Umbrella Drinks on Culebra Peak 14,047'

Peak:

Culebra Peak - 14,047 feet

Before I get into the story of 9 14ers.com members making a memorable summit, I must hand out some props.

First and foremost, I on behalf of the crew would like to thank Cielo Vista ranch for letting us have this wonderful opportunity to climb this mountain in Spring. On top of thanking the Ranch, I would like to give props to Carlos, the most hospitable ranch hand in the world. Thank you Carlos!

I would like to also thank all of the other climbers in the group for all making it an awesome trip and especially to Mad Mike, who was the one who scored us this gem of a trip. He was the one who coordinated the whole thing and put out the offers on this site. Great team you put together Mike.

Sorry for those who decided to bail due to the adverse weather. Maybe next time.

Climbers:
JakeK..- ski
Baumgara..- ski
Ngoodnight..
Mad Mike..
Alpen Girl..
Jf32..
Bean..-ski
Wesley..-ski
Mountainmicah83.. - ski

The following info was compiled by mad Mike:

Distance...5200 feet, 15 miles (for all but Micah and Jake)
Total 14er Ascents...484
Total 13er Ascents...47
Total 14ers Skied/Boarded...41

Distance for Micah and Jake was 19.1 Miles and 6200 feet +

Route:



We all pretty much took the Roach Route on the Ascent, and all but Jake and I took that for the descent. Long story short, Jake and I took the wrong finger south down to the Vallejos River drainage and had to make our way back up and out to the upper parking area and down to the car about four hours later than the rest of the crew.

The weather came in to Colorado unexpectedly strong towards the end of last week and it got the crew antsy. As the day progressed on Friday, several areas had already received over a foot of heavy wet spring snow and several roads were closed. Anticipation grew through the team while we all wondered how long it would take before the ranch called off our adventure because of the weather. I think we were all expecting it because it happened to the winter group for much less of a storm.

In the end, one of the group members contacted Carlos and told him that the group was all experienced winter mountaineers . Carlos said we could still climb but there would be no refunds for non-summitters and with the weather there would be no view.

I left Colorado Springs at around 5:30 PM on Friday in old blue (my '74 VW Beetle) expecting to encounter some pretty horrible snow conditions and was specifically dreading La Veta pass. I had dry roads all of the way until the back side of the pass where I ran into heavy blowing snow. At this point, it was a race to the gates of the ranch between me and nature. After fishtailing my way up the road through 8" of fresh snow, I barely made it to the gates by about 9 PM and Jake was the only one there.

I awoke in the morning to a total of about 1' of new fresh snow at the gate. All climbers were present when Carlos showed up and opened up the gate for us to drive the next few miles to the headquarters buildings of the ranch. Old blue stayed at the Gate and I rode with Jake.

All paid up and about 6:30 AM and we were starting to wonder if we would actually have a good weather day.



All 4 snowshoers were out pretty quick while the 5 skiers stuck the skins to our sticks. By 7 AM, we were all on the trail



Bean making his way up:

(photo courtesy of Carl)

For the first couple of miles, we were following the pre-cut snowshoe tracks (thanks guys). Eventually, we caught them and told them that we would share with some of the trail cutting work. For 75% of the rest of the day, JakeK was the Hoss that was cutting all of the trail through the 1-2' of fresh wet stuff. He managed to grab this picture of me following closely behind. A few times, Jake was kind enough to need a small breather and let me do a small bit of trail cutting.


(Photo courtesy of JakeK)

While we were marching up into the dark clouds, I noticed that the San Luis Valley was looking pretty crisp.



As already mentioned, Mr. Hoss doing his thang cutting trail:


Eventually, I realized that I was going to get too tired if I stayed near the front of the pack and I already wasn't feeling too hot. To be honest, I may have turned around by about 12,500' if I didn't pay $100 to climb the mountain. This is the point that I must stop to say that the beauty out there was worth every penny of the money. Cielo Vista puts that money to good use to maintain the pristine conditions, and nice road, and top-notch hospitality of the staff.

Shortly before 4 way, Jake snapped this photo of me



Finally, at about 9 AM and 3.5 miles or so up the road, we all reached 4 Way. I think that sign is usually about shoulder height in the summer!


