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Layne and I decided to get together for what we thought would be an easy Front Range 13er outing. We even had plans to take on Ruby Mountain, time permitting. The forecast was poor, but things looked OK as we started at the Lenawee Trailhead reached from the Peru Creek Road. We quickly gained treeline, chatting along the way, having ascended 1,700 feet in 52 minutes. Ruby looked like it might be in our future. From here, things really deteriorated. The coulds and wind started forming and the terrain got tougher. We made the mistake of following the trail about a mile too far (my suggestion given misplaced confidence in the guidebook Hiking Colorado). We then followed the ridge to the south as it really began getting wintry.
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On the left, visibility is declining as we make our way up the talus-strewn ridge. Soon sidehilling ensued on now slippery talus. The going was slow, requiring careful foot placement and maneuvering around boulders. We eventually made it to Lenawee's West ridge, but not before I kept heading south in the poor visibility for a couple hundred yards. The temperature was really dropping around this time. The ridge was quite tedious, as most of the going required three points of contact because of the new snow. Below, Layne begins the tougher parts of the ridge. We kept monitoring our progress with GPS and were making terribly slow headway.
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Half a mile, then 3 tenths of a mile, then after what seemd about 20 minutes, .23 miles. The summit wasn't very pleasant (photo below), so we headed back in slightly improved conditions. It took us over three hours to gain the 1,500 feet after our early rapid progress. Breaks in the clouds didn't really allow sunlight through, but we could see our surroundings while returning back on the ridge. The descent was much faster, but still tedious. The sun of course came out once we completed our more direct descent down the west slopes.
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