Prep Day 3. Luck is Preparation Meeting Opportunity.

Friday, March 6, 2020
Canyonlands Field Airport, Moab, UT
(Klondike Bluffs Trailhead on Klondike Bluffs Road to Long Valley Road, aka Copper Ridge Safari Rte, BLM 142)

.81 Miles

It is 10:30pm and David and I have just found a place to camp for the night alongside the dirt road. We haven’t hiked for long, but the brilliant large moon could have lit our way for many miles. It won’t be full for a few more days…but in a big sky, it is a big light.

I slept in this morning and hung around my motel room until the check-out time, only leaving to grab a coffee and a delicious piece of bacon-mushroom flaky quiche from next door at Escalante Outfitters‘ restaurant. I hadn’t much to do today and I wanted to have access to my motel’s wifi for as long as possible. At 11am, I moved out and began organizing all the gear I had stored in my car. I needed to get some food items for my last cache and then I set out towards Cannonville and Cottonwood Road to Grosvenor Arch. I spent some time out there, taking in the calm quiet air and the soothing sun shining warmly on my bare shoulders. From the tailgate of my SUV, I sorted and repackaged food into the large white 5 gallon paint bucket I obtained for a cache. In sandals, I clumsily walked a couple hundred feet away from the road across frost heaved soil that felt recently melted out of snow. Tucking the bucket and 2 gallons of water under a large bush-like juniper tree, I then noted its coordinates in my GPS app so I’d be sure to locate it several weeks from now.

Grosvenor Arch

Four hours later, I’m back in Escalante chomping down an individual size pizza in the hour I have to kill before I need to drop my car off for storage and meet up with my hiking partner, David Burdick.

I randomly met David 2 years ago on a trail in Nepal. In the short conversation we had then, we discovered we have a mutual friend, the infamous Erin Saver, a/k/a Wired. I reached out to David when I was seeking a hiking partner for this trip and it just so happened that The Hayduke Trail was on his Wish List of things to do for 2020! We’ve communicated back and forth a lot during the planning process and I am optimistic that we will make good hiking companions for this adventure, though I will admit I have been somewhat anxious about this. I’ve become so accustomed to hiking solo and I really enjoy it…but I want to make this partnership work.

So much preparation has gone in to making this trip happen and it is about to become a reality in just a few short hours! This is a heavily logistical hike and required hours of research through multiple sources because there isn’t just one main resource like other trails. I’ve even gotten all the necessary permits!

Canyonlands Permit
Glen Canyon NRA, Grand Staircase-Escalante Permit

I’ve weeded through multiple blogs, websites, map sources and gpx tracks. For anyone interested in doing this trail, here are the main sources I found helpful to help you get started.

Me and David, aka Cool Beans, at Escalante Cabins & RV Park

Six o’clock arrives in Escalante and I’ve gotten my car in the care and protection of Escalante Cabins & RV Park thanks to the incredible kindness and small town hospitality of Jenae Westhoff. David arrives and the two of us do some last minute shuffling and packing of the few belongings we will keep in our possession for the next several weeks. Soon our shuttle service arrives and Tom, our driver with Moab Taxi, loads us into his car and we set off. The shuttle is not cheap by any means, but it is a long four hour drive back to Moab from here and I chose to position my car near the end of my hike so I didn’t have to go eastward again to retrieve it after I finished hiking.

Tom, our driver

So here we find ourselves, David and I, having hiked just under a mile tonight, setting up to cowboy camp under the star-studded indigo sky, moon hanging as the dazzling diamond centerpiece. We push aside the dinner-plate sized cowpies, ignoring their existence in these otherwise pristine surroundings, lay out our pads, unroll our bags, encase ourselves in down fluff and doze off into the silence.

Time for preparation to meet opportunity!

~Sunkist~

Prep Day 2. The Roadside View.

