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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!

This was to be my last real hike of 2000. A week later, the first of several fall snowstorms moved in and blanketed the entire wilderness. The year before, there was virtually no snow through the middle of November. Not so in 2000; the snow cam in mid October and was there to stay. I wanted to do one last decent hike before the snow came so I picked a seldom-visited mountain in the Gore Range – Mount Solitude. Mount Solitude is a relatively gentle mountain (at least from the side we approached it from) on the east side of Pitkin Creek Valley. A friend from work, Mike, accompanied me on this trip.
 
We arrived at the Pitkin Lake trailhead around 7 in the morning. Like most of the trailheads from this side, it was paved but very small – only enough room for a few cars. The morning air was really cold and brisk; it definitely felt like winter was on the way. The trail started out along the creek passing by people’s condo porches for a few yards then climbed steeply up. Finally, the trail leveled off and we were strolling through the classic Gore Range woods – lots of aspen with ponderosa pines dotting the woods, thick grass, and steep gorges and walls around us.  We could eventually see the first impressive waterfall in the distance.  Several minutes later, we passed in front of a second waterfall which was our signal to leave the trail and start heading up Mount Solitude’s grassy slopes. 

The climb up to Mount Solitude, though covered in thick grass, was very steep.  It was about a 2000 foot slog to get up the ridge but we enjoyed it.  Finally, we arrived at the saddle between Climber’s Point and Mount Solitude.  We were staring right at the jagged, broken west face of Keller Mountain.  It took me a few moment to get figure that out (it’s hard to pick out peaks in this range because there so densely packed).  South along the ridge we were looking at Climber’s Point which looked absolutely awesome (left).  To the right was a longer and gentler hike to Mount Solitude.  We started out by heading for Climber’s Point and quickly realized that the point we saw earlier was a false summit.  It was a easy scramble to the true summit, however we passed over a couple of spots that looked almost 500 feet down near-vertical icy walls.

After several minutes on the summit, we retraced our steps back to the saddle and headed on to Mount Solitude.  It was an easy hike to the summit.  Although it was an easy hike, that didn’t mean it wasn’t inspiring – the views were phenomenal from here.  So far, I think these peaks have the best views of all the Gores because there so centrally located. 
 
Because of the inspiring views, I had tons of extra energy.  Mike was up for anything so we opted to head for the next mountain along the ridge, Point 13,075.  This side of the 3rd peak was an easy hike but things were to change on the north ridge.  We were very close to the saddle that connected the valley we came from with the Boulder Lake Valley so we decided to hike on to that.  From the saddle, Peak “X” was only a quarter mile away.  To climb those 4 peaks in one day would have been a great effort and I knew I had the energy in me.  Mike started feeling a bit tired though (this was his only real hike of the year).  We started to try to climb the ridge over to the saddle but it got really difficult really fast.  We both went in opposite directions around some towers looking for a passage.  It seems that most difficult peaks in Colorado have a weakness in their ramparts but after several minutes, we found none.  There’s no sense in attempting a risky route so we backed down and traversed underneath the ridge along some steep snowy slopes.  These easier slopes though were by no means a walk-in-the-park though.  After a while, Mike decided that he would downclimb one of the gullies while I opted to continue traversing and eventually hook back up with the ridge at a more gentle spot and hike to the saddle.  We picked out some small tarns that we’d meet up at in the valley floor beneath “East Partner Peak” on the opposite side of the valley.

My hike over to the saddle was awesome.  The view of Point 13,075 from this side is absolutely stunning, hence the nickname “Vista” or “Vista Peak”.  It was a good thing that we retreated because, from this vantage point, it appeared that the ridge got even more precipitous and difficult.  I took a ten minute rest at the saddle taking in the views.  Peak “X” was so close and I was still tempted to climb it.  It would have taken another two hours though so I opted not to leave Mike worrying.  There was a faint trail here at the saddle linking the two valleys but it wasn’t one that received much traffic obviously.

The hike back down to the valley floor was easier than I thought it would be.  The slopes looked like they were very loose, but it was surprisingly stable.  Mike and I met up at exactly the same time.  The gully that he had tried downclimbing had cliffed-out so he was forced to traverse as well to in order to find decent passage down.
 
After a long rest, we headed out.  Pitkin Valley splits into two smaller valleys that head northwest and northeast with “East Partner Peak” separating them.  Pitkin Lake is at the head of the northwestern valley and we were in the northeastern one.  Again, there was not much of a trail here and after passing another set of absolutely lovely tarns, we completely lost the trail and ended up bushwacking through delightful forest until we came out near the waterfall where we left the trail to originally climb up to the saddle between Mount Solitude and Climber’s Point.  During the hike out, we saw a large group of deer go bounding past us.  This turned out to be my most enjoyable day hike of the year.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Though it was fall and brisk out, it was perfect.  There was also enough cloud cover to keep the sun from being over-powering.  Maybe the best thing was that, except for the very beginning of the hike, we didn’t see a soul all day.

Finally – a trip in the summer/fall of 1999 to the Gore Range. I spent the majority of the summer hiking the fourteeners, reaching a count of 39 with a hike of Mount Yale at the end of September. This trip to Keller Mountain was with the Colorado Mountain Club so, thinking that the peak would be covered in a layer of slick snow this time of year, I figured it was safest to go with the club. I also convinced my friends Ken and Kirk to go along too. Ironically, it turned out to be the nicest day of 1999. It was very warm, sunny, and there was virtually no wind.  Winter also got a very late start in 1999; there was still no significant snowfall in the mountains yet – and we were well into fall.

