Early Season Peaks with Snow

With summer in full swing, despite the high snow year, it was time to start hiking and even skiing some mountains.

Quandary East Ridge ski descent (hiked 6/14/2019)

Stats:

Mileage: 6.75 Miles

Elevation: 3450'

Time: 6.5 Hours

Difficulty: 6/10

Preface: Skiing fourteeners has been a goal of mine since I started skiing at the beginning of this season. The allure of the backcountry and the incredible lines that it contains is something that drew me in immediately. Unfortunately, while my skiing ability is up to par for some of the easier descents up to maybe D8, my backcountry experience and knowledge is not. I chose to ski Quandary in late June because I knew there was not any danger of avalanches or any sort of consequential wet slides. Maybe one day I'll be skiing the Landry line in prime winter conditions, but for now, this will have to do. I chose to ski Quandary because I am very familiar with the East ridge route. It is short, the elevation gain is easy, and the skiing would be fun. Again, I knew that this would be a safe choice, so I just went for it.

Preparation: I put a lot more thought and effort into preparing for this trip than any other fourteener, because I knew that the early season conditions would make the mountain more challenging. I constantly checked other trip and condition reports to ensure that I fully understood exactly what I was getting into. The reports told me that the route was still skiable, and that the avalanche danger was negligible. I also knew to be cautious regarding wet slides, so I planned on getting off the slide prone terrain before 9:00 when the sun warmed up the snow too much. I do not have a touring setup, so I planned on just hiking with my hiking boots, while my skis and boots were on my pack. You can see my setup in the first picture (I know, not an ideal setup, but hey it worked!).

The hike: I got to the trailhead at around 5:00 AM, and found that it was not very cold outside, and that I was the only one at the trailhead this early. I threw my pack on, and began making my way up the trail in the forest up to the mountain. I remember enjoying my music while I hiked through the dark, guided by my headlamp. I hadn't done much solo hiking in the dark and I remember how isolated I felt; it was a great feeling.

Once I reached treeline, the sun was barely starting to rise over the mountains to the east. I put my headlamp away and continued working my way up the slope towards the summit. By this point, I was hiking on snow, but it was bulletproof, so there was no post-holing. About halfway up the East ridge, the grade of the hike significantly steepens, and I began to feel the weight of the skis and boots as I continued up the ridge. I actually had to stop and take a break for a few minutes to catch my breath. While stopped, I glanced east towards the sunrise, and saw the beauty of these mountains.

Sunrise captured while I took a short break.

I continued to work my way up the steep slope, there is one section that is particularly steep, and lasts for about 200'. I was counting my steps on this section, and fully feeling the weight of my ski gear. I pressed onwards, knowing that another break would only serve to leave me more tired. Once I was past the steep portion of the ridge, I was super stoked to have done most of the elevation gain.

The summit: I pressed on, hiking towards the summit, and reached it in under twenty minutes. By the time I got there, the sun was fully out, yet it was still a very brisk morning in the alpine. I hadn't even noticed the cold because I was so hot from all of the hiking. There was not much wind on the summit, and I was not the only one up there. There were a couple other groups, both of whom had booted up the Cristo Couloir and planned on skiing down. I was tempted, for a brief moment to ski this couloir instead of the east ridge, but since I did not have any equipment such as an ice axe, and I was not familiar with the route, I decided against it.

Summit views

Myself and these other groups ended up chilling on the summit for about 30-45 minutes, waiting for the sun to warm the snow a bit more to make the skiing more fun. We talked about skiing, and I explained how I was very interested in getting into the backcountry. I grabbed a few pictures and eventually, decided that the snow was the perfect temperature, and put on my ski boots.

Ready to drop in

The descent: I clipped into my bindings, and skied over to the East Ridge, closely looking at my line and how I would descend. By this point, I saw a couple other groups of hikers making their way up the ridge. It was the perfect opportunity to start skiing down. The descent was honestly quite underwhelming, the slope is much more gentle when you're on a pair of skis compared to when you're hiking up. Regardless the snow was fun, and it went all the way to treeline, so I enjoyed turns the whole way down.

The part that I enjoyed the most was the fact that I was clipped into ski bindings at 14265'. This was such a cool feeling, and it has since heightened my desire to get into backcountry skiing, and send huge lines down Colorado's highest peaks.

Once back to treeline, I put my hiking boots back on, and strapped my skis onto my pack. The fun part of the day was over, and all that was left was the short hike back to the car. By this point in the day, it was starting to get a lot warmer, especially at the lower elevation. By the end of the hike when I was back to my car, I was sweating a bit. I was not all that tired, and was super stoked to have just skied my first fourteener.

