Culebra Peak Climber's Log

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birdhead

birdhead - Jul 14, 2022 3:32 pm Date Climbed: May 20, 2022

From 4-Way  Sucess!

Hiked up from 4-way trailhead. Very windy on the ridge. Fell and scraped my shin. Otherwise, straightforward. Stayed in San Luis the night before - strange little town.

JesseSumrak

JesseSumrak - May 31, 2022 9:01 am Date Climbed: May 27, 2022

Culebra + Red Mountain  Sucess!

Stayed outside the ranch gate overnight with Ben and Andrea truck/car camping. In the morning, they opened the gates promptly at 6:00am, but with the "instruction" at HQ and the drive up the road (with slower drivers), we didn't get started until 7am. Lots of snow from the nights before, and it was slow going since there's no trail and everyone was finding their own bushwhacking way to the peak. Pretty straightforward, though.

Postholing got a little nasty at the ridge, especially around the false summit. Made the summit of Culebra close to 9:30 or so, and then the wind started to pick up fierce. Blow you over kind of wind which made slow going over to Red Mountain. Pretty steep Class 2 up Red Mountain with lots of slippery spots. Gained the summit, enjoyed the views, and then made the long way back. We contoured around Culebra to avoid submitting it twice, and by then the snow was melting quite a bit and making the postholing and slipping even more dangerous. We all fell multiple times. Small wounds but that's it. Super slow going down the final hill back to the trailhead, but it's finished...

BKiser90

BKiser90 - May 28, 2022 4:12 pm Date Climbed: May 27, 2022

Culebra and Red  Sucess!

With Jesse Sumrak. Completed with Red Mountain. Three days prior to the climb, the Sangres were hit with a May snowstorm. The route was covered in 2-6 inches of snow almost the entire way. The worst part (besides the $150 fee) was the soft snow on the way down in the afternoon. The snow added a lot of time to our hike. However, great clear views were had of the San Juans, Sangres, and beyond.

Matt Lemke

Matt Lemke - Jul 7, 2020 11:55 am Date Climbed: Jun 20, 2020

Culebra Peak  Sucess!

Fun hike

Liba Kopeckova

Liba Kopeckova - Jun 5, 2020 8:35 pm Date Climbed: Jun 5, 2020

finally  Sucess!

Finally, I have been postponing this one for so long... More interesting that expected, but the private ranch hassle and not a great camping at the entry into the property kind of annoying.

Woodie Hopper

Woodie Hopper - Jun 30, 2019 4:50 pm Date Climbed: Jun 30, 2019

Finally  Sucess!

Quick climb linking Red Mountain. Re-summitted on the return. Great weather, wind was minimal between Culebra & Red. Some snow, but easy to avoid. Missed slightly to the left descending from the giant cairn so added a little distance and elevation but not a big deal.

eli.boardman

eli.boardman - Dec 27, 2018 12:05 pm Date Climbed: Mar 11, 2017

Winter ascent, long day  Sucess!

Standard route from low-elevation ranch gate, with 14ers.com group for special winter ascent

brichardsson

brichardsson - Aug 29, 2018 4:17 pm

great peak  Sucess!

don't let the haters who bitch about the cost of doing this peak deter you. this was a great trip and well worth the price of admission.

Moogie737

Moogie737 - May 20, 2018 7:34 pm Date Climbed: May 19, 2018

From the 4WD TH  Sucess!

#1 and #2 5-19-18 With Lana & Nancy. Constant wind but only 15-20 mph. Bagged Red Mountain & Punta Serpiente as well. Storm clouds built and swirled by stayed away from us until after we got down. There were about 20 total climbers on this day. You only walked on snow if you wanted, and there wasn't much opportunity to walk on it anyway.

Onager

Onager - May 6, 2018 5:16 pm Date Climbed: May 6, 2018

Fun at a price  Sucess!

Ki and I climbed, snow/rock fairly short day 7a to 12p. Only a few others.

utclimber - Jan 21, 2017 9:15 pm

Culebra and Red  Sucess!

Hiked along with Red Mountain in the early 2000s.

MissH

MissH - Jul 11, 2015 7:44 pm Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2015

Great day  Sucess!

Beautiful day and scenery, lots of cool people climbed today :) Glad to get this one finally done.

seth@LOKI

seth@LOKI - Jul 6, 2015 6:11 pm Date Climbed: Jul 4, 2015

HOME OF THE FREE  Sucess!

