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John, Richard, Danny, Michael, Patrick, Jen, and Zoe (dog)got an early start on Mt Yale. We drove from Woodland Park, departing at 3:30AM. We were hiking by 5:45AM. Mt Yale is in the Collegiate Wilderness, so no bikes, no motorized vehicles, no geocaches, but lots of fun.
We drove on Chaffe County Road 306 to the trailhead. This road is paved the entire way, but that is not an easy fact to figure out.
We started at 5:45AM and were back in the car at 1:30PM. My GPS logged exactly 9 miles round trip.
The trail heading up Delaney Gulch is rocky, but there are plenty of places to walk that are smooth. Much better than some other 14ers. In fact, the trail was super until treeline, then things changed.
There were some great stream crossings along the way. Very easy to see the log bridges.
Some might want to know exactly where the intersection is to the Hartenstein Lake trail
First look at Mt Yale though the trees
There is a SUPER place to camp right at 11,000 feet.
Another great place to camp at 12,000 feet, and the first place we saw snow.
Patrick, Jen, and Zoe. Flatlanders from Tallahassee FL.
Another great stream crossing on the way down.
Danny and Michael in the foreground above treeline. It's a little hard to tell, but the trail from treeline is nearly straight up with no switchbacks. There was a lot of erosion and shallow scree, but with the soil damp, footing was pretty good. Coming back home it was a little drier and made for a few slips.
Some rocky landscape on the way up.
When you climb from the north to the ridgeline full of boulders I recommend you stay high and go around the west side. We went around the east. There was one Class 3 spot with a steep snowy ledge and few handholds. We made it, but came back on the west side.
The final pitch had a little snow, but very easy to get around.
Summit. All in all a great experience. Plan was to get below treeline by noon. We hit it on the button and heard the first nearby thunder at 12:06PM.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
I was just up there today and the Forest Service has a trail crew along with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps up there around 12,000 feet. It looked like they were working on what may be a new trail off to the north of the current one that bypasses all the steep, eroded sections.
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