The trip started from the Rock Creek trailhead which, contrary to my suspicions, was quite easy to find and drive to. I think there were approximately 10 people in our group. The first part of the trail is apparently an old road and it’s very wide and smooth for a long way. Not long after the trailhead, you pass the Gore Range trail running north and south, perpendicular to the Rock Creek trail. After a mile or so, the trail narrows to a footpath, passes through some nice meadows then begins contouring along the north side of the valley. Eventually, you arrive at the Boss Mine, which is a gigantic pile of tailings that really spoils the natural beauty of this valley. In any event, it’s hard to miss it (although the leader did!) and at this point you head up the tailings along a very steep trail. The trail fades in and out above the tailings. Eventually, you need to bushwack to gain the east ridge of Keller Mountain.

Above treeline, it’s easy to see where to go. At this point, Keller Mountain looks more like a bland rockpile. Well, it’s true at this point but once you attain the point that you can see from the east side, the fun scrambling begins. Before we began hiking up the ridge, the female member of the group got tired and decided not to continue. The leader as well as a couple of the older members of the group stayed back. About five of us continued, including Ken and Kirk. Since we didn’t have to wait on anyone we made great time.

At the top of the point, we could see the rest of the route. It’s probably a little under a mile to get to the true summit of Keller and the majority of it is 3rd class although we chose a harder route just for the fun of it. It was such a nice day so we decided to make it at least 4th class. It took us well over an hour to reach the true summit but it was an absolutely delightful scramble. We spent about 20 minutes on the summit eating and taking pictures then headed back over the ridge and to the group waiting below.

The hike out was uneventful although I did have my second wind and zoomed in front of the group. I arrived about 15 to 20 minutes before the rest of the group did. This was a really fun trip – especially for a CMC trip. Ken decided that it was his best climb to date. Even Kirk liked it as well and decided that he ought to return to the Gore Range sometime.

Approach from Booth Lake Trailhead

Never judge a peak by its elevation.  “The Spider” was one of the toughest – and most fun – climbs of the summer and it’s not even a thirteener!   I’d been wanting to climb Spider for a long time ever since seeing it from Piney Valley.  “I took this picture one year ago when I attempted Peak “C”. “The Spider” totally dominates the head of the Upper Piney valley and entices climbers and hikers.  Yet, it’s a seldom visited peak.  When I arrived at the top, I noticed that the register had been placed in 1988 and wasn’t even close to being halfway full.  In fact, only 25 people at most have signed it.  Most were instructors at the COBS, or Colorado Outward Bound School. 

I approached Spider from the Booth Lake trailhead, which is the opposite side from where this picture was taken.  A slightly easier route is to hike up the long Upper Piney Valley.  Anyway, from Booth Trailhead, after two miles of hiking up the trail, I arrived at Booth Falls which features two large drops – one about 30 feet and the other around 60 feet.  Most hikers stop here.  However, another two and a half miles of hiking will bring you to picturesque Booth Lake.  I set up camp above the lake and had the entire place to myself.
 
The weather this weekend was absolutely fantastic.  The sky was perfectly clear, the temperature was warm, and there was no wind.  There was a rather large population of mountain goats living up around the lake who were very interested in me.   They frequently approached the tent to investigate.  At night, after eating a fantastic hot meal, I turned in.  I was so tired from hauling my backpack all the way up to the lake that I fell asleep within minutes.  
 
However, about two hours later, a curious sound caused me to stir.  It sounded like something was grabbing the grass outside the tend and pulling it up.  I realized right away what it was:   the goats!  They had returned to feast on the grass and flowers around the tent.  Well, after about 10 minutes, I both shouted and clapped my hands and the goats ran off frightened.  But they soon regained their confidence and returned.   Thus began about a two hour ordeal where the goats continually returned to the tent to eat.  Eventually, I put on my boots, grabbed my flashlight, and left the tent.  Instead of scaring them where they’d simply run for cover behind a nearby boulder, I turned on my flashlight and chased them to the opposite side of the lake!   After that, I was able to get back to sleep and they didn’t bother me for the rest of the night.
 
The next morning, I woke up late – 8 o’clock!  I started hiking up the steep slopes towards the Spider.  One of the reasons that this route is more difficult is that you have to climb “The Fly” first.  The entire route is 3rd class scrambling.  In fact, from the lake, the entire route is practically 3rd class scrambling that will test your routefinding skills.  The measly one mile climb to the peak takes quite a bit of time.  At the top of the Fly, I had quite an in-your-face view of the remaining route.

From the top of Fly, I descended down the east side of the north ridge and began climbing up the Spider.  The Spider was different than most difficult peaks I’ve done.  On those others, there was typically always a well-defined route to the top – even on tough mountains.  On this peak, I had to frequently leave the ridge for easier terrain.  At one point, I was faced with a vertical 100 foot wall on the ridge.  Certainly I wasn’t going to scramble up that, so I had to drop down to the west face and traverse under the cliffs then climb back up to the ridge.

Finally, I made it.  I rested on the summit for quite a while and enjoyed the perfect weather and all the mini dissertations that were written in the register. 

I decided to bypass Fly on the way back and scrambled down the west face and then back up a couloir to a saddle on the west side of the Fly.  I think this took just as much time to do and it was a lot more difficult because the narrow, sinuous route kept traversing above steep cliffs.  Either way, it was pretty exhausting.  After about three hours I arrived back at camp.  There was still no one at the lake (it was pretty late anyway – nearly 4 pm) so I decided to go swimming! It was awesome – very cold, but not as bad as you’d expect.  I swam around for about 15 minutes then basked in the sun.  Relaxed, I then began packing up and started a non-stop march back to the car at the trailhead five miles away.  I was really tired from this trip but thought that this was perhaps the best trip of the summer.