One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: February 15, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1987_0627_SELongsPeak.htm)
After arriving with my wife Spring Carlton and daughter Megan Silverstein in Aspen for the holiday weekend, I made a short "work-up" climb to Shadow Mountain, 8977'. This was the highest rock pinnacle of a series which sat on the ridge just southwest of town. In fact the town had grown to where the ridge stuck into it! The ridge dropped just a couple hundred feet southeast of the peak before rising higher to Aspen Mountain, which was covered with ski runs.
We stayed at the Christiania Lodge, which at 7920' was just a block from the foot of the ridge. It went up very steeply. The rock was rotten metamorphic sandstone (I think). I started scrambling right away up some huge talus piles. There used to be a number of levels of silver mines in the ridge, and there were a lot of unnatural trails and holes as a result.
I started up the ridge at 1930, just an hour before sunset, bushwhacking up a steep gully. At the top of the cut I found an amazing amount of rusting hardware near a small shack perched on the ridge. Steel cables of varying sizes ran everywhere. It turned out that an Aspenite had been trying for years to get permission to build a restaurant high above town on the ridge. He hauled up all that junk a little at a time. The cables were sometimes useful for a handhold!
From the shack I could look down at Aspen to the northeast and Castle Creek to the southwest. Following the ridge beyond here was painfully steep, so I dropped around the back side, came across a trail, and followed it to the summit of Shadow Mountain. It was a small, rocky point with a great view down to town. I only stayed a couple of minutes watching the city lights turn on since it was already past sunset.
Getting down was no fun. Rather than retrace my steps in the dark, I carefully descended a steep and overgrown slope pretty much due north towards town. After a while I needed a headlamp to see and a sweater and gloves to avoid getting chewed up by the deep bushes and aspen trees. I hung onto them as I descended.
After a while I came across a very nice trail that traversed down almost to where I'd started. It would probably have made for a much easier climb up, if I could have found it. Round trip took 2:20 and I climbed 1160'.
(Next trip report: 1987_0704-05_CastlePeak.htm)