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by Theron

Southeastern Gore Range Backpack – Day 4

July 24, 2001 in South

Day 4:  Mount Valhalla (13,180), Grand Traverse Peak (13,041), and the hike out

I came out of sleep without opening my eyes and I heard a sound that I had heard before.  It sounded like horses walking around.  I knew what it was but I fell back asleep and dozed for a while.  I woke up again shortly and without moving opened my eyes and saw several goats around us.  I whispered at Pat not to move, but to open his eyes and look at all the goats around us.  It was pretty neat.  Ruth Ann woke up right away and we all three lay there looking at the goats who were grazing around us.  There were four adults and three kids.  As we stirred, the goats got spooked and headed out.  We watched them for a while…they appeared to be heading up to Snow Pass.

Before attempting to climb Mount Valhalla, which appeared to be a long way along it’s northwest ridge, we decided to go back to the bluff behind the cabin and see if we saw any wildlife.  The cabin was probably a good quarter mile from where we camped.  We waited by the bluff for a few minutes looking then spotted a deer who was still bedded down in the forest.  We watched if for a while then it got up and was joined by at least two more deer.  We headed back to camp to get ready for the climb when we spotted a male goat inspecting things around our campsite.  Our approaching scared him off and we got ready, carrying the usual lightweight load, and headed up.

The beginning of the climb followed the lake to it’s northwestern edge then began a steep climb up a grassy slope to the Mount Valhalla/Grand Traverse saddle.  Unfortunately, about 3/4ths the way up, Pat broke his walking stick which he had humorously christened “Little Betty”.  He’d even carved his name and some more stuff into it.  Well, we convinced him to hold on to the part that remained.  Anyway,  Grand Traverse was much closer to us but we had planned on heading to Mount Valhalla so we began following the ridge.  Below us, we had earlier spotted the mountain goat.  He’d was moving all around Deluge Lake and as soon as we left the campsite, he returned to to complete his investigation.

The first part of the ridge wasn’t very hard at all.  The left-hand side of the ridge was very steep and pure rock and talus.  At the saddle there was a gigantic permanent snowfield.  We stayed mostly on the right-hand side which was mostly grassy ledges.
 
As the ridge turned more northward, it became much more difficult.  We had to stay on the right-hand side and work pretty hard at some good route-finding to find the easiest and safest route.  This part of the ridge was very slow going but the difficulty never exceeded 3rd class.  We did have to cross a few steep and loose gullies.  At one point, we squeezed through a notch that was bordered with a large rock that must have had a ton of quartz in it.  Below this rock was a very smooth wall with bright yellow lichen on it.  This landmark became one of the key landmarks for us.  Beyond this notch, we crossed another gully, took a break at another small notch on a grassy rock rib, then headed up to meet the ridge which now looked a lot easier again.  Once we got up on the ridge we were able to traverse at or near the top, past another major gendarme to the base of the final pitch to the summit.
 
The final pitch to the summit is a short 3rd class ridge then another short talus scramble to the top.  The summit of the mountain is actually a long ridge with the eastern part appearing to be the true summit.  As usual, there was no summit register up here.  We set up the cameras and took our summit shot again.  We rested on the summit.  I was facing west and Ruth Ann and Pat were facing east.  Suddenly I noticed a mountain goat appear on the western end of the summit.  Ruth Ann and Pat turned around slowly and we grabbed our cameras.  As we were getting our cameras ready, another goat appeared, then another.  It appeared to be the same family of goats that we’d seen earlier in the morning.  They were very skittish; they started to run off as we stood up.  But upon sitting down, they came back up on the summit but never came any closer.

We needed to get back down because we had decided to attempt a climb of Grand Traverse too since it was so close.  As we moved towards the goats, they scampered down the mountain and put a lot of distance between us very quickly.

On the way down, we decided to follow the top of the ridge as long as we could.  The top of the ridge is pretty tough.  It’s solid but fairly exposed 3rd class climbing.  Before we encountered any sustained 4th class climbing, we dropped back down to the safe side of the ridge and immediately found our quartz landmark and followed our original route back the rest of the way.

Back at the saddle, we looked up at Grand Traverse, not far away, and decided to try to climb it before the weather got any nastier than it already was.  Grand Traverse was nothing more than a 2nd class ridge climb from this side.
 
