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On 7/27/03 Scott Near, my climbing buddy, and I left Littleton to drive up to the Snowmass Creek trailhead and along the way we picked up a cuple of Subway sanwiches to eat along the trail. We hiked up the trail and admired the beautiful scenery along the way. We had noticed that there was evidence of a rain and inquired several hikers about the weather. they related that there had been a serious storm the night before that had lasted about 10 hours. This made us contemplate the weather report that predicted a 60% chance of rain, and the future of our trip. At this time we could see clouds building, but for the most part, it was a sunny day and very humid and the sweat poured out as we ascended.
The stream crossing was made across the log jam instead of fording the stream and was aided by using our trekking poles. Nearing camp, a swarm of flieswas our welcoming committee, and we applied liberal amounts or bug repellant which seemed to keep the bugs swarming, but from landing on us.
We made the lake and set up our tents as soon as possible as we could see clouds building to the west. As we were filling our water supply, the skies began to rain down and we went for our tents. I took an hour cat nap as Scott went out and completed filling our water.
Dinner was made and consumed after the rain stopped and we strolled around the lake admiring the views. We retired for the night and woke uo at 4:00 to a starry filled sky. Setting out at about 5:15 we walked across the logs leading to the trail and made our way to the west side of the lake dodging the heavy brush that was full of moisture. We followed the well cairned trail across the scree field and started up the ever steepening trail up to the headwall of the basin. This is the crux of the climb as the footing gets very loose and rocky and the assuring cairns run out .
Finally we arrived at some large boulders and followed a set of cairns to the left of the gully, but noticed that we seemed to be heading too far left of our intended destination on the ridge and after some refiguring headed off across the permanent snow field. More rocks and boulders at one section gave way to an expanse of smooth sidewalk type rock and then more scree and boulders. My friend Scott is an excellent cairn spotter, but at times on the way up there seemed to be sections that were not cairned.
As we neared the ridge, we noticed that a gully came down between two large rocks and appeared to have had a lot of traffic that had come down it. We chose the rocks instead and I think the right decision as the gully was very steep. at the ridge, we could see our destination, and about this time heard Snowmass Peak calve off a pretty large rock slide down the north slopes. This reminded me of the slide we saw off of K2 when we climbed Capitol the year before On the backside of the ridge, we followed the cairns staying below the ridge which reminded me of Wetterhorn, bu a little longer. At the top we came to the class 3 scramble to the top which didn't seem too bad to even a novice like me.
On top we marveled at views of the Bells, Pyramid, and especially Capitol which looks impossible from this angle. I remarked that I was glad to have that one checked off already. The summit canister was found to be empty and I looked down into Lead King basin where three weeks ago I had blued my mountain bikes disc brakes coming down the switchbacks.
Looking to the west we noticed clouds building and cut our stay short to retrace our steps back. Scott expertly guided us to the exact point on the ridge that we ascended and we made our way down, hoping to find a better way down the nasty scree slope. We didn't, but wondered if the grassy slopes on the other side of the stream might be better. Best to stick with what works and suggestions.
At camp we replenished our water supply, and with the fly and bug convention urging us on, packed up as soon as possible for the long hike out. The eight miles wore on and the bottoms of my feet began burning which later turned into blisters. We made the car and drove to the Diner in Carbondale where it turned out our waitress was a climber and related that she had climbed Snowmass numerous times and liked the Lead King approach much better.
We continued on and Scott drove back to Littleton while I snoozed at times. Conclusion, a wonderfully beautiful place, but a long hike in and out and a nice finish at the top, with the crux being that loose slope before the basin. We really lucked out with the weather too which could have been a real deterrent, but was just perfect. |
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