One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: August 7, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1984_0908-09_Harvard,Columbia.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
(Originally posted to internal newsgroup:
***** hpfcla:fsd.rec/ajs 1:21 pm Sep 17, 1984)
Here's the scoop on Mount Princeton, 14197', in the Sawatch Range, which Chuck Reese and I climbed one weekend. Mount Princeton rose majestically on the west side of the Arkansas Valley, towering 6000' above the valley floor. It was the most beautiful of the Fourteeners in the range I think. The climb was as easy as any, though typically long.
Saturday, Sep 15: We left town and drove to the Frontier Ranch, above the Chalk Creek road (to St Elmo). They had the dirt road out from the Ranch (to the northwest) well marked. It went right through their property, but they didn't mind you using it. And it saved a lot of hiking if you drove up it! You could see the last section of road down below on US 24. It cut across the white southeast face of Mount Merriam left of the main peak.
The first quarter mile was bad, but beyond that the road was surprisingly good. There were some bumps and very deep (but straddlable) ruts. We went almost four miles and 2200' up the road and camped at a nice spot on the east-projecting ridge below Mount Merriam (aka "South Princeton"). The road was steep, so the car got hot enough to stop once. With care a normal car could probably have made it all the way up another 1-2 miles to the end of the road south of Merriam; one station wagon did just that.
Winter was fast approaching. Most of the aspen were in full gold already on the Mosquito and Sawatch ranges. The weather pattern was typical of fall, with patchy clouds, cold breezes, and very little lightning.
Sunday, Sep 16: We started up the road on foot the next morning at 0610 and watched the sunrise (at 0645) from about 12000' at timberline. Magnificent! Lots of red sky, golden mountains, and sunbeams peeking through the hills and clouds. About half an hour later the sun made it to the valley floor.
We cut off the road to the north and northwest over the Merriam east ridge, above timber, as the road turned south for the last section. This was the best way to go, and we came across the regular trail pretty soon. You could start from the end of the road, but it was farther away (south), and you had to go over Mount Merriam (which was not that bad though).
The trail was an old miners' burro path which took a long ascending traverse around Merriam and up above the bowl southeast of the main summit. There were a couple of places where rockfalls made the trail hard to spot, and few cairns, but mostly it was easy and broad. The rock was a whitish quartz monzonite or granite mostly, which was great for bouldering; not much scree or loose rock.
We followed the trail a ways up below the Merriam-Princeton saddle, then cut up to the ridge just before some of the old mine tailings. There was a lot of colorful rock, and evidence of miners abounded in the form of test holes, small and large excavations, and shack ruins.
From the ridge it was an easy 20 minutes up a steep slope to the summit of Mount Princeton, which was a rounded hilltop (nothing special). Our total time was 2:40 for about 3200' of climbing. [2023: Wow I was fast back then! Still didn't feel so great though.]
We could see all the Sawatch Range south, and at least to La Plata Peak north. Pikes Peak was hazily visible 65 miles east, but the Mosquito and Front Ranges were obscured by clouds. We lounged around an hour and a half and headed back down the ridge just as the first people we saw that day reached the summit.
We followed the ridge for a fun and easy 40 minutes to the low point. I continued up another 15 minutes (just a couple of hundred feet) to the top of Mount Merriam (13273'). The view from there was quite nice also. I looked down some steep gullies south to Chalk Creek, across to Princeton to the north, and the Arkansas Valley formed quite a panorama in between.
If you climbed Merriam you could continue southeast down the ridge to above the road. From there it was a steep, ornery slope, littered with loose boulders, but some scree, that took about 40 minutes to descend. There was a lot of interesting rock there, and some old mine shafts.
Aside from whapping loose an already wobbly muffler the trip down and back was uneventful. There was no sign of snow on Princeton or the nearby peaks, but Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross were dusted. The Dairy Delite in Buena Vista was a nice place to stop for food or snacks. Loveland Pass was an interesting drive, but needed 30-45 minutes extra.
Alan (25 done, 29 to go) Silverstein
(Next trip report: 1985_0420_GreenMountain.htm)