We started climbing quickly.  There were some nasty looking clouds south of Grand Traverse Peak and it was clear behind us.  As we climbed higher though, we heard distant thunder.  We continued on but unfortunately the clouds thickened and darkened.  It started to hail and rain lightly.  A mere 200 feet below the top we heard a closer clap of thunder.  My best judgment told me that we’d better descend.  So, I gave the word and we headed down rapidly.  This was definitely the smart choice.  Back near the saddle, a very loud clap of thunder hit and we zoomed down the rest of the way.  The rain had picked up and was coming down very hard now.  Unfortunately, because of the frost from the previous night, our stuff was out drying in the sun.  Well, not anymore, it was in the process of being doused.  Pat went down first since he was in front and ran back to the camp to throw all of our stuff into the tent while I stayed back with Ruth Ann.  When Ruth Ann and I got back, Pat had moved everything inside the tent and we stripped off our wet clothing and jumped inside.  While we waited, we made some hummus (by adding water to the mix) and had it with some crackers.  

The only thing that could prevent us from having to hike out with heavy wet gear was for the rain to stop and the sun to come out which it did about fifteen minutes later.  We spread everything out to dry.  While we were about our task, we heard a loud “CRACK!”.  I though someone had fired a shot near the lake or some sort of explosive had gone off.  We whirled around to see a huge chunk of snow that had broken off and fallen into the lake.  I’d never seen anything like that before; it was pretty neat.

After maybe an hour and a half, most of the stuff had dried pretty well.  We started to organize it again for the hike down.
 
We knew the hike down the Deluge Lake trail was going to be steep but I don’t think we expected it to be as steep as it was.  It was a very pleasant trail to begin with passing through thick green evergreen forests and deep green meadows.  There weren’t nearly as many flowers up here though as on the opposite side of Snow Pass.  A little further below, the trail broke away from the trail.  It started ascending and ascended for a long time before finally leveling off.  We were certainly building up for a steep descent.  Then it began.  More than two miles and two thousand feet.  This would be an extremely difficult trail to ascend with a pack on.  I’m glad that we had picked this direction.  

To add insult to injury, the trail really goes farther down it needs to and we found ourselves taking a sharp left-hand turn back to the trailhead that involved a good bit of uphill.  By this time we were really tired but we paused to take an “after” picture at the same spot that we took the “before” picture four days earlier.
 
We were back at the car safe and sound after four great days in the wilderness.  It had rained on us a lot but, in my opinion, that really enhanced the trip.  We saw all sorts of natural wonders.  This was undoubtedly my favorite trip of all time and I’d highly recommend it to anyone.  Now, I’m looking forward to trying many similar trips to this one.

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by Theron

Southeastern Gore Range Backpack – Day 3

July 23, 2001 in South

Day 3:  Hail Peak (12,904), Zodiac View (12,505), Snow Peak (13,024), and Deluge Lake

We all woke up early around 5:30 am and started getting ready for the long day ahead of us.  We moved a lot faster this morning than we did yesterday for obvious reasons.  We were all feeling good though.  The rest day had been well worth it.  The plan was to follow the route that we had scouted the day before.  Actually, we only scouted the very beginning.  At the top of a small knoll, we spotted some trees that we would head for then on to the ridge and down which led to Snow Lake.  We started off by following the Gore Lake trail.  As soon as the trail turned to the right and began descending, we left the trail and started climbing alongside the northeastern edge of the lake.  We were able to follow our route without any problems.  Soon, we were at the knoll and started heading across the thickly vegetated meadow to the grove of trees beyond.

At the grove, we made a clothing adjustment then headed out again.  The remainder of the route consisted of crossing a short talus field interspersed with loads of bushy blue bells, then up a steep grassy gully to Snow Peak’s east ridge.  Hiking up the gully proved to be challenging.  Like a lot of the previous meadows, the vegetation was so thick that you couldn’t see where you were placing your feet, so we had to use our hiking poles to probe the ground for loose rocks.  At the top of the gully, we encountered flat ground with large boulders and we could see the crest of the ridge up ahead with Hail Peak looming above it on the opposite side of the Snow Creek valley.  Pat and I decided to zip on up ahead to get to the crest to pose for a picture (left – I’m the tiny white dot on the ridge in the center of the picture, Pat’s blending in!).  At the top of the ridge, we couldn’t see Snow Lake but we knew were it was from the formation of the rocks – it looked like a small dam.  After Ruth Ann caught up with us, we dropped down into high alpine valley.

