A Plate and a Pike

Hogan Warlock

13/58 in 2020

This week, I summited 2 more 14ers: La Plata Peak and Pikes Peak. And they were very different peaks, let me tell you. La Plata (which I have climbed before) ended up hurting way more than any of the others so far this season. I think the main reason for that is sleep and I had to drive early in the morning (which I hate), and I also didn't quite eat enough food and drink enough water that morning and the night before. Basically, my preparation wasn't good enough. However, for Pikes Peak, I climbed via the Northwest Slopes Route for a 14-mile hike. Despite one of the longest days for mileage I've had so far this season, it was one of the easiest 14er's I've completed. I think this is because I'm in decent shape now, I was acclimatized a little bit from La Plata still, and the route itself was quite flat. Anyways, 2 more checked off!

All the trip reports I am writing for the summer is simply a byproduct of my thoughts, reactions, and experiences from my summer mountaineering project of climbing the 58 CO 14ers before I head back to CU in August. I hope that these trip reports help me to learn from mistakes, to document my experiences, and to help me to think and become a better person and mountaineer. Thank you for reading and for your support!

Originally, my plan for the week was to do La Plata on Monday with my Dad, Oxford-Belford on Tuesday with my friend Jamison, and Pikes Peak on Wednesday with Jacob. I ended up skipping Tuesday and taking a rest day, partly cause I was destroyed from Monday, and because my partner bailed on me due to a migraine.

La Plata Peak, Monday, 5/25/2020

Sunday evening, it began to snow. My dad and I were at our condo in Silverthorne, and we were watching it come down hard. It wasn't predicted to snow more than a few inches, though, so I wasn't too worried. In fact, I was kind of glad for the snow. The last week or so had been super warm and at night it wasn't dipping below freezing very often so all the snow was melting and the wet avy danger was still present. But with the freezing temperatures and a small fresh layer of cold snow on top, it should actually be a little safer for the avalanche danger. As long as it didn't snow more than a few inches.

We woke up about 4 the next morning and we were driving by 4:30. We reached the trailhead at like 6 and were hiking at 6:10. There wasn't much snow until we got close to treeline apart from the dusting that had happened down low the night before. We started off quickly and didn't stop for nearly an hour. We took a break to take our puffy's off just before the steeper incline began. We got some good pictures on this section.

^^Left: me hiking. Right: my Dad hiking.^^

^^Left: looking up to La Plata Northwest Ridge. Right: the trail looked like this most of the way.^^

^^Left: the valley is pretty lowkey hiking (Class 1 I would call it). Right: looking up at Sayres Benchmark (as it's called on 14ers.com) from the valley. Taken with my phone. ^^

My dad and I both had on our summer-conditions hiking gear, but we brought snowshoes just in case because of the snow the previous night. So far, we had barely touched any snow at all. However, after hiking up the valley along the creek for quite a ways, the trail hooks left and begins switchbacking up the mountain in a gully. Here, there was a snowfield covering the trail for a good bit, and it was steep, so we opted to hike up next to the snowfield (which was icy and rock hard, I might add) in the scree. This was tedious and exhausting, but after a while, we made it up to the point where the trail stops switchbacking and continues to traverse along the slope higher up. Here we had to cross the snowfield.

We both got our poles out and tried to kick steps in best we could, but with our softer, summer hiking shoes, this proved futile. My dad made it across first, but I was following him and was struggling. His shoes were a little better suited because they were slightly stiffer than mine. I made it to the first grassy section without totally slipping, but I ended up sliding about 10 ft down on the 2nd little traverse. My ski poles did almost nothing to help arrest the fall. Luckily, I slid right to a flat rocky section before I picked up speed, so I was ok. I stepped off the snowfield onto the rocks and felt relieved that I hadn't slid all the way down the gully. I should have had spikes and my axe with me. I was lucky.

Now, we were above treeline. On the hike from here to the ridgeline, we finally came into the sun. We only crossed one more snowfield, and then we were hiking on the talus along the ridgeline to the top.

^^Left: another picture of Sayres Benchmark. Taken with my nice camera. Right: Bull Hill A with the connecting ridgeline to the right over to Elbert.^^

^^Left: "Lackawanna" on the left with Bull Hill on the right. Right: "Lackawanna." ^^

There were 2 other cars at the parking lot when we began hiking. When we reached the last snowfield before the ridgeline, we began trying to follow the single footsteps that we saw, because it seemed to follow a pretty good route to navigate around the rocks and snow. Once we reached ridgeline, we opted to follow the rocks rather than go on the snow, because of our shoes. This is always quite tedious, having to hike along on rocks and boulders without a trail, making sure that you're not stepping on loose boulders and such. It's something that you get used to but is always a little exhausting. That's just how hiking goes, though. Today, it was extra tedious because with the fresh snowfall and the warming temperatures from the sun, it was getting slippery.

After a good 5-6 hours of hiking, we made it to the summit! We were both lethargic and tired, but the summit wasn't windy, so we were able to relax and have some water and snacks.