Thursday, March 5, 2020
Escalante, Utah

I arrive at the post office just before it opens so I make my way over to the neighboring Moab Coffee Roasters for my morning cup of Joe and a to-go breakfast. After safely securing our boxes with the USPS for a $8.00 fee per box to cover shipping from Moab to Moab (yes, you read that right), I set out on my drive to Needles Outpost, a small campground just outside The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, and my 2nd resupply point for this trip.

Caleb and Amber Dorsey greet me as I walk into their store with my resupply box. They are gracious and kind and genuinely interested in my travels along the Hayduke Trail. I receive some good beta regarding snow/ice conditions from Caleb about an upcoming section of the route and I look forward to returning here in a few weeks for a little rest and relaxation….and a shower that I am sure I will need by then!

My next stop is at the Hite Outpost, another small camping area, and it is here that I meet Katie. She is talkative and engaging and I spend a while chatting with her in the warm, dry afternoon air before I push on to my next destination. Before I leave, I learn there are already a few Haydukers ahead of me on route, their resupply boxes nestled next to mine in a cabinet behind Katie’s counter.

The Town of Hanksville is my next and I drop a resupply box off with Jeannette at the Whispering Sands Motel. Hanksville is tiny but it will be a great little place for a nice little zero in a few weeks.

Driving north on Notom to Bullfrog Road towards The Burr Trail switchbacks.

Last up for the day is a long drive back down towards Hite and then west towards Bullfrog before linking up with the dirt Notom to Bullfrog Road and ultimately up to the top of the switchbacks of the Burr Trail in Capitol Reef National Park. I fretted over the condition of this dirt road and the time it’d take to drive here but the road is fine and the travel time is far less than anticipated. I drop our cache in 5 gallon buckets, along with several gallons of water, tucking them in under a low scrubby bush, and cruise on down to pavement.

Driving through, up and over the Waterpocket Fold.

Soon I connect with the Scenic Byway 12, known as “The Most Beautiful Drive in America,” and a section of road between the Town of Boulder and the Town of Escalante, referred to as “The Hogback.” I think of it more as a catwalk. Many times I have hiked along trails that have dropped steeply from both sides, but I am a bit surprised when it occurs as I drive down this road, just as dusk is approaching, and it definitely makes me slow my speed down. Here is a youtube video I found of the drive. Jump ahead to 6:48 for The Hogback section:

The Hogback, Scenic Byway 12 between Boulder and Escalante

I land in Escalante almost an hour earlier than planned and find a room at the Prospector Inn. The owner is fantastic and excited to hear that I am in town to hike The Hayduke Trail. He sends me across the street to the 4th West Pub for a quick dinner and then I am down for the count.

~Sunkist~

Prep Day 1. Background and The Drive.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Moab, Utah

I like to leave on trips before daylight. In it’s mellow darkness, I find it easier to unclasp the city’s grasp around me and slip through the dimly lit streets. I race to reach the outskirts of Los Angeles long before first light, that time when the ornery monster, named Traffic, awakens and begins spewing honks and jams and road rage.

The twinkling city lights softly fade from my rear-view mirror and my concentration turns to the journey ahead and my adventure into the rising sun of Today. It’s going to be a long drive to Utah, so let me tell you now what I am up to this time.

I’m setting out to hike a fair portion of The Hayduke Trail. I won’t have time to do the whole thing in one go, as I’ve got a few commitments that prevent me from doing that. And….well, this “trail” is more like a route. In lots of places there isn’t even a trail at all. So my navigation skills need to be top notch. Map, compass and GPS will be essential. I’ll also be exploring some new types of terrain with new and unfamiliar hazards. I’m talking canyons, including narrows and slots…and the threat of flash floods and quicksand. There will also be lots of scrambling, which I love and am comfortable with, but I’ll need to do this with a heavy pack, sometimes awkwardly weighted down with 6 days of food and 7.5 liters of water. This means more than 20 pounds of extra weight in an already full pack. Also, the route reaches the depths of very remote areas and unlike popular long distance trails like the PCT or AT, this trail only sees roughly less than one hundred thru-hikers a year instead of thousands. So, to help me ease into these new experiences, I’ve decided it best to invest in a hiking partner for the adventure instead of going solo as I normally like to do. And all of this also means that my daily mileage will be much lower than my typical average of 20 miles a day.

