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Elevation: 14,003 Date: August 8, 1998 Who/Why: StorageTek team for the Emily Griffith Peak Challenge Distance: ~ 6 RT Elevation: ~3,400
Author: Steve Parker
The traditional STK Peak Challenge crew: myself, Chip Furlong, Kirt & Lori Schumann (with their two year old son Luke), Dave Hostetter, Steve & Renee Howbert
People we climb/camp with often: Laurie Erickson, Jeff Spotts, Ed & Sue Rowen
New climbing folks (new to us at least): Lynn Osborne, Jen Moeller, Doug Reiners, Lynn Clark
Friends of Steve & Renee: John and Janice Palmer-Lewis
Denver Post writer: Steve Lipsher (the article is available here)
I got a call from Kurt on Wednesday saying that they were driving up on Thursday night and that I should go with them. Lets see... Work??? Mountains??? Work??? Sounded like a good idea to me!
Dave picked me up at home Thursday afternoon and we headed for Winfield. We stopped in Leadville for a burger, and made it to our campsite at about 8pm. It was still light enough to set up a tent, but thanks to Dave's pop-up camper, we didn't even have to do that. Amazing how as we get older, we lean towards much more "cush" accomodations.
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The Schumann's (Kirt, Lori, and Luke) were already set up, as were the Howberts (Steve and Renee). Steve and Renee had been climbing/camping all week, and were just coming in from climbing North Maroon and Pyramid in the days before. Colorado's two weeks of monsoon flow had just "moved on" the day before, and there was no rain in the forcast until Sunday. The full moon was incredibly bright, and would have made hiking at night very easy. Maybe someday I'll have to try that. Time to catch some "ZZZ's", though, and start the fun stuff early Friday AM. |
Lori, Renee, and Dave decided the night before that they didn't want to sleep in, and left at 6am to climb Oxford and Belford.
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Steve H. and I decided (much more "sanely", I believe) to walk the road due west of Winfield at about 10:00am, and ended up about 400 feet below and to the west of the summit of Winfield Peak (13,077'). The northern side of Winfield Peak is literally criss-crossed with old mine roads, some of which seem to just end for no good reason (other than to make us turn around). It was a good warm-up walk for the next day, although next time I think I would have gone up to the mine and shacks on the NorthWest side of the basin. It looked beautiful over there. Steve and I returned to camp about 3pm, picking a few wild strawberries and raspberries on the way down. |
While we were all gone, Kirt took his almost-three year old son Luke "fishin'", and actually ended up catching a few 6-8" brookies. Must have been a hoot to watch Luke bring 'em in. At about 4pm, we (Kirt, Luke, Steve, and Steve) figured that the Oxford/Belford group had decided to try to climb Missouri as well, since they weren't back yet. So... the we went fishin' again, catching another 5 small brookies. Luke was pretty excited, but I think Dad was too. All were too small, but it was fun to watch the excitement in Luke's face.
I walked back into camp at about 6pm, because other people were starting to show up, and not everybody knew everyone else. While we were getting a couple of new arrivals "situated", three very exhausted people showed up back in camp, damn dissapointed that dinner wasn't waiting on the table for them. I think the exact comments were something like "They don't even have the damn water boiling yet", and other quotes that I can't print without hooking up my site to SurfWatch.
They felt worse than they looked, and they looked pretty haggard. We finally got dinner made, and eaten, though, and their spirits were raised a bit (actually, I think the right order of those words should have been "they raised quite a bit of spirits")
Kirt, Jeff, Ed and Sue decided that they wanted to try the same three-peak trek tomorrow, while Lori stayed in camp with Luke. They did, however, determine that Oxford, Belford, Missouri probably wasn't the right way to do these three peaks, and would start with Missouri tomorrow.
In whatever order you try to do these peaks, it would be difficult to accomplish if the weather hadn't been gorgeous, with no hints of rain until late afternoon/evening.
All through dinner and clear up 'till midnight, the rest of our group showed up and set up camp around us. The plan for Saturday was to break camp for Huron at 6am. The three Friday climbers passed out right around dark, and the rest of us weren't so far behind.
