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Showing posts with label Gore Range. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gore Range. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2016
2017 Colorado Mountaineering Calendar Now Available!
**UPDATE** As the new year rapidly approaches, the 2017 Colorado Mountaineering calendar has now been marked down 20%!! Act now to still receive yours before 2017 begins!**
For information about how to contact us, visit this link
Monday, November 25, 2013
Ten Mountains You Probably Haven't Climbed but Should
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| Mount Silverheels, Tenmile-Mosquito Range, Colorado |
"McReynolds Peak" (12,450 feet; class 5.9) (rank: #1034)
McReynolds Peak is a ranked 12er and, according to several seasoned Colorado mountaineers, one of the hardest peaks in the state above 12,000 feet. The good news is that all of the difficulties are crowded in one 15-foot boulder problem at the top. The bad news is that the mountain is flanked by private property and access is currently a sensitive issue.
Mount Silverheels (13,822 feet; class 1) (rank: #92)
Mount Silverheels is a popular and excellent easy-to-climb mountain in the Tenmile-Mosquito Range and one that should be on the list of any true aficionado of Colorado mountaineering. In good conditions, you can bring your whole family on the standard South Ridge route, which has a good trail all the way to an excellent and rewarding summit. A classic high-alpine hike that is less threatening than some.
McGregor Mountain (10,486 feet; class 5.2) (rank: #2043)
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| McGregor Mountain from Beaver Meadows |
Mount Powell (13,580 feet; class 2-3) (rank: #198)
Mount Powell is the highest peak in the elusive Gore Range, perhaps the most rugged and least traveled of Colorado's high mountain ranges. While Mount Powell is not a difficult peak in terms of technical terrain, it does require a long approach and has a more rugged and remote feel than more pedestrian class 2 routes in the state. Any journey into this amazing range is bound to bring adventure, and Powell is a worthy trek for those wondering what some of the more popular ranges were like a few decades ago. Adding to the appeal is Mount Powell's rank of 198 which barely sneaks it onto the "Bicentennial" list, or the 200 highest peaks of the state. The Bicentennial list is coveted and elusive milestone in Colorado mountaineering.
Mount Oso (13,684 feet; class 2) (rank: #157)
Mount Oso, or bear in Spansh, is a remote and obscure 13er deep in the heart of the San Juan mountains. It is known for its long approaches and hard-to-reach trailheads. Though Oso is on the Bicentennial list, for many of the above reasons it remains on the outside of most Colorado mountaineer's ticklists. But a journey to Oso takes you to a beautiful and less-trodden corner of arguably Colorado's most impressive range, and this bear of mountain is worthy of being bumped to the top of you to-do list.
Sunlight Spire (13,995 feet; class 5.10d) (unranked)
Sunlight Spire is one of Colorado's most elusive summits. Based on the 1929 elevation datum, Sunlight Spire is just shy of the magical 14,000-foot mark. But in the revised 1988 datum, generally thought to be more accurate, it has been upgraded to exactly 14,000. However, with only 215 feet of topographical prominence Sunlight Spire is not an "official" peak and therefore not on most climbers' radars. This comes as a sigh of relief to most Colorado mountaineers who look at this peak's splitter-crack summit pitch in despair. It is easily one of the hardest summits to reach in the entire state. Having said this, however, bear in mind that both Thunderbolt Peak, with 223 feet of topographical prominence, and North Maroon Peak, with 234 feet, are both not ranked but are generally considered part of the standard 14er list of California and Colorado respectively.
Peak L ("Necklace Peak") (13,213 feet; class 4) (rank: #473)
Peak L is one of the true gems of the Gore Range, a range known for being tough and elusive. I debated heavily between including Peak Q and Peak L from this portion of the Gores, but settled ultimately on so-called "Necklace Peak" (Peak L) largely due to its overall rugged beauty and the foreboding nature of its easiest route. Reclusive Peak L boasts a knife edge that gives Capitol's more-famous knife a run for its money and an overall sense of adventure that easily makes it one of the least-touched summits of any major peak in the state.
Ice Mountain (13,951 feet; class 3) (rank: #59)
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| Ice Mountain from the summit of Mount Huron |
Pigeon Peak (13, 972 feet; class 4) (rank: #57)
There are many worthy mountains in the San Juan range worthy of this list, but I was force to pick only a few. Pigeon Peak is located in one of the cores of Colorado mountaineering: the 10-square mile region of the Weminuche Wilderness Area south of Silverton and east of the Animas River. Rugged and dangerous, Pigeon is a next-door neighbor to the popular 14ers of the Chicago Basin. In fact, Pigeon is closer to and more visible from Highway 550 than any of those peaks. However, Pigeon's rough approaches are less-developed and time consuming, adding to this mountain's foreboding nature. Pigeon is an exposed and craggy 13er. It is one of the highest and most difficult of the so-called "Centennial" 13ers.
Jagged Mountain (13,824 feet; class 5.2) (rank: #94)
People could accuse me of tooting Jagged's horn a little too often, but I just can't say enough about this phenomenal San Juan 13er. With a burly, probably multi-day approach, and an exposed and technical standard route, this is a beautiful mountain that Colorado can be proud of.
