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via Holy Cross couloir and down the North Ridge
Mount of the Holy Cross is the most rugged fourteener in the Sawatch Range. Still, it’s an easy, albeit long, climb along the north ridge . But, our route was to be the 1200 foot cross snow couloir that makes the mountain so famous around the world. Ken and I drove down to the trailhead on the afternoon of Friday, June 30th and discovered that there were already several cars parked. We were a little worried that we would not find a spot to camp. We packed up and headed out. The hike to the campsites leads you over Halfmoon Pass. It’s not a relatively strenuous hike to the pass and we made good time. After the pass, you have the view of Holy Cross. The trail then descends rapidly for 900 feet into the beautiful valley below. Once at the bottom of the valley, camping spots were plentiful and we found a great one next to Cross Creek.
During our descent into the valley, we were able to spy a lot of our initial route. We had to climb south directly up the valley through steep, cliffy, and dense terrain. We scouted out the trail turnoff before it got dark so we’d know where to go.
We awoke the following morning around 3:30am and began hiking at 4am. We found the trail turnoff quickly but things were not to go as expected…we lost the trail almost instantaneously. We had our headlamps but the trail was completely indistinguishable from the rest of the ground. Because the forest was so dense, there was little undergrowth, so the entire ground appeared brown. We weaved in and out of other campsites then I finally realized that we’d just have to brute-force our way up to the high lake in front of the Cross Couloir called “The Bowl of Tears”. So, we got out the map and compass and headed up. I was actually really pleased with our route and progress. A few times our way was barred by massive boulders and a few times we ended up walking along cliffs in pitch darkness, but for the most part, we knew where we were the entire time and were able to navigate up to where the terrain thinned out a bit. We encountered a large boulder field and ended up navigating through a tunnel created by some massive boulders that had fallen together. This was indeed a genuine tunnel; the roof was completely intact and our voices echoed quite a bit. The tunnel was only about 30 feet long with a hard left turn in it and we were soon out and on our way again. Finding our way through the dark, cliffy forest was to be the most challenging part of the day.
Finally, we made it to the Bowl of Tears. We then headed up the grassy slopes and I eyed a spot that I suspected was the correct entrance to the couloir, for the lower part was blocked by vertical cliffs. Indeed, this was the right spot so we put our crampons on and started up. This couloir never got too steep (45 degrees at most, I’d say – definitely requiring crampons) and the snow was moderately soft for kick-stepping. I do remember, however, that there were no real spots to sit down and rest since the couloir was so deeply inset, so any others reading this should be warned to be well-rested before beginning. Also, once you start, it’s not very wise to turn around since the longer you’re in the couloir, the longer the sun is melting the snow and making retreat more difficult. Anyway, after thirty minutes or so we could see what we thought was the top. Sure enough, this was it! The couloir ends right below the true summit and we emerged at around 8:30 as the first people on the summit that day.
We ended up staying on the summit for over two hours. We saw all sorts of people arrive on top, then descend. We rested up good, ate, took pictures, scouted around the lower parts of the summit, then finally headed down the north ridge route. The north ridge route is enjoyable and with good views. The true trail sort of vanishes from time to time because a lot of it is just huge talus fields. Eventually, we made it back to our tent and mentally prepared ourselves for the 900 foot gain that lay between us and Halfmoon Pass. It turned out to be not bad at all; we just set a steady pace and stuck to it. Once at the pass, streams and streams of people passed us, perhaps 75. Thank goodness we camped on Friday instead of Saturday. We probably would not have found any place to sleep, let alone our great spot. When we arrived back at the trailhead, we were amazed to see a hundred cars at the trailhead. There were cars lined up along the road for maybe a half a mile! This is obviously a very popular fourteener – for good reasons!