^^Left and right: hiking the ridgeline.^^

^^Left: we did try snowshoeing a little bit because the snow appeared to continue all the way to the summit, but it was more exhausting than dealing with the rocks. Right: summit picture!^^

^^Above: Another summit picture!^^

On the way down, we were both still lethargic, but we were moving much faster. We were down the ridge and over to the first snowfield before long, and now it was heating up. We saw a ton of marmots running around and sunbathing on rocks.

^^Left: marmot. Right: hiking down the ridge.^^

By now, the snow was a little softer, so we were able to kick into the snow easier and the snowfield crossings were safer on the way back.

It took us 2 or 3 hours to get back to the bridge across the river. This was a beautiful little spot. It reminded me of slot canyons in Utah and the Southwest.

^^Left: crossing a creek. Right: this picture doesn't really do this waterfall justice. It was very powerful and deep.^^

^^Above: the river had cut a unique feature into the rock on the left: a whirlpool.^^

After a 10 hour day, we had summited La Plata Peak! I'd say we were a little more lucky than skilled because our gear did not match the conditions. We need to do better in the future, but we are still learning.

La Plata Peak via Northwest Ridge Route:

• 4,900 ft of vert
• 9.6 miles

Pikes Peak, Wednesday, 5/27/2020

On Tuesday, I drove from Silverthorne to the Crags Trailhead. I have never driven these roads in Colorado, it was nice to drive something new. I never realized how much rock climbing there is to be done down here on the west side of Pikes Peak! Tons of good walls and boulders to climb.

Anyways, something I love about camping at trailheads the day before: you get to watch people stumble out of the woods looking tired AF. Especially with Pikes Peak. Everybody I saw coming back to their cars at like 5 in the afternoon was looking exhausted. I wouldn't be surprised if they've never done a 14er before, especially considering how I was feeling the next day when I emerged from the woods into the parking lot.

When I rolled up on the parking lot at like 4:30, I saw that there were a couple of forest service employees marking trees around the trailhead. The Crags campground was closed, so I had to find somewhere else to camp for the night. I wasn't planning on making a fire, which is mostly what I think the NFS is concerned about. I just needed a relatively flat area to pitch my tent. I ended up parking at the trailhead and hiking up the other side of the road a little bit, out of sight, to put up my tent. This ended up working pretty well, except the tent was about 80 feet above my car with some big rocks I had to scramble up, and I had a little bit of gear that I had to carry up. It took me like 3-4 trips up and down the hill that night and the next morning to set up and break down camp.

I had arranged to meet Jacob at about 5:30 the next morning, so I set an alarm and woke up at 4:30. I read my book (Annapurna) until there wasn't enough light in my tent. Then I went to sleep.

I slept pretty well. It wasn't super cold, so my 0-degree bag was overkill, as usual. Waking up at 4:30 wasn't a big deal anymore, I was getting used to the earlier and earlier starts. I made my oatmeal and hot cocoa and waited in my car for Jacob to roll up.

A trailhead report from the past weekend said that the parking lot was almost full at 5 in the morning on a Saturday, so I was guessing that there would be a good number of cars up there by 5:30 on a Wednesday. However, 5:30 came and went, and my car was still the only one there. At 5:45, I knew something was up. I drove down the road only to find that the Forest Service had closed the gate and posted that the trailhead would be closed until Thursday. I still am not sure what the point of this was.

Luckily, however, the gate wasn't locked shut, so I was still able to get down the road later that day. Jacob, as well as another car, was sitting here at the gate. Jacob hopped in my car, we drove back up to the trailhead, and began hiking. We started moving around 6:07. A pretty good start for what summer conditions required.

We moved fast. It was 14 miles round trip with 4300 ft of vert. This meant that the majority of the hike was simply walking along a pretty flat trail, making it super easy. We were at the summit by like 9:15, 9:30, moving almost 3 miles/hour with some breaks in there. It was one of the easiest summits to date.

At the top, I knew that there were train tracks, a paved highway, and the summit house, but I was shocked to find that there was a ton of construction going on. In fact, we couldn't even go to the true summit because it was fenced off. This did not feel like a 14er; I thought I had just arrived in a park or something. There were all these people up there who had simply driven on up and were taking pictures like New York tourists. There was even a couple who were recording a vlog. Meanwhile, Jacob and I looked pretty badass standing next to these dum-dums.

On the way down, we moved even faster. Although there was a little snow to deal with, I would call this full-on summer conditions. It is probably gonna be totally melted off by like the first or 2nd week of June. That's my guess. We moved so fast, in fact, that we ended up running the last 3-ish miles back to the car. It felt amazing, and strangely it felt almost safer to run than walk. When we got back to the car, it was 11:55, and we were a little bit fatigued but not really that tired. We had summited Pikes Peak, and we did it very quickly. Today, I would say that I was extremely skilled. There wasn't a single thing that I felt like I could have done better.

^^Left: a view from the summit. Right: looking Southwest. ^^

^^Left: Rocks near Devils Playground. Right: looking out across a valley.^^

^^Left: Looking North. Right: me near the top.^^

^^Left: Jacob summit picture. Right: summit picture.^^

Pikes Peak via the Northwest Slopes Route:

• 4300 ft of vert
• 14 miles

As always,

Risk is for managing, not for chance.

~Hogan Warlock~