Route: 13002 NE ridge --> Savage N ridge

Trailhead: Missouri Lakes

Distance: 14 miles

Gain: 5,600

Difficulty: 5.easy

Time: 7:45

13,002 is a newly appointed thirteener, promoted from the doldrums of ranked twelvers by lidar, in the Holy Cross Wilderness. I was first inspired to climb this peak a couple of weeks ago when Natalie (snowalien) posted a conditions report calling the scenery excellent and the scrambling quality. But she doesn't write trip reports anymore, so someone has to! In the words of a formerly great philosopher: "Who the kids gon' listen to? I guess me if it isn't you."

Aside from getting to explore this supposedly awesome route, I also decided I would try to add on Savage. Savage couloir has been on my list for the last 6 years, but I never got around to doing it. This begs the question: how much of a priority is this route if I can't find one day in the last 6 years to complete it? I guess not that high. The north ridge seemed like the most logical way to link up these two peaks, but my five minutes of searching found absolutely no information on that ridge. I assumed that given how mellow the standard route for Savage is, the north ridge probably wouldn't be too crazy, and if it was, it couldn't be harder than 13,002, meaning I'd be prepared. With that half-assed plan assembled, I was off!

An afternoon birthday party in Denver meant that I needed to start early and couldn't dawdle too much. 4AM was the intended start time, and after narrowly avoiding a moose and pulling into to a surprisingly yoked lower Missouri Lakes parking lot, I hit the trail around 4:10. I didn't feel super great at the start, but the miles went speedily thanks to the superhighway of a trail to Missouri Lakes. There was a sign near the 4wd trailhead indicating that travel was discouraged on the Missouri Lakes trail due to bridge damage, but the bridge seemed to be in good shape. Maybe don't trust the handrail, but otherwise, bomber.

I made it to the lakes in just over an hour from the car. The trail looks like it's been rerouted slightly through the avalanche debris, but it's still industrial-grade. I ran into a fellow hiker, saw some headlights ascending the pass in front of me, and snuck by some tents on the way up. I wasn't expecting to encounter so many people hiking a random remote thirteener deep in a wilderness area, but this two pass loop really draws the backpackers! Can't say I blame them. I scared a few mountain goats just before heading up the pass, no doubt waiting for the early morning deposit of ambrosia (pee) from the backpackers. There was a bit of snow at the top of the pass, but it was stepped out and of minimal consequence. As I headed up and sky lightened enough to see things, I tried to scope out the long north ridge of Savage. There were clearly a few points along the way and it looked a little more jagged than I was expecting, but there were clearly no deep, impassable notches. We're on!

Once at the pass, I left the trail and veered left on some grassy benches, trying not to lose much elevation. This worked, but if someone wanted to milk the trail a bit more, they could follow the trail past Treasurevault Lake and leave it toward Blodgett Lake, then ascend up to the base of 13,002's ridge there. Might be a little more elevation gain, but less sidehilling and weird terrain. As I followed the ledges over, the sky erupted in color as the sun lit up Fancy Pass and Peak. The grassy ledges became talus, and a low angle but icy snowfield needed to be crossed. Once past that, 13,002 appeared for the first time. I descended rocky, grassy terrain down toward the lake (no idea the name, maybe Carter?) around 11,850 to reach the base of the NE ridge.

At the base of the climb, it was clear this is a choose-your-own-adventure type route, at least to reach the false summit. There were grassy slopes and gullies off to the left that looked like they went at class 2, and there was rock, some of which was steep, at the center and to the ridge crest on the right. I started up right in the middle and trended right to reach the ridge crest. The rock was awesome and the scrambling was fun and easy, all class 3. After the initial ascent, there were more hiking options that scrambling, but I took a prominent rock rib right in the middle of the face, which afforded more fun. Eventually, all roads led to a grassy gully, so up I went. The last 100 feet or so before the top of the false summit held a bit more easy scrambling. As I popped out on top, I got an awe-inspiring view of the climb to come. This was going to be good!

After the false summit, the scrambling began in earnest. A short downclimb from the false summit, either on the ridge (spicy) or below it (not) led to the start of the final climbing. The rock was excellent for the most part, and after about a hundred or so feet of gain, I was at the knife edge.

The knife edge deserves its own section, because this was probably the best one I've ever been on. A mini knife edge took me to the base of the business part. The climb to the upper and main portion of ridge is steep and exposed. I climbed alongside the ridge, but there are two very conveniently located horizontal cracks in the slab that keep the difficulty to easy 5th class. Once on the top of the cleaver, there are a couple tight moves before the left side of the ridge offers a few footholds below the main ridge. This section isn't long; maybe 15 feet of climbing to reach the top of the ridge and then 30 or 40 feet on it, but it was so good! I truly can't overstate the exposure on this. It's right up there with the step-across move coming out of Wall Street on the Grand Teton's Upper Exum Ridge as the most exposure I've ever felt, and I generally don't feel exposure. Part of it is that the exposed moves are on slab, so it feels a little less secure, but the knife edge, particularly on the north side, truly drops off into nothingness. It's real.

