royswkr - May 10, 2006 9:27 pm Date Climbed: Sep 11, 2001
9 Hour Hike
Usual route, car radio out of order and didn't find out what else had happened until we got home, hence saw it all at once instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
ClearSkiesAhead - May 8, 2006 9:12 pm Date Climbed: May 7, 2006
Up the Northwest Ridge
The summit pyramid is a lot more intimidating than I expected when I crested the ridge. Enjoyed this one immensely!!
Route Climbed: Northern couloir Date Climbed: July 6, 2005
climbed up the couloir and came down via the NW ridge. DEFINTELY reccommend the ridge! I had this mountain all by myself ALL DAY. Kind of a slow trog up though.
Some people were acting suspicious when I arrived at the trailhead so I took a few more things with me that I wouldn't ordinarily have taken and hid everything else out of sight. Don't leave things in plain sight in your vehicle at trailheads! Things were fine when I got back though.
Saw a small heard of deer and a mine further up the basin towards Blanca that wasn't on my map! Cool!
Route Climbed: Northern Couloir Date Climbed: July 16, 2005
This route is not the "North Couloir" in Roach's book. However, there is some great class 3 Sangre scrambling up it. This couloir is not a common route, but it does lead to the false summit of Lindsey.
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge Date Climbed: August 24, 2005
My husband and I climbed Mount Lindsey to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an amazing trip leaving our 5 month twin girls with their grandparents. We stayed in westcliffe the night before. We woke up at 3:50 and headed for Huerfano trail head. We started climbing around 5:45. Once we crossed the stream the climbing began. Once we hit the saddle between Iron Nipple and Mt. Lindsey at 7:45 we saw the northwest ridge. WOW!!! It was great solid rock and the climbing was fun. I had my husband belay me over the one class 4 section. What a beautiful summit. We downclimbed the northface. It was better than I thought it would be. We had perfect weather all day. We were back in denver by 5pm!!!! What a great day!!!! Happy trails!
NW ridge probably better if you don't like loose rock! Five hour round-trip hike. Last two miles of road to TH very rough, but no problem for 4WD with good ground clearance.
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: August 11, 2005
This was one of the more dangerous 14er adventures that Jennifer and I have had. The conditions were awful. The monsoonal storms pestered us almost the entire way up. We did the Class 3 route up the North Face. When wet, this route can be deadly. Looking back, we probably should have turned around at the northwest ridge below the summit. We only spent about 5 min. at the top because of the impending August thunderstorms. Shiloh's pads were torn to shreds>She will have to wear booties from now on.
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge (descended standard route) Date Climbed: July 9, 2005
Climbed with the same group as shknbke (to be fair about 30 minutes behind). The ridge was very nice. The descent down the gully was terrible. If I were to do this again I would avoid the gully going both directions.
Awesome view from the summit as well. One of the best I've seen.
Route Climbed: n.w. ridge Date Climbed: July 9, 2005
Climbed Lindsey with 9 others from 14erworld.com in 2 groups. Lindsey is one of my favorite 14'ers thus far. We all took the n.w. ridge, which was a fun scramble which can be kept at class 3 at the headwall about halfway up. Just traverse below the class 4 knife edge and most of the exposure can be avoided by climbing a protected gully with bomber holds. We descended the north face, which as expected was a dangerous, loose mess. We also bagged the Iron Nipple and centennial Huerfano to complete an awesome climb.
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge (descended North Face) Date Climbed: 11 Jun 2005
Left the Upper Huerfano Trailhead at 7. Had some trouble finding a good place to cross the creek so I ended up wading across. Found some cairns leading up a snow slope in between trees and a boulder field but missed the turn to cross the creek and ended up heading to treeline straight up. Traversed into the basin below the Iron Nipple - Lindsey saddle and met a couple of guys from C Springs. We joined up and made the saddle where I convinced them to take the Northwest Ridge route as they did not bring crampons. The going was easy until the crux. One of the guys tried descending a bit and heading up the gully but turned back due to slippery conditions. I opted to tackle the ridge directly and made it up, but it felt like some pretty exposed lower 5th class stuff to me...maybe it was the snow and ice. The others turned back so I kept on to the summit (nobody had signed the summit log yet this year). I elected to descend the couloir back down which involved some traverses across very steep snow slopes and tricky downclimbs amongst the rock. Finally near the bottom I was able to glissade out and join the trail once again. All in all a harrowing ascent & descent!! For added fun I hiked up Huerfano Peak which was super easy. Weather started moving in so I hurried down after that, following the steep streambed as it tumbled its way down all the way back to the river crossing as snow began to fall. I managed to break through the snow at one point and fell into the stream on my way down! Round trip time was about 8hrs 45min. I had planned to do California's North Ridge the next day but it rained all night and was snowing in the morning so I bagged out and went home.