Overview of The Hayduke Trail route.

The Hayduke Trail is a difficult and rugged 812-mile backcountry route through world class landscapes. Though not directly, so as to showcase premier settings, it links Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon National Park and Zion National Park with interlocking pieces of equally magnificent BLM land, national forests, wilderness areas and wilderness study areas. It is a grand tour of the American Southwest, typically traversed from east to west, starting at the northern end of Arches National Park and finishing in Zion National Park.

The Hayduke Trail guidebook.

The Hayduke Trail was dreamt up and made a reality by Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella, while on a 94-day backpacking trip in the spring of 1998. A second trek in 2000, lasting 101 days, helped solidify their plans for the course of the Hayduke Trail. The motivation for creating the route was to show people the charms of the Colorado Plateau, dispelling the belief that it is merely wastelands. They believe that as more people become aware of this region, the more likely they will be to promote its protection and conservation.

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, 
leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise 
into and above the clouds.”
                                                        -Edward Abbey

The trail’s co-founders chose to name the trail in homage to author, Edward Abbey, for the eloquent defense of the area’s fragile lands through his many writings. George Washington Hayduke, III was a fictitious defender of the Colorado Plateau in the notable 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, and often credited as fueling a generation of angry young environmentalists. I also recommend another of Abbey’s books, Desert Solitare. Though I do not condone all of his sentiments represented in the book, I did find it an enjoyable read and unearthed a lot of valuable desert information.

View from I-70 lookout at turnoff to Moab.

Ten hours of driving has gone by now, and at last I find myself at the turn off from Interstate 70 for the city of Moab. I’ll be spending the night here at the Bowen Motel but first it’s dinner at the Moab Brewery and a nice porter. Tomorrow, I will begin making my way back westward across Southern Utah. I will be dropping 3 resupply boxes at small campgrounds and placing 2 cache buckets at remote locations off dirt roads near the route for both myself and my hiking partner. There isn’t a quick and direct route to these locations so I will invest nearly another 10 hours for this task. Fortunately, it hasn’t rained recently so all the clay-like dirt roads are in passable and good condition and free of any standing water in the washes they cross over.

View from I-70 lookout at turnoff to Moab.

Last minute, I decide to contact Gearheads Outdoor Store in town, where I planned to leave my first resupply box. I’m glad I called, as I learn that the outfitter is no longer allowing packages be left with them because in the past someone had marijuana in their box and they had to call the police. I feel like I got time-warped to 2010 in the conversation. Apparently, Utah is not yet one of the legalized States in our country and from the sounds of it, won’t be for quite some time! Luckily, the young man suggested that I leave my box with the local Post Office, an easy solution to my dilemma.

~Sunkist~

Castle Peak & Conundrum Peak

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” —Mary Oliver

Castle Peak, #55

Conundrum Peak, #56

September 18, 2021

Total Gain: 3350’

Total Distance: 8 Miles

Class: Difficult Class 2

I was hoping to meet AJ for the attempt of Castle & Conundrum, partly for the company after so many solo hikes and partly because she had a friend with a Jeep that could get us all the way up the dirt road that otherwise had to be walked, for a total roundtrip of 13.5 miles, on a day that looked to be affected by an incoming weather system of some kind. I am getting tired, all these climbs are starting to pile up and there hasn’t been much time for recovery as I try to beat the season change. Otherwise, 13.5 miles wouldn’t be much of a big deal….but being chased by weather isn’t much fun either.

Unfortunately, AJ twisted her knee this morning coming off of her summit of Redcloud and needed to take a day to recover. I felt uneasy about the weather for Sunday so at 5pm, after testing the 4WD Castle Creek Road with my car for about a mile and retreating, I started out on foot with a backpack from the 2WD trailhead. As the sun settled lower in the sky, the vibrant fall colors brightened my spirits and I fell into a comfortable stride and peaceful state as I made my way up in elevation. I had 2 hours to go as high as I could. With the help of two different vehicles giving me a ride, I made it to 11,200’ well before dark and even secured a ride back down the mountain for tomorrow.

