Route: Hematite Gulch Trail
Posted On: 2019-07-15,
By: piper14erInfo: Hematite Trail from CR2 at just before the bridge over the Las Animas River. Trail clear of snow for most of the trail with moderately sloping snowfields in sections. I did not use any microspikes, etc. Trail has a lot of switchbacks. Ridge to the peak is free of snow.
Attempted the traverse to Dome Mountain but was stopped by steep downclimb from connecting ridge at the saddle. Downclimb would have been needed to bypass and since I am still recovering from a rotator cuff surgery I did not feel comfortable with the extra work. Also a nasty thunderstorm came in early and I decided to get back over the Tower ridge and down. Even with that, the lightning was bad, lightning, thunder, boom, no counting in between.
I am adding pics of the other peaks to shown snow amounts.