Northeast Ridge route

Finally!  We’ve conquered Pyramid Peak.  Ken and I had failed on the same route back on Memorial Day weekend because the ridge was so corniced and dangerous.  I think we might could have climbed the mountain by the northwest ridge but we didn’t even consider it then.  Ken and I arrived in the Maroon Bells parking lot in the late afternoon and set up my tent right next to the car in a downpour!  Dan and Ryan also joined us for this trip, however they didn’t camp in the parking lot and instead elected to get up at 2am and drive out to meet us.  We all met up around 5:45 am.  The weather was overcast but at least it wasn’t raining.  I preferred overcast climbs but a rainstorm would probably turn us around on a difficult peak like this and I certainly didn’t want to fail again.

We began hiking around 6:15am and made quick time up the trail.  We found the turnoff with no problems and had no trouble in following the trail, which was obliterated by snow in May.
 
The trail zig zags around, crosses a short boulder field, then begins an unrelenting, brutally-steep, climb into the amphitheater below the mighty north face of the peak.  I think this is the longest consistently steep trail that I’ve ever been on.  After a little over an hour, we emerged into the amphitheater.  Instead of a nice snow bowl this time, it was a massive, deep pile of rubble and talus.  It’s very time consuming to rock-hop your way through it but we did.  We headed straight for the north face for a long time then headed hard left to begin the long climb up to the northeast ridge.  The climb up to the ridge wasn’t as treacherous as I thought it would be.  Last May, even though we had crampons and our ice axes, it was a lot scarier.  With complete snow meltoff, the climb to the ridge is tedious and loose, but I never felt that it was very dangerous, except from potential rockfall from parties above, and even then it was nominal.  Still, we had our helmets on and indeed there was a group of three in front of us though they didn’t knock anything onto us.  

Ken and I got in front of Ryan and Dan.  This was Ryan’s first fourteener (what an intro!) and he was breathing hard not being accustomed to the altitude.  About three fourths the way up, we cut over to the right to intersect the ridge at it’s lowest point and cut off a bit of hiking.  The main trail just goes straight up to the ridge but there’s no need to go that way.  We discovered the cutoff last May when there was no trail and we just climbed up easiest route on the steep snow.  We waited for Dan and Ryan at the ridge, which looked a lot easier now that the snow had melted and the easier route was now visible.

The first part of the ridge is 3rd class and not too hard at all.  Eventually, while still on the ridge, we came up to a large wall which we thought would be the crux.  However, there’s a prominent notch to squeeze through here and we continued on, this time on the left side of the ridge.  We traversed some more then descended a bit and then were faced with a little dicey cliff to traverse.  The cliff traverse is easy but it does get really narrow (like only a foot wide).  So, if “The Narrows” on Longs Peak freaked you out, don’t even consider a climb of Pyramid.  After traversing the cliff, we continued around the ridge and then were at the “official” crux of the climb -  a long 4th class gully on pale-colored rock.  The other climbers that we’d seen were not too far in front of us at this point.  I started up the section then I heard someone shout “Rock!”.  About a second later, a rock came whizzing down the gully about 20 feet from me.  It was enough to spook me so I came down and waited.  Ken however decided to go on ahead – he was anxious to pass the climbers.  Once he had climbed most the way up, he shouted down that it was ok for the rest of us to follow.  This section isn’t too hard at all really but it’s super dangerous because of the potential rockfall. 

At the top of the 4th class section, we met up with the three other climbers.  We talked for a while and discussed our plans for the remainder of the route.  Dan and Ryan were still working their way up the 4th class section.  We hollered down to Dan and Ryan directions for the most expedient route up then we and the other party headed up.  The other party was in front of us but they soon choose a route that I wasn’t too crazy about.  So Ken and I decided to forge our own route directly up the mountain.  Most of the remaining route finding consisted of scouting from side to side with comments like “Nope, there’s a 500 foot drop here.” and “Can’t go this way – there’s a 1000 foot drop over the north face here.” but we were fast and we picked a perfect route to the top.

Our route was fairly direct from the 4th class section.  It wended straight up the face, then swung right about 100 feet below the summit.  Above the north face we weren’t able to see the other climbers at all.  We had no idea where they had gone.  We climbed ledges above the north face until we finally arrived at the junction between the northeast and northwest ridges which is about 100 horizontal and 15 vertical feet from the true summit!  We triumphantly strolled the remaining ridge to the summit.
 
