Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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camocreation wrote:Opinions on a better route up Mt. Meeker this time of year?
bwarr briefly mentioned on the SW ridge route. If you want to summit Mt. Meeker this time of year but are concerned about some of the inherent exposure and snow/ice concerns the Loft and Iron Gates routes offer, you should check this route out.
This is a good route if:
-you just want to summit Mt Meeker and don’t care so much about how difficult the route is
-you don’t care for exposure
-you don’t mind a long section of talus-hopping and steep tundra hiking (lots of class 2 boulder hopping, with some optional easy class 3 climbing near the ridge entry)
-if you do like longer days in a wilderness setting with fewer people
Four of us climbed this route around Labor Day a few years ago and had an excellent time. We had two inexperienced climbers with us and it was a good challenge for them – not too easy and not too difficult. We did get a fast moving snowstorm move through when we were at the summit which required careful movement back down the route as everything was wet and slick but since there was no exposure to speak of it was still reasonable to pick our way down.
"You know I've always loved you...and you know I always will." Third Day
I did the Iron Gates route yesterday and on my way to Longs met a couple who came up the Loft route. Both routes are passable without any special gear if you're determined enough. The downclimb onto the knife edge was a little sketchy and I ended up taking the more direct line since the bypass on north side was a little slick from the dusting of snow the last few days. The couple on the Loft route said there was a ~20 ft section with ice.
camocreation wrote:Anyone have GPS routing for the Iron Gates route?
You should not need them. Then couloir from the bottom is very apparent. It almost looks like an entrance to Mordor. And the beauty of ridges, is there is no route-finding.
Now if you're talking about Holy Cross, that's another animal!
I see the Loft/Meeker/Longs .gpx track has been downloaded several times. I just noticed that I took the ranger trail at the beginning of the track and also took the ridge to chasm junction on this track. You can follow the main trail to chasm junction and then use the track from there if you are not familiar with these variations. Also, take the track with a grain of salt. It can get wacky in this steep terrain. In other words, get yourself familiar with the route and don't count on the track alone. There are some threads about finding Clark's Arrow that have valuable information for route finding. I contributed pictures and info to some of these. Enjoy and be careful!
...the mountain peaks belong to Him. -- PS 95:4
“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz
Looks like the weather is not going to be great up there this weekend, but I may give Meeker Ridge to Meeker a shot.
Question though. Is there a written account / TR of a ascent of the South Face of Meeker? Starting up the Dragon Egg route and going straight up the face, maybe? Just curious if that part of the face goes at low 5th or C4. Doesn't look too bad from a sat image but tough to tell.
Correct me if I'm wrong but...the Loft route and the SW Ridge route from Sand Beach don't require crossing the knife's edge but the Iron Gate route does?
Loft: no, South EAST Ridge will traverse above the Iron Gates, so you'll hit the, "knife ridge". It's fun scrambling, but maybe not the best place to be in a gail.
I don't know what's being called the South WEST ridge. The Loft route follows the west ridge, but there's no route called the South WEST ridge on Meeker.
Edit: OH, OK I See - the South WEST ridge is really the South Face route (https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=2 ... type=13ers), as you go up the South Face, until you hit the Southwest ridge. Yeah, no knife edge there.
Last edited by justiner on Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
handonbroward wrote:Looks like the weather is not going to be great up there this weekend, but I may give Meeker Ridge to Meeker a shot.
Question though. Is there a written account / TR of a ascent of the South Face of Meeker? Starting up the Dragon Egg route and going straight up the face, maybe? Just curious if that part of the face goes at low 5th or C4. Doesn't look too bad from a sat image but tough to tell.
Nothing technical over Class 3. The bushwhack can be interesting, probably less this time of year as things are dying and there's no spring snowdrifts. After a while, you gain the South (West) Ridge:
handonbroward wrote:Looks like the weather is not going to be great up there this weekend, but I may give Meeker Ridge to Meeker a shot.
Question though. Is there a written account / TR of a ascent of the South Face of Meeker? Starting up the Dragon Egg route and going straight up the face, maybe? Just curious if that part of the face goes at low 5th or C4. Doesn't look too bad from a sat image but tough to tell.
Nothing technical over Class 3. The bushwhack can be interesting, probably less this time of year as things are dying and there's no spring snowdrifts. After a while, you gain the South (West) Ridge:
Thanks Justin. Kind of a bummer, figured with the knife edge above on the ridge that there may be a line straight up the face to or near left of it. Probably going to wander up that way Sunday morning and start up near the southeast ridge and see what happens.
I wanna say (I should know, I was just up there!), the terrain south of Meeker's summit is very slabby stuff, not sure if there's a lot of cracks for holds/pro. From the ledges on the Loft route, I took a line that goes right up to the summit of Meeker, rather than going to the Loft, then east to Meeker. Saves time, and you have your choice of talus hopping or slab climbing, since the terrain north of the summit is very slabby as well. Tons of cracks for holds/pro.
justiner wrote:I wanna say (I should know, I was just up there!), the terrain south of Meeker's summit is very slabby stuff, not sure if there's a lot of cracks for holds/pro. From the ledges on the Loft route, I took a line that goes right up to the summit of Meeker, rather than going to the Loft, then east to Meeker. Saves time, and you have your choice of talus hopping or slab climbing, since the terrain north of the summit is very slabby as well. Tons of cracks for holds/pro.
Yea unfortunately the weather looks like it is going to be ass Saturday from late morning on and I have a relationship duty to attend to in the afternoon otherwise I would be trying to swing a tour de Longs similar-ish to what your trip was last week. Wanted to do a NW Couloir up Longs to Meeker then descend the Iron Gates or something along the east ridge but going to be way too icy from here on out this year.
I definitely want to scope that other route that you posted about on Instagram (maybe?) that you said wasn't in any book besides maybe Rossiters? Went at like low 5th right? Looked rad and I think it's well within my range.
That wall gets a lot of sun, so a small snow squall would get melted off, but that may also leave ice in some of the cracks. Peter and I did it around this time last year, so it may get back in condition,
