Mount Lindsey

From the town of Gardner, located northwest of Walsenburg, take Colorado 69 west for approximately half a mile, then turn west onto County Road 550. The trailhead is 22+ miles from this point. Start measuring mileage here:

• At 7.0 miles, the road turns to dirt.
• At 11.8 miles, stay left on Forest Road 580.
• At 15.7 miles, stay left at the entrance to the Singing River ranch. The road becomes narrow, but usually still 2WD with good clearance.
• At 16.7 miles, pass the entrance to the Aspen River ranch.
• At approx. 20 miles, reach the the west side of large, landslide area where the road was re-routed in 2016. After this point, there's a steep section that requires 4WD.
• Continue 2 miles on the rough, narrow road to reach the Lily Lake TH. There are dispersed camping spots along this section.

First, follow the Mt. Lindsey - North Face Route to the 13,150-foot saddle between Iron Nipple and Mt. Lindsey. From the saddle, the northwest ridge is in full view and may look intimidating to some. More than 1/2 way up the ridge a crux wall makes this route more difficult than the standard, north face route -  1 and  2. Finding a Class 3 line around the crux is possible but many climbers simply take a direct, Class 4 line up the brief pitch.

Hike southeast along the ridge on a small trail and near 13,200', where the trail turns east toward the north face, stay right and continue up the northwest ridge -  3. As you climb higher, the terrain becomes more rugged and requires some Class 3 scrambling, especially on the ridge crest -  4. As you scramble toward the crux wall ( 5), it's clear that the route is becoming more serious. Scramble across a steep area below the ridge crest, down to a notch and up to the base of the crux wall.  6 and  7 were taken in this area and show some of the rugged terrain features.

 8 is a head-on view of the crux wall, showing several options. One way to keep the difficulty at (exposed) Class 3 is to bypass the wall on the left side. If you choose this option, regain the ridge right after the crux wall to avoid loose terrain. If you're comfortable with brief Class 4 climbing, the best option may be just left of the large, vertical crack in the center of the wall -  9. Carefully pick your line and regain the ridge on easier terrain -  10.

Above the crux, continue up the ridge -  11 and  12. As you ascend, the standard route is directly below, so be careful not to tumble rocks off the ridge -  13. Continue to the 14,000-foot false summit on the northwest end of the summit ridge -  14. Hike southeast for nearly 0.2 to reach the summit -  15. Taken from back at the 13,150-foot saddle,  16 is another look at the ridge.

The route is much more stable than the standard, gully route.