Little Bear Peak Trip Report 09/03/2014

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Little Bear Peak - 14,041 feet Blanca Peak - 14,350 feet
Date Posted	09/03/2014
Modified	11/09/2015
Date Climbed	08/30/2014
Author	glodder
Additional Members	Michael J

Little Bear/Blanca Traverse
Yes! I was able to get a Labor Day weekend trip this year! Over the past few years, Steve's and my Labor Day weekend trips had been some of the most epic climbs we had made. The schedule was tough for me this year and I wasn't completely sure if I was going to be able to come back out to Colorado for another trip in the summer of 2014 (after climbing Mt. Elbert, Mt. Yale, and the Chicago Basin group), but we were going to make it happen. Our targeted route for this Labor Day weekend was the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse, and Mike W. decided he definitely wanted to tag along. We were a little bit hesitant about climbing this route on the busy holiday weekend due to the rock fall potential on Little Bear, but we thought we could make the Traverse work. Had we planned to climb Little Bear only, meaning that we would not only ascend through The Hourglass and its typically dangerous rock-fall hazard, but also descend through it, then Labor Day weekend probably would have been out. We figured that as long as we were the first group on the mountain on summit day (which would be Sunday, August 31st), the traffic would be irrelevant since we were not descending the Hourglass route, and thereby we would have no climbers above us in that dangerous Hourglass section. I left Northeast Kansas at around lunch-time on Friday, August 29th, with a 7-hour drive to Colorado Springs as my destination on this day. The plan was to stay at a hotel with Steve on Friday night, who had flown into Denver on Thursday night and climbed Pikes Peak via Crags on Friday. On Saturday, we would drive to the Lake Como Road and meet Mike at the bottom of the road on Saturday afternoon. The plan would be to pack in and establish a camp at Lake Como on Saturday evening, and then on Sunday we would climb Little Bear, traverse over to Blanca, and then return to camp and then the cars. As I approached Colorado Springs on Friday evening, I received a few messages from my friend, Mikey Z, from Denver. Although he wasn't going on the trip with us, he was aware of our plans, and he was giving Mike W. and me some information on the weather for the weekend. The weather looked good for the most part; it was going to be sunny and warm throughout. But we noticed that the wind was supposed to kick up on Sunday morning, to 35-40 mph levels. This wasn't good if we were planning to do the Traverse route. I immediately called Mike W., and we decided to make a somewhat radical decision to go ahead and drive to the Lake Como Road NOW, on Friday night, and to climb on Saturday morning without a camp. The weather forecast looked perfect for Saturday and we thought we could get this done. I called Steve and he agreed to it as well. So we were going to have a major change in plans, and pretty much operate on no sleep. We weren't overly worried, because we had done this many times before on other 14er climbs. So after a few stops in Colorado Springs for food and gas, I picked up Steve and we were on our way to the Lake Como Road. We ended up meeting Mike at the bottom of the road at around midnight. We then drove both vehicles up the Lake Como Road about 3 miles to a standard parking spot, at about 8,800 feet, before the road got extra rough. We got our things organized and then at about 1:00, we tried to get about an hour's sleep. We "awoke" at 2:00 a.m. for our climb. We were away at 2:25, on our way hiking up the road. The hike up the road was uneventful in the dark, and we reached Lake Como after about 4 miles at 5:10 a.m. The turn-off on the trail up to Little Bear was shortly after the Lake, marked obviously by two large cairns. We reached this point at 5:25, so exactly 3 hours from our cars. The slog up the gully to the ridge began immediately. Initially, we had to overcome a rocky hill, and after the hill, the terrain was flat for about 200 feet or so on our way over to the gully. This couloir contained terribly loose rock. Whenever I hear anyone talk about Little Bear, it's always the Hourglass which becomes the main discussion point. But this couloir from the valley floor to the ridge should also be discussed. It is a dangerous couloir, and I believe rock slides are possible in this gully if a climber is not careful. The terrain is steep enough to where dislodged rocks can travel a decent distance down the couloir, so getting nailed by a rock is definitely possible here. In this section, we stayed right of a rock outcropping ahead of us, and then we all tried to hug the left side of the couloir where more solid rock resided. The solid rock was probably technically harder climbing, but in my opinion it was safer than trying to climb the loose stuff. Eventually we topped out on Little Bear's West Ridge at 6:15. We took a short break here and light was coming upon us. The view of the San Luis plateau to the west was excellent, and looking east we could see the inset of the Hourglass on Little Bear's west side. We then began the up-and-down traverse over to the base of the Hourglass. This was a frustrating section, since we seemed to lose every bit of elevation we gained here. The cairned route stayed well on the right side of the ridgeline, and we finally made it to the base of the Hourglass at about 7:00. We noticed 5 climbers behind us who had almost caught up with us. We entered the Hourglass and encountered the standard Class 3 sections at the bottom. Pics: A fixed rope was installed here, which we had tugged on and tested, and it appeared very reliable. Pic of me with Steve and the Hourglass behind and above me: We reached "The Choke", which was the narrowest part of the Hourglass. We sat there and studied The Choke for several minutes before launching, noticing a decent amount of water running down through the middle of it where the rope was. We concluded the best line through The Choke was exactly where the rope was, right in the middle of the couloir. But the problem here was there really weren't any reasonable hand- or foot-holds, and the terrain was wet. Steve began climbing up this section and I thought he looked relatively precarious there, balancing his toes on extremely small or non-existent holds which were wet. He kind of used the rope with his right hand, due to the lack of handholds, to help himself ascend through the 3-4 climbing moves to reach more reasonable terrain. Here is Steve climbing The Choke. I repeated the same moves he did, and so did Mike. Once above The Choke, the difficulty of the terrain eased immediately. Looking back on The Choke, I don't understand why the Hourglass is given only a Class 4 rating. The few climbing moves through The Choke, in my humble opinion, were definitely the hardest moves we undertook on the whole Little