Marmot precautions @ Cottonwood Lake

Info on gear, conditioning, and preparation for hiking/climbing.
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.
Post Reply
User avatar
JaredJohnson
Posts: 419
Joined: 8/27/2014
14ers: 28  5 
13ers: 13
Trip Reports (3)
 
Contact:

Marmot precautions @ Cottonwood Lake

Post by JaredJohnson »

I've camped at cottonwood lake twice, both times I camped kinda high above the lake, maybe near the junction of the trails leading to Broken Hand Pass and Crestone Peak. Both times, while I was off climbing all day for a single day, marmots damaged my nice tent. The second time they ruined the tent body and it had to be replaced entirely. They also messed up the handles of some hiking poles I had left in the vestibule.

It's not the first time I've had such encounters, but in all other areas I've only had problems of I left equipment outside the vestibule; it seems as if the marmots at cottonwood in particular are extra aggressive, or else it's just a huge coincidence.

This month I'm planning to do Crestolita and Pico Asilado over a couple of days, camping one to three nights at cottonwood, but camped a bit lower to avoid having to re-climb back to camp after descending each peak.

I've seen suggestions on safeguarding cars with chicken wire at trailheads, but I'm a bit at a loss on protecting a tent in the backcountry, without bringing something that's really annoying to carry.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to protect against marmot damage on unattended tents? Or making the contents of the tent less attractive to marmots? Or perhaps some experience that suggests that camping a little lower in that area will be less problematic?
User avatar
ClimbingFool
Posts: 104
Joined: 9/25/2019
14ers: 58 
13ers: 7
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Marmot precautions @ Cottonwood Lake

Post by ClimbingFool »

JaredJohnson wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:32 pm Does anyone have any suggestions on how to protect against marmot damage on unattended tents? Or making the contents of the tent less attractive to marmots? Or perhaps some experience that suggests that camping a little lower in that area will be less problematic?
I was warned of aggressive critters in Chicago Basin last year and protected my stuff by hanging everything from a tree and then opening the tent door before I left for the day. It resulted in a few extra bugs in the tent, but at least the marmots had a chance to check it out without damaging the fabric to get inside.

Do let us know how your experience is this year. I'm planning on heading out to Cottonwood Lake in about 5 weeks for the Crestone traverse.
Skimo95
Posts: 413
Joined: 5/19/2021
14ers: 58  11  23 
13ers: 176 8
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Marmot precautions @ Cottonwood Lake

Post by Skimo95 »

I would camp in treeline to avoid most marmots personally. There’s a couple decent spots on the N Cottonwood trail where hanging food would be easy. I had issue with them on hanging rocks in Ruby Basin. We’ve had two in the shop the past week in SM. Along with a fox and obnoxious pine marten.
User avatar
JaredJohnson
Posts: 419
Joined: 8/27/2014
14ers: 28  5 
13ers: 13
Trip Reports (3)
 
Contact:

Re: Marmot precautions @ Cottonwood Lake

Post by JaredJohnson »

Thanks for the advice! We were thinking of camping below the start of crestolita ("analemma"), but instead I think we'll camp further down, where the cottonwood trail intersects with the deproach from Pico Asilado. We're gonna try to do both routes anyway so that should be an advantageous spot, and should also be low enough for some tree cover.

I wonder if anyone is familiar enough to suggest whether that area might have a couple of good hammock hanging trees?
Post Reply