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Sneffels from lower trailhead, by the bathroom.
2950 6.25 round trip
Start 5:00, Top 9:30, stayed till 10:30, then back to lower parking lot 12:10
Weather: cloudy most of the day
Hiking partner: Jeff Seager, and then Kurt Mahan (from New Mexico). Jeff's first 14er in about 12 years.
Road to trail head: directions you find on 14ers are straight forward. The last bit of the road to the bathrooms, once you turn left by the mine, does have a couple of ugly spots. Honda Element is a glorified car, but made it, but I would want a SUV or Truck or Jeep for the last bit of the road. On our way down we saw a Subaru overheat on the same spot, and a truck get stuck at the spot spot just below the restroom.
We left the lower trail head hiking on the road. The road was ok, but honestly we thought we would have hiked a bit faster, and got a little discouraged. A jeep passed with two fellows from Durango who got off work late and drove up.
Reaching the top parking lot there was the jeep and a truck. The truck belonged to Kurt, 43 great shape. We stopped to grab a snack. Once on the trail we felt better. I was hoping to do the west ridge as the trip reports make is sound a bit more fun, and that is what John Manner told us as well. His intel is consistently spot on. I also knew the standard route was a little shorter, and Jeff may want to take that route. At the turn, which is easy to see, Jeff said he wanted to try the west ridge. Yea!
The hike up the trail to the ridge is straight forward, and then you go over the side, and up to the left, on the ridge. Awesome views here and cool rocks. There was no snow on this route. None.
Happy to be on the trail
On The Ridge
The lakes
Jeff looking up at the next section
The next section
As we headed up, Kurt had stopped to let us catch up, as he wanted some hiking friends. Kurt is a wonderful fellow. He came from New Mexico. He has two adorable children twins. Jeff and Kurt were great to have as they shared a lot, to take mind of the breathing. There was a spot just below the place you hit the ridge where you go down about 30 feet where you could chose class 5, class 4 or class 3. We were not trying to find any class 4 or 5 but our route finding in here was a bit off. The following picture: green left line is the line to stay class two and three. Red goes class four and then five. We went that way and then turned around the corner to left by the class five portion. We all liked our choice.
Plenty of choices.
A closer look
Rock edges
A look from the higher on the ridge
Kurt as we head up same section. This is where he stopped to hike with us.
Nice trip report! Looks like you had a great climb on Sneffels that day. I’ll be posting a report as well for our climb on August 4th. We didn’t go the SW Ridge route, but went up AND down the Standard Route. That gully up to the Couloir is just plain nasty to climb and descend, but the views of the falls, Blue Lakes, and the San Juan’s make up for it!
I hover my mouse over the thumbnails at the bottom.
Did Sneffels about a week after you (mostly standard), but likely found similar scree for a stretch on Teakettle the day before. If one picks their footing right, much of the backsliding can be avoided. Reading which rocks are locked, planted, supported, can bear weight and where can take a lot of the frustration out of it. Getting the scree–ski technique down makes descent fun, enough that I’d often rather take it than solid rock.
Congrats on the summit, mcklarry! Would like to play around more on that rock up there.
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