Bear/Blanca Traverse Route. It was definitively the hardest section of climbing moves I've ever seen on any standard 14er route. The series of moves rivals most of the stuff I encountered on the Maroon Bells Traverse route (excepting the "plate move" and the final crux wall). At least the Bells Traverse Class 5 sections had solid and obvious hand- and foot-holds to use. How the Hourglass Route is not rated Class 5, I do not know. Maybe we missed an easier climbing section lurking nearby, possibly to the left of The Choke, but I don't think so. Or maybe the terrain is easier when dry, but that wouldn't make the footholds any bigger. I would be curious what other climbers think on the Hourglass's Class rating. I have seen other climbers in 14ers.com trip reports opine that The Choke section is a Class 5 section. After the Hourglass, we ascended to the left of a rock outcropping, and made our way up broken rock toward the summit. The 5 climbers who were behind us earlier were now climbing with us. These 5 climbers were very respectful climbers and understood the ramifications of rock fall here. As careful as we all were, we still dislodged a few rocks here, but we all communicated well with each other giving notice to everyone about any rocks falling. None of the rocks fell all the way to the Hourglass, so we did a relatively good job of being careful here. Pics of us climbing here, almost to the Little Bear summit: I was pretty tired in this section, but kept climbing with as much resolve as I could muster. I began to think about the long Traverse ahead, and whether or not I could make it that far. I also began to think about the option of descending Little Bear without doing the Traverse, which was an alarming prospect considering the tough ascent in The Choke. Descending that terrain would probably be worse. I tried to put these thoughts aside for the time being, and I focused on my climbing. At 8:15, we all reached the coveted Little Bear summit! This was almost 6 hours after our start at 8,800 feet, and we had covered approximately 5 ½ miles. Pics: We rested briefly at the summit, and after this rest, I felt much, much better. To Traverse or not to Traverse, that was the question. After going through the pros and cons in my mind, the pros won out. I felt much better after the rest and I knew I would not be significantly ascending any terrain again until later in the Traverse. The Traverse was staring us smack in the face and it looked absolutely awesome, and so did the weather. And the prospect of descending the Hourglass sounded dreadful to me. So I went over to Steve and Mike, and I said, "I'm all for the Traverse if you guys are." They were all for it too. And we decided to begin it immediately, at 8:30. Before beginning to describe the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse, I have to say that the exposure on this ridge is dramatic and constant. You have to be mentally prepared for it, because the exposure rarely relents. Also, make sure the weather is good before launching, because the Traverse typically takes anywhere from 4-6 hours to complete, and there is absolutely no "Lake Como side" escape from this ridge once committed. The initial part of the Traverse is a tricky downclimb of Class 4 terrain, leading to the ridgeline below. We had no troubles with this downclimb, other than a little bit of clever route-finding required toward the bottom. I have seen videos of people downclimbing the ridge proper on sheer smooth rock at the bottom of this downclimb section, but we found an easier spot with plenty of good hand- and foot-holds to the left of the ridge. We were past the first crux of the Traverse. Pics here at the bottom of the downclimb: After the downclimb, the ridge contains a series of steep bumps or towers. Somewhere in the area between the first and second tower was THE most beautiful piece of ridge I have ever encountered in my climbing career. In this area, the ridge was comprised of relatively sheer sticky rock coming up to a vertex or an upside-down V, with significant straddling-type of exposure on both sides of the ridge. There was some scooting, climbing and descending in this amazing ridge section. I have seriously dreamed about this amazing ridge section many times since climbing it, and this piece of ridge will dominate my memories of the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route as long as I live. It will probably always rank as my favorite ridge section of all time. If/when I climb this route again, the primary reason will be to return to this magnificent piece of ridge. When climbing this route, try to relish this part of the climb! After this amazing section, on many of the subsequent towers we were able to climb around them on the left side of the ridge. On a few of the towers, we had to climb directly over them. We did not traverse to the right side of any of them. The route-finding on this section of ridge was challenging and fun, and is a huge reason why this Traverse is such an enjoyable route. After the initial series of towers, we reached the tower called Captain Bivwacko. This is the tower evident from the Lake Como valley below, which is why it has so much notoriety. The traverse around to the left side of this tower was very easy, and no more exposed than any of the other previous tower sections. Shortly after Captain Bivwacko, we encountered a descending knife-edge, where we had to complete an approximate 8-part, 10-foot series of low Class 5 moves in order to descend it. The exposure here was dramatic, but the hand- and foot-holds were very reasonable and solid. We downclimbed this edge facing in, and it took each of us about 1 minute to complete. Pics of Steve and Mike making these moves: We continued on for another 15 minutes or so on more exposed terrain and more knife-edges. Pics in these sections: We then finally reached a point where the exposure relented for a little bit. Here is a pic of Steve in this area: Looking back at the first 1/3 of the Traverse: We stayed on the ridge proper in this area, until we reached a point where we began to traverse on the right side of the ridge toward the saddle of the ridge. After the saddle, we continued on the right side, well below the ridge on a somewhat cairned scree trail. Eventually we reached a point where we had a significant upclimb to the first major tower on the ridge toward Blanca. This upclimb was standard Class 3 terrain to the top of the tower on the ridge. I think it's possible a climber could bypass this tower on its right side, but we climbed to the top. After reaching this tower, we descended to another low point, getting ready to climb to another tower. Steve snapped a pic of Mike and me making this descent: And here is a pic of me after this descent, about to make our approach to one of the most tricky spots on the whole Traverse: We ascended for a little bit, and as we reached a higher point toward the top of the 2nd tower, we came to an extremely narrow ridge, and we knew immediately that