The trench is in on Yale

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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spiderman
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Re: The trench is in on Yale

Post by spiderman »

Thanks for the info! We are heading up there tonight and camping around 10,600'. Hoping to do Yale and possibly Mascot on Saturday Anybody else planning to be up there this weekend?
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spiderman
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Re: The trench is in on Yale

Post by spiderman »

Sweet! I can leave behind the two gallons of water that I was planning to haul up to camp. Was it mixed rock and snow on the ridge? To follow up on that, are microspikes sufficient or would you recommend crampons?
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spiderman
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Re: The trench is in on Yale

Post by spiderman »

Thanks for all of this information, Dex. I had last done it from Avalanche TH in the winter and thought that it was the standard route for the Winter. Anyway, we had a blast on Saturday. It was cool and windy, but not unbearable. There was only a faint trace of a path when we were breaking trail. Made it up to 13,200 and ran out of steam. First 14er attempt of the year for us and it was a good way to warm up the legs. The good news is that we put in a half-decent trench on that route. At least to that point, spikes were not necessary.
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moneymike
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Re: The trench is in on Yale

Post by moneymike »

I just climbed Yale on Sunday. I followed the Colorado trail from the east, and headed up into the east bowl. I gained the east ridge at about 13 500'. Climbing was simple the entire way. I was either on frozen packed snow below tree line, wind compacted snow above tree line or on bare wind blown slopes. On the ridge I was climbing bare rock or supportable snow. There was no postholing. Climbing was quite simple via this route (in spite of the 50 mph gusts and near zero visibility).

For the skiers: I skied a line directly from the summit into the bowl. I was able to connect patches of snow and ski continuously to 11 000'. You might enjoy my skin track too.

The road was closed a mile and a quarter from the trail head.
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

"Slow and steady wins the race (unless you're racing someone who is fast and steady)."
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