From west slopes on Highway 9
I had been wanting to do Mount Silverheels for a while and winter was the perfect time to do it. Plus, this was a great training hike for Orizaba. Kirk decided to join Ken and I after his brother decided not to hike Mount Democrat that weekend. We headed out in my Jeep down 285 and found the turnout where we would park. We approached Mount Silverheels from the west.
The day was overcast and fairly cold. The beginning of the hike follwed a road for about a third of a mile, then it was bushwacking straight up a steep loose slope. We arrived at higher ground and felt the wind pick up. Then we found the powerlines and the road again as we began descending into the drainage at the base of the west slopes of the mountain. We hiked right by a small avalanche runnoff that had occurred apparently only moments before we’d passed by. The slopes on Silverheels itself were very safe.
The wind really started picking up at the base of the mountain and were pretty strong all the way up. The wind was blowing so hard that Silverheels was pretty much blown clean.
Mount Silverheels is such a broad and huge mountain but the route was easy to follow. The climb was becoming increasingly difficult because of the wind. Normally, the mountain is probably very easy because it’s so gentle. But strong wind always makes a climb tougher and this was certainly true for this trip. I was feeling pretty good though and ended up getting way in front of Kirk and Ken. I had to stop from time to time, sometimes for about 10 mintues, while I waited for them to get within visibility. At this point, the visibility was still good but the long distances on these huge slopes made it hard to see very far.
I finally saw the summit block. As I rounded a small rock outcropping I was hit by the hardest winds I’d ever felt. The winds were very hard below the summit but it was as if the summit itself (which was a flat area of about 10000 square feet) was in the jet stream. These winds must have easily been 80 to 90 miles per hour. The wind was blowing from the north and as I stumbled along, were forcing me over the south side. I had to turn into the wind to make the summit shelter. I simply couldn’t fight against these winds on two feet so I dropped to my knees and crawled about 30 feet to the summit. The shelter had snow in it but I managed to dig a small trench to lay in while I waited for Kirk and Ken. About 10 minutes later, I saw Ken about to round the corner. He got knocked on his rear end as soon as the wind hit him. He managed to struggle on two feet to the summit though. Kirk made it about 5 minutes later.
We tried to take multiple pictures on the summit but the cameras froze up after the first picture. We had to shout at each other at the top of our lungs at point blank range in order to be heard. After a few minutes, we cinched every piece of clothing and headed down. The wind was so hard that we had to lean really far into it in order to remain on our feet. I think I remember seeing Kirk get knocked over too. Thankfully, once we dropped about 30 feet below the summit, the wind abated. The wind that remained would still have been considered brutally hard, but it was a mere breeze compared to what was on the summit.
The clouds really had moved in by now and visibility was dropping. It had begun to snow as well. We retraced our steps and went back over the sub peak and headed back down. When we got back to the drainage, it was really snowing hard. It was really picturesque amongst the evergreens but we had to hurry and get back to the car and get out of here before the roads began closing. We finally made it back to the car in a downpour of snow. The drive back was an adventure as well. On 285 between Jefferson and Fairplay, the snow was blowing so hard across the road that it was, at times, impossible to see. You might as well have just closed your eyes and drived. At these times, we had to put on the hazzards and just stop. We thankfully, made it back to Denver with no problems.
