|
Barb & Sean Climb Mount Sneffels
|
|
|
Three weeks before Sean and Laurie's wedding, Sean came over for the weekend to finalize some of the wedding plans. He said when he's standing with Laurie at the Overlook (Ridgway State Park) in 3 weeks - with Mount Sneffels as their backdrop, he wants to look up and know he stood on the very top of that peak.
So, Sunday, July 17, 2005, Sean took Barb to climb Mount Sneffels -
the feature 14er peak in the Ridgway area. The summit is 14,150'.
We began our climb from the trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin.
Jeeping into Yankee Boy is itself a thrill!
|
|
|
|
It's about a 45 minute drive out of Ouray
on Camp Bird Road to the trailhead.
|
|
|
|
The trail we took starts at 11,760'. You can't help but breathe hard just walking at that elevation!
|
|
|
From here, the peak you see to your left and think is Sneffels is actually Kismet - 13,694'. It's easy to get confused and climb the wrong peak! You can't see Sneffels from the start. Be sure to follow the signs for the Wright's Lake and Blue Lakes Pass.
|
|
|
|
|
Even in mid-July there was still plenty of snow in places. We crossed several snow fields, and later, climbed up through one.
|
|
|
|
The "hike" ended and the "climb" began when we reached the couloir (mountain gorge). It was full of loose scree rocks and small to medium boulders. We quickly figured out we prefered climbing up the larger rocks. Although these rocks usually moved when you stepped or leaned on them, at least you didn't slide backwards with each step like in the loose scree. It was quite the leg and knee workout from here!
|
|
|
|
Looking back from mid-way up the couloir, here is the route we came.
|
|
|
|
Sean took it easy and was great about
waiting for "ol' ma" to work her way up!
|
|
We finally reached the saddle at the top of the couloir. Looking west we are now high enough to see over to the cluster of 14ers near Telluride.
You can see the trail zig-zagging up the ridge to Blue Lakes Pass.
|
|
|
|
From the saddle, to the west, there is another smaller couloir which is much steeper and narrower. It was mostly full of snow.
Barb told Sean to go ahead to the peak since he could climb much faster without her and they had to meet the wedding florist back in Ridgway at 2:00 pm.
|
|
Sean convinced Barb to leave her backpack here
and finish the climb to the top with him.
|
|
|
|
We made it! WOW, what a view! You can see the ski slopes of Telluride behind us. We stayed only long enough to take photos, call Steve on Sean's cell phone - his 1st call received from 14,150'! We knew the climb back down would be just as tough as it was coming up.
Below, is a panorama shot looking to the west.
|
|
|
|
Looking west you can see down into the 3 Blue Lakes. The upper Blue Lake is still mostly iced over.
|
|
|
|
Looking east, Sean pointed out Uncompahgre Peak - 14,309' - which he climbed last summer with Laurie and Lucy.
|
|
|
|
Looking to the north we could see the Ridgway area.
There's Ridgway Reservoir (in the center of the photo) where Sean and Laurie will get married on August 6th.
|
|
|
When we returned down to Wright's Lake and looked back up at Sneffels we could see the steep, snowy couloir we had to climb. It's that inverted "V" to the right of the summit.
|
|
|
|
Sean waits for the road to clear so he can take his turn driving back on the shelf road out of Camp Bird.
We made it back to Ridgway feeling a sense of accomplishment and met with the florist!
It was an incredible climb and wonderful mother-son outing before his wedding!
|
|
|
