Visiting the Deadman

Pico Aislado (13,611') & "Pico no es Aislado" (13,020A)

September 30th, 2023

Pico Aislado (13,611') is a scary mountain located in the Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado. This peak has a spicy reputation, and for good reason. Tragically, in June 2021, our friend Bryan fell 1500' to his death, careening into the unfortunately-named Deadman Drainage. He was my best friend, and his death was a devastating loss for his family and friends. A tribute to him can be found here.

Since his death, our hiking crew has scattered his ashes on many mountain summits in Colorado. His ashes have been scattered in every mountain range with 13ers and 14ers. However, our crew felt we still had unfinished business. We also wanted to take some of Bryan's ashes up to Pico Aislado's summit, the location of his accident. One way or another, we were hell-bent on getting him to the summit.

The most common route for Pico Aislado is from Music Pass. This route involves seriously exposed ledges to nearby Milwaukee Peak, then sustained scrambling to Pico Aislado's summit. Since Bryan died taking this route, this way was of no interest to us. In the years since his death, we have schemed alternate ways to summit this mountain.

Earlier this summer, Ross, Kyle, and I accessed the seldomly traveled Deadman Drainage to hike UN13401, Cleveland Peak, UN13384, and Deadman Peak. That particular trip was a fantastic outing on its own, but also served as a reconnaissance mission to scout an alternative way to Pico's summit. We took our notes, and agreed that a fall day under a full moon would be ideal conditions to finally visit our Deadman friend.

As the season changed from Summer to Fall, we rounded up many of the usual suspects for this endeavor. Ross was kind enough to offer his house in Crestone to those who wanted to crash the night before. In addition to being a superb mountain climber, Ross is also a skilled cat collector/enthusiast. It is unclear how many cats reside in or around his home. While the exact quantity of cats is likely never to be known, at least four cats crawled all over me all night, making it difficult to sleep. Just a fraction of Ross' cats are displayed in the images below:

Our 3am wake-up came too early. After hurling several cats off my blow-up mattress, I slammed a few pre-game iced coffees, and then piled our stuff into Ross' car. We made the quick 10-minute drive to the Liberty Gate trailhead to join the rest of the crew and begin our hike. Our giga squad for the day consisted of myself, Ross (Reg0928), Courtney (courtc43), Kyle (k_fergie), Kit (cloudkicker), Andrew (Tornadoman), Sam + his doggo Willow (Discin 14ers), and Bre (too cool for this amateur website apparently). We had a big group for the day, just as Bryan would have liked it. The full moon was rockin' as we began our pilgrimage down the sandy trail.

We knew from our previous venture up the Deadman drainage that it would be a beatdown. However, we found the vegetation to be much more manageable in Fall than in Summer. We made quick work of the deadfall and were happy not to be bothered by bugs. Our summer visit to the Deadman drainage featured cataclysmic quantities of mosquitoes. Fortunately, this late September day was free of those disgusting creatures. The full moon was fantastic for navigation, and we hardly needed our headlamps. Somewhere along the way I lost my hiking poles. Fortunately, the crew picked them up but maliciously hid them from me for several hours.

We were having a blast, telling all sorts of inappropriate jokes while enjoying bushwacking in the night. Soon enough, the sun started to rise, and we were greeted with some great fall colors. So much of the Deadman drainage is an Aspen forest, making it an awesome location for late September. During our summer trip to this drainage, we speculated that the colors would be fantastic. Our prediction was spot-on, and these were some of the best fall colors I have ever seen. The Deadman was pulling all the stops for us today!

At this point the already faint trail started to thin. After a brief consultation with our maps, we decided to start up the ridge to UN13020A (later renamed “Pico no es Aislado”), our first objective. This was a typical 13er slog with simple route finding and bushwhacking involved. From the Deadman's aspen forest, we rocketed up nearly 2000' to UN13020A.

