Gilpin Peak – 13,699’

4.64 miles / 3,444’ gain

Allie (13erRetriever) and Regina had been lobbing ideas at one another for a while hoping some mountain idea would stick for both of them. Something in other words, that they both needed that didn’t involve repeating a mountain or peak. Myself on the other hand, I didn’t care what we did as long as it was outside. I’m completely fine with repeating peaks at any altitude. Though as fate would have it, one of those grenades landed in Yankee Boy Basin. Gilpin Peak was an objective that all three of us needed. And at that, Gilpin had been on my ‘short list’ for quite some time. It’s funny how long our ‘short lists’ can take to accomplish sometimes!

Having just moved to Montrose (like literally three days), I appreciated the short drive to Yankee Boy versus having to wait for the Lake City Cutoff to release traffic. I’ve driven the cutoff and taken Kebler Pass more times than I care to admit.

We met Allie (and Harper- golden retriever) at the outhouse with both of us arriving only within minutes of each other. We carpooled in my truck and drove the rough road up to 11,700’ where there’s a good pull out. At the time, the upper 4x4 TH was still blocked by snow. Even a SxS turned around and came back down. We could have driven another .3 mile but really, what would have been the point?

We made it to Wright’s Lake (12’220’) in about .7 miles and left the road on a straighter path towards the Gilpin-Sneffels ridge. The lake lies at the toe of a rock glacier about 1,600’ long. The lake is named for Ed Wright who with his brother, George, built the opera house in Ouray.

I chuckled to myself while staring at the unimposing ridge. Back in December of 2021, I attempted Gilpin Peak by way of Blue Lakes Pass. I wanted to climb the ridge directly. In my defense, I got almost halfway across before I decided traversing and downclimbing short 4^th class spires & bulletproof snow wasn’t the brightest idea. In my offense, I didn’t do any reading of what to expect. So, I retreated and did a third lap up Sneffels’ SW Ridge.

We aimed for the edge of the first snowfield whereby we’d strap up for the snow. We brought Allie some strap-on crampons but now, we faced our first problem, Allie didn’t have an axe. She had forgot it back home. We gave Allie a crash course on proper crampon use and came up with a tentative plan for getting her and Harper up to the base of the cornice.

We all crossed the lower snowfields and lower-angled slopes without incident. It couldn’t have been more than 20°. The slope leading to the summer trail probably flirted with 30°. Not a big problem, but without an axe, a fall would have had bad consequences. We decided Allie would follow the snowline up and around tracing the moat with the rock. That way, she could use the crampons on the snow and strafe the small rock cliffs. Harper of course, didn’t have a problem since she has natural crampons. Regina and I continued on the snow reaching a point where there were some easy ledges. We scrambled up the loose ledges and waited for Allie & Harper on the ridge.

The views north towards Mt. Sneffels and “Kismet” were better than I imagined! I intend on going back next week for “Kismet” since it also has been on my ‘short list’ for far too long.

After we shed our crampons, I started off scrambling up the melted-out section with Harper on my heels. I could see why folks have said doing Gilpin dry is a nightmare. While having a climber’s path was nice to follow, everything was loose, dusty or scree. If you even looked at a rock the wrong way, the damn thing would move. Gilpin Peak is best done with snow. Along this section, I came across the wreckage of someone’s drone. The dam thing was still lying there. Just another example of why you can’t trust people to pick their shit up. SO I took it home & threw it away.

At the bottom of the cornice, I stopped and waited for the girls. It was short but maybe peaked at roughly 48°-50°. Accurately guessing slope inclination is like dartboard science. But I’m comfortable in saying it wasn’t 20°. J

The plan was that I’d go up first kicking steps for Allie and Regina. Things went smoothly and everyone got up just fine. There was an underlying ice patch about halfway up which necessitated using the pick instead of plunging the tip of the axe.

I’d like to take a minute and call out Regina because she did wonderful on this climb. You see, a couple of years ago we did a late season climb up the Grand on Mt. Aetna. On our descent down the SE Ridge, we veered off down into Hoffman Park. On the downclimb and traverse of a minor rock rib, Regina fell (bad rock) about 15’ catching herself by her right arm. Regaining her composure, she plopped down onto the snow slope and inadvertently set off a wet slide of which, she also slid about 10’. The rest of the slide continued all the way down to the valley floor. She was a trooper for making it out under her own power despite being rather shaken up, bruised and cut up.

So, as she was climbing Gilpin, memories of Aetna had flooded the back of her mind. She had a rather tense morning and afternoon basically running on adrenaline & cortisol. She didn’t really calm down until we were halfway down the gully. But as people say, “Ya gotta git back up on the horse” at some point. And she did marvelous at keeping all those stallions in the corral.

Allie and Harper sped across the summit ridge and landed on the summit at 2.3 miles. Regina and I came strolling up later whereby, we all took a good rest, despite the wind and cold temperatures. Even Harper seemed to rather enjoy the hummus!

We ate a little, signed the summit register and I left prayer flags (for remembrance of Steve G. and Terry M.). After 15 minutes, we beat it out of there.

On the descent, we had an accident. We weren’t sure how Harper was going to get down. But Allie seemed confident she could follow her down staying right behind her. I descended first, reestablishing the steps. Then Allie would come down next with Harper taking it slow. What happened, is that when I was about eight feet from the bottom, Allie couldn’t keep Harper back any longer and she followed me down! Her claws gave out and she slid, then started to roll down at me! Because of my position, I was able to get my left arm wrapped around her mid-section ever so briefly before she hit the talus. So I was able to arrest some of her speed. I jumped down to the talus to console her. Poor Harper was VERY scared and shaken up. But otherwise, she was fine. I stayed with her until Allie and Regina got down.

On the way back down, Allie and Harper retraced their steps down the trail and back along the narrow moat. They killed it on the descent! Regina and I took the gully and snow climbed down. As a ski descent, it wouldn’t have been all that great as the runnels were still fairly firm.

It turned into a great day on a pretty good peak. We celebrated back in Montrose at Shelter Distillery with drinks.