wasatch and beyond: 14ers

Showing posts with label 14ers. Show all posts

April 26, 2016

I’m talking about a little place called Aspen

Andrea is stoked after skiing the north face of Castle Peak!

We bought Mountain Collective passes for the '15-16 season, figuring that if we used the 3 local days at Alta/Snowbird and then made long weekend trips to the other destinations within driving distance, it was a killer deal and good excuse to visit some new places and ski outside of Utah.

In January we headed up to Sun Valley (loved it!) and in March made a trip to Jackson Hole (even more awesome!). There was only once place left within a reasonable drive and with the days getting longer and warmer, we were running out of time to head East on I-70 to Colorado.

The destination?

Some place warm, a place where the beer flows like wine, where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talking about a little place called Aspen.

We tried to go to Aspen while all four of their ski areas were still open over the first couple weekends of April, but it kept snowing in Utah and the skiing was just too good 25 minutes from home to justify a 6 hour drive (Exhibit A - Exhibit B). Fortunately Aspen Highlands was open for an extended weekend over April 23-24 so we finally just got in the car and make the trip. Utah got hammered by another nice snowstorm while we were in Colorado... of course!

The town was dead (mud season), which suits our style. We stayed at the Molly Gibson Lodge - a very nice lodge right in the heart of Aspen within walking / leisure strolling distance to everything. In terms of the skiing - we skinned up Aspen Mountain a few times, hiked the Highlands Bowl a couple times during two days of lift-skiing at Highlands, and capped the long weekend in style by skiing Castle Peak. The final day was easily the apex, as you'll see in the photos below...

Friday April 22

Broke up the drive with a run from the Kokopelli TH in Loma, CO. We highly recommend running here if you are driving along I-70.

Saturday April 23

Skinned AJAX followed by some lift-skiing at Aspen Highlands.

Hike Fast, Ski Slow is a motto that suits my style!

Sunday April 24

Lift-skiing at Aspen Highlands followed by a skin up AJAX.

Monday April 25

We needed something sensational to cap the trip and decided to take a stab at Castle Peak. At 14,265 feet, Castle is the highest peak in the Elk Range and serves up some of the best views around.

I skied Castle in 2009 after a failed attempt in 2008.

We didn't know what the conditions would be like up high (sometimes the north couloir can get wind-blasted and doesn't hold snow) but from what we saw looking towards that zone from AJAX over the previous two days, my guess was that the north face would be filled in. Luckily, I was right. The other thing we weren't sure of was how far down the snow line would be relative to where we would park the car at the end of the Castle Creek road. Luckily, again, the snow extended all the way down to the gate at Ashcroft. That meant a LONG approach, but continuous snow is always better than the alternative. We skinned about 5 miles up the road before turning towards Montezuma Basin, then after another ~2 miles up through the headwalls in the basin, reached the summit via kicking a booter up the last 900 feet.

It was a really fun outing. Skiing 14ers is typically not about skiing hero snow (that's what lapping ridge lines in the Wasatch is for!). You typically have long approaches, variable snow conditions, blasting wind, and some skating/skinning on the way out. But there is always a sense of accomplishment when you look back up at a 14,000 foot peak after skiing off the top. Its always worth it.

And in the spirit of posting videos... here's a classic:

September 9, 2010

San Juan Shuffle (Part 3): Wetterhorn Peak

Wetterhorn Peak from our camp in Wetterhorn Basin

Date: September 5-6, 2010
Distance: ~15 miles total
Vertical: ~4700 feet
Time: 3.5 hours from camp to summit and back to camp
Peaks: Wetterhorn Peak (14,015 feet)
Route: West Cimarron Pass to Wetterhorn Basin. Southeast Ridge from Wetterhorn Pass.

[This is Part 3 of our Labor Day weekend 14er blitz in the San Juans. The rest of the reports are found here: Part 1 - Part 2.]

Originally we planned on climbing Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks on the last day of the trip, but ended up deciding on just Wetterhorn. This was primarily due to the fact that once we finished hiking, we still had a long drive back to SLC. Also, rather than using the standard Matterhorn Creek approach from the south, we really had our hearts set on taking the more scenic (in my opinion) and MUCH less used West Cimarron Pass / Wetterhorn Basin approach from the west. So, after getting off the train in Silverton, it was on to Ouray, where we stopped for ice cream, and then up and over Owl Creek Pass to the Wetterhorn Basin trailhead. We packed up our bags and hiked 3.5 miles and 1700 feet up to West Cimarron Pass (12,500 feet), then dropped about 1.5 miles into Wetterhorn Basin (~11,700 feet). The views of Wetterhorn, the alpenglow, and the sunset from our camp site were INCREDIBLE! It was also cold at that elevation, so a hot bowl of chili for dinner hit the spot perfectly.

We didn't sleep much that night due to persistent high winds and rain, but we awoke to clear skies and dry ground. It was on! At 6:30am we hit the trail. There isn't much of a trail once you get beyond the stream crossings in Wetterhorn Basin; you more or less orient yourself towards Wetterhorn Pass and head towards it. Once on top, you just try to keep as much elevation as possible while contouring to the SE ridge. From there it was quick going... mainly a class 2 trail with some fun class 3 scrambling at the end. We reached the summit at 8:15am. Our descent was even quicker (round trip was 3 hours). West Cimarron Pass needed to be re-climbed on the pack out, but that was easy going from the Wetterhorn side (only ~700 feet up), and we were back at the trailhead and on the road to SLC by noon. It was an amazing trip!!! Thanks Andrea for climbing all these peaks with me!!!

