Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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andrew85 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 8:09 am
Little Bear! The whole northwest face to Little Bear/Blanca traverse to Ellingwood combo was by far my favorite 14er experience with the northwest face being my favorite individual climb. I'd even go as far to say that I see the Little Bear/Blanca traverse and Little Bear as a single experience and can't really see myself ever repeating Little Bear without the traverse.
Are there any good trip reports that describe the NW Face of Little Bear?
I referenced several trip reports both here and on other sites as well as Roach's book (that barley says anything about it), but I'd say the most helpful one I found was Wentzl's: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=17393
One of these years I'll finally write a trip report about it once I sit down and go through all my footage, but here's my post to the FB group for some additional beta: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8233844 ... 8945827842
It’s a tie between longs and bierdstat for me. Longs for the obvious reasons, but bierdstat because that gunaella pass area was the first place I fell in love with in Colorado in the late 90s, first peak I hiked with one of my kids, first backpack up with two of my kids and one of two peaks I hiked in -30 temps.
I’ve done longs 8 times by 6 different routes, and bierdstat 10 times by 3 different routes. One of the most beautiful things about the mountains is it’s less the terrain but more the moment of the encounter that leaves the most indelible mark that creates the most lasting impression.
I only have the experience of 22 of the 58, but my favorite thus far is Uncompahgre. Weather was perfect, the drive to the 4WD trailhead was a challenge but no so bad that I was overly stressed, Lake City is always amazing, and I was able to summit it with my brother. The summit views are just amazing and it is one I wouldn't be opposed to repeating.
Seems like the times that I need a mountain the most are the times that I can not get to them.
There are 4-5 I especially like or love but Redcloud has really become special to me. I first saw it as a kid in the 70s and I did Unc as my first back then. I’ve always thought of it and wondered when I’d get up there, and I finally got around to standing on top of Redcloud this summer all by myself. And can’t wait to do again. So beautiful and so very peaceful. Would love to spend a night on that one. Gorgeous red clouds reflecting off that sweet mountain forever.
It’s Mt Evans for me. Most of my summits have come via Chicago Lakes trail. Such a great day in the mountains, close to home and no battle for parking. Sure the parking lot and flip flops suck but I don’t spend much time on any summit anyways…
I’m surprised that I have not seen more votes for sneffels. Absolutely stunning scenery, pretty good rock, multiple routes, pretty decent camping. I’ve now done the sw ridge twice, once from Yankee Boy basin ascended sw ridge descended the standard gulley, then ascended sw ridge via the blue Lakes Trail, and descended through Blaine basin, which is a special place.
Mt Russell's East Ridge (would do again in a heartbeat). Proudest accomplishment is Rainier but I'll probably not do it again.
Restricting it to CO, then Kelso Ridge on Torreys, which I would also do again just about anytime.
Shasta was pretty cool just for the Staples Easy Button in the summit box, but I probably won't do that again either, unless I can sucker someone into doing the Whitney Glacier.
Thinking about this it's like being asked what's your favorite food or what's your favorite song, movie...
Answer is, it depends.
Each climb has a memory, even North Maroon which had widow makers falling left and right making it the only
peak I was hurrying to get off, had it's good moments.
I see many chose a hard peak or their hardest peak or finisher here.
Looking back, I think the peaks we climbed in late 2007 were most memorable as they were the first. Everything was new. They opened my eyes to the possibilities, the views of wilderness and awesome beauty of higher altitude Mountains; those were: Longs, Quandary and Democrat and Whitney;
three of which we did in the snow which was also cool to see the landscape in those conditions. When we did them we had Quandary and Democrat to ourselves adding to the sense of adventure in the predawn hours on the mountains.
Horton the well known ever-friendly Lab helped us on Quandary too as he lightened the mood of climbing in the morning cold with snow blowing in our face yet he kept
wagging his tail the whole way up and down. Whitney was the first time we used crampons, literally learning on the trail and the day before on a lower peak.
Last edited by nyker on Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I love Pikes. It is a gentle giant and stands proudly in the sky. I see it every morning from my living room window. It’s a known quantity and an awesome training peak. It’s a perfect marathon and a good performance gauge.
Pikes was one of my first snowflakes and my first winter camping ground. There’s fun scrambling on Rumdoodle and Little Pikes. I helped rebolt Bigger Bagger, scaled up the Y col, MTB’d up Barr, raced up the road, biked up with my niece in tow, bike packed from home, camped at Crags and hiked the next day with the AdAmAn group. The Incline of course, biked Ring the Peak (a superb PP circumference ride), and finally it was the first peak I soloed in a very long day post accident that was a huge milestone.
Also it’s the only place in Colorado that I’ve ever seen Dwarf columbines! They are delicately beautiful!
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^ you must have had people going crazy cheering you on when you and your niece did Pikes! I know I did even though I was going embarrassingly slow. That downhill must have been the thrill of a lifetime for her.