14'ers Log

There's nothing in the world like standing above 14,000 feet and peering down on the world.

On July 17th, 2005 I finished climbing all of Colorado 14,000+ ft peaks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"There are two types of climbers, those whose hearts sing in the mountains,
and all the rest" - Alex Lowe, deceased

Pikes Peak: east slope, 14,110 ft, Barr Trail. 6/12/98 Friday. 13 miles one way, 6 hours total. Worked to 2:00 a.m. the night before and got to the trail head at 5:30 a.m. Made it to Barr camp, halfway, in only 2 hrs 15 mins. Slowed down and took several breaks once above treeline. Started out in shorts and a flannel and ended in pants, wind breaker, knit hat, gloves, and gators. Fell through the snow up to my waist only once. Absolutely beautiful day and not a cloud in the sky. When I got to the top of the trail there was three people about ready to go down, in talking to them I mentioned that I was going to hitch hike down and the lady offered a ride down by her husband. Easy enough! Got a ride to my car, came home and went to sleep.
Summer 2000, Barr Trail, 4hrs 22mins.
7/4/01, Barr Trail with Hendler, 5hrs 35mins.
8/11/01, Crags with John Stergius, 3hrs to summit, down bottomless pit and French Creek.
8/18/01, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 36mins.
8/18/02, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 50mins.
10/25/02, Crags, 5hrs 15mins.
8/16/03, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 17mins.
8/17/03, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 23mins.
11/22/03, Camped out below Devils Playground with Denali as Aconcagua training. Freakin' COLD!! 22 degree's below freezing on the summit with crazy ole wind.
8/21/04, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 19mins.
8/22/04, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 23mins.
1/23/05, Crags with Jean, Keith, Beth, and Denali, a nice leisurely climb of Pikes in HOT temps for January. A beautiful day! We carried our snowshoes but didn't use them at all. Some deep snow around/below treeline, but mostly packed trails. 9hrs.
8/6/05, Barr Trail as part of the21hr BYC XVI. Summitted at 6am, perfect timing for a sweet sunrise!
8/20/05, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 10mins.
8/21/05, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 35mins.
11/3/06, Crags with Denali. 3.5 to summit, 6hrs roundtrip. Felt guilty for not hiking Pikes yet this year! Breaking trail after an hour, cold and windy up top.
6/1/07, Rumdoodle Ridge/Y Coulior. 4hrs roundtrip. Wayne and I parked at 13,380 and dropped down to Rumdoodle Ridge. Lots of 3rd class scrambling and dodging around boulders. After about an hour we dropped into the Bottomless Pit and waited for Bob who was actually on the ridge across the valley. Crampons and ice axes around 12,400 for fun fun fun the rest of the way up! Took the right branch and had one small rock band to climb over. Pretty steep at the top and popped out just below the actually summit. A quick 700' down to the car then wine burgers. Possibly my new favorite route in Colorado!
7/27/07, Mtn bike Barr Trail! 4:23 up, 6:50 total. Seemed doable so I had to give it a shot! Definitely easier to RUN up Pikes then bike it. Took 1:50 to Barr Camp and I was completely soaked in sweat. Had to get off frequently to push afterwards, but rode as much as I could. Lots of funny comments from people hiking. Foggy up top and a crazy ole physically abusive downhill! Once at Barr Camp it was fast and smooth. Loved it!!
8/4/07, 3hrs total; 3-2-1 from summit.
8/18/07, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 3mins
1/19/08 Crags with Denali and Nicholls. 5hrs to summit, 8.5hrs roundtrip. Trail went left in deep snow near treeline. Found some sweet rock formations up there then headed to Devils Playground on wind swept ground. Cold and windy all day. Up and over Little Pikes Peak on the way up, over Devils Playground Peak on the way back. Dangerously cold fingers on summit. Nicholls lost a snowshoe on the way back and we got to see the sun set!
7/25/08 2:45 total; 3-2-1 from summit. Last "1" was more like a "2/3rds" since the thunder, hail, and hair standing on end started. Down 3: 14:11, 9:19, 12:48. Up 3: 16:29, 15:04, 17:48. Down 2: 13:42, 9:58. Up 2: 15:31, 18:37
8/17/08, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 2mins.
8/18/08, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 33mins.
7/25/09, 2:25 total; 3-2- (no one this time); Down 3: 12:33, 8:49, 11:27. Up 3: 17:26, 15:40, 19:25. Down 2: 15:09, 10:25. Up 2: 15:29, 18:48.
8/2/09, 2:55 total; 3-2-1; Down 3: 12:12, 8:17, 11:04. Up 3: 17:19, 15:35, 18:42. Down 2: 13:33, 9:38. Up 2: 15:57, 19:39. Down 1: 14:29, Up 1: 19:05
8/15/09, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou, Pikes Peak Ascent, 3hrs 3mins.
8/26/09, Barr Trail from downtown Manitou and back to Manitou, Pikes Peak Marathon, 5hrs 19mins.

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Mt. Sherman: 14,036 ft. 6/21/98 Sunday. 8 miles round trip, 4.5 hours total. Got to the trail head around 8:30 a.m. and started hiking. Some dark clouds in the sky in front of us and we headed back to the car when it started raining. Decided to wait it out and started a little farther up the 4X4 road. Not even 20 minutes into hiking it started snowing!! We got a kick out of the fact that it was the first day of summer. Followed the trail up past some old mining building and got to the talus slope. Figured that we would go up on a slant instead of straight up. We tried to stay in the snow whenever we could so we could get better foot holds. Spent plenty of time crawling up using our hands. Made it to the saddle connecting Mt. Sherman to Mt. Sheridan and the wind almost blew us over the side. Extremely windy and cold but made it to the summit and didn’t stay for long due to dark clouds rolling in. Instead of walking down we were able to slide most of the way down on our feet and butts like we were sledding. Got back to the car just when the hail started coming down.
12/7/03, From camp above Fourmile Creek TH. The 3 13ers and camping out in the high winds wasn't quite enough for me and Aconcagua training so I decided to take a run up Sherman too, with a full pack. There were some dark clouds and snow reports not far off so I wanted to hustle. I took the steep scree both up and down this time, worked out pretty well since it was all pretty frozen. Got to the summit in 1.5hrs and decided to skip Gemini since the cloud were close and moving fast. Some quick foot skiing and hiking got me back to the truck in just over 2hrs. A great training w/end!
5/21/04, Fourmile Creek TH. ~8miles round trip. Just under 6hrs total. After 7 weeks of doing absolutely nothing with a pulled groin it was finally time to get back into the mtns. Peggy has been wanting to climb Sherman so I figured that would be a good test of the leg and possibly hop over to the high 13ers, Gemini and Dyer. We were able to get all the way to the TH with no snow problems. The hike up to the mines was mixed between packed snow and rocks, easy stuff. There was a giant cornice between Sheridian and and Sherman so we opted to skip that route, I've also done the direct scree slope twice now, so we went for the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. We got a little higher then we wanted, then took a steeper slope then intended, but got up to the high ridge just about to the summit. We used only snowshoes and that was fine for the steep slope. It was real windy as usual on the summit, so we dropped down a bit for a bite to eat before heading over to Gemini. Summited Sherman again on the return trip too!
3/6/05, Skipped up Sherman again with Jean and Denali after getting my truck stuck in the snow, backpacking up to 12,600ft, and camping. A beautiful, yet windy, day finished off with a fun glissade after hopping over the Gemini and back over the summit of Sherman! Man, that ridge looks so awesome with all the wind blown snow! Just over 5hrs from camp.
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Mt Democrat: 14,148 ft.; Mt. Cameron, 14,238 ft.; Mt.Lincoln, 14,286 ft.; Mt. Bross, 14,172 ft. 6/28/98 Sunday. 7 mile round trip, approx. 6 hours total. We camped at Kite Lake Campground, 12,000 ft., at the base of the cirque containing three of the summits. Absolutely beautiful summer day, not a cloud in the sky. We packed up and started on the trail up Democrat at 7:00 a.m. Only a few patches of snow to cross on the way up. The slopes were mostly large rocks so climbing up them wasn’t so bad. Got to the saddle connecting Democrat and Cameron and summited Democrat around 10:00 a.m. Followed the saddle across to Cameron which wasn’t so easy. Long and steep at sections. Camerons peak was large and rounded, but a nice change. The hike to Lincoln's peak was short but rewarding. The summit was small and couldn’t hold more than a handful of hikers. Plenty of people hiking up the south slope with snowboards. The trip to Bross was long but easy because it was not steep till the end. The reward of doing all 4 summits was slidding down atleast 1500 to 1700 feet of snow along Bross’ steep side right back to the campground. Great day of hiking but never again will we forget to bring sun screen!!
8/10/03, Mt. Bross/S. Bross/Lincoln/Cameron, mountain biked from junction of Kite Lake Rd and CR415; 19 miles and 4hrs round trip, over 3000ft elevation. Gregg and I thought it would be fun to mtn bike up an 14er and believe it or not, it was! These were perfect ones because mining and 4x4 roads go right to the summit of Bross and all the hiker traffic leaves a nice wide, somewhat smooth trail; Only took 2hrs to slug up to the summit of Bross where Peggy just arrived from Kite Lake, from there it was an hour to hangout, go to S. Bross (unofficial 14er) and make it over to Lincoln. I had to carry my bike on my back the last 50 or so vertical feet to the summit of Lincoln, but it was worth it. About 40mins to Cameron and back to Bross, then a screamin' 30mins down over 3000ft vertical! That was the reward and it was so worth it! The best was the looks on people's faces and what they had to say when they saw us biking at 14K! I was messing with some of them saying we took a wrong turn on the way to Breckenridge and others seemed interested to try it themselves. Unfortunately there was a keg on top on Lincoln like some said.
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Grays Peak: 14,270 ft.; Torreys Peak, 14267 ft, 9/5/98 Saturday. 8 mile round trip took close to 6 hours. We left the Springs at 4:30 a.m. and got to the trail head of Steven Gulch around 7:00 a.m. The 3 mile road to the trail head was extremely rough and I thought for sure that my oil pan or exhaust pipe would be left behind! It was a beautiful day and perfect for hiking. When we got towards the main trail leading up Grays we could see about 5 mountain goats up on the connecting ridge. On top of Grays there was a ham radio operator(of course) and I turned east and saw a mountain goat coming up behind me about 10-12 feet away! There was only a small amount of snow on the east side of the saddle. From Torreys peak Brekenridge and the Democrat group could be seen and Dillon Res. next to the town of Frisco. Also from Torreys peak about 20-25 people could be seen standing on the top of Grays peak and it looked like a line of Sherpa’s coming up the trail! It was not even cold up on the peaks or the saddle and a beautiful day to be in shorts at 14,270 feet.
