Home » Classics » Recent Articles:

Lake Agnes–Seven Utes Loop

February 19, 2010 Classics, Ski No Comments

No Name from Agnes Meadow. Climb through the trees at right. Photo by Kevin Landolt

Kevin Landolt is a skier/climber/student, based in Fort Collins, who writes the fun Alpine Ambition blog for the Mountain Shop. Here, Kevin describes a favorite midwinter ski tour near Cameron Pass offering a little of everything.

Trailhead: Lake Agnes Road, 2.5 miles west of Cameron Pass

Tour Distance: 7.3 miles

Total Vert: ca. 2,900′

Season: Midwinter to spring; two bowls prone to avalanche danger … Continue Reading

Mr. and Mrs. Mesa

January 28, 2010 Classics, Climb No Comments

The spectacular Mrs. Mesa in typical November condition. Courtesy of Douglas Lossner

Two of the wildest and most difficult water-ice pitches in the state are in plain view from Highway 50, en route to Ouray and Telluride from points north, plunging down the sheer face of Grand Mesa. Yet few people notice them, and far fewer have climbed them. The routes are tough, to be sure, but the main obstacle is the approach: Once the snow flies, they are at least 8.5 miles from the car.

Douglas Lossner probably did the first ascent of both routes. First up was Mrs. Mesa. “I moved to Delta back in 1997, and I was up exploring the Grand Mesa that summer when I came across that waterfall,” he said in an email. “It can’t be seen from the [Land's End] road even though you are within 100 feet of it. I figured that Coal Creek going under Land’s End Road had to go over the rim, so I checked it out. That November, I drove up there with a coworker of mine [John Rybal] and climbed it…. I’ve done that three times, and it is awsome.” … Continue Reading

East Ridge of Mt. Bancroft

December 28, 2009 Classics, Climb No Comments
Bancroft's east ridge curving up from the left, as seen from the the slopes of James Peak. The direct start climbs the broken wall in lower left.

Bancroft's east ridge curving up from the left, as seen from the the slopes of James Peak. The direct start climbs the broken wall in lower left.

Mt. Bancroft’s rocky east ridge is a terrific mountaineering adventure for Front Range climbers, beginning less than an hour from Denver. The 13,250-foot peak is relatively close to the road, and avalanche danger can be easily managed, making this perhaps the most accessible technical winter summit on the entire Front Range. The east ridge offers knife-edge snow ridges, much third-class scrambling, a rappel into a notch, and a very short fifth-class wall to surmount. Superb!

Length: About 8 miles round-trip
Elevation gain: 3,000 feet
Season: Year-round
Trailhead: Take the Fall River Road exit off I-70 (toward St. Mary’s Glacier), and turn left into the hamlet of Alice after about 8.25 miles. Drive one mile and look for Stewart Road (aka Loch Lomond Road) on the right. This road is not plowed in winter. … Continue Reading

The Redline

December 15, 2009 Classics, Ski 2 Comments

Michael Barton about to drop into Champion Gulch. Courtesy of Mountain Goat Ski Guides

Michael Barton about to drop into Champion Gulch. Courtesy of Mountain Goat Ski Guides

Michael Barton of Mountain Goat Ski Guides in Silverton offers up this classic route off Red Mountain Pass. It’s more of an early-spring route than a midwinter tour, but now you can put it on the hit list. How good is this route? Says Barton: It’s out of my permit boundary, so I don’t even guide it, but it’s one of the best.” Here’s his description:

Length: 7 to 9 miles
Elevation gain: 3,500 feet
Elevation drop: 4,700 feet
Season: Best bet is late March or early April, as you need both stable snow and good coverage down to 9,800 feet.
Shuttle: Stash one car at the south end of Ironton Park, where Corkscrew Gulch meets Red Mountain Creek, or plan to hitch at the end of the day.
Map: Ironton Quadrangle

Tour highlights: Skin on southies, ski on northies; more skiing than skinning; views of Silverton Mountain; neat mining buildings and waterfalls.

