13,450' Horn Peak via the Divining Rod Ridge

Trip Report -September 11, 1997

By Arthur Vyn Boennighausen

This trip report narrates an ascent of 13,450 Horn Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Elevation gain is approximately 4,450 feet. Total round trip time: ten hours from trailhead to trailhead. Degree of difficulty: Class III. Mostly hiking up steep, well defined and marked trails until treeline, then steep hiking (up to fifty degrees) on tundra grasses and flowers to the summit. Because of the steepness of the upper slopes, a long ice axe or ski pole to use as a walking stick will really help you keep from slipping, especially on the descent if rain or hail makes the tundra wet.

Drive to the small parking area near the Horn Creek Christian conference center and park in the small gravel parking area. Space for ten cars with an outdoor bathroom (outhouse) at the parking area. Begin the hike by walking West for ten minutes on the obvious trail from the parking area. In ten minutes or less, you will come to the Rainbow Trail which runs North and South for 100 miles. Go North on this trail and pass by the intersecting trails for Horn Lakes and the Dry Creek trails crossing over Dry Creek which actually has a lot of water running under the foot bridge. About 30 minutes from when you started you will come to an intersection of a trail clearly marked with a wooden sign that says "Horn Peak, 3.2 miles". Take this trail which goes West directly to the central East couloir of Horn Peak.

When I said directly West, I mean directly. No switchbacks were incorporated into this first part of the trail. You go straight uphill for about two hours at a slope of about thirty degrees. This first section of the trail is about three foot wide and is easy to follow if your legs have the endurance to keep stepping up the hill.

The wide and obvious initial Horn Peak trail crosses the drainage from the East Face and abruptly changes character after about two hours. For us this meant 10:30am in the morning. Thirty feet after crossing the water of the drainage you come to a 20' x 20' clearing with signage indicating you are about to enter the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Up to now, you have been in the San Isabel National Forest.

Ten feet or so from the Wilderness boundary signage, look North for a climbers trail that heads up into a extensive grove of Aspen trees. Again, little or no attempt was made to create switchbacks. We used the closely spaced trunks of the five inch diameter Aspen trees as handholds as we went up the trail. This trail is very steep and is mostly packed dirt that would be very slippery if wet.

Head up through the Aspen grove. The trees are so closely spaced it reminded me of a bamboo forest. As the trail approaches treeline, the Aspens thin out and become Bristlecone Pine trees in their familiar twisted shapes. The trail at this point becomes a funnel for small rocks and gravel. Plod heroically up this section of trail for about thirty minutes until the gravel gives way to Tundra grasses and flowers. The trail disappears at this point and you will simply follow the North aspect of the Divining Rod ridge to the summit.

We were fifty foot from the summit at about 2:30pm. Over six and one half hours after we began the ascent. Ten more minutes and we would have been on the summit.

Retrace the ascent route to get back down. The descent took us three and one half hours.

So much for the standard narrative of the typical trip report. After twenty years of Alpinism, the standard trip report seems like a "been there, done that" experience to me as the Hollywood actor, Steve McQueen used to say.

Here is my impression of "Being" on Horn Peak. My version of a trip report.

The first part of the trail seemed heavily used. I could see the imprints of many shoes in the dust. Since it rains every day, I was surprised at how dry the trail seemed. I noticed the tracks of mountain bikes and motorcycles on the Rainbow Trail. These vehicles are allowed on the Rainbow Trail.

I looked at the mountain bike tracks and thought of how hard it must be to pedal the bike on this trail. We have two very good mountain bikes with us and I personally would not want to bike this trail. Too hard to use a bike, easier to walk. Change shape with the terrain as someone taught me.

I thought about the person who might have made the tracks. Finished with their job at the end of the day, they were trying to "Cleanse and Renew" themselves before it was dark. Bike, bike, bike... pedal, pedal, pedal... pretend that this was their lifestyle.... nothing else but pedal the Rainbow Trail. No job, no obligations.

I thought about our friend Paul Zeller who founded the Horn Creek Christian center. Paul told us he paid ten dollars an acre for the land and lived in a root cellar while he constructed the first buildings of the lodge forty years ago.

I wondered why the trail went so straight up toward the summit. So hard to walk without any switchbacks and the water was eroding the trail into a ditch as it flowed down the Mountain. Endless steps up and up. I wondered why in the world people bothered using those excersise machines called "Stair Masters" when they lived in Colorado. These Mountains are the best "Stair Masters" of all.

I noticed that much of the trail where bicycles and motorcycles were not allowed had softened and blended back into the Garden of nature. On each side of the trail, moss had grown around the rocks. Small trees lined the trail. Mushrooms nestled as close as they could without getting stepped on.

I was glad to see the small streams now and then. Water to quench the thirst of our puppy Shogun.

The Aspen grove just below treeline was like another world. A world of golden trunks and shadows and the promise of Autumn. The trunks felt so smooth as we used them as hand holds up the trail.

At treeline, I was happy to be able to see the summit; no matter how distant. Just being able to see the goal was a big help. I have a hard time keeping going when all you can see are the trees. I was so tired at treeline. I sat down and drank a quart of water and ate two baloney sandwiches on Roman Meal bread. I thought: "How can this be so hard after twenty years of doing this? Doesn't it ever get easy?".;

From treeline to the summit, I thought of the section of Dante's Divine Comedy he called the Mountain of Purgatory. As you may remember, each step toward the summit of the Mountain would be easier than the last. I felt my legs with each step. Each step was as hard or harder than the last.

As we approached the summit, I could feel stronger and stronger electrical currents flowing from the base to the summit of the mountain. Fifty feet from the summit, it started to hail. I told my wife Marty that I thought it was getting too dangerous to continue because of the chance of lightning striking us. Marty out of innocence said: "Lets keep going!" I said: "Let me show you something..."

I slowly reached into the air with my ice axe. When my arm was about half extended the metal end of my axe penetrated the field of electrical energy forming a corona on the mountain. The tip sizzled like bacon frying in a pan. I retracted the end of the axe from the field and then re-inserted it slowly several times. Each time the axe entered the energy field, the sizzling sound could be heard.

"Marty" I explained. "If we go the last fifty feet to the summit; our heads will be in the energy field like the end of this ice axe. It will be up to God whether we get hit by lighting or not. How badly do you want to go the last fifty feet?"

"Ok; lets go down." she said with a note of disappointment in her voice.