From Dry Gulch, East Ridge route
“The Citadel” is a little known mountain around the Clear Creek mountain area, which is also the location of the much more popular mountains: Grays and Torreys Peaks. The Citadel is no doubt the most difficult climb in the area. The climbing or scrambling isn’t too bad, but the route finding is. This was the most difficult route finding I’ve done to date. But, that’s what made the trip so fun. I’d imagine that many people reach a certain point and have to turn back without finishing the final 80-100 feet to the summit. There are two main towers on Citadel. On the topo, they’re both equal in height but I think the one that you see prominently from Dry Gulch (left photo) is the highest. It is certainly the most difficult to get to. The only detailed info that I found on this route was in Roach’s Indian Peaks book. He suggests the south gully route which is fine if you’re planning to do the route in winter or spring (which I was actually), but a major headache if you’re going to do it in summer; it’s a big gully full of loose scree! The other route that he mentions is the 4th class East Ridge route. This is a misprint. The NORTH ridge (from Pettingell) is the 4th class route. We take the east ridge route (which is not listed in any book that I could find) and it’s class 2 all the way to the base of the summit tower.
Dry Gulch is one of the best secrets of the Clear Creek area. There are two valleys to the east of Dry Gulch: Herman and Watrous Gulches. They’re always packed in the summer. We saw only one party in Dry Gulch all day. Dry Gulch is so unfrequented that the trail peters out after a half a mile or so. It is equally as pretty as any of these other gulches and, for the mountaineer, contains more interesting peaks, namely Hagar and Citadel.
After crossing a short snowfield and cresting the east ridge, we had a great view of Citadel’s summit towers. At this point, I realized that there would be some routefinding. Basically, the mountain is surrounded by a sheer cliffy area varying from 40-80 feet. I guess this is where the peak got it’s name; it’s like a well-defended fortress. We traversed beneath the summit towers and noted a couple of weaknesses in the ramparts: thin and steep gullys leading up the towers. The first one seemed too steep. The second one, however, looked feasible. I was with my sister and her boyfriend who were visiting from Georgia and I didn’t want them to be attempting anything too dangerous. So we started up. The gully ran between the two main towers and was steep and loose (difficult 3rd class). We scambled up about 100 feet to the top. From here I couldn’t find a continuing route up. Each side was bordered by high walls and the other side was a steep snow couloir leading down. There was a tough 4th class route to the right leading up to the main tower but it was terribly exposed and I wisely decided not to attempt that. So, while they were taking a break, I opted to explore around the left side.
There’s a tough 3rd class little pitch to get up but once I got up I was able to survey the gully we’d just climbed. The sub-summit was above me – a short scramble to the top. I downclimbed about thirty feet and noticed an elusive route leading to the top of the main tower!
The trick was to downclimb the gully and exit it to the right on a narrow ledge. From there, you had to climb up, traverse across a short section of loose blocks, downclimb again, and traverse an easy but exposed ledge. Here’s my sister, RuthAnn, traversing the grassy section of the ledge. There’s about a 40 foot drop to the left of this picture. The traverse was easy but a bit unnerving because it’s a lot thinner than anything you’ll encounter on Longs Peak, for example. However, after you traverse this ledge, you’re home free! It’s an easy scramble over blocky rocks and grass to the top of the Citadel. The tricky routefinding made this trip really fun for me.
We had great weather this day. As usual though, the storm clouds began building in mid-afternoon. But we had plenty of time to stroll down the mountain and enjoy the copious amounts of wildflowers on the southwest side.