this was The Catwalk. The Catwalk is a 1-to-2-foot wide ridgeline which goes on for about 100 feet. In this section, I switched back and forth between walking, crawling, and straddling on the narrow ridgeline, whichever way I felt the safest and most comfortable. In the end, I never felt in danger on this narrow piece of ridge and it is totally doable if care is taken. Pics on the Catwalk: We finished the Catwalk section and reached the 2nd tower. Here I am on the 2nd tower: The descent off the 2nd tower was a short tricky Class 3-4ish downclimb. The climb to the 3rd tower was straightforward, and after that, it was an easy Class 3 scramble to the Blanca Peak summit, which we reached at 12:10. Here is the summit shot of the 3 of us on the Blanca Peak summit, with Little Bear in the background: All in all, we covered the Traverse in 3:40, which was relatively fast even though I felt very gassed and slow toward the end. I wasn't counting, but I believe we encountered approximately 10 sections of the ridge which could be considered "knife-edges", and there was dramatic exposure for most of the route. There is no question that this ridgeline is my favorite ridge I have ever experienced, although the overall route is probably not my favorite due to the draw-backs of the Little Bear ascent (see more discussion below). I would not recommend this Traverse route to anyone without significant Class 4/5 experience on other Colorado 14ers or mountains. A significant comfort level with exposure is also required. We did not take any technical climbing gear with us. We spent about 20 minutes on the Blanca summit, which was a repeat summit for all 3 of us (Steve and I had climbed Blanca/Ellingwood in Nov. 2010; Mike had climbed Blanca/Ellingwood in June 2013). At about 12:30, we began the long tough descent back to the cars. Talus comprised a large part of the initial descent back down to the lakes below, and it was tough on all of our legs but relatively safe. Once back to the road, the difficulty eased a little bit, but it was still tedious because of all the rocks on that road. We passed Lake Como at about 2:50, and after passing by about 50 climbers on their way up to Lake Como that afternoon, we finally reached the cars at 5:30. Our total Little Bear/Blanca Traverse round-trip time, from 8,800 feet and 3 miles into the Lake Como Road from the highway pavement, was approximately 15 hours. We drove our vehicles back down to the paved highway, and then Steve and I said our goodbyes to Mike. Steve graciously agreed to drive my car from there. Mike made his way back to the Glenwood area, while Steve and I made our way to Walsenburg and then to Pueblo, where we stopped and ate dinner at the great Mexican restaurant, Jorge's Sombrero. We had eaten there in Nov. 2010 on our way down to Lake Como, and we figured a return trip was in order. It was a great decision, and I would recommend that restaurant as excellent pre- or post-hike grub. From there, Steve drove us to the DIA Holiday Inn Express, arriving there at about 10:30. We showered up and retired for the night. Steve caught a flight the next morning back to KC, and I drove home to Northeast Kansas. At about 10:00 on that Sunday morning, I checked the weather for Little Bear Peak, and the wind was blowing at 35 mph. It was an absolutely accurate weather forecast and I'm so glad we changed our climbing plan to Saturday. Mikey Z saved our trip! This was an incredible route and I'm so happy to have been able to climb it with Steve and Mike. Many of you in this forum know Mike (Michael J), and I feel very lucky to have hooked up with him as a climbing partner and good friend over the past few years. I have now climbed 11 14ers with him, and many of these have been some of my most epic climbs I've done. Michael J is an absolute machine in the mountains, he's a very skilled climber, and he's just a great person overall. Michael J will be finishing his final 14er this month (Sept. 2014), Pikes Peak. I can say the same about my good friend, Steve. I have now climbed 20 14ers with Steve since we began climbing together in 2010. Our 14er counts: I stand at 55/58, with the Wilson group remaining. Steve stands at 41/58 climbed. Final thoughts about the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route... Personally, I thought Little Bear Peak was a dangerous mountain and really was a piece of sh*t. Please excuse my language here, but there is no better way to describe it. Almost every bit of that climb was on loose rock in dangerous gullies and terrain. Due to the danger and difficulty of Little Bear, its stature as a "coveted" 14er summit is absolutely undeniable, and I feel very fortunate to have climbed it and to have it overwith. For a climber thinking about undertaking Little Bear, consider possibly doing it as a snow climb to reduce rockfall potential, or also consider alternative routes to the Hourglass such as the Northwest Face Route, although it may not be any better. Consider doing the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse because that will allow you to only go through the Hourglass one time. Definitely consider all of the alternatives. Despite the drawbacks of Little Bear, I place the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route as one my favorite overall routes, but it does not unseat the Maroon Bells Traverse as my #1 favorite of all time. Let's compare the 2 classic Traverse routes: the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse and the Maroon Bells Traverse. The connecting ridges are somewhat different in nature. On the Bells, there are 3 sustained 20-40 foot Class 5 climbing sections, whereas on Little Bear/Blanca, there are no sustained climbing sections like this (other than the short 10-foot easier Class 5 downclimb I explain above). There is definite exposure on the Bells Traverse in certain sections, but it is not constantly incredible on both side of the ridge like it is on Little Bear/Blanca. The Bells Traverse ridge is a decent amount shorter than the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse ridge. Although the ascent of Little Bear is more dangerous than the ascent of Maroon, I would say the descent of Blanca is much easier and not nearly as dangerous as the descent of North Maroon. Many people tend to think the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse is the harder traverse route due to factors such as its length, the Catwalk, the tricky Class 4 downclimb off of Little Bear, and the constant exposure of the connecting ridge, but I really believe this opinion can vary based on personal preference. Personally, I seem to do OK with exposure, so I would consider the Bells Traverse as the more difficult Traverse route, primarily due to the harder, more lengthy climbing sections and the dangerous descent at the end of the day with jello legs off of North Maroon. But that's just me. Climb them, and make your own decision! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Little Bear/Blanca Traverse

