Mount of the Holy Cross

On Sunday, July 20th, at 3:00 in the morning, I picked up my friend Nicole for the three hour drive past Vail to the Half Moon trail head for Mount of the Holy Cross, a 14,005' peak in the Sawatch range.  We have both been on a mission lately to summit as many 14ers as we can this summer, and the timing worked out well for both of us to make an attempt at Holy Cross this day, which neither of us had climbed yet.

Holy Cross is a fairly long hike, about 12 miles round trip with about 5600 feet of elevation gain.  The kicker for this particular route, though, is that about a mile and a half in, you must descend to a creek at the bottom of a valley 1000 feet below you, which means that on the way back, you have to reclimb that 1000 feet to get back to the trail head.

But hey, that's the path we're given, we don't have much choice but to take it.  That first 1.5 miles is pretty wooded, and the trail is very clear up to the top of Half Moon Pass, at which point the trail skirts around the side of 13er Notch Mountain.  The descent is steady at first until you get across Notch Mountain,where you get an incredible view of Holy Cross a few miles away in the distance.

Holy Cross is the peak on the left. The route takes you into the valley, then back up the ridge on the right, along the snow at the top of that ridge, and up the back side of Holy Cross.  It is still at least 3 miles away at this point.

Just beyond where you can see the trail vanish into the trees in that last picture, the trail skirts left and you overlook the steeper valley where we'll soon be going.  Again, just an amazingly beautiful scene with Holy Cross up in the distance, a waterfall at the top of the valley and East Cross Creek running at that bottom.

The route got much steeper here, and every easy step down we took we knew we would be struggling with on the back side of our hike when we returned, but again, this was the route and we had to take it.  At the bottom of the valley was an area for campsites, most of which were already occupied, and it seemed like a great place to base for a climb of Holy Cross if you are into camping.  At this point, we crossed East Cross Creek on some rocks and a log bridge.

This was essentially the wooded low point of our hike, and the mosquitoes were out in force down there so we kept moving along.  From this point, the route ascended, sometimes gradually, oftentimes much more quickly.  I generally lead, and Nicole followed back a short distance behind as we hiked out of the forest and into a much rockier section with larger steps and more frequent breaks as we caught our breath.  Eventually we got up past the first peak (on the right in the longer range view up above) and began a thankfully much more gradual ascent across the saddle toward Holy Cross.

The snow in the foreground is the same snow you can see in the above mentioned long range picture.  The picture just above looks across the valley below Holy Cross, and I thought the very large, flat plateau surrounded by ridges looked really interesting.

At the far side of the saddle was a very deep gully that we skirted around to get on the back side of the Holy Cross summit block.  About 300 feet below, we begin the scramble to the summit.  The trail got very spotty at this point, but there were cairns scattered about, and generally it wasn't difficult to find safe paths between them, and as long as you were still generally going up, you were going the right direction.

I started following some other hikers, and it really wasn't too long before I had reached the summit.  I took off my pack, high fived several other hikers that had passed us along the way, and took in the views.

The lake in picture above is called the "Bowl of Tears", and it was a stunning aqua-marine blue/green (or so I'm told, as the color blind guy).  The Elk Range, which contains the Maroon Bells, Capitol Peak, Snowmass Mountain and Pyramid Peak, among others, was visible probably 30-40 miles away.  I was pretty sure I saw Grays and Torreys Peaks as well as several others in other directions from the summit.  It was cloudy and a little hazy, but the view was still amazing.

After about 10 minutes, I still hadn't seen Nicole, so I went back to the edge to check on her progress.  It wasn't long before I saw her appear about 50 feet below the summit, and once she realized how close she was, she closed the distance quickly.  It was her 8th summit, and my 13th.

We were probably on the summit about 15-20 minutes before we decided we better start heading back down before the storms rolled in.  After starting about 6:00, we were on the summit just after 11:00 and started back down around 11:30.  The forecast said storms were likely by about 2:00, so we knew we needed to get started to avoid the probable soaking we'd soon be getting.  But today we got lucky.  There was some very light sleet near the summit, and we occasionally got barely a drizzle sporadically on the way down, but it was just enough to keep us cool.  With the clouds rolling in, the temperature was just about perfect.

We slowly worked our way down the steep couple of miles from the summit to the valley, which didn't feel so great on the knees, but we only slipped a couple times.  Eventually we got back down to the creek and we both realized that after about 8 hours of hiking, we had hit that 1000 foot climb back out of the valley we'd been dreading the entire hike.  One step at a time though, pausing here and there to take pictures, and often looking back in amazement as we saw just how far away and above us the peak was from which we had just summited.  It really was incredible to see what the sum of tens of thousands of small steps over the course of multiple hours had lead us to accomplish.

We did eventually reach the pass again, and we finished with a 2 mile descent back into mosquito infested but cool forest back to the trail head.  Almost 10 hours after we started, we were done.  Or rather, we started the drive home down I70 on a Sunday evening, along with tens of thousands of our closest Colorado friends who had also spent the weekend in the high country.