5/15/05, Kelso Ridge, 7hrs 50mins. Kelso Ridge has been on my "to climb" list for quite some time now and Keith, John S. and I finally got to it. It was a fantastic climb of mixed rock and steep snow. Huge cornices and just a slight bit of pucker factor. 4.5hrs to Torreys, 35mins to Grays, and ~1500ft glissade back down! What a ride!
5/20/05, Dead Dog Couloir, 7hrs, 25mins. Another route up Torrey's that I've been jonsin' to do!! The snow was in great shape and it was a WONDERFUL climb. Couldn't ask for anything better. Jean was a bit nervous at first, being only her second snow climb, but did awesome! As did Denali the wonder-mutt. Popped over to Grays afterwards and did the same glissade as the previous week. Gotta love spring-time in Colorado!!!!
5/6/07, Grays standard route and NE ridge. 7hrs 30mins, 12 miles, 4450 ft. Too much new snow to climb Lost Rat coulior, but still hiked up Stevens Gulch from I70 despite the awful forecasts. What started as a beautiful day turned to a blizzard for most of the day! Still hammered it up to the summit in 6-18" of new snow along the NE ridge after Jean and Denali stayed down around 12,800ft.
6/15/07, Emperor Couloir, 4hrs 30mins. "One of the longest snow climbs in Colorado". WOWZA! Wayne bounced his 4Runner up to 10,800ft and at 11,200ft we were on snow allllll the way to the summit. Got steeper as we went up and a bit of pucker factor swinging a leg up and over a cornice. Took 2:50 to summit, hung out for 30mins talking to some young kids just starting the 14ers and glissaded/boot-skied down the NW Couloir. Short and sweet!
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Mt. Harvard: 14,420 ft. 12.6 miles. 9/12/98 Saturday. Myself, Mike Reading and Mike Hrebner left the Springs at 4:30 a.m. and got to the trailhead at 7:00 a.m. Mike’s car almost didn’t make it up the road, it was extremely rough in most places and we bottomed out several times. Once above timberline we saw a herd of close to 50 mountain goats on the side of Mt. Columbia. The weather started to turn and dark clouds moved in but didn’t look too threatening. Once we were on the scree slope in started to drizzle, a little farther up it was raining, then hailing, and near the top it was snowing! I felt nausea a few times near the top but Mike was leaned over his pole for the duration of every stop. We passed a girl who said she was sitting up near the top for some time and was about to fall asleep, pretty smart of her. To get to the highest point we had to do some boulder scrambling on wet rocks. Met a guy who also went to Penn State at the top and had lunch and snacks. The temperature was a whopping 38 degrees. It ended up taking almost exactly 5 hours to get to the summit and a little more than 3 hours to get back to the car. We didn’t even attempt the 2.2 mile, intimidating looking saddle over to Mt. Columbia. Next time!
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Mt. Elbert: 14,433 ft. 9 miles. 9/27/98 Sunday. We camped at Elbert creek campground near the trailhead Saturday night and woke up to ice on the tent! Started the trail around 8:00a.m. but got detoured for the first 20 minutes. Not a cloud in the sky the whole day. What we thought was the summit turned out not to be, but the trail was pretty steep most of the way up. Summited after 5 hours and just took in the view for about a half an hour. It was nice seeing patches of yellow aspens on the surrounding ranges and how tiny Leadville looked. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to the car for the 2.5 hour ride home.
6/6/03, Northeast Ridge II, same as above. Hendler was in town so after partying and closing the bar Thursday night we (me, Hendler and Denali) made it to the TH at 10am. Keyword = "Uber" for the day. Had great weather and made it to the summit in around 4hrs. Hendler was pretty dizzy but not as bad as on Pikes two years ago. To the west a killer storm was blowing in so we ate real quick and headed back down. Denali's first 14er and he did fantastic! Got hit with some sideways snow and crazy ole winds which blew through pretty quick. Back in the tree's was real nice and we were looking forward to the after-hike beers already! Finished in a little over 6hrs with breaks, clothing adjustments, and Hendler taking bird pictures.
9/28/03, Northeast Ridge II, 12 miles (w/ South Elbert). 6.5hrs. This was a training climb for Aconcagua, a good finish to a w/end that I hiked 3 13ers the day before and mtn biked 40 miles the day before that! The Aspens were looking fabulous all around and there wasn't much snow on top. After finding the group above the TH then splitting up from the group Bob, Wayne and I made a speed dash to the summit to get a good workout in. Took just over 3hrs to summit, then another hour to get to South Elbert and back. A great ending to a self-induced ass-kicking weekend.
2/19/06 11.2miles, 4850ft gain, 8hrs 45mins, East Ridge from South Elbert TH. After a great day ice climbing in Vail we staying in Leadville for hopes of a winter Elbert summit. The weather was great in the morning as we left the TH on the packed snow 4x4 road. After an hour and a couple stops we were at the 4x4 TH and were happy to see the trail was packed beyond. Another 200yds on the Colorado Trail and we started the steep climb through the trees. We were both feeling the full-body soreness from ice climbing the day before and kept an eye on the clouds/snow to the south. Popping out at treeline we still had a faint trail to follow and stashed our snowshoes at 12,900ft since it looked like we could stay on rocks and hard snow the rest of the way. The wind picked up some but the temps were still above zero (barely) so we kept pushing on while taking the occasional bearing and looking behind us for landmarks for the return trip. Around 14K we had a brief pow-wow and pep-talks and decided to push on the last 400+ft to the summit. After 5.5hrs we were on the highest peak in Colorado in the middle of winter!!!!! We didn't stay on the summit long at all and made quick time of getting back down with some glissades and foot skiing. No problems finding the snowshoes and the trail on the way down, before long we were back on the Colorado Trail for the ~2mile slog back to the car. The Yukon never looked so great and felt so warm as we hopped in with thoughts of great food from Coyote Cantina!!!
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Mt. Bierstadt: 14,060 ft. 6 miles 1/30/99 Saturday. Met Mike Reading and Ted Peters at work at 4:30 a.m. and left for Guanella Pass in Georgetown. Beautiful day to start off with and we strapped on the snow shoes and started. The first mile goes downhill through the Willows and it was quite a pain in the ass to get through them at times. Doesn’t seem like fun in the summer! I thought for sure that I was going to rip my pants. The clouds started to darken and we saw an awesome rainbow above the ridge from the sun rising behind it. It begun to get steep after the drainage and we were making our own small switch-backs around the rocks. Ted and Mike started slowing down so I went ahead and got to the summit in about 4.5 hours. Visibility was no more than 20 feet so the view wasn’t too spectacular. Met some Flyers fans at the top and chatted with them and other groups who summited while waiting an hour for Mike and Ted. By that time I was freezing and wanted to get off as fast as possible. Didn’t have to put on the snow shoes again till the willows because it was easier to slid down on our feet. At one point I sat on by shovel and slid down part of the way. We found out later that week that Mike had walking pneumonia. All in all I thought it was one of the easier 14’ers that I have done so far even in the snow.
11/23/02, from Guanella Pass with Peggy and Gregg. Acclimatization hike for Pico de Orizaba. Not quite enough snow to use our snowshoes but we carried them along just in case. Pretty windy up top and cold enough to make the fingers and toes numb. Biggest difference this time...could actually see more than 20ft and took 4.5hrs round trip!
8/13/06, Tour d'Abyss with Steve Nicholls. See Evans TR below.
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Quandary Peak: 14,265 ft. 2 miles 6/13/99 Sunday. Jamie and I got to the south slope trailhead around 10 of 9 and parked at the dam. We could see from there the huge snow slope that we would get to slide down. Climbed up over the dam and got to the snow and just followed someone else’s tracks and foot holds most of the way up. Later the snow started getting mushy from the sun and we moved over to the rocks and dirt. Ended up taking 2.5 hours to get to the top and wasn’t difficult at all. After hiking down about 200 yards the snow couloir started and we sat on our asses and slid the entire way down in someone else’s track. It was like a mile long, 2500 vertical foot water slide! We ended up soaked but it was worth it to descend in 10 minutes.
12/22/01, Southeast ridge. The snow at A-Basin's opening day wasn't too great and Quandary looked so tempting! I wasn't able to drive all the way to the trailhead so I jogged the mile to the trailhead then jogged to timberline. From there hiked the rest of the way up in my old running shoes. It was snowing like crazy on the way down!
3/14/03, Southeast ridge. With Cassel, Bruce and Bruce. Best part was the speedy "shovel descent". Took 8hrs round-trip. Yikes!
12/3/04, Southeast ridge. With Hendler and Denali. A great day with blue skis, good snow, and some high winds. Took 7hrs round-trip. Hendler did great considering he was in New Jersey the night before and we spent too long at the brewery. I was hoping to tele up and down, but there wasn't good snow-cover up high. Used snowshoes the entire way and had some interesting snow/ice formations on the final summit ridge. Heard a couple "whumps" underfoot on the snowfield right out of the trees, but nothing that seemed dangerous.
6/10/06, Cristo Coulior. Started off a bad morning with a full moon, waking up at 3:30am, Keith running over a hose and getting a flat and bending the rim, etc etc etc. Did this as a snow climb for Rainer training. Only took 2.5hrs to the top and Keith and I tried to descend the west ridge but kept running into problems, so we headed back down the Cristo Coulior and caught up with Jean and Beth. 20yds from the car Jean broke her ankle, luckily we were so close to the car and hospital. OUCH!!!!
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Mount Evans: 14,264 ft. 2 miles 6/20/99 Sunday. Drove to the summit lake trailhead and saw about 10 mountain goats hanging out near the bathroom, including babies. We went right up close to them and they didn’t even move. Hiked up the northeast ridge through snow and mostly solid talus. On the summit we saw 4 more mountain goats near the observatory and rest rooms. We came down by way of a snow slope, it was too mushy to slide down but we could run down and it is what I would imagine walking on the moon would be like. Every running step the snow would go up past our knees and sometimes to our waists. A good and easy hike, it took around 3 hours total up and back.
8/12/06. 56miles, ~6900ft gain. By road bike from Idaho Springs. 1:20 to Echo Lake, 3:18 to top, 40mins on top, 5:05 round trip. I had to start at Idaho Springs knowing that I'd get heckled from friends otherwise. Took a bit to get into a groove and out of granny gear. Three old dudes from Seattle were biking up (from Echo Lake) to celebrate their 60th and 70th birthdays! WOW! One of them had their helmet on backwards! hahah ahahaaa. On top I carried by bike to the true summit, knowing that I'd get heckled otherwise once again! An awesome ride that I can't wait to do again...but faster.