Yes! I was able to get a Labor Day weekend trip this year! Over the past few years, Steve's and my Labor Day weekend trips had been some of the most epic climbs we had made. The schedule was tough for me this year and I wasn't completely sure if I was going to be able to come back out to Colorado for another trip in the summer of 2014 (after climbing Mt. Elbert, Mt. Yale, and the Chicago Basin group), but we were going to make it happen. Our targeted route for this Labor Day weekend was the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse, and Mike W. decided he definitely wanted to tag along. We were a little bit hesitant about climbing this route on the busy holiday weekend due to the rock fall potential on Little Bear, but we thought we could make the Traverse work. Had we planned to climb Little Bear only, meaning that we would not only ascend through The Hourglass and its typically dangerous rock-fall hazard, but also descend through it, then Labor Day weekend probably would have been out. We figured that as long as we were the first group on the mountain on summit day (which would be Sunday, August 31st), the traffic would be irrelevant since we were not descending the Hourglass route, and thereby we would have no climbers above us in that dangerous Hourglass section.

I left Northeast Kansas at around lunch-time on Friday, August 29th, with a 7-hour drive to Colorado Springs as my destination on this day. The plan was to stay at a hotel with Steve on Friday night, who had flown into Denver on Thursday night and climbed Pikes Peak via Crags on Friday. On Saturday, we would drive to the Lake Como Road and meet Mike at the bottom of the road on Saturday afternoon. The plan would be to pack in and establish a camp at Lake Como on Saturday evening, and then on Sunday we would climb Little Bear, traverse over to Blanca, and then return to camp and then the cars.

As I approached Colorado Springs on Friday evening, I received a few messages from my friend, Mikey Z, from Denver. Although he wasn't going on the trip with us, he was aware of our plans, and he was giving Mike W. and me some information on the weather for the weekend. The weather looked good for the most part; it was going to be sunny and warm throughout. But we noticed that the wind was supposed to kick up on Sunday morning, to 35-40 mph levels. This wasn't good if we were planning to do the Traverse route.

I immediately called Mike W., and we decided to make a somewhat radical decision to go ahead and drive to the Lake Como Road NOW, on Friday night, and to climb on Saturday morning without a camp. The weather forecast looked perfect for Saturday and we thought we could get this done. I called Steve and he agreed to it as well. So we were going to have a major change in plans, and pretty much operate on no sleep. We weren't overly worried, because we had done this many times before on other 14er climbs.

