James Peak

We've been to St. Mary's Glacier twice for CMC classes, since there are good snow slopes to practice on. Each time, we looked up the slopes and wondered what's up top. We know James Peak is up there, but never got a glimpse since we stayed low on the slopes.

We decided to hike James Peak, but from the other direction -- starting at the Moffat Tunnel / East Portal trailhead. This trailhead is just 5 miles due north of where we park for St. Mary's, but 45 miles away by car. Starting here instead of St. Mary's meant less driving, but more distance and more vertical gain. And so of course, an earlier start.

By 5:45 am we were hiking up the trail. It was already 50 degrees -- surprising at 9200'! The trail was fairly moderate so we set out at a fast pace. Our goal was to summit and return to treeline by 1pm.

The trail follows the South Boulder Creek to its headwaters. With the high temps, there was a lot of water, and not just in the creek! Parts of the trail had streams running down so our boots got pretty wet and muddy.

Around 10,000' we started to see snow, and not long after that we were spending more time on snow than on dry ground. Most of the snow was pretty soft but we weren't post-holing too bad.

Many of the creek crossings had split-log bridges or stones to hop across, but there was one place we had to cross a snow bridge over the river. The snow was a few feet thick and solid so it wasn't much of a concern.

After 4.5 miles we got to a beautiful meadow and soon after had views of Haystack Mountain, Roger's Peak Lake, and Heart Lake. The trail up to Roger's Pass was wonderful -- for such a popular area, it was nice to be hiking on overgrown singletrack.

From there is was about another mile and another hour hiking up steep switchbacks to the Continental Divide. From the ridgetop we could see the town and ski slopes of Winter Park.

The trail stayed on the west side of the divide, avoiding the steep corniced slopes on the east side. There was one place we had to get out our ice axes -- only 30' of snow to cross, but the way down would have been quite a ride if we slipped without any way to arrest.

Finally we got to the northern slope of James Peak. The trail was fairly well marked but easy to lose where covered in snow. There were no tracks to follow. About halfway up we aimed for a misplaced cairn and ended up off trail for most of the rest of the ascent. We eventually saw another person hiking up the ridge. It looked like he was on a trail, so we aimed for that and had an easier time completing the hike.

We arrived on summit right at 11:00, joining three people who had hiked up from St. Mary's. The clouds weren't looking great so after a snack and a summit photo we turned around pretty quick.

Following the trail on the way down was sooooo much nicer than scrambling on the talus! Only a few drops of rain fell on us as we were hiking down the divide -- somehow we managed to stay dry for the 4 hour hike back down.

At the end of the day, we had hiked almost 15 miles (with 4,000' elevation gain) in about 9.5 hours.

Mesa trail run

Today we headed up to Chautauqua on our bikes shortly after we woke up. It was a gorgeous day to do some trail running. We headed up the Old Kinnikinic Road to the Mesa Trail. Our plan was to run for half and hour and then turn back. We both made it to Bear Creek (Dan was ahead of me by a couple of minutes) and back. Click here to see the route and elevation gain. On the way back home we stopped along Boulder Creek to cool down. We had a competition to see who could keep their feet and ankles in the icy river the longest. I won after 11 seconds. Rushing snow melt is very cold.

Fourteener Friday

Friday was the first meeting of the Fourteener Fridays Club. My friend, Ann, and I decided that we would attempt some fourteeners on Fridays this summer as I'm not working and as a realtor, she would likely have some free time on Fridays. For our first hike, Mount Massive, Dan came along, too.

We met in South Boulder at 4:30am and drove all the way through Leadville to the trailhead. Dan and I were pleasantly surprised by the roads, as we were on them three years when we hiked our very first fourteener, Mount Elbert. However, we kept going on the dirt road past the standard trailheads to try some 4-wheel driving and get to the North Halfmoon Creek parking lot. We saw one other truck there.

The beginning of trail was absolutely beautiful. It meandered through lush forests and a beautiful meadow. We saw a big rabbit and lots of early season wild flowers. After a mile and a half, we left the main trail and headed straight up for almost three miles.

Though the trail was very well built and maintained, it was steep and large portions were hidden under huge snowfields. Several times we got out the axes and kick-stepped up the slopes. Amazingly, we managed to keep finding the trail and followed up to the very, very long summit ridge.

Mount Massive has many small peaks along this huge ridge that are all above 14,000 (Massive ranks second highest in the state at 14,421 ft). Once we climbed one small peak, there was always another, higher one further along the ridge. We FINALLY reached the true summit at 1:30 and had a leisurely lunch as there was not a cloud in the sky.

