In the last 8 years of hiking and climbing 14ers, I've sought out others around my age group to share the journey. Unfortunately, only a few exist, and most of them are not really interested in pushing for the Class 3's, 4's and even low 5's. The need for adrenaline seems to have passed for those on the downhill side of 50.
But on the fortunate side, there is no shortage in the younger crowd who are more than willing to climb for the airy ledges and experience the magic of the lofty places. I've been lucky enough to have several young friends that love to come back to the difficult peaks again and again.
One of those friends is Mike Schlachtenhaufen. I would love to see a name like that on a sports jersey. Mike and I met 4 years ago on an event filled trip up Capitol Peak. We had so much fun that we followed it up the next year with Pyramid, then the Bells Traverse and Crestone Traverse. We've skied together in difficult terrain and he seems to always be way out ahead scouting for the next bit of excitement. He's the bird dog who's always willing to do the hard work. We work well together as a team.
So about two years ago we decided that somehow, someway, we were going to get the remaining two classic traverses together. Scheduling worked for this past Sunday and we both wanted Little Bear to Blanca. I had climbed it in 2014 and then last year I was able to try an interesting variation up Little Bear known as the Northwest Face route. I wanted it to be the traverse as well on that occasion, but it took us way to long to get to the summit of Little Bear. I figured that with the right conditions and a solid small group of climbers I could return this year and be successful. Mike had 2 others in mind and I knew them both.
Robin Lindsay is a mutual friend and she just finished the 14ers a few weeks ago. I hadn't climbed any real difficult peaks with her, but I knew through others that she was a strong climber and was not bothered by exposure. In subsequent pictures you'll see just how true that is.
Erik Tischner is another mutual friend who I've been looking forward to climbing with. We've done a couple of celebratory hikes together, but I knew that he was a much more serious climber than the hikes would indicate. He's also quiet sometimes, so it's difficult to get a read on what he's thinking. Despite the demeanor, I had a feeling that âThe stoke is strong with this one!â
Mike's roommate, Annalise (another finisher) wanted to come along as well but didn't want to do the traverse. She wanted to do Ellingwood to Blanca with some friends and meet us on Blanca. We all met at the lower trailhead just off of the highway on Saturday evening, except for Mike who had to work late and drive in early Sunday morning. We woke up at 3:00 am and with 2 vehicles started the slow 4wd slog up the road to as high as we could go. I was able to get to about 9200' with my Silverado Pickup before I was not comfortable going further. Eight of us continued to about 10,000' in Robin's Rubicon where she ended up with a flat tire. We decided to change the tire on the return trip.
At 4:10 am we were hiking up Lake Como road in the dark and arrived at the lake about 5:55 am. We continued on around the lake to the base of the gully that is the standard route for Little Bear. Continuing just a bit further we came to a place in the trail where our 2 groups were to split off and go our separate ways. The time was 6:10 am. We all took a break for a few minutes and at 6:30 it was time to start up the âBlack Handâ route. It's so called because of a section of varnished black rock that looks like a 3 fingered hand at the base of the Northwest face. It's the perfect landmark for navigation.
The timing was also perfect because it was first light and we no longer needed headlamps. Trekking poles put away, helmuts on and the scramble begins.

At the base of the black hand is a scree field and we navigated as much as we could to the left of it before coming right up underneath the hand. Last year when I was at this spot we chose to go to the right. Information that I had received since then indicated we could also go left. We decided to try it thinking that maybe it could be a time saver. As it turns out, going to the left put us in a bit of a precarious position at the base of a gully that was somewhat polished. The dark varnish on the rock as we were approaching should have been an indication that it might be slick. We tried swinging back to the right above the Black Hand but it still seemed pretty steep. Ultimately, we dropped back under the Black Hand and proceeded up and to the right. That little detour cost us about 45 minutes.

It was slow, difficult going and there was a lot of loose rock. Eventually we came to a point where we were looking down into a gully and I knew that was not the right way. At this point we headed back up to the left and aimed for a rock rib. I remembered this area from last year and I knew that once we were able to crest the rock rib, the remaining route to the ridgeline would come into view.
It did come into view and we all picked our way upward until finally coming into more solid rock without the gravel underlayment. It's critical in this area to make sure that you are not above or below any of your climbing partners. It's almost impossible to avoid kicking a few pebbles down throughout the entire Northwest Face.

As you are coming up the face, the target is to hit the ridgeline to the right side of the first hump that interrupts the downward slope of the ridgeline from the summit. When we arrived here it was pretty exciting becaue we knew that the loose rock was done and the summit is close. A couple hundred feet more of vertical and we reached the summit of Little Bear! The time was 9:30 am for a 3 hour climb time up the Northwest Face. If you subtract the 45 minute detour, we would have more accurately been there in 2:15 minutes.

After a much needed food break and phone calls (cell service is great on Little Bear) we headed into the traverse at 9:53 am. The first section drops dramatically down the ridgeline to the same point where we came up the Northwest Face. The ridgeline proper is the route for practically the entire way across the traverse. I won't attempt to describe every section of the way but more of a general overall description. There are approximately 6 different towers of varying sizes along the way to the saddle and the rock is fairly solid. Some you go over, some to the left, some to the right. Several places have short sections that are like a short knife edge. There are places where you have to hang by only your hands to swing around to the next section. And once in a while, despite the â3 points of contact at all timesâ rule - You may have to trust a reach beyond your comfort zone. Did I mention exposure? Off the charts. You don't want to cross this in the wind. At times it is over 1,000 feet.

We made one navigational mistake. Or I should say I made a navigational mistake. As the route description indicates, when we came to what I thought was the saddle, we dropped off of the ridge to the scree to cross under the tower. We were 1 section too early. I should have remembered the right place from my crossing 3 years ago. As a result we came to a very narrow spot where we had to cross a ledge with an overhang. We had to crawl through it with quite a precipitous drop below. It wouldn't have been too bad except when wearing a pack it can hang up. When we came out the other side I realized the mistake and we had more scree to cross. As we arrived at the first section that was an up climb, I was a little uncertain if we were in the right place. Erik, Mike, and Robin climbed up over the top of the tower and I asked them to check to see if it was going to go before I went any further. I was exhausted and I didn't want to needlessly expend any energy. It turned out that we were back on track and I have never been so glad. I ws so satisfied that I was part of such a solid group of climbers.

From the saddle, there are 3 more very tall towers that take you ever closer to the summit of Blanca. Each of them drop off on the side closest to Blanca, but fortunately not by much. It's like having 2 false summits before you hit the real thing. I was moving very slowly through all 3 sections. As I approached the final pitch, I could hear Annalise's voice. Her group had summited Ellingwood, then Blanca. They had waited an awful long time for us and with weather approaching they decided to head back to Lake Como. Annalise started out with them and then returned to the summit and back down a few hundred feet into the traverse to greet us at the traverse finish line. What a welcome sight! The others summited ahead of me and an exhausted Michael J summited at 12:57 pm. I was certain that I was much slower across the traverse this time but as it turns out I was faster by 36 minutes.

Another quick break and as grauppel started to fall we quickly worked our way down from the summit of Blanca to Lake Como. After a cold and wet hike we arrived back at the cars at 5:30 pm. All in all I think a time of 13 hours 20 minutes for this kind of trip was pretty good. I'm extremely grateful for a group of highly skilled climbers that made such good decisions despite mistakes. That is the benefit of experience!