OK, I know the last day of summer was a couple weeks ago, but with the cold front forecast for the next day, I decided to take advantage of what would likely be the last day to enjoy summer like conditions up in the high country this season. The obvious target, my hometown favorite, Mt. Sneffels. Now there are plenty of reports on Sneffels, several of them mine, but I decided to post this one because the Blaine Basin approach simply does not get enough love on this site.

On this hike I took the Blaine Basin approach to reach Scree Col, where I intersected the standard S Slopes route and finished up through the "V" notch, then descended via the SW Ridge to Blue Lakes Pass, finishing by descending the Blue Lakes trail back to the trailhead. It is approximately 13 miles and on this trip took a little under 8 hours. The splits were as follows:

12:15 p. Start from Blue Lakes Trailhead.

4:30 p. Sneffels Summit

5:20 p. Blue Lakes Pass

6:30 p. Lower Blue Lake

7:45 p. Return to trailhead

From the Blue Lakes trailhead, there is a fork in the trail after the first 100 yards. To the right, the popular Blue Lakes trail. To the left, the much less traveled Blaine Basin trail. It is about 3 miles to get to Blaine Basin. The trail up to the basin is excellent and easy to follow.

Once you get into Blaine Basin, the trail continues up through the trees and eventually crosses the creek. After the creek crossing the trail is obscure, but there are some switchbacks up high on the right, leading to the Snake Couloir. But the objective is to get just high enough to make an easy traverse below the entire north face, pretty much follow the line of shadow in the previous photo, to a point below Kismet, before turning the corner and heading up toward Scree Col.

There is no obvious way out of the basin for a long time. Just work your way higher until the exit becomes obvious.

I don't want to give the impression this hike is all wine and roses. The hike from this point to the saddle ahead is a bit brutal. There is no trail and lots of loose rock. Everything moves and care must be taken both in finding a decent line and watching out for rocks rolling under foot. I burned up over an hour getting from the point in the previous photo to the saddle in view.

But, on the other hand, in the spring, I have used this as a descent and man it can be fun when covered in snow. I have made the descent from the summit to lower Blaine Basin in about 20 minutes! But that is another story.

This "last day of summer" hike was inspired by a weather forecast that promised a cold front blowing through with strong winds, a 40 degree change in temperature and snow. I did get some of the wind, but the sky stayed clear all day. The wind gusts came and went, and for a while it seemed like it might be windy enough to make my planned descent on the SW Ridge a bad idea. As I crawled up the rocks to Scree Col I wondered if I would just drop off the other side to reach Blue Lakes Pass or if the summit was still a good idea.

One step at a time and things came together as planned.

The wind eased off for my short summit stay. I didn't wait around to see if the break would last. I started down the SW Ridge just a minute or two after reaching the summit.

There are several ways to descend this route. I prefer staying pretty much on the crest of the ridge for most of the top 1/3 of the ridge, ignoring the community trails and cairns lower down on the side of the mountain. If you get drawn too far below the ridge the climbing gets more difficult than it has to be.

Below the Kissing Camels the ridge becomes a steep dirty gully. There is a short cliff and then an option to descend a bit to avoid more rock work or continue higher up and come upon what I consider the crux of the climb.

After climbing down this 4th class pitch for about 40', cross to the west side of the ridge for the easy walk down to Blue Lakes Pass