Note: This is going to be a trip report about mistakes and what not to do, so please read it as such. I am writing it up with a normal level of detail about the day in order to provide the context to accompany the debrief on the mistakes.

Background

I requested access to climb Culebra and Red over President's Day weekend in February and committed to those plans long before seeing a weather forecast. Once we saw the forecast, we weren't psyched - cold and VERY windy. I am really hoping to get in a position to finish the Centennials this year and needed Red Mountain towards that objective. I hadn't climbed Red the first time I was on Culebra in September of 2005 because a) it was also very windy that day and b) I wasn't even thinking about 13ers at that point. The Cielo Vista Ranch and manager, Carlos, were extremely accommodating in allowing winter access, for which I was grateful. There was still ample snow covering the road, so we had to start from the Ranch Headquarters, making it a much longer hike. We started walking around 6:30 that morning, knowing that we needed to be back down and signed out by 6:00 PM.

With the brutal winds that day (35-45 sustained with gusts of 75 mph forecasted), three of us started out and two of us summited Culebra at nearly 1:00 PM. I really wanted Red and we tried to start in that direction, getting knocked down by the wind as we dropped towards the saddle. My partner and I looked at each other and knew it was a no go. The wind was simply too great and we would never make it over and back in time to get down by 6:00 PM.

We retreated back to the summit of Culebra and descended, arriving back down at Ranch HQ at 5:45 PM. It was one of the most brutal days I've ever experienced in the mountains. My prize for the day was a wind hickey on my neck from apparently having an ever so small area of skin not covered.

May 8, 2018 Climb

After not getting Red in February, I had to think about how & when to get back down to the Ranch. I watched condition reports until I saw that people were able to drive up to the four way, then I e-mailed Carlos again to see if I could come back down to climb Culebra and Red with a shorter day. After making sure the wind was forecasted to be reasonable that day (15-20 mph in the forecast) I asked if I could climb on Tuesday May 8th and he was gracious and accommodated my request (I now understand that their recent practice has been to not allow weekday reservations, but he made an exception for me). I drove down Monday night after teaching my class at DU, crashed at the Best Western in Alamosa and set my alarm for 4:15 AM so I could have breakfast and be at the gate a bit before 6:00 AM. Before I went to bed, I quickly pulled up trip reports to see if anyone had done the southern bi-centennials with Culebra and Red. After reading Otina's and Derek's TRs and seeing that they had done the southern bi-centennials separately, I discarded the brief thought as silly and went to sleep.

The ranch guys were right on time Tuesday morning and quickly turned me loose from the office. I was able to easily drive up to the 4WD trailhead, counting myself lucky to save yet another mile each way vs. starting at the four way. I started walking at 6:38 AM and climbed the snowfield straight towards the big cairn.

I was at the big cairn exactly an hour after leaving my car and was feeling great.

I topped out on Culebra at 8:30 AM, 1:52 after leaving my car. A quick text to Melissa and I was off to claim Centennial #91, Red Mountain.

49 minutes after arriving on top of Culebra, I was standing atop Red Mountain. It was 9:19 AM. I was torn. I could go back down and be home nice and early or I could alter plans. I should have just gone back down and gotten home early, but I have also been having a hard time orphaning nearby peaks, knowing that someday I'll regret it and need to come back for them.

I looked across at Vermejo, a bi-centennial peak across the way. I decided to change plans and go for it. I messaged Melissa to let her know my change of plans, then set off.

I arrived on the summit of Vermejo at 10:53 AM, snapped a few pictures, then kept right on going towards Alamosito, another ranked peak (#223).

Once I got to Alamosito's summit at 12:06 PM, I felt committed to getting Purgatoire as well. Another quick couple of photos and I was off.

My legs were a bit tired going up Purgatoire and the name suddenly seemed somewhat fitting. I topped out at 1:16 PM. I looked back across towards Culebra, thinking my car at the 4WD trailhead sure seemed like a long ways away. I had read an April CR that indicated a 13-hour day on Culebra and I inquired whether the 6:00 PM cut-off had been an issue. While the response indicated that was an old rule, I was still worried about it and really wanted to be back at my car by 5:40 PM in order to be back at the Ranch Headquarters by 6:00 PM.

I debated myself for a minute about whether I was better off retracing my steps and reclimbing some or all of the first four peaks to get back vs. dropping down below the ridge and making a bee line for my car. My tired legs were strongly arguing for the latter and I erroneously listened to them. I dropped back to the saddle between Purgatoire and Alamosito, then dropped a bit and popped up and over a pass into the Vallejos Creek basin. I tried to stay high, knowing that I was still going to need to get two more basins over to get back to my car. The scree was time consuming and I eventually gave up and dropped to the floor of the basin. I thought I would make better time across the snow, but it proved unsupportive and equally time consuming.

Once I got back on south facing slopes, the snow was no longer an issue, but unfortunately, I had to climb up and over a rib to get into the next basin over.

From the top of that rib, I could see that I still had a ways to go to get back to Culebra and my car.