Climbed with Red Peak on 4th of July.

AS OF JULY 4, 2015 YOU CAN CAMP AT THE GATE -Hop over the fence where there is a porta potty, or sleep in your vehicle on the parking lot- FOR FREE!!!

ON the whole the folks were nice at the Ranch, it wasn't a palatial operation. We all agreed it was every bit as pretty as any sawatch or tenmile 14er. It haled so the whole mountain was covered in white the morning we climbed.

ABOUT PAYING FOR NATURE:
Ironic to the fact that we climbed on the day most celebrate some version of freedom in this country... Freedom isn't free, especially freedumb in "Merica. Not something I usually say.

KEEP PUBLIC LANDS PUBLIC< AND OPEN:
Our public lands aren't free, and they are under threat of being sold to more private interests. If you want you and your progeny to enjoy the outdoors, don't let it be sold to any bidder. #keepitpublic.

SOLVE IT:
TO further help our general situation visit this and spread this petition:
https://represent.us/ This is a working solution o f, for and by the people.

seano

seano - Oct 22, 2014 5:36 pm Date Climbed: Oct 20, 2014

Last lower 48 14er  Sucess!

(Unless you count Liberty Cap, that is.)

I was going to skip it because of the extortion racket, but where there's a will, there's a way. It was my longest outing for any CO 14er, but it's done.

Hyadventure

Hyadventure - Sep 2, 2014 8:33 pm Date Climbed: Jun 28, 2014

Boring and Pricy  Sucess!

I should have at least started at four way.

Kessler

Kessler - Aug 27, 2013 5:08 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2013

Culebra  Sucess!

8-24-2013

Shaylee

Shaylee - Aug 27, 2013 5:03 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2013

Culebra  Sucess!

8-24-2013

Scott

Scott - Aug 27, 2013 4:49 pm Date Climbed: Aug 24, 2013

Culebra  Sucess!

Darin, a 14ers.com member sent out an invitation for Culebra partners. Culebra Peak is a mountain that I once said for a long time that I would never climb, I decided to make the climb anyway since I am getting fairly close to finishing all the Colorado 14er. It is the only Colorado 14er that you have to pay a fee to climb.

At first the plan was just to take Kessler, but Shaylee wanted to go and when I found out that the fee was 1/2 price for children under 12, I decided to take her as well.

The morning of the the climb we met Darin, Tiffany, Steve, Carla, Britt, Uwe, and Susan at the trailhead and we all headed up the mountain.

It was very foggy and we could hardly see! It remained foggy the entire climb to the summit.

The kids and I started out last (they were still sleeping in the vehicle when we arrived at the trailhead), but we caught up with the rest of the group and more or less stayed with them until the summit ridge.

In the fog, we took a slightly longer route and climbed the big subpeak (unranked 13er) along the way before descending to a saddle.

About this time, Kessler, Shaylee, and I left the rest of the group and headed up the summit ridge in the thick fog. It was still foggy all the way to the summit.

Kessler, Shaylee, and I waited on the summit for the rest of the group and enjoyed a few brief breaks in the clouds where you could actually see something. The caretaker at the ranch said that if we chose to climb Red Mountain we could pay the fee on the way back, but since it was so foggy we thought it was pointless to climb Red Mountain.

After a while, the rest of the group reached the summit and we had a long rest before heading back down.

About halfway down the clouds started to break and I wished we had gone up Red Mountain. Five of us took a more direct route down and waited for the others on a hill. Once we saw the rest of the group, we hiked the rest of the way back to the vehicles.

On the climb we saw several pikas and one big fat marmot. It was a great climb and a lot of fun.

Since it was still early, we headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park for some more hiking/exploring and where we would spend the night.

The kids and I hiked around and climbed some sand dunes. The kids liked to play on them for quite a while so we had a very late dinner.

rockymountaindiva

rockymountaindiva - Jul 26, 2013 4:00 pm Date Climbed: Jun 28, 2011

it's a 14er  Sucess!

The saving grace to climbing this and Red Mtn was doing Vermejo and others the next day.

chicagotransplant

chicagotransplant - Feb 3, 2013 1:07 pm Date Climbed: Feb 2, 2013

Rare Winter Opportunity  Sucess!

Climbed the standard route in winter from all the way down at the Ranch HQ building with the same crew Brian mentioned. They only typically allow 1 or 2 winter ascents of this mountain a year, it was nice to get the opportunity to see this part of the state in a blanked of winter white!

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