We stopped at a large boulder that ran along Snow Creek.  We took off our packs, had some water and some food, and then packed up our small day packs and headed down the valley where we would climb up a gully and hit the southeast ridge on Hail Peak, then retrace our steps to above the gully and follow grassy alpine slopes to Zodiac View.

The flowers yesterday along the way to Gore Lake were absolutely amazing, but they couldn’t compare the wildflowers (right) that were in Snow Valley.  The flowers were so thick in some areas that I could actually feel the different colors stimulating my eyes as I moved from bunch to bunch.  There was a very faint trail running through the valley and most of it was overgrown with the wildflowers.  At the point where the valley turned to the south was a large tarn.  We crossed here and then made our way for the west-facing gully.

The beginning of the gully was easy to climb.  It consisted of large talus boulders again made stable by the large amounts of flowered bushes, in this case blue bells again.  We stepped up the talus like a staircase and then exited to the left and followed steep grassy ledges to near the talus saddle on Hail Peak.  Hail Peak from this side is almost a complete talus climb.  Only near the top do you need to do any real rock scrambling.  Fortunately, the talus was stable and we were able to make decent time up the slopes.  Most of the face consisted of very large talus blocks.  Closer to the edge of the ridge was smaller talus that appeared to be a good bit looser so we stayed more on the face and continued up.  This part of the Gores contains a good bit more talus than the northern and central peaks.

About 100 feet below the summit, we had to climb some class 3 rock.  It was a fun relief to the talus.  Beyond the class 3 pitch, we crossed a rock rib or two then began climbing up the solid right-hand side of a small gully to the east ridge.  From the ridge, we casually strolled to the top.

There is a very precipitous drop over the north face of Hail Peak.  I approached it very tenuously.  Unfortunately, due to the slope, I couldn’t get right to the edge and look over so I couldn’t tell quite how high it was.  I got within 5 feet or so and all I could still see was just air and the valley floor about 800 feet below.  From the top of Hail, we took our summit shots (right) and identified the other peaks that we’d be climbing on this trip.

From the top of Hail, it looked like we could stay high on the Hail-Willow ridge and then drop into the huge alpine meadow that lead to Zodiac View.   That was our plan.  We headed off and made our way back down the talus.

Hiking up Willow’s west ridge was easy.  But when we looked down into the meadow that lay underneath Zodiac View, we saw that we had a lot more talus to descend.  We spent another thirty minutes minimum just getting down to the grass.  Once on the grass, we had no problem at all – this was the classic alpine tundra:  very short grass and small alpine flowers.  Once up on the ridge, we had a mere 100 vertical feet of easy scrambling to get up on Zodiac View.  This small point (left) is unofficially called “Zodiac View” because of the straight-on views it affords of the “Zodiac Spires”, a rugged ridge running between Red Peak and Willow.

We were up there very quickly.  We rested and had some food up here.  We saw that the clouds were moving in again so we decided to head back the quickest way possible to the large boulder where we left our packs.  The quickest was was back down the steep gully which we had partially climbed at the beginning before exiting to the left.  The top part looked really steep.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much to the descent.  We were able to skid down the dirt and scree to the steps that took us down to the very bottom.  We then began the climb back up into the high part of the valley where our stuff was waiting.

Up at the boulder, I decided to cool my feet in Snow Lake.  Where Gore Lake was a balmy 60 degrees, Snow Creek was absolutely frigid at 44 degrees.  I didn’t stay in very long, but it was relieving.  As we got everything ready for the dreaded hike over Snow Pass, the weather worsened.  The dark clouds moved in and the wind picked up.  We put on our shells and headed out.  It started to rain almost as soon as we started.  A few steps beyond the boulder, we were able to see Snow Lake.  The lake was bordered by talus on every side and Snow Peak loomed over it on the southwestern side.  Ahead of us, the pass looked very high and difficult.  At the top, however, we spotted several goats.

