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Being unsure of the weather on Saturday, I thought Mount Edwards would be a good hike
on Sunday close enough to Denver to make it back in time for the Broncos game at 2:00.
I arrived at a preplanned parking area from Leavenworth TH with an elevation just under
10,800' (on the map before another road branches off towards the East). It was brisk at
7:00 am when I started out on the ten miles ahead of me. The road was snowy, though not icy.
On the right is a view of the East Basin from the road just below Waldorf. In a little over
an hour, I reached the Waldorf Site. Looking at Roach's Guide for more directions, I spotted
the creek crossing he refers to and I proceeded up the road.
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 | Starting the hike up the North side of the creek became somewhat problematic. About
2' of fresh snow lined the creek and the willows surrounding it (photo on left). I started a slow post-holing
campaign up the creek and made it into the basin after 30 minutes. From here, I could see a
large snow gully leading up to the saddle of Edwards and McClellan Mountain. This looked to be the
route from the topo, but it also appeared that there were some windscoured slopes to the north of
the gully. Thinking that bare slopes would be easier than post-holing up the gully, I traversed North
onto the grass and scree. I gained about 500' before I realized that the consistency of the terrain was
becoming predominantly more ice-based. On a 25 degree frozen grass slope, I knew there wouldn't be much
to stop me If I slipped. Certainly not very dangerous if I slipped, but certainly not pleasant either.
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I began a traverse back towards the gully and had to punch the ice to make bare the ground
where I would be placing my feet. Making it to the edage of the gully, clouds that had been
shrouding Mount Edwards finally broke (photo on right). There was some high wind up there, and
it was rather chilly. climbing the last 200' of the gully was not as bad as I had thought it would be.
I made it up to a flat area below the saddle and the hiking became easy again for 15 minutes. The slope
above was againg icy, though not as much as my earlier encounter. Climbing up talus when possible, I
reached the top of the false summit and peered over to the West at the corniced summit.
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Another five minutes traversing around the cornice on the ridge, and I made the summit. Torreys
Peak looks remarkably different from this perspective. The views were sporadic due to the cloud movement.
It was cold enough that I didn't want to stay very long, and I made my way back down to the snow gully.
The quality of the snow was such that a glissade seemed possible if I could distribute my weight over a
broad enough area. I went down on my side and made it back to the base of the gully in two minutes. This
ended up sparing me a lot of time, and I was able to do some grocery shopping before the game.
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