Colorado 2014

Trip Summary: August 2 - August 10, 2014
1) 3-day mountaineering trip to Snowmass Mountain near Aspen, CO
2) Mountain biking in Breckenridge, CO
3) Day hike up Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln, and Mount Democrat near Breckenridge, CO
4) Mountain biking and fishing near Breckenridge and Lake Dillon

Snowmass Mountain - 3 day mountaineering trip in Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen, CO
After seeing Snowmass Mountain the previous year during our backpacking trip in the Maroon Bells, my friend Alan and I wanted to come back and climb Snowmass Mountain. We actually planned to climb Capitol Peak as well, but the weather ended up turning us back before we even got to see the mountain. We took a different trail than the previous year to approach Snowmass Lake, and planned to make a loop of Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak in 4 days. We planned our trip from a report by Josh Friesema which he called SnowCap Loop, planning to take an extra day and camp at Snowmass Lake before climbing Snowmass Mountain. There are some other piecemeal descriptions of this route on Summitpost. The mountains in this range are absolutely beautiful, and we had a fantastic trip, but did not successfully summit Snowmass Mountain or even get to see Capitol Peak up close. The primary factor in this was the weather - we had rain every single day of our trip in Colorado. And by leaving so late in the summer, most of the snow had melted from the face of the mountain, exposing treacherously unstable and slippery rock.

Topo map of our trip to Snowmass Mountain. Red outlines the planned trip, black is the actual trip.

We had planned to hike in to Snowmass Mountain using Maroon Snowmass Trail from the trail head near Snowmass Village. Then, after camping at the lake, we would have contoured around until we reached Snowmass Mountain. At about 12,000ft we planned to do a gear dump and top out the summit, climb back down and collect our gear, and camp below Heckert Pass on the cliffs overlooking the lake. The next day we planned to cross Heckert Pass and the Pierre Lakes basin below, climb up the Wandering Dutchman Couloir to K2, cross the Knife Edge ridge to the summit of Capitol Peak, and then descend to Moon Lake for the night. We then planned to bushcrash our way out following West Snowmass Creek until we reached West Snowmass Trail. As it happened, the weather conditions convinced us to abort our first summit attempt halfway up Snowmass Mountain, and at our gear dump at 12,000ft during our second attempt the next day, deteriorating weather forced us down again and we decided to leave. Next year, Alan and I plan to leave much earlier in the summer when there will be much more snowcover, and less chance for thunderstorms. We plan to climb Mount Sneffels near Telluride, and then attempt this same trip to summit Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak.

Prius packed to the gills again for backpacking and biking.

I've listed the equipment we brought for this trip below. We tried to pack lighter for this trip and take an extra day to acclimatize, which significantly improved our speed. My investment in a new Osprey Aether 70 backpack made my life much easier than the world of pain I experienced the previous year with an old pack cutting into my shoulders. For food, we again bought dried and/or lightweight foods at Walmart the night before, and repackaged in Ziplock-bags.



Equipment:

Backpack (55-85L) Helmet (rock climbing) Ice axe Pack rain cover Hiking boots Gaiters Sandals (for stream crossings) Carabiners and straps as needed Hydration reservoirs (150oz+), and/or water bottles Headlamp (and extra batteries and possibly even an extra headlamp) Sleeping pad Sleeping bag (and compression bag) Knife Sun glasses Trekking poles (optional) Compression shorts (or other moisture-wicking underwear) Hiking socks Short-sleeve shirt (moisture-wicking, NOT cotton) Shorts (exercise-type, I use mountain bike shorts) Long hiking pants (NOT jeans) Base shirt layer (Under Armor mock or similar) Long underwear top (PolyPro or similar) Long underwear bottoms (PolyPro or similar) Polar fleece (lightweight) Soft-shell jacket Raincoat Rain pants Winter hat Baseball hat (or other hat for sun protection) Mountaineering socks

Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, soap (all small travel versions) Chapstick Chamois (to use as a small towel) Bowl, spoon/fork, cup Ditty bags, Ziplock bags, and hard case (for camera or other electronic items) Camera (and batteries) or smartphone (optional) Glasses, contact case, contact solution (as needed) Hearing aid batteries, any other personal items (as needed) Backpacking tent Backpacking stove (and fuel) Lighter (and/or matches) Rope (for hanging packs) Bear-proof bags (for storing food) First-aid kit Water filtration Bear mace Bear bell Maps (and compass) Aspirin (for altitude) Sunscreen Bug spray Cooking pot Ladle or spoon (for cooking) Toilet paper Sewing kit Water jug (Reliance)

Cliff jumping at Devil's Punchbowl.