The pass looked very grassy which was good news but the prospect of traversing over talus to get to the beginning of the pass did not excite us.  However, I spotted a trail that was very solid and easy to follow.  It led us directly through the talus, over a couple of snowfields, and on up the pass.  The trail ascended the steep grassy slopes for a while then faded out.  We put our heads down and headed up to the pass.  Sooner, rather than later, we were at the top.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting, even with our full packs.  From the top of the pass, Snow Peak looked really accessible.  We also were able to look down onto Deluge Lake, which was really pretty.  The rain had stopped for the time being so we took off packs, rested a bit, then headed up Snow Peak (left).

Although Snow Peak looks like a hard climb, the north ridge was actually pretty easy.  Most of it consisted of climbing up talus.  About 100 feet below the summit, it became more of a scramble.  We had to hook to the east then back west to finish to the summit.  The top of the peak had a fairly small summit with precipitous drops all around.  We took our usual summit shot and enjoyed the views for a little longer.  The other side of the pass looked much steeper and looser than the side we’d just ascended.  Fortunately, we spied a trail heading down.  We headed down the peak, grabbed our packs, and picked up the trail.

There were all sorts of neat rocks along the way to Deluge Lake.  Pat, being the geologist, stopped frequently and picked up rocks and identified them.  He found all sorts of green and blue rocks, bright green and blue!  I can’t remember the name of the mineral that caused this but we grabbed a few of them for souvenirs.  Below, the trail crossed grass then as usual in the remote part of the Gores, just disappeared.  We still had a lot of talus to cross (not again!) so we headed down and began the tedious rock hopping.  We came out on a long snowfield.  I skied down it on my boots and Pat and Ruth Ann glissaded down.

The terrain around Deluge Lake is, of course, beautiful.  It’s emerald green tundra just above treeline with lots of rolling hills.  We dropped our packs where the Deluge Creek left Deluge Lake and went to explore a cabin that Pat had spotted high up on the pass.

The cabin was a fairly new construction.  There was a hole chewed in the door by mountain rodents.  We went inside and found a some camouflage parkas and a giant combination safe.  I have no idea who this cabin could have belonged to; I thought this was National Forest land.  Anyway, we didn’t stay long.  We went outside and around the back, where we discovered that the cabin is sitting on a bluff perfectly overlooking meadows and forest below.  It must be used for hunting, I suppose.

Anyway, we went back to our packs and moved to the west of the lake where we found some smooth terrain for setting up the tent.  We got another fire going and started dinner.  Pat and I threw the frisbee a little more.

We had another outstanding dinner tonight:  tortellini with a creamy tomato sauce.   As we were cooking it, we noticed that the sky was clearing.  Maybe we’d have a decent sunset for once instead of dark clouds.  Well, we didn’t get much of a sunset but there was some spectacular alpenglow on Snow Peak.  We interrupted our dinner more than once to set up shots of the alpenglow as the clouds continually thickened and cleared.

We decided to sleep out this night since the weather did seem to be improving.  As we lay on the tarp looking up at the sky, the clouds cleared completely, and we had a perfect view of the stars.

After we stopped talking, I drifted off to sleep within minutes.  I woke up sometime in the night and opened my eyes to look at the stars which were just as brilliant as ever.  I also felt the outside of my sleeping bag and felt that it was wet.  It couldn’t have rained because I certainly would have woken up.  It must have been the dew…so I went back to sleep not worrying about it.

On to day 4.

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by Theron

Southeastern Gore Range Backpack – Day 2

July 22, 2001 in South

Day 2:  The hike to Gore Lake

I woke up about an hour before Ruth Ann and Pat did.  They had complained a bit last night about headaches so I suspected that the altitude had gotten to them just a little bit; the extra rest would help.  In the meantime, I explored around a bit.  I tried to find a place to cross Gore Creek up ahead of our camp but I didn’t find one.  I spent the rest of the time checking out the flowers.  About 15  minutes after I arrived back at camp, Pat woke up and soon thereafter Ruth Ann too.  We had a pretty basic breakfast and then packed up camp.  We spent a few minutes taking pictures of the morning sun striking the brilliant flowers in the meadow that we were camped alongside.  The leisurely pace was nice and it wasn’t until around 8:30 or so that we began the hike up to Gore Lake.