8/13/06. Tour d'Abyss with Nicholls. Been wanting to do this for years and Nicholls and I laughed our way through it for just over 5hrs. Parked a couple switchbacks from the summit at 13,300ft and dropped down to the lake below Abyss Lake. Headed 1000ft up the other side to the 13,420 point and the fun scrambling began over 13,641. FUN FUN FUN!!! East ridge to Bierstadt was fun, 2hrs to the summit. Guys brewing beer up there, Steve says "I've found my soul mate, its just too bad its a guy!" The Sawtooth was tons more fun and easy to follow since Steve knew the way. Lots of people on there and a few that were plenty lost heading the wrong way to Bierstadt. Took under an hour to get across, some ledges towards the end with a little exposure. We bounced over the Spalding since "its right there", then along the ridge top to West Evans and then Evans. Started getting drizzled on and talked to a Discovery Channel film crew with Peter Hillary filming for a K2 documentary. Wow! Best was the pink sweat pants on the summit of Evans. On the way back to the car Steve slipped on a wet rock and bounced off his back and leg. Ouch! I've never laughed so much on a single hike, it was nice to be done before dark for a relatively short day.
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Humboldt Peak: 14,064 ft. 4 miles 9/2/99 Thursday. Fun 7 mile 4X4 road up to the trailhead. I was able to drive as far as Jamie and I hiked in the snow earlier in the year. I thought I was heading in the wrong direction because the trail was leading away from the peak but it eventually cut over. Excellent trail the whole way up until scrambling on the large rocks near the top. I didn’t get to see the Crestone’s real well due to clouds and it was extremely windy the entire way up to the summit. It took 2 hrs and 15 mins to get to the top and 4 hours round trip. Fun and not such a hard hike.
6/27/04. Did the standard route again after bagging an attempt on Kit Carson/Challenger from the lakes. Myself, Peggy, and Denali did it in 5hrs 45mins including a couple extra hours for our Kit Carson detour. Had to lift Denali up over some rocks a few times, but he did awesome the entire way! Poor tired puppy now though. The summit was clouded in but had great views of the surrounds valleys earlier.
8/23/07. Standard route from camp after backpacking in with Jean and Brian. Once Bob and Sharon got to camp in the evening we headed up! Only took 1.5hrs to summit getting there at 6:15pm. With such great weather, how could we not?! Three hours round trip.
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Tabeguache Peak: 14,155 ft,; Mt. Shavano, 14,229 ft. 8 miles 9/18/99 Saturday. Mike Hrebenar picked me up at 4:30 a.m. and we got to Jenning Creek trailhead and off hiking by 7:30. The trail started off nice through stands of changing Aspens. That was soon over and we started heading almost straight up on a horrible trail of loose pea size rocks. Saw about 20 mountain goats on the opposite slope. After we got up to the 12,900 ft ridge the slope wasn’t as bad but it was up and down, up and down. From this ridge we could see Shavano’s summit and Tab’s west side. The ridge at about 13,800 was a bad trail along loose boulders and talus and took us over about 4 false summits. The trail would appear and disappear as it pleased and route finding was difficult due to plenty of cliffs and a dangerous gulch close-by. Got to the summit of Tab. after 3 hours and it only took 1 hour to get to the summit of Shavano. The east side of Tab. to the connecting saddle was loose rock and not fun. Some snow on the ridge to Shavano and an easy path to follow. The worst part of the hike was getting back down. We had to summit Tab. again to avoid to cliffs then back to the up and down and over the false summits. The steep part at the beginning of the trail was bad on the knees and it was great to see the jeep after 8 hours total of hiking.
4/26/03, Angel of Shavano II from Blank Gulch TH. 8 miles, 4,430ft. 7 hours roundtrip. A beautiful and classic snow climb. Met Gregg and camped at Placer Creek, it was quite a bit warmer than I thought, though still right around 30 degrees. Just above 10K feet we got into the snow. The snow chute was in great condition and took us up to about 13,600ft. Real windy and cold, but great! Some folks climbing up and tele'ing down, and the glissade took us over 2000feet down in under 30 minutes. We had tons of gear with us that sucked carrying, but glad that we brought snowshoes cause even with them we were post-holing on the way out!
10/15/05 Standard route from Blank Gulch TH. 9 miles, 7.5hrs round trip. A new 14er for Jean and Denali, and I think now I've climbed Shavano via its three routes. A bit of lost trail in the snow in the trees and lots of elevation. Hopped over to unranked 13,640ft Espirite Point as well. A beautiful windless day on the summit. A soak in the Princeton Hot Springs on the way home was a perfect finish!
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Mt. Massive: 14,421 ft.,6.2 miles 5/13/00 Saturday. 7.5 hours round trip. Southwest slope from North Halfmoon creek trailhead. Colorado’s second highest peak and the name says it all! Jamie and I drove to the trailhead and slept in the truck Friday night and woke up to -25 degrees F. Started on the trail a little before seven and got to the valley where Mike H. And I got turned around last time. Saw about 7 mountain goats playing on the cliffs. Found the small trail leading out of the meadow and started gaining some serious altitude. Sent through some icy cliffs to starts the a couple of small snow fields. 5 skiers passed us so we had them to break trail for us! Jamie got altitude sickness slightly above timberline where we put our snowshoes on and decided to stay there. I continued on not knowing what was in store for me. The higher up I got the steeper it got and switch backs in snowshoes sucks! It turned to mixed ice and rock high up and got quite scary when the spikes of the snow shoes would not hold. I ended up having to depend on the ice ax quite a bit. The ascent from the valley to the saddle was 2,750 feet! I hit the 13,900 ft saddle and started feeling the altitude myself, but made it to the summit for a short stay and breathe taking views. I was hoping to glissade down most of the way but the snow was too hard and way to steep to have any kind of control, so I slid down small parts back to where Jamie was hanging out watching the goats. All in all a steep and tough hike.
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Ellingwood Point: 14,042 ft.,4 miles 5/27/00 Saturday. 4 hours round trip. Myself Jamie and John Hall drove down to the 4X4 road Friday night and camped 3.3 miles in from the main road. We woke up Saturday and hiked the grueling 3.5 miles up the rest of the road, which took 5 hours. It was amazing that some trucks got up to Lake Como. We pitched camp about .25 miles east of the lake and I strapped up and headed for Ellingwood. Little Bear and Blanca were enough to intimidate anyone and I took the trail as if I were hiking Blanca. Beautiful waterfall at the first steep section and it didn’t ease up at all! Ended up doing a lot of climbing with my hands over various size boulders up to the saddle between Blanca and Ellingwood. Once on the saddle I realized that I would have to climb below the saddle and around the cliffs. I started to feel the altitude but kept going. Finally reached to summit for a short stay and thought that I could head down a more direct route but ended up stuck in some cliffs where even I was quite scared. Much to my dismay I had to climb back up almost to the summit and back the way I came. I was swearing that I would never leave the trail again if I got off of this mountain. I felt like shit by the time I got all the way down and headed right for the tent to take a well needed nap. Ended up doing 9 hours of hiking that day.
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Blanca Peak: 14,345 ft, 4 miles 5/28/00 Sunday. 5 hours round trip. John and I were planning on leaving at 5:30 am to attempt Little Bear then the ridge to Blanca. The wind held us back until 7:15 and were chose the direct route up Little Bear. After climbing several hundred feet of near vertical ice we came to a dead end of loose rocks and cliffs. We descended a little and tried another way around but came up with nothing again. It was quite scary at times considering that we could barely kick foot holds and we were hanging onto our ice axes for dear life. We ended up coming down the same route defeated, but alive, and went off to hike Blanca by itself. It was basically the same route up Ellingwood but the top parts got real sketchy and there were several technical sections. We made it to the top after 2 old men raced past us in the other direction. Coming down was almost as difficult due to the loose rock and shear faces that we had to climb down. Ended the hike with some glissading in shorts through slush. We both got serious sunburn and John beat himself up good by stopping boulders with his legs. Pucker factor 9.8!
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Mount Belford: 14,197 ft; Mount Oxford, 14,153 ft; 11 miles 6/25/00 Sunday. West Slope II, West Ridge II. 7 hours round trip. We drove in and camped Saturday night just west of the Missouri Gulch trailhead at a cool little spot. Got eaten alive by mosquitoes and couldn’t build a fire due to the county wide fire restriction. Started hiking around 7:00 a.m. and the trail started with switchbacks immediately. Once we got past the switchbacks and into the gulch we could see the rest of the trail and it was switchbacks to whole damn way. Jamie and I split up near where the trail split for Elkhead pass and the clouds started rolling in. I summitted Belford around 10 and didn’t spend much time there before heading to Oxford. It only took 45 minutes to get across the saddle to Oxford and the weather was deteriorating fast. Looking back west, Belford quickly got covered in storm clouds and it was time to put on the shell. It started snowing pretty hard by the time I was at the low point of the saddle and I was about to ditch my poles because I started to hear some thunder and see some lightning. The snow stopped just before I got back to the top of Belford (which sucked having to go back over top again!) and the rain soon begun. Not far down the trail I saw 2 Saint Bernards, one with a backpack on trudging down the trail. They were huge and soaking wet! All in all it wasn’t a hard hike and was just a lot of walking and stairs, a total of 5,900 vertical feet. On the way back home we drove through where the Hi-Meadow fire just finished its line of 10,000 acres of destruction.
7/28/01 Same route with Peggy, descended through Elkhead Pass after a jog over to Point 13,762 south of Belford, about 6hrs round trip.
7/24/05 Normal route and a couple new 14ers for Jean and Denali. Just under 8hrs total. These were the best 14ers yet since I asked Jean to marry me on the summit of Belford!
5/26/07 Part of the Missouri, Emerald, Iowa, Oxford, Belford, Pecks mega-loop!
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La Plata Peak: 14,336 ft; 8 miles 8/19/00 Saturday. 4 hours round trip. After a long and hard night of drinking I woke up at 4:30am, ouch!, and Sunny and I hit the road. We got to the trailhead around 8:00am, Southwest Ridge from west Winfield. I was able to drive up farther than the book said so I knocked off about 1.5 miles. Hiked into a beautiful valley and there were lots of dark clouds behind the peaks. The clouds cleared up and the uphill began. Sunny was hunting around for marmots and pika’s the whole way up. Hit the 13,000 ft ridge and almost got knocked over by the wind! It got steep again for a section of solid rock that was easy to follow up. It was quite foggy on the final ridge and I just kept my eyes on the guys ahead of me when the trail broke up. Sunny didn’t veer far from the trail on the way back to the truck and hit the first mud puddle that he found and almost drank the stream dry! It was an easy peak that I would definitely climb again.