Route Climbed: Nortwest Face II Date Climbed: September 7, 2000
We were blasted by a sleet storm just before we reached the summit. A storm boiled over from Blanca and hit us with high winds. I abated long enough to tag the summit. It was certainly a slippery descent but by the time we reached the valley the sun had returned.
Route Climbed: Huerfano River Trailhead Date Climbed: 09/2004
The road leading to the trailhead is not appropriate for 2WD vehicles, I got my Dodge Neon stuck in a sink hole !!! Be prepared for extra miles without an SUV
Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: September 2004
This day started as hell because my buddies car got stuck in a sinkhole while driving up to the trailhead. Thankfully a nice guy in a Jeep Cherokee gave us a tug out. We started hoofing up the road at 11:30am, summited at 3:30 pm (latest summit so far =-/) After seeing the half bullet-proof ice, extremely loose scree in the normal route gully, we ascended up to the ridge which was SO GREAT! I love Sangre de Cristo rock! So much better than the miserable scree below. Minimal pucker factor...having good, solid handholds helps tremendously. This was my favorite 14'er so far (until Pyramid Peak that is)
Route Climbed: NW Ridge/Arete Date Climbed: August 27th, 2004
A fantastic route and really fun climb with moderate exposure and suprisingly solid rock. Perfect jug holds when you most want them. Without a doubt this is the better way to climb Mt. Lindsey. The standard route is a scree-filled nightmare!
Route Climbed: Standard Date Climbed: August 22, 2004
The day was clear and pleasant, but it had hailed the night before and there was still much ice, snow and hail remaining on the route (up to a foot in places). I was hiking with my 23-year-old son Chris, and friend Ramiro. At the saddle, Ramiro immediately decided on the standard route and ascended very quickly. My son and I tried the NW ridge, it was fun for a while, but we ran into a class 4 pitch, the going had been somewhat icy up to this point, and the pitch looked beyond my abilities, so I decided to go back and try the standard North Face route. My son was more confident and continued on up the pitch. He was also at a point that would be difficult to turn back from due to the ice below and the route looked drier up above. (Many Thanks to Al, who we met on the route and who helped my son find his way through the difficult sections.) I watched as my son made it safely back up onto the ridge, and then quickly down-climbed back down to the trail and tackled the North Face route. The first 200 vertical feet so were not too bad, then the footing became very icy and treacherous ! There is also a lot of loose rock here. At times, the hail actually helped with traction, but in other places, it was compacted into a sheet of ice and slippery. I found myself climbing around various sections and eventually made it to the summit where I met up with Chris and Ramiro. it took me five hours to summit from the trail head, where I think It would have normally taken from three to three and half. We all descended the standard route, which was even worse on the way down. This route is somewhat dangerous in bad conditions with very bad footing and potential for rock fall. If I were to do this again, I would carry an ice ax and use a helmet. I felt that this mountain was under-rated for difficulty, at least in these conditions. We made it down to the saddle in about an hour and to the trail-head an hour after that. Beautiful mountain, though, and tremendous view of Blanca Peak!
royswkr - May 10, 2006 9:27 pm Date Climbed: Sep 11, 2001
9 Hour HikeUsual route, car radio out of order and didn't find out what else had happened until we got home, hence saw it all at once instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
ClearSkiesAhead - May 8, 2006 9:12 pm Date Climbed: May 7, 2006
Up the Northwest RidgeThe summit pyramid is a lot more intimidating than I expected when I crested the ridge. Enjoyed this one immensely!!
Kiefer - Jan 21, 2006 12:27 pm
Route Climbed: Northern couloir Date Climbed: July 6, 2005climbed up the couloir and came down via the NW ridge. DEFINTELY reccommend the ridge! I had this mountain all by myself ALL DAY. Kind of a slow trog up though.