The other party didn’t arrive on the top until about 45 minutes later!  And that was after Dan and Ryan.  Ryan was super-excited to make it to this summit.  We were all impressed with his resilience and determination to make it to the top.  Dan also commented that this was definitely his hardest fourteener.  This was unquestionably one of the most difficult for Ken and I (although it was to be superceded in difficulty by the Maroon Bells traverse that Ken and I completed the following weekend).

We stayed on top for a long time then began the long and dangerous descent.  The descent reminded me why this is such a dangerous mountain.

I led both parties down the exact same route that Ken and I had climbed up.  For the most part, it was a safe route down.  The rock was fairly solid and we avoided most of the really loose stuff.  However, somewhere above the the 4th class gully, Dan was standing on a large rock that both Ken and I had climbed over.  Ken was below and to the left of Dan and I was about 10 feet below Dan.  Suddenly, without warning, the rock, which was about the size of a large cooler, just popped from under his feet.  Dan started to fall, he managed to catch himself with the help of Ken.  The rock tumbled down right towards me.  I hopped quickly to the left and out of it’s way as it bounded down the gully.  Thank God no one was in the gully then because they would be hard pressed not to be pulverized by shards of the rock as it broke into smaller pieces.  We could smell the flaming friction smell of the rock as it picked up frightening speed and broke into smaller pieces. 

This was a really fun climb, but it is to be taken seriously by all climbers.

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!

Northeast spur face and northeast ridge

Castle Peak was the first major peak of the spring for Ken and I.  We had been planning on climbing Castle Peak early in the season so we could take advantage of the reputed long glissade from the saddle between Castle Peak and it’s neighboring un-official fourteener, Conundrum Peak.  This was to be my earliest spring ascent of a fourteener, but there was much less snow on this trips than on virtually all of my other trips that I had taken over Memorial Day, nearly one month away!

I arrived at work before 6am this morning so I could work a full day and leave at 2pm to meet Ken at his apartment.  The day started out kind of hectic because he had to replace some engine coolant and was unable to remove the oil cap from the engine!  We ended up leaving around 3pm and had to drive all the way to Glennwood Springs and work our way backwards since Independence Pass was still closed.
 
We were able to drive up pretty far up the Castle Creek road.  The trailhead officially starts at the dirt turnoff but we made it past this about a mile or two to the first stream crossing.  It wasn’t the stream that stopped us, but the snow that covered the road pretty much the rest of the way up.  We decided to park, pack-up and head out.  I said to Ken, “Well, let me give you the tent poles to carry…” then I suddenly realized that I had forgotten the tent poles!  I was so mad at myself.  I had gotten them out, laid them next to my stuff and left them.  After a bit of initial panic, we decided to go on.  Fortunately, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we decided we would try sleeping out under the stars.  I had done this before but Ken never had.  So, we started hiking up the road.  After a mere five minutes, we were punching through the snow, getting snow in our boots and getting very frustrated.  To add insult to injury (and injury as well), I stepped on a loose rock and tumbled a few feet down the road embankment, sliding into a tree and bashing my left knee.  D’oh!  This was certainly not a good introduction to the 2000 hiking season!

After reigning in my frustration, I gave us a pep talk about how we should go on and learn to persevere, etc.  So we went on.
 
Thank goodness we did continue.  We put on our snowshoes and hiked another 15-30 minutes and found a nice campsite along the road with a pre-build fire ring.  We stopped there, laid out the tarp (it didn’t require poles – ha ha) and set up our bags.  I scouted around a little bit with the map, getting my bearings while Ken gathered firewood.  Pretty soon, he had an awesome fire going.  We spent the next couple of hours talking and enjoying the fire.  We turned in around 9 or 9:30 and slept hard.

At around 4am, I was awakened by some climbers hiking up the road past us.  We slept for another 1.5 or 2 hours then packed up and headed out.

The initial part of the hike was easy.  We just followed the road up heading towards Montezuma Basin.  Pretty soon, we came upon a hut.  We continued on then suddenly were looking down a valley with the east face of Castle in view.  I realized that we had gone the wrong way.  Fortunately, the turn that we missed was only about 10 minutes behind us.  We quickly retraced our steps and headed up.

