July 8, 1995 As Brian posted earlier, I am the woman with the two dogs.
My day started out around 4:45 a.m. with a bagel and some hot chocolate. I didn't get a great nights sleep by sharing the back of my pick up with 2 dogs, but it was some sleep non-the-less. I parked about a mile south of the South Colony Creek. So about 15 minutes into my hike, I had to take off the boots and ford the stream. Well I made a bad decision to cross the narrowest of places and underestimated the current. Once on the other side, I was drenched up to my waist and a little shaken by the whole experience. I knew it was going to be a sunny day, so I put on my rain pants to keep some warmth and continued up the road. The road to South Colony Lakes is rough and below treeline. As I hiked up it I would get glimpses of Humboldt and Crestone and was frustrated at the length of the road. Once above treeline and off the road (YAH!!), the views were incredible! I lost the trail due the snow in the basin by the lakes and saw a party of three and Brian ahead of me heading up a couloir. So I thought I would follow them. I didn't bring my crampons, so I pretty much stayed on either side of the couloir. The top layer of snow was still frozen from the night before and kick stepping a couple of times to get one foot hold was taking too much energy. Rock scrambling is fun, but I grew tired of it also and headed for the rigde and the trail. I found that with no problem and followed the ridge to the summit. It was sunny and warm on top with little to no wind.
On the way up, I eyed a large snowfield that would drop me off back on the trail at about treeline. Without any hestiation, I put on my rain pants and headed down. I tried a standing glissade, but the snow was too soft. So I sat down and had a great ride. It was also a great opportunity to practice my self-arrest. I was pretty wet again at the bottom of the snowfield and took some time to ring out my socks and allow my feet to dry a little. The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful as I learned my lesson and crossed the S. Colony Creek at the widest part with no problems.
I reached the truck at 1:15 with a round trip time of 5 hours and 45 minutes (I left the truck at 5:30).
Now on to San Luis and climbing Culebra for a total 14er weekend. I got to San Luis and called Stet to open the gate for me. I paid my 25$ and headed up, and up and up the road to the 11,700' mark right below the snowfield. I found a great place to camp and reviewed the route up Culebra as the sun went down.
I arose early (before sunrise) and had my bagel and hot chocolate and was the first one on the mountain. I was pretty sore from climbing Humboldt so I decided to put on some additional distance to lessen the steepness. I gained the ridge after a mile up the front slope and saw the huge rock cairn. The rest of the hike is a ridge walk with one false summit. I had the summit to myself (along with a noisy marmot), and enjoyed yet another sunny calm day. I made it back down to the truck at 10:15 a.m. Unfortunately, I do not know what time I started. The roundtrip distance was around 5 miles.
I had a long, hot drive home and took a long nap to catch up on my sleep.
All-in-all a GREAT weekend!!
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Connie R. Emmart | | | Software Engineer at US West | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ULTIMATE!!!! | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+