Mt. Sherman Trip Report 01/17/2010

Peak(s):	Mt. Sherman - 14,043 feet
Date Posted:	01/17/2010
Date Climbed:	01/16/2010
Author:	Kevin8020

Is this actually winter?!
Details Total Distance: 10.5mi (Winter closure below Leadvick) Elevation Gain 3,100ft Trailhead Time: 9:00am Summit time: 1:26pm Completion Time:5:07pm Total Time: 8 hours Weather The weather was almost surreal throughout the hike. From sunrise all the way to sunset, the temperature never dropped lower than about 28 degrees. I would estimate that it was even warmer during the day. There were a few segments of climbing, especially on the snow, where I rolled up my sleeves because it was so warm. Wind was worst on the summit, and was no more than 10 to 15mph. Definitely better than when I was on the mountain back in July! The Hike Originally, I had blocked off January 16, along with a number of other Saturdays in January, as climbing days, hoping to get a higher winter 14er count. Fresh off a summit of Elbert on the 9th, I started the work of getting a hike plan together for Mt. Sherman. Thinking I'd need to be back in Denver by 4pm, I was ready to scrap my plans when I received word that my schedule had cleared. While sitting at school wrapping up work on that Friday, Travis (Travis19877) showed some interest in making Sherman his first 14er. By the next morning, we had all of our gear together, and took off for Fairplay. The first challenge of the day was the last 100 feet of the road up to the winter closure. The road, while drivable by cars with 4WD, is not very easy to turn around on. It took us almost 1.5 hours to turn the vehicle around, a process that involved turning in small increments while digging out the tires at every turn. Finally, at around 8:40, we finally began a push to the summit. We had snowshoes on up to Leadvick mine where we stowed them, realizing that between the wind and warm, they would accomplish no good what so ever. After quickly making our way to the gate, I decided against my original plan of attempting the snow route listed on 14ers.com in favor of following the tracks the group ahead of us had left. We worked our way up the road almost all the way to Hilltop mine. At 12,730, we took a snow route up to cut off the last switchback on the road below the mine. Looking into South Park from the ridge on Mt. Sherman After a break at the mine, the group ahead of us picked one line of snow to the ridge, another hiker behind us chose another line, and we chose a third. As usual out in the field, there is always room to learn. Today's lesson? Carefully study the TOP of your line before beginning the bottom. After running out of snow, Travis and I were faced with a few hundred feet of climbing on loose scree slopes back up to the ridgeline. With that behind us, we were able to make a beeline to the summit, where Travis gained his first 14er summit, and first in the winter. It was my 44rd summit (with repeats) and 3rd winter summit. Success! Me on the summit Travis on the summit Torreys Peak and Grays Peak Pikes Peak Looking south into the Sangre de Cristo range - Crestone Peak's double summit is visible. To it's right is the rounded summit of Kit Carson. Mt. Elbert Mt. of the Holy Cross Another hiker descending off of the summit The remainder of the day was enjoyable, albeit slow. Travis, being new to the sport, was dealing with some significant muscle pain in one of his hip flexors and one of his calves. I reassured him that the pain is reasonably expected given the amount of exercise we were doing, especially kicking in steps up the snow route. Thankfully, our rather fast ascent allowed time for a slow downhill. The views remained just as amazing as always. We enjoyed a glissade down from the Sheridan-Sherman saddle (13,132ft) into the Hilltop mine area (12,920ft), and then from the mine (12,894ft) all the way down to 12,617ft. From there, the remainder of the downhill went smoothly. Glissade route Mt. Sherman We closed out the day with a trip to the Pizza Hut in Fairplay, where we enjoyed a large meat-lovers pizza for $10. How can you beat that? GPS Log. Blue represents the standard summit route, while red is our ascent and descent routes. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Is this actually winter?!

Details
Total Distance: 10.5mi (Winter closure below Leadvick)
Elevation Gain 3,100ft
Trailhead Time: 9:00am
Summit time: 1:26pm
Completion Time:5:07pm
Total Time: 8 hours

Weather
The weather was almost surreal throughout the hike. From sunrise all the way to sunset, the temperature never dropped lower than about 28 degrees. I would estimate that it was even warmer during the day. There were a few segments of climbing, especially on the snow, where I rolled up my sleeves because it was so warm. Wind was worst on the summit, and was no more than 10 to 15mph. Definitely better than when I was on the mountain back in July!

