One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
Forum rules
- This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
- Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
- Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
- Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
-
- Posts: 676
- Joined: 6/12/2008
- 14ers: 13
- 13ers: 35
- Trip Reports (18)
One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
The camera on top of the ski mountain gives a great look at current conditions all around - and I'm not exactly liking what i'm seeing. Seems like a lot of snow still.
Here's what I've come up with for an options package - depending on weather. In descending order of what seems coolest....
A) Wilson Peak / or Mount Wilson? - Woods Lake approach -
(The rock of ages approach seems like the best but vehicular access might be tough? Isn't there some kind of stream crossing? I'm not even sure I can get at this Woods Lake one either??)
B) Campbell and/or Telluride Zero - I'm not seeing many other options north of town? Dallas seems too intense to do solo - and Mount Emma is always taken from the east?
C) Wasatch Mountain - this one seems ideal - I wouldn't even have to get in the car again - but from the look of that skicam - eh - its pretty friggin snowy back up there? I don't mind cold wet feet at the end of the day, but let's keep it within reason. Do people even go back there this time of year?
D) Lone Cone
any notes or thoughts welcome. what am I missing?
Here's what I've come up with for an options package - depending on weather. In descending order of what seems coolest....
A) Wilson Peak / or Mount Wilson? - Woods Lake approach -
(The rock of ages approach seems like the best but vehicular access might be tough? Isn't there some kind of stream crossing? I'm not even sure I can get at this Woods Lake one either??)
B) Campbell and/or Telluride Zero - I'm not seeing many other options north of town? Dallas seems too intense to do solo - and Mount Emma is always taken from the east?
C) Wasatch Mountain - this one seems ideal - I wouldn't even have to get in the car again - but from the look of that skicam - eh - its pretty friggin snowy back up there? I don't mind cold wet feet at the end of the day, but let's keep it within reason. Do people even go back there this time of year?
D) Lone Cone
any notes or thoughts welcome. what am I missing?
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
- 12ersRule
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: 6/18/2007
- 14ers: 58
- 13ers: 157
- Trip Reports (4)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
Based on the snow maps, I'd be looking at southern approaches up peaks just east of Rico like "R1", https://listsofjohn.com/peak/1405, and Blackhawk, https://listsofjohn.com/peak/1138, but that's just me.
- Chicago Transplant
- Posts: 4012
- Joined: 9/7/2004
- 14ers: 58 12 24
- 13ers: 697 39 34
- Trip Reports (66)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
I climbed Boskoff from Woods Lake 6/11/17 (heavier snow year than this one) and had snow below treeline but nothing that was too serious. The ridge was dry.
"We want the unpopular challenge. We want to test our intellect!" - Snapcase
"You are not what you own" - Fugazi
"Life's a mountain not a beach" - Fortune Cookie I got at lunch the other day
"You are not what you own" - Fugazi
"Life's a mountain not a beach" - Fortune Cookie I got at lunch the other day
-
- Posts: 676
- Joined: 6/12/2008
- 14ers: 13
- 13ers: 35
- Trip Reports (18)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
I like the sound of that! the woods lake is pretty easy drive?
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
- Tornadoman
- Posts: 1438
- Joined: 7/30/2007
- 14ers: 58 8
- 13ers: 266 35
- Trip Reports (12)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
I did it last Summer in a Corolla. It did not challenge my vehicle.
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
-
- Posts: 676
- Joined: 6/12/2008
- 14ers: 13
- 13ers: 35
- Trip Reports (18)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
so is there some kind of standard south route for this? I checked it out on google but not seeing a trailhead/trail necessarily?
________________
Dang it people - I could book this trip whenever but I don't know about anyone else but I was trying to guarantee no smoky conditions by going in June - and banking on continued global warming trends to help clear out the snow by now.
I am not a couloir climber necessarily - but I have been known to bust up a snowfield or two.
Would anything like that be reasonable in mid'ish June?
I'm looking hard at supranihilest's Gladstone condition report - wondering if that or similiar might be a little more in play in two weeks?
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... cnum=20006
This is my first time in San Juans - so I gotta make this count. And again I don't mind cold feet - that's sort of typical I suppose for me anyway. Just don't want to be in unfamiliar terrain pushing into something stupid.
What about Lone cone? is that only taken from north due to private property issues?
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
- 12ersRule
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: 6/18/2007
- 14ers: 58
- 13ers: 157
- Trip Reports (4)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
Could make it 90% trail from the south, starting south of Rico on the Scotch Creek trail, then north to the Colorado trail, but it's a lot of miles.
-
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 5/19/2017
- 14ers: 4
- 13ers: 18
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
I’m also looking to go into this area, but around June 3rd and camping at Navajo Lake. The lake seems like it would be clear of snow, but the north side of El D will be packed in. Is there anyone with any other beta on conditions in The Valley right now.
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
if its above 11,000, its very snowy still with more moisture coming tomorrow. Basically everything in the san juans is going to require an axe and crampons, and some postholing right now
-
- Posts: 6
- Joined: 5/19/2017
- 14ers: 4
- 13ers: 18
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
Tmud,
Thanks for the reply. The precipitation tomorrow and possibly over the weekend may make this interesting. I might go to the Animas River Valley instead, Chicago or vestal maybe. Needle creek and elk creek maybe clear of snow.
I’m not worried about postholing and I’ll have axe and crampons. I just don’t want to camp in the snow.
Thanks for the reply. The precipitation tomorrow and possibly over the weekend may make this interesting. I might go to the Animas River Valley instead, Chicago or vestal maybe. Needle creek and elk creek maybe clear of snow.
I’m not worried about postholing and I’ll have axe and crampons. I just don’t want to camp in the snow.
-
- Posts: 676
- Joined: 6/12/2008
- 14ers: 13
- 13ers: 35
- Trip Reports (18)
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
OK - well that webcam is a helluva resource for these hikes in the immediate area:
now i'm seeing much more promise for this telluride zero mission.
check this - with clean pic from webcam on left and my proposed route on right -
https://i.imgur.com/mzS5vyo.jpg
question being - does anyone ever take that blade ridge to bang up campbell?
EDIT - well as in all things - wildwanderer got here before me - and yes that would seem like a route - if not the standard?
this might be the new gold standard - hopefully weather plays ball.
but ideas stil welcome - I need to NAIL this trip.
now i'm seeing much more promise for this telluride zero mission.
check this - with clean pic from webcam on left and my proposed route on right -
https://i.imgur.com/mzS5vyo.jpg
question being - does anyone ever take that blade ridge to bang up campbell?
EDIT - well as in all things - wildwanderer got here before me - and yes that would seem like a route - if not the standard?
this might be the new gold standard - hopefully weather plays ball.
but ideas stil welcome - I need to NAIL this trip.
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
Re: One Day in Telluride! June 12th. Need top solo options with easy road access
^
Last edited by osprey on Sun May 30, 2021 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Rocks, mountains, snow and ice: what more do we desire?" - Reinhard Karl
“I breathed in the air on the summit and liked it better than the air below.”
“I breathed in the air on the summit and liked it better than the air below.”