I climbed the wrong mountain

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Vermont Mike
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by Vermont Mike »

When I first moved here and was climbing peaks surrounding Pikes, I remember it took me four tries to finally get up "Runs-Down-Fast Mountain". I had a map with me 2 of the times and still kept confusing myself. Another time I took a coworker up Crystal via Father Dyer, and it started sleeting with thick cloud cover by the time we got to Crystal. I thought I was taking us down the correct ridge to make the loop back to the car, but we ended up at Copper Mountain (I had realized my mistake long before then) and I had to call a buddy in Breck to come pick us up. It was pretty embarrassing, but my coworker was a good sport and has been out hiking with me a few times since. Usually I find the lower peaks to be tougher to navigate to, as they are often below treeline and not as distinguishable especially from a drainage. Mistakes happen, that's how we learn!
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SnowAlien
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by SnowAlien »

bergsteigen wrote: The next lost adventure was on Crestone Peak a few years ago. In the pitch black darkness, I mistook a gully to the right (east) of the Red Gully as being the route. Thankfully I called it when the class 3 went class 4, and appeared to get more technical above. Turns out I found "the other red gully" in the middle of the Crestone Traverse. It did "go", but I wasn't comfortable with it, once enough daylight existed to show that we were not on-route.
I remember that day fondly :) I think this was the last straw for me to get a GPS and start learning how to use it.
bergsteigen wrote:One trick that might be useful for the future (so you don't have to stay on easy trails), is to load the waypoint for the summit, since using a GPS can sometimes be hard with dense contour lines to find summits with many surrounding peaks. That way you can always climb the correct peak, even if the route you chose may not "go". I find tackling peak(s) with little beta quite enjoyable and rewarding. Don't give up just yet. Best skill is the ability to turn around, if needed.
Waypoints work in most cases, but not in all. Btw, sometimes GPS software mislables peaks - it looks like Peak 10 in Weminuche is mislabled in GPS software. It points out to a 10k-11k bump on the ridge, and not a 13er. First time it happened though.

On another note, Kurt, I look forward to following in your footsteps - the Vermillion group looks incredible and I am very much looking forward to it. And thanks for the heads up - I'll do some extensive preparation this time :)
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jkirk
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by jkirk »

nkan02 wrote: Btw, sometimes GPS software mislables peaks - it looks like Peak 10 in Weminuche is mislabled in GPS software. It points out to a 10k-11k bump on the ridge, and not a 13er.
It's not the software, it's the Board on Geographic Names' coordinate placement (which most mapping software adopts as authoritative). See the ACME map link on this page (or plug in those coordinates on any other map software).

There are hundreds of such examples throughout the US at least this far off the mark. I'm aware of that many instances because I imported GNIS data as the source data for officially named peaks into mapping software I used for LoJ.

I recommend downloading POI files or GPX waypoint files from a reputable source where summit locations have been validated for loading to your GPS, turning "map points" off, and setting user waypoints zoom level at 5 miles or whatever clutter level you desire. There is a thread with a bit of history on all of this here if anyone wants a bit of a crash-course on POI files or mass waypoint uploads.
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robinbk
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by robinbk »

Somewhere around 2006, my regular 14er partner and I set out to do Tabeguache from Jennings Creek. We knew the trailhead had been closed, but figured we could find it. And we did. We did get confused a few times along the way -- "This doesn't match the route description", but we always managed to match up the landmarks around us with the route. Right up until I slogged up the final mile-long summit ridge...

...to find a summit register labeled "North Carbonate".

My partner's face when he chugged up and I asked him point-blank, "So, what mountain do you think we climbed", was priceless.

Now that it's been renamed to Cronin Peak, I actually feel sort of good about having climbed it. Although I still haven't got Tabeguache (despite climbing Shavano last month, argh).
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ewaag23
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by ewaag23 »

CO Native wrote:...There is so much more to learn in a hard fought failure than an easily grabbed success.
^Very nicely said; so true.
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MountainHiker
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by MountainHiker »

I have an extra climb of Missouri. Myself and a friend who I had just met, were traversing from Elkhead Pass to the Missouri - Iowa saddle. The plan was to then continue on to Emerald. Each time we came to an obstruction we went up to go over it. This had us climbing higher and higher on Missouri. Finally we popped over the top, and there was the summit of Missouri just a stones throw away! So we had climbed Missouri by mistake. We then continued to Iowa and Emerald. We probably would have returned over Missouri so its not really an extra, but it was funny at the time. We returned via Elkhead Pass. Instead of side-hilling it we just dropped to the valley and regained the elevation.
Red, Rugged, and Rotten: The Elk Range - Borneman & Lampert
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Marmot72
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by Marmot72 »

That's funny about Pilot Knob; you're not the only one! I was on Pilot Knob traversing northward to the summit, which consisted of popping up a tower to see if it was "the tower," and I saw a hiker in the basin below. I pointed to the tower before me and asked "is that the true Pilot Knob?" and he said "No, you're on Vermillion." I responded that I was most definitely not on Vermillion and pointed it out to him beyond Golden Horn - he was not too happy to find that he was in the wrong basin.

I've spent at least a quarter of my time off route, but never climbed the wrong mountain - though, months after I climbed Crestone's North Buttress, I convinced myself I must not have climbed to the actual summit but maybe just to NE Crestone, because none of the pics of that route on this site matched my recollection. But signed the register, so that proved it for me. Later, on an attempted traverse to Crestone from the Needle in low visibility, I decided to abandon the traverse somewhere around black gendarme (I think) because of deteriorating conditions, and I somehow made my way across the Bear's Playground to the north side of the basin lying north of South Colony. Initially relieved to be off the ridge, I was confused to find myself looking down at three streams that joined into one, instead of two lakes.
I have phenomenal route-finding abilities. Specifically, I have an uncanny knack for selecting the path of most resistance.
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globreal
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Re: I climbed the wrong mountain

Post by globreal »

CO Native wrote: There is so much more to learn in a hard fought failure than and easily grabbed success.
Been there, done that.

Me and two climbing friends went to climb the Centennial-Thunder Pyramid. After climbing up the majority of the white gulley, one of my partners (who will remain nameless) said, "Britt, you're off-route." After hearing that 3 times, I guessed we were. So we adjusted our course and headed straight up to the saddle above us, instead of veering to the right where we should have gone.

Our route description said, once we got to the saddle or ridge we had to go left/north. So we did. It didn't look easy and one partner even turn around at this point. While my other partner was still coming up, I studied the mountain for about 15 minutes. After deciding on a route that I thought would go, me and my remaining partner ventured through a scary, tough, difficult scramble, that had some Class 5 climbing. We got our summit, only it was the wrong one! We didn't realize our mistake until we looked south to see Thunder Pyramid higher than us with several other climbers on the summit. :evil: :oops:

I have never been so discouraged, beat up mentally, and disappointed. However, now looking back, I feel really good about intensely studying that mountain, unlocking the hidden keys to the un-obvious path through the maze, and pushing safely through to the summit. But at the time, it made for a really loooong down climb and hike back to the car. ](*,)

So don't feel bad, your not alone. And as someone else said, if you climb long enough, this will probably happen to you.
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