Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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*** 80% of you probably won't care about a non-3000' route up one of the most overrun 14ers in the state, but I'm a flatlander and you know you love our stupid questions!
Does anyone see any reason not to reverse the "Evans West Ridge via Mt. Spalding" route? It seems the old discussion threads (and by old I mean a month old) talk about how slippery the descent of the northeast face can be and that it might be best to double-back over Spalding. Since I'm a huge fan of loops, why not ascend the northeast face, get the huffing and puffing over with, and then take a leisurely descent stroll over West Evans and Spalding back down to Summit Lake?
P.S. Do I need crampons or an avy beacon for the summit parking lot? I hear it gets slick and wind-loaded.
There is no reason not to loop the route as you suggested (except thunderstorms, when a NE Face route would get you down faster.) I agree, it would be more fun than repeating the same short route. The NE Ridge (Route #10 on this site) stays completely off the road (both at the top and bottom of the mountain). Like the NE Face (route# 5), it is also class 2, and is more aesthetically pleasing than the NE Face. I'd loop the NE Ridge (Route #10) with West Ridge (Route #3.)
"We knocked the bastard off." Hillary, 1953
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." Hillary, 2003
Couldn't we all use 50 years of humble growth?
Thanks for the info! I think I had one too many Ska beers before posting that last night and wasn't very clear. Basically, I was wondering if there were any major differences between going up Evans from the NE then descending over Spalding vs. the published route going up Spalding to Evans.
Your point about the longer descent should have been obvious, but for some reason that didn't pop out in my head. I was thinking that the direct ascent allowed an immediate bailout on the summit road, a moderate bailout opportunity in the gully between Evans/Spalding, and might also avoid the scree on the downhill that people complained about on the NE face. From some of the descriptions, it sounds like Spalding and West Evans are very easy Class 2, which will be great since this is a "tune-up" for the next 7 days I'll spend hiking around in the Mosquito/Sawatch.
P.S. Kansas City's heat index has been pushing 110 for what seems like weeks...I'm excited to need to layer clothes again!
Well, if you ascend over Spaulding your ascent is going take longer. The way the weather has been I would go for the speedest ascent then if the weather, etc. are looking good you can continue on the loop (which will be mostly downhill). Otherwise, with respect to which side you go up or down it doesn't seem like that big a difference (to me) on this route.