As we got above the treeline, we saw the face that led up to the northeast ridge of Castle Peak.  It looked like a long snow climb so we decided to blaze a new (well maybe not new, but certainly rare) route up the mountain.  In the photo to the left, you can see Ken hiking up the lower portion of the route.
 
As we got near the crest of the ridge, the climb got really steep, about 50 degrees and the snow got really hard.  I’m very comfortable on rock but being on slippery surfaces just make me nervous.  I was about to back down and traverse to some rocks but Ken said he would chop some steps into the snow since we were so close.  He did and I followed up.  It wasn’t nearly as scary with a big foothold.  Still, I was very careful and planted my ice axe deeply in the snow before taking a step.  In retrospect, this was a bit foolish to attempt without crampons.  We won’t make that mistake again.

We finally crested the ridge and for the first time saw the remainder of our route.  The rest of the route was easy but was annoyingly loose.  This mountain is probably much more fun in springtime than summer because most of the loose stuff is thankfully glued together with snow.

About 45 minutes later, I was really close to the top, climbing along a thin snow ridge.   Then we made it.  To the right is a picture of Ken arriving on the summit.
 
Climbing Castle was really fun and rewarding, especially after that spooky section on hard snow.  We zipped down the other side and headed for Conundrum.  Conundrum isn’t considered a separate fourteener because there’s not much drop between the two mountains.  Indeed it should not be considered a separate mountain.  It didn’t take us any time to arrive at the top.  Conundrum is a long ridge and it’s hard to tell where the true summit is.  According to the map (and location of the summit register), it’s the first point, however we went passed that, over the Conundrum couloir and on to the second point as well.  Then we headed back and glissaded about 800 feet down the Montezuma snowfield.  It was a good glissade – very long, but not too terribly fast.

It didn’t take us very long to arrive back at camp.  We just threw our gear in our packs without any consideration of efficient packing techniques and headed out.  We arrived back at the truck 15-20 minutes later.

From the standard route along Denny Creek

Ken and I were really hoping to get in a climb of Pyramid Peak before it got too cold and icy but unfortunately, it snowed hard in Denver a couple of days earlier so we figured it that wouldn’t make for good conditions on steep, exposed, 4th class terrain.  So, instead we opted to do Yale.  Yale was my second-to-last fourteener in the Sawatch Range.   I still have to do Mount of the Holy Cross as well (note:  not anymore), but we wanted to save that one for early summer so we’d have good views of the cross. 

Well, it turned out that there was hardly any snow up in the mountains this weekend.   In fact, I don’t think we crossed any snow on Yale this day.  We may have crossed a tiny foot long patch here and there on the summit, but the southern side of the peak was pretty much bare.  So, it was a great day for hiking in the mountains.

Ken and I arrived at the trailhead fairly late because, during this time of year, the weather is much more stable.  We were surprised at how many cars were at the trailhead.  It promised to be fairly crowded on the peak.
 
The trail up to Mount Yale is a virtual highway.  It’s in really good condition and is very wide.  After about a mile or a mile and a half, the trail splits.  Continuing straight leads to Brown’s pass.  A right-hand turn leads you to Mount Yale.  Though I imagine that most people go to Mount Yale, the trail is much smaller than the main trail.  It’s still in great shape though.

We moved into a several aspen groves and paused many times to take pictures of the scenery.

The route was quite interesting actually.  It seemed to wind in and out of small valleys and contoured around a lot.  The trail winds through aspen groves, evergreen groves, meadows, along steep slopes, back into forest, over creeks, back through meadows.  It’s not that long but the terrain seems to change a lot.  Before the turnoff to Mount Yale, the trail moves away from the mountain.  When you get on the Yale trail, it starts heading back.
 
The hike up to treeline seemed a lot longer than it actually was.  When we broke out of treeline, we realized that it would be pretty windy on the top.  The thin clouds were moving pretty quickly above the summit and the wind was starting to blow pretty hard around treeline.  The trail was consistently becoming steep.  A lot of it is eroded in sections and doesn’t contour or switchback.  I’d guess that this would be a good mountain for the 14ers initiative to visit.

We finally got views of the summit, although before we confirmed it on the map, we thought the spur jutting off to the south/southeast was the actual summit.

