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.

After a failed attempt on Cathedral Peak due to very deep snow and awful weather, we decided to attempt an easier mountain, one that would allow us a fairly good chance of success. We chose Mount Guyot near Georgia Pass. During the summer time, you can drive all the way up to Georgia Pass at 11,585 and the hike then becomes a stiff climb up Guyot’s east ridge. We were wondering how far up we would be able to drive. It turned out that we got to within 2.5 miles of the pass when the road became barricaded by deep snow. That was perfectly fine with us since the hike became your average 6 miles, 2500 foot elevation gain snow hike. That seemed a little more reasonable than a quick hike up a ridge that started right at tree line.

We put on our snowshoes and headed up the road. We were wondering if we should bother bringing our ice axes since Guyot is normally a very easy hike. We opted to be safe rather than sorry. We didn’t hike very long until the road made a giant switch back. We decided to then bypass the road and head straight up valley and make our own route to Georgia Pass. We ended up saving a decent amount of distance this way. It wasn’t hard at all to find our way through the trees and up to the pass, although we did have to climb about 150 feet up a fairly steep snow slope. At Georgia Pass we took a break and had some food then headed up. 

We were planning on making a circuit and climbing down one of the south ridges on the peak (on the east side of the big southern cirque) so we lashed our snowshoes on to our packs and headed up the talus strewn ridge. We lost our perception of how high we were and came over a false summit and saw that we had a lot longer way to go. The ridge continued up then turned north and headed for the snowy summit. Thank goodness for the ice axes. Eventually, we were in front of the final snow pitch up a fairly steep snow ridge. We left our snowshoes here and headed up. The snow was in perfect condition for kick-stepping and not using crampons. As we were heading up, we noticed the weather worsening in the distance. Although it was fairly still on the ridge, it looked blustery and rainy in the distance. On top, the wind picked up and we paused only for an instance to take pictures.

On the way down, we picked up our snowshoes and headed for the split in the east ridge which led to our chosen descent route. There turned out to be a giant snowfield perfect for glissading so we quickly slid down about 1200 feet of elevation. Another great glissade! Last spring, the best glissades were on Buffalo, Hagar, and Apache peaks. This was definitely second best behind Buffalo (I doubt and glissade will be able to top Buffalo). Anyway, we were down into the valley in no time and enjoyed a pleasant hike out. At one point, Ken was crossing a stream and his right snowshoe popped through and got stuck in the running water. I had to haul him out. Very funny moment.

From Leavick

This was my second climb of Mount Sherman and therefore the first fourteener that I’ve ever repeated. Ken needed to climb it in pursuit of climbing all the Colorado fourteeners so I decided to go along. We also were planning on climbing Mount Sheridan and Gemini Peak on either side of Mount Sherman. We were able to drive up the Leavick road quite a way. The scenery around this mountain is so much more bland than other places in Colorado. The only reason to climb here is to take care of Mount Sherman or to train in off-seasons for other peaks.
 
We started off by hiking towards Mount Sheridan. We hiked into a small basin between Sherman and Sheridan. The only colors present were an off-brown and white, very bland indeed. We started up the fairly gentle slopes of Mount Sheridan and then moved onto a snow slope that turned out to be moderately steep. But we made quick time and arrived on the top of Mount Sheridan. At the west end of the summit is a large cairn. We took a break here, ate a little bit, identified Sawatch mountains and then headed out to Mount Sherman. 
 
I had been talking about how cool the ridge was on Mount Sherman, especially with snow. Well, it turned out that there was much less snow this year, and we were even 3 weeks before the time that I had done it a couple of years prior. So, the ridge wasn’t much of an exciting climb. It was mostly gravel. Still, it was enjoyable. We made it on top without any problems. I had decided that I wanted to go on to Gemini but Ken wasn’t really into it. I told him he could wait for me here and then he decided to go along. We decided to hike as fast as we could to Gemini. It only took us about 15-20 minutes to reach the summit. The summit is actually only about a 150 foot climb. Why this is a named peak, I have no idea. But, we bagged it and took our picture on the top. Then we headed back over Mount Sherman. Climbing Gemini so fast had apparently sapped us as the hike back over Sherman was grueling. We met some other climbers who were decked out as if they were climbing K2. They had on crampons, ice tools, protection, ropes, all sorts of stuff. Why they needed that gear on this mountain, I have no idea. They said they climbed White Ridge, but still! Talk about overkill.

