snugtop Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Trip: South Arapahoe, Colorado - south side Date: 10/7/2007 Trip Report: Late & Fast Left Friday night for Moab, found a crappy camp site at midnight (Skinny Tire event going on as we found out the next morning), woke up to heavy rain, drove back, and slept late the next morning. Got to trailhead around 11 AM. It was much cooler today (in the 40s) than it has been here for a while, saw a few hikers going to the lake but no one on the peak. The clock on my husband's altimeter watch wasn't working but we got to Nederland Backcountry Pizza by 4. The easiest 13,300 I've ever done (short of driving up Pike's Peak) Some photos: Gear Notes: just a hike--but trekking poles probably would have been nice. Quote
Chad_A Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 www.cascadeCLIMBERS.com ? or no? Not nice to spray on TRs. Nice pics, thanks for posting Quote
JayB Posted October 8, 2007 Posted October 8, 2007 Cool. Brings back some good memories from the high country out there. If you're in the mood for non-technical-but-interesting routes to the top of some of the higher peaks that you can do in a standard-length day from most Front-Range cities, check these out. -The West Ridge of Quandary Peak. -The Kelso Ridge Route on Torrey's Peak. -The Sawtooth Ridge Traverse between Mt. Evans and Mt. Bierstadt. The Great Sand Dunes/Sierra Blanca make for a great weekend if you've got some more time. Quote
snugtop Posted October 8, 2007 Author Posted October 8, 2007 Thanks Jay! I will definitely check those out. I've been meaning to visit the sand dunes too... Quote
JayB Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 The infinity of uncrowded granite in the South Platte and warm, south-facing limestone on Shelf Road both warrant an occasional trip south of I-70 as well. I also found that cross-referencing the hot-springs guide with the Roach/Dawson guidebooks was a worthwhile endeavor. Looking forward to the TR's. Quote
pdawg Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 (edited) Your photos of Arapahoe made me nostalgic enough, but the mention of Backcountry Pizza had me going all misty. It's been sixteen months since I last chowed there and I still don't know if the pie is good. Every visit there followed epic days of biking or teleing- goddamn, I miss the Front Range! Jay made some excellent suggestions. I'll add a few of my own. Hike Glacier Gorge from the Bear Lake road trailhead in RMNP to the Spearhead (located just behind/west of Longs). There's nothing remotely technical about the hike, but you end up in a pristine high valley, surrounded by great stone. (It's late season, but the North Ridge of the Spearhead is one of the best 5.6/7 multi-pitch scampers in Colorado. If you want harder fare Sykes Sickle is a phenominal 5.9.) If you were to wait six to eight weeks, you'd be able to ski the west ridge on Quandary. Depends on the lenght of your trip... No trip to the Front Range would be complete without a run up the Third Flatiron in Boulder. 1500-1000 feet of five-easy sandstone- and excellent bouldering on the approach. Edited October 9, 2007 by pdawg Quote
JayB Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 North Ridge of Spearhead is indeed dope. Only quibble with the recs is I think you meant the East Ridge of Quandary for a ski descent, no? Quote
AlpineK Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 If I remember right you're just west of Ned there and the top of the peak looks into the watershed there. If that's right then I remember a few times in the spring when folks would head up with skis and drop into the watershed for a run. Often there would be a ranger there and the ranger would try and chase down the skiers for being in the watershed illegally. Most of the time the skiers were fast enough they could escape. Quote
snugtop Posted October 9, 2007 Author Posted October 9, 2007 Your photos of Arapahoe made me nostalgic enough, but the mention of Backcountry Pizza had me going all misty. It's been sixteen months since I last chowed there and I still don't know if the pie is good. Every visit there followed epic days of biking or teleing- goddamn, I miss the Front Range! Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions. I've only begun to explore the area. However, I can't really rave about Backcountry Pizza (though ANY pizza is good after a workout) If you are back in Ned, I highly recomment the Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery, which just opened and has an awesome deck. Get the Nedeque (Memphis Style) and the Hop Diggity IPA followed by the $1 brownie dessert. Yum yum yum! Quote
pdawg Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 Indeed, Jay, indeed... The East Ridge is it. For the pure of heart, there are also several north-facing couloirs you can take off the top. They were well-iced and thin when I was up- and I was glad for the excuse to ski that big east bowl. Quote
JayB Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 Word. Was hoping to ski the South Face in the spring after the snowpack consolidated, but I was always hungry for rock around that time and never got around to it. Did start up the Inwood Arete on the north side in the summer, but had to bail on account of lightning. That (the lightning) is the one thing that I kind of hated about the Rockies. Seems like at least half the time I got on anything more than a couple of pitches long it turned into a nerve-wracking race against the wrath-o-zeus. Quote