So after a few stops in Colorado Springs for food and gas, I picked up Steve and we were on our way to the Lake Como Road. We ended up meeting Mike at the bottom of the road at around midnight. We then drove both vehicles up the Lake Como Road about 3 miles to a standard parking spot, at about 8,800 feet, before the road got extra rough. We got our things organized and then at about 1:00, we tried to get about an hour's sleep.

We "awoke" at 2:00 a.m. for our climb. We were away at 2:25, on our way hiking up the road. The hike up the road was uneventful in the dark, and we reached Lake Como after about 4 miles at 5:10 a.m. The turn-off on the trail up to Little Bear was shortly after the Lake, marked obviously by two large cairns. We reached this point at 5:25, so exactly 3 hours from our cars. The slog up the gully to the ridge began immediately. Initially, we had to overcome a rocky hill, and after the hill, the terrain was flat for about 200 feet or so on our way over to the gully. This couloir contained terribly loose rock. Whenever I hear anyone talk about Little Bear, it's always the Hourglass which becomes the main discussion point. But this couloir from the valley floor to the ridge should also be discussed. It is a dangerous couloir, and I believe rock slides are possible in this gully if a climber is not careful. The terrain is steep enough to where dislodged rocks can travel a decent distance down the couloir, so getting nailed by a rock is definitely possible here. In this section, we stayed right of a rock outcropping ahead of us, and then we all tried to hug the left side of the couloir where more solid rock resided. The solid rock was probably technically harder climbing, but in my opinion it was safer than trying to climb the loose stuff. Eventually we topped out on Little Bear's West Ridge at 6:15. We took a short break here and light was coming upon us. The view of the San Luis plateau to the west was excellent, and looking east we could see the inset of the Hourglass on Little Bear's west side.

We then began the up-and-down traverse over to the base of the Hourglass. This was a frustrating section, since we seemed to lose every bit of elevation we gained here. The cairned route stayed well on the right side of the ridgeline, and we finally made it to the base of the Hourglass at about 7:00. We noticed 5 climbers behind us who had almost caught up with us. We entered the Hourglass and encountered the standard Class 3 sections at the bottom. Pics:

A fixed rope was installed here, which we had tugged on and tested, and it appeared very reliable. Pic of me with Steve and the Hourglass behind and above me:

We reached "The Choke", which was the narrowest part of the Hourglass. We sat there and studied The Choke for several minutes before launching, noticing a decent amount of water running down through the middle of it where the rope was. We concluded the best line through The Choke was exactly where the rope was, right in the middle of the couloir. But the problem here was there really weren't any reasonable hand- or foot-holds, and the terrain was wet. Steve began climbing up this section and I thought he looked relatively precarious there, balancing his toes on extremely small or non-existent holds which were wet. He kind of used the rope with his right hand, due to the lack of handholds, to help himself ascend through the 3-4 climbing moves to reach more reasonable terrain. Here is Steve climbing The Choke.

I repeated the same moves he did, and so did Mike. Once above The Choke, the difficulty of the terrain eased immediately.

Looking back on The Choke, I don't understand why the Hourglass is given only a Class 4 rating. The few climbing moves through The Choke, in my humble opinion, were definitely the hardest moves we undertook on the whole Little Bear/Blanca Traverse Route. It was definitively the hardest section of climbing moves I've ever seen on any standard 14er route. The series of moves rivals most of the stuff I encountered on the Maroon Bells Traverse route (excepting the "plate move" and the final crux wall). At least the Bells Traverse Class 5 sections had solid and obvious hand- and foot-holds to use. How the Hourglass Route is not rated Class 5, I do not know. Maybe we missed an easier climbing section lurking nearby, possibly to the left of The Choke, but I don't think so. Or maybe the terrain is easier when dry, but that wouldn't make the footholds any bigger. I would be curious what other climbers think on the Hourglass's Class rating. I have seen other climbers in 14ers.com trip reports opine that The Choke section is a Class 5 section.

After the Hourglass, we ascended to the left of a rock outcropping, and made our way up broken rock toward the summit. The 5 climbers who were behind us earlier were now climbing with us. These 5 climbers were very respectful climbers and understood the ramifications of rock fall here. As careful as we all were, we still dislodged a few rocks here, but we all communicated well with each other giving notice to everyone about any rocks falling. None of the rocks fell all the way to the Hourglass, so we did a relatively good job of being careful here. Pics of us climbing here, almost to the Little Bear summit:

I was pretty tired in this section, but kept climbing with as much resolve as I could muster. I began to think about the long Traverse ahead, and whether or not I could make it that far. I also began to think about the option of descending Little Bear without doing the Traverse, which was an alarming prospect considering the tough ascent in The Choke. Descending that terrain would probably be worse. I tried to put these thoughts aside for the time being, and I focused on my climbing. At 8:15, we all reached the coveted Little Bear summit! This was almost 6 hours after our start at 8,800 feet, and we had covered approximately 5 ½ miles. Pics:

We rested briefly at the summit, and after this rest, I felt much, much better. To Traverse or not to Traverse, that was the question. After going through the pros and cons in my mind, the pros won out. I felt much better after the rest and I knew I would not be significantly ascending any terrain again until later in the Traverse. The Traverse was staring us smack in the face and it looked absolutely awesome, and so did the weather. And the prospect of descending the Hourglass sounded dreadful to me. So I went over to Steve and Mike, and I said, "I'm all for the Traverse if you guys are." They were all for it too. And we decided to begin it immediately, at 8:30.