I dropped down the north facing slope to descend into the North Vallejos Creek basin. The north facing aspect meant snow again. It was knee deep and didn't even tease me with the thought that it might hold my weight. Every step was a plunge in, an effort not to hyper extend my knee and an effort to move to the next step. More time went by. At least I had gravity on my side as I struggled down the slope to the creek at 11,000'. Once across the creek, I contoured along on game trails as best I could to avoid the thick deadfall all around me. I could see on my map that I was getting close to a road that would take me back up the final rib and over the top to the 4WD trailhead and my car. I had enjoyed cell signal most of the day and tried to send the Ranch a quick e-mail to let them know I was running a few minutes late, but that I was fine and almost back to my car. Of course, another lesson I should have known was that I wouldn't have cell coverage back down that low when I actually needed it. My e-mail sat in my outbox waiting for the magic bars to reappear.

I came up over the last rib and saw my car at 6:17 PM and arrived at my precious chariot at 6:23 PM, 11 hours and 45 minutes since I started. I didn't bother taking off my soaking wet boots and gaiters. I just jumped in my car and started off down the road, wanting to get back to the HQ and sign out as quickly as I could. Nearly back to the HQ, one of the Ranch employees was coming up the road on an ATV. I apologized that I was running a few minutes late. He told me it was no problem at all. I volunteered to him that I had gone over to the other mountains and it had taken me a bit longer than I had expected.

He followed me back to the Ranch HQ where I signed out at 6:42. I again thanked them for their hospitality and apologized for my tardiness. He again told me "no worries" and wished me safe travels.

Debrief

I briefly discussed my February climb and gave the details of the May climb to make sure I provided adequate context. Here's the important part of the TR though.

Last week I learned that my tardiness and decision to climb peaks beyond Culebra and Red had caused a problem for other climbers (a lovely couple that I met at our CFI fundraising event the night before they headed down). The Ranch had decided not to allow weekday climbers any longer at all (even on the exception basis). I feel really bad about this and have spent the past six days trying to make amends with the Ranch, which has recently shown the climbing community nothing but kindness and great hospitality. I've sent three e-mails of apology, so at this point I thought it best if I shifted my attention to helping others not make the same mistakes.

My takeaways from this trip would be:

* Changing plans on the fly is not a good idea. If you've done your research and decide something doesn't look reasonable, trust that instinct.

* Don't climb additional peaks in the Ranch without prior permission - with prior permission, I don't think it would have been a big deal at all. But since I had not asked in advance, this understandably upset them. In my e-mails with Carlos, I think what rubbed him the wrong way more than anything was my bolting on peaks that I had not discussed with him in advance. The Ranch was publicly stating that climbing was allowed only on the weekends, but was accommodating special weekday requests like mine and the couple's from last Friday. We never know what the Ranch may have had to deal with the time before any of us was there. It might have been unprepared hikers, lost hikers, slow hikers, grumpy hikers who didn't like that they had to pay, etc. The point is we should all treat access to this peak as a fragile thing and do our best to not screw it up for the next people like I did. Any of us might very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back on legal access.

* Be sure to understand the current rules on what time they need you to be out. I made the mistake of assuming that since a couple of recent climbers had been told not to worry about it, that I didn't need to be too worried about it either. Even thought I had heard the 6:00 PM exit was not a big deal any longer, I understand why one of the guys went up at 6:00 to check on me since they knew I could drive to at least the four way and it doesn't take most people all day to climb Culebra and Red. That took time away from their busy regular work schedules on the Ranch unnecessarily and frustrated them.

* Don't take access to private property for granted. They have every right to make rules and we should repay their kindness and hospitality with gratitude and respectful compliance. Some people's reaction to access issues on Culebra is to propose ODS as an alternative. I don't subscribe to that view. That is a great way to have access denied for everyone on all days of the week. I feel bad that my impromptu decision to climb three extra peaks may cost some of my fellow climbers the ability to have legal access during the week, but ODS is not the answer. It's much better for us as a climbing community to respect their rules and just be happy that they allow access at all.

* Frankly, don't climb Vermejo, Alamosito and Purgatoire with Culebra and Red. There is a good reason why seasoned 13er climbers like Derek and Otina didn't do it. It is a heck of a long way without having the benefit of a convenient loop to get back to where you started. I'm certainly not the fastest guy in the community, but I'd be on that side of the bell curve vs. the slower side. It took me almost 12 hours and my legs were dead at the end. Not a good choice from a route perspective and couple that with the negative consequences this has had makes it an even more poor choice.

I sincerely hope that I am able to repair the damage I have done to the relationship between the 14er community and the Ranch staff. I owe any other aspiring Culebra weekday climbers out there an apology in the mean time, especially the couple who drove all the way from my house Thursday night down to the Ranch to climb Friday morning per their prior agreement with the Ranch, only to be turned away because of my mistakes.

Thanks for reading and please accept my apology for causing an issue in what had been a very positive relationship with the Ranch.