Trip Summary: July 12 - July 17, 2015
1) Multi-pitch rock climb, tyrolean traverse, and rappel at Princess Ella's Magical Adventure in Ouray, CO
2) Day climb up Lavender Col Standard Route of Mount Sneffels near Ouray, CO
3) Sport rock climbing and hot springs at The Narrows on the Crystal River in Carbondale, CO
4) Mountain biking the Sky Mountain Park Loop in Aspen and Snowmass Village, CO
Alan and I back in Colorado!
This year, Alan and I planned to climb Mount Sneffels as a warm up, and then do the 27 mile SnowCap Loop, a 3-4 day backpacking and mountaineering trip summiting Snowmass Mountain and Capitol Peak. However, after climbing Mount Sneffels, Alan was called back to work early, with only 3 days of advance notice. We never even attempted the loop, but we still had an epic adventure despite the short trip.
Obligatory chock full Prius picture. We have a lot of stuff!
The night before driving up, we hit up Seismic Wall in Austin to practice some rock climbing and belaying techniques, and finished packing up our gear. The next day, we drove from Austin, Texas to Durango, Colorado, staying at United Campground of Durango. Then we drove up to Ouray, Colorado, to spend a day acclimatizing and rock climbing.
Princess Ella's Magical Adventure - multi-pitch rock climb near Ouray, CO
I woke up at dawn at the campground in Durango, and started researching sport rock climbs near Ouray. I was itching to try a multi-pitch, and came across Princess Ella's Magical Adventure. It is a 4-pitch, 270 ft, 5.8+ sport climb with an approach involving a fixed rope rappel and tyrolean traverse across the rapids on the Uncompahgre River, immediately before a huge waterfall. When Alan woke up, I asked him how adventurous he was feeling that day. I then told him about what I had found, and he agreed to consider it. We packed up camp and stopped at a mountaineering store in Durango so that Alan could look for some sandals and I picked up some more webbing and quickdraws. We asked the guys at the shop for advice on nearby sport climbing, but restricting ourselves to 5.9's and easier, they weren't able to offer much. We drove up the Million Dollar Highway to Ouray, which afforded spectacular views on the way down from the Red Mountain Pass. We encountered some construction, but it didn't delay us for too long. We drove into Ouray and filled up on water at the public restrooms, before driving back up the highway to look for the trailhead. We ended up missing the parking area, and had to travel through the construction area twice again, before parking on the side of the road. The parking area for the trailhead was blocked due to the construction. We strapped on our gear, and hiked to the trailhead across from the small mine entrance. For lead climbing, I carried a 70m rope, 10 draws, 2 small locking carabiners, 4 short and 2 medium runners, and some accessory cord. We both had a harness, shoes, helmet, chalk bag, belay device, and 2 locking pearabiners.
Alan making the crossing on the tyrolean traverse.
We hiked down some switchbacks until we reached a steep rock slab, at which point Alan and I rappelled down a fixed line tied to a tree. At the base, we faced the raging Uncompahgre River, which we crossed on a 2-rope tyrolean traverse which was solidly fixed to trees on each side of the river. We clipped in to both ropes, and pulled ourselves across. I went first, and upon reaching the other side, discovered that I was slightly too short to reach the ground. Having difficulty unclipping from the ropes without being able to unweight them, I attached a longer quickdraw to my harness and the ropes, and then hanging from my legs and arms, I unclipped the locking carabiners. I was then able to safely stand on the ground, still clipped in with the quickdraw, and unclip from the ropes. I then assisted Alan once he came over. We hiked up a rock strewn gully, and following the trail a little farther upstream, we found the start of the climb.
I was pretty stoked about this climb!
I lead the first pitch, which was an easy 25m 5.7. At the top, I tied into the anchor, and belayed Alan as he climbed up and cleaned my gear. Once he tied in, I lead the second pitch, a 15m 5.4 that ends with a scramble up to an anchor out of Alan's sight, and nearly out of his earshot. I tied into the anchor, and began taking up slack. Communication was not clear, so I continued to belay the rope, unsure of whether Alan was climbing. After a short while, I heard a very faint yell, "On belay?" to which I replied as loudly as I could "Belay on!" and felt the rope slacken. I took in the slack, and belayed him as he climbed up to me. After he tied in, we took a look at the next pitch, which was a fun looking 5.8 up the headwall. Then we both heard thunder. The clouds were beginning to look darker as well. Another rumble echoed through the valley, and we decided to turn around and descend. I rappelled down to the first anchor, and Alan followed behind. We then rappelled one more time to the base, and then hiked back to our car without incident. Even though it was cut short, I was thrilled to have completed my first multi-pitch rock climb. We drove back towards town and stopped at Amphitheatre Campground and set up camp, and then drove into Ouray to have a burger and a beer at the Ouray Brewery. We filled up our water reservoirs at the public restrooms, and went to bed early.
