Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point
Chad and I had a successful trip to Colorado. We made the summit of two of the three 14ers on our itinerary. We were able to climb Blanca Peak and then traverse the connecting ridge to Ellingwood Point. It was a great climb. There was a little 4th class scrambling, which I really enjoyed. We got ourselves into a place where we had to pull off a small section of probably 5.6 or 5.7 moves, no problem except we'd been on our feet for about 6 hours, were at 13,000 feet and had been at sea level 48 hour earlier! Oh, and we didn't have a rope for that warm snuggly feeling I like to have when a fall could result in something getting broken or dead.
We had planned on climbing Little Bear Peak as well, but called off the attempt after reading more about the objective dangers and talking to a few people coming off the mountain. Our guidebook said Little Bear was the most dangerous standard route 14er in Colorado (I somehow missed that when planning the trip). That info, coupled with reports that one of the more difficult sections of the climb had running water on it from a late melting snow pack, gave us pause. A nice thunderstorm the night before we'd planned to do the climb, which would have made the route even wetter, sealed the deal for us. We decided to wait until another trip. It looked like a terrific challenge. This is going to be one of those mountains I want to go back for (I already have that regret feeling, that I should have tried/what if I never get to go back feeling).
I would give you some info on the route, but there are already some great resources out there. I'll let my pictures and the brief timeline below be a supplement. We did everything standard. We got most of our info from Gerry Roach's book, Colorado Fourteeners, from www.summitpost.org and from www.14ers.com.
Here's what we did:
Route: Blanca/Ellingwood Combination - Ascend Blanca's Northwest Face (Grade III, Class 2) then descend Ellingwood's South Face Route (Grade III, Class 2). 15.1 total miles and 6,900 ft of elevation gain. Low point - 8,000ft. High Point - 14,345ft.
Day 1 - Fly from ATL to DEN, drive to Lake Como trailhead and camp at the car for the night. We left ATL at 8am (local) and arrived at the trailhead at about 6pm (local). The drive from DEN took about 4 hours. In addition, made stops at REI, for grocieries, dinner, etc.
Day 2 - Lake Como trailhead at 8,000ft to Lake Como at 11,740ft - 5 miles and 3,740ft of elevation gain. It took 5 hours. Probably the roughest, rockiest trail I've ever been on. Brutal. I'll blame the slow time on coming from sea level and fighting a head cold.
Day 3 - Lake Como to Blanca Peak via Northwest Face, down Blanca's north ridge to the saddle between Blanca/Ellingwood, to Ellingwood's South Face Route. Descend Ellingwood's South Face Route - 5.1 miles and 3,160ft of elevation gain. It took 9 hours (9 hours - 6 up/3 down).
Day 4 - Lake Como to trailhead - 5 miles (3 hours). The bad thing about all that elevation gain is that you've got to go back down. With a 40 lb pack and the rockiest trail I've ever been on, it was one of the longest 3-hours of my life.
Day 5 - We did a little detour to Colorado Springs on the day we were going to do Little Bear. We visited Garden of the Gods and drove up to Pikes Peak (does that count as a 14er?).
Day 6 - Fly back to ATL.
Here are pictures from the trip. That's me on the summit of Blanca Peak - 14,345ft, the 6th highest point in the lower 48 and my 7th 14er
We had planned on climbing Little Bear Peak as well, but called off the attempt after reading more about the objective dangers and talking to a few people coming off the mountain. Our guidebook said Little Bear was the most dangerous standard route 14er in Colorado (I somehow missed that when planning the trip). That info, coupled with reports that one of the more difficult sections of the climb had running water on it from a late melting snow pack, gave us pause. A nice thunderstorm the night before we'd planned to do the climb, which would have made the route even wetter, sealed the deal for us. We decided to wait until another trip. It looked like a terrific challenge. This is going to be one of those mountains I want to go back for (I already have that regret feeling, that I should have tried/what if I never get to go back feeling).
I would give you some info on the route, but there are already some great resources out there. I'll let my pictures and the brief timeline below be a supplement. We did everything standard. We got most of our info from Gerry Roach's book, Colorado Fourteeners, from www.summitpost.org and from www.14ers.com.
Here's what we did:
Route: Blanca/Ellingwood Combination - Ascend Blanca's Northwest Face (Grade III, Class 2) then descend Ellingwood's South Face Route (Grade III, Class 2). 15.1 total miles and 6,900 ft of elevation gain. Low point - 8,000ft. High Point - 14,345ft.
Day 1 - Fly from ATL to DEN, drive to Lake Como trailhead and camp at the car for the night. We left ATL at 8am (local) and arrived at the trailhead at about 6pm (local). The drive from DEN took about 4 hours. In addition, made stops at REI, for grocieries, dinner, etc.
Day 2 - Lake Como trailhead at 8,000ft to Lake Como at 11,740ft - 5 miles and 3,740ft of elevation gain. It took 5 hours. Probably the roughest, rockiest trail I've ever been on. Brutal. I'll blame the slow time on coming from sea level and fighting a head cold.
Day 3 - Lake Como to Blanca Peak via Northwest Face, down Blanca's north ridge to the saddle between Blanca/Ellingwood, to Ellingwood's South Face Route. Descend Ellingwood's South Face Route - 5.1 miles and 3,160ft of elevation gain. It took 9 hours (9 hours - 6 up/3 down).
Day 4 - Lake Como to trailhead - 5 miles (3 hours). The bad thing about all that elevation gain is that you've got to go back down. With a 40 lb pack and the rockiest trail I've ever been on, it was one of the longest 3-hours of my life.
Day 5 - We did a little detour to Colorado Springs on the day we were going to do Little Bear. We visited Garden of the Gods and drove up to Pikes Peak (does that count as a 14er?).
Day 6 - Fly back to ATL.
Here are pictures from the trip. That's me on the summit of Blanca Peak - 14,345ft, the 6th highest point in the lower 48 and my 7th 14er
posted by atlantaclimber at 8:15 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the pics. I tried to climb Blank Peak in May 1974 but was defeated by snow drifts at the tree line. I did stay in a cabin and fished for trout at the lake. In 1979 I took my wife up but she only made it to the tree line and pooped out. Now I'm 54 and still dreaming of going back. MEHNERJM@JUNO.COM THANKS AGAIN.
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