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| Mt. Lindsey - Northwest Ridge |
Lindsey was a mountain I attempted this past winter and was turned back by an early storm, so I had a score to settle coming back to it. I had met Sean while descending Harvard last week and he wanted to come along to Lindsey. I picked him up at 3am and we were on our way up by 6am.
The approach had excellent views. The alpenglow on Blanca and the wildflowers were both excellent, and everyone loves a view of a big nipple.
The first mile was pretty flat, Sean and I ran it pretty quick but the second mile up Lindsey is VERY steep, it seemed to never end. Mercifully, we finally approached the meadow below Lindsey and began our ascent to the saddle between Lindsey and the 'Nip. Excellent views of the surrounding mountains at this point of the day.
Once at the top of the saddle we took a break and a group of four other guys met up with us. They were of varied experience levels, one being his first 14er. They could have used helmets which gave me initial pause, but they were headed up to try the NW ridge and asked if they could join our group and move together up it. I said sure and we all began talking and they were great fun to have along.
View of some of the gang on the saddle:
I found the trail leading up to the crux to be Class 2+ or possibly low Class 3. Not too bad, and there are ample cairns. Just be careful to not go too high or you will end up on a Class 4 knife edge before the crux wall. The images on this site show you exactly where to go, follow those closely to avoid this.
Good shot of the trail approaching the crux wall:
The actual crux wall was great fun. Many different lines to take and the rock was very stable. Some of the guys that were new in our ragtag group had some pause about going up it at first, but they made it. I shot up first and did my best to help spot for the guys coming up after me. Below is a video mashup of a few different lines up the crux wall:
Shortly after the crux wall, we passed the exit of the standard route gully. It looked like TRASH. I definitely wanted to descend the NW ridge and NOT the gully, however a few of the guys in our group were not about to descend the wall with their experience level and I wasn't about to split up the team so I decided to go down the gulley with them.
The rest of the ascent was mixed with class 2+ and maybe a little low class 3 rock. It was a little loose at times, so caution is needed but overall not too bad. The views of Blanca/Little Bear/Ellingwood atop Lindsey were fantastic. You even get a great look at the Crestones and the Sand Dunes if you have a clear summit. We had some snacks and drinks and headed back towards the gully...*shudder*
Some of the terrain AFTER the crux wall:
Summit shots:
Crestones and the Sand Dunes:
The gully descent...I should have brought a snowboard. It's pretty bad. Comparing it to Challenger, I'd say its worse rock but it's much shorter. I'd rather descend the Lindsey gully before Challenger, but it's still pretty bad. Have a look at the fun:
Once out of the gully we turned on zombie-mode/cruise-control back to the car. A shot of us regaining the saddle to head out:
Once back in the meadow near the parking lot, the view of the Nipple was amazing:
Sans saturation:
Saturation:
Overall a successful day. Made some new friends, nobody got hurt, and got in a great summit.
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