January 2013

Awesome and quick winter adventure!

It hadn't snowed in two weeks so I went for it with snowshoes and micro spikes in January 2013. After I parked at the Dry Gulch Trailhead, I walked up the road only like 1/4 of a mile, and someone had already broken a trail with snowshoes, heading straight up the southern-most ridge, to the climber's right of the avalanche fences.

once above treeline...

Once I got above treeline I switched from snowshoes to micro spikes. Once I was about 3/4 up the ridge, I traversed climber's left over to the avy fences and walked up alongside them, then ascended the final few hundred feet to the false or i70 summit. The real summit is only a few hundred yards away. It was CRAZY WINDY at the top so I descended immediately. Went down the same way I came - went to the avy fences then back over to the ridge (descender's left). It was really, really steep in parts but there was a lot of dirt and rock so I wasn't worried about slipping, especially with the spikes. Great way to spend 5 or so hours, including driving from Denver.

Images

View January 2013 Image Gallery - 3 Images