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Sunday, July 8, 2012
Finding Colorado's True Backcountry in the Gore Range
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| The sun rises over the Gore Range |
The three of us, me, my girlfriend Ella and our friend Miriam continued along a grassed-over trail, hoping but not entirely convinced we were still on our pre-chosen route. The jagged Gores stood in the distance like cold, merciless sentinels. Despite hours of hiking through a cool July thunderstorm they had grown no closer. Dark clouds, pregnant with the next round of monsoonal torrent, swirled above them, cracking and growling like some angry predator. Though we had not progressed as far as we had hoped, it was clear that campsite selection was an immediate and pressing need or we would risk being caught without shelter in what, ostensibly, would be a fierce and unforgiving storm. We found the first semi-level site we could find: a marshy, jumbled clearing beneath a canopy aspen and pine trees. It was semi-sheltered from rain and lightning but wet enough to prove a fruitful breeding ground for perhaps my least favorite of earth's creatures: the mosquito. We donated a quart of blood a piece to the dispassionate proboscises of these miserable creatures while erecting our tents.
We barely had time to boil water for a quick mac and cheese and refill our water bottles before the first alarmingly close streaks of lightning illuminated the sky. We retreated to our tents in defeat. Past experience (as well as apocalyptic predictions by the National Weather Service) had prepared us for this, so we gathered together and initiated a game of Travel Scrabble. We sorted the letters out and configured ourselves cross-legged as the splattering of rain intensified on our tent. With few options, I started the game with a particularly apt word: B-O-L-T. As if summoned by this particular lexical choice, a terrifying zap of lightning erected the hair on my neck. The game had begun.
The Gores are a hardman's (or hardwoman's) range. The addicts of comfort camping and casual backpacking need not apply. The reward, however, is quiet trails unlike the crowded paths of the Elks or the Sawatches and a sense of wild that evokes the quieter corners of, say, Wyoming's Wind River Range or Montana's Absarokas, though far less expansive. But perhaps, like all great American frontiers, Manifest Destiny has at least reared its destructive head and the slow conquering of this elusive wilderness has begun. Forum posts and trip reports on popular mountaineering websites have become more and more tuned to the Gores. Peak L (a.k.a "Necklace Peak) with its dramatic knife edge as well as several challenge cirque traverses have gathered momentum as coveted mountaineering goals. As aging climbers move on from the 14ers, "Centennial" and "Bi-centennial" peaks and younger climbers search for quieter and more difficult mountains, the pass-less-traveled has becomes less mysterious. Private property is disappearing and parking lots are filling: The Gore's secret has been exposed.
Sometime very late the storm tapered off and the booms of thunder migrated slowly east. All night I dreamed of malicious bears and mountain lions stalking our tent. We awoke the following morning to soggy trails and saturated hiking garments. To further complicate matters, Miriam had succumbed overnight to the beginnings of the flu. The future of our trip looked grim: the Gores as elusive as ever. Rapidly building storm clouds forced to a difficult but obvious decision to turn back. In a state of tremendous and world-renowned yet over-exploited beauty like Colorado, the Gore Range stands as a silent partner. An anomaly among famous siblings. For those who seek, as Robert Frost wrote, "the one less traveled," the Gores wait, quiet and largely empty...for now.
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Monday, August 1, 2011
The Wild Gores
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| The Gore Range at sunrise, seen from the North Ridge route of Mount of the Holy Cross |
I'd been told that the Gore Range is Colorado's most remote high alpine range. I'd been told that it was rugged and wild. That marmots attack viciously and the mountain ridges are impenetrable. That there are no trails, no people. What I found when I came to see the place for myself was that some of the Gore's wild reputation was exaggerated, but much of it was not.
Our first night we sat through a hellacious thunderstorm. Growling thunder was our constant companion for nearly three hours, tapering off at last to a forest of strange and frightening noises. When I fell asleep at last, my dreams were troubled by shapes on our tent walls and images of, strangely, people standing outside the tent.
With the popularity of 14er climbing in Colorado, any wilderness that surrounds one of those mountains is going to be busy, if not overrun, with backpackers and climbers. Though less popular, the so-called "Centennial" 13ers (the 47 highest thirteeners that join the 53 "official" 14ers to make up Colorado's 100 tallest list) also draw some attention. Mt. Powell, the Gore's highest peak at 13,580' is in a tie for #198. Many lists, as a result, rank it at #201. As a result, the Gores are mostly safe from the "peakbagging" crowds that populate other Colorado ranges.
On the other hand, The Gores are a legitimate mountaineering destination despite their modest height. The range is full of jagged ridges and impressive battlements. Many of the mountains are difficult and treacherous to climb, and some are very difficult to access. Several of the Gore's most prized mountains are nearly impossible to climb in a single day. Adding to the particular allure of the Gore Rang--in some strange way--is that most of the peaks don't have official names. For the adventurous mountaineer this adds to the mystique, giving the mountain a unexplored, uncharted feel.
Some of the more interesting mountains to climb in the Gores are accesssed most often from Slate Creek or one of the other nearby trailheads. Upper Slate Lake is a common base camp for many of the Gore Range classics such as so-called "Peak L" and "Peak Q", which follows the letter designation applied by CMC.
We survived the night, but one of our fellow backpackers had became ill, so we had to hike out. Foiled by the rugged Gores.
-Brian Wright
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