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My friend Matt came up from Texas on Thursday for the weekend to climb some ice and later summit Mount Lincoln. We heard that the ice climbing was good on Mount Lincoln even though it was early in the season to be climbing ice. We also knew that we had to get up there on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds. I decided to take off Friday from work.
Thursday afternoon I left work early to stop by an outdoor store to look at the latest ice climbing gear and drool at all of the new equipment, then met my friend Matt at my house. We drank a few beers and caught up a bit since his last visit. After eating a great steak dinner, we went through our gear and packed our backpacks for the following day. I set the alarm for 4:00 a.m. knowing that it was best to arrive at Mount Lincoln as early as possible to beat the rush of other climbers. We were told that this area is notorious for early season ice climbers, as it is the first popular ice climbing area to come in.
After a 4:00 a.m. wake-up, we managed to get motivated by a quarter after to pack up our gear in the truck. We took our time and left at a quarter after five. We made one stop in Breckenridge at 6:30 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks. I am not wild about their fair-at-best coffee, but it was the only place on the main drag that was open. It was cold and quite windy. We proceeded to drive up Hoosier Pass, stopping once for an incredible photo op of Quandary Peak bathed in the first morning light. On top of Hoosier Pass, the temperature in the rearview mirror read twenty-eight degrees.
We proceeded a mile past the summit of Hoosier Pass to a dirt road on the right that led to the parking area by Montgomery Reservoir. There was only one other vehicle there when we arrived. There were white caps on the reservoir from the wind, so we donned our cold weather gear the best we could in the truck. Meanwhile, another guy by the name of Doug, from Fort Collins pulled up beside us. We hiked up the road together to the guaging station. He was going to climb a couple thirteeners before heading over to Mount Lincoln to climb ice.
After the guaging station, we put on our crampons for the remaining climb up to the ice. This was our first experience ice climbing on Lincoln. When we arrived there was a party of people climbing the long gully on the left. Hiking up, we met another guy, Dan, also from Denver who was up here for the day. The three of us set up a TR above the rock buttress just right of the main gully. We tied together a fifty and sixty meter rope from the trees and anchors above. We took turns climbing up the steep flow of ice below the buttress, each of us climbing several laps up two different areas on the curtain. The ice was wet, but thick. The climbs were steep, short and pumpy, WI4/WI5 climbs. On my last climb, I fell and later found out that my left knee took a good hit on the ice.
During the day, we met a couple other climbing parties that shared the area where we were climbing. Everyone climbed amiably with one another and we shared enjoyable conversation. Clouds moved in and light snow began to fall, but overall the temperature was great and comfortable for climbing.
We did not continue the climb to the summit of Mount Lincoln afterwards as the clouds really began to set in and the snow became more steady. We heard of a big storm moving in with lots of snow. Instead, we hiked back down and headed into town. The fish and chips and cold beer at the Breckenridge Brewery was the perfect end to a great day. We hurried back to Denver to avoid the impending storm. |
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