On the way down we were determined to speed up our descent by doing some glissading down the large snowfields. After sliding down the summit ridge, we hiked over a saddle to a very steep, rockslide slope. We were actually planting our axes into the loose dirt and scree to safely walk/slide down it. We were able to glissade down several more snowfields before meeting back up with the trail back to the car.

I think Massive is probably the prettiest fourteener we've hiked, but it was also very long and steep. It took us 5:45 to travel 4 miles and ascend 4,000 ft and 3:45 to get back to the car. This coupled with a 6-hour round trip drive, made for a very, very long day.

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From the summit we had great views of the Tenmile and Mosquito Ranges. We could even see Pikes Peak! When we got home Dan identified and labeled the peaks. Use the scrollbar below to view the entire panorama, or click for a larger view:

Intermediate snow, part 2

The second field trip for the Intermediate Snow class was crampon practice in Rocky Mountain National Park. Laurel didn't make this trip since she had a pretty bad spill on her bike earlier in the week and sprained her shoulder.

To get some good hard snow on steeper slopes, we needed an early start. At 2:50am my alarm woke me up. I picked up a few other CMC'ers in Lyons at 4am then met the rest of the class at the Bear Lake trailhead at 5am. It was raining lightly but soon turned to snow as we gained elevation. We hiked to some steep slopes near Lake Helene, arriving there before 8am.

Despite the early start, the snow was not great for crampon practice, as there was 5 inches of new soft snow on top. We practiced the techniques, but unfortunately the conditions didn't always warrant those techniques. Still, it was great practice and a great experience. At the end of the day we glissaded back down the slopes and hiked back to the car. We made it to Oscar Blues in Lyons around 1:30 for lunch.

See pictures someone else took that day.

Intermediate snow

We got up not-so-bright and early Sunday morning to meet for a field trip with the CMC Intermediate Snow School. At St. Mary's Glacier we practiced building anchors in the snow using natural features, pickets, flukes, and ice axes -- standard snow climbing tools. We learned how to do hip belays from bucket seats, boot-axe belays, and a few other techniques. We also practiced traveling in rope teams and setting protection up a steep snow slope. Both of us got a turn leading our rope teams. It was fun and we met a lot of nice people. After 8 hours on the snow we unwound at Tommy Knockers in Idaho Springs.

Yay Summer!

Dan slept in a bit today, so I wen for a nice run before we headed to Chautauqua for some climbing. At lunch time we were standing at the base of The Hammerhead, a rock that Gerry Roach calls classic despite its easy rating.

I led (yes, me!) the first two pitches of the climb. I was slow, but I protected the route well, even on the 50 foot long arch in the middle of the route.

Dan led the next half pitch to the the back of the rock and then led up behind the summit block to the top. The summit was huge and flat (hence "Hammerhead") and we hung out for a while.

Great views of the Fourth Flatiron from this summit:

Fields of wildflowers on the hike back:

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

After our awesome hike on Saturday, Sunday we took it easy. Dan and I both went for easy runs Saturday morning as a last prep for Monday's race. We cleaned the house (very exciting) and waited for my parents to arrive from Florida.

On Monday Dan and I got up early for the Bolder Boulder. We jogged down to the start (less than a mile from our house), and got in our waves. The race was as exciting as last year with 50,000 runners and walkers and probably that many people lining the race course. There were 29 bands playing on different street corners (including the Blues Brothers and Elvis), not to mention the belly dancers and people with slip 'n slides on their front lawns. There were even two houses handing out bacon. We both had PRs for the race, Dan at 48:40 and me at 55:32. Mom and Dad made their way to the stadium and we hung out a while with them and Ann watching the runners finish. We stayed around for the professional race and the Memorial Day ceremonies. I even got to see some of the kids that were in the BBRacers Club that I trained the last two months. They did great!

Later in the afternoon we took Mom and Dad to the Boulder Creek Festival and then we went out to dinner with Tim and Jill for birthday spaghetti and garlic knots. Yum!

Mount Sherman

Laurel wanted to hike Mount Sherman for her birthday -- the closest 14er she hasn't summited yet.

We got up at 4am, packed up the Xterra, and hit the road. By 7am we reached the trailhead at the end of the 4x4 road. Amazingly, there were only a handful of vehicles up there.

Every other 14er we've hiked has been a parade up an obvious trail. When we started up Sherman though, the trail was mostly buried in snow and there was only one other group of hikers who chose a different route.

Two Ptarmigan followed us at the start of the trail.

We decided to aim for the saddle between Sherman and White Ridge. Once atop that saddle, Gemini Peak to the north caught our attention. Instead of heading right up Sherman we adjusted course for Gemini.

The twin peaks of Gemini look similar from a distance, but each has its own character. The first we summited was not very steep-sided, and there were actually two smaller sub-peaks nearby that we also hiked up. The view was fantastic from these summits.

The main Gemini Peak is taller and fairly steep. We decided not to hike the steep southeast rock slope right in front of us or the equally steep south snow slope. Instead we hiked around to the east side of the peak and went up from there. On the topo it doesn't look any less steep, but it seemed to be in the field.

We took a short break on the summit of Gemini. At 13,951' elevation, it is almost a 14er itself. Our next stop was Mount Sherman.

The most remarkable thing about Mt. Sherman was that we were the only people on the summit for 20 minutes! That's a first for us on a 14er.

We hiked down the southwest ridge of Sherman. This was a nice part of the hike -- good exposure on either side of the ridge, but flat enough on the top that it was a hike and not a scramble. It was neat to look off to the distance and see a distinct line cutting across the Sawatch range.

As we were hiking down Sherman and towards Sheridan (another 13er), we crossed paths with two CMC folks hiking the other way. The girl had just finished WTS and the guy was an assistant this year to the instructor we had for WTS last spring. Small world in the mountains.

The summit of Sheridan was spectacular in its own way. From there you could see clear across the trough containing Leadville and the Arkansas Headwaters to the Sawatch 14ers.

We were getting tired, so after a short break atop our third real summit of the day, we headed down Sheridan's south ridge. This slippery slope of scree required careful footing. From the bottom of that slope we followed an old 4x4 road and some snow slopes back to the car. The snow was soft enough in the afternoon that we had to get out the snowshoes.

At the end of the day we had covered just over 7 miles. Since it was mostly off trail it took us 8.5 hours. We were above 13,000' elevation for over 6 hours.


View Mount Sherman in a larger map

May Hail

Denver got some weather today -- hail between golf-ball and baseball size!

Here in Boulder we just got a minute or two of very small hail. After it seemed to be over we went for a walk and took pictures of the clouds out East.

As giant as that cloud looks in the picture above, it was probably 50% taller when we first set out! We had to walk a ways to get a good look at it. You can see the same cloud deflated a bit more in the left side of this panorama:

Later in the evening I saw this monster outside our front door:

It was getting dark out but the cloud was high enough to still get lit up by the sun.

Sugarloaf MTB

This is Sugarloaf Mountain, as seen from the Betasso Preserve:

We put the bikes on the Xterra and drove up to the Sugarloaf Mountain trailhead. Laurel went for an hour-long run down Glacier Lake Road. I had run 7 miles the day before, so I hiked up Sugarloaf Mountain instead. The mountain is very visible from Boulder, and from its summit there are fantastic 360 degree views.

I took a bunch of pictures from the summit to make panoramas. The wind was intense! At least 50 MPH.

Laurel arrived back at the car about the same time I did. We took the bikes down and headed out the same road she had just run on. It's a pretty tame road for mountain bikes but it was a fun ride -- about 6 miles west to the Peak-to-Peak highway, then back.

The ride back home took us right by the turn off for the Betasso Preserve, so we parked there and hiked for a short while.

Fourth Flatiron

Today we climbed part of the Fourth Flatiron. The rock is split into three pieces separated by gullies. We climbed the first piece in 5 pitches (about 700' over 5 hours).

This was our first climb anywhere near the Fourth, so we weren't even sure where the rock was or what it looked like. Typically we waste a lot of time trying to find the right starting point, but this rock was easy to locate and identify -- right off the trail with a big cave 200' up.

The routefinding was surprisingly easy. The landmarks we were aiming for (cave, ledge, face, ridge) were all oversized and obvious, so there was no question we were on route. The climbing itself was enjoyable too -- mostly friction work (typical for east face routes) but there were occasional sections that were more vertical and definitely felt harder than 5.4.

The climb isn't far from the Royal Arch. It was neat seeing it from afar -- when you hike to it you don't get a good look until it's right in front of your face. To the north we could see the Third Flatiron and to the East was NCAR.

Once we get our climbing chops back we'll have to return to do the entire East Face of the Fourth. From the rock's summit it isn't a far hike to the summit of Green Mountain, which sounds like a very fun hike!

Snow in May