The Precarious group, or Precariosness Trio, as I think of them, epitomize all that is the worst of the ElK Range: loose, horrid rock. Best done in spring snow. But alas, my different prospects over the years in spring/early summer never materialized, and so, as I made a push to try and finalize my Colorado 13er list, I found myself hitting this group in dry conditions.

I had taken the week of Labor Day to hit several goals, and hit this group on my third day out from home, after a tour of Peak N and a much longer tour of Fravert Peak the second day out. So I was not what I would call well-rested, but this is a short mileage day.

Logistical note: if you have a "regular SUV" vs a "real SUV," you can still make it to the true trailhead beyond the creek crossing. Also, if you forget that and park down at the road like I did, you only add like 1.5 miles RT/300 feet of vert.

Anyhow, to the deets. I used Derek Wolfe's Elk Range Mountains book as a reference for this outing, and decided to hit the three from an approach up Rustler's Gulch, as it would be the shortest round trip on foot and also the shortest time exenditure on my itinerary, as I was hitting this group after a day trip loop from E Maroon Trail, before driving out to the San Juans.

Rustler's Gulch affords some decent scenery. As you head up it, going east, the ridge leading to Belleview Mountain is prominent on the left. Further up, Precarious looms directly ahead and Golden Tops captures your attention to the right.

I had enjoyed the strong, well-defined trail into this basin, and, as I neared Precarious, I kept an eye left to see where I should leave the trail to make for the ridge north of Precarious. Prior to reaching that point, I reached an intriguing ruin: a crumbled remnant of some building and some machinery from back when miners travelled this path instead of peakbaggers and tourists.

Now, to the climb. First, the way up to that ridge north of Precarious; this is what it looked like as I headed upward. (Apologies for the poor photo; I did not get a proper "alpine start" and the sun had risen sufficiently to interfere.)

This slope was "moderate," what I made pretty quick time of in my 30s and now took annoyingly longer for me now in my 50s. At one of the places where I paused for breath, I took an extra moment to savor the morning glory on Golden Tops to the south.

30 minutes after savoring that view and not thinking too much about how tedious the terrain below Golden Tops would be, I found myself looking at the top of what I anticipated to be a staightforward ridge traverse to the top of Precarious.

I took a few steps toward my highest objective of the day, Precarious, and I heard movement under foot. Literally. I looked down, and seriously found my highlight of the day. Here I am, at about 12500, with a fuzzy mountaineering gerbil only a yard away. I characterized the pika to be like my dad when I was a teenager, opening the front door to shout "What's this racket?!" (although I cannot remember my dad actually doing that). Anyhow, this cute little fur ball ventured out just long enough for a quick hello, snap of a photo, and onward and upward I went, into the Precariousness.

This was the introduction, and now it was over. The way ahead presented the first of three notches en route to the summit. put in mind a quote from the Harry Potter films, specifically the character of Mad Eye Moody, who exclaimed "Constant vigilance!" I say this not to overhype this mountain; I was never afraid per se, but constantly aware of the terrain, as all of the rocks were suspect. No stranger to the Elks or the San Juans, I moved forward on my "guarded pace" versus my "jaunty pace."

Loose. Not terrible, but the terrain that calls to mind the Irish farewell, "mind yourself." The ridge to Precarious from the north holds three notches. Derek describes the route as class 3, and perhaps it was just that being now in my 50s and with family obligations top of mind that I'm more risk adverse than earlier decades, but I thought this route was better described as class four. Not sustained class four, but I thought that each of the two first notches involved a class four move to get moving back upward.

Within moments of my impromptu summit with the pika, I found myself in the first of these notches. My memory of this section is not as clear as I'd like. Judging from from my photos, I descended into the gully on the south south side a bit before regaining the ridge. It's the last of the next three pictures that throws me; that view of talus looks "longways'" but I don't recollect it and the span of time from there to the next section only spanned 9 minutes, so it could not have been too bad!

This next part was not fun:

It had taken me 26 minutes from the pika through those next views until I found myself considering my way up the second 2nd false summit. Getting down and back up was pretty straightforward, just some care due to the suspect rock, and I found myself pondering that it was a mix of class 3/4, not simple class 3, to get back up. Definitely this route goes better Precarious to Golden Tops rather than the reverse.

After this section was a third notch, which I did not take a picture of but which did not represent anything more notable or difficult than the preceding views, and I found myself finally en route to the high point. My sprit was elevated, not just from the imminence of this first summit, but for the views beyond.

After reaching the summit, I looked back northward, and relished the view of the Maroon Bells.

Ahead, the way to Cassi appeared suddenly easy, and I felt my body relax. It was not that anything in the ascent of Precarious had scared me, but I'd been hyper vigilant - because of the exceedingly poor rock quality - the entire time. I was farther away than it appears in this view below to Cassi; I zoomed in for the shot. The sharp ridge did not look like it would go. I didn't want to cross to the other side of it too soon, as that would involve dropping to then do more slip and slide on loose talus. So I made for the ridge, aiming for the area smack in the center of the picture below.

I considered my options as I drew closer. In the admittedly blurry image below (it's a zoom of a zoom - a "zoom-zoom"), I was first drawn to finding a way up the diagonal left line that leads directly to the upper face, but as I got closer, I found it much more expedient to turn right, up a gully that seemed reasonable, given the junkiness of this group.

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Getting to the summit of Cassi from here took little time at all and soon I was on my way westward, toward Golden Tops. This part also, went quickly, entailing merely class two travel over scree and talus. I have no photos to share of this portion, as the route finding presented no obstacles, the journey presented no arresting views, and, once you engage in the climb of Golden Tops itself, it's a nondescript class 2 slog up to the peak.

But - from the summit - now this view is worth a look!

I enjoyed the view of the Bells to the north for a few moments, and I also considered the western "top" of Golden Tops. If I had not found the summit register on the eastern of the two, I'd have proceeded along to the western summit, as it certainly appeared taller, both from this vantage and also from my approach in the morning. I didn't take a photo of this portion, as the light was bad.

After a solid 10-15 minutes to eat and relax, I headed back down to the saddle between Cassi and Golden Tops. In my mind, I would be back to the trailhead in 2 hours; it was all downhill, after all. I did not consider the tediousness of the expansive rock glacier that sprawls below these two peaks. It took me three hours to get back the trailhead from the summit.

En route, I enjoyed this look back at Golden Tops and its ridge running westward (far left; the actual summit is hidden by the false western summit; right of center must be a ranked 12er).

Nearing the end, I followed some spur trail to avoid the creek crossing and I found myself on an entirely different trail heading southward, with an astonishing, almost mesmerizing view to the south:

The day done, I got to my car, stretched, and drove the road back to Crested Butte, for a dinner at Kipp's Grill before a drive round Ouray, to the next phase of my Colorado thirteener countdown.

GPX track is solid for the approach and traverse...strava just had a blip or something on my descent from Golden Tops.