(courtesy of Carl)


After taking up the rear, I snapped a nice shot of "the train"



Prior to passing the upper parking area, everything was just kind of cloudy and foggy but most of us weren't even wearing our shells or any layers but the base layer. After the upper parking, visibility pretty much stayed 50' or less until about 5:30 PM.

We relied on modern Technology to guide us to the summit. BAUMGAURA and Mountainmicah83 pointing the way.



Here is the party making our way to the ridge hoping to celebrate on the summit with umbrella drinks in the sunny weather



Bean got this pic of the Rime taking over my hair:



A field mouse decided to chase the team for a while



Bean making his way up:



(photo courtesy of Carl)

Eventually, around 13K we made the ridge Proper.



Edit: jf32 headed up the ridge



JakeK heading up the ridge



Wesley shot this of Bean in a moment of Clarity.



ngoodnight Excited to be on the summit


(Photo courtesy of JF-32)

Meanwhile, I was a good ¼ mile behind the group still working the ridge and not feeling well at all. I knew I had a summit and return in me though or I would have just waited for the group to come back.

Mike and Carl chillin' on the Summit



Where are those umbrella drinks? Come on, 30 MPH winds and negative 10 feet visibility.

Skiing off of the true summit:



Me barely able to smile on the summit.



Notice I was wearing Mountaineering boots and was planning on skiing. Bad place to test this method. DO NOT EVER USE MOUNTAINEERING BOOTS FOR SKIING! They work alright for the ascent but you get no edges on the descent and no front and back support. Attempting to ski down was a nightmare with that rig. In the week prior, there was talk of skiing the north face from the summit and making the rap in the middle of the descent like last year's spring crew. With the weather we all decided to leave our climbing gear at the vehicles and I went with the mountaineering boots.

Jake at the summit:



Shortly after departing the summit, the group got split up in the poor visibility. I yaked up all over and was heaving blue Gatorade on my hands and knees when I hear Jake calling my name. "Where did everyone go?" The group had gotten split up. Jake and I had decided to stick together for the remainder of the descent. He could have hung with all the rest of the skiers but I think he was worried about me and my crappy idea that mountaineering boots could work for skiing at angles under 40 degrees.

Meanwhile, the other skiers pulled some descent turns:



Jake and I made our way down the ridge that we thought was the route. Here was one of the few times I was standing on skis during the descent:



At about 12,400', Jake and I began to realize that we were off route. We never had to reclimb that hump on the ridge at around 13K. The skies cleared for a brief moment and we realized where we were. We were on the south finger ridge going into the Vallejos River Drainage. The black route was our descent route that cost us 4 hours and over 1000' of extra ascent.



At least the sun finally came up for a while and Jake and I got to see some rare sights of terrain that is seldom traveled.



We continued to traverse across and over towards the upper parking area.



Luckily, Jake and I both have good heads on our shoulders and descent athletic bases. This enabled us to keep calm and make it out no matter what. We knew if we didn't make it out, search and rescue would be looking for us on this private property. Not to mention the expensive bill we would have had to pay. It got dark about 45 Minutes before we got pack to the upper parking area (where you can hike round trip from the car from in the summer time).

I snapped this photo of the sun setting on the San Luis Valley and the snow on the trees:



No photo shop here, this is just a natural Colorado sunset. From there it got colder and colder as expected. Jake and I made the upper trailhead sometime after 8 and were able to cruise most of the way down on the ascent trail of the group. Sometime after 9 PM and several crashes on the skis later, we made it back to Jake's jeep. Finally! I was so exhausted. We signed out and drove down to the gate where we found the keys missing. Luckily, Jake had 1 bar of Verizon service and he was able to call his girlfriend and told her to Call Carlos to come let us out. He was already on his way up with the snowmobile with Search and Rescue close behind. They get worried when you are supposed to be out by 6 PM and not out til almost 10. He was able to call the sheriff and let them know that we were safe. Carlos let us out and then led the way back to Chama where I parked my bug to sleep off the long day.

Thanks again to all that were involved! While Jake and I made a wrong turn in the clouds, everything turned out alright because we were diligent in figuring out our current location and where we needed to go.

Culebra in the Evening:


See you at the top!

Disclaimer: I apologize if I gave wrong credits to any photos or if I called someone by the wrong name of if any information was off. Please feel free to leave a comment correcting me.