The hike to Gore Lake isn’t far; it’s under 1.5 miles, but it’s a fairly steep climb.  We’d just planned on taking it slowly, stopping to take pictures along the way.  That’s exactly what we did.  The beginning of the trail was fairly steep and wended through a thick evergreen forest.  After we had accomplished most of the ascent, we emerged into grassy meadows with great views all around us.  We saw lots of wildlife too.  We spotted some deer a hundred yards away or so and even saw either a ferret or weasel scampering among the rocks.  Ferrets are pretty rare and this one looked bigger than the others I had seen (on Longs Peak) so maybe it was a weasel or some similar animal.  (8/1/01 – After some more analysis and a consultation with another Gore Range fan, I’m pretty sure we saw a pine marten.  This image is provided by John Marriott.)

After a bit more wandering through the forest along the nice trail, we started up a steeper part of the trail flanked by some of the most brilliant Indian Paintbrush that I’d ever seen.  We saw all sorts of different colors:  yellow, pink, and scarlet.  In front of us loomed a mountainous wall; obviously we were getting close to the lake.  Sure enough, we topped out and saw the lake nestled inside the mountain cirque, just inside of treeline.

As usual, we took our packs off and then scouted around for the best camping spot.  We found one fairly close to the water that was almost like a small island thanks to the tarns below the lake.  We set up camp and then began to ponder what we’d do the rest of the day.

I had originally planned that we’d go climb a couple of peaks from this camp but the weather seemed to be turning a little nasty.  It was beginning to cloud up quite a bit around Hail Peak and Willow.  It didn’t take long before rain started sprinkling down on us.  The rain didn’t last long but the weather still looked menacing as if the rain could begin again at any time.  We decided to put off the side trip to the peaks until the next day, when we’d be moving closer anyway.  So, we did indeed grab our cameras and headed south, up and around the lake looking for good pictures.  We found lots of tarns and neat rocks where all sorts of really weird looking spiders had built their webs.  We kept venturing further and further.  We saw what looked to be a pretty big rainstorm to the south heading right for us.  We turned around immediately and made it quickly back to camp.  The rain had caught up with us though, but it wasn’t too bad.  The rain cooled everything down.

This small rainstorm didn’t last too long either.  Everything dried out pretty quickly and we spent the rest of the time around camp throwing the frisbee (we had to have good aim because we were thrownig over the tarns) and playing a game with 48 rocks that Pat taught us (the name escapes me).  Pat even took a short swim in Gore Lake.  I would have but just wasn’t hot enough to jump into the cold water.  This lake wasn’t too bad either – it was just at 60 degrees which would have felt great if the sun had been beating down on us all day.

Later on in the afternoon, we went and scouted our route to Snow Lake.  The plan was to drop our packs near Snow Lake and take the side trip to climb Hail Peak and Zodiac View.  So, our first job was finding the easiest way over to Snow Lake.  At first, I thought we would drop back down into the valley and hike back up, but this appeared to be a lot of elevation.  So we scouted ahead and found an excellent route following animal trails.  We placed small cairns at early crucial turns and then headed back to camp.

We prepared another delicious dinner consisting of brown rice and fresh vegetables from my garden.  We even “shish-kabobed” a few slices of zuchinni and yellow squash.  That night we all crammed into my tent because it looked like rain again.  We all thought it would be too cramped inside my tent but it wasn’t bad at all.  We all slept well.  I awoke at night to hear the rain pounding down on the tent.

On to day 3.

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by Theron

Southeastern Gore Range Backpack – Day 1

July 21, 2001 in South

Day 1:  The Hike to the Gore Lake Trail Junction

During a backpack, you can see and experience so many more things than you’d ever have the opportunity to during the typical day of peak bagging.   Four days is a great amount of time to spend in the back country, giving you plenty of time to witness all sorts of natural wonders.  Here’s the story and description of the first major backpack of the year that I’d planned, a trip that has certainly convinced me to try more of these and less of the quick in-and-out day trips.  I planned this trip for my sister, Ruth Ann, her boyfriend, Pat, and myself.  It is one of the few truly feasible loop hikes in the Gore Range.  The backpack began at the Gore Creek/Deluge trailhead.  We followed the Gore Creek trail to Gore Lake, then on to Snow Pass to Deluge Lake, and out Deluge Lake trail.  Along the way we climbed the major peaks and explored various hidden spots.  This was a great trip…

After two days of rest, planning, and acclimatization in Denver and the environs, we headed for Vail.  We arrived fairly late in the afternoon, maybe 4 pm if I remember correctly.  Our first day would consist of hiking in about four miles and 1500 feet of elevation to a camping spot along Gore Creek.  I was hoping that we could camp somewhere near the turnoff to Gore Lake.