Posted 9 years, 8 months ago at 2:55 am. Add a comment
Via Apache Couloir
In previous years, it seemed that the Indian Peaks were crowd-free for the most part. At least the high peaks were fairly solitary; the lake trails were always very crowded with enthusiasts admiring the beauty. That seemed to change in the year 2000. The climbs which I thought would not be too populated felt like fourteener climbs somtimes. Apache couloir was super popular on Saturday, June 17th. Probably because the road to Brainard Lake had just opened and all the snow-climbing enthusiasts wanted a chance at the east-facing Apache Couloir before it melted out.
Apache couloir is a moderate snow climb. It feels like a fairly consistent 40-45 degree climb the whole way. Since I’d been snow-climbing since the middle of Spring, I’d already experienced some pretty scary climbs (most notably Skywalker Couloir on South Arapaho Peak) so I was a little more accustomed to steep couloirs and this wasn’t to frightening to me at all. However, I wouldn’t recommend Apache Couloir as an intro into snow climbing; it’s a little too advanced for that.
Ken and I left Denver around 4:30 am and began the hike just after 5:30. The hike begins at the Long Lake trailhead, however, the road to the two lake trailheads were closed so most hikers were hiking up the road to get to the trailhead. Fortunately, from taking various people up to Lake Isabel, I knew of a “back way”, the Niwot cutoff trail. We parked next to the trail, hiked up it, and arrived at Long Lake after a little more than ten minutes. Along Long Lake, we ran into a few hikers and discovered that each of them was heading for the couloir as well!
The trail branches at beautiful Lake Isabel and the main trail heads up to Pawnee Pass while the trail to the Isabel Glacier and the Apache couloir. It’s approximately 4 miles to the base of the couloir and, as a result from taking pictures and our leisurly pace, we arrived fairly late, around 8am.
To our surprise, there were already about 5-7 people in the couloir. This was the popular climb of the day! After putting on our crampons, we began heading up the couloir at a really fast pace. I like to move fast in couloirs mainly because, due to the nature of the climbing, it’s very tiring on the legs and calfs. Also, on the east facing couloirs, the sun quickly softens up the snow making it very soft slick. Despite our quick pace, we took one rest stop halfway up. The climb was actually very straightforward. The angle never exceeded 45 degrees and the climb ended with the couloir fanning out into a wide 300 foot snowfield to climb to the ridge about 75 feet beneath the summit. On the summit, we ate, sunbathed, identified other peaks, and, with a clear view of the Fair Glacier Cirque, planned our climb of Lone Eagle, which we’ll tackle possibly in late summer.
We also hiked part way along the ridge to Shoshoni, stopping on a rock pinnacle just before it got real scary. The ridge to Shoshoni is unbelievably difficult looking. It looks super-exposed and I’d imagine that it would have to be done as a technical climb, due to the consistently steep pinnacles.
We decided to attempt a glissade down the Queen’s Way couloir. Queen’s Way is the less demanding couloir on Apache Peak. It’s only about 35 degrees, but it’s a very symmetrical and aesthetic couloir with nice views of the Isabel Glacier and Shoshoni Peak. There were some other climbers gathered at the top of the couloir who looked like they were waiting for someone else to go first. That was Ken’s job. Being the braver one when it comes to slick surfaces, he hopped on the snow and whizzed down. I followed after him doing a lot of braking. Whenever I removed my ice axe from dragging in the snow, I picked up speed really fast. So, I kept in there pretty hard near the top part, but as the angle eased, we both released the brakes and flew down. Queen’s way is a stellar glissade. It’s really fast and very long, about 900 feet. We had climbed Castle Peak during the first weekend of May. Castle Peak is reputed as having one of the best glissades, but Queen’s Way couloir, along with Buffalo Mountain in the Gore Range, was much better!
