Little Bear Peak Trip Report 07/03/2007

Peak(s):	Little Bear Peak - 14,041 feet
Date Posted:	07/03/2007
Date Climbed:	06/30/2007
Author:	Matt

Little Bear--semi-standard route
It's funny how things work out sometimes. Little Bear was not on my summer wish list, but with Crestone Peak still holding snow, I looked southward for a Sangre fix. My last trip to Lake Como was one of the worst days of my life--my soon-to-be ex-girlfriend made us park her Rav-4 about 1.0 miles from the highway and hike the whole road in the heat, then the dark, since it's a long damn way to Blanca's summit and back when you get a late start.... I digress, but I was looking to change my perspective. Luckily, word on the street had it that the hourglass was snow-free, and CODave was down for giving LB a shot. I started driving up the Como road on Thursday evening in a sporadic, but driving rain. It looked more like the Rio de Como than a road at times, so I stopped at about 9900ft to sleep. The sunset over the San Luis (San Lewis, say it like a local) was worth stopping before the trees that would have blocked my view. I woke up the next morning and continued up the road, following a stock 2002 4-Runner. At what I believe to be Jaws 0.5, 2.1 miles from the "Mt. Blanca" sign, the 4-Runner met its match, denting the heck out of its right side. (Greg, I feel for ya, man... Maybe your buddy should have driven his own car--it looked like he pushed you so hard to try that). I didn't have a spotter and have to drive my truck every day, so I parked right there, packed up, & started walking up the boulder-strewn road. Here are some pics taken along the way. This road means business. I parked my stock FJ at the last open pullout before... Jaws 1: You gotta have mad skills to get a stock anything up that, but a guy with a 14ers.com bumper sticker almost did just that--his Jeep had only bigger tires, no apparent lift. Jaws 2 will pretty much end the ride for anything longer than a Cherokee without 6" of lift, giant tires, at least a rear locker, and a winch. Some guy with a "$45,000" Rubicon getting his money's worth: My pack and I got to the lake after 1:20 and 1,600ft of vertical. Little Bear was waiting: I knew that Oman and Skip Perkins would be up there, so I went looking, hungry for news about the conditions. I found their tents at the far end of the lake, found a campsite nearby, and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up I met Skip (one badass guy) and said hi to Oman. They had returned from a successful summit of LB, and had the disconcerting news of "bulletproof" snow below the hourglass. Shite. I didn't bring crampons, but figured we'd find a way. Skip also told me that they used the rope at times. Skip is built like a brick shthouse (don't mess with him...), and he said the rope held up to both his and Oman's inspection and their girth. The mosquitos were out in FORCE. PSA#1--take plenty of bugspray to Lake Como. Dave was driving in that evening, so I hiked back down to meet him & pick up the ice axe (and beer) I left down there earlier. He set up his tent, I started a fire, and we decided on a late start the next morning to both allow the snow to get soft & to give another group who started at 4 a.m. a chance to get down before we got to the Hourglass. Morning came, we said goodbye to Skip, and headed toward the initial gully, which is a bunch of loose yuck, but doable without too much fuss (photo taken on the way back). In what became a theme, we took a route other than the obvious one, trying to avoid steep dirt/scree, and discovered on the way back down that the best way to both ascend and descend this gully is on the right side of the above photo, where there's a better trail than the one that appears most traveled. We topped out on the ridge, and headed toward the business end of this route, the Hourglass. We could see the snowfield ahead, and stopped at its edge to plan our route. While we were talking, we heard, then saw, rocks flying down the Hourglass like bullets, except that a few were the size of tank shells. While we waited for the other group to descend, the marmots found us. The Lake Como marmots are scrawnier than those I see in the San Juans, but they've got some cojones and soon, six of them were playing a few feet in front of us. The biggest of the group first tried to get into my backpack, and then he got cheeky. I saw him sneak behind me, and watched as he crept up and started nibbling on my butt! I'd seen the size of his buck teeth, so I scared him away. At one point, things got rowdy: Once the first group finished coming down a curiously difficult route down the Hourglass, we got out the axes, made a tiny traverse of what turned out to be fairly soft snow (warm night??), and moved up this rock rib, across the flat snow catwalk to the base of the Hourglass. PSA#2--once you get to the rock rib, ascend on climber's left all the way to the rope inside the hourglass. The other side looks much harder (based on how long it took the first group to get down), and you have to cross the whole snowfield to get there. With crampons, it's a different story. With the heat on down there, that snow won't matter in a week or so. By now the sound of water cascading down the Hourglass could be ignored no longer. The medial part of the gully had water, both frozen and running all the way up, so we headed up mostly class 3 and a little class 4 rock to the base of the anchor. I stalled on a class 4 move when my feet were too wet to stay in the only foothold, but I dried it off, and we kept going. Dave on his way up: Once we got to the rope, it was decision time. To use or not to use? It almost sounds like a junkie's quandary. Our feet were wet & the rock was, too. We took a chance and used it sparingly to both ascend and descend. It was either that or take an equivalent or greater risk trying to ascend with wet feet on the absolutely crappy rock (also wet) along the sides of the gully. So, yeah, critics, we took a big, but calculated risk. I'm not recommending it by any means... People should make their own decisions and be responsible for them. At the anchor (it's HUGE), we conveniently decided to forget what both Bill and Roach recommend, and we headed too far left toward the west ridge. This introduced me to some low class 5 moves and some interesting choices, but we eventually topped out. As Borat would say, "Great Success!!"* I've never been happier to be on a summit, but, given our late start and what we figured to be a difficult descent, we didn't stay long. We immediately found the easy way down that had eluded our attention earlier. The descent was much faster and relaxed than anticipated--until we followed some bunk carins and found ourselves here: Dave took one slight misstep and unleashed a fury of rocks, from pebbles to basketballs, that would have been lethal if anyone else was down there (I called out every few minutes to make sure no one was). I couldn't believe how fast and far the rocks were going. PSA#3--You can easily meet your maker in the hourglass if rocks start falling. Please be sure no one else is above you, and consider keeping your group down to three or less climbers. We got down to the anchor, then down to the end of the rope with few issues. Once down there, my feet got wet again, and the rock was too slick to downclimb, so I tromped into the snow and took one last look up the Hourglass. Looks fun, huh? The rest of the hike was unremarkable and we got back to camp drunk on the adrenaline built up on Little Bear. I also had a few cans of Ska ESB... On the way down the Lake Como road on Sunday, I stopped and picked up a 50ish guy sitting under a juniper & looked like he was about to buy the farm. "Going down?" I asked, and he got in, after a couple minutes' struggle to lug his massive pack into the back. I learned that my passenger had flown in from his home (elevation 587ft..a little googling will make you go :roll the day before. PSA#4--If you're from low elevation, take time to acclimate. This road is a long slog in the sun, and above all, pack light! I dropped him at his car (BTW, a very nice guy) and at the pavement, Dave headed to BV and I toward Durango. I waved goodbye to the Blanca Massif. On the way back to Alamosa, this "Little Bear" showed up in the sky. Overall, we had a perfect day--clear weather with the Hourglass all to ourselves. I can't say I want to do this again any time soon, but I'm sure glad to have finished this peak. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Little Bear--semi-standard route

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Little Bear was not on my summer wish list, but with Crestone Peak still holding snow, I looked southward for a Sangre fix. My last trip to Lake Como was one of the worst days of my life--my soon-to-be ex-girlfriend made us park her Rav-4 about 1.0 miles from the highway and hike the whole road in the heat, then the dark, since it's a long damn way to Blanca's summit and back when you get a late start.... I digress, but I was looking to change my perspective.
Luckily, word on the street had it that the hourglass was snow-free, and CODave was down for giving LB a shot.
I started driving up the Como road on Thursday evening in a sporadic, but driving rain. It looked more like the Rio de Como than a road at times, so I stopped at about 9900ft to sleep. The sunset over the San Luis (San Lewis, say it like a local) was worth stopping before the trees that would have blocked my view.

I woke up the next morning and continued up the road, following a stock 2002 4-Runner. At what I believe to be Jaws 0.5, 2.1 miles from the "Mt. Blanca" sign, the 4-Runner met its match, denting the heck out of its right side. (Greg, I feel for ya, man... Maybe your buddy should have driven his own car--it looked like he pushed you so hard to try that). I didn't have a spotter and have to drive my truck every day, so I parked right there, packed up, & started walking up the boulder-strewn road. Here are some pics taken along the way. This road means business. I parked my stock FJ at the last open pullout before...
Jaws 1:

You gotta have mad skills to get a stock anything up that, but a guy with a 14ers.com bumper sticker almost did just that--his Jeep had only bigger tires, no apparent lift. Jaws 2 will pretty much end the ride for anything longer than a Cherokee without 6" of lift, giant tires, at least a rear locker, and a winch.

Some guy with a "$45,000" Rubicon getting his money's worth:

My pack and I got to the lake after 1:20 and 1,600ft of vertical.
Little Bear was waiting:

I knew that Oman and Skip Perkins would be up there, so I went looking, hungry for news about the conditions. I found their tents at the far end of the lake, found a campsite nearby, and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up I met Skip (one badass guy) and said hi to Oman. They had returned from a successful summit of LB, and had the disconcerting news of "bulletproof" snow below the hourglass. Shite. I didn't bring crampons, but figured we'd find a way. Skip also told me that they used the rope at times. Skip is built like a brick sh*thouse (don't mess with him...), and he said the rope held up to both his and Oman's inspection and their girth.
The mosquitos were out in FORCE. PSA#1--take plenty of bugspray to Lake Como. Dave was driving in that evening, so I hiked back down to meet him & pick up the ice axe (and beer) I left down there earlier.
He set up his tent, I started a fire, and we decided on a late start the next morning to both allow the snow to get soft & to give another group who started at 4 a.m. a chance to get down before we got to the Hourglass.
Morning came, we said goodbye to Skip, and headed toward the initial gully, which is a bunch of loose yuck, but doable without too much fuss (photo taken on the way back).

In what became a theme, we took a route other than the obvious one, trying to avoid steep dirt/scree, and discovered on the way back down that the best way to both ascend and descend this gully is on the right side of the above photo, where there's a better trail than the one that appears most traveled.
We topped out on the ridge, and headed toward the business end of this route, the Hourglass. We could see the snowfield ahead, and stopped at its edge to plan our route. While we were talking, we heard, then saw, rocks flying down the Hourglass like bullets, except that a few were the size of tank shells. While we waited for the other group to descend, the marmots found us. The Lake Como marmots are scrawnier than those I see in the San Juans, but they've got some cojones and soon, six of them were playing a few feet in front of us. The biggest of the group first tried to get into my backpack, and then he got cheeky. I saw him sneak behind me, and watched as he crept up and started nibbling on my butt! I'd seen the size of his buck teeth, so I scared him away.

At one point, things got rowdy:

Once the first group finished coming down a curiously difficult route down the Hourglass, we got out the axes, made a tiny traverse of what turned out to be fairly soft snow (warm night??), and moved up this rock rib, across the flat snow catwalk to the base of the Hourglass.