Generally, we just aimed for the ridge. The terrain was typically steep and featured frequent log hopping over downed Aspen trees. We spent plenty of time admiring the nearby peaks as we gained elevation. We already started to plan return trips to this basin for Tijeras Peak and Milwaukee Peak someday. While long and somewhat of a tedious approach, the Deadman side provides several reasonable non-standard routes for these very cool peaks. By our observations, routes to both Tijeras and Milwaukee would not exceed class 2 when approached from Deadman.

We didn’t stay long on the summit of UN13020A/“Pico no es Aislado”. Naturally, we were much more interested in the real Aislado. It looked so close, and we were really excited to head on up it. I have never felt more motivated to summit a peak in my life!

Before leaving summit, we left a summit register with our unofficial name for this peak. We debated several unofficial names for this peak, most of which are too rude to be mentioned here. We eventually settled on "Pico no es Aislado" because it was similar to the naming convention of 13ers "Baldy no es Cinco" and "Baldy Cinco". Regardless of the name (or LiDAR elevation), this peak is cool and definitely worth visiting.

From UN13020’s summit, the route down to the saddle is straightforward. Generally, it involved class 2 rock and boulder hopping. We often looked down into the Cottonwood drainage with the Crestone 14ers dominating above. Ross and Sam would later descend into the Cottonwood drainage as an alternative to the way we ascended. For their descent, they would re-climb 13020 and then descend a northwestern gully into the Cottonwood drainage.

From the saddle, all that separated us from the Pico’s summit was big and long gully up its western face. While this gully is long, it is not dangerous or difficult, and does not exceed difficult class 2. The only person who experienced any difficulty here was Andrew. Out of seemingly nowhere, Andrew started to have some stomach issues causing him to violently burp and fart (often simultaneously) for a sustained period of time. Alarmed by this, the rest of the group tried to hike as fast as possible to maintain a safe distance. Fortunately, Andrew was able to eventually recover and storm up the gully. They don't call him the Tornadoman for nothing!

The steep gully came to an end, and we made the final easy mini scramble to Pico’s summit. The views of the Crestones were sublime, and the weather even better. We were all so happy to be up there, and constantly remarked what a great day it was. We relaxed and took lots of pictures.

Eventually, we brought out Bryan's ashes and took turns scattering them from summit. Mission accomplished! We thought a lot about Bryan and how good a friend he was. I've never met anyone who loved the mountains as much as Bryan. On summit, I promised the Deadman that I'll hike all 584 CO 13ers in his memory. Bryan's ultimate goal was to climb them all and I want to finish what he started. Bryan is the reason why I started hiking 13ers in the first place. His memory is the ultimate motivator!

Several of us also broke out our lucky dinosaur figurines. Bryan was a dinosaur fanatic and had a large collection of dinosaur toys. After his death, Bryan's parents distributed his collection amongst his friends. Most of us hike with our toy dinosaurs to remind us of our great memories with Bryan. I refuse to hike a peak without mine!

Eventually we decided to make the long journey back to Crestone. We knew we had pizza and root beer waiting for us so we tried to be quick. Most of us elected to return back down the Deadman drainage although Ross and Sam decided to descend to the Cottonwood drainage for a change of scenery. The way down was just as fun as the way up. It was satisfying to view the golden aspens in the afternoon lighting.

Overall, the Deadman drainage is fantastic. Having been up it twice, it is certainly one of my favorite places in Colorado. I especially recommend it in Fall to maximize the fall foliage and minimize the mosquitoes.I have attached our GPX to this report to bring more awareness to this less common way up Pico Aislado. Our route featured some bushwhacking, but never exceeded Class 2. Our group felt extremely safe the entire time. Even the dog summited without any issues.

I highly recommend this route if you are interested in avoiding the difficult and exposed terrain found on the Music Pass side. Regardless of the way you choose to climb Pico Aislado, you’ll have the Deadman’s spirit watching over you!!