Pitkin Lake | GoreRange.info

Outpost Peak (12,362)

June 17, 2001 in South

We took a week break after climbing Ice Mountain but when the second week came around, I didn’t want to miss another nice weekend. Incredibly enough however, nobody else was available this weekend so I opted to try a truly solo trip to Outpost Peak in the Gore Range. Outpost Peak is the high point at the end of the jagged ridge which separates the Pitkin Lake Valley and the Booth Lake Valley. I decided to approach the climb from Pitkin Lake to minimize my bushwacking time. It turns out that the the approach from Booth Lake is much easier but indeed includes at least a mile and a half of bushwacking.

I left Denver around 3:15 pm and began hiking around 5:30 or so if my memory is correct. I decided that I would hike to about 11,000 feet, which is below the lake and facing the relatively small cirque that forms on the east side of the mountain. I hiked in pretty quickly and arrived with a decent amount of sunlight left. At first, I found a campsite situated up on a knoll overlooking the trail but when I went to pump water, I spied a much better site and moved there. This site was on the western side of the valley on the western side of the creek and the trail and was probably within a hundred yards of the base of the mountain slopes. I had a good look at Outpost Peak and was a bit worried as there was a lot more snow on the eastern face than I was expecting.

As the sun was setting, I started to feel isolated and a little unnerved. I’d done plenty of solo overnights before, but only on fourteeners and on fourteeners, you’re never truly alone. Well, I was indeed truly alone on this trip and I was about 4 miles from civilization over rough terrain. So, I decided to build a small fire. As soon as I got it going, my spirits and courage really perked up. I guess I know how nomads and primitive hunters, etc felt – a camp fire really injects life, energy, and security into an overnight situation. Plus, it injects a small dose of carbon into the local forest economy!

I slept great that night in my small bivy sack and woke up around 6. That’s very late for a snow climb. I got started fast though and was able to take advantage of the steep hard snow chutes that led up to the basin. Once I got into the basin though, the sun had been hitting the face for about an hour. By the time I was up on the face, the snow was really slimy and slippery and my crampons had little use. I was surprised at how steep the face was; this was one situation where the face was steeper than it looked. About halfway up the face, I started feeling uncomfortable so I moved on to the rock, took off my crampons, and scrambled the rest of the way up. I made it to the gentle part of the ridge and strolled to the summit. I was a bit worried because I didn’t know how I was going to get down. The face had snow all over it and was going to be a lot looser by this time. I decided to attempt the ridge and then head for the high pass between Pitkin and Booth Lakes and then hike down to Pitkin Lake and back to camp.

The first part of the ridge was great – easy hiking, great views. Pretty soon I was at the beginning of a long series of tall gendarmes. Since I was alone, I decided that I would be taking the easiest route and NOT take the direct route right over the top of the ridge, so I picked a fairly complex route through the large towers, staying almost exclusively on the west (left) side. The ridge was very typical Gore: steep but stable grassy ledges surrounded by solid cliffy rock. I had to do a lot of up climbing and down climbing to find the easiest route. At one point I walked along the top of a bergeschrund while holding on to the solid rock wall above me to traverse over one section. Eventually, after maybe 4 or 5 sections of rock towers, I arrived at the pass and noted a small trail leading down to Pitkin Lake. I was able to follow it easily. It’s a pretty good trail – steep but a hike and not a climb. I finally arrived at the solitary lake which was still mostly frozen. I took off my shirt and aired out for a while. Then I hiked about twenty minutes down the the snowfields and found the trail which took me back to my campsite. On the way, I finally saw someone – a New Zealander who was hiking up to the lake.

Back at camp, I relaxed a bit, drank some more water and ate some more food. After an hour or more, I packed up and headed back to the trailhead. Along the way, I left the trail and bushwacked west looking for an unmarked lake that I had seen from high above. I picked the perfect spot to leave the trail and found the lake with no problem. I also left the trail at the first waterfall and moved in close for some waterfall shots. After that, I went non-stop back to the car. That was a nice benefit about being alone – I was able to take a couple of side trips without having to have anyone wait on me. I arrived back at the trailhead which was absolutely baking in the late spring heat. I felt really tired and hot and spent about twenty minutes stretching before heading back to Denver.

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Tags: Outpost Peak, Pitkin Falls, Pitkin Lake, solo No Comments »

Climber’s Point (13,005), Mount Solitude (13,090), Point 13,075 (“Vista”)- October 2000

October 9, 2000 in Central

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.

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