| Snow-free Sawatch Duo |
May 7, 2009
Mt. Blaurock 13,616
Ervin Peak 13,531
~5.5 Miles, ~3,900 Gain.
After reading a trip report in the area, I knew I could reach Winfield to fix my itch to climb Mt. Blaurock 13,616 and Ervin Peak 13,531. My wife and I drove up the night prior and were surprised as we could drive to our campsite beyond Winfield. We woke up, cooked breakfast, and were hiking just before dawn. From our campsite, we headed due north to the south-southwest ridge of Ervin.
Since the route was south facing we didn't bother to bring snowshoes, and we only experienced about 100 feet of firm snow just below treeline. Once we hiked out of the trees, the south- southwest ridge was a fun class 2 hike until we intercepted the west ridge at ~13,400. From here, we ditched our packs and headed east on the west ridge where we enjoyed some class 2-3 scrambling over some snow covered towers. Just prior to the summit, we bypassed an ugly tower by descending on the north side of the ridge for about 100 feet, traversing below the tower, and returning back to the ridge. When we reached the summit, we enjoyed blue skies with very little wind. On our return to our packs, we stayed on the ridge proper and found the "ugly" tower to not be all that threatening.
Once we got back to our packs, I bolted ahead west toward Blaurock. The descent off of Ervin was snow covered class 2 and the climb back up Blaurock was packed snow. I reached the summit of Blaurock, after a false summit, took a quick break, and then headed back to the saddle to meet my wife. At this point, the wind had picked up.
I met up with my wife, and from the Blaurock-Ervin saddle, we enjoyed a nice glissade down Grey Copper Creek. Since it was a mellower glissade, I enjoyed "unusual attitude" glissade recoveries. We were able to follow compact snow almost all the back to camp which made it nicer on the knees. Very enjoyable short duo with some surprisingly enjoyable Sawatch scrambling.
I was originally hoping to combine Rinker with Blaurock and Ervin, but with the lack of beta I was unsure of the northeast ridge on Blaurock. After looking at the ridge from the summit of Blaurock the ridge definitely looked doable with some solid class 3 scrambling. Oh well, next time.
South-southwest ridge of Ervin.
South-southwest ridge of Ervin.
West ridge of Ervin.
Mt. Hope from the summit of Ervin.
Tower on Ervin's west ridge
Ervin's west ridge.
Scrambling on Ervin's west ridge.
Ervin's west ridge.
Ervin's west ridge.
Blaurock summit with La Plata in the background.
Rinker from Blaurock.
Glissading.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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