Kurt, Jeff, Ed & Sue left at 6am to do the Missouri, Oxford, Belford trip that Lori, Renee and Dave did yesterday, but they are going to do it in reverse to make it a little easier.
The rest of us took off to climb Huron, except for Lori S (stayed in camp with Luke the fisherman) and Laurie E. (pooped from a week of waterskiing in Arkansas just before coming to camp). We got the rather large group organized quickly (still amazed at this), and carpooled (OK, truckpooled) the two miles to the trailhead. Definitely a good thing to do, if you've got a high-clearance 4x4, as walking out this road would be tough with blistered feet.
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The 12 of us involved in the Peak Challenge signed in at the trailhead at about 6:45am. Nobody had signed in before us (although there was one guy ahead of our group that we'd meet at the top). Steve H. wanted to try the SW ridge approach and would meet us on top. The trail follows a the 10,600 countor interval due south for about 1/4 mile, and then turns straight up a ridge line just north of a drainage from the basin at 12,300 (the northern drainage for this area). In just a little more than 1/2 mile, you gain almost 2000 feet. This trail is hard dry dirt covered with gravel that would prove to be very difficult on the way down, not unlike a vertical "slip-n-slide". |
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However... this trail is going to be closed in a couple weeks. It's eroding severly, and needs recovery. The Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) (sponsored by the The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative) is building a new trail just to the south of the drainage that will be much easier on both the environment and old knees. It took us roughly an hour and a half to make it up to the basin at 12,300. As you crest the ridge (and leave trees behind) you end up at a huge, flat basin. It's a nice recovery area, walking on essentially flat ground for awhile, looking up at the summit of Huron the whole time. |
The next major ascent is from the basin to the saddle between Huron and unnamed 13,518. The trail (also being replaced by a new trail, courtesy of VOC) is a major rut which goes essentially straight up. We saw lots of little red and yellow flags all over this part of the mountain, which indicate a new trail that you are asked to follow on the way down. I wish we had followed this on the way up too. This new trail will be much easier on the environment (and my knees <grin>). I was a little surprised that there was a sign at the top that said "Stay on the flagged trail", but there wasn't a similar sign at the bottom. Maybe we got there a day or two too early.
At this point we split into two separate groups. The initial group was moving pretty quickly and the rest of us spread out and slowed down. What's that story about turtle and the hare??? The turtle didn't win this race, but I did get to the finish line, which is something I wasn't sure I was in shape for this year... I was at least 15 - 20 minutes behind the "main pack".
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It took roughly another hour to reach the saddle at 13,400, just below Huron, and at this point, the dynamics of the trail changes again. The grass and dirt disappears, and the trail transforms into a boulder-hopping, climbing trail for the 600 remaining feet of elevation to the summit. I much prefer this type of hiking/climbing, since I can pick the rocks to help balance my ankles, instead of walking sideways across a dirt hill. By the time we all made it to the summit, it was 11:30am, had lunch, and took the pictures for the Peak Challenge. Steve H. had beat us to the summit by about 15 minutes (from the SW ridge). I didn't get a chance to talk to him about his climb, but I assume that it was similar to ours. |
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We spent about 30 minutes on top, and as new people from other groups were starting to arrive, we decided to make room and start down. Lynn O., Jen and Doug took off ahead of us, wanting plenty of time. Lynn O. is recovering from ACL surgery, and it would prove to be a long trip down for him. |
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From the top of the peak, this picture is of the Apostles (to the South of Huron). You can also see Lake Ann high in a basin just to the right of the Apostles, as well as an un-named lake just to the right. The large lake in the background is Taylor Park Reservoir, about 15 miles to the North East of Gunnison. |
I wasn't sure how my knee was going to hold out (age, not surgery) on the way down, and Dave wasn't sure how his whole body would hold out his Belford/Oxford/Missouri experience the day before. Steve L had to get back down soon to submit the story he would be writing for Sunday's Denver Post. We decided to get started, just in case it was slow going.