After eating a short lunch, we hiked back down the Sherman/Sheridan saddle and decided to glissade. We discovered, however, that the eastern slopes were blocked by a cornice. That didn’t stop us though (although I was a bit scared). The cornices were in no danger of breaking off so we planted our ice axes in the base, and scooted over the edge, got secure, removed our ice axes and zipped down. It was a short fast glissade. Another good one after the awesome one on Castle Peak.  We passed by a couple of old mines and then were outta there.

From Dry Gulch

Finally, we went to Hagar Mountain on a nice day.  We’d been planning on climbing Hagar for a long time, but at least three other times, we had decided not to go the day before because of bad weather forecasts.  The weekend before this one, we tried to climb the peak late in the day (starting around noon) but had to turn around because of clouds, snow, and thunder.  Well, after three weekends of bad weather, we finally got our chance at Hagar.  Kirk and Jim were going as well so we decided to all go together.  We met at the 4th and Union Park-n-Ride at 6am and were hiking by 7:15 am. 

We started at the very end of the Dry Gulch Frontage Road which was closed basically at the left turn leading to Loveland Pass.  The closure added an additional .75 miles each way to the trip.  Fortunately, it was over fairly level ground although it was admittedly a pain on the way out!
 
We were able to follow snowmobile tracks pretty much the entire way up the mountain.  After the gulch started to head westwards, the other guys all put on their snowshoes.I decided to keep mine off and didn’t end up using them until the hike out.We hiked nearly to the very end of the gulch then turned north and headed straight for the saddle to the immediate left of Hagar.  From there we would climb the ridge over the false summit and on to the true summit.

The snow was in perfect condition and the climb up to the saddle was perfect.The slope was probably about 35 to 40 degrees and we just kicked nice steps into the snow and zipped right up.At the saddle, I decided to drop my pack and didn’t carry anything to the summit.There was no wind on the saddle so I didn’t expect any on the summit.I was also not quite in my usual condition so I was working a bit harder than the other guys who kept their packs.Without my pack, I was able to climb very fast.I basically followed in Ken’s footsteps all the way up the ridge,about 40 degrees.It didn’t take long to get up to the false summit.
 
From the false summit, we had a great view of the true summit.It looked really fun and we were really excited about trying it.Ken and I went first so Kirk and Jim could take pictures of us climbing.You can see us about midway up the ridge in the above picture.The snow was a bit steeper here.One section was probably about 55 degrees but it was short and the snow was so perfect that there was nothing to it.Ken and I flew up the summit and celebrated.Then Kirk and Jim started and we took pictures of them. 
 
The weather was perfect this day.The summit was warm and there was no wind at all.So we spent nearly an hour scampering from place to place along the ridge posing for pictures.The north side of the mountain is even steeper than the south side.In fact, it’s about a 500 foot sheer drop to start with.
 
We had the best glissade of all time on the way down.I think I got going faster than ever on the glissade down from the ridge to the saddle.Ken and I raced down the rest of the way.He started off faster than me but got out of control and flipped.If the race was about speed,then he won.Kirk got going pretty fast too and ended up wiping out.

The hike out was uneventful except that I had a pretty powerful altitude headache caused by,I assume, not being out in the mountains for so long.This was the first mountain that I’d climbed since Citlalt閜etl and it was a great way to start the climbing season.Ken ranked it as his current number one climb in Colorado.As I write this I’m totally excited about our upcoming climb of Castle Peak in the Elks!

(April 2001):  After the summer of 2000 was over, Hagar mountain sort of faded into the background as we took one amazing trip after the other.Click here for the best trips.

From Michigan Creek Campground area

Boreas Mountain was another CMC trip that I signed up with.  My buddy, Kirk, had signed up for it and I felt like getting out this weekend so I went.  This was the first time that I’d done any of the peaks in the South Park area.  For the most part, the peaks aren’t too exciting but I really enjoyed the trip nonetheless.  Mount Guyot, on the other hand, is a very impressive mountain, especially from this side.  Mount Guyot has a giant cirque encapsulated by a steep face.  It looks very alpine.  Mount Guyot is the most impressive peak in the area and would be a good one to do in late spring.

Anyway, I couldn’t pick out Boreas Mountain within the cluster of peaks around Michigan Creek campground, which goes to show how little I knew the area.  The road up to Michigan Creek Campground is dirt but is in great shape and passable by any car.  We parked maybe a half mile or more from the entrance to the campground for fear that a lot of the snow on the road would convert the road into a mudway.  As I was using the little boys room in the middle of the woods before we started hiking, I heard the howls of a pack of coyotes.  It sounded like they were really close.  It was pretty neat and eerie hearing them.  One started up, then the others all joined in in unison.  Too bad I didn’t have my portable recorder.