The Hike

Originally, I had blocked off January 16, along with a number of other Saturdays in January, as climbing days, hoping to get a higher winter 14er count. Fresh off a summit of Elbert on the 9th, I started the work of getting a hike plan together for Mt. Sherman. Thinking I'd need to be back in Denver by 4pm, I was ready to scrap my plans when I received word that my schedule had cleared. While sitting at school wrapping up work on that Friday, Travis (Travis19877) showed some interest in making Sherman his first 14er. By the next morning, we had all of our gear together, and took off for Fairplay.

The first challenge of the day was the last 100 feet of the road up to the winter closure. The road, while drivable by cars with 4WD, is not very easy to turn around on. It took us almost 1.5 hours to turn the vehicle around, a process that involved turning in small increments while digging out the tires at every turn. Finally, at around 8:40, we finally began a push to the summit.

We had snowshoes on up to Leadvick mine where we stowed them, realizing that between the wind and warm, they would accomplish no good what so ever. After quickly making our way to the gate, I decided against my original plan of attempting the snow route listed on 14ers.com in favor of following the tracks the group ahead of us had left. We worked our way up the road almost all the way to Hilltop mine. At 12,730, we took a snow route up to cut off the last switchback on the road below the mine.

Looking into South Park from the ridge on Mt. Sherman

After a break at the mine, the group ahead of us picked one line of snow to the ridge, another hiker behind us chose another line, and we chose a third. As usual out in the field, there is always room to learn. Today's lesson? Carefully study the TOP of your line before beginning the bottom. After running out of snow, Travis and I were faced with a few hundred feet of climbing on loose scree slopes back up to the ridgeline. With that behind us, we were able to make a beeline to the summit, where Travis gained his first 14er summit, and first in the winter. It was my 44rd summit (with repeats) and 3rd winter summit.

Success!

Me on the summit

Travis on the summit

Torreys Peak and Grays Peak

Pikes Peak

Looking south into the Sangre de Cristo range - Crestone Peak's double summit is visible. To it's right is the rounded summit of Kit Carson.

Mt. Elbert

Mt. of the Holy Cross

Another hiker descending off of the summit

The remainder of the day was enjoyable, albeit slow. Travis, being new to the sport, was dealing with some significant muscle pain in one of his hip flexors and one of his calves. I reassured him that the pain is reasonably expected given the amount of exercise we were doing, especially kicking in steps up the snow route. Thankfully, our rather fast ascent allowed time for a slow downhill. The views remained just as amazing as always. We enjoyed a glissade down from the Sheridan-Sherman saddle (13,132ft) into the Hilltop mine area (12,920ft), and then from the mine (12,894ft) all the way down to 12,617ft. From there, the remainder of the downhill went smoothly.

Glissade route

Mt. Sherman

We closed out the day with a trip to the Pizza Hut in Fairplay, where we enjoyed a large meat-lovers pizza for $10. How can you beat that?

GPS Log. Blue represents the standard summit route, while red is our ascent and descent routes.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

Alpine	Good write-up Kevin 1/17/2010 11:03pm Nice to meet you and Travis, and congrats to Travis on his first 14er and in winter at that. As we were saying, it was more like June than January. Your report and pics accurately depict Saturday‘s conditions.
travis19877	Great Day 1/17/2010 11:32pm Wonderful day and intro to a new hobby! Not a bad way to kick it off either.. Alpine, I have to say thanks again for helpin us out before we started the hike. Without your help we may have been there for even a while longer!
Dancesatmoonrise	Fun! 1/18/2010 5:08am Wow...can you see our group over on Torreys? We had a great time too. Same great warm summer weather at 14,000 feet!! Nice photos, good report, keep up the good work! --Jim PS...love that shot of HC.
The Android	Nice work 1/19/2010 12:37am Nice to meet you guys up there. I can‘t believe I took the snowshoes and my heavy brown coat all the way up to the top! I was fine in my softshell and a base layer the whole way!
benners	Nice dude! 1/19/2010 4:50pm Good work on Sherman, thanks for the informative photos and writeup. I can relate to your TR‘s title, tough to believe it‘s winter around here these days!

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