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Peak(s):  Little Bear Peak  -  14,041 feet
Date Posted:  05/29/2007
Date Climbed:   05/27/2007
Author:  DHatfield
 Little Bear Peak - West Ridge   

Peak: Little Bear Peak (Ranked #44)
Elev. At summit: 14,037
May 26-28, 07

Trailhead: Approximately 9,500 feet along Lake Como Road
Route(s): Ascended and descended west ridge via the hourglass
Distance: 8.40 miles
Elevation gain: 5,000 feet
Class: 4
Participants: Susan Paul, Dave Dietz, Lisa Heckel, and Doug Hatfield

This trip was in the planning since last Labor Day when we made our first attempt at Little Bear Peak, but due to verglass in the hourglass and not having crampons forced us to look for another way up in which didn't happen so here we are 8 months later yet once again hoping to summit Little Bear Peak. Since we knew summer would be bad due to great rockfall potential we thought this time we would climb it as a snow climb.

Dave agreed to drive his 4Runner to help us get as far up Lake Como Road as possible. We left Colorado Springs on Saturday the 26th at 8:00am and stopped at Subway in Walsenburg for lunch and arrived at about 9,500 feet along Lake Como Road around 1:30pm in which I really wasn't looking forward to huffing my overloaded pack up the road to our camp spot above the lake. With the warm weather we hiked at a pretty leisurely pace and stopped a few times to get bata from climbers in regards to Little Bear Peak all of which the response was they didn't summit due to poor conditions in the coulior as earlier as 7:30am when they arrived at the hourglass. I was really hoping it would fair okay with us as I am not really looking forward to hiking up this road a fourth time. As you get within a little less then ¼ mile you start to posthole through snow in spots and after getting on the east end of the lake and especially in the trees we postholed quite frequently which became very exhausting with full packs on. We arrived at our camp at 11,900 feet, just across the trail from the coulior leading up the west ridge, at 4:50pm. The views of Little Bear Peak from camp were wonderful. We turned in for the night early since we were hoping to get early 4:00am start.

Sunday, May 27th at 3:00am when we awoke it was good to feel that the temperature was in the low to mid 30's with a clear sky hoping that the snow would be firm enough for a good snow climb. We noticed a group of climbers already ascending the north facing coulior, so much for being the first ones to the summit, but that is great they can help make steps for us. Finally leaving camp at 4:40am in the dark we contoured around the boulder field and started to ascend the north facing gully and in most places the snow would support your weight, but occasionally you would posthole. This part of the climb was kind of slowed me down a little even though I have been hiking quite a bit I have not done any steep snow climbing for at least a year. We arrived at the top of the coulior at 5:30am in which we started heading east toward Little Bear and it was great to see the snow continuous all the way up to the summit. The west ridge was nice and dry and offered great views of Ellingwood Point and the basin below, which is still quite snowy. Soon we needed to do a descending traverse toward the hourglass and after crossing a few snow fields we arrived at the hourglass, which was about as far was we got 8 months ago. After seeing snow rolling down the hourglass we figured it was the three climbers we saw in the morning coming down so we waited for a few minutes until they exited in which we asked them how the climb was and snow condition in which they mentioned the snow in general was great, but starting to soften up.

At 7:30am we started up into the hourglass all by ourselves. Our paced slowed quite a bit as we ascended the hourglass with our slightly heavier packs since we did carry a rope (which we didn't use) and harnesses. I felt the snow was great since it supported well and you didn't have to kick very hard to make steps due to the slightly soft snow. The hourglass felt steeper then I thought it would as we ascended mostly on the right side of the coulior and the only scary moment was after traversing to the left side of the coulior and my foot slipped at which time I realized that my leash was no longer attached to my ice axe, opps. I felt the steepest part of the hourglass was right before you cross to the left side to avoid some ice and right at the summit. We arrived on the summit at 9:00am with wonderful views of the surrounding 14ers and it sure was nice to get this peak done, but we knew we were only half done at this point since we still had to get down safely, which for me seemed worse then climbing up most times. This summit was Dave's final 14er, bring Lisa up to #50, and Susan to #41. Congrats and way to go Dave, Susan, and Lisa!! The ridge over to Blanca Peak looked a bit rugged, but I hope to do it some day. After doing brief celebration for Dave and taking photos we carefully started our descend down the hourglass before the sun starts to soften the snow too much in which I was little concerned about since I have never descended snow this steep before and it took some time since the only way I felt comfortable descending was face in, much slower then face out I think. Just as we arrived at the constriction in the hourglass some rocks started coming down the hourglass one of which barely missed Susan's head, time to move a little quicker as the climbers we saw earlier must be headed down. We were all relieved to have safely made it back out of the hourglass without incident and soon we started traversing the snow slopes back toward the west ridge in which was a little slippery in places with the ever softening snow with at least a climber or two in our group slipping and having to go into self arrest and realizing that the snow was so soft that you would slide 20-30 feet before stopping and made me think how would you be able to arrest in the hourglass, I guess you better not slip.

After taking nice little late lunch break and visiting with the two climbers that descended after us we meet another solo climber from Arkansas that was heading to do Little Bear Peak, which I thought was not a good idea with the warming temps and it being 2:00pm. After reaching the north coulior leading down the west ridge we meet the solo climbers other two friends waiting for him to return, hopefully safely. We carefully descended the north coulior and arrived at camp at 5:30pm, what a long day. We were going to do Ellingwood Point and Blanca Peak the next day, but we were all pretty much whipped not to mention we didn't like the thought of postholing the entire basin without snowshoes as that would be a great way to have an epic trip so we just filtered water and had dinner and crashed early and were all very happy to have safely made it up Little Bear and back.

Sunday, May 28th after eating breakfast we left camp at 9:45am and it was great once arrived at Lake Como as we knew our postholing would be over and then we just had to do the long hike out to the 4Runner in which we arrived at 5:28pm we finish by celebrating over some beer and Mexican food at the restaurant in Blanca. It was great to hike with you again Susan, Dave, and Lisa and look forward to more hikes together and again congrats on yet another fine climb and Dave for finishing your 14ers.

Doug

Photos:


#68: Looking up the hourglass
#70: Lisa, Susan, and Dave starting up the hourglass
#71: Lisa, Susan, and Dave traversing in the hourglass
#74: Lisa, Susan, and Dave climbing up the last steep section of snow to summit
#76: Dave arriving on the summit of his 54th 14er, Congrats Dave!!
#77: Lisa, Dave, and Susan on summit of Little Bear Peak
#78: Lisa, Dave, and myself on the summit of Little Bear Peak
#90: Looking up the upper section of hourglass toward summit with Lisa (foreground) with Susan and Dave in background
#93: Susan and Dave descending the middle of the hourglass
#29: Little Bear Peak from Lake Como
#60: Little Bear Peak in early morning



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11


Comments or Questions
USAKeller
User
Wow!
5/30/2007 3:08pm
Awesome job- sounds like a good day!


summitseeker
User
Good thinking
5/30/2007 5:19pm
Sounds like a great idea to get this one done with snow in the hourglass instead of rocks.


cheeseburglar
User
Awesome.
6/1/2007 9:23pm
Did the ridge to Blanca look like it still had snow or ice on it?


DHatfield
Ridge
6/1/2007 9:35pm
cheeseburglar, there looked like some snow in places. Not sure on the ice as that would be a little hard to tell, but I would imagine there is some.



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