Chipeta mountain (SE couloir)

Chipeta mountain (SE couloir)

Climb of Chipeta mountain by SE couloir on 2021/5/01.

i drove in to the Cochetopa valley Friday 4/30 night as far as i could until i encountered snow drifts at N38.45132° W106.19219° at 10,290'. This is almost exactly where i stopped in 2019/5/31 to climb Mt. Ouray the next day. There was a half-fallen tree over the road just below the stopping point, but I was able to drive under it no problem.

I woke at 3:20 to have breakfast and get going at 4:43. There was a light freeze higher up than my truck, which showed 35 F where I was camped. I used snow shoes intermittently on the road and trail, which was mostly snow. The road was more consistent because snowmobilers had packed a track through winter use.

I cached my snowshoes at N38.44659° W106.21892° at 11059'. I then proceeded to the base of the SE col at N38.44294° W106.22675° at 11465. The chute does run a couple hundred feet lower into the valley, if you prefer to approach low and climb the entire chute. Either way would pass the base of the ESE col near N 38.44471 W 106.22264, another climbing option which tops out at N38.44898° W106.22917° at 13024'. I put on crampons at 7:55 and climbed to the top of the snow near N38.44839° W106.23077° at 12991' at 11:02. The surface of the snow had already softened as i started, but my steps did not get overly deep through the couloir. I got the angles of 35.5, 37.7, 34.8, 33.3, 40.1, and 41.6 degrees along the chute. There were a few small rocks in the snow through the couloir, I would not say a -major- risk of falling rock though. The snow did not quite run to the top, so i took off my crampons and scrambled up and to the climber's left. Crampons were not needed on the ridge to Chipeta summit at N38.44761° W106.24061° at 13505'.

After gaining another 500' on the ridge, I reached the summit at 12:05 pm. After a break on the summit, I retraced the ridge starting at 12:47, passing the SE then ESE couloirs to a break in the snow at 38.45093 106.22329 at 12348'. The ESE couloir has a very wide top (much more than where it starts below.) I did not measure, but the top of the ESE col seemed a little steeper than the SE col. I chose a path from a lower saddle E of the SE and ESE couloirs to give more travel on rock and avoid afternoon wet slides. In practice, the lower part of this path uses four short snow sections that were relatively steep (I downclimbed the first, second, and fourth sections facing the snow, ice ax, ice tool, no crampons). The lowest section cliffs out above the base – descend the narrow chute that is the fourth snow section. I jumped on to the snow in the double ice axe style of Stallone in Cliffhanger, to find the hardest snow on the mountain. There were several broken trees frozen in the chute at a variety of angles through the chute. A thin mushy layer of snow covered a very solid interior (glad I had the two tools, it was slippery). I reached the base at 3:11.

Once down, I put on my snowshoes (only modestly helpful in the afternoon) and continued down the valley. I found frequent post-holing even in snowshoes, sometimes up to my waist. Often there are a couple weekends like this each spring, when the warm weather finally arrives and consolidates the snow in the afternoon. Anyways, I slowly continued post holing for 1-2 miles, which was a Herculean effort. It was best to stay higher on the north side of the valley, following the trail which was relatively easy to discern even though it was untracked (except by me on approach in the morning). The snowshoes did help as about half the snow remained intact. Travel was much faster on reaching the road (trail head at N38.45132° W106.19219° at 10,290’. Often one of the sides of the road was melted out, alllowing travel on mud, grass, or leaves. I did not encounter anyone else on Chipeta mountain, the trail, road, or driving out. There was a few fresh steps in the mud on the road from day visitors, but I did not see any vehicles on the way out. I arrived at my truck at 5:22 pm.

Start: 32.1 lbs (pack + camera bag)End: 32.1 lbs (pack + camera bag)

Link to album of photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/19047247@N04/albums/72157719112298871