The hike was brutal, and we were both exhausted, but it was definitely the most beautiful scenery of any 14er hike that I've ever been on.  As I've done more hikes in different parts of the state, it has been fun to see the different "personalities" of each area.  They really are all a little different, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of those in the years (weeks?) to come.

Runkeeper track of our hike

Lake City 14er Trip - Handies Peak

After a very long first day hike of Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks, then a physically and mentally draining attempt at Wetterhorn, I decided to finish my hiking adventure with a climb of 14,048 foot Handies Peak, widely regarded as one of the easiest 14ers to climb in Colorado.  In fact, I was much more concerned about the 21 mile drive to the trailhead than I was about the 5 1/2 mile round trip hike up Handies.

I'd never driven my Honda Pilot through a stream before, but I had to on this day to reach the trailhead.  It wasn't so bad. :)  But some of the areas on the road within a couple miles of this stream...yeah, pretty bad, and I'm still a little surprised my car made it there and back in one piece, but it did.

The route up that I took was through American Basin.  The trail runs up through this valley and then cuts left in front of the peaks in the sunlight in the picture below.

There was a fair amount of runoff in this basin, and I had to go across several snow fields on my way to the summit.  This is one of the waterfalls toward the bottom of the route.

A little closer to the back wall, the trail turns past Sloan Lake.

From here, the trail cuts across the slope of the left side of the valley.  You can make out the trail just above and to the left of the large snowfield in the bottom right of the screen.

This picture below looks back down the basin from just beyond the trail pictured above.

And slightly higher up, you reach the green slope of Handies Peak.  Looking back down in the basin, you can see Sloan Lake which is pretty snow covered almost exactly in the middle of this picture.

Unlike Wetterhorn, Handies is a very gentle (though still a strenuous hike) slope up to the summit.  From below, the trail switchbacks all the way to the top, which is less than 3 miles from the trailhead.

The views from up here are really amazing, and it was another crystal clear morning.

This is Redcloud and Sunshine from the summit of Handies, the higher points toward the center.

And just a couple hours after starting, I was on top of Handies Peak.

This was by far the easiest 14er climb I've done to date, and Handies is the 12th 14er I've completed.  There were many more people on the route this time, and I think I was the 3rd one to the top that day.  It took about 3 1/2 hours to do the 5 1/4 mile hike (including about 15 minutes on the summit).  As I said before, the drive up was far and away the worst part of this hike.  Handies was a very short class 1 hike, so other than going through a few solid snow fields, there was nothing terribly difficult about it.  There were some spring flowers on the grassy slope, but I understand that in the spring the whole mountain comes alive with them, which would be an incredible sight.

This was a great way to end my hiking days in Lake City, and I felt really good after this one (certainly due to the shortness).  I would gladly do it again...as long as I could borrow someone else's 4WD vehicle to get there. ;)

Lake City 14er Trip - Wetterhorn Peak

On the second day of my hiking adventure, I decided that I was going to attempt a climb of 14,016 foot Wetterhorn Peak.  From the distance, it looks kind of like a shark tooth.

From just below it, it looks like a big pile of jagged rocks:

Unlike the first night, I was exhausted from my climb of Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks, and I actually fell asleep relatively early and only woke up every couple of hours instead of every fifteen minutes or so.  At 5:45 AM, I started my climb.  After a 3/4 mile hike up a 4WD road I reached the actual trailhead, where I found this map and elevation profile:

Now, you might notice at the very top of that profile, the line shoots upward rather quickly.  That's kind of important later on in this story, but for now, shortly after I got started, I came out of the trees and saw the valley that contained my final objective....

...or so I thought.  At the other end of the valley, by far the most prominent peak was the one in the picture above on the right side of the wall of rocky peaks.  I knew the trail cut to the left of Wetterhorn, then made its way up the back side.  As I hiked, I noticed the trail was taking me WAY to the left of everything, and I kept thinking it was going to suck to have to hike back across everything I was seeing in front of me.  With about a mile left to summit, the trail got a little faint in a rocky area and looked like it continued on away from the peak I thought was Wetterhorn.  After double checking the map, I realized that what I thought was Wetterhorn was actually 13,596 foot Matterhorn Peak, which meant that the much less prominent looking Wetterhorn was actually right in front of me, and I wouldn't have to go all the back across the valley wall.  Score!

So after climbing through a snow field, I came to the final rocky summit block.

I had read about this peak before attempting it, and I knew the end of the hike contained a lot of steep scrambling with a 100 foot class three section that rose very steeply to the summit.  Although everyone's opinions on what is steep and what isn't tends to be very subjective, many people had said that if you could do the homestretch on Long's Peak, you can do the finish on Wetterhorn.  As I scrambled through a couple of gullies, finding the best path had become difficult, and I often second guessed the decisions I was making.  Several times I ascended some rock that I wasn't quite sure how I was going to be able to get back down, but I figured when the time came I'd figure it out.  