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Mt. Princeton: 14,197 ft; 6 miles 8/16/00 Saturday. 6 hours round trip. East Slope II from Mt. Princeton TH. Jamie, Sunny, and I left the springs about 5:30am, got to the top of the 4x4 road and trailhead around 8:30am. The road wasn’t too bad except it was real thin and had two good tight turning switchbacks. We got up to the first ridge and the trail turned pretty rocky, but solid. Once we got up to the steep, straight up part, Sunny and I took off for the summit. We passed several lesbians (must have been a convention) and got to the summit by 10:30am. Everyone loved Sunny and Jamie was up top with us within an hour. After some lunch we headed down the ridge instead of straight down. It was less steep but still treacherous at parts. As we got to the final stretch there were storm clouds all around and we saw a few not so smart people on their way up the trail.
6/12/04. Since Princeton is so beautiful and such a fun hike I couldn't resist hiking it again when Peggy wanted to. We camped near Cotopaxi since Cassel was in town and we were rafting the following day. Got to the TH around 8:30am just a bit above the Radio Towers and saw John Erikson and another one of Peggy's friends! Small world. Sweated all the beer and Patron out in no time and cut off the trail to head up Tigger Peak. Lots of scrambling and boulder hopping around and after just an hour we had the summit of Tigger to ourselves. It was nice and warm, but a bit windy on the summit and ridge. Some dark clouds coming from the west as we quickly made our way along the ridge to Princeton's summit. Lots of other people on the mtn heading up the standard route. We were moving along pretty fast and were on Princeton's summit just an hour and a half after leaving Tigger. Rumor had it that Cardboard Rodney was on top of Princeton so I got to meet a couple other folks from 14erworld.com and pose for pic's with Cardboard Rodney! Small world once again. We headed down the standard route and only hit a couple small runs of snow. Back at the truck after 4.5hrs roundtrip and on the way back to camp for tons more beers and laughs!
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Missouri Mountain: 14,067 ft; 10 miles 10/20/00 Saturday. 7.5 hours round trip. Northwest Ridge II from Missouri Gulch trailhead. Cassel and I got to the campground the night before to figure out that I forgot my sleeping bag! We got up and had to wait for first light before we could start. The switchbacks start right from the beginning. It was pretty windy but eased off once we got to 12,600 where we started right for the summit. We followed a snow chute up and were on the 14,000 foot ridge in no time. We chilled on the summit for over an hour and ended the day by glissading down and running most of the way back to the truck.
5/26/07 Part of the Missouri, Emerald, Iowa, Oxford, Belford, Pecks mega-loop!
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Huron Peak: 14,003 ft; 8 miles 10/21/00 Sunday. 6 hours round trip. North Ridge II on the way up and Northwest Slopes II on the way down from South Winfield trailhead. The switchbacks started immediately on this one as well as the day before. We had a long straight shot to the 13,000 foot ridge that knocked Cassel and I down pretty fast. Once we got up there we were able to see the peak and it was quite intimidating and rugged from our angle and it looked almost impossible. We climbed up and over 13,500 foot Browns Peak and took a much-needed rest. Along the ridge to Huron we tagged point 13,518 foot just because it was there then joined the Northwest trail and climbed the last several switchbacks on ice to the summit. We were watching the weather closely but the ugly clouds stayed high. We didn’t waste anytime getting down the trail and ran most of the way. We were real glad we took the North Ridge route, it was much more scenic and not as many switchbacks.
5/28/07 Up and down the NW Slopes II. 6hrs 20mins. Jean's first 14er since breaking her ankle! Fun snow on the way up and a big ole cornice on the summit. Even snowed a bit on the way down.
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Mt Yale: 14,196 ft; 7 miles 5/26/01 Saturday. 8 hours round trip. Southwest Slope II from Denny Creek Trailhead. Boiling Larry, Erika, Soni and Sparky came into town the night before so we put down bunches of beer and headed out early in the morning. Started on the trail at 9:00am and the weather looked great. A fun climb, and the trail got real steep once we got out of the drainage and on the slopes. Sure enough weather rolled in when we were around 13,000+ feet and we had about 60-mph winds and some snow. The dogs were having some trouble on the boulders near the top so they got lifted over them and Sparky got carried part of the way. Larry post-holed most of the way down. I was glad to be with these guys for their first 14,000 foot peak.
1/29/05; From Denny Creek TH again; 8hrs. After Jean, Denali and I couldn't get close to the TH to climb the Angel of Shavano the day before, we decided on Yale for this day. The weather was looking iffy but we figured we would give it a shot anyway. The trail was snowy but packed down and we made great time up to the creeks. Then the steep stuff began and so did the post-holing and slowing down. At one point we could hear coyotes howling a valley or so away, pretty cool. The clouds kept creeping down and all around us. It wasn't until we were on the 13,900ft ridge that the visibility disappeared and the flurries started. From here the real fun began along the rocky and snowy ridge. I love this type of stuff and couldn't get enough of it! After 5hrs we were on the summit for a quick bite to eat before heading back down. It was slow going with all the snowy rocks and steep downhill. Luckily on the way up we took some bearings and remembered plenty of landmarks since we couldn't see crap now. We were so happy to get down into the valley despite both of us having upset stomachs, but we had Wine Burgers and beer on our minds!
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Mt Columbia: 14,073 ft; 10 miles 5/27/01 Sunday. 10 hours round trip. West Slope II from North Cottonwood Trailhead. Started with a later than planned start and once we got close to the end of tree line the snow was real soft from the sun and we were falling through with every step. But we could see the slope we needed to take up and there was no more snow, so there was hope. After trudging through near-swamp conditions we made a break for the ridge with a direct line. Every time we got to a point that we thought was the ridge from below another one appeared. We thought we could only see a false summit but it was a high point along the ridge. The whole climb up was steep, steep, steep. Once on the 13,600 ft ridge the rest was smooth sailing. The dogs had no problems but were sleeping at every chance on the way down. We got to do some scree skiing and glissading too before taking our own, shorter route back towards the swamp. There were intermittent streams everywhere and with a little luck (and Larry’s good feelings) we landed on the trail again. It was amazing how much snow melted during the day and how high the streams had risen. We finally made it back to the truck half delirious and aching for cheap beer and big fires!
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Mt of the Holy Cross: 14,005 ft; 12 miles 6/22/01 Friday. 9.5 hours round trip. Holy Cross Couloir III, class 3 Classic from Halfmoon Trailhead. I've now got a new favorite climb! The conditions were great, the weather was great, and a 1200 foot 45+ degree snow climb to the summit was AMAZING! After margarita's and only 4 hours of sleep I met John Stergius at 3am and off we went. The hike up to Halfmoon Pass made us feel like we were getting a bunch of the elevation gain out of the way but we soon dropped all the way back down into the valley knowing that we had to come back up after a long day. We started getting views of the peak that just made us stop in our tracks, absolutely beautiful. The Cross couloir could not be seen until we were way into the hike and around to the east face. Once we got views we got pretty excited cause all systems were a go! After a steep climb we geared and roped up and dropped into the snow chute at 12,800. The next 1,200 feet was kick, kick, step, move axe, kick, kick, step, move axe, etc for 2 hours. There was tons of heat radiating off the snow and it was starting to get real soft. Seconds after a brief picture stop it sounded as if a freight train was coming through and I turned around in time to see tons of snow, rock, and ice breaking off the cliff and taking out our trail about 15 feet behind John. Way too close of a call so we high-tailed it the rest of the way. The couloir lead right to the summit, so we hung out for a while the headed down the North Ridge route. Storms were moving in all around and we got hit with some winds and a little rain. The hike back up the Pass was not exactly what we wanted to see!
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Culebra Peak: 14,047 ft; 13 miles 6/23/01 Saturday. 11 hours round trip. Northwest Ridge II from Taylor Ranch Trailhead. The ranch was recently sold again and these owners do not let anyone on. Apparently this trip was the only trip allowed on this year. The CMC held a raffle that I entered in on the last day and got chosen as one of the 30 of over 100 that applied. After not getting home from Holy Cross till after 10pm the night before I was off to San Luis at 3am. We started on the trail at 6:30am and slugged up the 4x4 road then up to the ridge. The ridge was high and long was gave up great views of the surrounding area. There is about an 8 foot cairn on the ridge, biggest one I've ever seen! After the false summit all 30 of us made it to the real summit and enjoyed the calm weather and views. The area is pristine and it shows that there are not a lot of visitors. This was about 6-7 peoples 54th peak and it was great to see how excited they were. It was a long hike down and we took several unwanted stops along the way to keep everyone together. I thought all day about an afternoon nap but that never happened. Physically I felt fine but the lack of sleep was hurting my brain. I was really looking forward to the beers after the long drive home.
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Mt. Lindsey: 14,042 ft; 7.6 miles 6/30/01 Saturday. 5.5 hours round trip. North Face II, Class 2+ from Huerfano River Trailhead. Peggy and I started on the trail around 8am after nearly rolling my truck on the 4x4 road on the way up. Quite scary to begin with! We actually started from the Lily Lake TH and found and followed the Huerfano River. After scouting out a spot to cross and getting wet feet anyway we started the steep climb into the beautiful valley at 12,000 feet. We saw a herd of young big horned sheep and were hoping that if we found another skull it would be closer to the trailhead. We could see brief glimpses of the summit behind the ridge and it looked quite difficult. From the valleys the views of Blanca and Ellingwood's west side were great. After another real steep climb up to the ridge at 13,000 feet I started wondering where the actual trail was and how it creeped up the steep, craggy side. We got to a col with lots of scree in one side but some decent holds here and there. There was a 60 year old working his way up in front of us that we talked with about the rest of the route. We decided to go for the steeper, but more solid looking, route that led up up to the false summit, but only about 100 yards from the true summit. After snacks and taking in the views we headed back down on the correct route. The way down was no easier than the way up but we slowly descended passing several other people on their way up. Once we hit the 13,000 foot ridge again we looked back and smiled at the sheer face that we had just climbed!! A fun peak that I would definitely do again.
