Mt. Yale Trip Report 07/05/2014

Peak(s):	Mt. Yale - 14,200 feet
Date Posted:	07/05/2014
Date Climbed:	07/02/2014
Author:	soon2b_mac

Head up in the Clouds :)
The past few attempts to get to the Collegiate Peaks have proven to be quite a challenge for me. Whether it be work, lack of sleep, more work, or weather - something has successfully gotten in my way of making the trip. I finally found myself looking at a day off coming up, so I decided to pull an audible and give my friend Josh a call. 10pm the night prior to the hike, I am calling upon Josh to come peak bagging with me... Fresh off a flight from Hawaii, and on 0 hours of sleep - he responds & says we're a go! Excited about our next days plans, sleep seemed to be out of the question, no matter how hard I tried. 2am rolls around and my bags packed, boots are in the car, & I am on the road from Denver to pick up Josh in Morrison. We departed the Mammoth lot at about 3am and started making the trek to the TH... 2hrs, 45mins later the sun is beginning to kiss the trail, so we park, pop some ibpro., and we're on our way! Josh & I had hiked Long's Peak together some months back, so we were already accustomed to one another's pace. Everything seemed to be dry, no sign of snow on the trail any longer. The trail begins in this beautiful, almost enchanted looking forest. With all the sun beams peaking though, the lush green color, and wildflowers in bloom, we were almost convinced we were about to see little fairy's flying around and talking cartoon animals everywhere... that craziness aside, it was seriously beautiful. We both were running on no sleep, & wanting to get back to our significant others, so we had planned on shaving a little time off the overall trip by hustling more than normal. You're in the trees for an extended period of time on this particular climb. We took the standard route up, and it's seemingly the climb that keeps on giving! The more trail we put behind us, the more incredible everything seemed to get. This mountain, in my opinion, is not a typical 14er. It's not just grey rocks once you get above treeline. It's beauty continues the entire route! Once we cleared treeline, we looked back and realized we were above the clouds!! I have yet to see that kind of cloud coverage here in Colorado. Wyoming, sure, but this was a first for me here! As the morning went on, we watched as the clouds filled the valley, spilled over the saddles, and then began to rise to satisfy the 40% chance of scattered showers the weatherman had forecasted for the area in the previous days. Luckily, we made it off the mountain before any of that became reality. Above treeline is where you really start your climb. The beginning was rather mellow, and then once the switchbacks are in view, that is when you really feel like you're climbing a 14er. The views of the valley up the switchbacks are unreal. Once we hit the ridgeline, it was like another world all over again! Even more clouds, closer to us this time, greeting us as the sun finally kisses our faces. It was as if you could have stepped off the ridge and walked across the sky ... Of course, you'd have to be insane to do that, so needless to say our feet remained on solid ground The final push up the ridgeline greets us with a false summit. While I stuck to the Carins which wrapped around the side of the false summit, Josh got trapped in an upward route that was more so bouldering than anything. If you don't follow the Carins here, you get trapped into the more exposed route, which is still not a tricky one. Finally at 8:30 we hit the summit! The views from up here were amazing, in every direction, per usual. But this time was a touch different, simply because of the dramatic element those clouds added. We snapped some pictures, chatted with a young man who was up from Arizona to do a few peaks, and then headed back down to still make good time. The hike down was no less extraordinary. The clouds were lifting, forming rain clouds out of the valley, and the wildflowers were awake and soaking in the sun. Once in the treeline again, we were surrounded by my favorite smell - you know, the one of sun drenched pine trees and fresh trail air... there's something about the forest that is so comforting, simply in it's smells, if nothing else. I still think Yankee Candle could have a best seller on their hands if they turned that particular scent into a candle! lol. We found the car again when all was said and done, at 11am and we were heading back to Denver. The 285 was a beautiful route back home, and we were happy to be heading the opposite direction from all the traffic that seemed to be heading into town for the holiday weekend. Made it back to Denver by 2, and got to enjoy the day off with loved ones! All in all, a great day - which makes the sacrifice of no sleep all well worth it To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3), highlight it with your cursor, and click on the Image button on the right. Example: More image format examples: Float image right: Float image right, width of 300 pixels: Float image left, width of 175 pixels: External image: Float external image right, width of 600 pixels: Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Head up in the Clouds :)