Mount Sneffels - day climb up the Lavender Col Standard Route near Ouray, CO
Starting up the south slope.
Several times during the night, I noticed flashes of lightning illuminating the tent, even at 2am. We woke up a little after 3:30am, and packed up camp in the darkness. Clouds blanketed part of the sky, and we saw a few more lightning flashes. We began to worry that the weather would not hold out for a summit of Mount Sneffels. The forecast showed rain by 10am, so we planned to be back down the mountain by that time. We drove out to the trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin in the middle of the night, and the darkness made the steep dropoffs at the edge of the road mysterious, their depths unknown. The road became increasingly more rough as we drove up the mountains, and we had to stop about 0.7 miles below the "Toilet Trailhead" where most 2WD vehicles stop as the Prius couldn't make it up a steep hill we encountered. We strapped on our gear, which for me consisted of a daypack with a softshell and rain pants, 150oz water reservoirs, some trail food, ice axe, crampons, helmet, bear bell, and wearing hiking pants, moisture-wicking t-shirt, hardshell, hat, headlamp, gaiters, wool socks, and hiking boots. We carried some basic first aid items including aspirin and ibuprofen, a short length of rope, multitools, and smartphones, and decided to leave the bear spray behind. Then we set off up the road at about 5:10am in the early morning darkness.
The SW Ridge, which we did not climb.
Only a few minutes after setting off, twilight began to set in, and I was able to turn my headlamp off. As we passed the "Toilet Trailhead", we spooked a herd of deer including some very large bucks which ran away down the alpine meadows and across the snowfields. We seemed to be the only ones out hiking that morning, although we did pass a Nissan Xterra at the trailhead. We climbed above the treeline, and made it to the 4WD trailhead without any problems. The sky was filled with clouds, and we debated whether to continue. We pushed on, as the weather did not appear threatening at the moment. I figured it would take some time for these clouds to develop into a weather system we would need to worry about, and we could descend much more quickly than we could climb up. In the end, however, it is an educated guess at best. We originally planned to climb the Southwest Ridge route (14ers.com, summitpost.org). But with the weather looking like it wasn't going to cooperate, we had decided the night before to climb the Lavender Col standard route (14ers.com, summitpost.org).
Alan at the Lavender Col.
We climbed up the scree field of the south slope, which was arduous work. For every three inch step up, I slid down one inch. My breathing was hard at that altitude and level of exertion. As we neared the Lavender Col, I began to have muscle cramps in my legs. We made it to the saddle that is the Lavender Col, and reexamined the weather. Deciding to continue, we pressed on, climbing up the snow-filled couloir to the notch. There were a few patches of slushy snow to walk through, that having an ice axe definitely helped with, as well as talus which was much more solid than the scree on the south slope. We then encountered some snow sustained for about 80 yards to the notch, at which point I broke out the crampons. The snow was harder than the other patches, but the crampons were of questionable advantage; Alan did not use his and was fine. The ice axe, however, was a lifesaver. At one point, my leg cramped and I had to chop a step into the snow so that I could sit without sliding down the slope and stretch my leg out. After ascending to the notch, there was a short scramble to the summit that involved a little bit of rock climbing, and we both stood at the top. We had made it a few minutes past 8am, and it was a beautiful morning. It wasn't very cold, perhaps in the forties, and it was very calm. Clouds littered the landscape, and obscured mountains, and there were occasional rainshowers in the vicinity. We spent about thirty minutes on the summit, taking in the view and taking pictures, signing the summit log, and talking with some other hikers that came up after us. By the time we began to descend, clouds had begun to fill in the valley.
Alan and I at the summit of Mt. Sneffels, at 14,157 ft at 8am!
Snow in the couloir up to the notch.