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Uncompahgre Peak 14,309 ft, Wetterhorn Peak 14,015 ft; 15 miles, 8/31/01, 7 hours round trip. Matterhorn Creek trailhead. I had a 4 day weekend so how better spend it then climbing. After class on Thursday night I drove almost to Blue Mesa Reservoir and slept in the truck. I woke up early Friday morning and did the rest of the drive to the trailhead and got started at 7am on the Southwest Slope II, Class 2. The views were incredible from the 12,458 ft pass of Wetterhorn, Matterhorn, and Uncompahgre. There was weather moving in and it was snowing by the time I got to the summit of Uncompaghre up the long trail that circled the mountain. On the way up I found one of the west slope trails down the scree so I made a speedy decent down there and back to the pass. The weather started clearing so I went on to Wetterhorn by contouring towards the Southeast Ridge II, Class 3. It got steep real fast so I just trudged along to the ridge with magnificent views of the face the whole way. I picked through the crags and towers on the ridge and into the gully leading to the finale summit pitch. The book was not lying that it gnarly and amazing. The last 150 feet was a near straight up wall of broken cliffs. I bit the bullet and started up using the great hand and foot holds. Before long I was on the summit watching the snow surround Uncompaghre. The down climb was a little bit dicey but I took my time and made it down safely. The best was looking back at the pointed, jagged, rocks leading up to the summit knowing that I just climbed up them. After getting back to the trailhead it was onto the next ones. One minor glitch was the huge aspen tree that had fallen across the road during the day. I tried to push it with my bumper to no success and eventually built a sort of ramp over it with logs and stones. I would definitely climb these beautiful mtns of the San Juans again.
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Sunshine Peak 14,001 ft, Redcloud Peak 14,034 ft; 11 miles, 9/1/01, 4.5 hours round trip. Silver Creek-Grizzly Gulch trailhead. I camped at the trailhead and woke up around 6:30am with a mission in mind, that was to climb 3 peaks if weather, lungs, and time permitted. I was hauling ass from the start and quickly got to the 1.5 mile mark of the south fork drainage. I found the trail and worked my way up the barren and beautiful gulch to the Northwest slope. The trail was broken and loose the whole way, I was thinking how nice it would be with skis coming down in the winter time. I got up to the ridge between the two peaks to be greeted with a sign saying that it was not a trail and dangerous. I followed the ridge over to Sunshine to be the first one of the day on the summit, in only 2.5 hrs. Not wasting any time I made it across the saddle to Redcloud in 40 minutes. Looking down the standard route I could see a couple dozen people on their way up. I jogged most of the way down the standard Northeast Ridge with Handies in mind. I couldn't tell by the look on peoples face whether they were shocked, amazed, or pissed that I was jogging down! I got to my truck around 11am to refill my Camelbak, change boots, and off to..................
9/4/08, Couldn't resist re-climbing these peaks along with 13,832, 13,811, and "Sundog".
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Handies Peak 14,048 ft, 7.6 miles, 9/1/01, 3 hrs 40 mins round trip, Grizzly Gulch II, Class 2. Silver Creek-Grizzly Gulch trailhead. At first I was planning on climbing Handies the following day, till I woke up that morning and was determined to climb all three. I was a little sore and tired after Sunshine and Redcloud but pretty pumped at the same time so off I went. I kept thinking that Bruce said, "I'm sure some people have done all three...", so I took that as a dare! After hiking up along the creek I was greeted with a mind-blowing view of Handies east face way off in the distance, I started thinking "what the fuck am I thinking." I just kept an eye on the trail and tried not to look up in the distance at how far away the summit was. Weather was moving in, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. The clouds were higher than the peak and there were no signs of thunder or lightning so I kept going. Before long I was on the steep switchbacks of the final ridge. Once I got to the summit I saw the same guy from Sunshine who was also hiking all three, but he took the easier shorter route up American Basin, sissy. I was planning on spending some time on the summit to take in the views, relax, and ponder the awesome day until a storm came flying over the ridge and knocked visibility down to about 15 feet and dumped tons of snow. Gotta love a blizzard the first day of September!!!!!! I hauled ass down the same gulch knowing that I had a few blisters and calves tight enough to cut glass, but I was quite happy with what I had just done that day. Off to Lake City for grub then the drive to San Luis.
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San Luis Peak 14,014 ft, 12 miles, 9/2/01, 5 hours, East Slopes II, Class 1. Stewart Creek trailhead. It was pouring rain and sleet the night before when I got to the trailhead, so I just slept in my truck after doing some homework. When I woke up I knew I was going to get soaked and it was freakin' cold! I was so sore but I knew I'd be pissed if I had to come all the way down 40 miles of dirt roads to do this peak later. The hike up along Stewart creek was really nice through beaver ponds and Gunnison National forest. After breaking treeline I thought I could see the summit, but it was a falsey. There were a couple people ahead of me and I wanted to burn past them. I blew past them on the steep climb up to the saddle between San Luis and Organ Pipes, then saw two others about 1/2 mile ahead. I set a nice pace for myself and was soon right up on their ass. I passed them on the final false summit and was atop with lots of wind and stunning views of the magnificent San Juan mountains. I stayed on top for 1/2 hour thinking about the 6 peaks I had done in 3 days. The hike down was fast and didn't take too long. What an all-star climbing weekend: 6 San Juan peaks, 45 miles of hiking, and close to 15,000 vertical feet. Holy shit, dig it!
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Crestone Peak 14,294 ft, 6.6 miles, 5/18/02, 8.5 hours, South Face II, Class 3, South Colony Lakes trailhead. I drove up the killer 4x4 road Friday night and got an early start Saturday morning. I hiked up to the lakes and started up to the saddle between Broken Hand Peak and Crestone Needle. I was hoping to climb the Needle on the way back. The snow was way below what it normally is for this time of the year and I didn't hit any till about halfway up the saddle. It was pretty steep so the crampons and ice axe got put to use. I dropped down the other side to Cottonwood lake and was able to see the awesome traverse between the Crestones. I got around another ridge and could see the whole southwest couloir laid out in front of me. Only about the top 1/3 was still holding snow so I took Roach's advice and scrambled up the class 3 rocks and cliff on the right side of the couloir. I dropped into the couloir around 13,400ft and followed the snow the rest of the way up to the Red Notch at 14,180. It was pretty steep in spots and the crampons and axe definitely helped. Just another couple weeks and there won't be anymore snow in there. From the Red Notch it was just a short scramble to the summit for awesome views. On the way down I took a fall as soon as I got back into the couloir and almost needed to put self arrest training to use. Luckily I stopped quickly and was able to continue down the snow and the class 3 cliffs again. I was real whooped by the time I got back to the Broken Hand/Needle saddle but followed the climbers trail along the ridge towards the couliors of the Needle. I got to about 13,300ft and got to a point that scared the shit out of me and I was unable to go any farther. Looks like I'll have to make the drive in one more time (hopefully). All in all, I thought Crestone Peak was pretty tough, high pucker factor.
5/28/06. Red Coulior from Cottonwood approach. Backpacked into about 11,200ft with Jean, Denali, the Bershaders, Dwight, and Sarah....Bob was coming up later that night. We walked right past the "no tresspassing" sign and up the 3000+ft/3.5miles, it was a sweet hike that lost the trail alot and went along some awesome conglomerate slabs past waterfalls. Sunday we were on the trail around 6am picking along a faint trail once again. It was real windy and before long we were at that base of the coulior looking up at the quickly melting snow. The others took off since they were going to try the traverse and we left Denali down low. Jean and I scrambled up the awesome conglomerate to about 13,120ft where we geared up and dropped into the snow. From there to the notch was great snow climbing with a couple short sections of cramponing over rock instead of solid and thin ice. From the notch we left our ice axes and crampons and started the last bit. Since it was a new and hard 14er for Jean, I would go about 10-20ft then belay her up. Before we knew it, we were on the summit getting blown around and checking out the awesome views!!! I was SOO happy that Jean made it and proud of her. What a relief! The down climb wasn't too bad, we belayed the first couple snow sections the simu-climbed the rest in the softening snow. We took a nice long break once back with Denali then headed up to Cottonwood Lake to wait for Keith and Beth who were on their way down Broken Hand Pass. Was 10hrs before back at camp, and finding camp was quite the chore with the dozens of cairns everywhere and bushwhacking. What a fantastic climb though!!
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Mt. Antero 14,269 ft, 11.2 miles, 8/16/02, 4 hours, West Slope II, Class 2, Baldwin Gulch trailhead. Left Colo Spgs at 5:30am and was hiking by 8am. The 4x4 road up was fun and after parking you just had to keep hiking right up the road until the last 1/2 mile. There were trails to cut the switchbacks, but for the sake of my knees and since there was no rush I just followed the road. I was trying to spend as much time at altitude to help get ready for the Pikes Peak marathon. Got to the summit after 2hrs and relaxed and read Maxim and looked around for 2hrs building up red blood cells. I heard a plane not far off and thought nothing of it until it sounds real close, I turned around and it was a single-prop about 15 feet away from the summit! Pretty cool. Took a slight shortcut down past an old prospect and wish that I hadn't, got pretty steep and did a number on the knees. Took my time getting back to my truck then set up camp at 11,000ft and relaxed and did a lot of reading.
06/24/07, 6hrs 50mins. Since first hiking Mt Antero I figured it could be mtn biked since a 4x4 road goes almost to the summit. Well, since Jean wanted to hike it and we conveniently had our mtn bikes... I decided to give it a try. We slept in Camp Yukon at the beginning of the 4x4 road and bounced up to the stream the following morning. The first couple miles were torturous and not very bikeable. I was really regretting bringing my bike. After that, the road is mostly dirt and much of it was rideable until the last 1/2mile. At this point I just had to carry my bike to the summit and that sucked, but was worth it! On the way down I would fly down a switchback or two, then wait for Jean and Denali. That makes five 14ers biked!
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Mt. Sneffels 14,150 ft, 10 miles, 9/1/02, 4 hours (from basin), East Slope II, Class 2+, Blaine Basin. After getting shot down on Wilson Peak due to conditions I did a big backpacking loop then hiked into Blaine Basin. From all the cars in the lot I figured it would be tent city, but I was the only one in the basin, cool. I was up at 6am the following morning and on the trail at 6:30am. The trail was pretty steep from the start and I couldn't quite find one up and over the scree so I followed the trail towards the couloirs on the north face then headed across the grassy benches. Around 12,500 I was able to see the trail leading up the long and steep col to join the Yankee Boy Basin trail at the 13,500 saddle. The rocks were loose and there was a lot of slipping going on. At the 13,500 saddle I could see several people heading up the standard route and was real glad I came up through Blaire Basin. The coulior leading to the exit crack was a cool scramble and the crack (2+) had some good solid holds, but lots of loose stuff. After the crack you can see the last 200ft or so of broken cliffs leading up to the summit. These cliffs were a little hard getting down but not too bad. I was glad to get out of the crack and coulior before the herds of people got up there. The scree down lead to some great foot skiing for a speedy decent.
