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Mt. Lindsey: 14,042 Route: Standard with a diversion
(3.2 miles short of the Huerfano/Lily Lake summer TH/ Elevation: 9.950 ft.)
Crew: sgladbach, paulperea, globreal, Chipper, and Fepic1
Climb date: Saturday, May 08, 2010
Start Time: 4:22am
End Time: 6:56pm
Total Time: 14 ½ hours (total hiking/climbing/summit time)
Trip Length: 15.0 miles
Elevation Gain: 4,500 feet
This trip began on Friday, May 07th.. There were five of us going to do this climb together. Due to the long approach this time of year (snow covered Forest Service Road), we decided to camp out the night before. The snow stopped us 3.2 miles short of the summer (Lily Lake) TH at an elevation just below 10,000 feet.
Steve wanted to start at 3:30am. I was thinking 5:00am. So, we compromised and aimed for 4:00am....but didn't' get on the trail until 4:22am... from L to R: Britt (globreal), Steve (sgladbach), John (Fepic1), Collin (Chipper), Paul, (paulperea).
As we started off in the morning, the snow across the road and in the meadows was firm from the overnight freeze, which was great, no post holing! (At least not yet.) Me (on the right) and Collin taking a breather after about an hour's worth of hiking just as first light is happening. This is a long hike along the road on the way in.
To the east there was some blue sky showing through however, to the west the clouds were causing some concern. That small nub just to the left of the prominent peak in the foreground is the Iron Nipple where our joining saddle is. (Lindsey is behind that foreground peak.) Our route took us just to the right of that peak in the foreground up a steep slope through the forest.
Once we crossed the snow covered Huerfano River and turned left, the route became quite steep. Paul is NOT having a concerned look on his face! In fact he WAS determined to summit this day after just recently being rejected by Little Bear.
Upon exiting the forest at treeline, the skies looked quite promising.
Coming into this open basin was beautiful. I think Cooper (Steve's Australian Shepherd who is really a mountain sheep in disguise), seems to like here.
This is a look back down into this open basin. A ski down this chute would be awesome right now.
Once John caught back up with us, he gets his first view of Lindsey (right side of photo). That's the Iron Nipple in the center.
And it's from here looking south-west, that we got the most magnificent views of Blanca and Ellingwood Point.
The sun is shining and the skies are looking promising. Steve seems to be enjoying the views.
As you can see, this west-facing slope is primarily a wind blown/snow free slope. So, we cached the snowshoes back down in the basin at 12,400 ft. As we are approaching the saddle that connects the Iron Nipple and Lindsey, Steve waits for me as I make some gear adjustments. (Excuse to take a break! Steve has more patience than anyone I know.)
Finally reaching the 13,100 ft. saddle, John gets...
...the view of our goal, Mt. Lindsey!
But which route? Do we take the really steep snow gully (Standard Route), or the Class 4 ridge with steep exposure? (1 dimensional photographs don't do the steepness justice! Pictures flatten out everything.) One slip in that gully could send you 70mph down into those rocks at the bottom. One slip on that vertical rock...well you get it.
The decision was made before I caught up to the team. Neither route. So crampons are going on and we're going around. Cooper wasn't worried (like we were) which route we took. In fact, he was napping.
While it's going to add a couple extra miles/couple hundred extra feet of elevation gain, we head down and around to the east to be able to climb up a less steep snow gully. This route in Roach's book is Route 20.13 on page 181.
After reaching what we think is the skier's gully, we turn it uphill. In the bottom of this gully it's looking nice. We are getting some good kick steps in the spring snow and it's holding our feet in place well.
I think Steve is checking his watch and saying to himself, "crap, this is taking waaay longer than anticipated!"
And in fact, this gully felt just as steep as the route we avoided!
And it's NOT the nice, wide, rock free slope we were expecting. We run out of snow and have to take off our crampons. Darn it. Then we had to put the crampons back on....and then take them off again for more rock. In fact, we actually ended up climbing Class 4, pretty steep rock on this route. Steve actually pulled out his rope to assist John as I think this was his first time on anything like this.
As it turned out, we turn up-mountain 2 gullies too soon. And during the Class 4 rock climbing we had to do, none of us thought to take our hands off of the rock to take any pictures. Sorry.
It's funny, now that I've done some roped-up, Class 5 rock climbing back in Colorado Springs, knowing that I'm roped in, it doesn't feel nearly as scary, as doing Class 4 rock climbing with no rope! Kinda like comparing the safety of a roller coaster to free wheelin' & flying on a mountain bike, where one slip and your hurtin'-4-certain!
Once on the ridge-line, it was quit nice. Of course you had to watch your step, but the adrenaline wasn't flowing the same way here on the ridge. Steve seems to be enjoying the views while John follows.
There she is...Mt. Lindsey. This photo is taken from what is called "Northwest Lindsey." I had to ask Bill Middlebrook where this mild summit really was. Most just call it "the false summit." The trek over to Mt. Lindsey is really fast and easy. Especially compared to all that we've been through to get this far. If you look carefully you can see Paul making a bee-line for the summit. (I think he had summit fever.)
