| With a sheet of ice underneath the snow on Squaw Pass Road, I was a little nervous about making it up to begin the circuit I planned for the morning. My first stop, from west to east would be Warrior Mountain. This would be the toughest distance for distance of the day, as the snow was 4' deep in spots along the bushwhack. It took 45 minutes to complete this .22 mile round-trip slog. It doesn't seem that this is a ranked 11er until you get a chance to peer around from the summit. I was a little discouraged about the rest of the morning's plans until I saw the packed trail so common throughout the winter/early spring season for the more popular peaks near Mount Evans. I set out for Chief Mountain next, following cross-country skiers on the east-west trail (featured in photo on right). Chief Mountain has over 1,000' of clean prominence, which helped lured me over here. I was hoping to get to Santa Fe Mountain, thus adding two 1k+ prominence peaks for the day, but private property guarded its entire west flank. The hard-pack trail was drastically different in difficulty, and soon I began the ascent on the Chief Mountain Trail proper, bypassing Papoose Mountain, which looked a lot like the bushwhack up Warrior from here.
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The temperature was rapidly heating up, and the snow was softening. I had the trail to myself on the ascent, which was partially covered in spots from wind. Following the gentle trail as it switched back, I was getting anxious to get to the top. Soon the trail arrived at the western-most extremity and I could head up the ridge above treeline. The wind picked up and was slightly chilly, but it didn't take long to reach the summit rocks. The view of the Front Range from here is worth it. On the left, Squaw Mountain oversees the Denver Metro area (it is quite prominent in appearance from Denver with its partially bald east face) - if you look carefully, you can see the trail heading up Squaw from left to right. On the descent, there were a few people on their way up to enjoy the ski down. My detour to Papoose at the saddle didn't quite get me to the same level of frustration as experienced postholing Warrior Mountain, but still took some energy. The view of Chief Mountain from this named summit (bump) was the highlight of this side-trip.
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I drove along Little Bear Creek Road to check out access to Santa Fe Mountain from the west. I returned after the fruitless inspection to start the Squaw Mountain hike. No one I saw was lacking snowshoes unless possessing skis, which surprised me since you'd need a sledgehammer to punch through. The temperature was really cooking now, and there was a non-wintry spring feel to the snow-plastered landscape. About 45 minutes after the start, I arrived at the fire lookout, which was locked (no surprise), but a pair of bolt-cutters or crampons could have afforded the second floor. The return was pleasant except for the thought in the back of my mind that I would certainly have a sunburn due to my absent-minded gear essentials tendency.
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