joined the CT as the sun was setting.  Easy descent line  Then it was a matter of mindlessly booking it back to the TH, enjoying a lovely sunset. I arrived back at the car at 7.30pm, using the headlamp only for the last 1/2 hour.  Looking in the direction of La Garitas Carbonate-Cyclone-LoCarb-Grizzly Mtn loopDate: October 31st, 2014 (Halloween scare!) Trailhead: Cyclone Creek TH/ghost town of Shavano Mileage: ~9 miles Vertical: 4,200 ft Time: 10 hours Party: Solo I wasn't expecting to get to these peaks this fall, but once again, the weather forecast looked spectacular, so I was tempted to hike again. I begged my boss to give me a Friday off, but didn't manage to get off work until 8pm on Thursday. I was able to pack for the weekend that night, but driving that late was out of question. On the early morning drive into the mountains, I was still coming up with some ideas what to hike, finally zeroing on this four 13ers/3 bicentennials loop. After a long & tedious drive from Denver, I found what I thought was a starting point and set off at 10am.  I set off from the Town of Shavano site, but to my dismay the trail quickly petered out.  After wandering aimlessly for about 15 minutes, I closely studied the map and eventually found the trail, which wasn't very obvious. In case the trail was easy to follow, I intended to start with Grizzly, as it was supposed to be the hardest peak of the bunch. But the trail was very faint and I kept loosing it, so I made a decision to head up Carbonate first.  Breaking through the treeline  Grizzly seen at the end of the basin Unfortunately I didn't pick a good shoulder to ascend Carbonate, so about 1,000 ft of scree sliding followed.  Inefficient and unpleasant ascent line Eventually the slope relented and it was a straightforward hike to the summit  Carbonate summit becomes visible  On the summit looking at Cyclone, LoCarb and Grizzly  The ridge ahead  Taylor & Aetna  The hike over to Cyclone went quickly and I was rewarded with a unique register. It goes back to 1989 - the oldest I've seen on the peaks so far, and it was still in a pretty good shape with just a couple blank pages left.   Remaining route up LoCarb and Grizzly  Looking back at Cyclone and Carbonate  Beginning of the ridge to Grizzly - a notable deviation from the gentle terrain so far, as it quickly becomes loose and steep.   Looking down the Class 3 section  Looking up at the same section after the downclimb But it wasn't the ridge crux. A little ways down the ridge a large loose rock unexpectedly shifted and pinned my foot, luckily, it was just a minor scare (and a bruise). I immediately stuck the foot in the snow to help ease the pain.  Passing through the unstable and loose section  More loose rock  After reaching the saddle, the terrain quickly mellowed out and it was just a matter of grunting up to the 4th summit of the day.  Mamma (L) to Boulder (R) ridge  Lo Carb & Cronin  Mamma & Boulder from the summit of Grizzly ~5pm  Ridges of the day  Starting the descent The sun was setting, so I had to quickly come up with the game plan to descent. But first I had to give another ice bath to my throbbing toe and to peel myself from watching a sunset. After those tasks complete, I bombed down 2,000 ft of scree as expediently as I could in the waning daylight angling to merge with the imaginary mining trail. By the time I get to the point I thought I might catch a trail, it got dark and I wasn't able to find it. In the end, it worked out. I just took a path of least resistance along the creek, and made it work. When an opportunity presented itself, I crossed the creek on iced over rocks. Eventually I picked up something resembling a trail which after some distance actually became a trail, which led me back to my car around 8pm.   Trying to decipher an existence of a trail in this basin  Boulder - Mamma loopDate: November 8th, 2014 Trailhead: Baldwin gulch 2WD TH Mileage: ~16 miles Vertical: 5,000 ft Time: 10.5 hours Partner: Will This loop was squarely on my mind after staring at it from Grizzly the previous weekend. It didn't take long to convince Will to join. Shortly after 7am we set off from the lower TH.  Antero  The road had surprisingly deep drifts, as it is north-facing.  South-facing face of Princeton looks dry  Will and Cronin  More Cronin  Road walking  More road walking  Approaching the summit  Summit of Boulder Mtn  Cronin  Returning the gaze to Grizzly, Aetna and Lo Carb a week later  Will finds a short snowdrift on otherwise dry ridge  Ridge to Mamma (R) and Grizzly (L)  On the ridge  Mt. Mamma with its long shoulder   Looking back at Boulder Mtn  Remaining ridge section  Will  We almost skirted the true summit, as both out gps' showed the summit another 0.4 miles away. After discovering the register we closely studied the contour lines on our maps/garmins/delormes and determined that in fact, this was the highest point on the ridge. What a relief! The descent was easier than expected. We could clearly spot a trail lower in the basin. We just had to aim for the orange pile of dirt in the basin, left behind from the mining operation.     Trail must be right behind this...  Voila!  Looking back at the descent route From catching the mining road, it was a matter of hiking it for 5 miles - not very exciting, but rather efficient.  Cronin  Antero  Pt 13,768 near Mt. of Holy CrossDate: November 9th, 2014 Trailhead: about a mile below French Creek TH Mileage: ~13.5 miles Vertical: 4,300 ft Time: 10.5 hours Partner: solo Hugh was supposed to join me on the hike, but got a minor injury in the gym and had to cancel. The weather was looking spectacular, so I decided to hike anyway. UN 13,768 has been on my "wish list" for a few years, longer than any other peak in this TR. Initially, I was saving it as a "foliage hike". Only recently, upon realization that there was no foliage, only pine trees on the approach, it brought the peak to the top of my hiking list. I didn't know how far up the road I could get in a Subaru, so was contemplating hiking from the bottom of the road. In daylight, I realized the slope was south facing, meaning the road should be mostly dry. If was for the most part, but eventually, I was stopped by a significant ice flow, about 0.7 miles away from the summer TH.  Approaching the summer TH My summer boots got wet the day before hiking the snowy roads in Baldwin Gulch, so I decided to go with mountaineering boots today. Big mistake! The extra weight zapped my energy and slowed me down. The trail was dry for the most part and I felt boots' heavier weight and lesser flexibility from the get go. True to the form, I lost the trail in the beginning by taking the wrong turn near the Diversion Dam, but quickly regained it without loosing too much time this time around. Hiking up the Holy Cross City jeep road, I was initially passed by a couple of jeeps. I soon caught up to them, as they struggled to get over obstacles - iced over rocks.  Heavily modified jeep trying to navigate the Holy Cross City jeep trail  Check out those wheels!  Not sure who won the battle - the road or the jeeps, as I lost the sight of the jeeps fairly quickly. I had a minor trouble finding the "proper" Fall creek trail under the snow drifts, so just went in the general direction of the Hunky Dory lake.   Hunky Dory lake From there, I was able to follow the Fall creek trail, which was still decipherable under smaller snow drifts.  Upper basin  Peak comes into the view, with the route not entirely obvious   I overshot the route by going too far towards Fall Creek pass  I descended 200 ft back to the lake, but was unable to see a good route up higher, that didn't involve post-holing or bypassing cliffs. It was about 1pm, I was out of gas, food, tired and frustrated. I decided to call it a day. I circled back around the lake, and suddenly saw a path.  Seeing a dry path towards the higher basin  The route steepens and then becomes slabby   Enjoying solid holds, albeit it's more challenging in heavy mountaineering boots  Sticking with it  Looking back at the lake  Remaining route comes into the view The standard route, I believe, bypasses the upper lake on the left. I am too tired to even attempt postholing in deep snowdrifts. Instead, I test the ice and around 2pm get my first major lucky break of the day - the ice is solid. I glide to the other side of the lake towards beautiful solid slabby ramp     Slabs   After topping on the slabs, it is still a grunt of the remaining 1,000 ft to the summit, and I am completely out of energy.  In a sea of talus, I spot something resembling solid rock and decide to steer towards it.   A beautiful face with solid holds A bit higher the face becomes more broken, but the blocks are still solid.   Top of the ridge comes into view - finally  Near the ridge with unranked Pt 13,618 (L)  Topping out near the summit  Summit ~3.40pm  Upper Tuhare lake  Holy Cross Ridge and Holy Cross   Back at the lake   Texture  Just enough daylight to find a good descent line to the lower basin  Instead of trying to find a route on the left towards the trail I came up, I take a more obvious dry path on the right towards the lower Seven Sisters lake  Descending towards the lower Seven Sisters lake as the sun is setting I picked up the trail with the last rays of sunlight around 5.30pm and donned a headlamp near the Hunky Dory lake. Another lucky break - since I was gone, a few parties made it to the lake and back, breaking a nice trail through the snow. I followed it without any difficulties, this time taking a correct turn by the Diversion Dam and arriving at my car near 7.30pm. This hike, more difficult than any others this Fall, with route finding challenges, made for a perfect capstone to the Summer-Fall'14 hiking season.  |
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. I wore my mountaineering boots that day too. Glad I did though. It was pretty windy up above for me. Thanks for sharing!!