Review: Skiing Quandary's east ridge was a whole new experience for me, and one that I enjoyed very much. I had skied much better lines on far better snow in bounds. But what made this experience unique was the thrill of the backcountry and the idea that I was skiing off a fourteen thousand foot mountain. Without proper equipment, I was working a lot harder than someone who could just skin up the mountain, but I got a good workout, and enjoyed it regardless. Quandary's east ridge is a very easy line to ski with little exposure, slopes not exceeding 30 degrees, and a short route. I highly recommend this line for someone's introduction to backcountry skiing, and plan on getting the proper equipment and experience to ski this mountain in winter conditions.

Mount Yale (Hiked 06/21/2019)

Stats:

Distance: 9.50 Miles

Elevation gain: 4300'

Time: 7 Hours

Effort: 5/10

Preface: Things such as vacations and other life stuff kept coming up, so it wasn't until June 21 that Philip and I were able to start hiking together again. We were both pretty busy this summer, I had done a week long climbing course and gone to Washington for a trip. As much as I enjoyed both of those trips, I was ready to get back into the Colorado mountains. Due to the high snow year, Philip and I did not want to screw around on any class 3/4 peaks yet, and Philip was about a month into recovering from a shoulder dislocation, so we figured that Mount Yale would be a perfect way to start our fourteener season.

Preparation: Preparing for this peak was very standard, we thought that we might need traction, since we did not have any, we checked the peak conditions, which told us that it was optional, but helpful. We decided to proceed without it. We made the two hour drive out past Buena Vista, and got to the Mount Yale trailhead. It was already fairly crowded, which wasn't surprising for this time of year. We were ready pretty quickly, and began the hike.

The hike: Hiking through the forest was very beautiful, and this trail runs alongside a river for a good portion. During this time of the year, everything in the mountains looks very green and healthy. Despite this being standard class one trail, we enjoyed this portion of the hike. Towards the end of the hiking below treeline, the trail split off in multiple directions, which happens in the early season due to people avoiding hiking over snowy portions along the trail. We were confused as to the route ahead for a brief few minutes, but basically decided to continue up the mountain and eventually, we got back on the trail.

Snowmelt running through the forest below Mount Yale

Once above treeline, we could see a good majority of the route ahead. There was a nice section of flatter trail in the alpine before the grade steepens and goes up Mount Yale. Philip and I saw a route that went up a snowfield, and opted to choose that over the rugged and rocky trail that goes hiker's left. We noticed a couple groups watching as we booted up this snowfield in our trail runners, it must have looked like a very interesting route choice to them without any sort of traction. The snow was still very hard, but we packed it in with our shoes and made it up very quickly. The whole time I was hiking up this portion, I kept looking down and thinking about how brutal a fall down this section would be.

At the top of the ridgeline

We made it to the top of the snow, and had a short hike on rock up to the ridge. From the ridge, there was about 30-45 minutes of hiking to the summit. The hiking on this section was very fun, there were some difficult class two choices that Philip and I took, in an attempt to keep the hike interesting. The views of the surrounding mountains are gorgeous all the way up this ridge. Everything looked so much prettier because all the higher mountains were still capped in snow and, below treeline everything was very green and healthy.

Taken halfway up the ridge to the summit. Green forests and snow capped peaks.

A view of the ridge up to the summit.

The Summit: We reached the summit of Yale, and we were feeling great. I rated the difficulty of this peak at 5/10 because when we got to the summit, we were not tired at all. Phil and I were more just stoked that we were finally out hiking again and enjoying the beauty of the Sawatch mountains. There were only a couple other groups on the summit and we exchanged a few words before taking some pictures and having a snack at the summit.

Awesome summit views of the surrounding peaks, still covered in snow.

The descent: When we'd finished admiring the views and having our snacks, we decided that it was time to head back down. We spent about 30 minutes descending the ridge, passing by a couple other people on their way up the mountain, and then dropped down the ridge. We opted to hike back down the trail instead of the snowfield because the snow was in the shade and was still very hard. Glissading this portion might have been dangerous and more importantly, wouldn't have been very fun. Once down the ridge, we hiked through the alpine back to treeline. By this point, both of us were still feeling great and were not very tired.

We then started hiking through the trees, and this is where we started to feel a little tired. It wasn't really bad, but we got to that point where you're like "ok I'm done hiking where's the car?" We continued on for a couple more miles, remembering that we didn't miss this part of the hikes. Soon enough however, we reached the car and were stoked to be back hiking.

