Citadel Information??

[madeinus]

There's a line you can take going down the north side of the Citadel where I dont think a rappel would be necessarily needed. There's some exposure, but its on solid rock.

[Floyd]

Without digging deep into these links right now, has anyone done the traverse between Pentingall and the Citadel. I have yet to decide what route to officially take, but it appears that that there is some good information from Hagar so I was just curious about heading up the Citadel and then heading over to Pentingall, or vice versa.

Thanks a bunch once again for all of the information, I live this forum as it is always full of useful information.

My roommate and a friend, whom do even a little more hiking than me is out of town trying Wilson and El Diente, among other things down there, so hopefully the mountains and rockslides in that area have stabilized a little bit.

Not sure if you are still interested, but myself and 2 buddies did this traverse, from Pettingell to Citadel saturday. The crux section on Citadel was littered with some slings and webbing, and its pretty clear you need to rappel this section. We were actually able to clear most of this from the mountain, one web was out of reach and not worth dying over. We found a narrow and vertical chimney to climber's right of where people had been rappelling. To call this scrambling and rock quality fantastic would be one of the biggest understatements of the millenium. By far the best scramble (unroped), I've done to date, sounded like my partners felt the same way.

Brian, can't agree more. But I think I may want a rope next time I tackle something like that again. Trip Report is up: http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=8814" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rich H]

I did the Citadel earlier this spring in a blinding snowstorm. I did it from Dry Gulch and got up to 13k before the summit block.

I couldn't see the right couloir to head up (the one that splits the two peaks) and went up one couloir to the east...it turned out to be mixed thin ice on rock - something I wasn't used to. I was able to traverse a rib and then get up on to the the East peak took some time to find the correct spot to get back to the saddle between the two peaks and then I wasa able to get the Northern one with no problem... I never did see much of anything except a few feet in front of us - I down climbed and traversed back out and left Hagar for another day. I would love to get back up there and do it in fair weather and finish off Golden bear and hagar... i've been saving it for this fall.

[travis_sand]

I was also up on some of these mountains on Saturday. I came up from Dry Creek and did Hagar and then the traverse to both of Citadel's summits. This is a very fun route for those that want about a 7 mile trip with quite a bit of fun hiking and climbing, and running into a herd of elk. You can easily make some of the Hagar summit and Citadel summit areas, as well as some of the traverse some fun class 4 climbing areas, which if you are comfortable with, you should do as most of the rocks are quite stable.

[COBuckeye]

We are headed up to climb the Citadel this Saturday (8/21). What is the best way to get to the trail head? Do you need 4WD?

[travis_sand]

Depends on what route you decide to take. No 4WD needed. Herman Gulch is exit 218 i think, then a right turn right after the exit, it doubles back right into the parking lot...with bathrooms .

Dry Gulch is loveland pass exit, 216, it also doubles back and follow that to the gate and park.

Both of these locations are basically right at the ends of their respective gulchs and pretty easy to figure out the trails. That being said, I know the Dry trails about halfway in starts to fad and you just follow your map and the fact that you are out of the treeline if you start heading up.

[Floyd]

Depends on what route you decide to take. No 4WD needed. Herman Gulch is exit 218 i think, then a right turn right after the exit, it doubles back right into the parking lot...with bathrooms .

Dry Gulch is loveland pass exit, 216, it also doubles back and follow that to the gate and park.

Both of these locations are basically right at the ends of their respective gulchs and pretty easy to figure out the trails. That being said, I know the Dry trails about halfway in starts to fad and you just follow your map and the fact that you are out of the treeline if you start heading up.

Travis, I assume you the lone hiker that came up while we were on the summit? We were a group of 3 (maybe our third had already taken off and there were only 2 of us left). If so, nice meeting you.