Tour hazards: Massive avalanches, cornices, remoteness, sunburn, abandoned mines, nasty death-trap ravines. … Continue Reading

Crested Butte’s Red Lady Bowl

November 28, 2009 Classics, Ski No Comments

"Straight down the gut of the mountain." CrestedButteGuides.com photo

"Straight down the gut of the mountain." CrestedButteGuides.com photo

Jayson Simons-Jones, owner and lead guide of Crested Butte Mountain Guides, sent us this description of a favorite local stash: the Red Lady Bowl. “You can see tracks on it from anywhere in town, so it’s no secret,” Simons-Jones said. However, he added, “There are a half-dozen other, lesser-known routes up there that I won’t divulge unless I’m hired as a guide.”

If you visit Crested Butte and only have time for one backcountry ski tour, this is the one to do. A locals’ favorite for decades now, 12,392-foot Mt. Emmons, with its broad, flat summit and eye-catching, southeast-facing bowl, towers above this tiny ski town. A fiercely special peak in the hearts of this small local mountain community, Red Lady has been the target of one of the longest-running mining vs. preservation battles in the country.

… Continue Reading

Jagged Mountain

November 17, 2009 Classics, Hike No Comments

Why do you think they call it Jagged Mountain?

Why do you think they call it Jagged Mountain?

As one of Colorado’s few high peaks with mandatory technical climbing, plus a splendid setting deep in the Weminuche Wilderness, 13,824-foot Jagged Mountain is as coveted as they get—it’s even a centennial (100 highest) 13er. Jagged’s isolation is part of the appeal. Most aspirants take the Durango & Silverton Railroad to Needleton ($89 round-trip, including a $10 charge for loading your pack into a boxcar). From there, it’s about 7.5 miles up a faint, often rugged trail along the Animas River and No Name Creek to reach high camp.

Jagged's north face.

Jagged's north face.

In the morning, you climb to 13,020-foot Jagged Pass, with superb views of the surrounding 13ers and 14ers, and then the real fun begins. Jagged’s eponymous summit ridge is a 500-foot-high turreted fin, cresting on one spire at 13,824 feet. After traversing steep, grassy slopes to the base of the north face, you wind up a circuitous route along ledges, gullies, and chimneys. The rock climbing on this route is rated 5.0 to 5.2, but in dry conditions many experienced scramblers don’t bother with a rope for the short boulder-problem cruxes.

Easy rock climbing just below Jagged's summit.

Easy rock climbing just below Jagged's summit.

If you’d feel more comfortable tied in, a 120-foot length of rope (much lighter than a full climbing rope) and a small selection of wired nuts and hexes is plenty; a 120-foot rope also is perfectly fine for the three short rappels that bypass the crux  sections on the way down.

Short rappels bypass the cruxes during the descent. In the background: Jagged Pass.

Short rappels bypass cruxes during the descent. Jagged Pass in background.

Near the top, the route crosses to Jagged’s south side and then climbs a steep chimney to an airy summit perch with extraordinary views, including the nearby fourteeners Sunlight, Windom, and Eolus. For a bonus wilderness adventure, return to Needleton by crossing the high pass into the Ruby Creek drainage, one of Colorado’s most beautiful spots.

Guidebook: Colorado’s Thirteeners, by Gerry and Jennifer Roach

On the web: Summit Post

Join Us…

We welcome stories, photos, video, and cool trip reports. Drop us a line, and we'll get you started.

Recent Comments

  • Pat: Amazing photo, thanks so much!...
  • Mike McClaskey: It's the old St Marys Glacier ski area...
  • Sinjin: That rubble is what the owners left when they walked away from Ski St. Mary's...too bad they weren't responsible enough ...
  • andy wellman: Meadow Mountain, Minturn??...
  • Marc B: Good to see folks scouting and working projects in the much overlooked South Platte. I'll bet there are a few hard 5.13 ...
  • Hamish Gowans: I'm getting a Pikes Peak vibe....
  • Allen Hill: It's the old Sibley/Roos route. We use to climb it from time to time in high school. I always wondered when someone woul...