At the notch, I quickly went over with Alan the proper self arrest technique, and then jumped down the steep snow in the couloir to glissade to the rocky patch below. I was able to get in two more glissades, but the first was the fastest and longest, and was tons of fun. We encountered many more climbers on our way down, in varying states of physical strength and preparedness. Some we encouraged, as they were close to the top, but the farther down the mountain we get, the less easy it was to be encouraging. With such a long way to go, and with weather moving in fast, by the time we were going down the south slope, with the information we gave a couple just starting to ascend, they wisely decided to turn around. I hope that some of the others not far above them also did so, since at that point we heard thunder. It began to lightly rain, but the thunder was persistent, and darker clouds were coming over the summit. Alan saw lightning strike in the valley near where our car was parked. The wind picked up as the rain cooled the air and caused a downdraft. We began running, and I surfed down the scree of the south slope and together we ran along the trail back towards our car. There were many people down on the trail now; trail running, setting up camp, walking around taking pictures, and dozens of 4WD Jeeps parked at the trailhead and driving up the road. We made it back to our car in good time, and drove back out to Ouray and then on to Glenwood Springs. Some very heavy thunderstorms developed that afternoon. We hit up the Glenwood Canyon Brewery for some hot wings and beer, and stayed at the Affordable Inns motel in Glenwood Springs. At this point we decided we were just going do Snowmass Mountain, and skip Capitol Peak, and so we decided to take the next day off to rest up.
Rock Climbing in The Narrows - single-pitch sport rock climb near Carbondale, CO
After we checked out of the motel, I started to research the sport rock climbs between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. We decided to check out The Narrows, a climbing area in the Crystal River Valley near Carbondale. We used a guide posted on mountainproject.com, but be wary of the directions; either the author is making an attempt at sarcasm that is lost over the internet, or his idea of a HUGE parking lot is different than ours. We drove past the Narrows and all the way to Redstone before we turned around and eventually found the place. He somehow wasn't able to get the exact mileage, but we did, so listen up. From CO Hwy 82, turn South onto CO HWY 133 into Carbondale and start your tripometer. Keep driving for 13.7 miles, and look for a small parking area / turnoff on your left near where the river canyon narrows, and the rock changes to granite from the reddish stuff that is everywhere else. If you pull over and look and see some rock rings surrounding the hot spring pools in the river, you're in the right place. Descriptions on how to get to the walls are a little confusing also.
Successful send of Night School.
Cross the road and jump over the jersey barrier, and walk north about 50 yards from the parking area, just at the curve in the road, and look for a trail up the hill on your left. Follow this trail that is marked pretty well in the beginning portion. You come to a fork, which we didn't notice the first time, so Alan added a cairn to mark the trail that goes to the left. If you go right, I believe you end up at what's called The Front Porch, a sheer, high, difficult granite wall full of 5.10's and 5.11's. We were looking to climb some 5.9's, but not really sure where we were, decided to give one of the climbs a try. I nearly killed myself on the first bolt, and no way could I reach the second. We realized this wasn't the area we were wanting to climb, and Alan went scouting around for the other walls. He found it, and it turns out you want to take a left at the fork in the trail, and follow that higher up towards another wall that I believe was The Watchtower. We found a climb that seemed to match what was described on the site pretty well, called Night School. It is a 5.8, 60 ft, sport climb with 6 bolts and anchor chains at the top. These chains have rappel rings and not carabiners. The ethic here is to build your own top rope anchor.
Alan on TR on Night School.
We set up and I lead the climb with Alan belaying. It wasn't too difficult, and was a lot of fun. There were 2 or 3 cruxes. The view at the top of the river valley was amazing. I then cleaned my gear on the way down, and belayed Alan on top rope. It began to rain, with some pretty big raindrops, and I was worried Alan wouldn't be able to finish out the climb (and I think he was worried about that too!) But fortunately, the rain stopped, and Alan kept climbing, and he made it to the top.
We then packed up and headed back to the car, but before leaving we took a dip in the hot springs. I stripped down and tested one of the pools out and it was boiling hot! I tested another, and too much river water was flowing through it and it was freezing! Alan tested the first one again, closer to the river, and it felt better. I went in, and it felt so good. You have to be careful to keep the water mixed though, since the spring water is boiling hot and mixes with river water that is freezing cold. We then drove back to Carbondale and went grocery shopping at the City Mart for our backpacking trip to Snowmass Mountain, and then drove out to the Carbondale / Crystal River KOA Campground and got a tent site.
