Drift Peak - Northwest Bowl route

Sept. 21, 2003 Having spotted Drift from the top of Fletcher a week or so earlier, I knew what my next climb would be. I arrived at the Mayflower Gulch TH off CO 9, and was off to the incredible alpine start of 9 am. The weather was clear and sunny, so my late start didn't bother me. I headed up the rough road to the 4WD TH, then headed right up the jeep trail, climbing the slopes of Gold Hill. I broke off the road at the first sharp turn, and headed towards Drift's northwest bowl. After boulder hopping for awhile I reached the bowl and chose to climb the grassy slopes to the right, rather then scramble up the loose talus and scree to the left. The grassy slope was a fun climb, although the grass gave way to loose dirt and scree towards the top. I wandered a bit to the left to find more solid rock and a little class 3 scrambling to gain the ridge below the summit. After a short rest on the ridge and a few pictures of the awesome view of the basin below, I started picking my way up the talus slope that leads to the summit. The slope is not that long (.4 mile?) but fairly steep, and the large chunky talus is quite shifty. The view from the summit was awesome. I spotted another climber on Fletcher's summit and took a picture of them. When I zoomed in on the picture on my computer, I discovered the climber was taking a picture in my general direction, meaning they also have a picture of a climber on Drift's summit taking a picture of them. Weird coincidence huh? For the descent of the northwest bowl, I went down the steep scree slope on the eastern side. My trekking poles really came in handy here. After a long bout of boulder hopping I reached the jeep trail on Gold Hill again, and in short order was back at my car. All in all a great climb!

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