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Southern Sawatch Saweekend

Friday – Sunday, September 10-12, 2021

This weekend was going to be the last opportunity for me to hike a 14er this summer, and since I have climbed at least one 14er each summer since 2010 I was originally planning to. However, as I started figuring out my weekend plans I just wasn’t feeling like hiking on a busy trail and was looking for a little more solitude, so I decided to skip the 14ers this year and headed to the southern Sawatch Range to hike a few peaks along the Continental Divide instead. I left from work on Friday afternoon and headed to Gunnison, taking the route through Hotchkiss and Crawford since Highway 50 is still closed until 5:30pm on weekdays and I wasn’t sure how quickly I would get to that point. I topped off my fuel tank in Gunnison and then made my way over to Pitkin and started up the road to Hancock Pass. Unfortunately, the road near the top of the pass was much rougher than I remember it being and I wasn’t comfortable driving a section of it in the dark, so I returned all the way back to Highway 50 and drove over Monarch Pass to the Middle Fork of the South Arkansas River and found a place to spend the night shortly before the end of that road. It was pretty late by the time I arrived, so I went right to bed.

Hancock Pass Peaks

Colorado Adventure 2018 | Wednesday & Thursday, August 8-9, 2018

After climbing a few 13ers in the Mosquito Range on Wednesday morning and then stopping for lunch in Buena Vista I headed up the road along Chalk Creek toward St. Elmo into the Sawatch Range again. My plan for Thursday morning was to climb a pair of 12ers from Hancock Pass, but since it was still early in the afternoon I had some time to explore for a little bit before finding a campsite for the night near the pass. I started out by driving up to the Pomeroy Lakes Trailhead since I hadn’t been up to this area in over ten years. When I reached the end of the road I wandered around a little bit and found a nice overlook of Grizzly Gulch. This view brought back memories of the one time I drove to Grizzly Lake and needed to use my winch to make it up there. The overlook area was connected to the ridge of nearby Chrysolite Mountain which looked like a fun climb to the summit, but the weather wasn’t looking too great at this time or I might have tried it. Thankfully, the smoke was finally starting to clear out a little bit as the afternoon clouds and storms moved in, so I was able to get a good view of the surrounding peaks.

Montezuma Peaks

Colorado Adventure | Sunday – Monday, August 5-6, 2018

After spending the weekend backpacking in the Gore Range with Diane, we parted ways on Sunday afternoon and I headed over to the Front Range near Montezuma to climb a few mountains as I continued my Colorado Adventure. After an early dinner in Dillon I drove up to Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide so I could hike to the summit of Mount Sniktau (13,234). Even though there had been storms earlier in the day and there were still plenty of clouds moving around, the weather was looking favorable for the climb and I was hoping that the clouds interacting with the light would make for some nice conditions. My legs were still pretty tired from our hike back down from Gore Lake in the morning so I was moving pretty slow, but the weather did hold out. However, once I reached the ridge I was struck by some very strong and brutal winds blowing across the Divide and I had to make use of a couple of rock shelters that I passed along the trail.

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Tag: brittle silver mountain

Southern Sawatch Saweekend

Hancock Pass Peaks

Montezuma Peaks