We drove straight from Austin, Texas to Pueblo, Colorado and stayed at a Courtyard Marriott for the night. Along the way, we both read a field manual on weather forecasting since we knew we were likely to see inclement weather during our trip. We enjoyed a local brewery and explored the River Walk, and spent the next day driving to Aspen. On the way, we stopped at a mountaineering shop so Alan could pick up an ice axe, and on our descent from Independence Pass we stopped at Devil's Punchbowl to do some cliff jumping. We spent the day in Aspen playing frisbee in the parks and browsing the shops, and then after a delicious dinner at the Red Onion, we set off for the trail head. Our Prius made it down the road that leads in from Snowmass Village, but given that it was raining, we doubted we would be able to make it back out that way. Fortunately, the route on County Rd. 11 is much less rough. We camped out at the trail head the night before, and were disturbed several times by some pretty strange folk, resulting in very little sleep. I recommend staying in a hotel or public campground the night before a big hike - you can't dismiss feeling secure when you're trying to sleep.

Day 1 - August 4, 2014

Arriving at Snowmass Lake.

After a very restless night, we awoke early in the morning and prepared for our trek. Following the Maroon-Snowmass Trail, we crossed through some gates into and out of private land before officially entering the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. The hike was pretty uneventful, but the scenery was beautiful. With no mountain passes, we moved quickly. We encountered several rain showers, forcing us to don our rain gear. We reached the log jam, and crossed Snowmass Creek by balancing precariously on these floating logs. As it was raining, the logs were slippery and wet, and whilst getting some quality GoPro footage, I lost my footing and fell into the lake. Not once, but twice. I was thoroughly soaked. We arrived at Snowmass Lake, soaking wet and cold, early in the afternoon and set up camp. While refilling our water from the creek, a rainstorm drenched our campsite, forming a small river through our tent. After some thought, we relocated to a more sheltered area. We then made dinner over the camp stove. After stowing our gear for the night, we hung our packs far from our tent, and set our wet clothes out to dry. It continued to rain off and on, and the cold, humid air meant that nothing was dry in the morning.


Day 2 - August 5, 2014

Our route up Snowmass to the gear dump and traverse to camp (red star).

Alan climbing up the headwall.

On the morning of our summit attempt of Snowmass Mountain, the weather did not look too promising. Fog and wispy clouds obscured the summit of Snowmass, and the sky was completely overcast. Feeling discouraged, we decided that there was a chance the clouds could burn off later in the day and that we should give it a shot. If we changed our mind during our ascent, we planned to bail off the mountain onto the cliffs overlooking Snowmass Lake and camp, which is exactly what happened. After donning my rain gear, since the vegetation was soaking wet with dew, we bushcrashed our way along the overgrown trail that followed the lake to the base of Snowmass Mountain.

By 7:45am, we started our ascent of the headwall of Snowmass Mountain. The lower headwall, which rises about 1,000ft above the lake, was a mix of scree and gravel. The rocks and boulders were very unstable and even the standard route, which was cairned quite well, was crap. We had several close calls with small boulders slipping loose. The steepest section of the route up the headwall runs parallel to a waterfall, which proved somewhat tricky to climb due to the slipperiness of the rocks. After topping out this section, the route flattens out, and we reached a little grassy platform with boulders set up to act as a basic shelter, which we decided we would use as our gear dump if we continued our attempt at the summit.

Camp 2 on Snowmass Mountain.

While debating whether to continue, the weather worsened, as the wind picked up and it began drizzling and darker clouds rolled in and obscured the summit. Being on the east face of the mountain, we were on the leeward side and could not see what weather was coming towards us. We decided that the conditions were not favorable to climb and seemed to be worsening, so we decided to bail off to the cliffs over Snowmass Lake. We traversed over to the top of these cliffs, and descended to about 11,700ft, just at the top of the treeline, and discovered a campsite. It was protected from rockfall from the mountain by a ravine, and the treecover gave some sense of safety from lightning as it wasn't as exposed. We quickly set up our tent in preparation for a possible storm, but the weather cleared up and it turned out to be a bright and sunny day. We laid out all of our wet gear to dry, and set about hanging our packs, filtering water, and preparing dinner. We also made a campfire in an existing fire ring, which was difficult at that altitude and with limited tinder. We were treated to a beautiful sunset, but after going to sleep, we worried about lightning as we noticed some heat lightning illuminating the tent. We were spared the drama of a full-on lightning storm, and we slept pretty well.