Posted 9 years, 8 months ago at 10:06 am. Add a comment
Via Neva’s northwest ridge, to Jasper Peak, down “Gaiteraid” snowfield, return via Diamond Lake trail
A loop climb of Mount Neva and Mount Jasper was a hike that I’d been wanting to do for a long time. The hike I’d planned started at the 4th of July trailhead in the southern Indian Peaks and headed up to Arapaho Pass, about 3-4 miles from the trailhead. From Arapaho Pass, start climbing the 4th class ridge northwest of Mount Neva and ascend it to the summit. From Mount Neva, hike along an easy ridge to Jasper Peak. Glissade down Jasper Peak and hike down to Diamond Lake and back to the 4th of July Trailhead using the Diamond Lake trail.
Ken and I set out from the 4th of July Trailhead around 6am and headed for Arapaho Pass. This was the second week in a row that we’d hiked this section of trail. The week before we climbed both South and North Arapaho Peaks. We arrived at Arapaho Pass under royal blue skies and timorously eyed the ridge; it looked really hard from where we stood.
The ridge had a 3 deep notches we had to climb over. From where we were the ridge looked really thin, but often your perception of a mountain is not accurate. We started up the grassy alpine slopes and the grass eventually yielded to rocks and ridge. The first part of the ridge was fairly thin but was nice and even and a pleasure to walk along. We encountered nothing harder than 3rd class scrambling on the first notch, the one that appeared the steepest. There was a little elusive route to the left of the ridge that bypassed most of the notch. We had to do a little bit of scouting on the second notch and noticed again that the easiest and most practical route was a line that dropped to the left of the notch.
The crux of the climb was the large slab buttress about 3/4ths the way along the ridge. I picked out two possible routes to take. The first went right over the buttress along a thin ramp. This route didn’t look hard really at all but it was very exposed. So, we opted for the second route which was a direct climb up the wide face of the ridge. This is the 4th class section (right) but I found that it was very easy because there were so many small ramps, benches, footholds, and handholds. It was steep, but without a fear of heights, it’s not a problem at all. After climbing up this 100 foot section, we were faced with a few more airy ridge points. It was nothing too difficult but it was lots of fun. After the ridge relented, we had gentle slopes that led us to the small summit. We hung out here for a while, took some pictures, and ate an early lunch. Then we headed off to Jasper Peak.
The hike to Jasper Peak was really easy and enjoyable. This is a very solitary hike as well. We had only encountered one other small party on the summit of Neva that had climbed the “Juliet” couloir. After leaving Neva, we saw no one. Jasper Peak is another fun summit with great views. The view of Mount Neva is really neat from this angle too. We began checking out the snow climbs on Mount Jasper and they looked really steep from where we were, even though they’re generally not quite as hard as some of the others that we had done in the Indian Peaks. Both “Snow Lion” and “Snow Leopard” looked really steep. We were planning to glissade down Jasper Peak but I personally wasn’t about to go sliding down these snow chutes. “Gaiteraid” snowfield on the other hand looked perfect so that’s what we did. The top of the snowfield is bordered by a small, safe cornice so we just planted our ice axes in the top, scooted over the top, pulled our axes out, and zoomed down. The glissade was awesome although a bit shorter than some of the huge ones that we had already done this year. Still, it was great. We arrived quickly at upper Diamond Lake where we had great views of the east face of Jasper Peak.
The hike from Japser Peak to Diamond Lake really made the hike for me. There was no trail, no people, and it felt totally wild and isolated. It was exceptionally beautiful too, even for the Indian Peaks. We eventually arrived at Diamond Lake and encountered some other hikers and some fishermen. The hike from the Lake back to the 4th of July trailhead heads back due west for over a mile so it’s kind of confusing if you have a sense of direction. At the base of the valley, the trail crosses a creek at a beautiful cataract and heads back east and eventually hooks up with the Arapaho Pass trail. Because of the mixed nature of this climb (the 4th class ridge, the isolation of Jasper, the great glissade, and the rugged beauty of the upper Diamond Lake valley), this was no doubt one of my all-time favorites.
Posted 9 years, 9 months ago at 9:43 pm. Add a comment
