One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: June 15, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1985_0630-0703_Castle,MaroonPeaks.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
(Originally posted to internal newsgroup:
/* hpfcla:hpnc.general/ajs / 5:04 pm Aug 1, 1985)
This is a report on climbing Snowmass Mountain (14092') in the Elk Range southwest of Aspen. Dave Landers and I postponed the trip a day, then a week, due to crummy monsoon weather.
Saturday, July 27: We finally left home at 0800. We made the drive to Aspen over Independence Pass in almost minimum time, 4.5 hours. From there it was another 28 miles, about 45 minutes, to the trailhead, the last 4.5 miles on a rough dirt road. The trailhead (8400') was just an open parking area where the road crossed a fence; not very interesting to hang around.
The hike to Snowmass Lake (10980') was 8.5 miles of meandering trail mostly through pine and aspen. After the first half mile it passed a turnoff to a ranch and stopped being a road. It followed the left side of Snowmass Creek to the junction with Bear Creek at about four miles, which is where we got the first view of Snowmass Mountain, well off in the distance. Two miles further up we had to cross about 200' of logjam at the drainage end of a beaver pond -- very tricky with a heavy pack on. The last couple of miles climbed 800' up to Snowmass Lake.
We took almost five hours to make the hike in. The trail was rocky, overgrown in places, went up and down a little, and was quite muddy from recent rains. There were plenty of nice camping spots under tall pines on the east side of Snowmass Lake. In the still of the evening the lake was very pretty, reflecting vertical cliffs on the west side and Snowmass Mountain to the southwest. The evening weather was so nice and clear that I slept out under the stars.
Sunday, July 28: The next morning we got a slow start up-trail at 0625. The first almost-mile of trail wound up and down around the south side of the lake, very overgrown with willows, narrow and muddy. It was the only way to get to the other side.
After 45 minutes we were finally a ways up a talus slope at the bottom of a big gully -- not as steep as it appeared from across the lake! It was easy climbing on large, usually-firm rocks, alongside several steep waterfalls. At the top of the gully we crossed a couple hundred feet of moss and then were at the edge of a shallow bowl at around 12200'.
This bowl was the bottom of the immense snowfield for which the mountain was named. We were disappointed at the number of rocks protruding up the first half of the snowfield. Due to the heavy rains so far this summer snow was melting off faster than usual all over the place. Of course the rocks made for easy climbing, with only a few snow crossings up to about 13100'.
Dave let me go ahead because I was moving faster. (We must have been well matched -- half the time I dragged him along, and the other half I struggled to keep up!) The route angled up the upper snowfield across a (fortunately) well-worn path of deep footprints in steep snow. The route was so well travelled that you could see this section from five miles away on Buckskin Pass, someone said. Anyway, we ended up on a rocky ridge at about 13900', suddenly able to see over (and down a cliff) to Geneva Lake and many other points to the south.
The last 200' or so was a quick rock scramble on very steep, cracked granodiorite -- large rocks, jagged, with some dirt and fragments. Right before the top we got on the ridge again. I reached the top at about 0955 (3.5 hours to climb 3100').
The summit was was one of the nicer ones I'd seen -- about as wide as a big pickup truck, maybe three times as long, with cliffs on the longer sides and steep, jagged ridges on the ends. The very top was a huge rock you could just haul yourself onto and sit upon. The snowfield wrapped half way around, and Snowmass Lake was visible far away and below. We got a good look at Capitol Peak, its 4-mile connecting ridge to Snowmass, the infamous knife-edge ridge running northeast (right) to "K2", straight, long, and with a sheer drop.
There were very few people on the mountain that day. We stayed on top 1:25, until 1120, and were the last ones off -- except for the crazy I think arrived there later, soon before it rained. We took 20 minutes back to the ridge, then several fast glissades down snow for as long as we could do it.
Heavy clouds built up and we were hit with hail and rain at the top of the gully. As there was a dirt/scree trail down, this was not too terrible, just a nuisance. What was awful was the jungle trail around the lake back to camp -- soggy willows we couldn't avoid, ugh. We returned at 1405, totally wet.
The rain stopped before we left at 1530 to hike the 8.5 miles out, but the trail was a mess. It took us four hours to reach the trailhead. Dave did pretty well. I'm sorry to admit that the last six miles were hell for me. Sore, tired, blistered, muddy... You know the story. The jacuzzi at the Christiania Lodge in Aspen felt soooo nice!
Snowmass Mountain was a fun climb but definitely not an easy one, considering the roundtrip distance (22 miles) and vertical (5600', call it 5800' with trail ups and downs). Rumor was that you could climb it easier from Lead King, a mining camp on the west side up an ugly road from Marble. Dunno about that, but we did meet one person, heading out, who did it in one day from the trailhead (about 10 hours round trip)... Ouch.
(And a couple years later in Sep 1987, we revisited Snowmass that way!)
Alan "54/2 = 27, yeah!" Silverstein
(Next trip report: 1985_0804_Pawnee,Toll.htm)