After a long uphill section, the trail levels out a bit before the final segment that consists of switchbacks to the high saddle on Mount Yale.  I nearly lost my hat on this section – a big gust of wind knocked it off.  But I was able to chase it down.

We started the switchbacks and made great time on this steep sections.  We passed a few parties on the way up.  We counted around, give-or-take a few, 15 people on the switchbacks.
 
The wind was really whipping over the saddle from the north.  It must have been blowing about 50 miles an hour.  We were able to lean really far into the wind.  If you relaxed your arms, the wind easily lifted them up.  From time to time, a strap on my backpack would whip around and smack me in the face.  Ken ditched his trekking poles, we put on some more clothing, and quickly headed up the final 200 feet of the summit.
 
It was kind of tricky hiking on the ridge.  The wind would occasionally blow you of the trail.  It’s a good thing we weren’t on Pyramid Peak this day!
 
We sat on top for about 20-30 minutes.  We had to take shelter behind some rocks in order to eat lunch without it all being blown away.  The views were very clear all around.

We both estimated a time that we would be home.  Ken predicted about 10 minutes earlier than I did and we arrived about 2 minutes before his prediction.  Not bad.

Mt. Yale was an enjoyable hike – a typical Sawatch fourteener

From the Mount Massive Trail

I had been looking forward to Mount Massive for a long time.  Mount Massive, as you can probably predict from the name, is a giant mountain.  It features a mile of terrain that is continually above 14,000 feet.  Don’t attempt a traverse of this mountain if you’re not acclimatized!

I wanted to do it by the standard route since it was long and very gentle.  It was a beautiful day for a hike.  I had taken the day off from work and began hiking fairly late, if I recall – around 9:30 am.  The first part of the hike uses the Colorado Trail.  The turnoff to Mount Massive is about 3 miles later, after two bridges over creeks, and is marked with a large sign – hard to miss!
 
After a quarter mile of steep hiking and another half mile, I broke out of treeline and had a great view of the rest of the route.  I didn’t bring my gaiters along and it turned out that I needed them.  The new snow (which would melt after a couple of days) was fairly deep and I constantly had to dig the snow out of my boots.  I eventually ran into a flock of several ptarmigans.  At one point, I was within 10 feet of five or six of them (left).
 
The hike up to the ridge was very long and, after finally arriving, I was surprised to see how thin the ridge was.  It was no knife edge, but it certainly wasn’t the standard wide ridge commonly seen on Sawatch fourteeners like Princeton and Antero.  About 15 minutes past a false summit, I finally arrived at the true summit. I called home and talked for a while but my battery was dying so I kept getting cut off.  Another climber arrived from the other side.  He had come up the steep slopes near Halfmoon lake.  He told me that he had started hiking at 8:00 am. So that goes to show you that long gentle slopes are sometimes much faster than short steep slopes.  He seemed really tired so I told him that if he wanted to hike down the other side, that I’d be glad to give him a ride to his car at the Halfmoon Lake trailhead.  I suggested that if he were ready that he go on ahead because I hiked out so fast.  On the way down, I did end up passing him, but that gave me time to do some stretches and collect a few rocks back at the trailhead.
 
I gave him a ride back to his station wagon.  I couldn’t believe he even attempted to get a car like that, let alone try, up that road.  The road was quite easy for a 4×4 but I wouldn’t think a regular 2-wheel drive car could ever make it up there.

The last time I’d been up this road was when I had climbed Mount Oklahoma.  Driving along brought back memories of how pretty it is deep in the Mount Massive wilderness.

I was glad to give the fella a ride to his car.  I can’t remember his name now, but I was happy to be able to do someone a favor – especially when they’re so tired.  I hope that someone would give me a ride if I ever really needed it.
 