Why the CAIC isn't always right: Mt Sneffels 14,150'

Peak:

Mt. Sneffels - 14,150 feet

End Result: Lots of fun and experience gained but no attempt on summit from Lower TH
Elevation Gain: 3,000 Ft.
Total Mileage: 10
Climbers: Micah (me), Matt, Ben
This will be rather long, but I hope to point out what types of safety calls we were constantly having to make and how our due diligence most definitely prevented us from any fatalities. While this may be boring for the experienced snow winter/spring mountaineer, it may be very valuable for the less experienced while providing great beta for those looking for a shot at this mountain.
I normally don't post TR's with failed attempts, but in this case I feel that I can provide some good beta and would say that I don't feel as bad when there are conditions out of my control preventing the bagging of a summit which is always just a bonus to me on top of the Zen that these trips usually provide.
My normal routine this winter has been to seek out peaks 1-2 weeks in advance and do all of the necessary research and acquire partners as necessary. To be honest, the hardest part always seems to be talking someone into going. If it was summer, I would be more likely to solo, but not in winter. Two weeks ago, not realizing that this was Easter weekend, I decided to plan a trip for Sneffels this weekend, hoping for my first Ski descent this spring. I choose the Lavender Couloir route for skiing with a avy danger backup of the class 3 ridge route both from Yankee Boy Basin. I got Matt on board from the start and then Ben, my brother-in-law, who hardly gets to come on trips calls me up and asked my mountain climbing schedule. I invited him along to Sneffels knowing that my tent only holds three. Without more partners and another worthy tent, I was forced to kick the dog out. A couple of days later, we realize that we have planned a trip over Easter. I thought this would never fly with the wives, but sure enough they let us go (this will probably never happen again).
On Tuesday, I called the Ouray Sherriff who told me that there was 26" new snow from the previous few days and that CR361 (Camp Bird road) was usually plowed to at least camp Bird. I then called Telluride Ski patrol, knowing they were nearby to see what kind of Avalanche activity they were experiencing. They said just minimal slide activity and recommended that I call Helitrax who guides Heli and Cat skiing in the area. Helitrax told me that the snow was surprisingly stable up in the Imogene area but that they hadn't seen Yankee Boy Basin. They had been throwing bombs out and couldn't even cause any slides but said to caution to the coming storm.
Matt and I went over to Ben's the Wednesday night before to lay out gear and ensure that we weren't bringing double and unnecessary gear as well as that everyone had the proper gear. I like to see what my partners are carrying and it keeps me accountable for having the right equipment as well. As a failed miss-communication attempt on my part, Ben did not have any of his gear ready. He was under the assumption that Matt and I were showing him our gear. I was not happy with this as he was not willing to grab his gear as we went through everything. He insisted that he had everything and would get it packed in time. While he ended up not missing anything pertinent, I was very uncomfortable with this.
Anyhow, Friday came with the report of increased CAIC conditions to Orange for the Northern San Juans and the report of the largely loved climbing guide being in an avy death only 10 miles from Sneffels peak. This scared the crap out of me but I decided that we would go to scout things out if anything and proceed with extreme caution. We left Colorado Springs at around 4:30 PM with our sights set on making it to Ouray and as far up CR361 as Ben's 4runner could make it.
3 miles down the road and we were still only driving in the freshest 4" of snow. What happened to the forecasted 12-16? We saw a humongous recent slide.
You can't tell from the pic, but some of the snow blocks were larger than our vehicle and the runout was no kidding about 30' deep. This is very spooky to see in the dark. Another half mile down the road and we run into this

Thrown off by how scary that seemed, we decided to sleep in the car (parked in a safe position clear of avy danger) and re-evaluate our trip in the morning. 0630 Rolled around eventually and we woke up to about 8" of new snow overnight. For sure it was a bad idea at that point to make an attempt on the summit with the new loading. With low hopes, we decided to venture past the sign with no packs for a small hike and a gander to see what lay ahead around the corner. With a half mile trek down the road, we were pretty happy with the recently plowed roads minus the previous night's snow and made our way back to the car. Our new plan was to just have a fun hiking trip and possibly a summit if conditions permitted. All members of the party were involved in the decision as with all of our decisions to come. After making some oatmeal for breakfast, we departed at about 0930 AM on Saturday. We decided not to carry skis and snowboards as the conditions didn't seem right. A short while later, we made it back to our half-mile point with unknown conditions ahead. While this next photo looks scary, it was rather safe. There wasn't much snow above it to slide and the tractors had cut the road for us for the next 4 miles.