With the thrill of the knife edge now behind me, it was time to earn that checkmark. Ridge proper coming out of the knife edge isn't an option, so I went left around the cliff, then climbed back up to the ridge shortly afterward. More great scrambling on solid rock. You really can choose your own line again, but mine was comfortably 3rd/4th class. I didn't think too hard about it, as so many options were good. Once on the ridge, I dropped one more time to the left and scrambled back up, then a short ridge hop put me on the summit! This was a satisfying one. The route from the false summit to the real one was intense and oh so fun. Took about 25 minutes or so. Total time from car to summit was about 3:15. I had brought a summit register, so I signed it, dropped it, ate some food, and got ready to figure out the next part of the day.

For my descent, I wanted to see how easy this peak could go, as opposed to reversing the ridge. Okay, sure, maybe I wasn't super keen on downclimbing the knife edge, but something can serve two purposes, right? After backtracking the short summit ridge, I dropped down a southeast facing slope that was part rock and part grass for a hundred or two feet, then began a leftward traverse back toward the low point between the real summit and false summit. As I was heading over, it was clear there was a cliff band of some sort on the face. I think if you dropped low enough, you could get completely under it, but that would be a fair amount of extra gain/loss. Instead, I found a reasonable 4th class downclimb in a gully that was mildly loose, but went okay. From there, I traversed under the southern side of the knife edge (so yes, it's definitely avoidable, but not sure if we could be friends if you skipped it both ways) and made my way back up the false summit.

Once back on the false summit, I instead took the grassy slopes down. It greatly expedited the descent and I was soon back near the lake. I didn't really have a plan as to how I'd go up from here, so I just ascended rocky, grassy, and willowy benches above the lake, generally aiming for the base of the talus slope. I wanted to angle a bit right, but not too right, as the slopes get cliffy the further toward Savage you get. I picked it right, and I had nothing but a moderate talus climb up to the 12er (somewhere around 12,800) that marks the start of Savage's north ridge.

Once I popped out on the 12er, I got a full view of the ridge to Savage. It was long! And beyond that, it looked to have some excitement to it! I started down the ridge, telling myself I'd stay ridge proper as much as possible to maximize the savagery of the ridge, and immediately cliffed out. I'm sorry, Savage north ridge, I wasn't familiar with your game. I found a 3rd class bypass on the right and went back to the ridge crest. Cliffed out again! Took another bypass. And again! I clearly underestimated this ridge.

After a while, I started to get into a routefinding rhythm as to what on the ridge crest would cliff and what would go. This ridge felt like a toned down version of some of the Gore ridges -- the ridge crest was spicy, but there are bypasses on the west (and occasionally the east). What separated this ridge from those was if you dropped down far enough, you could probably keep the whole thing at miserable sidehill class 2, whereas everything in the Gores is too steep for that. I pushed on, scrambling up and down bump after bump, reaching a low point of 12,450ish along the way. Eventually, as the final slope up Savage started, a use trail appeared, sometimes strongly, sometimes almost non-existantly. I took that for a few hundred feet until the final steep rocks on the ridge crest appeared. I scrambled directly up those, determined to squeeze every last bit of fun out of this ridge, and then had nothing to do but walk the nearly flat grass up to Savage's summit.

I got a brief blip of service up top, so I sent the text or two that actually went out, then started down promptly because, you know, birthday party. I had done zero research on the NE ridge descent off of Savage, but knew it was class 2, so I figured I'd be good. That ridge also goes on forever! There's a super faint trail that kind of exists most of the way, but it only helps so much. Basically, you ride that ridge until the end, then cut up above the trees back toward the peak a bit, and there should be open meadows to link up to reach the trail. I did not do that and instead cut straight toward the trail when I reached the end of the ridge. This caused a fair bushwhack that, while not hard, was not the most efficient. There are a number of the same rocky outcroppings that appear throughout this area between the ridge and the trail, and they sometimes do cliff and need to be circumnavigated. At least the forest wasn't thick! I made it back to the trail eventually, and half-walk/half-jogged down. Unfortunately, a mile and a half from the car, I ran into a group of 13(!) backpackers who were going quite slow and refused to let me pass until they were ready for a break, which was over a half mile after I first caught up to them. Didn't they know I had a birthday party to get to? Once they stopped, I turned on the burners and made it back to the car 3 minutes before my "latest possible time I can get to the car and get home in time to not make my wife late to the party" cutoff, but sadly no one told CDOT, who closed a lane up Vail pass for no apparent reason, turned on metering at the tunnel, and probably caused all the other traffic too. But all's well that ends well, as I was able to audible to going straight to the party rather than going home first and made it with 3 minutes to spare!

I had so much fun on this route. I'm glad Natalie posted about 13,002's NE ridge, as it wasn't really on my radar beforehand. But now, I'd call it an absolute classic. The north ridge of Savage is well worth a scramble for anyone seeking an exciting way up the peak other than the couloir. A loop straight up from Missouri Pass would be a fun endeavor for anyone looking for ideas, as it looks like a scramble to gain the 12er from there. But that's for someone else to do, as right now, I gotta eat some cake.