The past few attempts to get to the Collegiate Peaks have proven to be quite a challenge for me. Whether it be work, lack of sleep, more work, or weather - something has successfully gotten in my way of making the trip. I finally found myself looking at a day off coming up, so I decided to pull an audible and give my friend Josh a call. 10pm the night prior to the hike, I am calling upon Josh to come peak bagging with me... Fresh off a flight from Hawaii, and on 0 hours of sleep - he responds & says we're a go! Excited about our next days plans, sleep seemed to be out of the question, no matter how hard I tried. 2am rolls around and my bags packed, boots are in the car, & I am on the road from Denver to pick up Josh in Morrison. We departed the Mammoth lot at about 3am and started making the trek to the TH... 2hrs, 45mins later the sun is beginning to kiss the trail, so we park, pop some ibpro., and we're on our way!

Josh & I had hiked Long's Peak together some months back, so we were already accustomed to one another's pace. Everything seemed to be dry, no sign of snow on the trail any longer. The trail begins in this beautiful, almost enchanted looking forest. With all the sun beams peaking though, the lush green color, and wildflowers in bloom, we were almost convinced we were about to see little fairy's flying around and talking cartoon animals everywhere... that craziness aside, it was seriously beautiful.

We both were running on no sleep, & wanting to get back to our significant others, so we had planned on shaving a little time off the overall trip by hustling more than normal. You're in the trees for an extended period of time on this particular climb. We took the standard route up, and it's seemingly the climb that keeps on giving! The more trail we put behind us, the more incredible everything seemed to get. This mountain, in my opinion, is not a typical 14er. It's not just grey rocks once you get above treeline. It's beauty continues the entire route! Once we cleared treeline, we looked back and realized we were above the clouds!! I have yet to see that kind of cloud coverage here in Colorado. Wyoming, sure, but this was a first for me here!

As the morning went on, we watched as the clouds filled the valley, spilled over the saddles, and then began to rise to satisfy the 40% chance of scattered showers the weatherman had forecasted for the area in the previous days. Luckily, we made it off the mountain before any of that became reality. Above treeline is where you really start your climb. The beginning was rather mellow, and then once the switchbacks are in view, that is when you really feel like you're climbing a 14er. The views of the valley up the switchbacks are unreal. Once we hit the ridgeline, it was like another world all over again! Even more clouds, closer to us this time, greeting us as the sun finally kisses our faces. It was as if you could have stepped off the ridge and walked across the sky

... Of course, you'd have to be insane to do that, so needless to say our feet remained on solid ground

The final push up the ridgeline greets us with a false summit. While I stuck to the Carins which wrapped around the side of the false summit, Josh got trapped in an upward route that was more so bouldering than anything. If you don't follow the Carins here, you get trapped into the more exposed route, which is still not a tricky one. Finally at 8:30 we hit the summit! The views from up here were amazing, in every direction, per usual. But this time was a touch different, simply because of the dramatic element those clouds added. We snapped some pictures, chatted with a young man who was up from Arizona to do a few peaks, and then headed back down to still make good time.

The hike down was no less extraordinary. The clouds were lifting, forming rain clouds out of the valley, and the wildflowers were awake and soaking in the sun. Once in the treeline again, we were surrounded by my favorite smell - you know, the one of sun drenched pine trees and fresh trail air... there's something about the forest that is so comforting, simply in it's smells, if nothing else. I still think Yankee Candle could have a best seller on their hands if they turned that particular scent into a candle! lol.

We found the car again when all was said and done, at 11am and we were heading back to Denver. The 285 was a beautiful route back home, and we were happy to be heading the opposite direction from all the traffic that seemed to be heading into town for the holiday weekend. Made it back to Denver by 2, and got to enjoy the day off with loved ones! All in all, a great day - which makes the sacrifice of no sleep all well worth it

To display your photos (uploaded below) in the final trip report, type the image number (i.e., 1, 2, 3), highlight it with your cursor, and click on the Image button on the right. Example:

More image format examples:
Float image right:

Float image right, width of 300 pixels:

Float image left, width of 175 pixels:

External image:

Float external image right, width of 600 pixels:

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

emiller6

Nice
7/6/2014 2:43pm

Pictures, especially 2. A little heavy on the HDR, but cool nonetheless. May need to move Yale a little higher up the list of hikes to do this summer.

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