Temps drop through the night and when I awake at 4am, it is only 36 degrees, the coldest morning of this trip. I warm my insides with coffee and hot oatmeal and hit the trail at exactly 5am. There is still more work to be made of the rock-strewn road but navigation is basic and I’m grateful for the time to let my mind turn itself on in a slightly less dramatic way. At daybreak, I reach the base of the headwall, my headlamp no longer necessary, but it’s still quite dim lighting to see cairns far away. I feel my way through the initial jumble of boulders and cross over a glacial bed to reach the super steep upper portion of the headwall on a bare, heavily eroded dirt trail. Then it’s more scree and some talus before reaching the almost equally steep angled dirt trail up to the ridgeline.

I am pushing the pace today, even under completely clear blue skies, but I slow a bit on the ridge to enjoy the lighter Class 2 scrambling that will lead me to the summit of Castle Peak. The route-finding is easy and I top out on the summit, though I can’t really say it was sooner than expected. It is NEVER sooner than expected! A stiff wind is blowing and keeping the temps down so I take my few photos and drop off the summit down another steep slope, this one narrow and covered in loose talus just a little bigger than trap rock. While on the ridge over to Conundrum, I peer over the lip of the red rock saddle, a shortcut back down to the headwall instead of resubmitting Castle on the return. It doesn’t take long to confirm that this shortcut is not an option I wish to take and I turn away to continue my ridge crossing.

Conundrum has 2 summits, and so instead of a false peak, I summit, then drop to a notch and climb up again to the second summit. It’s warmer on this peak so I sit for a bit to eat and chat with another hiker who has caught up to me here. It is this hiker, Kevin, who informs me that there is indeed a system moving in, and that snow is predicted to fall overnight. Well.

I hustle off the mountain, not because of worries over weather, but more so just going through the motions now, cranking out these two peaks. I am happy to have Kevin’s company to distract me from the fact that I am feeling less enjoyment on these two summits, as if it is more work and checking off the list, than doing them for the pure pleasure. Thanks to Kevin, by noon I am back at the trailhead where my car is parked and now is the time to figure out if I will have the chance to finish my ONE remaining mountain, Capitol Peak.

I spend the afternoon researching, checking the weather, talking with locals. The consensus is that Capitol is not the mountain to climb in wet weather, never mind snow. I decide to spend the night in Glenwood Springs and see what happens overnight. In the morning, there is confirmation that it has snowed on the high peaks and there visibly appears to be several inches of fresh snow on Capitol’s north face. There is also a freeze warning now in place for this evening. Since this final climb will warrant an overnight at Capitol Lake, I check temps at the lake’s elevation. I’m not particularly interested in waking up to high teens, only to find that the snow up on the Knife’s Edge or K2 didn’t melt out. The weather, and my less than enjoyable push on the last climb, bring me to the conclusion that it’s time to go home. I will leave my final peak for when I am fresh and can truly experience the finality excitement.

So, friends, who wants to join me for a summit party next year on Capitol Peak? Taking names now!

Click here for YouTube video of Castle Peak & Conundrum Peak.

Maroon Peak #53 & North Maroon Peak #54

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”~ Anaïs Nin

Maroon Peak, #53

North Maroon Peak, #54

(via the Bells Traverse)

September 16, 2021

Total Gain: 4850’

Total Distance: 9.5M

Class 5

It’s 3am and a helicopter swooshes through the air, back and forth, back and forth, above the open area around Crater Lake. It lands, I fall back to sleep…it stirs me awake again on take-off and then circles back again for a repeat land & takeoff. (I would later learn it’s a SAR staging & rescue for a hiker injured on Buckskin Pass. Must have been serious as everyone tells me SAR doesn’t usually fly in the dark.)