Some people were acting suspicious when I arrived at the trailhead so I took a few more things with me that I wouldn't ordinarily have taken and hid everything else out of sight. Don't leave things in plain sight in your vehicle at trailheads! Things were fine when I got back though.
Saw a small heard of deer and a mine further up the basin towards Blanca that wasn't on my map! Cool!
Mike Mc - Aug 28, 2005 10:51 pm
Route Climbed: Northern Couloir Date Climbed: July 16, 2005This route is not the "North Couloir" in Roach's book. However, there is some great class 3 Sangre scrambling up it. This couloir is not a common route, but it does lead to the false summit of Lindsey.
kara husmann - Aug 25, 2005 6:32 pm
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge Date Climbed: August 24, 2005My husband and I climbed Mount Lindsey to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was an amazing trip leaving our 5 month twin girls with their grandparents. We stayed in westcliffe the night before. We woke up at 3:50 and headed for Huerfano trail head. We started climbing around 5:45. Once we crossed the stream the climbing began. Once we hit the saddle between Iron Nipple and Mt. Lindsey at 7:45 we saw the northwest ridge. WOW!!! It was great solid rock and the climbing was fun. I had my husband belay me over the one class 4 section. What a beautiful summit. We downclimbed the northface. It was better than I thought it would be. We had perfect weather all day. We were back in denver by 5pm!!!! What a great day!!!! Happy trails!
Woodie Hopper - Aug 25, 2005 9:28 am
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: 8/3/05NW ridge probably better if you don't like loose rock! Five hour round-trip hike. Last two miles of road to TH very rough, but no problem for 4WD with good ground clearance.
Cortez - Aug 17, 2005 12:42 pm
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: August 11, 2005This was one of the more dangerous 14er adventures that Jennifer and I have had. The conditions were awful. The monsoonal storms pestered us almost the entire way up. We did the Class 3 route up the North Face. When wet, this route can be deadly. Looking back, we probably should have turned around at the northwest ridge below the summit. We only spent about 5 min. at the top because of the impending August thunderstorms. Shiloh's pads were torn to shreds>She will have to wear booties from now on.
alpine master - Jul 24, 2005 1:08 pm
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: JuneThe north face isn't as bad as everyone says. Quit crying.
doumall - Jul 13, 2005 3:13 pm
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: June, 19 200415th 14er!
jrf - Jul 11, 2005 12:34 pm
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge (descended standard route) Date Climbed: July 9, 2005Climbed with the same group as shknbke (to be fair about 30 minutes behind). The ridge was very nice. The descent down the gully was terrible. If I were to do this again I would avoid the gully going both directions.
Awesome view from the summit as well. One of the best I've seen.
shknbke - Jul 9, 2005 11:49 pm
Route Climbed: n.w. ridge Date Climbed: July 9, 2005Climbed Lindsey with 9 others from 14erworld.com in 2 groups. Lindsey is one of my favorite 14'ers thus far. We all took the n.w. ridge, which was a fun scramble which can be kept at class 3 at the headwall about halfway up. Just traverse below the class 4 knife edge and most of the exposure can be avoided by climbing a protected gully with bomber holds. We descended the north face, which as expected was a dangerous, loose mess. We also bagged the Iron Nipple and centennial Huerfano to complete an awesome climb.
cftbq - Jul 19, 2006 5:05 am
Re: Route Climbed: n.w. ridge Date Climbed: July 9, 2005Help! What are "bomber holds"?? Special equipment?
bc44caesar - Jun 12, 2005 3:23 pm
Route Climbed: Northwest Ridge (descended North Face) Date Climbed: 11 Jun 2005Left the Upper Huerfano Trailhead at 7. Had some trouble finding a good place to cross the creek so I ended up wading across. Found some cairns leading up a snow slope in between trees and a boulder field but missed the turn to cross the creek and ended up heading to treeline straight up. Traversed into the basin below the Iron Nipple - Lindsey saddle and met a couple of guys from C Springs. We joined up and made the saddle where I convinced them to take the Northwest Ridge route as they did not bring crampons. The going was easy until the crux. One of the guys tried descending a bit and heading up the gully but turned back due to slippery conditions. I opted to tackle the ridge directly and made it up, but it felt like some pretty exposed lower 5th class stuff to me...maybe it was the snow and ice. The others turned back so I kept on to the summit (nobody had signed the summit log yet this year). I elected to descend the couloir back down which involved some traverses across very steep snow slopes and tricky downclimbs amongst the rock. Finally near the bottom I was able to glissade out and join the trail once again. All in all a harrowing ascent & descent!! For added fun I hiked up Huerfano Peak which was super easy. Weather started moving in so I hurried down after that, following the steep streambed as it tumbled its way down all the way back to the river crossing as snow began to fall. I managed to break through the snow at one point and fell into the stream on my way down! Round trip time was about 8hrs 45min. I had planned to do California's North Ridge the next day but it rained all night and was snowing in the morning so I bagged out and went home.
