Horseshoe Mountain Trip Report 06/08/2009

Peak(s):	Horseshoe Mountain - 13,918 feet
Date Posted:	06/08/2009
Date Climbed:	06/05/2009
Author:	EatinHardtack

The Boudoir
So as I sit here relaxing, listening to music after a great weekend I felt compelled to write a trip report of the Boudior Couloir. There is only one report on 14ers.com of this route and this was 2 years ago, soooo I thought I would give an update. Now first off let me just let everyone know that I attempted this route in March with CoMedic04 (Ryan). Well that day was a blast and we made it about half way up the couloir until we both rested and Ryan lost his helmet. Lets just say that it didn't stop for a while. Needless to say we ended up turning around at that point and did not finish that day. As I am writing this right now he is on his way to the Y on Pikes Peak, so hopefully he doesn't drop his helmet on that climb, also wishing him the best of luck right now. With that said I decided I needed to get that monkey off my back and finish this climb. I camped out up the four mile road on Thursday night. The alarm went off at 4 am and I was on the trail by 5 am. I was hoping for a solid freeze Thursday night and when I arrived at the trailhead I did the traditional test of foot in snow bank. Well it was solid, alright! I started off the trail at 5 am and was at the base of the Boudior at 6 am. Quickly got some food in me, crampons on, helmet strapped to my head. And I was off. Started on the climbers left and made quick work of the base of the couloir. I started post holing in the middle third of the couloir up to 18 inches or so. It was quite miserable and I thought to myself "what happened to the solid freeze"? Well the top 6 inches had frozen but there was sugar underneath the top frozen layer. I pushed on and around two thirds up the route began to get really fun. There was no more post holing and the booting was terrific. I topped out of the Boudior around 7:10am and was on the summit 10 minutes later. I stuck around on the summit for about 5 minutes the wind was really blowing up there. Well I looked down the standard route and noticed the wind was really kicking and the ridge looked miserable. So I decided to descend the bowl to the south of the Horseshoe Cirque. Now This route looked excellent for glissading as it had great snow cover. So off I went, no wind, great glissade, oh what fun. The next section of the descent got a little spicy and I just want everyone to know that if you do descend this route to stay on the climbers right on the descent. I ended above some rotten class 3ish down climbing with some snow that had a river running under it. Not somewhere you want to be especially when there are old slides everywhere below you. I let off a few rocks, traversed the crap snow and got the heck out of there. Again if you descend this route take the climbers right or in my photo's go left and not down the crap I did. Anyways that was my climb and I was back at the truck at 9:15am. Just over 4 hours for a great climb in a wonderful setting. Met up with my buddy Steve and drove back to Red Rocks for a 6 hour tailgate rolling that right into a great concert. Good Day and it doesn't get much better. Peace. ZB Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

The Boudoir

So as I sit here relaxing, listening to music after a great weekend I felt compelled to write a trip report of the Boudior Couloir. There is only one report on 14ers.com of this route and this was 2 years ago, soooo I thought I would give an update.

Now first off let me just let everyone know that I attempted this route in March with CoMedic04 (Ryan). Well that day was a blast and we made it about half way up the couloir until we both rested and Ryan lost his helmet. Lets just say that it didn't stop for a while. Needless to say we ended up turning around at that point and did not finish that day. As I am writing this right now he is on his way to the Y on Pikes Peak, so hopefully he doesn't drop his helmet on that climb, also wishing him the best of luck right now.

With that said I decided I needed to get that monkey off my back and finish this climb. I camped out up the four mile road on Thursday night. The alarm went off at 4 am and I was on the trail by 5 am. I was hoping for a solid freeze Thursday night and when I arrived at the trailhead I did the traditional test of foot in snow bank. Well it was solid, alright! I started off the trail at 5 am and was at the base of the Boudior at 6 am. Quickly got some food in me, crampons on, helmet strapped to my head. And I was off.

Started on the climbers left and made quick work of the base of the couloir. I started post holing in the middle third of the couloir up to 18 inches or so. It was quite miserable and I thought to myself "what happened to the solid freeze"? Well the top 6 inches had frozen but there was sugar underneath the top frozen layer. I pushed on and around two thirds up the route began to get really fun. There was no more post holing and the booting was terrific. I topped out of the Boudior around 7:10am and was on the summit 10 minutes later. I stuck around on the summit for about 5 minutes the wind was really blowing up there.

Well I looked down the standard route and noticed the wind was really kicking and the ridge looked miserable. So I decided to descend the bowl to the south of the Horseshoe Cirque. Now This route looked excellent for glissading as it had great snow cover. So off I went, no wind, great glissade, oh what fun. The next section of the descent got a little spicy and I just want everyone to know that if you do descend this route to stay on the climbers right on the descent.

I ended above some rotten class 3ish down climbing with some snow that had a river running under it. Not somewhere you want to be especially when there are old slides everywhere below you. I let off a few rocks, traversed the crap snow and got the heck out of there. Again if you descend this route take the climbers right or in my photo's go left and not down the crap I did. Anyways that was my climb and I was back at the truck at 9:15am. Just over 4 hours for a great climb in a wonderful setting. Met up with my buddy Steve and drove back to Red Rocks for a 6 hour tailgate rolling that right into a great concert. Good Day and it doesn't get much better.

Peace. ZB

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

d_baker	loop 6/9/2009 2:43am I did this same loop on Mother‘s Day weekend. It worked out well for us, but then again we didn‘t do the downclimb you did. Nice job finishing your business with this climb. It‘s a cool feature to climb! I left some fresh tracks in the Y for COmedic today. ;-) Conditions were good.
susanjoypaul	Tricky snow 6/9/2009 1:39pm Yeah, seems like the ”hard freezes” haven‘t been quite as hard as we‘d like... sounds like you had a nice early climb, though - congrats on a good solo, Zach. Go easy on Ryan - he‘s a good guy, and good climbing buddies are priceless. Even the ones who drop things :-)
TriAnything	Solid work 6/10/2009 12:29am Your an animal.. I‘m too old for three day weekends like that..
COmedic04	What happened to the ice?? 6/12/2009 7:03am Nice TR, buddy! Glad you got to go finish that climb...sorry I kinda screwed up our first attempt! (Thanks for the support, Susan...when are we climbing?) Congrats on the summit! Let‘s plan another one soon!

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