30 minutes later: beep, beep beep—my alarm.

1 hour later: I’m on the trail and climbing, climbing, climbing. 2800 feet of steep ascent up and out of the scrubby trees and rustling willows to ledges laced with grass, gradually giving way to more and more precipitous rocky outcrops.

The grass is gone now and all there is to traverse is rock upon piles of rock with sections of dirt covered with tiny ball bearings ready to take your shoes on an escalator ride off the mountain. I am doing great with navigation, dutifully scanning the landscape for the next cairn to stay on route and out of any excessive high class scrambling. That all fails me as I wallow in the sea of gullies on Maroon’s west side. The cairns have vanished and my gpx track says I’m slightly off route though there is the choice of two gullies here and the gpx obviously can only follow one of them. I decide to keep going up, praying that I don’t cliff myself out, and somehow I finally see a cairn far ahead. Such relief!

There is more route finding and scrambling on ledges and up another loose gully before the ridge is attainable and then the summit. Yes! This is number 53!

The summit to myself, I dive into my bag for an early lunch and peek over at North Maroon Peak. There are people on top now and at their sight, I wonder how things will unfold for me. Tomorrow I planned to do North Maroon but I am feeling so deeply exhausted right now that I am fuzzy in seeing how it’s possible to do another big climb that requires both mental and physical acuity with so little recovery time in between now & then. If only I could do the traverse over…with others.

I turn away from North Maroon and back to my lunch and in the shadow of my peripheral vision, I see another hiker reach the summit. In seconds, two more hikers pop up. On a dime, everything shifts and I have partners for the traverse!

Dan leads us through the traverse since he’s done it at least twice before. Candace was hesitant to do it on the summit but she has shifted into enthusiastic with our foursome. I’m third in line and Nick spots from the back. All of them are rock climbers.

There are three main “chimney” areas of Class 5 on the route. Yes, the class where rope assistance is strongly suggested. And yes, we have no rope. Each of the pitches are challenging, but they are short, requiring only 5-7 moves to get up over the obstacle. Working up them is like figuring out a puzzle and I absolutely love it…my previous exhaustion a far away and lost association, even though these are full body strength moves. Luckily, the exposure is less intense than on the Crestone Traverse.

I truly have no concept of time in this space and I’m relieved, yet surprised and even a little disappointed when we are through the traverse and now it is us standing on that summit across the way. We all look back at that other summit, Maroon Peak, and in our place over there now stands one lone mountain goat.

Getting off North Maroon Peak holds its own challenges. We continue together, working out the pieces. At one point, Nick slips and his phone flies out of his pocket and bounces off the mountain. We all scout for it and miraculously Nick spots it about 100’ feet below and not too far off trail in an area that he can somewhat safely retrieve it. His phone endured severe bodily harm but shockingly still works.

Near the bottom, our foursome parts ways, returning to our individual lives and itineraries but forever joined by this experience. My exhaustion comes back in heaps but I embrace it now, return to camp, eat dinner and fall asleep before the sun is down.

Just three 14ers remain.

Click here for YouTube video of Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak

Pyramid Peak

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”~ Anaïs Nin

Pyramid Peak

September 15, 2021

Total Gain: 4500+’

Total Distance: 8.25M (+out back to campsite @ Crater Lake=10.52M)

Class 4

After a dead car battery derailed me for several hours and forced me to miss my shuttle into the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, I regrouped in Aspen and was back at it the next morning.

My camp was set up at Crater Lake and I was off for the summit of Pyramid Peak at 10:30am, extraordinarily late for me but the forecast was for bluebird skies and I wasn’t wasting a day like that.

It seemed like an easy enough hike until I hit the steep slope up & out of the Amphitheater. Others coming down reported slow going and upwards to 3 hours for the summit from there. Quick calculations indicated a after dark finish so I was grateful to have thrown my headlamp into my pack at the last minute.

From the saddle, it was all class 4 fun and tough navigation to the top. Lots of little ledges to walk, lots of exposure that offered phenomenal views.

