We set out Wednesday evening July 23 --- headed to Glenwood Springs, CO where we spent the night in an uneventful, nondescript campground in preparation for the real adventure the next morning.
On Pioneer Day we headed to the Maroon-Snowmass trailhead at approximately 10am. There were 21 of us total, so we pulled two permits to conform to the wilderness area guidelines.
We started the 8.1 mile trek to Snowma
ss Lake --- up 2500' to 10,980'. Six miles in, the trail crosses the Snowmass Creek at a large "beaver pond". The general consensus was to cross on the seemingly-stable log jam. This was mostly successfully with only a handful of casualties into the pond.
Others of us, more conservative types ( carrying cameras ) opted to don the tennis shoes and forge the creek ---
We spent the evening decompressing and relaxing after the long hike in --- I got the fishing pole out and tried my luck --- two small brook trout on flies -- nothing worth writing home about.
The next morning we set out to summit Snowmass Mountain --- 14,092' -- Colorado's 31st highest peak ( I think ) --a Class III scramble up 3,100' over allot of loose talus, and a very large snow field ( hence the name ). The reflection in the lake of the Snowmass Peak (left, foreground) and Snowmass Mountain ( far right ) was awe-inspiring. The night before, another camper warned us that ice axes and crampons were required to summit. This was quite disillusioning -- as we had our hearts set on bagging the peak. After some consideration and debate, we decided to give it a try and see how far it was actually possible to reach without the ice climbing gear. Our ascent up Snowmass Mountain began as we circled to the west of the lake to head up the large boulder/talus field. This was quite the adventure with millions of loose rocks in sizes ranging from footballs to VW beetles. This picture was at about 11,700'. Snowmass Lake in the background -- note the lake for reference.
The next obstacle was a steep ascent up the marshy/ grassy field between the boulder field and the snow field. We stopped for re-fueling and refilling water supplies in one of the numerous runoff streams we crossed.Then we reached the massive snow field which sat between us and the top ridge between the various 13,000 and 14,000 peaks. This was about 12,500' --- we still had another 1,500' to climb --- through the snow.
The snow field was soft enough to allow us to kick-step our way up the steep incline ( without crampons thankfully ) --- we learned, however, that it was very soft where the rocks were exposed, some of us were blessed with nasty scrapes and gashes on shins from the jagged rock edges as we approached --- the lesson there was to avoid stepping too close to the rocks.
The lead group errantly chose to reach the jagged ridge to the north of the summit --- this turned out to be futile, as the knife edge at the summit did not allow the traverse back to the summit. The rest of us, seeing their folly, selected to approach from the south where it appeared there was a chance to summit.
While we rested at the base of the final approach --- we saw this odd rainbow-cloud and snapped this foto. It appears this was a rare phenomenon with odds of actually seeing one being once in 10 years. It is apparently called a circumhorizontal arc.(Note the incline of the rock face at this point ) There was one final Class III scramble up the last 100 yards or so to the ridge --- hands, feet, and heart pumping at almost 14,000 feet.
Once at the ridge, the route was marked with cairns and indicated to head down a bit on the west face of the ridge, and traverse to the north to again scramble up to the summit. Finally, after 5 hours ( I'm really out of shape ) --- pictures from the Snowmass Mountain summit at 14,092'.
I signed my name in the peak registry for posterity-sake, along with 5 others from our group and took a self portrait as evidence!
The famous Maroon Bells to the East
For those of you who have not witnessed the view from a Colorado 14er -- it is definitely something you will not forget. The view is breathtaking and these snapshots to not capture the majesty of it all.
I waited at the top for Josh, an avid golfer, to join me, to document the quest for his personal holy grail As nerve-racking as it was climbing up, the descent was equally disturbing. With all the snow, part of the attraction to climb snowmass is the glissade down. After carefully climbing down the top ridge, a leap into the top of the snow field sent me down "shushing" a bit out of control with frozen buttocks and fingers. I stopped myself as soon as I could, and snapped this foto behind me of the quick descent.
We were able to slide down about 1/2 of the vertical distance back down to the lake, the 5 hour trip up took 1 hour down. Gravity works.
The next day we broke camp, and headed back out the 8.1 miles to the cars --- total round trip mileage was 21 miles and 5,800' climbed. This was my 4th 14er over the past few years, I've got 40+ more to go :)
