Little Bear Peak Trip Report 08/27/2013

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Little Bear Peak - 14,041 feet
Date Posted	08/27/2013
Date Climbed	08/21/2013
Author	Shawn Cash

Little Bear Peak, 700 to 14,037
Little Bear First. Me and my Partner left Branson Missouri bound for Lake Como 8/18 and arrived at the trailhead on 8/19. The trail head is fairly easy to find if you just follow any explanation, you can pretty much see a lot of the trail from Colorado 150. We arrived in the morning and began our hike before afternoon hit. We came straight from Missouri and the elevation was getting to us pretty bad. The hike in which should have took 3 hours ended taking us 7 hours putting us in camp by 7pm. The hike was a really fun but not the easiest if your not to used to elevation. On the hike in we had a really bad storm with a lot of hail, this became a concern for our climb but we looked past it and set up camp. We took a day to acclimate and planned a 3am start 8/21 to Little Bear. We woke up at 2 and got breakfast and finished getting ready and headed for the trail head. From Lake Como the trail head if not very far, follow the road up a little more hills and past another roofless mining cabin and right once you start to break into a clearing and see your first scree field to your right, you should see a cairn right there, that's your guide. Now the cairns take you over a small hill to the base of the class 3 scree field but we actually kept going on the trail past the cairn for 100ft or so and you can go up a little valley to the scree field, we found it to be a bit easier. Bottom to top the scree field took us a hour and a half, it was our first time on a scree field and it was dark so we kinda took our time. About half way up we started to notice the hail was still there from 2 nights earlier and this was a minor concern but it didn't really bother us too much. We found the easiest way up the Scree field was to stay to the left of the gully until your at the bottom of the gully and then cross over to the right and hug the right side of the gully the whole way up to the top. It was very loose everywhere though. We did notice one headlight coming up once we were at the top, it was a climber named Robin, we met him the day before us. Once at the top of the gully start looking for cairns. They guided us from the top of the gully all the way to the hourglass. Look hard for cairns, they were so helpful, we had a really bright hand light to help us find them. Robin caught up with us about half way to the hourglass and then we became a group of 3. There is one spot a little past halfway that looks like it could be the hourglass but is not, keep following cairns. There is one spot where we were told was class 5 before the hourglass but we never found it, I don't know if there is more than one cairn route but we never found it, it was all 2,3, or 4 until the hourglass. We arrived at the bottom if the hourglass and looked up. We are rock climbers so we never really worried about it. When we were there we got even less worried about it. I think it is hyped to be a lot harder than it is but I rock climb a lot. Just because it looked easier we still made sure we were as safe as possible! We decided to climb to the left of the Hourglass because it was pouring a good decent amount of water. We also decided to climb one right behind the other so if we spilled any rocks we were close enough to not do damage and so we could easily communicate on the route. The ropes are there but we did not even touch them on the way up. There is a blue one tied to the end of the orange one. You will hit the blue one at the very bottom and the orange one at the bottom of the class 5 stuff. The orange rope is solid, there is one spot that frayed but it has been tied over and the rest looked solid but we did not do a thorough examinations because it was so wet and we did not use it on the way up. Just choose your route and go, use all cautions you can! The wet rock is slippery and the dry rock is pretty solid. On the climbing we did not throw any rocks. At the top of the hourglass we went to the left of the anchor and just found routes and went up, we tried to stay side by side because this scree was terribly loose and was constantly moving. We were so grateful we were the only ones climbing because the rock the rock gained speed and could hurt someone bad! If there is someone ahead of you climbing, turn around. DO NOT CLIMB IF SOMEONE IS AHEAD OF YOU IN THE HOURGLASS, EVEN IF YOU WAIT FOR THEM TO SUMMIT! Coming down throws more rocks! We summited as a group. Me and my partner discussed doing the traverse as planned but we were both feeling the altitude pretty bad so decided against it. We spent 30 minutes up there and then headed back down. The summit log had not been signed in a while and we knew people had summited, I don't think people like to sign it. We began our descent and took our sweet little time! TAKE ALL THE TIME NEEDED! We saw really how bad the water was on the way down because the sun. We took the same route down as up and it worked smooth. We just went shelf to shelf one at a time and it worked smooth. A couple of us used the rope as a hold, barely any weight at all. and soon enough we were at the bottom, I cant emphasize enough, TAKE YOUR TIME! To get to the gully to head out we followed the ridge after the hourglass the rest of the way, it gave us really cool views of the lakes and the valley. Coming down the scree field was the most dangerous spot I would say. I took a couple falls but walked out with only a scathed hand. W summited at 6am and were back in camp at 11:45. We had a group of guys we met that gave us some fish for lunch and so enjoyed some fish and deer sausage, it was great! In the clean up process my partner was cleaning his knife and messed up and took the end of his thumb off and so we had to take care of him and then went to bed and decided to cut our trip short. So the next morning we packed up and hiked out of there and made it down to the car in 2 hours. Headed off. We stayed in CO a little while longer and headed home. It was great! We were happy to have gotten our biggest goal of Little Bear being our first 14er and so we were ok with moving out without the other 2 peaks. We will be going back to snag the other 2 some time! BE CAREFUL! Hope this was helpful to someone! Message me if you have questions or need any help!