We began the hike at the Gore Creek trailhead which is at the big bend in I-70 just before arriving in Vail.  We paused for a moment to take a group photo at the trailhead (the plan was to take one at the very beginning of the trip and one at the very end).  We began the hike in very hot and dry conditions.  The beginning of the trail was very dusty and atypical of a lot of the Gore Range trails.  It was the perfect trail, however, to begin on.  It wasn’t very steep, that way everyone would be able to more comfortably settle into a rhythm.

Not far at all after the trailhead (less than a quarter of a mile) is the left-hand turnoff for Deluge Lake, the trail we would be descending on the fourth day.  Beyond that, we followed Gore Creek fairly closely as the trail headed almost due east into the wide Gore Creek valley.  The beginning of the valley isn’t anything special scenically although we did pass some neat beaver ponds and a section of aspen that had been leveled by them.

In our excitement of starting our hike, we paused often to take pictures, unaware of the exceptional natural beauty that awaited us beyond.

We passed a few hikers along the way and saw less and less the further we hiked.  The further we hiked, the prettier the scenery became.  The dry early stage of the hike was slowly being replaced by the typical wet and thickly vegetated terrain that I’ve grown accustomed to in the Gores.   We began passing through large meadows that were absolutely loaded with alpine wildflowers.  These meadows contained by far the highest concentration of Monkshood and Larkspur that I’d ever seen.

After crossing over a small bridge in a very dense pine forest which was the Deluge Creek confluence, I think, we began keeping an eye out for possible campsites although we all wanted to get as close as possible to the Gore Lake trail junction, which was a left (due north) turn off of the main trail.  The trail that we were on, the Gore Creek trail, eventually led to Red Buffalo Pass, which, if you continued to follow it, would lead you to the South Willow Creek and on to the town of Silverthorn.

We’d also seen on the map that there was a “Grave” annotation at the junction.  We all were wondering what sort of grave we’d find.  We knew that once the creek followed the trail very closely again that we’d be near.  Sure enough, not long thereafter, we saw a sign along the trail and we knew we’d arrived at the junction.  Most of the prominent Gore Range trails are well-marked and this one was certainly no exception.

There were camping spots right at the junction and we dumped our packs immediately and started looking around.  Almost immediately, we saw the grave (right) which was about 15 yards up the Gore Lake trail.  The grave was actually two stone graves with bright yellow flowers growing through the rocks and a large, gnarled, and dead tree that was missing it’s upper half standing above them.  The graves were of two brothers apparently named Recen who had died sometime in the early twentieth century.  It certainly was a unique and interesting landmark.

The continuing trail to Red Buffalo Pass is a good bit more faint after the Gore Lake trail.  Right after the junction the trail crossed the creek and went into a meadow that had about twice the density of wildflowers of any previous meadow.  We waded through the waist deep flowers and arrived at the edge of the ponderosa pine forest at an absolutely perfect campsite complete with a small bluff overlooking the water.  We immediately decided to move camp to this more private area so we returned to the junction, grabbed our packs, and returned and began to set up camp and prepare for dinner.

Our first dinner was delicious.  We cooked veggie and regular hot dogs over our small fire, but the piece d’ resistance were the potatoes that Ruth Ann prepared.  The recipe consisted of quartered small golden potatoes mixed with onion, cheese, and spices contained in aluminum foil.  We put the foil in the fire for 15 or 20 minutes.  The potatoes were soft and basted in juice from the onions and melted cheese.  Absolutely delicious!  Not that we needed it, but good food is always a huge morale booster on hiking and climbing trips and this one certainly delivered.

The mosquitoes, which had been annoying a couple of hours earlier (another trait of the Gore Range thanks to the surplus of water and lakes), had disappeared thanks to the cooler weather.  We turned in around 10:30 or so.  I slept out in the open next to the fire and Pat and Ruth Ann slept in the open tent which was also next to the fire.  We went to sleep with the sound of the dying fire and the cascading creek.  It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep at all and I slept soundly.

On to day 2.

