Fairchild Mountain Trip Report 08/24/2017

Peak(s):	Fairchild Mountain - 13,509 feet Hagues Peak - 13,565 feet Mummy Mountain - 13,420 feet
Date Posted:	08/24/2017
Date Climbed:	06/19/2017
Author:	C-Shepguy

Lawn Lake Triple, CO Finale
I moved to Colorado in late 2013. I knew I likely wouldn't be staying more than a few years, so I started trying to really experience everything in the state at what you could call an "accelerated" pace. This eventually began to include multiple mountain summits pretty much every week. Not too interested in working on the same exact list that several thousand people are also currently working on, I started just hitting any summit I could easily drive to within an hour or two, occasionally venturing further for notable high points. I moved back East at the end of June, and made sure to cram in a bunch of summits before going. Numerous factors helped the peaks in this report get chosen for my final hike. (pretty far North, in the national Park, multiple peaks, high elevation, difficulty up to class 4, probable off-trail bushwhacking, high mileage and vertical gain) I didn't see a report that included this exact hike so this could be valuable to those who don't want to do the car shuttle thing for the full "Mummy Mania" traverse but would like to get up to Lawn Lake or any of these peaks, especially before true summer conditions hit the high alpine. My boots hit the Lawn Lake Trail at 5:30 am. Don't be intimidated by the mileage of this trail. It's a great trail; smooth and never very steep. On this day the trail was mostly dry and I covered the 6+ miles to Lawn Lake in less than 2.5 hours. At this point the trail did start to disappear under deep snow for sections, especially in the forest along the east side of the lake. The snow was very solid, however, and I didn't have too much trouble traversing it and finding the trail again. I'm guessing that later in the day the snow may have created more difficulty. Once out of the trees, snow wasn't much of a concern heading up toward the Saddle. By the way, there is still a lot of hiking to do between Lawn Lake and the Saddle. I hadn't realized this before, but it's about 1,400 feet of vertical over increasingly steep terrain to get from the lake to the saddle. This took me well over an hour, with one steep snowfield to cross. Stomping solid steps into the snow here wasn't too bad, and I didn't break out the micro-spikes. I soon reached the 12,938 ft Saddle and turned left to head up Fairchild. This ascent is technically easy, but certainly felt like the biggest slog of the day. With larger snowfields to trudge across, no real view of the actual summit, and some boulder scrambling, Fairchild commanded some respect after the long approach. The descent back to the saddle was pretty quick, and pretty exciting, since what I would call the "Business Section" of the hike, the west Ridge of Hagues, was staring me in the face the whole time. Snow was mostly avoidable on the ascent up Hagues. Absurd exposure along the ridge proper was also avoidable as there was plenty of Class 1 and 2 terrain south of the ridge. As I climbed higher however, there was no more class 1...then there was no more class 2...and eventually I realized that the class 4 designation was legit. This route is a perfect progression from easy to difficult, with the hardest moves in the last 50 vertical feet to the summit. It's not too hard to find the way through to the top, since eventually there are basically no options to go left or right. You could make this section class 5 if you wanted to, but with some careful route finding you can keep it to maybe two or three actual class 4 moves. The high point of the day, the range, and the county: Hagues Peak. Views for days. A look back to Fairchild from Hagues: A look forward to Mummy from Hagues: The traverse to Mummy was a bit of a pain in the ass. From a distance, it looks like you could just hop along the ridge itself. Up close, the ridge is not smooth at all, but is more of a pile of huge boulders. It took over an hour to traverse between these summits, most of which I spent picking my way along below the ridge on the Lawn Lake side, looking for the path of least resistance and trying to avoid snow between the boulders. A herd of bighorn sheep greeted me at the low point, creeped me out a little by seemingly following me, then eventually moved along. The final push up Mummy Mountain is technically easy, zigzagging around boulders on pretty friendly terrain. At 1:30 I was at the summit, looking down the huge cliffs to the valley I was in hours before. Descending back to the trail was a bit more of a challenge than I had anticipated. It's a long way down, and while Mummy's south slope is mainly just moderately steep tundra, you've got to get beyond the giant cliffs on the Lawn Lake side and pick somewhere to turn right back toward the trail. I doubt my choice was the best. I ended up on a legit forest bushwhack through very uneven terrain that seemed to want me to steer me at times into the next drainage. I aggressively held my course west and eventually crossed the Black Canyon Trail and hit the Lawn Lake Trail. An easy stroll back to the car and I was done! By easy stroll I of course mean death march. The easy trail that breezed by on fresh legs in the morning suddenly didn't seem so easy in the afternoon heat and after so much work. I made it back to the car without incident though, and completed my 3 year Colorado mountain extravaganza. 5:30 Lawn Lake TH 7:50 Lawn Lake 9:15 The Saddle 10:20 Fairchild Mountain 10:55 The Saddle 12:10 Hagues Peak 1:30 Mummy Mountain 4:15 Lawn Lake TH Roundtrip: 10.75 hrs Vertical Gain: ~6,700 feet, my personal record Distance: not sure, but somewhere around 20 miles, my personal record Thank you all for reading and for helping make my Colorado experience so unforgettable. Your collective wisdom, insight, reports, and humor helped me along the way to over 300,000 vertical feet and taking in a summit view over 200 times, all without asking a single stupid question on the Facebook page! Special thanks to Powhound, who agreed to let our slightly different "agendas" overlap and bring us to several beautiful and precarious places. Keep protecting your mountains. Shep Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Lawn Lake Triple, CO Finale