From the Missouri Gulch trailhead.  Returning via Elkhead Pass

Ken and I were planning on climbing forboding Pyramid Peak this weekend but Ken began picking up flu-like symptoms on Thursday.  We were planning on leaving Friday night but he called and persuaded me to delay the trip for one day thinking he could perhaps recover.  Well, on Saturday I called him and he wasn’t any better.  So, after he asked me not to climb it without him, we decided to delay it for two weekends.  However, it was getting late in the season.  Two weekends away and it might be too icy or slick to climb.  We’d have to wait and see.  In the mean time I knew I wanted to do something but there didn’t seem to be too much to choose from.  I basically only had the Sawatch to choose from for driving reasons and I certainly was going to do a fourteener since I would be alone and I wanted to reach 40 fourteeners before the end of the year.  So, I realized that there was one peak that really stood out: Mount Oxford.  I’d missed Mount Oxford last year because of bad weather.  And this was the perfect opportunity.  I had thought in the past that I might climb it from Pine Creek but I wasn’t in the mood for a 20-mile overnight backpack so I decided to car-camp at the Missouri Gulch trailhead and hike it from the standard route.

I drove out late on Saturday evening and arrived around 10:30 pm.  The night was a little cooler than previous nights that I’d spent out in the mountains.  Fall was definitely on the way.   Because I left after dark, I didn’t see any mountains as I drove, however, when I awoke, I noticed that a dusting of snow had fallen high upon the peaks.  The first snow had arrived much earlier than last year.  I began up the trail around 7:30 am.  The trail starts switching back steeply.  I was expecting this though since I’d been here exactly 11 months ago.  I made great time though and I was out of treeline within a little over an hour and I noticed that Belford, again, had a good helping of snow on it.  It thankfully wasn’t nearly as deep as last year though and the weather was much better as well.  The wind wasn’t blowing nearly as hard.

I considered hiking up to Elkhead Pass but that seemed too far away so I started heading up Belford with the idea that I’d cut over at the last minute and head straight for Oxford.  Well, it didn’t work out quite that way.  I should have studied the map a little more.  I cut over but got onto some annoying talus and a little cliff band (yes, on Belford!) so I hiked up and around the cliff band and noticed that I was literally only 20 feet from the summit of Belford.  So, I decided to tag the summit, have some lunch, and then head off to Oxford.   If you climb Oxford from this route, you might as well plan on doing Belford as well.  The ridge is only 20 feet lower than the actual summit, which means that the ridge where you start the climb of Oxford from is higher than Oxford itself.

After chatting with some folks from out of state who were too pooped to continue on to Oxford, I set off.  I thought I might be able to be on top within an hour.  It actually took 15 minutes less.  Not bad at all.  The ridge from Belford drops steeply but the climb up to Oxford is very gentle indeed.

The summit of Oxford is very non-descript.  I think I may vote Oxford as probably the most bland summit I’ve been on yet.  However, the views were great.  I could see Leadville and many other fourteeners.  Mount Harvard was a giant bulk to the south.  Mount Elbert had much more snow on it than these peaks did too.  Out to the east I could make out the Buffalo Peaks.  I didn’t stay on top very long.   It was kind of cold when the wind blew so I kept hunkered down. I didn’t feel like putting on my pants though because I knew I’d be hot as soon as I got out of the wind and back into the hot sun.  I started back and then took another fairly long rest in the middle of the ridge back to Belford.  I decided not to go down the northwest slopes but instead hike south to Elkhead Pass then head back north up the Missouri Gulch trail and back to the car.

What a great idea it was to hike to Elkhead Pass!  This was definitely the highlight of the trip and I would recommend to anyone who is hiking Belford and Oxford to definitely hike via Elkhead Pass.   It’s maybe 2 miles more in distance but it’s much more gentle and it’s twenty times more beautiful.  This was one of the prettier spots in the Sawatch Range.  The tundra is so expansive and the mountains around you are quite dramatic.  Missouri Mountain (below) looks more like a Mount Sneffels from here.  I passed some people on horseback on the way up.  One of the horses was looking pretty tired and the rider was leading him.  This is a great spot for horseback riding.  I also passed some hikers who where heading to Belford and Oxford who had just come from Missouri.  They were in the middle of a charity climb where it seemed that they were hiking all of the fourteeners within a month or two.  They said that Oxford would be the fortieth in 3 weeks!  I told them that my knees wouldn’t let me do that.

Here’s a neat shot of Missouri Mountain from Elkhead Pass. From here, it was a very pleasant hike out to car.  The views of Missouri Mountain are astounding the whole way.  I zoomed out pretty fast and made it back before 3pm and ended up catching up with the guys I’d met on Belford who decided not to hike Oxford.   Overall, the hike was very enjoyable.  I would not have enjoyed it nearly as much if I had skipped Elkhead Pass.