Before beginning to describe the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse, I have to say that the exposure on this ridge is dramatic and constant. You have to be mentally prepared for it, because the exposure rarely relents. Also, make sure the weather is good before launching, because the Traverse typically takes anywhere from 4-6 hours to complete, and there is absolutely no "Lake Como side" escape from this ridge once committed.

The initial part of the Traverse is a tricky downclimb of Class 4 terrain, leading to the ridgeline below. We had no troubles with this downclimb, other than a little bit of clever route-finding required toward the bottom. I have seen videos of people downclimbing the ridge proper on sheer smooth rock at the bottom of this downclimb section, but we found an easier spot with plenty of good hand- and foot-holds to the left of the ridge. We were past the first crux of the Traverse. Pics here at the bottom of the downclimb:

After the downclimb, the ridge contains a series of steep bumps or towers. Somewhere in the area between the first and second tower was THE most beautiful piece of ridge I have ever encountered in my climbing career. In this area, the ridge was comprised of relatively sheer sticky rock coming up to a vertex or an upside-down V, with significant straddling-type of exposure on both sides of the ridge. There was some scooting, climbing and descending in this amazing ridge section. I have seriously dreamed about this amazing ridge section many times since climbing it, and this piece of ridge will dominate my memories of the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route as long as I live. It will probably always rank as my favorite ridge section of all time. If/when I climb this route again, the primary reason will be to return to this magnificent piece of ridge. When climbing this route, try to relish this part of the climb!

After this amazing section, on many of the subsequent towers we were able to climb around them on the left side of the ridge. On a few of the towers, we had to climb directly over them. We did not traverse to the right side of any of them. The route-finding on this section of ridge was challenging and fun, and is a huge reason why this Traverse is such an enjoyable route.

After the initial series of towers, we reached the tower called Captain Bivwacko. This is the tower evident from the Lake Como valley below, which is why it has so much notoriety. The traverse around to the left side of this tower was very easy, and no more exposed than any of the other previous tower sections.

Shortly after Captain Bivwacko, we encountered a descending knife-edge, where we had to complete an approximate 8-part, 10-foot series of low Class 5 moves in order to descend it. The exposure here was dramatic, but the hand- and foot-holds were very reasonable and solid. We downclimbed this edge facing in, and it took each of us about 1 minute to complete. Pics of Steve and Mike making these moves:

We continued on for another 15 minutes or so on more exposed terrain and more knife-edges. Pics in these sections:

We then finally reached a point where the exposure relented for a little bit. Here is a pic of Steve in this area:

Looking back at the first 1/3 of the Traverse:

We stayed on the ridge proper in this area, until we reached a point where we began to traverse on the right side of the ridge toward the saddle of the ridge. After the saddle, we continued on the right side, well below the ridge on a somewhat cairned scree trail. Eventually we reached a point where we had a significant upclimb to the first major tower on the ridge toward Blanca. This upclimb was standard Class 3 terrain to the top of the tower on the ridge. I think it's possible a climber could bypass this tower on its right side, but we climbed to the top.

After reaching this tower, we descended to another low point, getting ready to climb to another tower. Steve snapped a pic of Mike and me making this descent:

And here is a pic of me after this descent, about to make our approach to one of the most tricky spots on the whole Traverse:

We ascended for a little bit, and as we reached a higher point toward the top of the 2nd tower, we came to an extremely narrow ridge, and we knew immediately that this was The Catwalk. The Catwalk is a 1-to-2-foot wide ridgeline which goes on for about 100 feet. In this section, I switched back and forth between walking, crawling, and straddling on the narrow ridgeline, whichever way I felt the safest and most comfortable. In the end, I never felt in danger on this narrow piece of ridge and it is totally doable if care is taken. Pics on the Catwalk:

We finished the Catwalk section and reached the 2nd tower. Here I am on the 2nd tower:

The descent off the 2nd tower was a short tricky Class 3-4ish downclimb. The climb to the 3rd tower was straightforward, and after that, it was an easy Class 3 scramble to the Blanca Peak summit, which we reached at 12:10. Here is the summit shot of the 3 of us on the Blanca Peak summit, with Little Bear in the background:

All in all, we covered the Traverse in 3:40, which was relatively fast even though I felt very gassed and slow toward the end. I wasn't counting, but I believe we encountered approximately 10 sections of the ridge which could be considered "knife-edges", and there was dramatic exposure for most of the route. There is no question that this ridgeline is my favorite ridge I have ever experienced, although the overall route is probably not my favorite due to the draw-backs of the Little Bear ascent (see more discussion below). I would not recommend this Traverse route to anyone without significant Class 4/5 experience on other Colorado 14ers or mountains. A significant comfort level with exposure is also required. We did not take any technical climbing gear with us.