Day 3 - August 6, 2014

At the gear dump location at 12,000ft on Snowmass Mountain where we decided to turn around and head down.

Steep, loose scree made this feel dangerous.

We woke up before dawn, but not as early as we probably should have, with a renewed ambition to summit Snowmass. After packing up camp, we set off to traverse the boulder fields back to our gear dump spot. We reached it by 8am, but already big cumulus clouds were beginning to build, and the sky over the summit darkened. With great reluctance, but mutual understanding, we decided we did not feel safe to climb, and aborted our second summit attempt. The descent turned out to be quite treacherous. The rocks were loose, and we were forced to down climb several sections very carefully. I gave myself a bit of a scare when I slid on some gravel, but arrested my fall and escaped with nothing but abraded hands. The waterfall section turned out to be quite tricky, and more dangerous than I would have liked. Sit and scoot was the name of the game. After we got off the face of the mountain, we skirted around the lake and stopped for a snack at the headwaters of Snowmass Creek. We decided to hike out, and walked back to the trail head. By about 11am, it began to rain, and with the howling wind, we were happy to be in the valley instead of on the summit. When we reached the log jam, we changed into sandals and crossed further downstream, avoiding the risk of slipping and falling on the wet, slippery logs. We made good time back to the trail head, and drove out on County Rd. 11.

Alan looking at the dark clouds blowing over the summit.

We arrived in Glenwood Springs in time for dinner at the Glenwood Canyon Brewery, where I had a Bleu Bella Burger with bacon added, which was the best burger of my life. Alan opted for a healthier meal of salmon, rice, and veggies, which also looked good. We washed down our disappointment in our failed summit attempts with some beer, and checked into a Marriott Residence Inn. We went to 19th Street Diner which we had visited the year before to get a milkshake, took a shower, and hit the hay. It turned out that a climber had died on Capitol Peak that day, and was recovered during the time we had been hiking out. We actually saw the Black Hawk helicopter leaving the valley during our hike out, and we were reminded of the dangers of these mountains. Especially after learning of this and being reminded that safety is more important than anything else, we felt we had made the right decision in turning around. The mountains will still be there another time.

Mountain Biking in Breckenridge - Carter Park through Barney Ford and many other trails

Mountain biking by an abandoned gold mine in Breckenridge.

The next day, we left and drove up to Breckenridge and stopped to ask for some advice at a bike shop for some fun local trails. We put together a rather complicated route that roughly went like Sunbeam Trail, Moonstone Trail, Barney Ford, V3, B&B Trail, Minnie Minnie, Turk's Trail, Sallie Barber Road, and Barney Flow back to Carter Park. The trails were fun and somewhat challenging to ride, and passed by several abandoned mines and a dredge mined valley. I can't remember how far we went, but I would guess it was on the order of 18 miles total. We then went to the grocery store and picked up some food and beer, and drove out on Tiger Road to set up camp.


Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Democrat - day hike  near Breckenridge, CO
Since we were about an hour's drive from these mountains, and we wanted to get an alpine start, we woke up at 3:30am and packed up camp. We drove south of Breckenridge on Colorado Rd. 9 and climbed over a small mountain pass. We turned off at Buckskin Creek Rd. and arrived near the trail head a little after 5am. The road deteriorates rapidly, and we could not drive all the way in with the Prius. When we began our hike, some people had already started climbing. This place was very different than our experience in Snowmass Mountain. We were starting our hike above the treeline, and the rock was much more solid. There were no parts of the trail that felt unsafe.

It is also not a place for solitude, as there were probably over a hundred people all told climbing the mountains that day. We traveled light and just took our mountain biking backpacks with water reservoirs, some snacks, and warm clothing including gloves and hat. The hike up these mountains is pretty straightforward, and we found information on these mountains by talking to a local at Mountain Outfitters and on Summitpost: Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Democrat.

Alan and I at the summit of Mt. Lincoln at 14,295ft.