I've now been on top of 48 of the 58 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado. At some point I'll probably finish, but its definitely not a priority at this point because there are so many other places I want to visit and mountains I want to climb. Some of the 14ers I have left (ie. San Luis, Pikes) are just not that exciting. I hope the next trip to CO will include peaks such as Arrow, Vestal, the Trinitys, and routes such as the Grand Traverse (near Vail) and Tenmile traverse (Breckenridge). And considering how close we are to the Tetons and Wind Rivers, that's probably where we'll end up spending a lot more time next summer and fall.

Driving on the million dollar highway (US-550)

Ouray, CO

Start of the West Fork Trail

Pack/Back break on the way up the pass

Top of the pass

First look at Wetterhorn... awe-inspiring!

Our campsite at 11,700ft

Wetterhorn in the evening

Sunset

Wetterhorn's much less intimidating SE ridge

Andrea scrambling up the final class 3 pitch to the top

Wetterhorn summit

Summit views

Coxcomb and Redcliff

You can (barely) see our campsite down in the basin

Heading down

The Wetterhorn to Matterhorn ridge

Looking North from our camp back towards the West Fork Pass

Looking west in Wetterhorn basin

Looking north from the top of West Cimarron Pass

Precipice Peak

Chimney Rock

San Juan Shuffle (Part 2): Chicago Basin Quartet

Andrea on the summit of Mt Eolus

Date: September 3-5, 2010
Distance: ~20 miles (~8 on summit day)
Vertical: ~8500 feet (~5500 on summit day)
Time: 10.5 hours on summit day from camp to all 4 peaks and back to camp
Peaks: Mt Eolus (14,083 feet), North Eolus (14,039 feet), Sunlight Peak (14,059 feet), Windom Peak (14,082 feet)
Route: Standard Chicago Basin approach from Needleton (Silverton train). Standard routes on all 4 peaks from Twin Lakes.

This is Part 2 of our Labor Day weekend 14er blitz in the San Juans. The rest of the reports are found here: Part 1 - Part 3.

After climbing Mt Sneffels in the morning, we drove down the "million dollar highway" to Silverton. As soon as we arrived in town, Andrea got a call/job offer from an awesome medical device company in SLC. The day went from good to great and was only about to get better.

We got some ice cream (a common theme of all our trips) and boarded our train on the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway. The train ride along the Animas River took an hour to reach Needleton, where all the tourists watched us depart and begin our 6 mile, 3000 foot hike up towards Chicago Basin. The hike took a leisurely 2.5 hours, and we setup camp in the first meadow (~11,000 feet), ate dinner, and got to bed early.

Since the forecast called for 0% chance of rain, we didn't feel the need to get a typical Colorado alpine start on Saturday. We didn't hit the trail until around 7am! In an hour we were at the Twin Lakes upper basin, and ready to start bagging some peaks. First up on the list was Eolus, which was easier than we anticipated. We ticked North Eolus off the list shortly after, with a short, fun scramble up to that summit.

After descending back to Twin Lakes, we took a nice break for lunch, and got rolling again around noon, with Sunlight Peak as our next goal. Despite all the goats on the trail, we made our way up to the ridge between Sunlight Peak and the spire, and thats where the fun scrambling began. A few class 3 (maybe one or two class 4) moves put us at the summit register (where Andrea would stop), and I made the final move up to the summit block. Getting UP was easy, dropping down was a bit nerve-wracking with all the exposure and consequences of slipping!

Three peaks down, only Windom to go! We stayed as high as possible on the traverse and hit the Windom/Peak 18 saddle about 800' below the summit. The climbing was on big solid rock blocks, and a lot of fun. It felt great to stand on that 4th peak of the day and know that we wouldn't have to gain any more vertical! We dropped back down to Twin Lakes again, took a nice long break, and got back to our camp at 5:30pm. It was a 10.5 hour day, with over 80% of that time above 12,500 feet. That's a lot of time to be above 12,500 regardless of how fit you are, so once again we were able to fall asleep very early after eating dinner.

The next morning was a breeze... wake up, hot breakfast, and a 6 mile hike down to Needleton to catch the 11:30am train back to Silverton. We got there way too early, so a game of rock toss was the entertainment. After we got back to Silverton and evaluated the weather forecast, it was decided that we'd head towards Owl Creek Pass and take at Wetterhorn Peak on the last day of the trip (Part 3).

The only paved road in Silverton, CO

The train pulling into town

Our ride to Needleton

Scenery from the train - Animas River

The Animas

Weminuche Wilderness

Waterfall along the trail up to Chicago Basin

Our camp for the next two nights

Eolus reflecting in the morning light

About to start the ridge portion of the climb to Eolus

Andrea moving along "the catwalk" to Eolus

Eolus summit

North Eolus in the foreground; the Grenadiers in the background

Looking southwest from Eolus

Scrambling up North Eolus

Heading up North Eolus

Vestal and Arrow. I was captivated every time I saw these two peaks, and now I really want to head back to the San Juans to climb these and the Trinitys.

Summit of North Eolus. Sunlight and Windom, our next two targets, are in the background.

Looking towards Sunlight and Windom

Twin Lakes

We saw lots of goats

Hmmmm... I wonder if we are headed the right way?

Billy Goat

Andrea working up Sunlight Peak

Contemplating the final move to the Sunlight summit

Sunlight summit block

Andrea took this video of my descent off the block. It doesn't look bad from this angle, but you have to clear a couple foot gap over a 25 foot hole, and if you screw up, you are going a few thousand feet off the side of the mountain!