Mt. Chiquita Trip Report 08/09/2013

Peak(s):	Mt. Chiquita - 13,054 feet
Date Posted:	08/09/2013
Date Climbed:	07/27/2013
Author:	jmjr2k

A Chiquita Banana Day
Mount Chiquita served as a warm up hike for me and our group before we were to summit Longs Peak. Mount Chiquita, elevation 13,069 ft. is a mountain in the Mummy Range of northern Colorado. The mountain is north of the Fall River in Rocky Mountain National Park. I've always seen this mountain as we traveled Trail Ridge road, but never reached its summit until that Saturday morning. Don't let this little Class 2 mountain fool you! It is an "easy" hike up to the summit, but it's fairly steep. We were only two days into our vacation trip from a US state where we live at about 100 feet above sea level, so we were also fairly winded along the way. But, that was our intention in getting acclimated for our big climb to Longs. So, we decided to hike Mt. Chapin and Mt. Chiquita in the Park. We traveled up the old Fall River Rd. and were lucky to find a parking spot at the trail head around 8:30 a.m. We gathered our packs, and took off for the trail. As I mentioned before, it was a Class 2 hike, and was our first test of endurance and adjustment to altitude. Several of us became discouraged because of our lack of stamina and oxygen-we were just plain out of air quite a bit. Regardless, we made it up and down in about six hours, and we looked back and felt good about reaching the altitude of 13,069 feet overall. The views on these two mountains is just spectacular, and we couldn't keep from taking numerous pictures looking all directions from both mountains. It can be fairly windy as you are hiking along the trail past Mt. Chapin on your way to Mt. Chiquita. You'll find yourself adding a layer of clothing or a windbreaker and removing it later. Mt. Chapin has a nice view and we ran into a few marmots on top as you can see in the picture. We enjoyed the summit of Mt. Chiquita and lingered there a while, ate some lunch-PB & J were the sandwiches of the day, and sitting in the cairn built at the top to protect us from the wind. The tundra is beautiful on this hike with many different wild flowers along the way. I didn't come across any Columbine though. My youngest daughter ended up getting an edema from the altitude, but it wasn't bad enough to make a quick exit down the mountain at least. Finally, we decided to save Mt. Ypsilon for next year as our next "practice" hike before tackling another 14'er. All in all, it was a great hike, and deserving of a trip report for others to think about hiking as well. Enjoy the pic's! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

A Chiquita Banana Day

Mount Chiquita served as a warm up hike for me and our group before we were to summit Longs Peak. Mount Chiquita, elevation 13,069 ft. is a mountain in the Mummy Range of northern Colorado. The mountain is north of the Fall River in Rocky Mountain National Park. I've always seen this mountain as we traveled Trail Ridge road, but never reached its summit until that Saturday morning.

Don't let this little Class 2 mountain fool you! It is an "easy" hike up to the summit, but it's fairly steep. We were only two days into our vacation trip from a US state where we live at about 100 feet above sea level, so we were also fairly winded along the way. But, that was our intention in getting acclimated for our big climb to Longs.

So, we decided to hike Mt. Chapin and Mt. Chiquita in the Park. We traveled up the old Fall River Rd. and were lucky to find a parking spot at the trail head around 8:30 a.m. We gathered our packs, and took off for the trail. As I mentioned before, it was a Class 2 hike, and was our first test of endurance and adjustment to altitude. Several of us became discouraged because of our lack of stamina and oxygen-we were just plain out of air quite a bit. Regardless, we made it up and down in about six hours, and we looked back and felt good about reaching the altitude of 13,069 feet overall.

The views on these two mountains is just spectacular, and we couldn't keep from taking numerous pictures looking all directions from both mountains.

It can be fairly windy as you are hiking along the trail past Mt. Chapin on your way to Mt. Chiquita. You'll find yourself adding a layer of clothing or a windbreaker and removing it later. Mt. Chapin has a nice view and we ran into a few marmots on top as you can see in the picture.

We enjoyed the summit of Mt. Chiquita and lingered there a while, ate some lunch-PB & J were the sandwiches of the day, and sitting in the cairn built at the top to protect us from the wind. The tundra is beautiful on this hike with many different wild flowers along the way. I didn't come across any Columbine though.

My youngest daughter ended up getting an edema from the altitude, but it wasn't bad enough to make a quick exit down the mountain at least.

Finally, we decided to save Mt. Ypsilon for next year as our next "practice" hike before tackling another 14'er.

All in all, it was a great hike, and deserving of a trip report for others to think about hiking as well.

Enjoy the pic's!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

MtnHub	Good job! 8/10/2013 8:51pm That's a nice trio of peaks for a warmup climb. I did this several years back. I started around 4am and it was just starting to get light when I was ascending Chapin. I kept hearing some odd clacking sounds a little lower down the slope but couldn't see what was causing it. When it finally got light enough to actually discern anything, I discovered it was a herd of elk and the ”clacking” sound I heard was their antlers brushing against rocks and other woody brush, and even one another.
jmjr2k	Clacking Elk... 8/11/2013 5:15am Thanks for the comments! That ”clacking” sound at that time of the morning would have been a little too weird for me walking that trail in the dark. Wished I would have seen a few Wapiti or elk like you, but the marmots were in abundance that day!

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