Monthly Archives: August 1998

South Arapaho, North Arapaho, Old Baldy

Posted on by
Reply

From 4th of July Trailhead

I’d been wanting to do North and South Arapaho Peaks for a while because I heard that they both featured spectacular views and an exciting ridge traverse from one to the other. Both of these rumors turned out to be true. The view from the top, while awesome, is not as impressive as the two peaks themselves from a lower vantage point on “Old Baldy”, a nearby thirteener. From here, the view is unobstructed: on the left you have the sharp pyramid of South Arapaho, and working right you see the jagged ridge and then finally the huge bulky summit of North Arapaho. Between these two, the gigantic Arapaho Glacier is in complete view. This is one of the most alpine views in Colorado. The view certainly rivals, and I think exceeds, the grandeur of the view of Longs and Meeker from Chasm Lake. This is a picture of South Arapaho Peak from the saddle between “Old Baldy” and South Arapaho. While the peak looks difficult, the route is quite easy. We headed up the lefthand ridge in the photo. A few times we looked over the edge of the ridge and had an unobstructed 1000 foot view of the glacier. If you’re afraid of heights, you can still get to the summit of South Arapaho without any exposure at all.

I hiked these peaks with two co-workers: Brian Towell and Bill Snodgrass. Brian and I were both big fans of the Indian Peaks. This was Bill’s first trip ever to the Indian Peaks though he had climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners. Bill and I were to meet Brian at the trailhead. Brian, however, was apparently late so we started without him. We decided to make a detour immediately and headed due north and steeply ascended to the wide grassy ridge that led to “Old Baldy” and to South Arapaho.

After finally arriving at “Old Baldy” and taking pictures, we headed for the top of South Arapaho. On top, we met Brian who had hiked up with his two dogs via the 4th of July mine. The three of us set off for North Arapaho. Click here for an account of the ridge traverse and a panoramic picture. I only made this separate because the panorama, while awesome, is a relatively big file (135K). Anyway, after a few challenges on the ridge, we scrambled up to the summit of North Arapaho through a little gully. The summit is flat and features a monstrous cairn.

Here’s a picture of Bill and I on the summit of North Arapaho. Bill is standing on the huge cairn. We were a little worried about the storm you see behind us while we were on the ridge. We felt a few raindrops and realized that North Arapaho would be a very bad place to be during a storm because there’s only one way to retreat and that’s back over the ridge and on to South Arapaho. We were pretty sure that the storm was only packing rain and no lightning so we continued on. When we arrived at the summit, we noticed that the storm was going to bypass us completly…it was heading for South Arapaho. The storm frightened everyone else off the ridge and we had the summit to ourselves.

Here is a picture of Brian on the summit of North Arapaho with South Arapaho and the top of the Arapaho Glacier in the distance. We took pictures, explored around, and Bill even shot some video with his camera that he had hauled up. After staying on the summit for about 30 minutes, we headed back down the ridge in clearer weather. After descending South Arapaho we went back down the standard route which wended its way down to the 4th of July Mine. When we arrived at the mine, another little rainstorm moved in and showered us a bit. And again, after about 30 minutes, the clouds had completely cleared out and there was sun and blue skies.

We were all pretty tired after this long day but the trip had been very successful. Hopefully, we’ll be headed out again for more peaks in the Indian Peaks. Here’s a nice sunset shot of the southern part of the Indian Peaks. North and South Arapaho are on the lefthand side.

[smooth=id:114;]

Mount Lindsey

Posted on by
Reply

From Huerfano Vally, Northwest Ridge

Mount Lindsey is a really fun and challenging climb in many aspects. Robert and I drove down to Mount Lindsey on August 1st to camp overnight. The jeep trail that runs through the center of the valley is very long (about 10 miles) and gets really rough about halfway there. It had rained on us almost the entire way and the ground was very wet. There were some huge mud puddles and some steep inclines to go over. According to some info that I’d found on the road, 2-wheel drive cars could indeed make it all the way to the trailhead. Man, is this incorrect! There’s no way a 2 wheel drive can make it to the trailhead except by being dropped by helicopter. Amidst this rugged road is some of the prettiest scenery that I have seen in Colorado yet. There were thick forests of aspen surrounded by deep emerald green meadows with small ponds located in various spots. On top of this, the giant north face of Blanca Peak looks over the entire valley. It’s quite dramatic.
 
