| Hoosier Ridge from Hoosier Pass, Winter White-Out Trip Report |
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| Hoosier Ridge from Hoosier Pass, Winter White-Out   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 39.38580°N / 106.0146°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Feb 23, 2008 Activities: Mountaineering | Page By: altitude14er Created/Edited: Feb 25, 2008 / Feb 25, 2008 Object ID: 383453 Hits: 187 Loading... Page Score: 86.29% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
A hard earned summit in a winter white-out
Me and my climbing partner, Mark (Asphazel) set out from Denver with the intent to meet a group from ‘www.14ers.com’ at 7am at the Hoosier Pass parking area. We made good time getting to the trailhead and arrived shortly after 7am. It had been snowing since we entered the West side of the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 and we weren’t exactly optimistic about our chances. We were surprised to see the group at roughly 35 climbers strong. Mark was to climb Mt. Silverheels with them and I was going to head down the long ridge and summit Hoosier R. It sounded good, if conditions weren’t so bad.
Nevertheless I left the group, and Mark, and the car keys with him and began the long stroll of ups and downs toward my goal. The storm hadn’t let up at all and I had full winter gear on, no skin was exposed whatsoever. I was on the solo now but had the piece of mind that I could contact Mark on our radios if need be. The ridge took awhile to navigate, but after much wind and snow, sunglasses fogging so that I could barely see, I finally made the summit. This mountain has more false summits than most peaks you’ll find in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Definitely a great climb to get me back into shape for summer climbing.
The ridge was predominantly wind scoured and didn’t have a lot of snow. At a few points on the descent, the storm was so bad that I was having a heck of a time telling where the hell I was going. After a short break in the clouds then I’d be assured of my correct course. I ended up meeting back up with some of the ‘14ers.com’ group on the way down and made a fairly easy time of the descent the people in that group were extremely cool and I enjoyed the company.
Hanging out in the parking lot, small group after small group of others trickled down Hoosier Ridge to the Pass. By the time Mark arrived it was snowing hard. At one point on the drive to Denver we lost control on ice, sliding off the road and hitting a snow embankment, luckily the car was only scratched up and we got back safe. Both of us vowed to take a short break from the crazy winter climbs as these summits were more difficult than usual given the conditions.
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Front Range (CO)