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Pyramid Peak 14,018 ft, 6 miles, 7/26/03, 6 hours, Northeast Ridge II, Class 4, Maroon Lake TH. Finally an Elk 14er! Drove to the TH Friday night in 3.5hrs and just slept there. Was hiking by 6:15am towards Crater Lake and made the turnoff shortly before getting there. From there it got steep most of the was into the basin below the Northface. Boulder hopping towards the ridge then plenty more steep uphill. There was a family of goats scurrying above knocking the occasional rock down. At the 12,900ft ridge I left my poles and ice axe and followed the cairns along the exposed and broken cliffs. It was a little hairy in some spots but plenty of options of which way to go depending on what looked less-hairy. Mostly class 3 with a few class 4 spots that were fun, but I was dreading coming back down. Before I knew it there wasn't any higher to go and I was on top in around 3hrs by myself! Nice. I was following the cairns back down and took a slightly different route, but felt good about it with some slow and careful moves. There was a group of 5 on their way up so we took turns waiting as to not knock rocks down on each other. Seems like I had more trouble on the steep dirt sliding around then on the ledges! Back down at the crowded TH and all the Aspen tourists where I got questioned on what I was doing while filtering water?!
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Castle/Conundrum Peaks 14,265/14,060 ft, 10 miles, 7/27/03, 7.5 hours, Northeast Ridge II, Class 2+, Castle Creek TH. I met the CMC group the night before and we camped along CR120(Pearl Pass), of course it started raining as soon as we started setting up! I used to want to mtn bike Pearl Pass till talking to some folks who just rode it and seeing the condition of the road, not anymore. After dinner it was still raining so I was in bed early and slept pretty good from the good workout on Pyramid. Up at 5am and we drove a bit farther up the road and hiking by 6:30am. Had a bunch of stops for clothing, food, etc. Up the road through the rain, into Montezuma Basin, and onto the snowfield. As usual the weather changed real fast and the sun was shining bright now! The snow was fun and I got to kick steps most of the way up. From the top of the first snow field we could see the rest of the route and it was pretty steep up to the ridge. Once on the ridge it was a little slow going for route finding and a few class 2+ moves with some decent exposure. After about 3 hours we were on the summit in beautiful sunny weather. We still had plenty of time to get to Conundrum so we worked our way down the loose ridge to the low point in the saddle and up the other side with similar climbing to Castle's ridge. Aaahhhh, the 3rd (but unofficial) 14er of the weekend! The rocks were real colorful and nice looking. We climbed back down to the saddle and worked our way down some tricky spots to get to the snow of the standard route. Some rocks flying and slow going for some. After that it was an awesome 2 snowfield glissade back down to Montezuma's Basin! Got the usual frozen ass and monster wedgie, but well worth it. Along the road on we saw the "human weed whacker", some guy knocking the heads off the thistle for whatever reason?! Got back to camp and packed up quick for the long and rainy ride back to Colo Spgs.
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Mount Eolus 14,083 ft, 4.6 miles (from Chicago Basin), 8/30/03, 5 hours, Northeast Ridge II, Class 3, Needleton/Chicago Basin TH. Had to take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend so Peggy and I took the Durango-Silverton train on Friday and got dropped off at Needleton, the starting point to get into Chicago Basin. Took 3hrs to get packed in and set up camp around 10,800ft just as the rain started. Saturday morning we started up towards Twin Lakes while the clouds were moving in. We passed some groups that were heading back after hearing thunder near the ridge. Not long after getting to 12,500ft the rain, snow, and sleet started. We retreated to camp drenched and tried to wait it out. Around 1:30pm the rain stopped so we dried everything out and headed back up towards Twin Lakes. The clouds were just barely over the Eolus "Catwalk" but we kept going. Once getting past the long slog and high benches we were on the ridge and it was windy but looked like we could make it. The Catwalk was pretty narrow in places but easy to get across with big exposure and big views in all directions. After that we picked our way through the east cliffs eventually working our way higher. There were a couple pretty scary spots and some wet rocks which didn't help at all. 2.5hrs after leaving camp we were on the summit all alone and according to the register no one else was up there for 3 days. Nice. It was beautiful! The down-climb wasn't exactly fun and took awhile, once back down on the ridge North Eolus(14,039ft) was right there, so I had to quick get up there too! After 5hrs we were jogging back into camp racing the sleet. The two trips up to Twin Lakes ended up paying off and it was a successful day after all.
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Sunlight Peak 14,059 ft, 4 miles (from Chicago Basin), 8/31/03, 8 hours w/ Windom, South Slopes II, Class 4, Needleton/Chicago Basin TH. The weather was looking more favorable Sunday morning for our third (and hopefully final) trip up to Twin Lakes. We took a break at the lakes and quickly got bum-rushed by 29 mountain goats looking for handouts! The baby ones were cute and had little tiny horns. A bit farther up the basin around 13,000ft the sun would occasionally pop out from the clouds and it sure felt great. Up Sunlight's south side towards the ridge where it got progressively steeper and steeper. The cairns were easy to follow and we ditched our poles and started heading west towards the summit hopping around the boulders. There were a couple tricky parts, but nothing too hard or committing....yet. Eventually we could see the famous "summit blocks" and got to the bottom of them with the clouds getting darker and darker after 2hrs 45mins. I did "the move" the same way most people describe it by scrambling up the first two large blocks, doing a leaning-forward fall to the third block, then a final committing hop onto the highest point! Finally! Man was my heart racing, now the hard part...getting down. The first move wasn't too bad, but for the second I had to hold onto small knobby pieces of quartz in the granite and lower myself and reach my foot over as far as possible finally touching the next block. Once on there it was just a "controlled slide" down the blocks back to the somewhat safety below. Peggy chose not to do the final bit based on being a little short and my recommendations. We roughly followed our same path back to the ridge boulder hopping, sliding on our butts, and toughening up our computer keyboard/mouse friendly hands! Down to the 13,300ft basin and onto Windom............
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Windom Peak 14,082 ft, 4 miles (from Chicago Basin), 8/31/03, 8 hours w/ Sunlight, West Ridge II, Class 2+, Needleton/Chicago Basin TH. We were feeling pretty good coming off Sunlight and heading towards the easier of the 3 14ers of the w/end. From the 13,300ft basin we decided to take a leisurely stroll up the easier west ridge to the summit instead of the more direct and steeper scree/rock couloirs. The weather was improving so we felt like we had time on our sides to enjoy the warm sun and deep blue skies. The rock was solid most of the way and the route was easy to follow. A few big steps and maneuvers got ourselves along the summit ridge to the highest point just 2hrs after leaving the summit of Sunlight. At the top were a few shed-sized blocks to the highest point that were nice to scramble up and check out the beautiful scenery all around. We could even see a few folks negotiating and hesitating the summit blocks on Sunlight. Given the weather and time of day we took our time on the summit and getting down. Pretty psyched about 3 new 14ers we were high on life and got back to camp for a feast of chicken, rice, more chicken and pepperoni after almost an 8hr day. Loved it, the Chicago Basin is a most remarkable area! Unfortunately we had to get back to the train next day for the long ride back to Colo Spgs and reality. *sigh*
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Little Bear Peak 14,037 ft, 2.2 miles (from bench above Lake Como), 5/30/04, 8.5 hours, West Ridge III, Class 4, Lake Como TH. This is a peak I was definitely fearing, but after the recent TR's regarding doing this as a snow climb I figured it may be a bit easier this time of year. The original plan was the San Juans, but weather changed our plans. Keith, Beth, and Bob picked me up Saturday morning and a few hours later we were hiking up the horrible Lake Como Rd. Keith drove to about 9400ft and we hiked the rest. Wasn't too hot but I was dying from not carrying a big pack for a few months. 3 hours later we were at the bench above Lake Como around 11,900ft and setting up camp. It was pretty windy and cold up there, temp didn't go above 25degrees all w/end. Some Goldenschlager around a campfire kept us somewhat warm. We were on the trail and working up the north-facing snow slope around 7am the following day. Apparently it's normally a horrible scree field so this was much nicer despite the cold and wind. Steepest was around 40 degrees and before long we were at the 12,580ft notch and putting the crampons and axes away. Next was the fun scrambling to the base of the Hour Glass. This was on mostly good rock and some fun playing around, unfortunately we were going the opposite way of the sun and it never quite caught up to us! At the base of the Hour Glass we could see there was snow/ice most of the way up and exposed rock near the summit. Back on with the crampons and it was solid footing going up with the sun-cups. There were some real tricky spots where the pitch hit 45degrees and the snow, ice, and rock started mixing together. Most of the way up I was thinking about how un-fun it may be coming back down! Just a few hundred feet below the summit we stashed our crampons and axes then did the 3rd class scrambling over fun, but loose, rocks to the airy and freakin' cold summit after 3.5hrs of climbing! Nice, had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't spend too much time up there, then slowly and carefully worked our way back down to our stash. We were able to somewhat easily down climb the upper snow/ice to a rock ledge above the steepest part that was covered in solid ice. Bob set up a double rope rappel that would put us right above the other rappel point. This took almost an hour to get us all down and at one point I knocked a toaster-sized rock loose that caught Keith right in the hip. Pretty colorful and sore by the end of the w/end, but could've hit much worse spots! The second rappel proved interesting with 40mph winds roaring up the coulior, everytime Bob would attempt to throw the ropes down they would get blown back up to where he was! This lead to quite the tangle of ropes that we nick-named "Figure 9" and "Figure Fook" knots. Once out of the coulior we worked our way back across the dry and fun ridge scrambling to the notch. We could then see camp and had the one more snow field to go. This was pretty easy except some post-holing towards the bottom. Once back at camp after 8.5hrs we cracked open the 4 beers we brought up and Pringles. A fun night of camping, camp fire, food, Goldenschlager and Hot Damn, and lots of laughs. The hike out Sunday only took 2hrs but man, does that road suck to hike on! Glad to be done with Little Bear!
