Climax Mine reopened.

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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BobbyFinn
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by BobbyFinn »

Papillon wrote:
In retrospect, we should've John Wayne'd it. I figured something was up because I could see the earth mover from US-24 heading north on Sunday. Bobby has a photo of it in his conditions report.

I think for peaks like this with access issues you have to go in abhorrent conditions. Either that or recruit somebody slower and fatter than you to be the sacrificial lamb if the sh-- hits. You could also throw your partner under the bus by giving him/her a hard two-handed shove in the back when the chase starts.
Or beautiful conditions a few weeks ago as someone I heard about thought - could have sworn! - he/she was hiking up Clinton... Imagine the embarrassment when it was later found out an error in navigation had occurred and accidentally, um, something else got hiked! #-o

:-"
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Steve Knapp
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Steve Knapp »

Thanks for the update. I've been avoiding this one, my closest unclimbed 13er. Might just continue to do so a while longer. Darkness might help, but I don't really want to be on the summit choss pile in the dark either. Might be best as a snow climb, which means waiting until next winter/spring.
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RyanSchilling
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by RyanSchilling »

A few years ago when I read that the mine was going to be reopened, Bartlett jumped to the top of my list. I found it interesting climbing that oragami bird summit, knowing that those rocks were underground "yesterday" in geologic terms. And now those rocks will be obliterated themselves.
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Floyd
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Floyd »

EatinHardtack wrote:
Floyd wrote:Just knock off 200 feet from the summit and nobody will care to hike that pile of choss ever again. Not a bad strategy for the mining company. Making it completely uninteresting will be much easier/cheaper than actually patrolling it.
Except for ChicagoTransplant.... :)
Nah, 200 feet and it now becomes unranked!
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Chicago Transplant »

Floyd wrote:
EatinHardtack wrote:
Floyd wrote:Just knock off 200 feet from the summit and nobody will care to hike that pile of choss ever again. Not a bad strategy for the mining company. Making it completely uninteresting will be much easier/cheaper than actually patrolling it.
Except for ChicagoTransplant.... :)
Nah, 200 feet and it now becomes unranked!
Hahaha, pretty much nailed it. I did Bartlett a few years ago before the mine reopened, but we skipped unranked Little Bartlett, just didn't seem worth it to us :wink:

Milan-

I would be VERY interested to see a picture of the summit rocks, I have mine posted on Summitpost, and I remember seeing a TR from before our trip that had different rocks and between my pics and those pics it was very apparent that the summit block that was there for the other person, had fallen when we did it. We even saw the summit register with its broken cap 25' below the summit as we traversed the choss. I am curious how much has fallen off the block in the last 5 years!

Here are my images:

http://www.summitpost.org/bartlett-summ ... 8/c-303801

http://www.summitpost.org/bartlett-summ ... 9/c-303801
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by milan »

Chicago Transplant wrote: Hahaha, pretty much nailed it. I did Bartlett a few years ago before the mine reopened, but we skipped unranked Little Bartlett, just didn't seem worth it to us :wink:

Milan-

I would be VERY interested to see a picture of the summit rocks, I have mine posted on Summitpost, and I remember seeing a TR from before our trip that had different rocks and between my pics and those pics it was very apparent that the summit block that was there for the other person, had fallen when we did it. We even saw the summit register with its broken cap 25' below the summit as we traversed the choss. I am curious how much has fallen off the block in the last 5 years!

Here are my images:

http://www.summitpost.org/bartlett-summ ... 8/c-303801

http://www.summitpost.org/bartlett-summ ... 9/c-303801

I will make Jpegs from my raw pictures during today and post it, maybe write up a trip report. However, I didn't take the camera for the climb (I have an SLR, so don't feel comfortable to climb with it), I stashed all my stuff in the scree below because I was scared of loose rock. I took one overall picture of the summit block, knife edge and flat area where the showel and drill was. You will see.

EDIT:
Actually when looked closely at your picture, the rasor thin slab summit is still there, as in one of the trip reports here, reminding an origami bird and I touched it from below. However, I can tell that the rock tower looks differently now, more rugged, I am sure something fell off of it. The climb was not difficult, I'd put it as class 3 but I felt it vibrating under my weight and was scarred all the time that it won't last. Also, I climbed it from the side opposite to the knife edge, seemed to be easier. I first got between the knife edge and the summit block, then bypassed it on the right side (between the tower and a big boulder that also looked it would like to fall but was stable) and then directly up.
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milan
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by milan »

Here is the pic.
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Mtn Geek
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Mtn Geek »

I few months ago I went up there to snowshoe to the top of Chalk Mountain. They have also closed off the Fremont Pass route to the top of Chalk Mtn. There was no trespassing signs everywhere. I ended up taking the road that starts further down the mountain. It was a prettier trip anyway.
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Boggy B »

BobbyFinn wrote:Or beautiful conditions a few weeks ago ...
There was that much snow a few weeks ago? :-k
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by BobbyFinn »

Boggy B wrote:
BobbyFinn wrote:Or beautiful conditions a few weeks ago ...
There was that much snow a few weeks ago? :-k
My friend told me that that picture was taken on 5/18/12.
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Boggy B »

Bah, that's a month! Well congrats to your friend on a successful summit! Looks like my friend will have to wait until winter..
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Marmot72
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Re: Climax Mine reopened.

Post by Marmot72 »

THis Climax Mine is a pretty big f---ing plot. The only mine I know by that name is by Leadville, by Democrat, Clinton, etc., but I was trying to get up the Urad mine road from the Henderson mine road, which is right off Hwy 40 just a bit south of Berthoud Pass, and that road is closed because of construction work for the Climax mine reopening. It was just a casual Sunday hike with my wife and we were going to get Engelmann Peak, but no dice.

I just hope the shitheads stay in business long enough after they dredge up the molybdenum or whatever other rocks that they can clean up whatever mess they make...instead of going belly-up and leaving it to the Feds and the State of CO.
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