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Arriving at Blank Gulch on Sunday night, we took some time to set up camp
and noticed a lot of people returning from climbing Shavano at 7:30 pm, somewhat
late for safe climbing. We noticed the memorial for the goat man there. What is
interesting is that mountain goats were not indigenous to Colorado, but this man
reintroduced them according to the inscription. In any event, we planned to start
climbing at 5:30 am in order to get back into Denver by 4:00 pm. After a lousy night
of sleep we set up in the dark and got going just as it became light. The route seemed
steeper than the first time a month previously. Maybe climbing two 14ers the last two
days in a row had something to do with that. |
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The approach to get above treeline was incredibly long and steep for a hiking trail,
but we managed to get out in a little under two hours. Above is a picture of the route to the
saddle from above treeline with the Angel of Shavano on the left side of the picture.
Taking a short rest, we continued up the trail towards the 13,380' saddle. Finally the
peak emerged into view and we saw that it wasn't too far off. The saddle is an interesting
open flat area with no well-defined trail and a lot of tundra shrubbery. From here it looks
like the summit is a stone's throw away, however, there is still close to 900 feet of
elevation to gain. |
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Rejoining a trail near the base of the peak, we followed small dirt and
scree switchbacks to higher ground. There were some surprisingly large boulders on the way
up when the trail disentegrated. While it was very easy to pick a line to the summit,
I enjoyed some pseudo scrambling in this section. This peak just keeps going
and going with at least four false summits. Like Uncompahgre this summit has many
highpoints, so Chris and I explored a bit. Unlike Uncompahgre is the summit size, being
more similar to the size of Wetterhorn, which I wouldn't have guessed. Several people were making the traverse
to Tabeguache while I looked on in moderate disapproval. |
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This peak made it 31 for Chris and 23 for me out of the fourteeners. We ended
up taking 3.5 hours up and 2 down, showing signs of our exhaustion from the previous two
days. In total, we must have traveled at least 28 miles and gained 11,550 feet
of elevation total counting our 1st attempt on Uncompahgre. While this isn't much
of an accomplishment compared to those who race for the record on all 54, we did
manage to bag 3 peaks in three days with full climbs, which is good enough for the moment.
We managed to get back into Denver with more than enough time to spare. It was a
fabulous weekend for climbing weatherwise and you can't complain when you do what you
set out to do. |