South Arapaho, North Arapaho
Skywalker Couloir to South Arapaho, connecting ridge to North Arapaho
Ken and Dan had been talking about climbing South Arapaho Peak via Skywalker Couloir (named for Luke Skywalker!) for a long time. Because a trip to Holy Cross was still a couple of weeks away due to road closures, Ken and I elected to accompany Dan and a friend of his on a climb of Skywalker.
Skywalker is a particularly popular couloir in Colorado. It’s probably on the average of 45-50 degrees the whole way, and the end has several possible variations, an “easy” exit to the left, “Princess Leia” up steep snow in the middle, and “Han Solo” up a steep rock band to the right. Everyone was planning on climbing the “Princess Leia” finish but Ken had shown me pictures from the Internet of it and it looked way too steep for my liking. So…we brought rope and protection.
Ken stayed at my house Friday night and we woke up at a painful 3:30 am to meet Dan and Dean at the trailhead at 5:15. We made it up to the couloir and began climbing it by 6:30. It was fun and easy at first and my crampons bit into the snow nicely and I moved up quickly. The couloir starts out very wide at the base of the mountain and becomes more steep as it becomes more inset. Our group was spread out quite a bit. Dean was out in the front with another duo who had passed us while we were putting on our crampons. Then, Ken and I followed. Dan inadvertently brought up the rear because a crampon of his popped off twice.
I looked up ahead and saw Dean and the other climbers exiting through the 200 foot steep chute called “Princess Leia”. Even though steepness is hard to judge looking straight up, I could tell that it was really steep because they had begun using their hands and were using the pick of their ice axes instead of the base. They were up and over quickly though. Then it was our turn. For the most part, the climbing was easy and not too frightening because the other climbers had kicked in some nice cup steps for us. A couple of times, however, the snow got too hard for kick steps and as I crossed over these steep sections, I felt really exposed. I’m just not too comfortable on snow. Everyone else had no problem at all, but I was moving slowly and cautiously. Then Ken and I started up Princess Leia. It got steep really fast, probably about 60-70 degrees. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the cup steps. Ken fearlessly zoomed on up in front of me. Then I had to cross over some hard snow to get around a small bergeschrund. That was the scariest part of the climb. I moved slowly and made sure my ice axe and crampons were secure before moving. It only lasted a few steps though and I was back in the cups. Soon, I exited, thrilled that I had succeeded.
We took off our crampons, put up our ice axes and rock-hopped our way about 200 feet more to the saddle to the west of South Arapaho’s summit. I was feeling really tired upon arrival but after a short rest was ready to attempt North Arapaho for the second time over the 3rd class ridge. We convinced Dan and Dean to come along. Everyone dumped their packs but opted to bring along ice axes. I decided to leave everything behind, even my ice axe. It turned out to be a good decision since the ridge was 99% devoid of snow. The ridge was much easier this time around, compared to when I climbed the Arapahos a couple of years ago. I suppose I’m just getting more accustomed to harder hikes and climbs. Dean and I arrived on the top of North Arapaho after climbing up an unnecessary 20-foot wall just to make it fun. When the others arrived, we identified mountains around us, laid around a while, then headed back down to South Arapaho.
We hit the summit of South Arapaho and spent a few minutes there and then headed down the mountain. The rest of the hike followed the standard route out. As is typical with the Indian Peaks, there were a lot of people hiking up when we got down below the mine and into the trees. Many of them asked us all sorts of questions about Skywalker and the Arapahos.