I moved to Colorado in late 2013. I knew I likely wouldn't be staying more than a few years, so I started trying to really experience everything in the state at what you could call an "accelerated" pace. This eventually began to include multiple mountain summits pretty much every week. Not too interested in working on the same exact list that several thousand people are also currently working on, I started just hitting any summit I could easily drive to within an hour or two, occasionally venturing further for notable high points. I moved back East at the end of June, and made sure to cram in a bunch of summits before going. Numerous factors helped the peaks in this report get chosen for my final hike. (pretty far North, in the national Park, multiple peaks, high elevation, difficulty up to class 4, probable off-trail bushwhacking, high mileage and vertical gain)

I didn't see a report that included this exact hike so this could be valuable to those who don't want to do the car shuttle thing for the full "Mummy Mania" traverse but would like to get up to Lawn Lake or any of these peaks, especially before true summer conditions hit the high alpine.

My boots hit the Lawn Lake Trail at 5:30 am. Don't be intimidated by the mileage of this trail. It's a great trail; smooth and never very steep. On this day the trail was mostly dry and I covered the 6+ miles to Lawn Lake in less than 2.5 hours.

At this point the trail did start to disappear under deep snow for sections, especially in the forest along the east side of the lake. The snow was very solid, however, and I didn't have too much trouble traversing it and finding the trail again. I'm guessing that later in the day the snow may have created more difficulty.

Once out of the trees, snow wasn't much of a concern heading up toward the Saddle. By the way, there is still a lot of hiking to do between Lawn Lake and the Saddle. I hadn't realized this before, but it's about 1,400 feet of vertical over increasingly steep terrain to get from the lake to the saddle. This took me well over an hour, with one steep snowfield to cross. Stomping solid steps into the snow here wasn't too bad, and I didn't break out the micro-spikes. I soon reached the 12,938 ft Saddle and turned left to head up Fairchild. This ascent is technically easy, but certainly felt like the biggest slog of the day. With larger snowfields to trudge across, no real view of the actual summit, and some boulder scrambling, Fairchild commanded some respect after the long approach.

The descent back to the saddle was pretty quick, and pretty exciting, since what I would call the "Business Section" of the hike, the west Ridge of Hagues, was staring me in the face the whole time.

Snow was mostly avoidable on the ascent up Hagues. Absurd exposure along the ridge proper was also avoidable as there was plenty of Class 1 and 2 terrain south of the ridge. As I climbed higher however, there was no more class 1...then there was no more class 2...and eventually I realized that the class 4 designation was legit.

