28 June, 2009
I drove up via Georgetown and Guanella Pass on Friday evening. The pass road is being improved so there are single-file lights on two sections. While I was waiting for a green light at the first one, a car passed the line of waiting cars and drove through the single-lane section. I guess he was lucky because it’s so narrow in some places I was worried about scraping the truck on the rocks to one side or concrete barriers on the other.
I parked in the Western parking lot which is a bit higher than the one nearer the road. It was about 8PM and I was alone. I set the truck up so the tailgate faced Mt Bierstadt and had dinner with a great view. (On Sunday the lot was full when I came down and I felt bad about being parked across at least two places). The restrooms have no trash can near them which is pretty stupid.
The view from the back of the truck
Mt Bierstadt
I got up at 5:00AM, got dressed in lots of clothes (thanks to being cold last week on Mt Evans) including ski pants and down jacket and set off from the parking lot at about 5:30.
Early morning looking West
The first obstacle occurred about ¾ mile in – I had to cross Scott Gomer Creek which was running pretty fast. With some help from another hiker I jumped it. It turned out that there was a skinny log bridge further down (which I used on the return trip). The Forest Service (I’m assuming it’s them) has built a wooden walkway across the muddiest bits of the Willows area – which is great because it was very soggy. With a few willing recruits, I’m sure a decent log bridge over the stream would be easy to build too.
So after the stream crossing I made mistake number one – I didn’t go back downstream to the trail. Instead I (along with the guy who helped me) bush wacked up through the willows expecting to find a trail soonish. This wasted a great deal of time and was very difficult – and, as it turns out, stupid. The trail is wide and although rather long, gets through the Willows a lot faster. I used the trail on the way down.
View from the Willows
Looking West from the wilows
From the Willows area you can see the headwall and the trail that runs up it from right to left as you look at it. This is quite a bit longer than it seems from the trail head. The headwall part of the trail starts about 1 ½ miles from the trailhead and lasts for about 0.3 of a mile. It’s actually not a bad hike up. The spring melt had created a few sections where the trail was now a small stream but mostly is was easy going.
Above the headwall the trail climbs steadily to the SE. It was till pretty early and a lot of the running water over this area had frozen into flat pools of ice – very slippery. Luckily I had brought my Yak Tracks and these were great on the icy sections and also on the snow higher up. When I did Evans with Mark last week we had very little gear. For this trip I brought too much including snow shoes and skis. I decided not to haul the skis up (and didn’t even consider the snow shoes) and was glad not to be carrying the weight later. It might have been possible to ski down some of the upper sections but they were short runs separated with rocky areas and it would have been pretty tedious getting in and out of the skis so often.
From above the head wall
Above the headwall looking west
The hike up to the ridge was pretty easy going. The snowy sections were hard enough to walk on and much faster than going over the rocks. Of course, I was way off the trail again now, having decided to take the snow route.
Looking up the trail
When you get near the ridge, the boulders are a bit bigger but it’s not that hard to find a reasonable route. I had two ski poles with me which are not terribly helpful in the rocky sections. Somewhere around 13,000 ft the sun hit and things got a lot warmer.
Getting closer to the ridge
Towards the sawtooth range that connects to Mt Evans
Looking down at some of the ants on the trail below
Looking up at the ridge
The best section of this climb is the ridge that runs NNE to the summit. This was snow covered right to the SE edge where it drops nearly 1,000 ft to Frozen Lake. The view is fabulous. The shape of the snow on the ridge is fairly well rounded (no lip sticking out) and the snow was pretty solid. Even so, I felt a little nervous being near the edge.
Looking up at the summit
From the ridge looking down at the parking lot
From the ridge towards the North
The final section from about 13,900 feet to the top is quite steep and was fun to go up in Yak Tracks although crampons might have been better. I met a man who was extolling the virtues of his micro spikes which, he told me, were in his pack along with his ice axe but he was just too lazy to get them out. Boy have I ever been there. If I put my camera in my pack, I almost never take any pictures. It’s easier to struggle on than stop, rest, take a picture and move on. This is also true of drinking my water. I can’t quite get the strap off and on my water bottles when I’m wearing my pack so I tend to drink less often. Time to start putting my Camel Back in the pack I think.