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Longs Peak 14,255 ft, 15 miles, 6/20/04, 11 hours 15mins, Keyhole II, Class 3, Longs Peak TH. After several days of rain it seemed that Longs may have some interesting conditions! Gregg and I left Golden at 3am and were on the trail just minutes before 5am. We kept hoping that the sun would pop through the clouds and got to the Chasm Lake junction in just over an hour. After some food and a brief hint of sun the peak disappeared and tons of snow and wind came out of the blue! We did a "privy bivy" and hid under some bushes near the shitter during the storm. After that we stood around warming up deciding what to do, saw a couple folks on Keiners! We decided to re-assess the weather at Granite Pass and after plenty of indecision we started heading back. After seeing a few yahoo's in shorts then others in sneakers we turned back around losing an hour. About a dozen folks up at the Keyhole by the time we got there at noon, some were turning back, some were heading across the traverse with crampons and ice axes, and some were heading across then quickly coming back. We were getting tight on time (had to meet my folks for dinner in Denver) but decided to wait to see what 3 guys had to say that were heading back from the summit. After talking to them we decided to give it a shot regardless of the dark clouds, our biggest fear was wet and slippery granite. There were footholds in the traverse across snowfields and rock ledges which gave us some confidence, I kept my eyes away from the cliffs and ledges at the bottom of the run outs! The trough was completely filled with deep snow and was an absolutely fun snow climb up 500 feet to the next traverse called The Narrows. Got pretty warm with the sun reflecting off the snow at times. The "Narrows" traverse was once again real dicey given the mixed conditions, wind, and lack of room for error! A couple more traverses and rock-hopping before I got to the bottom of "Homestretch". This is normally class 3 on dry rock, but covered with snow and ice now. A couple spots the ice was REAL thin and the crampons couldn't get real good purchase in the soft snow at other spots...pucker factor 9.9! This was definitely the scariest part of the climb for me. I worked my way up pretty fast and the summit was just 100ft away! WooHoo!!! Now the fun part....getting back down. Once again the "Homestretch" was the worst for me getting down, I waited for Gregg there and we boogied as fast as we could back to the Keyhole considering this next storm wasn't going to pass by. Some plunge-stepping down the Trough saved us some time and route finding was a piece of cake with the foot holes and painted bulls eyes. On the windy traverse back to the Keyhole the snow and thunder started and kept getting worse! We dove into the stone hut and hid out for an hour while the thunder and lightning boomed right overhead! No signs of the weather getting any better so after not seeing lightning for several minutes we made a break for it. We were slipping and sliding all over the boulders but made it out alive jogging the sections we could. Back near Chasm Lake I saw a guy wearing a sweatshirt from my high school 1800 miles away! Small world. A great climb and a long day!
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Crestone Needle 14,197 ft, ~5.5 miles, 6/26/04, 8 hours, South Face II, Class 3, South Colony Lakes TH. Another trip for the Pathfinder up the S. Colony Lakes road! Camped right before the stream crossing once again and it rained off and on most of the night. Peggy and I were awoken to Denali barking and howling so we had to bring the soaking wet and muddy dog into the tent. Yuk. Hit the trail at 6:30am the next day and made great time up to the lower lake. From there we took the cut off towards Broken Hand Pass and boulder hopped up to the snow. We put on the crampons and ice axes and left Denali down there so he wouldn't knock all kinds of rocks down on us and others, I didn't feel real confident about him climbing up the steep couliors either. The snow was pretty soft by now and we made good timing up the pass, the top 1/3 was dry. We traversed over to the base of the eastern coulior following the group and taking our time. As rumor has it, the conglomerate rock has bomber holds! We headed up the eastern coulior with no snow and saw the cutover to the western coulior. After talking to two guys on their way down we decided to stick to the eastern coulior all the way to the top. Some pretty steep scrambling and not stuff we wanted to come down! Not long after we were on the summit with some clouds around, glad to have that part over but now came the dreaded down climb. We started down and got into what we thought was the western coulior, there were some cairns and we followed them until they disappeared. Farther down we figured we weren't in the correct spot and had to up climb back to the same point! Pretty steep and a bit dicey. We saw the guided group coming up another route and headed down that way, all was good till we didn't cut over and went down another wrong coulior! That one really sucked and had a tough climb down and back up the wet rocks. Finally we got in the correct spot and recognized some things, whew! At this point we were so ready to be out of there! With some careful scrambling, traversing, and lowering ourselves around we were finally at the base of the coulior back to where we left our axes. Over to Broken Hand Pass and then we just had the one tricky move down the giant boulder before the snow. Some foot surfing and plunge stepping got us back down to Denali and just as we were about to head back to the trail we hear, "oh SHIT....ROCK, ROCK, ROCK!!!!!" I looked up and a boulder the size of a refrigerator was barreling down towards us! Peggy and I quickly dove behind an even bigger boulder then pulled Denali over. That was enough excitement for one day, we thought....about a mile or so before camp it started hailing and raining. So we dragged our soaking wet butts back to the truck where beers and pizza were waiting!
8/25/07, Standard route, Keith and Beth's last 14er! Me, K&B, Bob and Sharon, Nicholls, and Steve Cassin. Champagne on top and the surprise that they climbed Culebra two weeks ago! HA! Fun bomber Sangres conglomerate once again and not as scary as the first time. An hour to Broken Hand Pass, 2:15 to summit. Headed over to Broken Hand Peak afterwards.
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Snowmass Mountain 14,092 ft, 21 miles, 7/17/04, 6.5 hours (from camp), East Slopes II, Class 3, Snowmass Creek Approach. Eric and I met at the Snowmass Falls Ranch TH and started on the trail around 6pm Friday night. It rained most of the drive to Aspen, but clear skies once there and at the TH. Not long into our hike the thunder started and the skies darkened, next was light rain off and on. The view over Bear Creek to Snowmass is awesome. At first we were hoping to get up to Snowmass Lake for camp, once it started raining we were hoping to get to the lower lakes for camp. By the time we got to the log jam at the lower lakes it was a freakin' torrential downpour! Instead of crossing and heading for the trees on the other side, we backtracked about a mile to some spots we saw around 10,200ft. Once there we were soaked to the bone and the tent filled with water in the brief minutes it took to set it up! I was mopping up never-ending puddles with my socks. It was just after 8pm at this point and we were considering heading back to the cars to dry out and do the 21miles on Saturday. But the rain let up after about another hour and it wasn't too cold so we stayed. Woke up and put on wet clothes, then hiked along the overgrown trails getting even wetter from the vegetation. At the logjam we considered wading across, but it was pretty deep and flowing good from all the rain. With us each having a trekking pole and a long stick we hopped over the logs one by one getting to the other side with even wetter feet. Didn't take long at all to get to Snowmass lake where we pumped water and scouted the route. Unfortunately we started to follow the uphill trail towards Buckskin Pass instead of the lower one rounding the lake. Close to the pass we pioneered our own traverse back down to the base of the giant scree slope. This sucked going up with lots of sliding around but better ground over near the stream and grass. Above the scree around 12,000ft the slope was much more gentle and we followed cairns up towards the snow fields. We were able to avoid most of the snow and boulder hop around to the base of the ridge. From here we chose a ~40degree dirt and rock slope to the ridge. Clouds were starting to build all around and heading our way so Eric decided to turn at this point. This sure wouldn't have been a real fun way to come down either. A short bit farther I was on the ridge and following a faint trail on the south side of the ridge along solid rock with some class 3 moves. It was actually quite fun stuff! On the summit after 4 hours from camp it was just myself and one other guy from New York. Due to the weather I didn't hang out for long and started heading back along the ridge. The giant snowfield on the north side of the ridge was way too inviting so I found a notch to hop over and was soon zipping down the snow with my axe digging in deep to slow me down. This saved a ton of time and between glissading and foot-skiing I was at the top of the scree again in no time. Some fool was on his way up the scree at this time, obviously unprepared and ignorant to the weather! Met Eric at the bottom and we were at the lake again by noon. Easy hike back until the crux moves on the logjam! Seemed easier this time though knowing which logs to step on and they were mostly dry, unlike the morning. We were back at camp around 1pm and packed up our wet gear. On the hike out it started raining once again but who cares at this point?! It actually felt refreshing. My feet were pretty trashed from hiking 16 miles that day in wet shoes, it was nice to be back at the truck. Now I just had to find some pizza and hopefully dry out some socks before meeting Keith, Beth, and Bob at Maroon Lake!
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North Maroon Peak (14,014ft), South Maroon Peak (14,156ft) 9.4 miles; 7/18/04; 11 hours roundtrip (from camp); Northeast Ridge II-traverse-down the South Ridge II; Class 4; Maroon Lake TH. I've been quietly fearing these peaks and glad that Bob volunteered to lead Keith, Beth, and I up them! Still wet from Snowmass I met them at the TH and we hiked in about an hour and set up camp. After lousy sleep and a way-too-early 4am wake up, we were on the trail by 4:30am. We found the trail that crosses Minnehaha Creek pretty easily from our recon this night before, but had some problems afterwards in the bushes and initial scree. Ended up doing some Indiana Jones maneuvers and found the trail along the left of some cliffs. It was starting to get light out which helped as we worked below the north face where the steepness lessened for a traverse over a boulder field. We started along the broken cliffs and Beth wasn't feeling too well and turned around. Personally I would not have minded if we all turned around at that point as well! A loud group above us kept knocking rocks down already so it was helmet time. Soon we were at the 11,900ft notch and the face looked impossible! Carefully following cairns and checking out all possible routes we slowly worked our way up the class 3 cliffs. The pucker factor was increasing with each step and I wasn't quite feeling "on". The route really wanders all over and soon enough we were at the crux move up the chimney. It was a bit wet but we made it up with some grunts and groans. What helped us the most was checking out just about every option of possible routes before committing to some of the harder moves. After 3hrs and 45mins we scampered around some snow and popped out onto the summit! Whew. After some major discussion as to whether to continue on the traverse or retreat back down, we decided to atleast start on the traverse and turn around if we felt like it (I sure didn't want to down-climb the way we came up though!) The down-climbing was real hairy and Bob's pack took a tumble at one point barely stopping right before a cliff a few hundred feet below. We made pretty good timing to the first short rappel. Got that set up then pulled the rope....we were committed to the traverse now! Shortly after was the second and longer rappel, and we rappelled one other section where the down-climb was hairier then we preferred to test. Once again route finding was the key and proved to be the most time consuming. I was quiet throughout most of the traverse and would be very glad once it was over. Once we hit the notch where the Bell Cord Coulior splits the Bells we thought we were real close, but it still took awhile with plenty of hard moves. 3hrs after leaving North Maroon we were on the summit of South Maroon. Whew! Little did I know what lay ahead to get down still! The next 0.6miles was along the west side of the ridge going up and down along ledges, cliffs, gulleys, and rotten rock. Each gully we were hoping was the 13,300ft notch, but of course it wasn't! We were lucky that the weather was holding out which could've made this climb a helluva lot more difficult! Once at the notch we could see the 2800ft class 2 and 3 decent to the stream below. This really sucked too and the knees were screaming. A light refreshing rain fell and soon enough we were at the stream and drug our butts the last couple miles back to camp for a total of just over 11hrs. These were definitely the hardest 14er's I've done and not sure I'd want to go back anytime soon! Sure was glad to have climbed them with great folks like Bob and Keith though.