Review: Mount Yale is pretty much your typical Sawatch peak. It's a decent day of hiking, not too long and straightforwards class 1-2 on trail that is easy to follow. As standards as it is however, it is very beautiful and hiking during the early season adds a layer of beauty due to the snowcaps on all of the surrounding mountains. Furthermore, everything is really green during this time of the year, and I just love seeing healthy green forest. This is a great mountain because the hike is a good workout, the trail is never too steep or difficult, and the summit is beautiful. Mount Yale is a great hike!

Mount Sherman (Hiked 06/27/2019)

Stats:

Mileage: 5.25 Miles

Elevation gain: 2100'

Duration: <3:00 Hours

Effort: 2/10

Preface: I was bored one day, and figured I'd go out and finish the mosquito peaks, as I had not done either Sherman or Bross. So I made the 1.5 hour drive down 285 and first went over to Sherman. Aside from some water and rain gear, I did not prepare very much for these peaks, just made sure that the trailheads and everything were passable, as it was still early summer.

The Drive: This drive was really nothing special, straightforward throughout the dirt road, but it did get a bit more rough towards the end. It is doable in 2wd vehicles though, I saw a ford focus at the parking lot.

The hike: I began hiking at around 7:00 AM and enjoyed working my way up the rocky gravel trail towards the ridge-line. The cool thing about this hike is the mine ruins that the trail passes by. The hike is also surrounded by many other beautiful mountains. There were many other groups hiking up this peak. On the ridge-line, there was a massive cornice, it was easily 20-30 feet tall. I pondered how I would make my way up this section as I continued to work my way up the mountain.

Mining ruins.

Once I got to the cornice, I saw a very solid bootpack that essentially worked its way diagonally up the pitch. I was not worried about this section since I saw someone else do it. It was not warm and I figured it was still too early in the season for this cornice to break off, so I just went up without much issue.

Pondering how I would get up this cornice.

A closer view.

After climbing the cornice to gain the ridge, I made sure that I stayed away from the cornice. Even though I was not terribly concerned about it breaking, such an occurrence would likely result in serious injury, so I just kept my distance.

From the ridge it is a fairly easy hike along solid class 2, rocky trail to the summit. This portion took me around 30 minutes, and afterwards, I reached the top.

Summit views.

For late June, there was still a ton of snow in the mountains, clearly as these pictures show. I was surprised, but did not mind at all. My trail runners are basically all purpose mountain shoes so they serve as crampons, snowshoes, and footwear for literally any mountain activity.

Joking aside however, I was stoked to reach the summit, and after a brief break for snacks and water, headed down towards my next objective: Bross.

The down-climb: From the summit, I was maybe an hour away from the car. I followed the ridge back down to the cornice entry. I then carefully descended down the cornice, and then glissaded about 200' down the slope. I then made my way through the gravel trail back towards my car. When I got back to the car, I took a quick rest, then hopped in and drove the dirt trail out to Fairplay. My next objective was in the nearby town of Alma, so I drove up to the Kite Lakes trailhead.

On the dirt road coming back from the Fourmile Creek trailhead, I saw a moose just walking around on the road. I think this moose was pretty young, it doesn't look like its full sized yet. I ensured that I didn't drive too close, so as not to scare him, but he looked pretty happy just sauntering along the road. I was glad to be in my car, as moose are a pretty dangerous animal if you threaten them and they decide to charge you.

The moose!

Review: Mount Sherman was such an easy peak. There was short hiking, and very little elevation gain. Take someone up Sherman for their first fourteener if you're concerned about whether they are in shape to do it or not. The surprisingly high amount of snow made things a little more complicated and I had to work a little harder, especially to climb up the cornice, but it was nothing too complicated or consequential. This is a beautiful hike and it goes through some neat mines and there is a great view of the surrounding mountains in every direction.

Mount Bross: I wish I had a trip report for a successful summit of Bross however, this is not the case. When I drove up to the trailhead, it was fairly busy from people hiking the surrounding mountains. I parked and hiked up to the Mount Bross trail, where I found the sign that says "private land" and "no trespassing". I saw the trail working its way up Bross- only 3.25 miles roundtrip. I ended up post-holing towards the trail for a bit before I decided that I did not want to trespass, so I turned around.

Review: I'd rate this hike a 1/10 for being only 1/4 mile of post-holing through snow but I gotta give it props because the views of Decalibron from the Kite Lakes trailhead are amazing. Honestly though I wish that I decided to just send it and go up Bross that day, but for some reason I just had this gut feeling that it was not a good idea. I think that the US forest service is working to try and make the hiking trail public land, or otherwise is trying to get the mining company to allow hikers to summit Bross, but I'm not sure how thats going or what the status on this initiative is. Anyways, I decided to head home after this and to this day, have not summited Bross, which makes for two failed attempts of the mountain. I'll be back for you one day Bross.