| A Solo Backpack Into The Elk Range Trip Report |
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| A Solo Backpack Into The Elk Range   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 4, 2006 Activities: Mountaineering Season: Spring | Page By: altitude14er Created/Edited: Jun 6, 2006 / Jun 9, 2006 Object ID: 198456 Hits: 376 Loading... Page Score: 82.6% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
6-3-2006A Backpack Into The Elk Range
Electric Peak 13,635ft.
From Electric Pass Trail
Round Trip-8 miles and 3,700-ft
I left Denver stoked to embark upon my first solo backpacking trip. My plan was to set up camp around 11,000ft. I had brought cramp-ons, ice axes & a helmut anticipating a climb up the magnificent Cathedral Peak (13,943ft.) – one of Colorado’s 100 highest. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned! I arrived at the Cathedral Lake Trailhead and started up the trail at 7pm. I was the only person on the trail that evening. I was in a hurry to get just below tree line before nightfall. I fancied camping in an open area where I could see a potential threat coming my way – bear & mountain lion paranoia! After about 2 miles the vegetation becomes less dense surrounding the trail. It was almost dark – about 8:30pm. I set up my tent and began boiling water so that I’d have clean water to drink the next day..up Cathedral (I thought). The feeling of being out there alone, in a wild and beautiful place was awesome. The half lit moon provided a tinge of light against the area. I was camping near Pine Creek and could hear it’s water rushing downstream. I crashed at midnight and slept well in this amazing place.
6-4-2006The next morning I realized my watch and cell batteries had died overnight. I would have no idea what the time was from here on out. Guess it was a timeless experience,too. I ascended the trail to the set of steep switchbacks shortly below Cathedral Lake. Above this area I found the first of many snow drifts. Below Cathedral Lake was completely snow covered. The day was heating also. In addition, the trail was gone in the snow. I began post holing through the slush, following some faint tracks. They were very faint and melted out. What I didn’t realize was that I was following the Electric Pass Trail. I ended up above and northeast of Cathedral Lake. Nevertheless, Cathedral was to my left(west). The picture depicts my view at the time.
I was looking at the “southeast” ridge not the south ridge of Cathedral. I needed the SOUTH ridge. Crap! I still scouted out some snow chutes that looked like a feasible class 3 or 4 snow/rock route up Cathedral. Yet the snow was very wet and it was heating up rapidly early in the day. I walked to the base of a eastern facing snow gully and heard running water under the snow (avalanche indicator in couiloirs). I pulled the plug on the whole Cathedral idea pretty quickly, being alone and all increased the danger too, I reasoned. As I hiked towards Electric I heard what resembled a shotgun blast. A series of large boulders had released and was plunging down one of Cathedrals many snow gullies. It created a small avalanche in turn. A reminder that the forces of geology are powerful.
I didn’t want my trip to be without a summit. I studied my map and realized Electric was due North, right in front of me. I recalled my friend Dave telling me this peak was a bi-centennial in Colorado. Off I went…the hiking was easy going excluding the occasional post-hole through a wet snow patch. It didn’t seem like a safe day to be doing snow climbing and I was comforted by the decision to abort Cathedral. I climbed the southern slopes up to the ridge between Electric Peak & Leahy Peak. The rock was loose talus to the ridge – not a personal favorite. From the ridge the stroll to the summit was straightforward. I snapped off several pics and surveyed Pyramid, the Maroon Bells, Snowmass & Capitol to the West (You can see some of them behind me in the photo). Despite it’s lower elevation, Electric Peak provided great views of the surrounding peaks, especially Castle Peak & Conundrum. I decided to descend by climbing up Leahy Peak (13,322ft.) and hiking down the Electric Pass Trail. The Electric Pass Trail spits you back out onto the Cathedral Lake Trail. This proved to be a speedy decent. All my gear packed quickly into my internal frame pack (Thanks to REI). I bumped into several hikers on the way down (Cathedral Lake is a popular destination). With summits in memory, I descended the few miles back to my car with a grueling 55 pound internal frame pack on.
A Note About The Peaks – Electric was fun & I’ll be returning for Cathedral Soon. Cathedral is one of the most amazing peaks I’ve ever seen in Colorado. My photo of it (above) argues this opinion for me.
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Elk Mountains > UN13,635 "Electric Pass Peak" > A Solo Backpack Into The Elk Range
