Pikes Peak Trip Report 04/22/2007

Peak(s):	Pikes Peak - 14,109 feet
Date Posted:	04/22/2007
Date Climbed:	04/21/2007
Author:	RussellT

Pikes Peak - Northwest Slopes Attempt
What a hike. Ryan picked me up from work after 9:30 Friday night for what was to become the most human-error plagued (but in a comical and irritating and not life threatening way) climb attempts I've ever been on. We drove towards the Crags trailhead, but being that Ryan and I are both hard-working men, we decided to stop in Monument and get an energy drink of some sort. 10:30 P.M., and we're slamming a Spike... I guess I should have heeded the "must be 18 to buy" warning. No matter, in about 20 minutes, I was rip-roaring. That was the first mistake. We get to the trailhead south of divide. It had to be close to midnight, but I didn't look at the clock. I was so wound-up and twitchy, I just wanted to go to sleep. We rolled the sleeping bags out in the back of the truck. Ryan, who is a habitual coffee drinker, was out. I, a habitual water drinker, was itchy and rolling on top of myself. I was awake when the cell phone alarm went off at 3:30. Time to go. 3:45 AM. Headlamps on, we took off up the trail. We made great time, until we got to the steeps. We went up. Having no familiarization with the area, we deciphered to the best of our ability what Devil's Playground was, and started our climb, optimg to go north around the "Playground" instead of south. "The Devil's Playground"... in our own minds. Once we got above timberline, the view behind us was spectacular. You could see beyond South Park, the peaks of Shavano, Princeton, Antero all clearly visible as well as the Sangres. The clouds were stunning. We broke through timberline and took in the magnificent rock spires to the north. Little did we know that we were straying WAY off course. D'Oh! Lenticular clouds of justice. Man, I need to learn to rock climb! After rounding the edge of this peak we thought was a peak topped by the "Devil's Playground", AND rounding another peak, we found ourselves crossing over the north side of the saddle that we should have climbed towards initially. Miles and verticle feet behind us, we felt agonizingly far away from the summit. When it finally came into view, the disappointment fully sunk in. The closest the summit looked to us. We strapped on our snowshoes, and decided to make a run of it, but we didn't make it far before we realized that it was much later than we needed it to be, and being as frustrated as we were that we wasted an entire day, lost much of the motivation to continue. We made it to about 100 yards of the notch here and called it quits. It didn't seem like it was too late, either. When we looked back west on the way down, we saw some pretty menacing clouds. (At least at this point, we realized we COULD blame the lack of summiting on this and NOT our giant mistake...) The picture of the end. Our excuse to head home. Being that we were going back to the trailhead a different way than we knew, we had to improvise lots of the trail. There weren't any cairns that we could see, and it was quite a while before we would find any tracks. Snowshoes on hard, steep snow really suck, too. I slipped at one point and lost a new, blue Nalgene. It took off down the mountain like a greased pig! Ryan and I were commenting that it was one of the coolest thing we had ever seen! We stopped and watched it shoot down the slope for literally 40-50 seconds before it disappeared out of sight, not because it was obstructed from view, but because it had travelled that far! If you find it, you can keep it, but let me know where you found it. I'm so curious to see if it wound up somewhere in California. Anyway, back to the point, we saw some beautiful terrain as we got back into the trees. Knowing generally where we had to go to find the trail or our tracks from earlier, we wound our way through the deep sugar snow in the trees. At this point, I discover that I should probably be wearing some bigger snow-shoes. Every time I even looked at a tree funny, I would sink in to the snow up to my knees and hips. Ryan almost had to dig me out. I would have taken pictures of this had frustration not been an issue. Your cold, Charlie Murphy! Cold as ice! We finally found a trail, and we took off the snowshoes. I stopped to capture some of the rocks we had missed in the morning by headlamp. When we got back to the truck, it was quarter after 3. The truck was unlocked, but oh well, right? WRONG!! After about 10 minutes of firing up the stove and boiling some grub, a Teller County sheriff rolls up. How, on that muddy and snowy road did he keep his Explorer looking so nice and shiny? Beside the point. Someone called in Ryan's truck at 8 in the morning. The doors were unlocked and our cell-phones were in the front. Suspicious. So I entertained the deputy while Ryan cooked, and the nice guy let us go without even a warning. We got back to Littleton around 5:30, I ordered a stuffed-crust Pizza, our wives made fun of us for "climbing the wrong mountain" (which I had the defense: "we went AROUND the wrong mountain, duh"), and we had some Mojido's to call it a day. Some crags, and somebody stole one of the Broncos' Lombardi Trophy! Lessons learned: 1. Don't drink energy drinks before bed. At all. Especially "Spike". 2. Know your route. 3. Know your landmarks. 4. Know your weight in relation to your equipment (snowshoes). 5. Make sure your nalgenes are secured! I hope you all enjoy this, and good luck to you guys actually summiting! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Pikes Peak - Northwest Slopes Attempt

What a hike.

Ryan picked me up from work after 9:30 Friday night for what was to become the most human-error plagued (but in a comical and irritating and not life threatening way) climb attempts I've ever been on. We drove towards the Crags trailhead, but being that Ryan and I are both hard-working men, we decided to stop in Monument and get an energy drink of some sort. 10:30 P.M., and we're slamming a Spike... I guess I should have heeded the "must be 18 to buy" warning. No matter, in about 20 minutes, I was rip-roaring. That was the first mistake.

We get to the trailhead south of divide. It had to be close to midnight, but I didn't look at the clock. I was so wound-up and twitchy, I just wanted to go to sleep. We rolled the sleeping bags out in the back of the truck. Ryan, who is a habitual coffee drinker, was out. I, a habitual water drinker, was itchy and rolling on top of myself. I was awake when the cell phone alarm went off at 3:30.

Time to go. 3:45 AM. Headlamps on, we took off up the trail. We made great time, until we got to the steeps. We went up. Having no familiarization with the area, we deciphered to the best of our ability what Devil's Playground was, and started our climb, optimg to go north around the "Playground" instead of south.

"The Devil's Playground"... in our own minds.

Once we got above timberline, the view behind us was spectacular. You could see beyond South Park, the peaks of Shavano, Princeton, Antero all clearly visible as well as the Sangres. The clouds were stunning. We broke through timberline and took in the magnificent rock spires to the north. Little did we know that we were straying WAY off course. D'Oh!

Lenticular clouds of justice.

Man, I need to learn to rock climb!

After rounding the edge of this peak we thought was a peak topped by the "Devil's Playground", AND rounding another peak, we found ourselves crossing over the north side of the saddle that we should have climbed towards initially. Miles and verticle feet behind us, we felt agonizingly far away from the summit. When it finally came into view, the disappointment fully sunk in.

The closest the summit looked to us.

We strapped on our snowshoes, and decided to make a run of it, but we didn't make it far before we realized that it was much later than we needed it to be, and being as frustrated as we were that we wasted an entire day, lost much of the motivation to continue. We made it to about 100 yards of the notch here and called it quits. It didn't seem like it was too late, either. When we looked back west on the way down, we saw some pretty menacing clouds. (At least at this point, we realized we COULD blame the lack of summiting on this and NOT our giant mistake...)

The picture of the end.

Our excuse to head home.

Being that we were going back to the trailhead a different way than we knew, we had to improvise lots of the trail. There weren't any cairns that we could see, and it was quite a while before we would find any tracks. Snowshoes on hard, steep snow really suck, too. I slipped at one point and lost a new, blue Nalgene. It took off down the mountain like a greased pig! Ryan and I were commenting that it was one of the coolest thing we had ever seen! We stopped and watched it shoot down the slope for literally 40-50 seconds before it disappeared out of sight, not because it was obstructed from view, but because it had travelled that far! If you find it, you can keep it, but let me know where you found it. I'm so curious to see if it wound up somewhere in California.

Anyway, back to the point, we saw some beautiful terrain as we got back into the trees. Knowing generally where we had to go to find the trail or our tracks from earlier, we wound our way through the deep sugar snow in the trees. At this point, I discover that I should probably be wearing some bigger snow-shoes. Every time I even looked at a tree funny, I would sink in to the snow up to my knees and hips. Ryan almost had to dig me out. I would have taken pictures of this had frustration not been an issue.

Your cold, Charlie Murphy! Cold as ice!

We finally found a trail, and we took off the snowshoes. I stopped to capture some of the rocks we had missed in the morning by headlamp. When we got back to the truck, it was quarter after 3. The truck was unlocked, but oh well, right? WRONG!! After about 10 minutes of firing up the stove and boiling some grub, a Teller County sheriff rolls up. How, on that muddy and snowy road did he keep his Explorer looking so nice and shiny? Beside the point. Someone called in Ryan's truck at 8 in the morning. The doors were unlocked and our cell-phones were in the front. Suspicious. So I entertained the deputy while Ryan cooked, and the nice guy let us go without even a warning.

We got back to Littleton around 5:30, I ordered a stuffed-crust Pizza, our wives made fun of us for "climbing the wrong mountain" (which I had the defense: "we went AROUND the wrong mountain, duh"), and we had some Mojido's to call it a day.

Some crags, and somebody stole one of the Broncos' Lombardi Trophy!

Lessons learned:
1. Don't drink energy drinks before bed. At all. Especially "Spike".
2. Know your route.
3. Know your landmarks.
4. Know your weight in relation to your equipment (snowshoes).
5. Make sure your nalgenes are secured!

I hope you all enjoy this, and good luck to you guys actually summiting!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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