Mt. Spalding?

[jfox]

So I was up at Echo Lake on New Years day with the family. I'm not really familiar with the area, but I spied some excellent routes that may have potential to offer difficult ice/mixed climbs at altitude. I was looking directly south from Echo Lake and got a glimpse of the wall in the following picture. Upon doing some recon with Google Maps, I think its Mt. Spalding, and the jagged peak on the right in the photo is the Unnamed Peak between Spalding and Gray Wolf. Am I correct?

My other question: Is there a trail that goes from Echo Lake down the drainage to this wall? From the maps it appears that there is a lake, Chicago Lake, somewhat before this wall, so I think there would be a trail to them. It also appears that Summit Lake sits above and behind this wall, if I'm identifying the photo and map right.

Thanks for any assistance.

Wall of couloirs on Mt. Spalding.

Copy of DSC01831.JPG (144.11 KiB) Viewed 2373 times

[kj4244]

Hey jfox. I am sure others will have better knowledge of the area and assessment of climb possibility of this face, but below is what I found after a quick check.

I think its Mt. Spalding, and the jagged peak on the right in the photo is the Unnamed Peak between Spalding and Gray Wolf. Am I correct?

From my TI Map, I think that is exactly what you're looking at in this photo. The Chicago Lakes trail, no. 52, runs from Echo Lake to the Chicago Lakes, just Northeast of this wall. Summit lake is just on the South side of Spalding's East ridge (the wall in photo).

I'm not sure when they are in season, if climbable, but it'd be something I'm interested in checking out and pursuing. Those do look like excellent routes.

Beautiful picture by the way, did it clear up any for you on New Years Day?

[highcountryhiker]

You can check out the descriptions for routes on Mt. Spalding in Roach's "Colorado's Thirteeners" book.

[Jim Davies]

I've hiked the rim from Spalding over to that jagged unnamed 13,307' ridge a few times. The drainage between them (Chicago Lakes) has some very vertical cliffs at the upper end, with quite a bit of ice (as of October) decorating one of the north-facing walls (around 13,200', I think). There were some bolted rappel anchors at the top of the cliffs in two spots also, so clearly somebody already knows about this place.

[jfox]

Thanks for the info fella's. When I get back from Ouray in two weeks, I may just hike in there and have a look-see.