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Sneffels - Standard Route
Start - 4:30 High parking lot
Finish - 7am or so
I bought a truck in Durango and my good buddy Matt offered (or something like that) to help me go get it with his truck (it needed to be towed home). Not wanting to waste a trip to southwest Colorado, but also being on a time crunch, we decided to climb Sneffels. We took off from Denver after work on Friday the 30th. A brush fire shut down 70 for a while and we didn't get into Ouray until around midnight. We started up the trail and after a few miles ditched the trailer, being experienced 4 wheelers, we took on the 4wd section of the trail and got his F150 up in the dark with no problems. We pulled into the upper lot around 2am, alarms went off at 4am (yes 2 hours of sleep). We threw on our climbing stuff and took off.
This trail was a blast, we were going straight up to the saddle in no time, my trail runners were grabbing great and I just powered up.
We hit the top before sunrise.
and me
We beat sunrise by enough that we got sick of waiting and started coming down, the sun peaked out after a few minutes of down climbing.
This trail was a lot of fun, we'd done longs the week before and kept comparing sections of this to longs. I think the closest is that it's about like long if you start at the keyhole or the end of the ledges, it's not too hard, but I could see it being a mess with a lot of people.
More fun down climbing
The mountains here are nothing like I'd seen on the front range. I can't wait to come back and climb some more.
We picked up my new (1949 willys) and drove back to denver without any problems. This was a long two days, but I'm glad we didn't just drive the whole time. Also, from the upper lot this mountain is like cheating, at the same time I can't say I'd be that enthusiastic about walking up a wide open 4wd road. Cheers.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
If you ever go back, and you don't feel like cheating the mountain take it in from the East Dallas Creek TH and hit up the SW ridge. Highly recommended for more solitude and a bomber class 3 ridge, plus an added bonus you don't have to go up that awful gully! Nice hike sir, glad you squeezed some time in.
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