Looking down from part way up the last section
From near the top you can see the old Geneva Basin ski area (closed 1985). Notice the trails make the word 'SKI'
From the edge of the ridge near the top
Looking back down the ridge
Looking over the edge at Frozen Lake nearly 1,000 ft below
From the top
From the top towards Evans
On top it was stunning. The sun was shining. There were about a dozen people on top (all 20 – 30 years younger) and a few dogs. The conversation was all about being there. It’s very hard to describe what it feels like to be there unless you’ve done it. Someone was saying how great it was to be over 14,000 ft. One of the girls up there mentioned that this was her 9th fourteener and one of the younger people said that he’d recently been up to 20,000 ft on Denali. It was interesting to see the looks of respect this got.
Some old fart who made it to the top. Notice the 'here I am' clothing - very handy if you need to be rescued.
I reached the summit at about 9:00AM – 3 ½ hours from departure. Lou Dawson’s “Colorado’s Fourteeners” book has this as a 4 hour round trip in summer. I saw one young guy arrive who had run up. Some of us just take longer J
The book says 14,040 but I'm standing on tippy toe
Apparently the National geological Survey have also been here
The view towards Mt Evans. You can just see the observatory slightly to the right of center on the sky line
You can see it better here
The same old guy after having lunch at 9:00AM. Old folks like to eat early.
Some of the many dogs who also made it to the top
Somewhere down there is my truck
My last picture from the top
The trip down was uneventful. The Yak Tracks were great on the hard-packed snow and I stuck to that as much as possible – avoiding the rocks until I got down to about 12,500. It was now very sunny and I got rid of lots of clothing for the rest of the trip down. Evidently my pack full of ski pants, fleece, down jacket and all the other stuff looked pretty heavy because I got asked how much I was carrying by one of the young couples I’d seen on top. They had one water bottle and a day pack. The girl looked like she was going to a dance class. It reminded me of last week doing Evans in shorts.
By the time I got down to the creek I was really tired. It was about 11:00AM and I’d been walking for about 5 ½ hours. I used the two skinny logs over the creek to cross it and slogged my way back up to the upper parking lot. I’d have paid a lot for a Sherpa to carry my pack the last ¼ mile.
When I got back to the parking lot I felt pretty guilty. My truck was parked at the eastern end of the lot across at least two spaces. Right in front of me was another truck (and the rest of the lot was full). I could just imagine the comments as they’d arrived: “What an asshole parking that way”. I had intended to crash out in the truck for an hour before setting off home but I knew that as soon as I laid down, someone would come by to let me know how they felt about my parking, so I threw my gear in the truck, chugged a bottle of Gatorade and set off SE on Guanella Pass Road for the trip home. After a few miles I found a nice place to park by the river and took a nap. I ended up at home about 3:30 – very tired and looking forward to crashing in front of the TV.
This trip was better organized than the last one. I had sunglasses, sunscreen on, lots of clothes to choose from and my Yak Tracks. I took my gators but left them in the truck. My feet only punched through the snow a few times but I’d have been better off with the gators on. In fact, I think that gators and shorts would be better than the snow pants. The gators keep the snow out of your boots so your feet stay dry and the shorts let you get some cool air on your legs. I probably had too much ‘just in case’ stuff in my pack which just adds to the weight. And I was using my frame pack which is a lot heavier than my nylon day pack. I drank Gatorade for breakfast before departure and took 2 liter bottles of water with me – and drank all of it. I was still dehydrated when I got down. I think that a big Camel Back in the top of my pack with at least 2 liters in it would have been better. I’d have drunk more often on the way up. Maybe I’ll try that next time.
Overall I think I pushed myself pretty hard on this trip. I was certainly at my limit by the time I got down. I’m definitely getting older.