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by Theron

Peak “V” (“East Partner”) (13,057), Peak “W” (12,775), Peak “X” (13,085)

July 14, 2001 in Central

This was the third trip I’d taken up Pitkin Creek so it now feels like I know this drainage really well.  Last October, I climbed Mt. Solitude and others with Mike, Outpost Peak this June alone, and then these three peaks with George Bell, a very accomplished climber who’s done Alpamayo and climbed the Diamond three times – and who’s another “Goreaholic”.  We met up at the very early hour of 4:30 am and began the hike up the Pitkin Creek trail at 6am.  George set a very fast pace and we were at the base of East Partner, four miles away, in under two hours.  However, we were quite wet.  This had been a week of rain every day in Denver and apparently for Vail and it’s environs as well.  All the plants were wet along the trail and as we brushed by them, they deposited their gallons of water onto us.  The weather was also very overcast and dismal today.  At least that would hold off thunderstorms until later in the afternoon hopefully.

We decided to hike the long south ridge of East Partner which initially consisted of climbing up steep grassy slopes (left).  At about 12,250, the grassy slopes topped out and we could see the rocky ridge that led to the very steep pyramidal summit.

The first part of the ridge was fairly easy, not getting any more difficult than 3rd class.  At one point we climbed one of many small knife edges that led above an excellent-looking and deeply inset west-facing couloir.  That will have to be a route to try in the future.  We followed the ridge along often avoiding the tip of the ridge by wending to the east and west side at other notches.  After a steep 4th class gully, we were almost immediately under the summit pyramid.  George, also an excellent routefinder, led the route the entire way and we worked our way along the right side of the summit and climbed a steep but solid gully to some very steep 4th class slabs that were loaded with excellent cracks that made good hand and foot holds (below).  We climbed these steep slabs and topped out on the small summit.  As usual, there was no summit register up here or a summit cairn.  So, I took a few moments and built about a two foot high shaky cairn.  We spent the rest of the time taking a short break for some food, identifying peaks, and studying the various ridges.

The clouds up here were billowing around lazily.   These were the low flying rain clouds that you frequently see on Colorado Peaks.  They’re generally harmless (except for rain) and are really neat looking in their own right.  To the north, some of the high peaks along Ripsaw Ridge were completely engulfed in these clouds.  To the south, clouds were continually enveloping and clearing around Mount Solitude and Vista Peak.

We originally had planned to do East Partner then the half mile ridge traverse to Peak “W” but West Partner also looked very enticing.  Ultimately, we decided on the original course of action.  The ridge to West Partner was about a mile long and looked difficult from the onset.  Going to Peak “W” would allow us to also entertain the idea of going on to “Useable Pass” just south of Point 12,710 and maybe even on to Peak “X”.  So, we began the ridge that led to Peak “W”.  This ridge is very similar to the south ridge of East Partner albeit a good bit more difficult in spots.  The second notch along the ridge is a mandatory rappel and we amazingly spotted some slings at the top of this remote notch.  We had to retrace our steps and drop down a good big on the north side of the ridge, traversing just above the top of a snowfield.
 
The rest of the ridge had all sorts of little difficulties to overcome.  The rock was very solid for the most part so these moves weren’t too risky in and above their inherent difficulties.  We had a brief reprieve from the rock scrambling near the middle and enjoyed a grassy stroll as well as a rocky sidewalk to follow.  Thinking that the difficulties were behind us, we ran into another knife edge then finally were on the grassy flanks of Peak “W”.  It was a short stroll up to the peak which was really nothing more than a high bump along the ridge.  Again, there was no summit register or cairn here, but I would have been surprised had their been one.  From here we had a pretty close view of the first Slate Lake valley and across the way we saw the major peaks around Upper Slate Lake:  Peaks “Q”, “R”, and “L”.  The ridge from “Q” to “R” looked very thin and I made a mental note to avoid that ridge for whenever I would get around to climb these peaks.  Before we left “W”, we looked at the ridge that led to Peak “X” and determined that it would be easier to just head down the grassy slopes and traverse on the large boulders to Useable Pass and then see if we wanted to attempt “X”.  After a summit photo, we headed down the grass.