We arrived at the trailhead around 6:30pm and packed in about .5 – .75 miles to our campsite which, unlike the other campsites we saw, was well-hidden from the trail and situated next to the roaring Huerfano Creek. The creek posed one of the biggest challenges to us. After setting up camp and eating, we scouted ahead on the trail and found that the creek crossing was going to be difficult. The main crossing was very wide and deep and only passable by wading. So, we explored upstream and downstream until we found the most suitable place to cross which was downstream near an island formed by the creek forking and rejoining with itself. Crossing over to the island was easy, crossing from the island to the opposite side was tricky. We found the most narrow spot (which translated into deep and swiftly flowing water) and began extending the shore with large rocks. We build a small ramp about two feet long that made the leap over the stream possible. It wasn’t easy either. I tested and got over safely but it was much spookier coming back. Well, it began to get dark so we decided we would see if anyone would set stepping stones on the trail in the morning and if not, we’d use our way station.

We slept very well that night. Our campsite was soft and perfectly level and smooth. We got up rather late in the morning and went up to the stream crossing and noticed a towel on the other side. Somebody had suffered and waded through that frigid morning water. We weren’t about to do that so we backtracked and crossed at our spot.
 
We made it across with no problems but the other side was really marshy. After we hooked back up with the main trail, we continued up the valley a way until the trail turned left and started climbing below the talus and towards the Nipple Creek canyon. The trail is pretty clear and leads all the way up the canyon to the basin below Lindsey. However, we got off route at one point and ended up hiking directly up Nipple Creek. Fortunately, we regained the trail well below treeline but, on the way down, it was difficult to see how we’d gotten off the trail. I suppose the trail looks different on the way up as opposed to the way down and there were a few places that entered the forest that looked like trails. No harm done though, and we got some nice close-up views of Nipple Creek.

Near treeline, there’s a tunnel carved out of the rock on the opposite side of the creek. There are no mines labeled on the map but this cave was definitely artificial. We were dissappointed too because I’d left my flashlight back at camp.   It was really creepy after walking in only 15 feet. The tunnel continued about 20 feet ahead and turned and ascended to the left. Maybe some other time we can explore it. However, I’d hate to run into some “thing” deep in that tunnel.
 
After exiting the Nipple Creek Valley, we came to a wide basin filled with boulders and green grass. Ahead of us we saw the prominent pyramid of Mount Lindsey. At first, we mistook this for “Iron Nipple” which lies to the left of Lindsey from here. I figured that a mountain named “Iron Nipple” would have to look pretty difficult to warrant such a name but it turns out that it’s a rather wimpy mountain. I have no idea why it’s even named. It’s a sub-peak of an unnamed 13,800+ peak. Go figure.

There are a few faint trails that lead to a small saddle in front of Lindsey, from this sub-saddle, you turn left and climb to the Lindsey/Iron Nipple saddle. There are two routes you can take at this point. The standard route leads up the north face up a couple of steep gullys. The other route is the northwest ridge which is a tough, exposed ridge climb. After having so much fun on Navajo Peak the year before, we opted for the ridge. We descended the North Face route.
 
The northwest ridge was pretty easy going at first – just scrambling over large boulders. Later on, the ridge narrowed drastically. There are a few gullies that run up to meet the ridge which makes the ridge appear unpassable. As we approached the tops of the gullies though, it was easy to see where to cross them. At one point, the ridge narrowed to just a couple of inches, so we dropped down about 5 feet and traversed across a ledge a few inches wide while holding on to the top part of the ridge. The most difficult section by far, however, is near the middle of the ridge where you can see a prominent, vertical triangle-shaped cliff. From a distance, we thought we could easily traverse around the right side but upon closer inspection that wasn’t an option without a rope. We climbed up the left side and continued up steep rock until regaining the ridge. After this, the scrambling relaxes again and it is very pleasant all the way to the top. There’s a false summit to climb over but the true summit lies only a couple of hundred feet beyond. There weren’t too many people on the peak this day – we had the summit all to ourselves. It was a perfect day and we could see for miles.