Jacque Peak 13,205' 06/19/2005

I was a little surprised to show up at the gate to the Searle Pass road mentioned in Muller's Colorado Summits for Everyone and see the pletohra of signs indicating no access. I drove further west looking for a reasonable starting point, ending up taking a road north about 5 miles away from Jacque Peak which led to nowhere. I decided to go back to the Climax road and parked a third of a mile east at a large pullout at 9:00 am. I started what was to be a heinous bushwhack through fallen and living aspen by heading north to circumnavigate the Climax property, quickly gaining 800 vertical feet before heading west toward the objective. Progress north/south and up was not nearly as taxing as east-west. The photo on the right illustrates the special pleasure of bushwhacking for the first 2 miles of this hike. It was incredibly hot, and I was not able to quench my thirst no matter how much I drank. The trees discouraged me enough to seek open slopes above treeline a little too soon.
	So after sidehilling for a while, I finally reached the flat drainage below Jacque Peak (featured on left). Now I would have to contend with snow-laden willows to reach the bare slope leading to Jacque's south ridge. In typical fashion, the willows had their way, forcing their non-enigmatic intrinsically evil encumbrance unto me. Only after half of my ascent to the ridge did I spot an old narrow road splitting the willows. The going had been slow and the bushwhacking had taken more than its fair share of energy from me. At least it was cooling down to some extent. I made my way up the slope steadily, unfettered by the indignant vegetation. The slope required a little talus hopping and light scrambling near the ridge crest and an interesting move over the cornice. The remainder of the ascent would be gentle along the broadening ridge (photo below).
The summit affords an incredible vantage of the Tenmile Range, in additon to outstanding views of Holy Cross and the Gore Range. I wasn't aware Jacque Peak was part of the Gore Range until I looked at the topo the next day - thus this was my first Gore Range peak. The drudgery of the returning bushwhack was not weighing lightly on my mind, and I opted to descend a slightly different path, which went a little more smoothly. The heat was fairly intense back in the trees, and a descent to the Climax Property road was tempting.