The traverse and climb over to Useable Pass was surprisingly very solid.  Virtually no rocks shifted beneath our feet and we were able to make good time.  George is a faster rock-hopper than me and got in front of me frequently and had to wait sometimes, and I’m by no means a slow rock-hopper.  After arriving at Useable Pass, we decided to go on and try Peak “X”.  It was sprinkling a bit but we were both feeling energetic.  I figured it would be good for me to climb Peak “X” now, that way I could avoid the difficult ridge if I were to ever come out to climb Peak “X”, “Y”, and “Z” one day.   Climbing Peak “X” from this side would greatly simplify that future trip.  And George’s goal is to climb all of the 13ers in this range so a climb of “X” would allow him to complete the thirteeners in this group, since he had done Peak “Z” on a backpack a few years earlier.  We headed up the ridge a bit but knew we couldn’t get to Point 12,710, where we would turn right to get to Peak “X”.  That point was blocked by a miniature version of Wham Ridge in the Grenadiers – a sloping rock face that continually got steeper near the top.  So, we probably climbed up the ridge maybe 150 feet then traversed to the face on Peak “X”.

Although all of the routes we’d done today were very solid and most of the routes in the Gores are solid, this part of Peak “X” was probably one of the loosest mountains I’d ever been on.  Any gentle touch on the scree would send a mini rock avalanche down on your feet.  It was quite miserable and tedious but we managed to traverse past it and get on to solid grassy slopes again which we followed up to the ridge crest, just to the right of the lowest point along the ridge as it appears on the map.  The ridge to Peak “X” is not hard at all, basically 2nd and sometimes 3rd class rock scrambling.  It’s a bit precipitous and thin in places but very secure.  As I was hiking up behind George he turned around and took a picture of me coming up stating that he wanted to get a picture with the wall of clouds behind us (left).  I turned around and indeed there was a wall of clouds not far at all behind us.  Within a minute, we were engulfed in clouds and the ridge climb suddenly turned quite surreal.  We made quick time climbing up the ridge although I stopped and took a few pictures along the way.  I took one shot of the faint image of George taking the last steps to the top.  Ironically, as soon as we arrived on the top, it started raining pretty hard.  We turned around immediately without even sitting down and headed back down.  The rocks got drenched very fast and suddenly the route became slick.

This was no gentle drizzle either; this was a genuine downpour in the mountains.  The rain began to mix with small hail too.  We had to move very carefully down the ridge.   We did a good job of memorizing the landmarks and picked our exact route back down to the loose slopes.  We had to find the grassy gully left exit off of the ridge then the right hand turn at the small rock tower, etc.  The only real difficulty that remained was getting back to Useable Pass.  We didn’t want to hit the ridge where we did the last time as there was a tough 4th class move to make which would be very risky on slippery rocks.  We couldn’t hike to the pass because it was covered in steep snow.  Our best bet looked like a traverse over moderately steep snow and up a small gully that connected with the ridge just above the pass.  The gully was filthy by this time…the rain hadn’t let up at all, if anything, it was coming down harder.  It was raining so hard that there were small waterfalls coming off the brim of my shell jacket’s hood.  The gully was steep but craggy rock mixed with mud and snow.  It reminded me of the typical mud chute as seen in movies like Indiana Jones or Jurassic Park – a steep, rocky, mud gully with water running down it.  We sloshed our way to the top and arrived at the pass safely. 

There were no technical difficulties in front of us but we still had a steep pass to descend.  We hiked down the pass and did a standing glissade on a couple of snow patches.  I slipped and fell about 10 feet at one point on some slick grass but fortunately was uninjured.  We continued down and finally hit the valley floor.  I remember traveling a faint trail last October, but did not see it this time.  Our vision was obstructed to about 100 feet by the driving rain and the low clouds.  At times, the wind would pick up and drive the rain straight into our faces.  Our boots were completely soaked by this point and I could feel water swishing between my toes.  The rain still hadn’t let up.  This was no thunderstorm – this was a monsoon!  We eventually arrived in the trees and wended around until we finally hit Pitkin Trail, then began the final stretch of the march back to the car.  Near the second waterfall the rain finally stopped.  We took a short break for water and food though we didn’t bother trying to dry out our feet.

The last part of the hike out involved passing through a few sections of willows that were beginning to take over the trail.  As we plowed through, more water dumped on us.  Near the bottom, it began clearing and the sun came out.  Finally, 12.4 miles and 6200 feet of vertical elevation later, we made it back to the car and drove non-stop back to Denver.  This was an awesome trip!

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