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Red Peak from Gore Creek

August 25, 2011 in South

Big day. I woke to the alarm at 3:30am. I was feeling the mileage and vert from the day before. I also felt that funny tickle in the back of my throat. I didn’t bother with the snooze. I shut off the alarm and went back to sleep until 7:30am. I ignored everything my body was telling me and cranked up the coffee. I left the Gore Creek TH at 9:20am. Graves by 11:15. Summit around 3:00. I traversed towards the Zodiac Spires. I didn’t make it too far. I was on the southern most part of the Zodiac Ridge contemplating the time and how spent I felt. Live to climb another day! The 8+ miles I had to go, if I headed back, seemed like plenty. I traversed south towards the Gore Creek Trail just west of the pass. I passed 2 groups of hikers at camp already eating dinner. I was back at the graves around 7:15pm. I ate some dinner, made some water, soaked my feet, ibuprofen, trail runners, and go. It was a lovely hike out in the dark. I hit the TH with 12 hours and 14 minutes of quality trail time for the day. A 2 day total of 20+ hours and about 10k’.

Tags: Gore Creek, Red Peak, Zodiac 1 Comment »

by Stan Wagon

Peak V E Ridge, & Valhalla Ski, & N TenMile E Ridge

August 20, 2011 in Central

Yesterday Elke Dratch and I did the East Ridge of Peak V starting from about the halfway point between V and W. We then descended the full S Ridge back to the Pitkin Trail. Total = 11 miles in 9.5 hours. Excellent Class 3-4 rock on the ascent route (and descent). Route is simply to take the trailless fork of Pitkin Valley at about 11000 and then curve around the nice slopes to the VW ridge.

We found an old mine on the last slope down to the trail with a 12-foot deep square hole and many old metal tools.

Has this ridge been climbed before? Since I believe Robert Porter of Breckenridge did just about the whole divide N to S, he has surely descended the VW ridge. The recent post on Peak X has a nice view of the VW ridge.

Some news from earlier in the season:

Valhalla: On June 22, 2011, Jonathan Kriegel and I put in a big one-day effort to get to the summit of Valhalla with our skis, starting from Vail, we then skied the E Face (some avy issues), and descended out to rock creek. Details at http://www.stanwagon.com/wagon/coloski/summitco/summitcoGore/summitcoGore.html

On July 22, 2011, Joe Kramarsic, David Nebel, and I did the full E Ridge of North Ten Mile Peak. Rope used, though I think it can all be called Class 4. This is the peak (12736) that some call West Deming.

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by Stan Wagon

Peak V East Ridge

August 20, 2011 in Central

Yesterday Elke Dratch and I (Stan Wagon) did the East Ridge of Peak V starting from about the halfway point between V and W. We then descended the full S Ridge back to the Pitkin Trail. Total = 11 miles in 9.5 hours. Excellent Class 3-4 rock on the ascent route (and descent).

Found an old mine on the last slope down to the trail with a 12-foot deep square hole and many old metal tools.

Has this ridge been climbed before? Since I believe Robert Porter of Breckenridge did just about the whole divide N to S, he has surely descended the VW ridge.

[[News from earlier in the season: A big one-day effort by Jonathan Kriegel and me in June as we got skis to the summit of Valhalla starting from Vail, skied the E Face (some avy issues), and descended out to rock creek. Details at <>]]

And more: Joe Kramarsic and David Nebel and I did the full E Ridge of North Ten Mile Peak. Rope used, though I think it can all be called Class 4. This is the peak (12736) that some call West Deming.

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by bill betz

View from Williams Fork range

August 6, 2011 in News

I wanted to get a panoramic picture of the Gores at dawn from the Williams Fork mountains, across the Blue River Valley from the Gores. See http://www.sgrhoa.net/betz/110724/

1 Comment »

by Jim Gabriel

Peak X-Day 2-Summit Day

August 5, 2011 in North

Wasn’t feeling the alpine start. I was pretty cozy. Its funny how 6:30am can feel late. The coffee was strong and oatmeal was…well, it was oatmeal. I was able to shave a 1/2 hour off my time to the top of Usable Pass by staying off the snow. On the pass, I strapped on the crampons. I only had to lose about 100′ on the snow field on the Boulder Creek side. I stayed fairly high on the traverse. The snow was perfect. I came off the snow near what looked like the most solid/usable rock. I’ve been on dirtier rock. I went right for the ridge between 12,710′ and Peak X. I’d call it mostly high class 2 with plenty of 3 and 4 moves available if you wanted to spice it up. From Usable Pass it was about 1 hour 45 min to the summit. Boulder Creek was looking as lush as the rest of the Gore. Cool views to the east of Central Pass, Bergschrundt Pass, and the west side of Keller. There was so much grass growing on Keller’s steep side. East Thorn stuck out nicely as did Valhalla. To the North, I enjoyed Q,R,L,S,&T. I didn’t see a register on Peak X, but then again, I didn’t look too hard. I summited about 10am and hung around for about a 1/2 hour. I took my time climbing down. The west side of the the ridge was most usable for the top 500′ or so. I took a different route down. I found some solid rock on the southeast side of the ridge. It made for some good times. Huge clusters of Columbine had me constantly stopping and going for the camera. I got back on the snow at a lower point than where I exited earlier. I was looking forward to getting more snow time. I was also looking forward to the glissade down the Pitkin side of the pass. I made it back to camp about 5 hours after my departure that morn. Lunch was delicious. I took a high westerly exit from E.Pitkin. I bet I hit the trail about 500′ below Pitkin Lake. Not a soul was seen until the TH. It was a 9 hour 38 minute day.