On the summit, I met Jim and he asked if I could stay with him back to the saddle. This was his first class 4 and he was definitely in up to his head but he was cautious, non-panicky and SMART.

I waited for Jim at the saddle while being heavily monitored by a pair of mountain goats waiting for me to pee. I couldn’t hold it earlier. Before I could pull up my pants, I heard rocks crashing and turned around to see a goat already there enjoying the salt of my yellow.

Dusk chasing me the final 2 miles, I made it back to camp under the rising moon, pleasingly exhausted.

Click here for YouTube video of Pyramid Peak.

El Diente Peak & Mt. Wilson

“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” — Mary Oliver, West Wind

El Diente Peak, #37 (50/58)

Mt. Wilson, #38 (51/58)

September 12, 2021

Total Gain: 4900’

Total Distance: 13.25 miles

Class 3; Class 4 for traverse

The scent of autumn folds into the crispy edges of the gold and bronze landscape as I make my way up the Kilpacker Trail in Lizard Head Wilderness. After passing through a grove of quaking aspens, I rise into a flaxen meadow and find a perfect campsite in the evergreens on its edge.

Now, I climb in darkness up through a talus field of broken dinner-plates and gaze at the sky. Dark patches without twinkle concern me but it’s too early to tell if it’s justified.

The day breaks as I climb higher, my focus now purely on navigation and hitting the landmarks that mark my progress: a big rock on the right, stained cliff walls, a red rib, a grey gully, a chimney-like chute below the organ pipes, the ridge, the notch, the final summit block. I make friends in the upper parts of the mountain and we celebrate on the summit.

On the summit, I turn to my new friends and ask for any takers on doing the traverse. Jason immediately agrees to join me. He has wings on his pack so I ask for one to slow him down a bit. We are off and he turns out to be an awesome partner. We move quickly and intently but still savor all the spice this traverse offers. So much fun.

Then we notice the dark clouds forming and the spitting of snow and we know we must “send it” fast but safely.

We savor the summit and then we shove ourselves down the gulley and over the rib bypass. Jason takes back the wing he lent me and flies down the mountain to get back to his family at home. I return to my crab-crawl pace and hop from rock to rock when I can.

I am back in the basin and not far from tree-line when the deepening Grey skies open up and release a shower down on the earth. It is over rather quickly but when I arrive back at my tent I discover I did not take enough care in keeping out the wet and puddles have formed inside.

I take in a quick lunch, pack up my wet things and stride through a sun/rain mix the 3 miles back to me car.

The San Juan 14ers are done.

Just 6 mountains are left…

Click here for YouTube video of El Diente Peak & Mt. Wilson.

Mt. Eolus & North Eolus

“But little by little,

as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do –determined to save

the only life you could save.” ~Mary Oliver

Mt. Eolus, #35

North Eolus, #36

September 9, 2021

Total Gain: 3000+’

Total Distance: 5.2 miles

Class 3

Supreme weather conditions allow for a no headlamp start. I sail up the smooth trail to the left of Twin Lakes, hurling myself up rock steps made for a giant and find the ramp ledges allowing access above the cliffs. The green gulley is right there on the left, so hard to understand how we missed it last time I was here over a decade ago. It is much shorter than I remember and I’m up on The Catwalk in no time. Like the width of a crumbling sidewalk, I cautiously saunter across it to the beehive looking base of the final summit climb. Up, up, up a series of blocky terraces and a pop out on top. This was a fun one!

Back I go across The Catwalk, a little more spring in my step now, back and past the green gully cap, then it’s a nice steep scramble on super sticky rock up to North Eolus where I can see far and wide over the San Juan Mountains and of course marveling again at The Catwalk as I see other climbers crossing it’s spicyness.

As my friend Sam would say—cleanup completed—I descend and return to camp. Tomorrow I’ll be taking the train back to Durango for yet another regrouping. How much longer can this perfect weather hold on? Just 9 more to go for the 58!

Click here for YouTube video of Eolus & North Eolus.

Sunlight Peak & Windom Peak

“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.”— Mary Oliver

Sunlight Peak, #33

Windom Peak, #34

September 8, 2021

Total Gain: 3000+’

Total Distance: 6.2 miles

Sunlight-Class 4/Windom-Class 2

After 2.5 hours on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a beautiful and scenic ride along the Animas River and into the Weminuche Wilderness, I’m ready to be back on my feet and slugging a backback onto my shoulders from the Needleton flag stop. With fingers stained crimson from too many plucked thimbleberries lining the trail, I arrive in Chicago Basin 6 miles later and in the middle of the afternoon. I lounge in camp for the remainder of the afternoon. At dinner time, a horse and two mules drop by to see what I have for offerings. I have never met a horse as curious and friendly and as big a mooch as this one!

The forecast is crystal clear and flawless on summit day so I opt for a later than usual start time of 6am. It’s staying darker so much later in the mornings now and I still need to wear my headlamp for 15 minutes or so. After a little over a mile of steep trail, I’m at Twin Lakes, where the trail splits left or right of the lake. Today, I go right. In another half mile, the trail splits again and this time I bear left and go up the orange tinted gully between Sunlight Peak and Sunlight Spire. The gully is steep and loose but mostly there is a path to a notch on the left where the route becomes more Class 3 and fun. I pass by a window with a view and climb up a chimney with a hole at the top…and there it is. The summit block of this mountain consists only of 3 massively colossal blocks of rock, the Class 4 part of the mountain. Imagine taking three rocks, and leaning them against each other. That is all the summit is made of, the very top only large enough for a single person.

I ponder these 3 blocks for a long time. There are very limited options in this situation. None of them are ideal. Then I make my move.

I’m on the top of Sunlight! Cramped and huddled on that summit rock, I get my photos—and I want down. Off. Get me out of here.

I lower myself to the second block. But…to get to the third, a leap over a rift must be made and—oh, did I mention I am alone?! I freeze. I just can’t will my body to make the jump. It’s not that far, maybe 2-3 feet wide, but the jump is to a rock with a significant angle and I fear I’ll have too much momentum in the jump that it will take me a few too many steps to slow me down….at which time I’ll be sliding down the back angle of that rock into the abyss. Oh, no. No. I’m stuck. I can’t get down what I went up and there really is only one way off this mountain. Everyone had suggestions on how to get up but no one told me this jump was a must on the way down. I’m inside my head now, the worst place to be. So I try to get calm…and wait.

Longer than I’d like, but eventually Alexander shows up. He yells to me from afar, “Are you ok?”, with an anxiety in his voice almost paralleling my own. He lends out a hand and I swiftly and easily without much thought, jump across. He asks that I do the same for him and without hesitation I oblige, so happy to no longer be alone in this matter.

Our lives now forever linked, Alexander and I come down off Sunlight and together traverse over to Windom, a by far easier task. At Windom’s saddle, I climb on ahead to the summit, glancing back over at Sunlight occasionally, grateful to have that one behind me and now capable of truly seeing it’s true beauty. Windom calls me back, demanding it’s own attention. I soon forget all else but the current mountain beneath my feet, just where I want to keep it. As a Class 2 ranked mountain, I am a bit surprised by the amount of full body effort required but I’m guessing it is the line I’ve chosen, the one straight up. Nevertheless, it’s a fun mountain and I’m happy to accomplish both today.

It’s now back down to Twin Lakes, a visit with a couple mountain goats and then a pleasant afternoon in camp recouping and gearing up for tomorrow’s round.

Click here for YouTube video of Sunlight & Windom Peaks.

Wilson Peak

“Sometimes I grow weary of the days, with all their fits and starts.

I want to climb some old gray mountains, slowly, taking

The rest of my lifetime to do it, resting often, sleeping

Under the pines or, above them, on the unclothed rocks.”~Mary Oliver

Wilson Peak, #32

September 6, 2021

Total Gain: 3900’

Total Distance: 10 miles

Class 3

AJ and I set out in the warm dark air just after 5am. At 22, she was just accepted into a graduate program to become an astro-physicist and is also a rock-climber.

We move stealthily through a forest, that in AJ’s mind is filled with the tracking eyes of mountain lions, and emerge onto a dinner plate splashed slope of talus. After passing a dilapidated stone building, we see our goal, the saddle below and to the right of Wilson Peak.

At the saddle we pick up a few more new friends, Paul & Missy, and together we four take on the Class 3 climb for the last half mile to the summit. It’s a fun little scramble with some exposed sideways ledge walking but nothing too difficult.

From the summit we can see the signature lizard head, fallen and so crumbled now, that it looks more like a cat’s head to me. I also learn here that the mountain on the Coor’s light beer can is that of this mountain, Wilson Peak, taken from a nearby point that is apparently assessable by a gondola.

We downclimb the Class 3 together and then I depart my friends for a run back to the trailhead. Later, we meet up again in Telluride to fill our bellies with food. Now, I’m off for Durango…

Click here for YouTube of Wilson Peak.

Mt. Sneffels

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.” ~Mary Oliver

Mt. Sneffels

September 4, 2021

Total Gain: 2900’

Total Distance: 6 miles

East Class 3

After a couple tenuous four-wheeling spots up to the trailhead, I pulled into the lot and started chatting with the others congregating there. Soon we were wrapped in the commonality bond of climbers and planning a mutual start time so we could hike together in the morning.

I awake to a sky filled with sparkling diamonds and a steamy breath. It is COLD. We start a bit earlier today, trying to beat the crowds, but we aren’t the first up the trail. As Frank, David and I climb higher, the sky begins to brighten and we can make out the jagged peaks surrounding us. The road turns to trail, and we gingerly step across the slick, frost-laden talus rock leading up to the broad, scree-covered slope.

Daylight in full arrival, we ascend the steep south slope and I dig in hard with my trekking poles to help pull me up the mountain. Normally, I would have opted for the ridge over this scree field but last night’s rain compacted the soil and made things much more solid…much less slippery…much less sketchy.

Lavender Col comes into view and I begin to believe this climb will be ending quicker than I anticipated. This time, really. The V-notch is up on the left, requiring a brief ponder on the best attack up it. Frank and I wait here for David and then we three scamp to the summit.

The down goes smoothly, passing 30 or more climbers…my quick feet movements becoming more certain. It is a beautiful day and I am in no hurry for anywhere else so we wait for David and casually descend back to the car.

The narrow road down off the mountain to Ouray is heavily congested and I have to pull over numerous times to let the one-way holiday traffic by. I’m now regrouping and choring at my friend Alisa’s house before I set out again tomorrow to continue my San Juan tour.

Click here for YouTube video of Mt. Sneffels

Sunshine Peak & Redcloud Peak

“Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.” ~Mary Oliver

Sunshine peak #29

Redcloud Peak, #30

September 3, 2021

Total Gain: 4900’

Total Distance: 10.25 miles

Class 2

It took a couple days of rest but I’m back! From the Sangre de Cristo, I drifted across the expansive San Luis Valley and climbed up into the illustrious San Juan Mountains, back to where my mountain climbing adventures took root almost two decades ago. The end of the hiking season will begin to close in on me now but after this current system moves out, it looks like I’ll still have a chance for a good handful more of 14ers. Will just have to take it day by day now.

My confidence is definitely more solid in these later weeks and I can tell the number of ascents under my belt as increased exponentially.

Today I opt to chose a loop hike instead of the classic route and it affords a nice punch of excitement mixed in with the brightness of these two mountains. I’m also working on bringing back the flow of the gentle run back off the mountain as I’d shied away from it after a slip took me off my feet on Little Bear, bruising my ego and denting my mind. For all its strength, sometimes it’s the brain that is most fragile.

Click here for YouTube video of Sunshine Peak & Refcloud Peak