8/21/2023 Route: Sayres Benchmark, 13460, 13300F, and 12614 loop fr Posted On: 8/21/2023, By: JasonKline Info: I wanted to do a loop of Sayres Benchmark, 13460, 13300F, and 12614 from the La Plata trailhead, but the only results I found online descended 12614 to the west into the private property clearly marked "No Trespassing." The route to the east of 12614 didn't look too horrible on the map, so I tried descending that to the La Plata trail and taking that back to the trailhead. Mercifully, it worked out fairly well (although it wasn't anywhere close to what I would describe as pleasant). I went back part of the ways to the 12164/13300F saddle before descending. It was annoyingly loose for the first several hundred vertical feet, but got better as I descended. I had to go around one section that nearly cliffed out, but it wasn't too hard to find a route around the difficulties. I made a few class 3 moves, but one could probably have kept it to class 2 with more careful route finding. By piecing together clear sections between the trees, it was possible to keep bushwhacking to a minimum except for a few hundred feet of unavoidable willows just before rejoining the La Plata trail. It looks like I'll have to put together a trip report for this route! |
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7/16/2023 Route: From Sayres Posted On: 7/21/2023, By: kwhit24 Info: We left Denver around 4:45am and parked before the bridge crossing described in other TRs. For the second creek crossing we found a sturdy log since we didn't see any other areas to cross. Once across we joined up with the road and followed that all the way to the cabin. The road is very easy with a lot of switchbacks all the way to the cabin and beyond. we saw some ATV tire tracks in the morning all the way up near 13,200'. When comin down we saw a few vehicles coming down from the cabin. Instead of traversing/side hilling to the saddle between Sayres and 13460 we just stayed on the road up to 13,200 to get to the ridge. This only added a little distance and gain. The rest of the route to Sayres BM is obvious just taking the ridge. Then over to UN 13,460 we again stayed on the ridge. Before heading to UN13,300F we decided to leave our packs at the point where we'd take to the grassy slope described in Trotter's TR. We ran over and tagged UN 13300F (great views of La Plata) and and back to our packs. It did added like 150' back to the packs but the grassy slope was worth it. Once near 12,200' we turned left to aim for one of the switchbacks in the road. We contoured using game trails and working through a few bushes and joined the road at 11,600'. As mentioned before we utilized Trotter's TR a lot especially the route back to the road and it avoided a whole bunch of bushwhacking. (12.01 mi; 4,662' gain; 7:01:18 time) Start at TH 7:05am; Sayres BM 10:15am; Un 13460 11:50am; Un 13300 F 12:20pm; Back to TH 2:05pm |
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5/22/2020 Route: From Point 13,460 Posted On: 5/22/2020, By: supranihilest Info: There's some snow on the ridge between 13,460 and, 13,300 F, and you may want traction depending on how frozen it is. I found it soft near mid-day and did not need traction. The scramble around a tower near the middle as shown in a few trip reports is optional, I just stayed right on the ridge crest at Class 2+. I then went to Point 12,601 which had a huge, steep snowfield en route - I did wear traction for this section, then booted up 12,601. I returned to the saddle and descended the west slopes which were absolutely awful. Steep, loose, insane (beyond insane) amounts of deadfall, a few small cliffs to navigate around, variable quality snow with ice underneath, you name it. There's a road across the creek when you finally get to the flats but I saw no good way to cross and just bushwhacked north on game trails until I hit the La Plata Trail, which felt like it would never come. Don't get sucked down to the creek if you go this way, as it gets very very steep - you should generally be on flattish terrain. Honestly you'd be better off finding a different way down because this sucked. |