Yep. That's right. I said 4 miles. We didn't have to wear snowshoes for the first 4 miles up CR361 from the sign because the plows have been maintaining all season long. What a treat after slogging in waist deep sugar through the Sawatch all season long. Finally, the sun came over the ridge.

Up that first 4 miles, the trail was for the most part safe, we had cliffs to the right and a valley to the left. Our only real worry was ice falling off from above.

Soon after, we made it to the infamous "c" cut out of the rocks for the road.

Just passed the C, you see why the Ice festival is in Ouray,

Having just trained for and run a half marathon in 1:50:02 in Gateway, CO in late March, I was feeling good. I lost 15lbs and was carrying my lightest snow climbing/camping pack of the season. I wasn't even kicking that hard and I was having to wait for my partners. You can't blame them though and I was not upset. I was just feeling good. Matt is still recovering from 10 fractures in his heel less than a year ago and Ben is a father of 3 and holds two jobs. I was just happy to be out here in this beauty with unknown territory ahead. The adventure was really feeling great so far.

While deeply buried, there was actually an emergency call box up here. I noted this in the case that I would have to use it later on.

Another pic of the road up after it turns to CR26 . Can anyone name that peak in the upper right?

How about now? It is the same peak?

Making it to our 4 mile point. We reached the green colored cabin with security cameras and had to make a decision to split left or right in front of that peak. We donned snowshoes and didn't consult the maps. It appeared that the road only went up the basin to the left. We all were sure left was the way to go. We began to take turns cutting trail at 200 steps each and trading off. By the time my second lead came up, I was feeling great and my partners were beginning to fade fast with their energy levels. I just kicking 250…300…350…400…450 steps. I could have kept kicking and felt great but I wanted to share some of the work so I didn't also wear out. Shortly after my lead, I was beginning to doubt our decision to turn left. The terrain didn't look right. It didn't look like the maps. We could see the end of the basin and at 11,350 feet there was no Lower Trailhead with a bathroom and no where else to go that made sense without climbing a peak that was clearly not above 13,500'.

We finally checked the GPS after 1,000 feet or so of elevation gain and a mile of trekking in snowshoes. This is a good time to note that I had not seen even one natural avalanche up to this point. I was constantly testing snow everywhere and was very happy with the results. With tired and saddened partners, I led us back down the mile and 1,000' to where the split was to go up to Yankee Boy Basin. It was 2:30 by this point and the outlook of reaching the 12,400' upper TH was looking grim. I felt up to pushing but my partners were growing weary. We sat down about an hour for some mash potatoes and green beans lunch and made a shelter from a footprint. At 3:30ish we made our way to the lower TH. I laid most of the track for the next mile and 1000' or so elevation gain or so past the lower TH. Both other guys did a good amount of cutting, but I felt the best and didn't mind. Somewhere past the lower TH, my partners were saying we need to make camp. I wanted to press on but also knew that it wasn't good to press those who are tired. This never turns out well. We finally picked our spot and began to dig in. The snow was coming out in almost perfect blocks. We dug down about 5' a giant hole to fit the tent, and a firepit with ice benches around the outside. An hour or so later, we had a fortress and enough wood for a small fire for about an hour. The snow was unbelievably deep.
Matt getting out supplies for cooking dinner-

Me making some water to top off all of our nalgenes and for dinner and hot tea. Warm drinks and food warm the soul. My newly purchased 700 fill puff from the Garage sale also warmed my soul.

Ben and I sitting in front of the tent ready for a fire.