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Challenger Point (14,081 ft), Kit Carson Peak (14,165ft), 11.6 miles, 7/30/04, 7hrs 45mins, North Slopes II and West Ridge II, Class 2+ and 3, Willow Lake TH. I guess you can say that "fourth time is the charm" since I've gotten turned around 3 times previously on these peaks due to weather! Drove out on Thursday night and just slept in my truck at the TH. I was hoping to start at 4am and use some of the full moon for light, but sleeping an extra hour sounded better and the moon was below the trees. I was on the trail just a few minutes after 5am and was going at a pretty good pace up the switchbacks. I was wondering if I would come back for these peaks a 5th time if needed. I didn't need my headlamp for long and had forgotten about all the tons of switchbacks to get to the lake. I got to Willow Lake after just 2hrs and I couldn't believe there were 3 people camped right behind a "Wilderness Restoration Site" sign. What ignorant idiots. At the east side of the lake I was soon reminded how steep it is to get up to the ridge of Challenger. Some of the rock is solid, there are some grassy patches, and some of the rock is just loose and horrible scree. As usual there are several trail choices, I went with the one that stayed west and close to the ridge. Soon I got to the ridge, dropped to the south side, and was at the spot I've been to twice before...once in deep snow and another time in the rain. On the thin ledges of conglomerate with a good amount of drop to the one side, I started across. Luckily I was feeling really good and they seemed quite easy this time. A few gulleys worth of them and I popped out onto the ridge and could see the true summit not far away. The ridge walk was a blast and after just 3hrs 40mins after leaving the TH I was on the summit of Challenger. There's a nice plaque and an American Flag up there for the Space Shuttle Challenger crew. I had just gotten TastyKakes from home so I had to take a picture with them and eat 'em down. The weather was looking great so off to Kit Carson. You drop down about 300ft before getting on "The Avenue", I expected this to be about 4ft wide but it was more like 15ft wide and a piece of cake! That ascends, then descends before turning up the gulley to the summit. Some fun scrambling and rock hopping around and 40mins later I was on the summit of Kit Carson! Aaahhhh, #51 and #52. I hung out for a bit checking out the surrounding peaks, the sand dunes, and the helicopters looking for a lost climber. I remember folks saying its easy to miss The Avenue on the way out so I took my time getting down the gulley and looking for markers. I knew if I hit a big pile of snow and saw a white-ish rock on the right, I went down too far and soon saw a group coming over from The Avenue. A lost dog was in front of them and we chatted for a bit. The uphill was not all that fun, and it was nice to be on the summit of Challenger again. I stayed on the ridge for a while and saw a trail again, I started heading down but didn't recognize any of it. It was a different trail but some folks said that's the way they came up. I should've stayed with the way I came up cause this trail was all loose with lots of sliding around. The clouds started moving in and I was trying to get down fast to make HH in Colo Spgs with plenty of time to spare. After getting off the steep slope near the lake I refilled with water and started jogging thinking it would be good PP Marathon training. Got a light sprinkle of rain and burned the miles away pretty fast, getting back to the TH in under 8hrs roundtrip. Definitely some cool peaks that I would do again!
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Capitol Peak 14,130 ft, 17 miles, 8/8/04, 9 hours (from camp), Northeast Ridge II, Class 4, Capitol Creek Approach. Yet another peak that I was fearing a bit, but Bob re-assured me that it was easier then the Bells Traverse...Whew! I hiked into Capitol Lake on Saturday using the Upper Ditch Trail to avoid the lose of 400ft on the Capitol Creek Trail. This trail was 6.5miles and took just over 2hrs, it was a beautiful hike in Aspen trees, open meadows, crossing streams and some good elevation gain towards the end. I could hear the infamous cows mooing down in the valley as hikers were going through. The plan was to meet some 14erworld folks at camp so I was asking along the way if they were Rob or Ryan. At the climbers trail cutoff I found Rob and he directed me towards camp where the other Rob was. It was pretty rare weather in the Elks being bright and sunny without afternoon rain. After setting up camp we got water, ate, hung out talking and swapping stories while Capitol, K2, and the Knife Edge ridge between the two loomed in the background. The 4am alarm came way too fast and we were on the trail shortly after 4:30am hiking up to the Daly/Capitol ridge. The trail was real nice and we were on the ridge in no time with the horizon turning all shades of red and orange to the east. From recent TR's we knew there wasn't much standard hiking from here on out, so the poles went in the pack. We traversed a couple hundred feet and came across the first obstacle, a spine of rock that we ended up going down and around steeply on loose rock. After this was boulder hopping through the basin towards Clark Peak on good solid granite blocks. We crossed a couple small snowfields and soon were in the warm sun. We had our ice axes for the snow field towards K2, but could've gotten away without them. At the saddle before K2 we ditched the ice axes and poles and headed up towards the harder stuff. Some hand and foot climbing got us on top of K2 with the classic view of the knife edge ridge and the deciding of our fate! TR's told us to bear right from the summit towards some slightly easier down-climbing. After some recon we found something not so bad and worked our way down backwards. After this there was only one way to go along the ridge, otherwise it was a 2,000ft drop down either side! Some ledges, exposure, and hopping got us to the start of the knife edge. From reading so much about it we kinda knew what to do and it wasn't too bad, my key was not to look down! Switching between smearing on one side with feet on thin cracks and butt-shuffling across, Ryan made it look simple while I filmed with his video camera. I went next and wasn't as scared as I figured I would be, following Ryan's exact movements. Next the two Rob's shuffled over as well with confidence and ease. Glad that was over! More ridge walking and class 3 stuff landed us at another (but shorter) more difficult knife edge! *gulp* This one was all smearing for the feet since not many ledges or cracks and once again solid rock. We slowly and carefully checked out all possible routes once off the ridge and chose to go low towards the gully. This was more like North Maroon Peak with loose ledges and picking our way up. A few climbing moves here and there, but nothing too scary or exposed. Soon we were on the final summit ridge and just some more scrambling moves away from the summit! Clear skies all around were a welcomed sight to see. We were the first group on the summit after 4hrs 15mins and hungout for a while reveling in the cool climb. Only halfway through the climb now, and sounded like we picked the easier route up. We found the same route back down but had plenty of other climbers now to possibly knock rocks down, I couldn't believe how many people were on Capitol! Once again we carefully picked our way to the knife edge where just a couple people were on their way across. Reversing our same moves we made it across without problems and only had the up-climb of K2 before we were in safer territory. Found a slightly different route that wasn't too bad and then we were congratulating each other since all the tough stuff was done with. Hopping across the boulders back into the valley and across the traverse got us back to the Daly/Capitol saddle and then down to camp in 9hrs total. A quick pack up of camp and hitting the trail got me back to the TH in just under 2hr for the long and hungry drive home. I'm glad to have recently climbed some hard 14ers before Capitol and glad the weather worked out for us. Rob, Rob, and Ryan were some fun and confident climbers as well. What a great day!!! Oh yeah, what a great day till I stepped on a dried cow pie with a gooey inside about 1ft away from my truck. Yuk!
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Mount Wilson (14,246 ft), Wilson Peak (14,017ft) 7/16/05, From Navajo Basin, 9hrs from Navajo Lake. Did the marathon drive on Friday with Jean, Beth, and Denali only to arrive at the TH in the rain. We took our time getting ready hoping it would stop and started off in a drizzle eventually. From all the vegetation and rain we got completely soaked anyway. After 2hrs and 20mins we were at the lake and found a great spot a bit farther up on the north side of the lake. Had a great dinner of pot roast and mashed potatoes (who says backpacking food has to suck?!) Keith got to the TH around 11:30pm Friday night and started hiking in at 3:30am, meeting us at camp right around 5:30am. We quick hopped out of the tents to make it seem like we were awake! Breakfast and packing then we were on the trail by 7am on our way to the Upper Navajo Basin. After an hour we had passed El Diente's north slopes and were at the base of Mount Wilson picking out our route. We followed the grassy/rocky benches higher up then followed the snow the rest of the way to the ridge since we brought along our crampons and ice axes. Before long we were off the snow and snaking through the loose but solid rock on the way to the infamous notch. This was some REALLY fun scrambling. At the notch I dropped my pack and climbed right along the 4th class ridge to the summit, while Keith and Beth followed (the smarter route) down and up the ledges, and Jean hung out at the notch. Looking back at the traverse I was glad we weren't heading that way. While scrambling back down some clouds were moving in, since I still wanted to get over to Wilson Peak I started boogying down while the others took their time. Back at our stashed poles I found a marmot boldly nibbling on our hand grips! Bastard! I practically jogged down the rocks, across the basin, up to Rock of Ages Saddle, over to the Gladstone/Wilson saddle, and over to the false summit. There were some rain drops so without wasting any time I got down and up the crux and onto the summit exactly one hour after leaving the group. Just enough time for one picture and to sign the register before I retraced my steps practically jogging the entire way back beating the lightning and thunder. Whew! Two down and one to go! Keith hung out in the basin for me while the girls headed back to camp only to see Denali pouting that we left him. Lots of food, laughs, and Jager-bombs, before turning in for an early night.

El Diente (14,159 ft), 7/17/05, From Navajo Basin, 7hrs roundtrip from Navajo Lake. After a solid nights sleep Keith and I were on the trail at a leisurely 7am to hopefully tackle the north slope of El Diente since it was still covered in snow. I felt like dog-shit on the hour hike up until we took a break for food and to switch into crampons and ice axes. From previous trip reports and checking out the conditions we choose to climb up steep snow in the coulior to the left of the Organ Pipes that dog-legs to the right at the top. We moved well through the ever steeping snow and topped out after 1hr and 20mins already dreading the return trip. We stashed the crampons and ice axes and hopped to the south side of the ridge for some AWESOME scrambling across big blocky rocks and towers. The route finding was easy with the numerous cairns and steep drops showing us which way not to go. Before long we were back on the north side of the ridge on the other side of the Organ Pipes and just a couple gulleys away from the summit!!! I couldn't believe we were so close to my last 14er! It was awesome making the last few moves to the summit topping out just under 3.5hrs! We had the entire place to ourselves and did some brief celebrating. We radioed to the girls who had hiked up to the Upper Basin and they sung "Happy last 14er" to the tune of Happy Birthday! Okay, now to get our asses safely back down. The rock scrambling was a blast once again and we took a long and much needed break at the top of the coulior. This is the part we were NOT looking forward too. We decided to belay each other down a few rope lengths to be safe in the steep and mushy snow. This worked well and eventually we were at a point were the slope lessen and we were able to climb down unroped. Now that that was over I could finally enjoy finishing!!! Back at camp we packed up while drinking celebratory Jager shots before the 2hr hike out to the cars and celebratory beers! We raced to Montrose where we inhaled pizza the did the marathon drive back to Denver getting in at 1:30am. Ouch. What an amazing w/end!! I was so happy to finish with great people in such a beautiful area! Only thing I would do differently would be to save an easier 14er for last so I could enjoy it more and not be scared to death on the down climb!