Snowmass Mountain Conditions - June 23-25, 2000
After leaving Denver at 6 AM Friday morning, we arrived at the Snowmass Falls Ranch TH via Snowmass Village at 11AM. Andy K and I backpacked the 8 miles, 2600 vertical to Snowmass Lake in 5 hours. The trail is beautiful, and it was like hiking in a rain forest. A light, refreshing drizzle lasted about an hour. Frequent rains have produced near jungle like conditions along the trail. About 2 miles from the Lake we tip-toed across the long logjam below Oxbow Lake. Some of the logs were surprising sinkers, but the balancing act was cautiously accomplished with trekking poles for support and to test the logs before stepping on them. Wading the wide creek above or below the logjam did not look like fun with lots of slimy looking, rotten logs on the bottom of the creek and deepest sections nearly waist deep. Of course, the water was a warm snowmelt temperature - no thanks!
There must be 20-30 beautiful campsites in the pines at the lake. We put up our tents around 4:30 just before a 1.5 hour downpour. Friday evening there were only about 6 tents. This area obviously sees a lot of camping activity - Saturday afternoon about 20 people arrived in two groups. There seemed to be tents springing up everywhere. Despite all the camping activity, the area is pristine and does not appear to be overused. We dipped what appeared to be pure water from the crystal clear lake. We treated all our drinking water with Aqua Pure, a new chlorine dioxide technology purifying chemical. You allow a few drops of two chemicals to react for 5 minutes and then add it to a liter of water. After 15 minutes the water is purified. The purifying process was much easier than a filter, although a filter would be nice for collecting water from anything other than a fairly clean water source. "Floaties" end up in your water bottle when you simply dip into the water to fill up. We plan to experiment with a coffee filter to strain out "floaties," but I suspect that will be too slow. According to the manufacturer's information, the Aqua Pure kills all bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Assuming the lake water was contaminated, Andy and I will know in 10-14 days how well the purifier works!
Saturday morning we traversed around the beautiful Lake. The air was calm and sunny. The Lake was a mirror to the rock outcroppings and pines. We found a climber's trail along the left edge of the gully and ascended the often slippery dirt slopes to the Snowmass snowfield below the Hagerman - Snowmass Mountain ridge. The consolidated snow was hard with 1-2 inches of soft corn-snow on top. Crampons would have been great, but we decided not to backpack in the extra weight. Ice axes were absolutely necessary to self-belay and safely climb the steeper slopes. Crossing the snowfield was a steady uphill climb until we were under the ridge. The snow slope approached 45 degrees the last 200 feet, and we took turns kick stepping. After gaining the rock ridge, the climb across to Snowmass Mountain was a steady rock scramble with a few 3rd class sections, arriving at the summit at noon. Most of the route was cairned. I continued on for another 30 minutes to N. Snowmass. The rock ridge to N. Snowmass was unmarked and more challenging with a lot of 3rd class climbing. A short 4th class pitch lead to the airy summit. Views of the Maroon Bells and Pyramid were incredible.
After I returned to Snowmass Mountain, I strayed off onto a wrong ridge. When I realized the lake below was Geneva and not Snowmass, I had to reclimb the ridge about 300 feet back to the Snowmass summit and then descend along the correct ridge. Eventually, we glissaded the snowfield below the ridge and then hiked about 2 miles back to our campsite. The weather threatened briefly around 5 PM with a brief cloud burst.
Sunday morning we broke camp and hiked 8 miles back to the trailhead in 4.5 hours. Crossing the logjam seemed harder on the return. The return drive to Denver was uneventful other than the dreaded stop-and-go traffic from Silver Plum to beyond Idaho Springs. We thought we'd avoid the gridlock at 3 PM, but were wrong. We arrived back in Denver about 4 PM.
Doug Cook
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