We decided to hike up the Mitchell Lake trail past Mitchell Lake then look for a place to bushwack over to the ridge. We found a great spot and left the trail. Soon, we were in very boggy terrain and had to jump from dry spot to dry spot. At one point we were in the middle of a field of willows that was crisscrossed with several swift moving streams. It was kind of treacherous to cross but we managed. Eventually we crossed some snowfields then began the grassy hike up to the beginning of the ridge.

At the top of the ridge we strolled along wide open and easy class 2 terrain. We had great views of both drainages. Soon, we were into some fun class 3 scrambling and before we knew it we were on top of Little Pawnee Peak. Believe it or not, there was a summit register on the top. There had been four other people the week before and one person who climbed it in January (that’s an accomplishment!) but those were the only climbers for 2001. I think there were even less in 2000. The register went back to the 70’s. We stayed on the summit maybe twenty minutes then began the very difficult remainder of the traverse.
 
The main problem with this ridge is the routefinding. There must be 4 or 5 major notches and cliff systems that cut perpendicularly into the ridge which really slowed us down. We’d walk along then suddenly come upon a sheer cliff and had to scout in either direction to find a way down. In all cases, we found a way down though not without some effort. There’s a large tower after Little Pawnee that you top out on that looks impossible to downclimb. Ken spotted a circuitous ramp route that started on the left side and wound it’s way down to the base. We repeated this procedure more than a few times and sometimes we opted for a slightly more difficult climb instead of dropping down very far and climbing back up. Along the way, we had been watching two side-by-side rock towers that looked like rabbits ears. These two towers mark the very difficult part of the climb. We bypassed them fairly easily on the right (north) side but then came upon the final ridge.
 
The final ridge is a terrifying, very thin, and very exposed ridge. There is no such thing as 3rd class here. First of all, at the notch right below the beginning of the final ridge, it’s impossible to get up onto the ridge without ropes and some excellent rock climbing abilities. We decided to bypass this on the right. However, as soon as we could we decided to try to climb up to the ridge. We started up a very steep but solid gully. About thirty feet up though, we realized we were on a bona fide 5th class route. The exposure was very high too so we wisely turned around but not without a bit of a scare. We bypassed this entire part of the climb on easy 3rd class terrain then, after passing a small gully, regained the ridge which had since become much easier. We strolled along to Pawnee Peak where we took a well deserved break.

We were pretty beat by this point and Ken had been entertaining the thought of climbing Mount Toll but abandoned that. I’d climbed Toll a few years ago so didn’t feel like climbing it either. With this climb of Pawnee, I’ve completed all of the major eastern Indian Peaks. The only notables missing are Sawtooth and Arikaree. We started down and looked for places to glissade. We started out glissade at the Pawnee/Toll saddle. We only had our thin summer hiking pants on so glissade down was more of a painful chafe! Eventually, we arrived at Blue Lake as the weather turned bad and began to rain. It was kind of a relief actually. I took some time to set up a nice slow shot of the waterfall that dumped into Blue Lake. The rest of the hike out seemed pretty long. Somehow I had bruised my left interior ankle bone and hiking was becoming very painful. Fortunately, it alleviated near the end, but we ended up arriving back at the car nine hours later! This was no walk-in-the-park!

Ken and I headed out on Saturday June 2nd for our first overnight of the season.  Ken had been talking about doing Ice Mountain for a long time.  Ice Mountain has a long, steep couloir on it’s north side that was to be our route.  We were wondering if we would be able to drive all the way up to the Huron Peak trailhead.  It had been so warm lately that we were both pretty sure we’d be able to.  Sure enough, we drove up the entire way without even a hint of snow.  The meltoff was really speedy this year apparently.

We arrived fairly early at the trailhead when I realized that I had typically forgotten something this trip although this time it was a little more serious.  I’d forgotten our dinner which we were planning to cook before heading to our campsite.  Ken said he’d stuffed himself at Wendy’s recently so he was fine with it but I hadn’t eaten hardly anything all day.  So, this was to be a study in lack of food for me.  Oh well, that was my punishment.  I also had mysteriously forgotten to bring my harness.  Now that was a much more serious error.  To this day I have no idea how that didn’t even dawn on me.  Fortunately, we solved that problem with a piece of webbing that made an excellent makeshift harness.
 
