5 Miles in the Wrong Direction - Mt. Adams - 2024

 

Brad and I originally planned to do a backpack into the Weminuche this past week, but there were forecasts of heavy rains so we called and audible and instead headed down to Willow Lake in the Sangre de Cristo mountains for a shorter hike that would take less time.  Mt. Adams was on both of our lists, and was highly recommended by other hikers.  We started on the trail completely engulfed by mosquitos.  Wow.  I'd never experienced such thick clouds of these vampires.  They were so numerous that we would accidentally inhale them and gag every so often.  It made for a miserable 5 miles and 3000ft. of elevation gain to the lake.  Relieved to arrive at the lake, we looked around to enjoy the majestic mountain scenery.  Only...wait...none of this looks like Willow Lake.  Where was the massive waterfall and the views of Kit Carson Peak?  Another hiker noticed that we looked confused and told us that we were 5 miles in the wrong direction! This was actually South Crestone Lake, not Willow Lake.  

Bighorn Sheep

Brad's Karate Mobile

"This doesn't look right."

We had a good laugh (either that or cry) and sat down to think bout our options and look at a map. We figured out that we were looking up at Unnamed 13,159 to the east and Unnamed 13,552 to the south.  Both of these were connected to Adams via their ridge so we decided to try and create our own route from here and see if the terrain would let us summit Mt. Adams.  We did some scouting of the route that evening to see if we could gain the ridge of UN13,159.  Once we realized we could do that, we had high hopes that we'd have a good shot to summit Adams the next morning.  We built a campfire and enjoyed a mosquito-less night once the temperatures dropped.    

Sunset over UN 13,552

The next morning we trailblazer our way to the top of UN13,159.  It was another beautiful sunrise in the Sangre de Cristos.  It's always a special experience to hike in places where you know very few others have traveled and experience the solitude.  From the top of our first 13er, we looked at the route up Mt. Adams and had some serious doubts weather or not we'd be able to summit from here.  The slope turned out to be much more doable that it looked from a distance.  Once we reached the saddle, it was over 1000 ft. of type 2 fun climbing on steep loose talus.  At the top was the summit blocks that we weren't sure we'd be able to safely climb, but hoped that the ridge would offer some doable options on the back side.  Our hopes came true at the top and we had some quick fun scrambling to reach the summit.  Brad and I agreed that Mt. Adams must be one of the best summit views in this mountain range.  You could see a clear angle on all 5 of the Crestone 14er group.  

Approximate Route up UN 13,159

Jagged Spires - Prints available

Approximate route up Mt. Adams

Horn Lake

Approximate route to summit from the saddle

14ers Crestone Needle,Cestone Peak, Columbia Point (13er), Kit Carson, and Challenger

The way back was grueling, but uneventful.  Burgers in Buena Vista! 

Approximate Route from South Crestone Lake

Family Trip to Cozumel - Winter 2023

This winter, we took a family trip to Cozumel where Brian and Dive had lived for a few years in the past.  We waited until the morning of the trip to tell the kids we were going.  We surprised them when they woke up just to see the look on their faces!  Neither of them had ever been to the ocean or on a plane or out of the country so a lot of firsts were being had!  It was a great time and B & D were awesome tour guides for us!  The whole time we were there, they had a "cold front" that was going through.  All the locals were bundling up in jackets while we were like, wow 70 feels nice! 

 I did take one of my Nikon's too: 

Definitely tough to come home from that one!  Back to winter and cold.

Snowmass Lake - June, 2023

 

 Jimmy Brad and I had a perfect weather window where we fit in a hike to Snowmass Lake (and Snowmass Mountain for Brad) right at the summer solstice.  This one had been on my list of iconic Colorado backpacks for over a decade, and it did not disappoint.  This spring has been so rainy and one of the craziest weather seasons I can remember.  A couple days before our hike in to this lake, it snowed a couple inches at this location.  Though this was the first day of summer, it looks more like winter up there!

When we arrived at the lake, there was only one area that was snow free for campers to set up tents.  We had to get close with a few other groups, but everybody was friendly with no problems.  That night sleeping was miserable, being right next to the lake with the wind blasting over it all night was restless.  Brad woke and left for the Snowmass summit at 1:30 AM.  From about then until dawn, there were various parties getting up and getting ready to hike not too quietly so, again, sleep was not good.  Jimmy and I got up to watch a fantastic sunrise over the lake.  The clouds made cool shapes that contoured the edge of the peaks.  Though we didn't know it, right at about that time Brad was standing on the summit.  After having breakfast, we attempted to hike out and find the trail toward Buckskin Pass hoping to hike Buckskin Benchmark.  Unfortunately, the snow was continuous and became a post-holing slog.  After a few miles of this, combined with a trail we couldn't find, we decided to turn back to camp.   We arrived back there at 9AM just after Brad returned.  We all decided we had accomplished our goals for the trip, so we packed up and headed home instead of staying for a second night. 

Sunrise on Snowmass - Prints available

If you look closely, you can see people climbing up the snowfield

And some of Brad's pictures from his 14er hike: