Yale and Mascot

This climb was originally supposed to be to Little Bear Peak, and I was already parked at the trailhead when I got the bad news. Unfortunately, my partner had to cancel last minute which had me scrambling to figure out an alternative climb. Little Bear with snow was not a peak I was comfortable climbing solo, so I began researching my options. I quickly settled on a repeat of Yale because I knew it was trenched, and I'd been wanting to climb it in tandem with 13er "Mascot"Peak. A peak I assume got it's name from Yale being the first University to have a mascot for it's sports teams. That mascot was Handsome Dan the bulldog. Little Bear would have to wait and I headed north towards the Sawatch.

Day of Climb: November 29th, 2020

Trailhead: Denny Creek

Peaks: Mt Yale and "Mascot Peak"

Miles/Elevation Gain: 10.23 miles and 4544 feet gained.

I arrived at the Denny Creek trailhead after midnight and went to sleep, waking around 6. I was not concerned with an alpine start since this would not be a long day and the forecast was good. I was on the Mt Yale standard trail by 7 and cruised to treeline in no time following an incredible trench wearing spikes. Snowshoes were not needed.

Once above treeline and on the shoulder there was very little snow. I continued on in my microspikes even though they weren't really needed but the extra traction was nice. I moved quickly in a northeast direction and it didnt take long to reach the steep slopes below the saddle.

These steeper slopes leading to the saddle had more snow. I stuck mostly to the trail and followed where others had been with only the occasional posthole. It was pretty dry as I topped out on the saddle. The summit ridge was next and it had lots of snow covering the standard route, so I scrambled along the mostly windblown ridge crest to the summit. It was slippery in spots which made some of the easy class 3 moves a little more difficult, but I hit the summit before not too long for my 3rd time on Mt. Yale.

I took in the views for a moment and kept moving. Summitting Yale again was great, but "Mascot" was my main objective for the day. I continued past the summit and started down Yales East Ridge. The connecting ridge to "Mascot" diverged southeast at about 14,000. Along the way there were a few spots that looked like they might go to "Mascot", but they didn't look like they'd go well so I kept hiking east.

At around 14,000 feet I hit the last major point on the upper ridge and turned south south-east towards "Mascot" Peak. The saddle was just under1,000 vertical feet below covering mostly class 2 terrain.

The broad ridge to the "Mascot" saddle was mostly a mix of talus, scree and an occasional boulder field with many route options and very little snow. I followed the path of least resistance. There was a short cliff band dead center on the ridge about a quarter of the way down. It was easy to skirt around it to the left and then return to ridge center.

After what seemed like endless talus and boulders I finally reached the large, mostly dry saddle. I immediately started climbing the roughly 400 vertical feet to "Mascot" up it's north slope. The slope was almost entirely made up of talus. I stuck close to the north ridge line where I occasionally found crusty snow to walk on which was preferably to the talus.

"Mascot" took about 20 minutes to climb and was fun. I always enjoy a good talus hop! The views of Yale were beautiful with it's light layer of early season snow and made "Mascot" well worth the journey. Now I needed to decide how I was going to get back to the Denny Creek trailhead. I think many climbers descend off the southwest ridge and bushwack back to the road. This didn't sound fun plus I'd have to put in a trench. Instead, I decided to returned to the Yale saddle and look for a way back to the standard Yale route where I knew there was a nice trench.

Once at the saddle I went west and sidehilled under Yales summit. I roughly followed the 13,100 foot contour line back to the Southwest Slopes of Yale and the standard route. It was pretty manageable terrain over scree and one snow crossing of a gully. I was happy to be back on the standard route and descended to treeline. I quickly located the trenched expressway and cruised back to the trailhead ending another great day in the mountains.