From: ajs@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein)
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 01:02:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Trip reports: Sangre de Cristos, San Juans
Newsgroups: hpnc.general

Tuesday and Wednesday, July 5 and 6: Mount Sneffels, 14150'

After coming down from Little Bear Peak late and tired Sunday evening, I abandoned my plan to spend the night of July 4 on top of Sneffels. Instead, I did it on the 5th. The only fireworks I saw were distant pulses from thunderstorms somewhere in Utah...

Monday morning, July 4, the Beisers and I packed out to my Jeep. We unwound the 3.9 miles of 4WD road from 1000 to 1120. It's a lot easier going downhill. We parted ways later at the pavement.

I continued west through Alamosa and South Fork and over Wolf Creek Pass. Beyond the pass begins the special scenery that is the San Juans trademark. They are like no other mountains in Colorado for their lushness and grandeur. I spent some time exploring and photographing Treasure Falls, along the road to Pagosa Springs -- a worthwhile 160' gain in 1/4 mile on a paved trail to a tropical cascade.

The public hot pool in Pagosa Springs was a welcome break. Later that evening I watched a ho-hum small-town fireworks show at the Durango fairgrounds, before camping for the night at 8200' near Haviland Lake, north of town on the way to Silverton. It's hard to find a nice patch of national forest in the dark.

Tuesday I mosied up towards Ouray and Yankee Boy Basin, SE of Mount Sneffels, with long breaks at Little Molas Lakes (nice camping here) and in Silverton. In Ouray I noticed that for some reason the Jeep's gas tank had unlatched and dropped again on one side. It was a very easy thing to fix with a hydraulic jack borrowed from the gas station; sure beats a log in the dark on a cold, wet jeep road.

Given my slow pace, it was 1645 before I reached the end of the 4WD road in Yankee Boy Basin, 9.3 miles out of Ouray. It's not a bad road, easily passable by high-clearance 2WD vehicles except maybe for the last 1/4 mile up to 11800'. I noticed later that the road switches up further, to about 12300', before narrowing into a trail.

As it was two years ago, Yankee Boy Basin was a bit of heaven on earth. Running water, small and large falls; fields of wildflowers including infinite blue columbines; ringed by peaks; orange mine tailings against grey and green slopes. Wow. And that was in the afternoon rain!

The skies cleared rapidly after I waited out the rain. I decided to assemble a pack and start up that evening, even though 1900 was an undesirably late start. I carried my daypack inside my backpack, along with tarps, foam pads, a sleeping bag, and a small pillow; no tent, though. I didn't rush, and was prepared to bivouac anywhere along the way, if not on the summit itself.

The trail passes a pretty pond at 12200', less frozen than it was two years ago nine days later in July. It becomes the Blue Lakes Pass trail, a very nice route W through tundra and talus. Almost to the pass, a right turn takes one NE up a broad, steep, gravelly gully towards a 13480'+ saddle. This isn't a hard climb, just slow and tedious with a heavy pack. I reached the saddle, after a magnificent sunset, at 2105. Here I decided I might as well put on a headlamp and press on to the summit.

Being familiar with the route and comfortable with an ice axe, I had no fear of climbing in the gathering gloom the boulders and then snow in the narrow steep couloir N up from the saddle. I worked my way up slowly and kicked nice deep steps, expecting the snow to be hard frozen on the way down in the morning (it wasn't).

At the top of this cut there's a cornice and a wide-open exposure N to Montrose and beyond. Just below it, the route turns left through a narrow rock cut with some exposure, the hardest move of the climb. Past this point I found myself on wet, gravel-covered ledges on a steep hillside of rotten, rough volcanic rocks. It was only a short way up to the very small pinnacle of a summit, at 2225; 3:25 to gain 2350'. (It can be done much faster.)

I made a place to sleep in a sheltered cubby surrounded by rocks right next to the summit cairn. Sitting up in my sleeping bag I could see in every direction, including down the steep N face. There's only room for one to sleep on the summit proper and it's cramped and gritty. What a neat place to spend the night! An incredible airy vantage point high in the dark.

I spent the night with an unexpected headache, watching the lights of Montrose to the N, glowing snowfields S, and of course a mind-blowing dome of stars above. The breezes were gentle and wet; by morning my sleeping bag was coated with frost. During the night a quarter moon rose, bringing silver luminescence to puffy stratus clouds hugging a lot of the San Juans to the E and S. The vast silence and infinite gentle panorama was unforgettable.

The sun rose at 0553, turning silver-grey to pink-white and casting Sneffels's shadow long across Dallas Peak. Venus and Jupiter burned brightly. It was 29 degrees and calm. I watched until full, and resumed sleeping.

Much later, I started down at 1004; my time on top was 11:40. I finally met some people coming up at the top of the snowy couloir at 1022. Here I left my pack and found a short, difficult 40' rock climb to the E sub-peak, 14040'+. After a brief bit on the tiny top, I carefully returned, gathered my pack at 1055, descended the snow, boulders, and gravel back to the Blue Lakes Pass trail, and hiked out to the Jeep at 1250. By 1430 I had dawdled out to Ouray, where among other things I enjoyed the outdoor hot springs pool.