PSA#2--once you get to the rock rib, ascend on climber's left all the way to the rope inside the hourglass. The other side looks much harder (based on how long it took the first group to get down), and you have to cross the whole snowfield to get there. With crampons, it's a different story. With the heat on down there, that snow won't matter in a week or so.
By now the sound of water cascading down the Hourglass could be ignored no longer. The medial part of the gully had water, both frozen and running all the way up, so we headed up mostly class 3 and a little class 4 rock to the base of the anchor. I stalled on a class 4 move when my feet were too wet to stay in the only foothold, but I dried it off, and we kept going.
Dave on his way up:

Once we got to the rope, it was decision time. To use or not to use? It almost sounds like a junkie's quandary. Our feet were wet & the rock was, too. We took a chance and used it sparingly to both ascend and descend. It was either that or take an equivalent or greater risk trying to ascend with wet feet on the absolutely crappy rock (also wet) along the sides of the gully. So, yeah, critics, we took a big, but calculated risk. I'm not recommending it by any means... People should make their own decisions and be responsible for them. At the anchor (it's HUGE), we conveniently decided to forget what both Bill and Roach recommend, and we headed too far left toward the west ridge. This introduced me to some low class 5 moves and some interesting choices, but we eventually topped out. As Borat would say, "Great Success!!"

I've never been happier to be on a summit, but, given our late start and what we figured to be a difficult descent, we didn't stay long. We immediately found the easy way down that had eluded our attention earlier. The descent was much faster and relaxed than anticipated--until we followed some bunk carins and found ourselves here:

Dave took one slight misstep and unleashed a fury of rocks, from pebbles to basketballs, that would have been lethal if anyone else was down there (I called out every few minutes to make sure no one was). I couldn't believe how fast and far the rocks were going. PSA#3--You can easily meet your maker in the hourglass if rocks start falling. Please be sure no one else is above you, and consider keeping your group down to three or less climbers.
We got down to the anchor, then down to the end of the rope with few issues. Once down there, my feet got wet again, and the rock was too slick to downclimb, so I tromped into the snow and took one last look up the Hourglass.

Looks fun, huh?

The rest of the hike was unremarkable and we got back to camp drunk on the adrenaline built up on Little Bear. I also had a few cans of Ska ESB...
On the way down the Lake Como road on Sunday, I stopped and picked up a 50ish guy sitting under a juniper & looked like he was about to buy the farm. "Going down?" I asked, and he got in, after a couple minutes' struggle to lug his massive pack into the back. I learned that my passenger had flown in from his home (elevation 587ft..a little googling will make you go :roll

the day before. PSA#4--If you're from low elevation, take time to acclimate. This road is a long slog in the sun, and above all, pack light!
I dropped him at his car (BTW, a very nice guy) and at the pavement, Dave headed to BV and I toward Durango. I waved goodbye to the Blanca Massif.

On the way back to Alamosa, this "Little Bear" showed up in the sky.

Overall, we had a perfect day--clear weather with the Hourglass all to ourselves. I can't say I want to do this again any time soon, but I'm sure glad to have finished this peak.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

CODave	Great! 7/4/2007 2:45pm Very nice TR! It was a great weekend climbing with you!
benners	Congrads! 7/6/2007 4:48pm Nice climb and TR del_sur! Any plans for future climbs?
summitwolf	Just missed you ! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Great TR ! I must have just missed you guys by a day. I climbed LB on 7/1. Saw your names in the register. I can't agree more with finally getting this peak out of the way. It is definitely not one I will be doing again any time soon The hourglass is no joke and nothing to be taken lightly. Amazing climb.
Skip Perkins	Lil Bear 11/30/2010 5:28pm Great report and pictures. It was like I was just there. Oh, that's right - I was. It was great meeting you and CoDave. Have a good 4th!
ldreher13	Great job guys! 11/30/2010 5:28pm Sounds like Little Bear was quite the climb! I'll have to live viacriously through these TR's for a whole until I have the guts to try it myself. Thanks for sharing!
Matt	Prakash... 1/19/2011 3:38am The NW face route is easily visible from the road as you head toward Blanca. It looks steep and loose, for sure, but a group of three from Durango went right up it. It looks steeper, but safer, than the hourglass
maverick_manley	Awesome... 2/5/2011 12:22am report man... hope to climb LB this month with the traverse to Blanca if possible . Did you perhaps get a chance to look down the NW face route? Thanks Prakash

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