| Falling Rock on Citadel Trip Report |
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| Falling Rock on Citadel   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 39.71500°N / 105.91°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Nov 4, 2007 Activities: Mountaineering Season: Fall | Page By: altitude14er Created/Edited: Nov 8, 2007 / Nov 8, 2007 Object ID: 354488 Hits: 371 Loading... Page Score: 86.9% - 3 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Citadel (13,294ft.) - Front Range, CO – Rocky MountainsThe Citadel is a picturesque peak that lies a few miles northwest of the Eisenhower Tunnel along I-70. When viewed from Loveland Pass the Citadel is the most magnificent peak around (in my opinion). In the picture below, taken from Loveland Pass, the awesome Citadel can be seen in the center – beckoning the mountaineer. (Below pic taken 4-21-07)
Me and my friend Mike decided to take advantage of the low snow levels and do some scrambling. To my delight, Mike was interested in the Citadel. We left Denver at 5am reaching Exit 218 off of I-70 at 6:10am. We brought helmets, ice-axes and snowshoes with us in anticipation for anything the mountain might offer. As we began the hike into Herman Gulch (take a ‘left’ at the trail junction, DO NOT follow the sign for Watrous Gulch). The first peak that revealed itself was Pettingell Peak (13,553ft.). This peak was impressive basking in the orange glow of the rising sun. We were able to follow the trail to just below Herman Lake without any snow obstacles. Our luck had run out and the trail disappeared below the snow.
We viewed the Citadel (photo above)and decided to leave the Herman Lake trail as we headed towards the Bethel-Citadel saddle at 12,445ft. This off trail section required snow shoes. The peak was holding 8-20inches of snow below the saddle and the terrain gets steep here. The air was crisp, our pace steady and relentless.
We made the steep trudge up to the saddle (above photo). Once atop the saddle the views really opened up. We were able to view the ridge climb to the summit from here. Mike can be seen in the below photo checking out the ridge. We were enthusiastic about the lack of wind!
We made our way to the base of the Eastern Summit. Here the scrambling began in earnest. We had bumped into three climbers who had come up Dry Gulch and we were now climbing as a group of five. We chose one of several steep, loose “gullies” and began scrambling upwards.
We made the East summit without incident. The difficulty did not exceed Class 3 and the route had very little snow. From the East summit, you have to descend and climb up to the (real) West summit in the picture below.
Once again, we were faced with some very steep and loose terrain. Mike was 40 ft. below me when I accidentally dislodged two very large boulders…I yelled “ROCK!” immediately and looked down at Mike with nervous anticipation…everything went into slow motion. Mike dodged the first boulder which was the larger of the two, it went whizzing right by him. The second boulder picked up a lot of pace and hit Mike in the thigh before he could shift momentum. It was a head sized rock with a lot of speed; it bounced off his leg with much force. I was convinced he had broken his leg. It was a bad collision, the kind of thing you never want to happen. Initially, he could not stand on it. It turned out that the rock hit a few inches above his knee cap. I believe this is why his leg hadn’t snapped. The tissue in his thigh had padded the blow enough for Mike to walk away from it. He demonstrated his strength by tagging the West summit, much inhibited by a sore leg! (summit view below)
We began the descent and parted ways with our new climber acquaintances at the Bethel-Citadel saddle. One of the folks happened to be a Summitpost.org member – Ariel. Once down into the basin it looked like it was ‘in the bag’. Never say that! We inadvertently crossed a river. Mike walked across without incident; I punched through deep snow and began to hear the sound of running water. Ooops! I sunk through the snow, quickly realizing I was in knee deep water. It was hard pulling out of the snow/water mix and once I did my boots were soaking wet and cold. Good thing I had a change of gear. Once in dry clothing we made our way down to the car; reflecting on a great day in the mountains.
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Front Range (CO) > The Citadel > Falling Rock on Citadel