We hiked up to the saddle between Democrat and Lincoln, and we opted to climb Mt. Lincoln first, since everyone else was going to Democrat and we wanted some sense of solitude. We had been told by the locals that neighboring Mt. Bross was private land and the owners were working through an agreement with climbing groups to allow access, but at this point it was considered trespassing. We respected that, and chose not to climb it, even though many other climbers that day were planning to. We climbed up the ridge from the saddle to the summit of Mt. Cameron, a false 14er, at an altitude of 14,238ft. Another couple took some pictures of us at the top, and we continued to the summit of Mt. Lincoln. The wind was ferocious, I would estimate 20mph sustained and over 30mph gusts. There was fresh ice in the rocks from frozen water, so I suspect the temperature was below freezing on top of the mountain. We reached the summit of Mt. Lincoln at 14,295ft, and completely alone, took in the beauty of the summit view in the early morning.

View from the summit of Mt. Democrat at 14,154 ft.

On our way down, we began to encounter a lot more people. We saw some other climbers who were ill-prepared for the weather, especially girls, climbing in short shorts and t-shirts and tennis shoes. However, as the sun rose, it did begin to get warmer. Clouds began forming as well. Back at the saddle, we stopped for a quick snack break before ascending the trail to Mt. Democrat. The trail is pretty simple, and before long we were standing on the top of another beautiful summit. We shared the summit with about 30 other people at 14,154ft. I noticed that I had cell reception, so I took the opportunity to call my parents from the summit. After spending about twenty minutes on the summit, we started to hike back down. Two F-16 fighter jets flew up the valley and right over the mountain at high speed and low altitude, which was really cool to see (and hear!). We were one of the first to make it back to the trail head at Kite Lake, and it began to snow. The clouds were looking much more ominous now, and we were glad to be down the mountain. We were both exhausted and quite hungry. We drove back out to the town of Alma, and stopped at South Park Saloon, "The Highest Saloon in the USA", for some burgers and beer.

Fishing at the Blue Lakes reservoir by Quandary Peak.

After asking some locals for some good fishing spots, we drove to the Blue Lakes next to Quandary Peak. I broke out the spinning rod and Alan used his fly rod, but we didn't catch anything. We did hike around the south side of the lower lake, and reached a waterfall spilling over from the upper lake. After spending a few hours enjoying nature, we drove back to Breckenridge. We stopped for some beer at happy hour at Breckenridge Brewery, and chatted up some locals for advice on fishing and mountain biking. We took a short nap in the grass by the pond and fountains at the ski resort, and then I fulfilled my tourist urge and bought some souvenirs and gifts. We had gourmet pizza for dinner at Giampietro Pasta and Pizzeria, and then drove back out to our campsite along Tiger Road. We had forgotten to pack the rain fly for the tent, but fortunately it was still at the campsite. We started a campfire and enjoyed a few beers and went to bed.

Mountain Biking and Fishing in Breckenridge and Dillon - Burro trail near Breckenridge and Lake Dillon

Fishing at a pond off the Burro Trail.

The next morning, we drove into town and cooked a breakfast of oatmeal on the picnic tables next to the creek running through the ski resort. We then set off mountain biking on the Burro Trail, intending to go to Crystal Lake to do some fishing on the recommendation from someone we talked to at the brewery the day before. After a while, we both tired and decided to try fishing at a small pond that had been dammed up by beavers. There were only about a dozen small trout in the lake, and Alan and I tried in vain for an hour or so to catch them. It was a rainy, cloudy day, but very peaceful. We then biked back downhill to the car and drove to Lake Dillon. We stopped at the Frisco Bay Marina and did some fishing from the docks. We still didn't catch anything, and after a while, I gave up and started talking to some people about sailing and racing. With more rain coming in, we started on our way home, and drove over to Denver and then headed south.

We stopped for a delicious dinner at Cafe What a Grind in Trinidad, before driving through some thunderstorms to reach Raton, New Mexico for the night. We stayed at Americas Best Value Inn, a cheap mom-and-pop, gun-proud and Christian right motel. The next morning, we got an early start and drove back to Austin, TX, and Alan continued on to his home in Houston.

When all was said and done, this trip had been a fantastic experience! We had a lot of fun and learned a great deal. The inclement weather prevented us from doing what we wanted, but we learned some important lessons on reading the weather and making decisions. We plan to return to Colorado next year to climb Mt. Sneffels in Telluride and then attempt Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak again. Check out the video I made of our trip below: