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Peak(s):  Mt. Lady Washington  -  13,277 feet
Date Posted:  02/18/2008
Modified:  02/19/2008
Date Climbed:   02/18/2008
Author:  Nutrition_Guy
 Mt Lady Washington   

Mt Lady Washington
18 Feb 2008

Quick Stats
Road to Longs Peak Trailhead: Clear, plowed
Trailhead: ample parking, Folks, winter starts at Longs are great...3 cars in the parking lot! I almost wanted to take a picture

Starting Elevation: 9,400 feet
Start Time: 0640
Reached summit ridge on Lady Washington: 11:30
Got lost: 1:45
Found trail:3:00
Arrived at car at: 3:30
Total Time: 8:50

Climbing friends. This trip report has more than just our experiences on the mountain, it has a summary of our "post climb" "hot-wash" to discuss things we did right, and things we did wrong. In summary, 5 People started this climb. 2 became tired and turned back. A third tired near the summit and turned back, 2 went on to reach the summit ridge, and then returned. On the way down, the first group of 2 hikers became disoriented due to the wind swept snow covering all semblance of any tracks. The second group of one hiker continued down on his own, was able to follow the trail, and made it safely back to the car. The final group (including myself) after having summated, in a weird coincidence, made the exact same mistake as group1 and lost the trail and ended up bush-wacking back down to the car. Everyone made it back safe but we learned several things worth noting here on the forum as it applies to groups.

Also, worthy of note, if anyone is planning a hike up to Mt Lady Washington, or up the Longs trail, be very wary of "errant" tracks that will lead you into deep snow, difficult travel, and off trail. Best advice, take a GPS with track function and use it.

SO, prior to the trip report, Lessons Learned

1. If you are forming a group on 14ers, to go for a hike, make a plan at the start for what you will do if members of the party tire at different times. Although ultimately people are responsible for themselves, it is good backcountry practice to travel in groups, we violated this principle by not having a good plan at the start and then splitting up into 3 groups.

2. Be VERY wary of how extremely windy conditions can change a well worn trail. Winds were in excess of 50mph all day. This may seem obvious but despite us being aware that our tracks would be gone, we were not expecting the landscape to be very different--it seemed as if everything was different on the way down!

3. Bring snowshoes when snow is deep. We knew the snow was deep but also new the trail was well worn, and windswept above treeline. Most of the party didn't see the need for snowshoes, however, after getting off trail, snowshoes would have made travel quick!

Things we did right
1. Had map, compass and new how to use them. We did NOT have a GPS which would have been INFINETELY more useful in order to track back!
2. Everyone in this party was warm, well dressed, had extra clothing, and was prepared, and able to spend the night if it became necessary.

OK, so now for the trip report on Mt Lady Washington.

The name of the game was wind!

Jim (nutrition_guy), Jim (Crazydiamond80), Beth (Cloudust), Beth's friend Phil, and John (ltl13a) made the trip...and John, welcome home!

Me, Jim and Beth have climbed together on many occasions and I have to say, all three of us REALLY enjoyed the company of Phil and John. Both are fantastic guy's, fun to hike with, and well prepared!

We met at Longs Trailhead at 0615. I tried to open the car door but was quickly rebuffed by a 30mph gust of snow crystals and wind...this was going to be fun!

Our goal was Mt Lady Washington.

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We donned ALL our gear and began hiking up the trail in earnest. The first part of Longs Peak Trail is well worn and it is unnecessary to have snow shoes here. The trail splits after about a half mile and one path heads along the "actual" trail, and another takes a more direct approach. The snow is a few feet deep here but the trail continued to be very well packed. We didn't post hole once. In fact, several of us didn't even bring snow shoes. (That was a mistake as I hope you read the "lessons learned section").

We could here the wind howling in the treetops but we didn't really experience it's true fury for a bit longer. After about 90 minutes, we emerged onto the plateau where you can either go right to Longs, Left towards Mills Moraine and Chasm lake, or take the beeline straight up to Mt Lady Washington. The snow was now crusty hard packed, wind swept, and blowing. The wind was about 50mph steady with gusts up to 60-70mph. Walking was extremely slow. All members of the party donned wind pants or goretex pants, wind shielded/goretex tops, balaclavas, goggles, wind-stop gloves, and we were all in agreement that despite the harsh conditions, we were all warm! Key here, no skin left uncovered!