We spent about 20 minutes on the Blanca summit, which was a repeat summit for all 3 of us (Steve and I had climbed Blanca/Ellingwood in Nov. 2010; Mike had climbed Blanca/Ellingwood in June 2013). At about 12:30, we began the long tough descent back to the cars. Talus comprised a large part of the initial descent back down to the lakes below, and it was tough on all of our legs but relatively safe. Once back to the road, the difficulty eased a little bit, but it was still tedious because of all the rocks on that road. We passed Lake Como at about 2:50, and after passing by about 50 climbers on their way up to Lake Como that afternoon, we finally reached the cars at 5:30. Our total Little Bear/Blanca Traverse round-trip time, from 8,800 feet and 3 miles into the Lake Como Road from the highway pavement, was approximately 15 hours.

We drove our vehicles back down to the paved highway, and then Steve and I said our goodbyes to Mike. Steve graciously agreed to drive my car from there. Mike made his way back to the Glenwood area, while Steve and I made our way to Walsenburg and then to Pueblo, where we stopped and ate dinner at the great Mexican restaurant, Jorge's Sombrero. We had eaten there in Nov. 2010 on our way down to Lake Como, and we figured a return trip was in order. It was a great decision, and I would recommend that restaurant as excellent pre- or post-hike grub. From there, Steve drove us to the DIA Holiday Inn Express, arriving there at about 10:30. We showered up and retired for the night. Steve caught a flight the next morning back to KC, and I drove home to Northeast Kansas. At about 10:00 on that Sunday morning, I checked the weather for Little Bear Peak, and the wind was blowing at 35 mph. It was an absolutely accurate weather forecast and I'm so glad we changed our climbing plan to Saturday. Mikey Z saved our trip!

This was an incredible route and I'm so happy to have been able to climb it with Steve and Mike. Many of you in this forum know Mike (Michael J), and I feel very lucky to have hooked up with him as a climbing partner and good friend over the past few years. I have now climbed 11 14ers with him, and many of these have been some of my most epic climbs I've done. Michael J is an absolute machine in the mountains, he's a very skilled climber, and he's just a great person overall. Michael J will be finishing his final 14er this month (Sept. 2014), Pikes Peak.

I can say the same about my good friend, Steve. I have now climbed 20 14ers with Steve since we began climbing together in 2010. Our 14er counts: I stand at 55/58, with the Wilson group remaining. Steve stands at 41/58 climbed.

Final thoughts about the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route... Personally, I thought Little Bear Peak was a dangerous mountain and really was a piece of sh*t. Please excuse my language here, but there is no better way to describe it. Almost every bit of that climb was on loose rock in dangerous gullies and terrain. Due to the danger and difficulty of Little Bear, its stature as a "coveted" 14er summit is absolutely undeniable, and I feel very fortunate to have climbed it and to have it overwith. For a climber thinking about undertaking Little Bear, consider possibly doing it as a snow climb to reduce rockfall potential, or also consider alternative routes to the Hourglass such as the Northwest Face Route, although it may not be any better. Consider doing the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse because that will allow you to only go through the Hourglass one time. Definitely consider all of the alternatives. Despite the drawbacks of Little Bear, I place the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse route as one my favorite overall routes, but it does not unseat the Maroon Bells Traverse as my #1 favorite of all time.

Let's compare the 2 classic Traverse routes: the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse and the Maroon Bells Traverse. The connecting ridges are somewhat different in nature. On the Bells, there are 3 sustained 20-40 foot Class 5 climbing sections, whereas on Little Bear/Blanca, there are no sustained climbing sections like this (other than the short 10-foot easier Class 5 downclimb I explain above). There is definite exposure on the Bells Traverse in certain sections, but it is not constantly incredible on both side of the ridge like it is on Little Bear/Blanca. The Bells Traverse ridge is a decent amount shorter than the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse ridge. Although the ascent of Little Bear is more dangerous than the ascent of Maroon, I would say the descent of Blanca is much easier and not nearly as dangerous as the descent of North Maroon. Many people tend to think the Little Bear/Blanca Traverse is the harder traverse route due to factors such as its length, the Catwalk, the tricky Class 4 downclimb off of Little Bear, and the constant exposure of the connecting ridge, but I really believe this opinion can vary based on personal preference. Personally, I seem to do OK with exposure, so I would consider the Bells Traverse as the more difficult Traverse route, primarily due to the harder, more lengthy climbing sections and the dangerous descent at the end of the day with jello legs off of North Maroon. But that's just me. Climb them, and make your own decision!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

