Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point

January 18, 2020

Whenever we have a great weather forecast in winter, I try to hit the long approach peaks. Blanca was on my radar well before winter started, just needed a great forecast, as I knew it'd be a hella long day. On Friday January 17, 2020 I headed down to Alamosa to stay the night so I could be well rested for a long day in the Sangre's.

I started around 8,000 ft just after 6:30, plan was to be hiking around sunrise. I knew I'd likely be using a headlamp for the day's adventure, but I'd just as soon use my headlamp at the end of the day than at the beginning. Pretty cold to start the day, but not much wind.

Initially Lake Como road was mostly dry or had light snow, I didn't need any traction or flotation. Seeing the sunrise over the valley was cool.

Made good time the first 3 miles, around 29 minutes per mile. I see lots of complaints about the long walk up Lake Como Rd, I don't mind it so much, its great cardio.

I made it 3.5 miles up the road before the snow finally deepened and I put my snowshoes on.

Initially after putting on snowshoes I was breaking trail, but shortly thereafter...

I was surprised to see a trench, I was expecting a long day breaking trail. It was generally consistent up until maybe a mile from Lake Como. This day just kept getting better.

I like to think of myself as a photographer first and mountain climber second, this day would be great from both aspects. Many of my favorite shots this winter would be taken on this trek.

Made pretty good time to Lake Como, a little over 3 hours from start. I was pretty excited to walk across it, the kid in me gets a little over eager to walk across a frozen lake.

Past Lake Como I followed the Jeep road, the nastiest snow of the day was in the steep section immediately after Lake Como. Fortunately its not terribly long.

Continued in snowshoes until I got past the upper lakes. It had been over a year since my first summit of Blanca, I didn't remember it being so far beyond Lake Como.

The climb up Blanca's face was pretty uneventful, there was a mix of dry rocks and not terribly deeps snow. I didn't use crampons or microspikes.I reached Blanca's summit around 1:30.

When I started down Blanca I had been contemplating Ellingwood. First I talked myself out of it, thinking it was getting too late, I don't mind hiking in the dark, but didn't want to be coming down Ellingwood's face in the dark. Decided I would go down the ridge and just have a look. Subconsciously, I think I knew if I got to that point I'd go for it. Ugh, playing mind games with myself.

Once I reached the low point on the ridge, I looked at the sun. It was deceptively high. I purposely did not look at my watch, I didn't want a different data point to talk me out of going for it. I convinced myself that I could surely summit Ellingwood, then get down to Lake Como before dark, and I'd just have an easy road walk by headlamp.

There were a few tough maneuvers required across the middle of the connecting ridge, mostly to stay on dry rocks. I wasn't expecting that.

Reached the summit of Ellingwood around 3:30. It was great timing for photos, the best picture I've taken this winter was from the summit of Ellingwood point.

Left the summit of Ellingwood a little before 4pm. I knew I wasn't going to get to Como before dark, but had no issue getting down the steep part of Ellingwood. The sunset as I descended was awesome. I was glad I pushed on to Ellingwood. Long days like this are what I live for.

I was able to get to my snowshoes before dark, my tracks were intact pretty much the whole way down, so getting back was uneventful.

Thanks for reading.