Steve H., Renee and Chip decided to walk the ridgeline to Browns Peak, Middle Mountain, then Cross Mountain, and drop down the NW side of cross onto the pack trail directly into camp. Everybody else came down behind us on the normal trail.
Since part of Steve's article for the Post was related to the "The Colorado Fourteener Initiative" and the VOC's effort to rebuild the trail on this peak, he wanted to see what they had accomplished so far. We followed the new switch-back trail from the saddle down to the meadow at 12,300 , and then bushwacked over to find the lower half of the new trail (Steve had been told where it is). It's not completed yet, but I can tell you that it is much more forgiving on the environment than the original trail on the north side of the drainage. It's in the trees and shade, and is actually a rather relaxing walk down what is otherwise a damn steep ridge. I'm not sure my knees would have been able to deal with the long slip-n-slide of the original trail. Accolades (and donations) will go to the Initiative, although I still wish they'd repair the tram <grin>. I admit to having mixed emotions about making all of these peaks easier to climb, but this new trail will be far less prone to erosion problems than the old one.
Something to point out here, however. At this point it was about 1:30pm, and the entire way down we were passing people on the way up. We counted over 50 people on this route during our trek down, and it's interesting to note that we passed a large number of them between the saddle and tree-line. That means giving them an average round-trip time of about 6 hours, they might summit by 3pm, and they'd still be on the mountain at 5pm! It had been a nice, dry couple of days on Thursday and Friday, but you could see the standard afternoon storms start building again. I'd bet there was going to be a large number of wet people up on the hill, about half of whom looked like they didn't have rain gear with them. I was really surprised at this. In fact, as Dave and I were driving out of Winfield at 4:30pm, the rain was starting, and you could hear a few boomers up the valley. I hope they all made it down OK.
When we got back down to the camp-site, Steve took off to finish writing his article for the Post. Dave and I sat around in camp for awhile with the obligitory post-downclimb trauma of "I'll never climb 14ers again". Once the first beer settled in, and we relaxed for a few minutes, though, that trauma gradually faded away, and everything got back to normal.
We showered before everybody anybody else made it back to camp. A shower??? I'll be the first to admit that using the outside shower on Dave's camper sure makes the evening more enjoyable, both for myself, and the people sitting next to me. . Now if I could just figure out how to get a shower like this into my backpack for the other trips...
All our climbers made it back down to camp by about 3pm, including the three ridge walkers. Dave and I had to leave around 4:30pm for the front range. As we were driving out, we met Kirt, Jeff, Ed and Susan driving up the road from the Missouri, Oxford, Belford trek. We stopped them to say goodbye, and were pretty amused when they jumped out of the jeep and started doing jumping-jacks, trying to prove that they weren't tired. It was a funny moment, but not as funny as what they must have said about those jumping-jacks when they got back in the jeep...
All said, it was a great weekend, with good friends, and for a great cause.
Questions? Send 'em to "CRMTR at ParkerPress dot com"
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One other thing you might want to add to the trip report is that when I left, I stopped at the outhouse in the campground for one last time. As I left the campground and got onto the road, I saw a Toyota pickup truck coming towards me on the far side of the creek. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, it swerved mightily and ran off the east side of the road and ended up half-on and half-off the road with the left front end down the embankment and the right rear about four feet off the ground. Immediately lots of people came running toward the truck from the west side of the road.
I approached and stopped just past the truck, got out and asked if anyone had a tow rope. One guy said he had a heavy tow chain and I told him to get it and we'd pull the truck back onto the road. As he went to get the chain, I turned my truck around and came back up behind the other truck. We hooked the tow chain around the right rear spring attachment on the other truck and the other end of the tow chain to the towing hook on my truck. I then pulled the truck back onto the road. It looked like no noticeable damage had been done to the other truck, other than a damaged ego.
It turns out the owner of the new truck (it still had the temporary tags on it) who was about 18 years old was letting his girlfriend drive his new truck when she ran it off the road. The guy who had the tow chain told the owner that he probably shouldn't let his girlfriend drive his new truck for a while. Another bystander told me that another girl who had been riding in the back of the truck got quite a ride into the willows when the truck went over the embankment and ejected her.