transplant_hiker	Good job! 9/3/2014 5:12pm Great job on that fun route! My buddy and I did it back in July and had a blast. Keep up the good work!
Lville	Cool report 9/3/2014 5:14pm With lots of great pics and analysis. Congrats!
illusion7il	Great Day 9/3/2014 6:48pm Good job Guys. Thanks for getting a picture of me on the catwalk. Nice meeting ya.
High_On_Thin_Air	saaaweeettt report!! 9/3/2014 7:03pm thanks for sharing the badassery! Also, thanks for the insight in comparing to two traverses. I'm hoping for Bells traverse before season is over. Looking forward to Michael's finisher on Pike's!
DanielL	Hourglass Difficulty 9/4/2014 2:30am Nice work! I'm really starting to wish I just climbed across that traverse instead of downclimbing Little Bear. Maybe next time! Interesting description of the difficulty of the Hourglass choke section. I think I described it in my report as the ”most difficult Class 4 I've done”, taking into account the accepted rating of Class 4. I'm far from an expert on the difficulty rating system, but I felt that the very small holds and steep pitch in the Choke section could reasonably warrant a low Class 5 rating. I've definitely done low Class 5 climbs that felt easier. There's my two cents :)
Michael J	Tell us what you really think about Little Bear... 9/4/2014 3:51am Totally laughed out loud on your opinion of Little Bear!! But in all seriousness,every peak I've done with you has been a favorite and a great memory. The boring peaks have been more interesting than I expected and the 3's, 4's, and 5's have been outstanding! Nothing like a thousand feet of exposure to get your blood pumping. By the way, we work pretty well together, don't we? Thrown in that cyborg known as Steve Six [I think his real name is Steve Austin] and we had a pretty good team. Great report!!
Brian C	Hourglass Difficulty 9/4/2014 1:49pm I think that a large part that can contribute to the technical difficulty of something are the conditions. Water/ice can bump up the grade significantly for obvious reasons. I think that I've seen it said (maybe Gerry's guide) that the 3rd Flatiron goes from 5.0-5.2 to 5.7/5.8 if it is wet. It was also wet when I did it, and we climbed the 4th class wall to the left to stay on dryer ground. It was technically harder, but felt safer to me since the rock was not slippery. I would guess the hourglass is likely only class 3 in ideal conditions, but it just rarely sees those conditions. Anywho! Great report! The LB/B traverse is to this day the best scrambling route I've done on a CO 14er.
glodder	Agree Mike! 9/4/2014 1:53pm We sure do work well together, Mike! These climbs with you (and Steve) over the past 14 months have been great, and the memories of these climbs will stay with me forever. In retrospect, I probably was a little hard on Little Bear. I think my negative perspective on it grew as I thought more about it, due to the fact that if a friend of mine was climbing Little Bear, I think I would worry about them. I really want people to know about the dangers on that mountain. I feel very lucky to have climbed it and to have it behind me, that's for sure. I enjoyed the climb up to the Little Bear summit, but I really believe it has danger levels like no other 14er.
Aekero	Agree on the couloir/choke 9/4/2014 6:29pm Awesome trip report! Took the hourglass up and down last week and the choke definitely felt class class 5ish, but maybe there was an easier route that we didn't see. Free climbed on the way up, but used the rope on the way down after checking the anchor point. Just an fyi we were told that the new anchor and 2nd rope were just added 8/18/2014, so relatively new. I will say downclimbing the hourglass was a piece of cake after going up it, that traverse definitely wasn't the easy way out! Also the night before, we had camped close the trailhead and heard what sounded like a jeep coming up the 4wd road, turns out it was a substantial rockslide down the initial couloir, get those helmets on early!
Oso Blanco	Cake Walk 9/5/2014 1:00am This TR was everything I expected from you Todd and more, except for the blue socks! Congrats you guys...looking forward to your Wilson group finisher!
rob runkle	Choke 9/8/2014 1:44pm Totally agree with Brian C on the assessment of conditions on the choke. When I did it, it was not completely dry, but much drier than for you. We didn't touch the rope on the way up. But, I did use it on the way down as a second hand hold; mostly just to get down faster. Next time, I'll have to do the traverse.
D Potter	Enduring 9/15/2014 3:21am Enduring.... And great photos

Caution: The information contained in this report may not be accurate and should not be the only resource used in preparation for your climb. Failure to have the necessary experience, physical conditioning, supplies or equipment can result in injury or death. 14ers.com and the author(s) of this report provide no warranties, either express or implied, that the information provided is accurate or reliable. By using the information provided, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless 14ers.com and the report author(s) with respect to any claims and demands against them, including any attorney fees and expenses. Please read the 14ers.com Safety and Disclaimer pages for more information.

Please respect private property: 14ers.com supports the rights of private landowners to determine how and by whom their land will be used. In Colorado, it is your responsibility to determine if land is private and to obtain the appropriate permission before entering the property.

14ers.com

Social

Mobile App