Penny Hot Springs in Crystal River.
It was a really nice campground, and we enjoyed our time there. We set up camp and set all our stuff out to dry before packing our backpacks for the trip. We took a little drone GoPro footage over the river, and then tried to start a fire to cook a dinner of sausages, tortillas, and cheese, but could not keep the fire going! In our defense, the wood we had was wet, and Alan was able to start a fire high up on Snowmass Mountain last year with almost no available tinder. We marched off to the campground lounge in defeat, and used the gas grill on the patio. It began to rain, and we headed inside and hung out in the lounge, talking late into the evening. Not too long before we were going to turn in for the night, Alan checked his email, and said "Oh, crap." He had been called back to his job, and not only that, but he had to leave in 3 days on a flight to the UK. There was no way we could do Snowmass now. With some difficulty, we came to terms with what this meant, and decided to make the best of the situation by going mountain biking the next day, which is what we did.
Sky Mountain Park Loop - mountain bike trails near Ouray, CO
Riding the Skyline Ridge Trail.
We rolled out of camp in the morning headed to the Buttermilk Ski Area instead of the Snowmass trailhead. We stopped at a bike shop in El Jebel to get some beta and I packed my mountain biking backpack. At the Buttermilk Ski Area parking lot, we unloaded our bikes and assembled them, and then hit the trail. There is a good trail description on mtbproject.com that we used. The loop is 18.3 miles, 2175 ft vertical, and mostly singletrack. Follow Owl Creek Road along the Aspen Airport until you hit the paved Owl Creek Trail. Peel off onto Airline Trail, which is a singletrack that goes up to the ridge, where you make a left onto Skyline Ridge Trail. The climb makes you breathe hard, but is worth it. The views at the top are beautiful. We could see Capitol Peak in the distance, and the summit looked steep. After biking along the ridge, hit Deadline Trail, which is a fun downhill trail with lots of berms, jumps, and switchbacks. Take Highline Trail to Lowline Trail down into the valley of Snowmass Village, and then climb back up to the ridge on Cozyline Trail and hop back onto Airline for a fun, fast descent back home.
Alan riding up Airline Trail, overlooking Aspen Airport.
On our way back up Cozyline, we could see rain clouds headed our way from Capitol, and I worried we would be arriving at the peak just in time for a storm. We moved fast, and got to the top and back down before the rain hit, and I put on my rain jacket for the last few miles back. A few claps of thunder kept me moving pretty fast. It was a fun, beautiful ride, and quite flowy, although it didn't have many features and wasn't nearly as technical as some other rides we've done in the past. As Alan put it, "It's what mountain bikers call a road trail," although you really wouldn't want to ride it on a road bike. We disassembled our bikes and stowed them back in the Prius, and headed to Aspen to find some lunch.
Riding down Airline Trail.
We wandered around Aspen looking for a good place to grab a burger and a beer, and must have visited a half dozen places before we settled on good old Justice Snow's that we had visited the previous years. A nice burger and a big bottle of local porter later, and we stopped to toss a frisbee for a few minutes in the city park before starting our drive home. We pulled over on Independence Pass for a few minutes to take in the view, and I noticed that you can see Capitol Peak from the Pass. We intended to get some GoPro footage from the drone, but the GoPro decided to conk out on us and we ended up taking turns flying the drone just for fun, with no video footage. We drove towards Pueblo on CO Highway 50 to hit the interstate ASAP, to minimize the amount of mountain road driving we had to do at night. The road to Pueblo is stunning, as it passes through a long canyon on the Arkansas River. We stopped for some ice cream at a McDonald's in Pueblo before making it to a Motel 6 in Raton, New Mexico for the night. The next day we finished the drive back to Austin, where I unpacked and Alan headed on to Houston to get ready for his flight the next day.
Despite the trip being unexpectedly cut short, it had been a great success and we managed to cram in a lot of fun activities in 4 days! Alan and I are now planning a trip to Pico de Orizaba in Mexico this winter, and will probably come back to Colorado next summer to (finally, hopefully) do the SnowCap Loop! Until next time! Check out the video I made of the trip below:
