Green Mountain Hike with Tiffany and Addison

Tiffany, Addison and I went hiking. It was snowy. We decided that the three of us would be best friends while we were hiking.  Nuff said.

For this post, I prefer to let the serenity of the snow and mountain air speak for themselves.

Gregory Canyon side of the ampitheater.

The crew.

Just above the meditation rock.

A less-often viewed side of the First Flatiron.

Looking down from saddle rock.

The People's Republic.

Final approach to the summit.

Looking west from the summit of Green Mountain.

Boulder from the summit block.

Mt. Sherman / Gemini Peak

When a string of late autumn heat lingered throughout the Rockies, Mark and I decided to adventure through the unknown slopes of the 4 Mile Creek basin - aka Mt. Sherman. On a typical year, the approach to this hike would be snowed over and add taxing mileage to the flatland section. 2012 was not, however, a typical year. Between the raging forest fires, hellish drought conditions and high gas prices the snow seemed reluctant to come. My steadfast compatriot and I took advantage of this anomaly and drove up to the summer road closure in search of elevation revelations. 

Starting elevation: ~12,000 ft.  There are some mountaineers who would deem a hike nullified if the party failed to gain 3000ft on the climb, meaning that they prefer to hike an additional 4.5 miles to "summit" the same mountain. They insinuate that hiking from this gate is somehow less awesome of an experience. To this philosophy I reply: "4.5 miles of flat approach to satisfy some machismo cult of measurement is unimpressive and you're overcompensating. This is a family activity - keep it PG." Everybody wins when you're in the mountains!

 The ice sheet you saw in the previous photo was by far the most dangerous obstacle we would face. This next gem was taken prior to crossing the frozen gendarme, so that my grandchildren might know what my final sunrise looked like, just in case I didn't make it across.

Sweet.

 We hiked a bit more, and explored the Leavick Mine from a safe distance. There are old rail cars and buildings and such. Its really cool. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of it though. Maybe because Mark did? I'm not sure.

Once past the first mine, we rounded a corner and our objective came into view for the first time. Our route would take us up the left (southern) ridge of Sherman all the way to the summit.

Mt. Sherman in the distance. The old Hilltop mine is visible at the leftmost base of Sherman's slopes. Another cool mine that for some reason I took zero pictures of. Also worth visiting. 

 Once on the ridge, the hike just kept getting more awesome.

Taken from the shoulder of the ridge.

Looking east into the basin. The car and mines are somewhere off to the right of this view.

Looking up the way we came. The Hilltop mine is left of center. Horseshoe peak and Mt. Sheridan featured center and right.

 The final summit push is a long, gentle slope. Once on top of Mt. Sherman, Mark and I enjoyed some of the best views of South Park and the Wasatch Range south of Mt. Democrat.

The tallest mountains in Colorado.

Mark. Looking excited to be there.

Me. Looking more excited.

Looking east from the summit. Pikes Peak is the big pointy one on the left side of the horizon.

 We enjoyed the views and summit picnic for awhile before directing our attention to the next objective:  Gemini Peak.

Gemini Peak is the two mounds of rock on the left side (that kind of look like.... twins. Weird.) The double summit is deceiving - the actual top of the mountain is the one on the right.

Gemini was a fun little scramble. If I were in better shape, I would recommend connecting this peak with Mt. Dyer, which is the peak on a connecting ridge directly to the west. This ridge looked like a pretty accessible boardwalk in the sky.

Just below the taller of the twins.

Looking back at Mt. Sherman from the summit of Gemini Peak.

Looking north from Gemini. I'm sure these mountains have names but I'm forgetting them at the time of this writing. Fairplay is somewhere over that way. 

A view of the Gore Mountains from loooong ways away. The curved bit just below and left of center is the ridge to Mt. Dyer.

Mt. of the Holy Cross (I think)

To get home, we contoured around Sherman's East face. We quickly went into zombie crawl mode and forgot all about the camera, so no photos of Mark eating brains or anything like that. It is a family activity, after all.

Kelso Ridge

Climbed Kelso ridge with Nathaniel and Matt on a late October day. I thought that this would be the last 14er of the year - my procrastination in publishing these pictures has been fruitful because now I don't have to retract my statement. Moral of the story is that it was awesome and was not the last 14er trip of the season.

Super steep. Not for the feint of heart.

Angle number two of the first gully we traversed.

This was an unexpected hike due to the fact that we mostly traveled across the loose, steep gravel of the gullies rather than ascending them. While the surface was loosely packed at best, I have a very strong suspicion that when covered in snow, Torreys’ north face is a cruel mistress that begs to be spanked with a snowboard or skis. Mmmmhmmmhmmm!



Stock photo of Nathaniel looking pensive in the high alpine majesty. “No big deal… I just hang out here for fun.” He seems to say.



Oh look! We’ve been hiking for 4 hours and we’re that close! Doesn’t he look like he belongs in a magazine here or something?



Lower part of Dead Dog Couloir in the left background.



This picture is taken from about halfway up the ridge (13,500’). We decided that we’d stop for first lunch since it was the flattest spot we’d seen in awhile.  Although I forgot a fork, I still managed to eat most of my pasta without much problem thanks to a handy sandwich bag-turned glove.

Yes. This is the flat part.



McClellan Mountain. Looking Enticing.



Continuing up the ridge, we started to run into a bit of snow on the north side of the ridge. While it was mostly manageable, the slip factor added a certain component of… danger. This was our first Class 3 hike, so the difficulty level (from all components) was mostly a surprise. Although I never strapped on my traction, the discomfort was palpable. Good times were had by all.

Looking down one of the gullies.

This is where Matt was most intimate with the mountain. It seemed he and Mother Earth really touched in a deep and meaningful way. This may also have been the “flat and safe resting space” that made his day less fun.  This man is a trooper and a true gentleman.

I, for one, find this photo hillarious.

Even though this looks sloped, it is actually a wall. The specks of blue you see on the left are the group who ascended ahead of us. Crossing this wall involves a traverse across the face (with mostly decent handholds) and a fall of about 50 feet onto a 40 degree slope. Then, when you get to the top, you quickly realize that the 50 foot drop has turned into a 200 foot drop on either side of you! With that revelation in mind, you walk on top of the shelf to the knife edge. 

Views from the ridge.

Looking down from the ledge. In 25mph wind. I would literally rue the day that I had to be on top of this ledge in a windstorm like the Mt. Evans hike.

Matt on the knife edge being super epic and awesome. Dead Dog Couloir is the represented by the void to viewers right. The shredable mountain mistress lays on the left.

Taken sideways to show scale of the slope. I think Matt’s posture here says it all.

If you look at this slopeand don’t want to grab your winter gear, check your pulse!

I unfortunately don’t have any photos of the quartz fin that greets you on the high side of the knife edge. In order to get past this obstacle, you must stand up on top of the knife edge,then reach around its 3-foot belly and inchworm your way up on top the 15 foot long crest. From there it’s a 100 vertical foot scramble and you’re at the top of Torreys! Huzzah!

I also regrettably have no photos of the top of Grays. Let the record show that the top was pleasant, and that we enjoyed the early sunset colors from the highest point on the continental divide. The third time is the charm on this hike. I am avenged! Look forward to a summer trip up Kelso ridge at some point in the future.

James Peak

In the wake of Sam's wedding, the time was ripe for celebrating Billy's return to the western frontier. It felt only appropriate that in celebrating his return to the motherland, we head into the high country. Our destination: the fabled St. Mary's Glacier and James Peak (in the James Peak Wilderness).

In times of old, this permanent snowfield has covered most of the hills surrounding St. Mary's Lake; enabling year-round ski turns for the young and young at heart. However, the two-for-one judo chop that was this year's heat wave and utter lack of recognizable precipitation had laid waste to the area's namesake by the time we arrived. What our research had suggested would be an abundant snow field that crawled with bearded backcountry fanatics was actually better described as a late-summer alpine wonderland... which, when given the choice between that and cleaning the apartment, I think we made the right choice.

What? This is usually a skiable feature?? ...I'll need to come back in a better snow year with a serious attitude.

Another look at the face from the north side of the lake. Even using our "if you get two turns in, it counts as a viable run" rule, this doesn't seem like ideal ski conditions.

If I had been less impulsive and more calculated in my wedding proposal, I would have taken Gigi here for a nice picnic. 

We took the short jaunt up the snowfield (there was a conveniently placed foot trail carved into the valley next to it, when conditions were too slick). At the top we found a suitable feat of strength for our first conquest.

Billy proving himself worthy of our adventure.

Yours truely - also crushing it.

Once our glacier pull-ups had been performed, we high-fived the high-fives of kings. The glacier seemed to agree that we were worthy of our day's adventure, and opened up to reveal a blue subterranean world of mystery.

The cavern cut out by moving water. The camera doesn't catch how radiant the blue light was that came through the ice. The chunk on the top-right corner was closer to the true color. It looked like you could walk down at least 100 meters but with the sun rising higher in the sky and the possibility of more hikers coming up the snowpack, this seemed like a poor choice to explore. One day, perhaps.

Once we topped out of the gully, the snowfield recedes and hikers find themselves walking along a high-alpine plateau of sorts. We had to cross this before coming to James Peak proper.

Taken from the side of James Peak, looking south across the tundra. We crossed the tundra coming from photo left. The hike across the tundra was easy and calm. I would recommend this area for a picnic (if the lake wasn't enough awesome for you).

Taken from higher up the peak. The flat spot you see peeking out above the ridge is where we walked. The glacier lies just on the other side of the plateau on the right side of the hump (left of the encroaching trees).

Taken from a shoulder along the way. Contemplating our humanity in this veritable salon of the gods.

[insert awesome summit photo here!]
Caption: We took a summit shot, but the main focus was our summit beer. Rather than taint the mountain majesty's memory with synthetic cookery, I've opted to encourage the reader to use his/her imagination. You'll understand when you're older. You're welcome.


To the south of James, there were four or five large bodies of water. Another group we met on the summit claimed to have made their approach up and around this water. Seems legit.

We followed an out-and-back route, so imagine the hike again but with brighter sunlight for post-summit images. Also, there were a LOT more day-trippers on the glacier on our way down. They must have gotten a bit slower start this morning than us. Slackers.

Our photographer, Jeffrey, at the base of the glacier. That beautiful face tells it all - look how much fun we had! ...They're so cute when they're that age.