Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out...

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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Kitten
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by Kitten »

Do Twin Sisters on the other side of Lily Lake. Amazing views of Longs from there. Should not take more than 6-7 hours.
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unclegar
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by unclegar »

Mt. Lady Washington will surely take you more than 10 minutes to summit from any trail. There is no trail to the top. It is just picking a line and going to the summit. Also there are two high points that can be hard to tell which is the true summit. The one to the E is the true summit. You can follow the ridge up W from Chasm Jct. or go to the pass and up S or go all the way to the Boulder Field and pick a line SE. I think you will have some snow to deal with so I would recommend against this destination since it is only your second hike. I would recommend Twin Sisters Peak. You start across the road from Lily Lake. It is 7.2 mi. RT and just short of 2400 ft gain and it has a trail to the top.

Chasm Lake is a nice destination with a trail to the N of the lake as well, but remember you are going to have some snow and it can be a slippery climb from the trail up N to the lake. Estes Cone might be a good hike for you as well. You can leave from Lily Lake or Longs Peak East trailheads as well as other options. Both Estes Cone and Twin Sisters take me about 3.5 hours RT when I'm moving at a good pace. Whatever you decide, be safe and have fun.
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Dark Helmet
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by Dark Helmet »

unclegar wrote:Mt. Lady Washington will surely take you more than 10 minutes to summit from any trail. There is no trail to the top. It is just picking a line and going to the summit. Also there are two high points that can be hard to tell which is the true summit. The one to the E is the true summit. You can follow the ridge up W from Chasm Jct. or go to the pass and up S or go all the way to the Boulder Field and pick a line SE. I think you will have some snow to deal with so I would recommend against this destination since it is only your second hike. I would recommend Twin Sisters Peak. You start across the road from Lily Lake. It is 7.2 mi. RT and just short of 2400 ft gain and it has a trail to the top.

Chasm Lake is a nice destination with a trail to the N of the lake as well, but remember you are going to have some snow and it can be a slippery climb from the trail up N to the lake. Estes Cone might be a good hike for you as well. You can leave from Lily Lake or Longs Peak East trailheads as well as other options. Both Estes Cone and Twin Sisters take me about 3.5 hours RT when I'm moving at a good pace. Whatever you decide, be safe and have fun.

I think we've decided to do Chasm Lake with the little guy. If we feel crazy, we'll see how far up MLW we can make it! wife is dropping us off at 7 picking us up at 2. from what I see that means we've gotta be headed back from the chasm/keyhole junction at noon.

I wrote-off Estes Cone and Deer Mtn for lake of absolute elevation. IIRC Chasm is higher than the Cone, and Deer Mtn is not even 10K. I did Twin Sisters yesterday, and wasn't impressed with the views (all ~50ft in front of my face http://s382.photobucket.com/albums/oo27 ... -15-35.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). I'm doing Barr Trail next friday, so every mile at elevation I can get, I'll take.

so far I've booked something like 3500ft the last two days, if we decide to climb part of MLW, I should hit 6K for the trip.
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by madbuck »

unclegar wrote:Mt. Lady Washington will surely take you more than 10 minutes to summit from any trail. There is no trail to the top. It is just picking a line and going to the summit.
Dark Helmet wrote: I think we've decided to do Chasm Lake with the little guy. If we feel crazy, we'll see how far up MLW we can make it!
Just to be crystal clear -- "easy" hiking to MLW as unclegar and others including myself described it is from any direction BUT the south (Chasm Lake side). Since you were concerned about lack of trail and there's some fresh snow, and you're mentioning Chasm Lake as your initial destination with a child and a fixed time limit, I wanted to be absolutely clear (as the reality on the ground and topo will show) -- should you choose to go up MLW as well, your safest route after Chasm will be backtracking to the junction, and either heading up the East Ridge or farther along the Keyhole route. NOT climbing from Chasm Lake (steeper gulleys and more routefinding required).

After backtracking, in fact, even at the junction, you are still 2000 feet below the summit of MLW, so an estimate of "10 minutes from any trail" at that point requires gaining 12000 feet per hour, at elevation. Ahem.

Proceeding along the Keyhole route/Long's Peak Trail will gain that elevation slowly by trading off distance for a trail.

You'll see all this in person and probably aren't reading anymore late at night, but I didn't want you to stare up at MLW from Chasm and think that we were saying it was easy! (And then thinking we're out of our minds...)
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by Dark Helmet »

I don't recall mentioning 10-min to summit MLW... I figured it's an hour+ for a good climber and 2-3 for an idiot like me.

if we decide to try part of MLW, we'll run along keyhole to a more westerly approach. there is no way I'll try it from the south.


but thank you for the clarification. car leaves in 10min.
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Dark Helmet
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Re: Help, need a hike for tomorrow... choices 1,2&3 are out.

Post by Dark Helmet »

Dark Helmet wrote:I don't recall mentioning 10-min to summit MLW... I figured it's an hour+ for a good climber and 2-3 for an idiot like me.

if we decide to try part of MLW, we'll run along keyhole to a more westerly approach. there is no way I'll try it from the south.


but thank you for the clarification. car leaves in 10min.


Chasm was AWESOME... the trail itself was in very good shape, I thought. the "scramble" at the end was hairy in a couple spots for a 7-year-old, but he did it.


thanks for the info guys!

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