Little Bear Peak, 700 to 14,037

Little Bear First. Me and my Partner left Branson Missouri bound for Lake Como 8/18 and arrived at the trailhead on 8/19. The trail head is fairly easy to find if you just follow any explanation, you can pretty much see a lot of the trail from Colorado 150. We arrived in the morning and began our hike before afternoon hit. We came straight from Missouri and the elevation was getting to us pretty bad. The hike in which should have took 3 hours ended taking us 7 hours putting us in camp by 7pm. The hike was a really fun but not the easiest if your not to used to elevation. On the hike in we had a really bad storm with a lot of hail, this became a concern for our climb but we looked past it and set up camp. We took a day to acclimate and planned a 3am start 8/21 to Little Bear.

We woke up at 2 and got breakfast and finished getting ready and headed for the trail head. From Lake Como the trail head if not very far, follow the road up a little more hills and past another roofless mining cabin and right once you start to break into a clearing and see your first scree field to your right, you should see a cairn right there, that's your guide. Now the cairns take you over a small hill to the base of the class 3 scree field but we actually kept going on the trail past the cairn for 100ft or so and you can go up a little valley to the scree field, we found it to be a bit easier. Bottom to top the scree field took us a hour and a half, it was our first time on a scree field and it was dark so we kinda took our time. About half way up we started to notice the hail was still there from 2 nights earlier and this was a minor concern but it didn't really bother us too much. We found the easiest way up the Scree field was to stay to the left of the gully until your at the bottom of the gully and then cross over to the right and hug the right side of the gully the whole way up to the top. It was very loose everywhere though. We did notice one headlight coming up once we were at the top, it was a climber named Robin, we met him the day before us.

Once at the top of the gully start looking for cairns. They guided us from the top of the gully all the way to the hourglass. Look hard for cairns, they were so helpful, we had a really bright hand light to help us find them. Robin caught up with us about half way to the hourglass and then we became a group of 3. There is one spot a little past halfway that looks like it could be the hourglass but is not, keep following cairns. There is one spot where we were told was class 5 before the hourglass but we never found it, I don't know if there is more than one cairn route but we never found it, it was all 2,3, or 4 until the hourglass.

We arrived at the bottom if the hourglass and looked up. We are rock climbers so we never really worried about it. When we were there we got even less worried about it. I think it is hyped to be a lot harder than it is but I rock climb a lot. Just because it looked easier we still made sure we were as safe as possible! We decided to climb to the left of the Hourglass because it was pouring a good decent amount of water. We also decided to climb one right behind the other so if we spilled any rocks we were close enough to not do damage and so we could easily communicate on the route. The ropes are there but we did not even touch them on the way up. There is a blue one tied to the end of the orange one. You will hit the blue one at the very bottom and the orange one at the bottom of the class 5 stuff. The orange rope is solid, there is one spot that frayed but it has been tied over and the rest looked solid but we did not do a thorough examinations because it was so wet and we did not use it on the way up. Just choose your route and go, use all cautions you can! The wet rock is slippery and the dry rock is pretty solid. On the climbing we did not throw any rocks. At the top of the hourglass we went to the left of the anchor and just found routes and went up, we tried to stay side by side because this scree was terribly loose and was constantly moving. We were so grateful we were the only ones climbing because the rock the rock gained speed and could hurt someone bad! If there is someone ahead of you climbing, turn around. DO NOT CLIMB IF SOMEONE IS AHEAD OF YOU IN THE HOURGLASS, EVEN IF YOU WAIT FOR THEM TO SUMMIT! Coming down throws more rocks! We summited as a group. Me and my partner discussed doing the traverse as planned but we were both feeling the altitude pretty bad so decided against it. We spent 30 minutes up there and then headed back down. The summit log had not been signed in a while and we knew people had summited, I don't think people like to sign it.

We began our descent and took our sweet little time! TAKE ALL THE TIME NEEDED! We saw really how bad the water was on the way down because the sun. We took the same route down as up and it worked smooth. We just went shelf to shelf one at a time and it worked smooth. A couple of us used the rope as a hold, barely any weight at all. and soon enough we were at the bottom, I cant emphasize enough, TAKE YOUR TIME! To get to the gully to head out we followed the ridge after the hourglass the rest of the way, it gave us really cool views of the lakes and the valley. Coming down the scree field was the most dangerous spot I would say. I took a couple falls but walked out with only a scathed hand.

W summited at 6am and were back in camp at 11:45.

We had a group of guys we met that gave us some fish for lunch and so enjoyed some fish and deer sausage, it was great! In the clean up process my partner was cleaning his knife and messed up and took the end of his thumb off and so we had to take care of him and then went to bed and decided to cut our trip short. So the next morning we packed up and hiked out of there and made it down to the car in 2 hours. Headed off. We stayed in CO a little while longer and headed home. It was great! We were happy to have gotten our biggest goal of Little Bear being our first 14er and so we were ok with moving out without the other 2 peaks. We will be going back to snag the other 2 some time! BE CAREFUL! Hope this was helpful to someone! Message me if you have questions or need any help!

Comments or Questions

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This Good Trip Report
8/27/2013 9:11pm

I enjoy read your report. Keep good work up.

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