Category RSS Feeds

Wild

Rarities: Wolf Moon, Arapaho Peaks

February 5, 2010

Rarities: Wolf Moon, Arapaho Peaks

Photographer James Beissel sent us this fantastic dawn-patrol shot of the full moon setting over South and North Arapaho in the Indian Peaks, shot from Flagstaff Mountain. Said Beissel: ”The first full moon of the New Year is often called the Wolf Moon. The name comes from Native American culture, in which it was associated with [...]

New Deal for Great Sand Dunes

January 20, 2010

New Deal for Great Sand Dunes

By Bob Berwyn
Stakeholders in the San Luis Valley have taken a giant step toward protecting Great Sand Dunes National Park from mining, energy development, and water exports. Lexam Explorations has agreed to sell its mineral rights if a $9.7 million deal can be finalized by May.
Great Sand Dunes National Park was created by Congress [...]

Supported By…

The News

Coloradans strong in
ski mountaineering worlds.... Telluride plan for guided backcountry tours raises controversy.... Local skier killed by avalanche south of Aspen.... Avalanche triggered by rope-ducking skiers partially buries Aspen patroller.... Skier rescued from backcountry west of Eldora.... CO's Vermillion Basin is in leaked list of possible new national monuments.... Avalanche watches and warnings for much of state.... Fatality, injuries in San Juans avalanche.... $30 million to help Colorado clear beetle-killed forests.

Firsts

New Route Likely Platte’s Hardest

February 14, 2010

New Route Likely Platte’s Hardest

Jason Haas, who’s working on a new guidebook to South Platte rock climbs, has just redpointed what’s likely the Platte’s hardest pitch, a roof seam that’s protected with removable pro and might be 5.14a. The new route, Comprometido, took about a year and a half to complete. Here, Haas tells the story.
While researching routes [...]

Fun New Mixed Routes in Vail

February 7, 2010

Fun New Mixed Routes in Vail

Let’s say you’d like to try some sport-mixed routes, but you aren’t into fruit boots and cranking figure-nines. Until recently, your options have been limited at East Vail, the mecca of modern mixed climbing. But this season, several new climbs have been added to the Firehouse West and Spiral Staircase areas, and at M6 to [...]

Wild New Route in RMNP

January 25, 2010

Wild New Route in RMNP

On Saturday, Andy Grauch and Chris Sheridan completed a wild line on the south face of Mt. Otis in Rocky Mountain National Park—almost certainly a new route. Chockstones of Unusual Size (C.O.U.S.) is a three-pitch route (plus snow slogging) that surmounts two stupendous blocks by tricky dry tooling: III M6/7. We asked Andy Grauch to [...]

Supported By…

Classics

Lake Agnes–Seven Utes Loop

February 19, 2010

Lake Agnes–Seven Utes Loop

Kevin Landolt is a skier/climber/student, based in Fort Collins, who writes the fun Alpine Ambition blog for the Mountain Shop. Here, Kevin describes a favorite midwinter ski tour near Cameron Pass offering a little of everything.
Trailhead: Lake Agnes Road, 2.5 miles west of Cameron Pass
Tour Distance: 7.3 miles
Total Vert: ca. 2,900′
Season: Midwinter to spring; two [...]

Mr. and Mrs. Mesa

January 28, 2010

Mr. and Mrs. Mesa

Two of the wildest and most difficult water-ice pitches in the state are in plain view from Highway 50, en route to Ouray and Telluride from points north, plunging down the sheer face of Grand Mesa. Yet few people notice them, and far fewer have climbed them. The routes are tough, to be sure, but [...]

East Ridge of Mt. Bancroft

December 28, 2009

East Ridge of Mt. Bancroft

Mt. Bancroft’s rocky east ridge is a terrific mountaineering adventure for Front Range climbers, beginning less than an hour from Denver. The 13,250-foot peak is relatively close to the road, and avalanche danger can be easily managed, making this perhaps the most accessible technical winter summit on the entire Front Range. The east ridge offers [...]

The Redline

December 15, 2009

The Redline

Michael Barton of Mountain Goat Ski Guides in Silverton offers up this classic route off Red Mountain Pass. It’s more of an early-spring route than a midwinter tour, but now you can put it on the hit list. How good is this route? Says Barton: It’s out of my permit boundary, so I don’t [...]