After eating what was to be my lunch for tomorrow, we headed out.  I started getting really excited about this trip as we approached the Three Apostles group which loomed ahead of us.  These three towers were quite different from the other Sawatch Peaks; they were rugged and craggy on all sides and certainly looked out of the ordinary for this range of gentle giants.  They were indeed beautiful and imposing.  We were wondering if we should camp in Hamilton but because it was so early in the day, we opted for a small basin just below treeline beneath at the peaks.  Near Hamilton, the trail branches off at a sign.  The right and better maintained fork headed for Lake Ann and the left headed for Apostle Basin.

The Apostle Basin trail was a bit faint in spots but we didn’t have much trouble following it.  At one point, the trail crossed a creek on a spooky log (above) and then started climbing steeply up.  The trail was on the top of a neat ridge that had small gorges on either side.  We could look over either side and see raging creeks.  After another hour we arrived at our stunning campsite.  The ground was soaked from the spring meltoff but we were able to find a great campsite on the edge of a precipice with great views of the Three Apostles.  From here we had a pretty good view of the entrance of the north couloir. It looked steep from here.

We ended up staying up until 10, enjoying a comfortable fire, and watching the full moon rise between North Apostle and Ice Mountain.  We woke up at 5am, if my memory serves me correctly.  Our first job was to cross the swift creek.  We found a snowbridge not far from camp and crossed there.  We had to wander through willows and around more inlets and small tarns.  Eventually we came upon a steep grassy incline that lead to a talus field just above treeline.  After the tedious talus, we arrived in the Ice Mountain basin and were in snow.  We put on our crampons immediately and started up to the couloir.  The hike to the couloir was pretty steep itself.  Very oddly enough, we spotted dead moths every few feet…we probably stopped counting around 30 or 40.  I have no explanation for that weird mystery.
 
The couloir starts rather wide and is steep from the onset.  It’s about 50-55 degrees consistently and the entire couloir is never gentler than 50 degrees.  As the couloir narrowed we saw our first landmark:  an offshoot couloir to the left.  The correct couloir to continue on is to the right and it’s pretty obvious.  Past this branch, the couloir becomes very narrow.  You can virtually spread your arms and touch either wall.  The steepest consistent section is through here, pushing just above 55 degrees.  I had not really looked back until we took a break in this section.  When I did, I realized how steep this couloir really was.  This climb was a lot different from some of the couloir climbs last year; I wasn’t nervous or uncomfortable at all.  I guess all those steep climbs culminating in Cotopaxi paid off.  Anyway, there was no denying the steepness of this couloir and this would probably have been a lot scarier last year.

Eventually we were able to see the top of the couloir and it appeared to be blocked by a cornice.  I was up for trying to bust through, I’d never done that before.  It turned out, however, that the couloir turned hard to the left as another obstacle appeared – a steep section of snow that had formed due to the angle of the couloir.  Ken started up the steepest section of this snow wall which was 70 degrees.  I opted for an easier section and climbed higher and ascended a 60 degree section.  After getting on top of this snow wall, we were on very gentle ground about 20 feet below the notch where the couloir topped out.  We could easily bypass the cornice on the left.  The notch is very small, thin, and feels very alpine.  It was pretty exciting.  From here, we could see the top of the peak.  It lay about 100 feet away along a 3rd class ridge.

The ridge was fun and not too hard at all.  The summit of Ice Mountain is really small and is a tiny bump along a fairly short ridge.  We rested here for a good amount of time and charged up for the tough downclimb to the North Apostle/Ice Mountain saddle and the impending climb up North Apostle.
 
The downclimb to the saddle is very tricky and requires good routefinding.  The difficulties never exceeded easy 4th class though.  I’ve read several trip reports that talked about people running into class 5 and not being able to find their way around.  I don’t really see how this is possible; with a decent amount of care and directional sense, you can find a safe route through this complex mountain.  We basically stayed on the north face immediately after descending from the summit then traversed over to the ridge proper after about 300 vertical feet.

After Ice Mountain, there certainly doesn’t seem to be much to North Apostle.  It’s a climb very similar to many of Colorado’s fourteeners although there’s not much of a trail.  Basically, we just picked the slopes that looked the most solid.  It didn’t take us long to arrive on the top of North Apostle.  After a long hike back down to camp (and an awesome glissade), we rested for a long time and saw the first people we’d seen on this trip.  They were hiking along the trail and passed by our campsite.  I’m not sure if they saw us.  The hike back to the car felt really really long.  Although, the hike out was painful, this was a great hike and a great climb.

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!

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.