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Peak(s):  "Anderson Peak"  -  13,637 feet
"Petroleum Peak"  -  13,512 feet
Larson Peak - 12908
Date Posted:  08/28/2010
Date Climbed:   08/25/2010
Author:  Furthermore
 Enjoyable 1/2 Day Sawatch Trio.   


"Anderson Peak" 13,631
"Petroleum Peak" 13,505
Larson Peak 12,908


August 25, 2010
~6.8 Miles, ~3,400 Gain.
TH:
Petroleum and Anderson Lake TH, 4WD or High Clearance

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With an impeccable weather forecast, my wife and I left Denver around 11 AM and made the 3 hour drive to our trailhead located up the time consuming road up Lincoln Creek. I started hiking up the trail around 2:30 PM with crystal clear skies. My wife decided to hike and view the lakes as peaks are not her specialty. The trail was in good shape as I followed it towards Petroleum Lake.

Larson Peak from the trail to Petroleum Lake.
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When I reached a small lake at ~12,100 before Petroleum Lake, I left the trail heading northwest up some grassy slopes to the Larson-Petroleum saddle. I left my pack at the saddle and made the quick class 2 talus hike to the summit of Larson arriving at 3:30 PM. Excellent views of Grizzly Peak.

Talus west ridge of Larson Peak.
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Anderson Peak with Petroleum Lake from the summit of Larson.
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Petroleum Peak from the summit of Larson.
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I returned to my pack and headed southwest then west up some easy grassy slopes towards Petroleum Peak; the climbing was a nice change from the San Juan scree. Near the summit of Petroleum, I intercepted the south ridge and made the quick hike to the summit of Petroleum where I arrived at 4:30 PM. It was nice to have clear skies and not to be rained on.


Easy grassy slopes up to the summit of Petroleum Peak. Grass ramp from the left.
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The summit ridge of Petroleum.
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The traverse over to Anderson Peak. Ah, so nice.
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Grizzly Peak from Petroleum.
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Truro and West Truro. Fond memories of that traverse.
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The ridge over to Anderson looked easy and I followed the ridge, mostly grass with a few easy talus sections to the summit of Anderson where I arrived at 5:30 PM. The views of Taylor Reservoir and the Elks were superb. So far, this has been the most fluent combination of 3 alpine peaks I have climbed in while. No "surprises," nasty notches or other exciting features to make things complicated.

Upper slopes of Anderson.
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Looking north at Petroleum from the summit of Anderson.
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Larson from the summit of Anderson.
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From the summit of Anderson, I headed back north to a scree gully that took me back to Anderson Lake. The scree gully wasn't too bad to descend and made for a quick descent. I think this gully would make a great snow climb in the spring. I arrived back at Anderson Lake and trail ran back to my car arriving at 6:30 where we were able to get camp up before dark.

Anderson Lake on the descent.
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Anderson Peak from Anderson Lake.
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Boomers.
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More Boomers.
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Route Map.
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Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
kaiman
User
Great trip report...
8/28/2010 9:12pm
Congrats on some great summits!

I climbed Larson Peak from the trail to Anderson and Petroleum Lakes a few years ago and loved it, your trip report makes me want to return and bag the others... It will probably have to wait until next summer though...



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