We began hiking around 7:30, I think, and passed the Michigan Creek Campground entrance after several minutes.  We continued up the road for quite a while to another road that branched off to the left from the main road.  This road was closed to vehicles by a gate.  We continued down the road for a few more minutes then suddenly broke off into the woods and began heading up the drainage to the peak.  The leader of this trip knew the route very well.  He took us directly there without any problems.

The day was nice although there were some strange clouds hovering to the east of us.  This didn’t move all day.
 
This trip was only denoted as a 7 mile trip in the schedule, but it turned out to be about an 11 mile hike.   After leaving the road, we bushwacked for a couple of miles before breaking out of treeline.  Actually, there was no trail at all during the whole trip.  Of course, we saw no other parties.  Our route took us through two large open areas and long stretches of evergreens as we headed up the broad ridge north of Antelope Gulch (see map).  We paused once as we were approaching treeline to check the map.

This trip consisted of 8 people, 5 of whom were leaders.  The leader of the trip lead all the time except for one short stretch below treeline.  This other leader got us off track pretty quick and started leading us down into French Gulch.  I never understand how these people can so easily get lost.  Anyway, the leader recognized this pretty quickly (as did I) and put the other leader back on track.  Still, this was a good group because we took only a few breaks and set a pretty fast pace.  After breaking out of treeline, I led the group up a large shoulder to a broad ridgetop.  From here, I took the picture of Bald Mountain.
 
Directly in front of us, was a large subpeak of the Boreas Mountain massif.  We ended up traversing around the lefthand side of this large bump.  As we traversed, we got our first views of Grays, Torreys, Bierstadt, and Evans.  I was surprised how different they looked from this vantage point.  It was kind of neat actually; I’ve seen Grays and Torreys from just about every angle now.  This part of the traverse was also completely through snow.  The wind had died down and the sun had come out. It got really hot really quick being in the snow.  The snow, when mixed with bright sun and no wind, becomes an over.  It’s still very important to keep covered up to protect yourself from the intense untraviolet rays at these elevations.

After traversing past the ridge point, we headed for a broad saddle right in front of Boreas Mountain. 

Here’s a picture of me at the saddle with the huge hulk of Boreas Mountain behind me.  At this point I hadn’t taken too many pictures, but I started taking a lot!  There were all sorts of neat views from this saddle.  To the southwest, we got our first views of Mount Silverheels.  To the north and east, there were great views of Bald, Guyot, and peaks around Grays and Torreys.  I started getting behind the group because I was taking so many pictures.  I took a nice panoramic view ranging from north to east.

From the saddle, we dipped down into a basin directly in front of the peak then began heading straight up.
 
In the picture, you can see the group heading straight up the peak.  Even though it looks steep and far away, it isn’t.  Distances and angles are always skewed when you’re looking at objects of this size.  You can make out some other climbers far in the background.   The final climb up this peak was really uneventful.  It was basically your average slog up snow and talus slopes.

The summit is very long and consists of two long high points.  The summit was very similar to that of Mount Belford’s.  The summit was very broad and flat but there was also an extra pile of talus that appeared artificial that was the true summit.  From where we emerged on the summit, we realized that the actual high point was about 200 yards to the south on the second summit.   So, naturally, we strolled over there.  On this summit was a typical summit shelter wall built out of talus blocks.
 
Here’s a picture of me kneeling on the shelter wall.  You can see that the shelter is pretty much full of snow so it didn’t serve much purpose.  As usual, the summit was rather windy.   Again, I was dressed pretty lightly for this trip – no long underwear on my legs and no fleece under my jacket – so it was kind of chilly for me on the summit.  That didn’t stop me from taking my biggest panorama to date though.  The panorama was about 270 degrees ranging from south to east.   Starting at the south, southwest view, you see Mount Silverheels, then working northward you see the Mosquito Range (Mounts Bross and Lincoln), then the Ten Mile Range (Quandry Peak is the prominent pointed peak – quite a different view from this perspective), then Breckenridge ski area, then the Gore Range in the far distance, then the northern peaks of the South Park area, and finally the other Front Range ranges where you can see Grays, Torreys, Bierstadt, and Evans.

After taking this picture, I rejoined the group just below the summit on the east side of the mountain whiched served as adequate protection against the wind.  After a bite to eat, we began our long but enjoyable slog back down to the cars.