This route is a perfect progression from easy to difficult, with the hardest moves in the last 50 vertical feet to the summit. It's not too hard to find the way through to the top, since eventually there are basically no options to go left or right. You could make this section class 5 if you wanted to, but with some careful route finding you can keep it to maybe two or three actual class 4 moves. The high point of the day, the range, and the county: Hagues Peak. Views for days.

A look back to Fairchild from Hagues:

A look forward to Mummy from Hagues:

The traverse to Mummy was a bit of a pain in the ass. From a distance, it looks like you could just hop along the ridge itself. Up close, the ridge is not smooth at all, but is more of a pile of huge boulders. It took over an hour to traverse between these summits, most of which I spent picking my way along below the ridge on the Lawn Lake side, looking for the path of least resistance and trying to avoid snow between the boulders. A herd of bighorn sheep greeted me at the low point, creeped me out a little by seemingly following me, then eventually moved along. The final push up Mummy Mountain is technically easy, zigzagging around boulders on pretty friendly terrain. At 1:30 I was at the summit, looking down the huge cliffs to the valley I was in hours before.

Descending back to the trail was a bit more of a challenge than I had anticipated. It's a long way down, and while Mummy's south slope is mainly just moderately steep tundra, you've got to get beyond the giant cliffs on the Lawn Lake side and pick somewhere to turn right back toward the trail. I doubt my choice was the best. I ended up on a legit forest bushwhack through very uneven terrain that seemed to want me to steer me at times into the next drainage. I aggressively held my course west and eventually crossed the Black Canyon Trail and hit the Lawn Lake Trail. An easy stroll back to the car and I was done! By easy stroll I of course mean death march. The easy trail that breezed by on fresh legs in the morning suddenly didn't seem so easy in the afternoon heat and after so much work. I made it back to the car without incident though, and completed my 3 year Colorado mountain extravaganza.

5:30 Lawn Lake TH
7:50 Lawn Lake
9:15 The Saddle
10:20 Fairchild Mountain
10:55 The Saddle
12:10 Hagues Peak
1:30 Mummy Mountain
4:15 Lawn Lake TH

Roundtrip: 10.75 hrs
Vertical Gain: ~6,700 feet, my personal record
Distance: not sure, but somewhere around 20 miles, my personal record

Thank you all for reading and for helping make my Colorado experience so unforgettable. Your collective wisdom, insight, reports, and humor helped me along the way to over 300,000 vertical feet and taking in a summit view over 200 times, all without asking a single stupid question on the Facebook page! Special thanks to Powhound, who agreed to let our slightly different "agendas" overlap and bring us to several beautiful and precarious places.

Keep protecting your mountains.

Shep

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

BenjaminTaylor	Nice TR! 8/25/2017 9:59am Congratulations on a great hike! I attempted Mummy Mountain last year and have been wanting to get back to that area of RMNP ever since.
mathguy	Three Mummies=Well done! 8/25/2017 2:04pm Good job on a challenging hike. I've done Hagues, Mummy, and Fairchild, but I did the "senior" option with two hikes instead of one (Hagues and Mummy on one hike and Fairchild on another). But however you do it, that six plus miles to Lawn Lake makes any option a bit of work! A couple of comments: Assuming you don't have to dodge snow (which I didn't in a July hike), you can keep the ascent to Hagues Peak to C2 if you stay a bit south of the peak near the top and then circle around and summit from the east. I agree with your assessment of the ridge between Hagues and Mummy; a real pain, though it smooths out a bit as you approach Mummy. I descended Mummy more or less the same way you did, but I found aiming for Potts Puddle to be a useful way to pick up the Black Canyon trail with only a small amount of bushwhacking (but again I didn't have snow to contend with). Enough babbling! Nice report with great pics.
dillonsarnelli	nice work Chris! 8/26/2017 10:09am Good Luck!

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