Dinner and the fire came and went. (we had to make vent holes for oxygen for the fire by poking holes from the top of the snow down into the pit with a probe and then trekking poles. We climbed into the tent right at about dusk and had hot tea and played Go Fish with my miniature card deck. After seeing Sgladbach's idea of a sunrise summit on Easter, that was our original plan. Due to unknown conditions, we opted to not go for that option. Throughout the night we heard fierce wind (we were glad we were below the surface in our cozy 4 season 2+ man tent. We also heard several avalanches. There were at least 10 definite occasions that we could hear activity. 5:30 rolled around and we discussed the plan of the day. If the wind was this fierce at 11,400', what was it going to be like at 14,150? Was it worth it with the avy conditions? We have beacons, probes, and shovels but that doesn't mean we want to use them. Those are just insurance in my mind. Knowing that even in optimal conditions a summit was unlikely due to the fact that we were not starting from the upper TH, I was ready to call it. My partners also agreed that a summit wasn't in our cards this trip. We decided to sleep in for a couple of hours until 0730 or so and then had an oatmeal breakfast.
I have been keeping my boots uncomfortably in my bag all winter and haven't liked it. This time we decided to experiment and leave them out in the vestibule. We still kept water and fuel within to keep them from freezing. Well, our boots were frozen solid in the morning. I stuck mine in my bag for the last hour and the other 2 gents didn't . Mine thawed rather quickly while icing my legs. At least they were easier to put on. The others had problems getting theirs on and with the cold for a good hour after putting them on. Mine felt great. I would say an hour of bag time was great and I didn't have to suffer the night with those giants. With an entire day ahead of us and nothing to do but hike out, we decided to try our luck at a snow cave. Matt and I have been wanting to do this all season but haven't had the right snow. This snow was perfect. We began to dig and dig and take turns digging and breaking down and packing camp.

An hour or so of work later, we had the start to a great 3 man snow cave. We decided not to go all of the way to finishing because we weren't going to really use it. Although after digging in, we all wished we did this the evening before and slept in there. We rounded the inside for strength but didn't smooth things down which will make the thing drip all night. The vent holes from the firepit ended up all 3 being inside. What we didn't do was level the floor and then make an entrance that you have to crawl up into. We just had a gaping hole. The snow was over 8' deep right here. I know because I dug to the ground. That is so much snow.
After a while, Matt spotted a couple of animals making use of our new man cave.

It was a nice 32 degrees inside

And we all cut out custom seats and headrests

Now the snowcaving escapade was over and it was time to return to the car. I used sunscreen on my face the day prior and the other two didn't. The result was that their faces looked like plums. After us all donning our sunscreen, we set off. The scenery was beautiful.



You can tell how fierce the night time winds were. Our tracks were almost completely blown in.

Looking around at all of the slide activity, we were concerned but happy we didn't decide to go for a summit. If there were this many small scale natural slides, I could only imagine the size and magnitude of a slide triggered by one of us.

Here is one small slide that wasn't there the day fefore


Ok WARNING!!!!!!!!!, this is where things get a bit weird. The sun was just so warm, I couldn't resist. You can't go on an adventure with mountainmicah83 without experiencing the strangest things. 2 strange mountain men (one in Scooby doo chonies) came out of the woods ready for a fight. (Yes they put on sunscreen everywhere.) This was only an hour or so from the car and an interesting way to get a tan. I can't believe I'm posting this…

Passing back by the popsicle section, we proceeded with caution. 2 of the larger than human icicles broke off while we watched. (No we didn't walk under any).

The last part, I didn't get a photo of but about ¼ mile before the car there were the huge popsicles that were much higher up and breaking off. We put on helmets and proceeded with extreme caution, knowing that one of those could easily kill one or all of us. 10 minutes after making the car, a giant one actually broke free and crashed down and rained ice for a good 30 seconds. That would surely have made it a bad day. Happy to be alive, we got one more pic of the mountain men that tagged along.

On the way out, I grabbed a photo of the runout of a new slide that didn't exist a day and a half prior. Scary!!!.

I wonder why they call Ouray "Little Switzerland."

With no photos of our trip to Ouray hotsprings (that rents swimsuits) and the Ouray Brewery (which was closed till 4:30 but still let us in for a drink, we were on our way home. We picked up Ben #2 who said he was Ben #1 in Montrose and dropped him off in Buena Vista. Normally, I wouldn't do this alone but with 2 pistols and 3 able bodied young men, we weren't too worried. Ben #2/#1 had some great stories of his 35+ years of bumming around. He said he wasn't able to get a job in Durango and was headed to somewhere near Steamboat. We shared a PBR or 2 with him and let him out in Buena Vista and finished our trek home.

All in all, It was a great and fun trip even without a summit. I feel we made smart decisions and I will now live to go back and climb it again another day. Any takers???

Thanks for reading.

See you at the top!