Blanca summit carvings

[bornbetterbeer]

Does anyone know if any of the carvings in the rocks on the summit of Blanca Peak have any special interest or historical significance like some of the carvings on the Grand Teton do? When I was last up Blanca I noticed there seemed to be more initials up there than I had noticed on any other CO 14er, but unfortunately I didn't have a chance to examine them closely. I likely won't be up there again for some time so just thought I'd ask here in the unlikely event that someone knows something about it.

[jrs1965]

Blanca Peak is one of the four sacred peaks to the Navajo people. Could be that, or someone taking summit signs to a new level...

[zoedavis]

Not sure about the carvings on Blanca, but now I'm curious too! Hopefully, someone here knows more about them.

[mtree]

Don't start thinking any "carvings" are ancient Navajo sacred symbols. They're most likely some yahoo graffiti or at best left by miners. I've seen some on other peaks in the past.

[painless4u2]

Photos, please or it never happened. Been up there twice and never saw any "carvings". Could be recent graffiti.

[Matt]

Here's your photo.. IDK how you all missed these

[justiner]

I remember seeing something like this, which I thought may have been... vintage, taken from Mongoose's TR: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=14159

14159_25.jpg

There's what looks like a date "1908", but there's also something separate that says "(something) as hell", which seems more contemporary.

Maybe this was cleaned off, when another party brought up some oil pastels years later,

peakcond23785_165756115962cc6047800af.jpg

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... 5&start=30

[bornbetterbeer]

20250421_185934a.jpg

I happened to see this photo of a 1920 Blanca trip in a book on Carl Blaurock (one of the original 14er finishers). It looks like the graffiti that seems to say "Cold as Hell" is surprisingly not contemporary. I'm guessing that a lot of the stuff that appears in boxes in the more recent photos is probably older too.

[bdloftin77]

20250421_185934a.jpg

I happened to see this photo of a 1920 Blanca trip in a book on Carl Blaurock (one of the original 14er finishers). It looks like the graffiti that seems to say "Cold as Hell" is surprisingly not contemporary. I'm guessing that a lot of the stuff that appears in boxes in the more recent photos is probably older too.

Wow! That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

[Gore Girl]

20250421_185934a.jpg

I happened to see this photo of a 1920 Blanca trip in a book on Carl Blaurock (one of the original 14er finishers). It looks like the graffiti that seems to say "Cold as Hell" is surprisingly not contemporary. I'm guessing that a lot of the stuff that appears in boxes in the more recent photos is probably older too.

To see the connection of the inscription in the recent photo - to the one that already existed in the 1920 photo and seen by Carl Blaurock...is awesome. A good start to my morning!

[rmcpherson]

20250421_185934a.jpg

I happened to see this photo of a 1920 Blanca trip in a book on Carl Blaurock (one of the original 14er finishers). It looks like the graffiti that seems to say "Cold as Hell" is surprisingly not contemporary. I'm guessing that a lot of the stuff that appears in boxes in the more recent photos is probably older too.

Nice find! Could you share the name of the book? Is it “A Climber's Climber: On the Trail With Carl Blaurock”?

[bornbetterbeer]

You got it. I had thought about mentioning the title in the post and I guess I should have.