Eventually, I made my way to the final stretch that I'd heard so much about and finally was getting to see first hand.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it is about 100 feet of steep, pretty exposed rock.  This video gives a little better idea of what the area looks like.  As far as class three scrambles go, there were actually pretty good steps and hand holds here, and I knew the summit was just above me, so I found the first step and climbed.  Then another.  Then another.  I got about 20 feet up when I came to an area where I needed to step across the face to another step, but that step was just a little farther than I was comfortable with.  I reached across a couple times, looked up a couple times, then hunkered down on the step and started to realize there was a good chance I wasn't going to get past this point.

I looked down to see where I would end up if I did slip, and I realized that not only would it not have been pretty, there was a chance I wouldn't be found as I was all alone at this point.  Then the words of my wife flashed through my mind one more time..."Just don't do anything stupid".   Considering I was doing this hike on my 20th anniversary, and dying on that day would have just made things really awkward for everyone, I made the decision that it wasn't worth the risk continue climbing even though the summit was just above me.  I took a deep breath and started to ease myself back down the face.

I had wondered if I ever did get into a situation where I didn't feel comfortable moving forward, would I be able to turn around or would I try to push through.  I learned that yes, at least in this case, I was able to do the right thing and call it off.  On this hike, after hiking 12 miles the day before, and being alone on a somewhat technical stretch at the top of a 14er, the time to summit was not right.  On fresh legs, and with a climbing partner, I really think I will be able to summit Wetterhorn, and I have every intention of trying it again eventually under those conditions.

As it turned out, about 10 minutes after I turned around, I crossed paths with a group of three who were on their way up and offered to let me join them, but I had already mentally checked out and was ready to head back out.  The areas I was concerned about getting down ended up not being too bad, and I was able to safely make it back into the woods before a storm rolled in and it started raining.  I felt even better about my decision to turn back when I did, and wondered about the other half dozen or so people I saw going up well after I had left the summit block.  About 8 1/2 miles and 6 1/2 hours after I started, I returned to my car and left.

Am I disappointed that I didn't make it up? Maybe a little, but I'm much more motivated now.  Most people I know who climb 14ers have a "nemesis peak" that for whatever reason has given them trouble.  For now, Wetterhorn is that peak for me.  The fight has been temporarily suspended, but the war is far from over.

Next up, Handies Peak.....

Lake City 14er Trip - Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks

On July 7, 2014, I packed up my hiking gear and headed to Lake City CO for a week of 14er hiking.  The trailheads to five 14ers are within about 20 miles from Lake City, and I intended to climb four of them while I was there.

July 8 - My first attempt would be a the double of Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks.  The night before my hike, I didn't sleep very well and woke up a little tired, as seems to be the norm before I do any big hike like this.    I awoke at 4:00 AM and was on the trail by 5:45 that morning.

This trail, like those of many other 14ers, starts by following a path into a valley.  And every time I hike into a valley like this, one of my first thoughts upon seeing the very tall looking sidewall peaks is that I will eventually need to be higher than any of those.  It always seems so daunting when you are just into the first mile or two of your hike.

Eventually, though, you do end up on top of that wall, and you eventually get to see your summit approach.  This is looking up at Redcloud.

And as the name implies, Redcloud has a lot of red dirt on its summit, and it isn't a very large summit.

The views of Wetterhorn (on the left of the picture) and Uncompahgre (right of center) were pretty amazing, though.  The weather on all my hikes on the way up was crystal clear, perfect temp, and hardly any wind.

The summit of Redcloud is about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, and took a little over 3 hours.  Sunshine Peak, my next stop, is about 1.5 miles across a saddle from Redcloud and took about an hour to get across.

This picture looks back across the saddle from Sunshine back to Redcloud.

And me on the summit of it.

One of the toughest parts of this hike is that once you summit Redcloud, then cross the saddle to Sunshine, you have to go back over Redcloud to finish your hike.  Lest one be tempted to drop down from the saddle, they are greeted with this warning:

So back up Redcloud I went.  Once there, the weather started to turn, and some light hail was moving into the area.  Suddenly my tired legs got a little shot of adrenaline as I raced back toward my car, hoping to avoid the upcoming storm.  And just to help keep you moving, one of the mountains on the valley wall contains this "thumbs up" message:

As I got further down the trail, it began to rain lightly, and about a mile from the trailhead, it was raining pretty hard, but my waterproof jacket was doing its job very well so I didn't get soaked too badly.  In all, it was about a 12 mile hike that took 7 1/2 hours total.  I saw a total of 4 people the entire day and had both summits to myself.  While the technical difficulty of the hike was very low, the length of it really wiped me out, and I spent the rest of the afternoon recovering and waiting for my appetite to return.  But it was a successful hike, and Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks became my 10th and 11th 14er summits.

Next attempt....Wetterhorn Peak.