I can say with pretty great confidence I was the first person up Culebra Peak this year!

For the past few years I've been debating going up Culebra Peak at all, since the idea of a privately owned peak is a bit off putting to me. Something about lining the pockets of a ranch owner who paid $105M for 83,000 acres feels icky. After chatting with some folks whose names I forget at the Lead King Basin TH last summer they convinced me to do it anyway for a variety of reasons, and the completionist in me knows that I'd never be able to summit "all but one" 14er.

Mind changed, I waited until December 1st to get my permit when they went on sale. ($150 at the time of writing) My SO works in a hospital and was scheduled for new year's day, and I had the holiday off so it presented a great opportunity to get out there and go for it!

Permit in hand, I drove down to the ranch gate on December 31st, NYE. I popped the GoFast tent up and got to bed around 9pm with a 5:15 wake up set. There was already one other car at the gate when I got there, and we didn't cross paths in the evening.

I was just finishing my first coffee of 2023 when Carlos arrived at 5:45 to open the gate. I had introduced myself to Neil, the lone driver of the other vehicle, and since it was just the two of us Carlos let us in a few minutes before 6 to drive to Ranch HQ. There were two other permits besides ours issued for the day, but they were no-shows. Checking in at the HQ with Javier was straightforward - some minor rules, there's a bathroom, and checkout instructions with a gate code to let ourselves out. Parking was at HQ, around 9,080'.

I put my boots on and hit the trail at 6:20am under headlamp. There were 4-wheeler tracks where Javier rode up until the snow got too deep, around 10,000'. At this point I put on snowshoes, and didn't take them off for another 10 hours or so. Oof.

Now, I'm not really one to complain. I don't mind suffering a little bit here and there, but this trail was something else. As the first person to hike this route this season, and likely the first person on the trail since July 31 last year, there was post holing. The snow machine had not been out yet for the season, so I was met with a beautiful crisp blanket of untouched white powder.

And postholing, if I forgot to mention. Even with my MSR snowshoes I was sinking calf to knee deep in the sugary white stuff.

It took me a whopping 4 hours to get to Four Way, averaging 1mph. It was another hour on top of that to get to treeline, where thankfully the wind picked up a little bit and the snow wasn't quite so deep and post-holey. It was still slow going to gain the ridge, but I was keeping a slightly better pace.

I gained the ridge just before 1pm and found the iconic cairn that's there. It was pretty blustery at this point.

The forecast was marginal but the chance of precipitation was low, so I pushed on. My turnaround time went from noon... to one... to two PM in my head. I kept pushing on the ridge, and the wind picked up significantly between the cairn and the false summit.

I had a handheld anemometer, a Kestrel 5500, and measured sustained wind of 54mph on the ridge between the cairn and the false summit, with a wind chill of -8°F. There were gusts that were higher still, but there's not a chance my ungloved hand would be there to measure them! It was borderline scary amounts of wind and cold, if you are looking to do this peak in winter be prepared for some extreme cold, it's really no joke. I'm sure-footed and almost lost my balance more than once, which in the wrong place on the ridge could be catastrophic. There's a reason this peak is notorious for high winds.

It was so brutal from the cairn to the summit that I couldn't stop for self care. I didn't eat or drink anything during that time, and my gloves were only ever off for 30 seconds at a time at most. I never let my core get too cold, but just a gentle reminder to take breaks when the opportunity presents in unfavorable conditions.

I summitted around 2:20, almost exactly 8 hours after departing from the truck.

I didn't stick around for more than a minute or so.

I saw some animals in the distance when I passed the cairn on the return journey, they're probably just a few pixels tall on the distant summit in this photo.

I caught up with Neil just below the cairn at around 13k'. He made it to the cairn when I was heading back from the summit, and he turned around there. It's his 14er finisher, but he was in good spirits about not making it all the way up, as "the mountain will be there tomorrow". A wise man, indeed. We hiked together for a few miles at a leisurely pace down to treeline and past Four Way.

It was nice having some company after being completely isolated for the day. It's a really strange experience being that out there compared to many other hikes in CO. There's an incredible sense of calm and isolation knowing that there's pretty much only one human near me for many miles, especially to the north, south, and east. I'll keep my opinions to myself about the private land and all that, but I will say it's a truly unique experience and a tremendous peak surrounded by spectacular views. It's not an experience I'll soon forget. If you're on the fence about Culebra, my vote is go for it.

I split with Neil and hoofed it down through the now two pairs of snowshoe tracks.

I made it to HQ at 5:45 under headlamp, just before the 6PM cutoff and my 12h mark. There was nobody there, but I signed out and copied the gate code so I could get out. When I reached the gate it was 5:55 and Carlos was just locking it for the evening, so he was able to let me out. I told him there was one more hiker behind me by an hour or so and asked casually if that's an issue; he didn't show any sign of concern. I'm not sure what the policy is around the 6pm cutoff, but I think there's a bit of wiggle room if you're not too late.

If you're next to hike this route and use my tracks, please take a moment and appreciate the effort. It was my pleasure to be the first to make them this year.