According to my GPS, this little jaunt was 7.46 miles one-way and it's taken us 8 ½ hours...and we were pooped. I know John is really excited to have made it, but he doesn't seem to have the energy to show it. Who knows why Steve is heading off to the San Luis valley. Cooper says forget it...not going that way!
The 4 stubborn bone-heads determined to summit...L to R, Britt, Steve (crooked bicycle helmet!), John, Peace-Paul, Cooper (saying, "Dad...let go of me!") Collin, being the humble man he is, was suffering from allergies and decided he didn't want to slow us down. So, he turned around just prior to the Iron Nipple-Lindsey saddle.
Britt (Me) holding Paul's (Gaby's actually) summit sign with the most ominous summit cloud!
The Crestone's to the north. I'm sorry we didn't have more sunny-blue skies to show the splendor of this region. It really was spectacular even though these clouds makes it look kinda erie.
We took the "correct" gully down which is the route the skiers usually take. It's in PRIME condition for a ski! It's the first gully, just to the north of the true summit, as you head back down the ridge towards Northwest Lindsey. You drop off to the east-side of the ridge. This gully, was quite steep during the top portion...so much so, none of us felt comfortable glissading up here. (In fact, the whole top portion of this mountain is very steep!) However, after 2-300 feet of elevation, the glissade became quite safe and fun. Cooper stays right behind Steve all the way down.
I don't have the photo to show the bottom of this snow gulley, but it's really quite wide with a nice run-out...no rocks at the bottom to run into if you lost control of a glissade, (which I doubt would happen cuz of the declining slope angle as you get lower). It's just a matter of getting into the right gully if you are okay with taking this longer, yet safer route. It is a pain to re-climb the 150-200 feet back up to the saddle, but if safety is a priority, then it's probably greatest alternative in snow/winter conditions.
I'm sorry my camera didn't auto-focus correctly, but back in the basin on the west side of the saddle, I thought the heat-sink function of this giant rock was quite amazing.
Back down of of the saddle and below the basin, we come back to the Huerfano River. However, this time of year, this was our route we hiked, on top of the Huerfano River!
And back on the Lily Lake Rd. in the late evening, the post-holing became ugly. You see, the problem was, there were places where the road was melted out and then places where it was 3-4 feet deep in snow. So, it became of guessing game as to when to take off the snow shoes off and when to keep them on.
I hate the feeling, and the work that comes when the bottom just falls out of the snow. John here shows what hiking the road looked like. Argh!
A parting shot...at the end of the day. We didn't' get back to the vehicles until almost 7pm. A 14 ½ hour day of hard hiking and climbing. We were all toasted, done, out-of-gas...and very glad to be back safe and sound to the vehicles. I am grateful to God for one more successful, injury & trouble-free climb in this amazing, mountainous back-country that He has created.
LAUS DEO!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Glad you got the pictures worked out. I was looking at it before you had finished it and was hoping the pictures would come through. We met up on Horseshoe Britt. I was the one with the Husky.
Anyways, I was thinking about Friday up there. It is saying 20% chance of snow. It looks like this current storm is not going to hit Lindsey too bad, but I will keep an eye out. What would you say the temp was when you were up there? Was the post holing pretty bad on the road on the way out? I know you said you poked through, but was it constant post holing or just here and there? Did your snowshoes not help much with the post holing?
Thank you so much for the excellent TR. It is very helpful.
Steve, thanks for the info! I didn‘t plan on the sled, but I did plan on two sets of chains. I‘ve been to the base of the N Couloir before so it will be familiar. Thanks so much!
one dark cloud, Britt. Congratulations on a successful ascent. It‘s amazing how photography ceases when one leaves his/her comfort zone. Best of luck on Snowmass, I look forward to reading about it.
I am going to hold off on Lindsay until the snow melts a bit more, but your report gives me several ideas of how I can make mine better in the future. Congratulations on a hard-won summit!!
The summit ski descent is IN from the top. We did 850' down, but twice that is available if you are willing to climb out of the hole! Thanks to some day-tripper with chains,the road was open another 3/4 mile (1.5 off the RT)by the end of the day. I don't think your sled would be wise, it was pretty soft by the end of the day.
The ski descent is also a good ascent (even though we turned up too soon.) From the Iron Nipple saddle,drop 150-200' and keep traversing east until you reach a VERY broad couloir. I tried to mark it in the attached photo. Red route up. Blue route down (better route up anyway.)
cbauer10,
The morning approach had no postholing. The day's high was in the mid-40s. The road out was 15% postholing. Snowshoes were VERY helpful, but towards the end, there was lots of putting them on and taking them off. I think the cool temps for the weekend would be in your favor. Winds were from the SW and bad at the saddle, but the harder climing on the NE face was well protected.
Britt I was not aware we were on the Huerfano River part of the time I thought that was a road. Good thing the bottom didn‘t fall out there!
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