km_donovan - Jun 8, 2005 7:29 am
Route Climbed: Nortwest Face II Date Climbed: September 7, 2000We were blasted by a sleet storm just before we reached the summit. A storm boiled over from Blanca and hit us with high winds. I abated long enough to tag the summit. It was certainly a slippery descent but by the time we reached the valley the sun had returned.
altitude14er - Mar 20, 2005 8:03 pm
Route Climbed: Huerfano River Trailhead Date Climbed: 09/2004The road leading to the trailhead is not appropriate for 2WD vehicles, I got my Dodge Neon stuck in a sink hole !!! Be prepared for extra miles without an SUV
Asphazell - Mar 1, 2005 12:43 pm
Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: September 2004This day started as hell because my buddies car got stuck in a sinkhole while driving up to the trailhead. Thankfully a nice guy in a Jeep Cherokee gave us a tug out. We started hoofing up the road at 11:30am, summited at 3:30 pm (latest summit so far =-/) After seeing the half bullet-proof ice, extremely loose scree in the normal route gully, we ascended up to the ridge which was SO GREAT! I love Sangre de Cristo rock! So much better than the miserable scree below. Minimal pucker factor...having good, solid handholds helps tremendously. This was my favorite 14'er so far (until Pyramid Peak that is)
ColoradoScott - Feb 4, 2005 1:23 pm
Route Climbed: North Face Date Climbed: August 21, 1994Please see my trip report titled "Where Eagles Soar"
ripper333 - Oct 24, 2004 4:30 pm
Route Climbed: standard Date Climbed: july 2004fast and furious. this was the first of a 4 14er weekend.
headed up too fast (coming from sea level) stopped a
minute on the way down to puke my brains out then
all was well. gave my friend a good laugh. it was
a nice projectile stream of pink!
Jim Clarke - Aug 31, 2004 10:46 am
Route Climbed: NW Ridge/Arete Date Climbed: August 27th, 2004A fantastic route and really fun climb with moderate exposure and suprisingly solid rock. Perfect jug holds when you most want them. Without a doubt this is the better way to climb Mt. Lindsey. The standard route is a scree-filled nightmare!
goforit - Aug 25, 2004 6:41 pm
Route Climbed: Standard Date Climbed: August 22, 2004The day was clear and pleasant, but it had hailed the night before and there was still much ice, snow and hail remaining on the route (up to a foot in places). I was hiking with my 23-year-old son Chris, and friend Ramiro. At the saddle, Ramiro immediately decided on the standard route and ascended very quickly. My son and I tried the NW ridge, it was fun for a while, but we ran into a class 4 pitch, the going had been somewhat icy up to this point, and the pitch looked beyond my abilities, so I decided to go back and try the standard North Face route. My son was more confident and continued on up the pitch. He was also at a point that would be difficult to turn back from due to the ice below and the route looked drier up above. (Many Thanks to Al, who we met on the route and who helped my son find his way through the difficult sections.) I watched as my son made it safely back up onto the ridge, and then quickly down-climbed back down to the trail and tackled the North Face route. The first 200 vertical feet so were not too bad, then the footing became very icy and treacherous ! There is also a lot of loose rock here. At times, the hail actually helped with traction, but in other places, it was compacted into a sheet of ice and slippery. I found myself climbing around various sections and eventually made it to the summit where I met up with Chris and Ramiro. it took me five hours to summit from the trail head, where I think It would have normally taken from three to three and half. We all descended the standard route, which was even worse on the way down. This route is somewhat dangerous in bad conditions with very bad footing and potential for rock fall. If I were to do this again, I would carry an ice ax and use a helmet. I felt that this mountain was under-rated for difficulty, at least in these conditions. We made it down to the saddle in about an hour and to the trail-head an hour after that. Beautiful mountain, though, and tremendous view of Blanca Peak!