Chair Mountain Info

[ktimm]

According to a map I have it looks like you can avoid private property if you are willing to do some bushwhacking. It looks like if you start up chair creek you should be able to avoid it. Also Ragged Mountain trail is well known (even though it goes through private property) and you can then get into the buck creek basin (not sure what access is from there). Gerber wants to try Dark Canyon because he is a sick.

[ktimm]

Do a query on the gunnison map for chair creek. Looks like you can access public land of county road 3 and get to the wilderness boundary

[Kane]

Sorry I don't have more info... it's been on my list for a long time too, but I haven't climbed it yet. It seems like access from the McClure/Marble side is problematic at best. I've been considering an approach from the Dark Canyon side and making a long weekend of it... backpack in, set up camp and spend several days hitting all the cool stuff up there in the Raggeds.

- Chris

Hi Chris,

How would you climb Chair from Dark Canyon? Were you thinking of trying that ridge between Ragged and Chair? To bad you would have to run that same ridge back to your start up point. Its a long ridge, it's something like 2.5 miles and 5 miles RT.

Yeah... ever since you posted that photo of that ridge, I've been..um...drawn to it Not sure how feasible it would be though, as it looks really long and really exposed. With the typical West Elks loose rock it may be a nightmare.

Edit: You talking Ragged Peak or Ragged Mtn? I was thinking of climbing into the Deep Creek basin (which in and of itself may be a nightmare) and camping near the lakes at 11,100'. From there you could do Ragged Mountain as a day trip and then Ragged Peak as a day trip (assuming there are viable routes up each). The traverse from Ragged Peak to Chair looks to be about 1.7 miles each way, and could still be heinous.

Chris, Don't forget to add that section of ridge from Deep Creek to Ragged Peak. That's another skinny one that will add another mile RT.

I was talking Ragged Peak. I have been up Ragged Mountain and its nice but it's not as nice as the two twelvers that sky over Deep creek. Ragged Mountain isn't even ranked. The best part of Ragged mountain was the trip i took down into Milton Drainage. Talk about a place that doesn't get much traffic. It's scary pristine in there.

[Kane]

We were pretty sure that this is a photo of Chair from Treasury mountain, taken 3 weeks ago. Anybody want to confirm?


Chair is a stunning mountain from Marble. And a good name, too, I can definitely picture Zeus sitting on that chair.

Yes, that's Chair.

[Kane]

According to a map I have it looks like you can avoid private property if you are willing to do some bushwhacking. It looks like if you start up chair creek you should be able to avoid it. Also Ragged Mountain trail is well known (even though it goes through private property) and you can then get into the buck creek basin (not sure what access is from there). Gerber wants to try Dark Canyon because he is a sick.

I remember Jennifer Roach responding to my Buck Creek approach idea once. She said something about how they had an "epic" descent down Buck Creek. They didn't use it as an ascent approach. Knowing how rugged that terrain is, that says enough for me.

[Kane]

According to a map I have it looks like you can avoid private property if you are willing to do some bushwhacking. It looks like if you start up chair creek you should be able to avoid it.

Kevin, I've been up and down that road many, many times and i couldn't tell you were to start a hike up to Chair Basin. If your commited to climbing it from down there, I think the best way is to get permission from the Genter Mine. There's a trail that begins on their property that ascends up the steep slope that leads to Chair Basin. Otherwise your looking at an evil class 5 bushwhack for 2,000-ft.

[giarcd]

Have skied the lower reaches of Chair Mountain hundreds of time and have yet to run into Private Property signs from County road 3! Granted I haven't been up really high,mabey there are signs way up there. I've run into" signs 'trying to access moutain from McClure Pass. Hope this info is some use. Contact me if I can help

[cheeseburglar]

That would be great Cheeseburglar. Let me know what you find out or if you need any help. A group of us from Glenwood are planning a bike/camp/hike/climb for this weekend if we can get access.

Well, it looks like you could start from Bogan Flats Campground, or somewhere nearby and cross over point 11,866, drop to a Saddle at about 11,400 and gain the east ridge that Gerry describes without crossing private property. Of course, it looks like about 5,500 vertical feet and could be a big bushwhack.
I guess Gerry would have driven to the end of FS 898 and traversed east over to the east ridge through some private property. That would be more like 2,800 vertical.
Assuming that FS 898 has an easement, there are three property owners. There addresses are in Florida, Basalt and Redstone. If 898 doesn't have an easement there are two other owners, Oklahoma and Carbondale.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't go up the north ridge if you went to the end of 898, it may be dicey.
I can't go this weekend and don't know how to look up the phone numbers for these folks, if it's possible. In addition, I think it is the last weekend of hunting so they may be hesitant to grant access.
Let me know if you want the addresses and I'll pm them to you.
Good luck!

[iceman]

Cheeseburglar. I think we will be holding off on this since I can’t find the owners phone numbers either. If we ever do get a chance to do this one I will try to remember to look you up. Maybe you can do the same. Just made a last minute decision to head over to Missouri, Belford and Oxford for the weekend.

[iceman]

BTW. Thanks to everbody for the info.

[ktimm]

I'm interested as well. I'm on the other side of Mclure

[iceman]

OK Ktimm