14,041' Destination: Handies Peak, 14,041', San Juan Mountains (Colorado) Dates: 9/2-3/95 Participants: Bill (42), Emily (39) and Pete (8) Johnson Route: American Basin, I/Class 2(? -- seemed like class 1 to me...), 3 miles, 2600' vertical
Since we're doing trip reports, here's one on a "family 14er" trip that my wife and I took this past weekend with our 8-year-old son Pete. The mountain is nothing special from a climbing perspective (to put it mildly...), but readers who have school-age children and have been following the "children in the wilderness" thread may find it interesting. Readers wanting an account of a mountaineering adventure may hit "n" now...
Handies Peak is one of Colorado's easiest non-trivial (i.e., no road to the top) 14ers. I'd climbed it some years ago via the slightly longer Grizzly Gulch route, but Emily hadn't and was looking to get out for the weekend; and since Pete hadn't been up a 14er under his own power (we'd carried him up Sherman when he was 3 months old), the shortness and simplicity of this route offered a good chance to see what he was capable of. In the event, we should have tried him on something like, say, the Barr Trail (14 miles, 7800') on Pikes Peak instead! But we're getting ahead of the story... Big brother Billy (11) was off at a Boy Scout function over the weekend, so it was also a good time to let Pete be the "big boy" on a trip.
We rolled out of Los Alamos about noon Saturday, which should have got us into a car-camp site right up in American Basin by 6. Unfortunately, we decided to take a "slightly longer but more scenic" drive up, via Wolf Creek Pass... the east side of which is presently undergoing an absolutely horrendous bout of road construction. *Don't* go over this pass right now unless you have lots of time on your hands! We actually arrived at a hastily thrown together car camp just outside the mouth of American Basin just as it was getting dark, and had to do some improvising on dinner -- not a big deal, but again, we wanted to introduce Pete to 14ering under comparatively comfortable conditions.
A little more info on roads and routes: Both the American Basin and Grizzly Gulch trailheads take off from a road off CO 149 near Lake City that starts out past San Cristobal Reservoir and then heads for Cinnamon Pass. It's paved for the first couple of miles and quite passable in passenger cars all the way to the turnoff to American Basin, beyond which both the main road to the pass and the side road to the basin are posted "4-wheel drive recommended." Even the American Basin road is quite civilized by 4WD standards; the main problems are neither traction nor clearance, but a relatively lengthy stream crossing that I suppose could bog down a station wagon :-) and a general need for staying under control. The stream crossing is only half a mile from the trailhead, and potential visitors without 4WD could surely make it to there unless their cars are particularly fragile. The hairiest driving part is actually quite close to the lake, a pot-holed gravel stretch along a *very* exposed shelf. Pete and Emily both did a lot of whimpering on that part!
Following a mildly uncomfortable night (tent site wasn't level, and there's traffic on the Cinnamon Pass road until after 10), we arose around 6 for a rather more extensive breakfast than usual on our 14er trips (we generally backpack to a high camp rather than car camping), and then drove the last mile or two to the American Basin trailhead, hitting the trail at 7:30 -- a little late for a start on a 14er, and the previous day had been rainy, but again, we wanted this to be comfortable for the young'un. The trail is *extremely* obvious, possibly the most conspicuous I've been on on a 14er above timberline, and heads directly up valley to the imposing American Crags, which we were glad we didn't have to climb!
Previous experience with high-country hiking with the kids had made two things clear to us: (1) they can handle a lot if properly motivated, and (2) the way to motivate them is with FOOD. The plan was to eat our way up the mountain, stopping every half hour for some trail food and Gatorade. This worked to perfection; even with 5- to 10-minute breaks, we were able to maintain a good solid 1000'/hour (vertical) pace, and Pete not only maintained good cheer all the way up, he wasn't even breathing hard! Contrast out-of-shape old mom and dad... Footing on the trail is excellent, apart from some irritating scree on the steepest (though still fairly gentle) section as it gains the ridge south of the summit. Weather was cooperative; there were a few fair-weather cumulus about, but none showed any signs of vertical development (indeed, none was seen even in early afternoon on the way home), and there was remarkably little wind for a 14er.
We didn't have an altimeter, but my recollections of rest-stop topography and altitude were:
8:00: Stopped on a ridge end at the entrance to the high basin, 12,100' (after a short descending section on the trail)
8:30: Starting up the side of the main ridge, 12,600', easy trail through a talus field that would have been annoying without the trail
9:00: Most of the way up the main ridge, 13,300' -- saddle between the summit of Handies and a 13,580' subpeak in sight
9:30: Trudging toward the summit above the saddle, 13,800', on another slightly disagreeable scree section
10:00: SUMMIT! Already a fair crowd of people (not surprising since it's an easy mountain and a popular weekend); maybe 15 were on top with as many more en route. The register was only two weeks old and already half full; Pete was the youngest child on the mountain that day, but a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old had signed the day before. All of the other San Juan 14ers were visible (although the prettiest peak visible was high-13er Rio Grande Pyramid), but somewhat to my surprise, we couldn't pick out any of the high Elks.
The descent actually took nearly as long as the climb, largely because Pete was slow (and frustrated) on some sandy sections of trail on the ridge; we'd hiked in running shoes rather than boots, which generally were perfectly adequate but provided inadequate footing on the sandy spots. His feet went out from under him a few times, and he negotiated two short steep sections on the seat of his pants! He also had to pause at stream crossings to listen to the stream "whispering its secrets" (Pete has a knack for descriptive language), watch butterflies, try to pick out marmots and pikas chirping in the talus fields, and so on. We were back to the Bronco by 12 and headed home after some more eating and drinking. The leisurely pace left both Pete and me feeling quite good the next day, but Emily had some sore muscles -- figures since she hadn't been up a 14er this year and was in considerably less than her usual ferocious climbing condition.
In conclusion: Handies is a fine "children's 14er" offering easy hiking, a high trailhead, and a very beautiful high basin full of wildflowers (columbines were in excellent shape) before the tedious uphill trudge begins. Compared to other beginners' 14ers like Sherman, Bierstadt, Grays and Torreys, it has advantages in the ease of following the trail and avoiding talus, yet offers views of some more rugged country than the others do. Just don't expect to have the place to yourself!
Bill Johnson | Any technical seminar that
Los Alamos National Laboratory | doesn't open with a "Far Side"
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA | cartoon probably is not going
| to be worth listening to.