pdawg Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 I can't say I miss the lightning. I had two experiences- one atop Spearhead- where my gear was actually humming. Turns out, it's surprisingly difficult to run screaming from your own harness loops. On the other hand, I don't remember many trips getting rained out. Actually, I'm headed back to west Colorado for the winter. Good turns, good ice and stultifying poverty are sure to follow, but I'll be sure to hit the Smokehouse when I'm in Ned. cheers. Quote
AOC Posted October 9, 2007 Posted October 9, 2007 Climbed Spearhead north ridge 2 weeks ago. Enjoyable, easy climb. Would have been "super fun" but we got hammered with lightning and blinding snow on the last pitch. A couple of photos: Quote
swissman Posted October 10, 2007 Posted October 10, 2007 Another fun one around the 4th of July trailhead. Leave alone Arapahoe peaks and go to the other side for a real neat cross-country/scrambling/lake cirque hike. From from the 4th of July trailhead. Go to Arapahoe pass, then go up the ridge to Mt Neva (wrapping around lake Dorothy). It's a class 3-4 scramble if memory serves me right. Follow broad right south towards Mt Japser. Down from Jasper to Upper Diamond lake, then Diamond lake and follow Diamond lake trail back to trailhead and beers. It's a really fun cross country cirque hike done in a day. Loved it. Some info on Mt Neva climb in the Roach Indian Peaks book. What I loved about CO was the dry weather and the ease to stitch together great ridge cross country scrambles. Cheers, Olivier Quote
timmy_t Posted October 12, 2007 Posted October 12, 2007 In reference to the above Chad A. wristslap, "Not nice to spray on TRs", well, I wasn't exactly spraying on TR's...hence the "or no?" I was wondering (commenting on) what the purpose of this website is. The home page says this: Cascadeclimbers.com is your resource for climbing in the Pacific Northwest, including climbing in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia...Look through the Trip Report Index to find current conditions on ice climbing or alpine routes, get beta for rock climbing routes or crags, or find first ascent information. Find information on backcountry ski routes or conditions in our Freshies forum. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I've noticed lots of posts on hiking trips lately (see 3 of the last 7 posts...the other two being on the Enchantments). There are lots of forums for posting hiking trip reports on other websites, be they in Colorado or Washington. I think the recent Enchantments posts are relevant to this site because new snow is a condition the climber would like to know about. I just don't think this should turn into a hiking forum, or a What Did You Do This Weekend In General forum. Do you want me to post a trip report for last weekend about my visit to Portland to see two rock (music) shows? Neither do I...although apparently snugtop does. If everybody disagrees I'll shut the hell up. Spray on that. love, tim Quote
snugtop Posted October 13, 2007 Author Posted October 13, 2007 There's a "hiking" drop-down in the trip report section. So email jon or timmy if you want it removed. As you can see from the post there are plenty of folks in the pacific nw who have hiked/climbed and skied in the Indian Peaks. I don't really think it's degrading the site to post some pictures from a 13,000' hike. Sorry if you do. Maybe you're just so badass that you don't have time to read it. Have you check out ascensionist.com? Quote
timmy_t Posted October 13, 2007 Posted October 13, 2007 You're right - I had not noticed the "Hike" drop-down before, even though it's next to the trip report type. I don't want anything removed; I just thought the site was more of a climbers resource. Your trip report was fine; the photos were nice; people obviously enjoyed reading it. Good. I don't recall saying/implying anything about being "badass". I love hiking. Don't project your insecurities on to me, snuggy-poo. Anyway, what does it mean that I'm "so badass that don't have time to read" something? If I don't want to read something I just don't read it. Are you so badass that you don't have time to read the morning paper? What the hell does that even mean? (If I'm wasting this much time writing my stupid post in response to your stupid post, well, obviously I'm not so badass with my time that I don't waste it.) The funny thing is that the whole badass comment was yours: "So what did YOU do this weekend?" Implying, I take it, that if I wasn't out doing a 13,000' hike I'm not as....badass....as you? Good Lord. Go take another badass hike and post a badass trip report with more badass self-portraits about how badass Colorado is. I'll be over here trying to think of what I can do to be as badass as you. Can't we all just get along? No. Quote
snugtop Posted October 15, 2007 Author Posted October 15, 2007 (Sometimes the best response is no response...but I just can't help myself...) Timmy T, it sounds like you need to get laid. Try PM'ing KaskadskyjKozak. (Mods feel free to move this to spray) Quote
Animal Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 Ahh, nice to see my historical back yard! Thanks for the picts! Quote
thelawgoddess Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 i like pictures of rock and snow. i don't care what you did on/in/under/over/by them. :-) Quote
AlpineK Posted October 26, 2007 Posted October 26, 2007 I thought it was a great tr, and it reminded me of times I spent there. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.