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It was a beautiful day in the Sawatch range. I seem to remember CR 365 being in a little better shape last year when we came up for Columbia. Still not bad but bumpy. We rolled in late on Friday night. Lots of tent campers on the way up and lots of car campers at the trailhead. We found a spot for our pop up camper near the trailhead and even heard more cars driving by. Weather was great and not many bugs at camp.
We started at about 5am. There is still quite a bit of snow throughout the trail in the trees and more wide spread in the basin. It is quickly turning into mud but it was pretty easy to walk on the snow drifts to avoid it. Temperature was probably in the low 40s.
As we got higher, the snow fields continued and parts of the trail where obscured. We decided the right way to go was up so....we did, straight up. The snow was very sun cupped and as the incline increased we decided to put on our Micro-spikes. Not totally necessary, but very helpful.
Enjoying the blue skies and sunshine at the far end of the basin.
The hard part was next. The slope is steep and the snow fields where icy, sun cupped, and starting to melt a little. We had on our spikes and it really helped. Might be worth bringing if you are going any time soon. Between picking a good line up the snowfields and crossing snow fields, the trail disappeared. Several groups continued to climb up and to the right. We discovered very large cairns over to the left and found the trail. We understood from them that it was a bit scary and certainly more class 3 moves over on the right. So keep in mind the trail does have really big cairns at the top so if you aren't seeing those then you might be further over. I don't think this is an issue without the snow. Even if some of the snow melts in sections on the trail soon, it will be easier to tell.
We achieved the summit at about 1020 and relaxed for about a half hour. Not a lot of room up there. Gorgeous views and weather.
Always gotta try to get the glissade in. Was a little mushy and the ridges in the snow acted as brakes a little bit. But still fun and beats hiking down.
Absolute Beauty on the way back down
Until a little bit of misery down in the forest. Again, not too hard to get around and the snow drifts were pretty firm still.
We got back to camp at about 3 so it took us about 10 hours including summit time. Enough time left to grab some great food and pie at Jan's before heading back to our 100 degree weather.
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