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We stopped for a short break beneath some rocks on our way up to Mt Lady Washington and then immediately headed up the slope. There is a well defined ridge that drops down into Mills Moraine. It's clearly marked on the Quad and good for a reference. We skirted up below the ridge as the wind wasn't quite as bad.

John and Beth had enough after about another hour of hiking and began to head back down to the car. Me, the other Jim, and Phil continued up. After about another hour, and continued and worsening wind (I felt like it was now a steady 60-70mph with higher gusts) and barely moveable"Phil and I sat down for a break"(the other jim continued on slowly). Phil and I were going to head down together but I was feeling good and decided to head up to the summit. Phil felt comfortable heading back down the trail we came up. In hindsight, me, (the other jim) and Phil should have called it quits, together, and hiked back as a group.

I'll be honest, I usually stick to the mantra of not splitting up the group"but it was a bit awkward since our group had grown due to the addition of folks from 14ers and we did not have a plan for how to handle this from the start (hindsight here would be helpful!). When you are tired, it's windy, and cold"a quick decision is not always the right one.

Anyway, Phil headed back and Jim and I reached the summit in about 90 minutes. Actually we didn't actually reach the true summit of Mt Lady Washington. We reached the summit ridge but when Jim crossed the ridge onto the west side, he was pummeled by 100mph+ winds and unable to move safely. This was our top.

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We headed down quickly and safely taking great care to always have a hand on a rock because you never knew when a gust was going to come.

I will mention that Jim and I were hit with a gust of wind on the way down that felt like we were being punched in the face. I had not experienced wind like that before. It knocked Jim over on top of me and ripped his hiking pole out of his hand tossing it down the mountain (we did recover it though). I did not have a wind meter with me, but I am telling you, I have gained a much greater appreciation for the effect of severe wind on a hiking trip. We were paralyzed from movement until this passed. We then made quick haste down the east face of Mt Lady Washington.

The view of Longs was incredible!
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We reached a pair of hikers and had asked if they ran into three hikers coming down together. They surprisingly answered, no, only a single hiker, who had asked them if they ran into two other hikers. The plan was to wait in the trees until we all got down---but we didn't stick to our plan. Phil hiked down the trail (which he apparently found), but Beth and John hiked a bit south of our trail up, following what seemed to be the Longs Peak Trail. That quickly disappeared and left them well off course. They continued down the correct drainage aiming for the trail which they eventually hit, after post holing for several hours. Jim and I made the exact same mistake following the Longs Peak Trail which abruptly disappears. We followed what appear to be fresh tracks"not realizing that was Beth and Phil in front of us. We also post holed for about an hour or so until we also connected with the proper trail. We had taken bearings from several nearby peaks and felt we had a good idea of where we were and where we went wrong, but hiking down seemed a better idea than hiking all the way back up. We underestimated the deepness of the snow and it made for slow travel.

Fortunately all made it back safely, after a fun hike. I will say that although things didn't work perfectly smoothly and that was our own faults, being prepared to spend the night in adverse winter conditions greatly reduced the anxiety that we were indeed lost. Although I prefer the term, "off-trail".

Winter in Colorado is amazingly beautiful. I know many people are looking for "beginner" mountains to climb in the winter. Although we weren't looking for that, we had the impression that Mt Lady Washington wouldn't be as challenging as some of the other hikes we had done. I was wrong. Hikers, take heed. Mt Lady Washington is a difficult hike and with strong winds, can be dangerous. The rocks are large and slippery near the top. I weight nearly 200 pounds and was being thrown around like a rag doll at some points.

So, in conclusions, everyone is safe, we did learn from this trip and I hope that you all get something from this. I have many more pictures of our route, etc... feel free to contact me if you want more info.

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JW



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
CODave
Starting elevation?
2/20/2008 12:10am
Nice TR! I‘m planning on heading up there soon.

Starting elevation of 11,230 ft. at Longs TH?


crazydiamond80
User
Starting Elevation
2/20/2008 1:06am
I believe the Longs Peak TH is actually at about 9,400 ft. The total gain was approximately 3,800 ft.


Nutrition_Guy
Your right
2/20/2008 2:04am
Sorry, I am using a rough template for my TR‘s and forgot to change the starting elevation from the one I cut and pasted. I fixed it.


TriAnything
User
Ahh love the wind...
2/20/2008 2:56am
Nice trip report.. Glad to see you guys make it out there!!! Despite conditions.



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