Mt Sneffels Colorado - 14,150'
During a two week hiking trip to Colorado in the summer of 1998, Brenda and
I climbed Mt Sneffels from Blue Lakes. We had been in Colorado for 4 or 5
days, getting acclimatized and seeing some wonderful scenery. After leaving
Brenda's cousin Libby in Lizard Head Wilderness Area, we headed up to the
Blue Lakes trailhead for a late afternoon hike in to base camp for Mt Sneffels,
which was to be the first 14'000 peak for either of us. Our packs were pretty
heavy since we didn't really know what to expect and brought lots of stuff.
We headed onto the trail around 2:00 for the 3.5 miles and approximately
1,600 foot climb to our expected campsite near the shores of Blue Lakes at
11,000'.
After about 2 hours, we began to see the range of mountains
that we were headed to. Eventually, the basin of Blue Lakes
was apparent, as was the waterfall for the stream draining
the lakes. We were dead beat when we arrived so we dropped our packs and quickly
found a suitable campsite in the woods. Then we wandered
down the shores of the lowest of three
gorgeous alpine lakes. All along the shore there were
wildflowers blooming in a mad confusion of color. It was
near sunset and the light made the cliffs on the opposite side shine
orange in places. Behind us were
taller cliffs with fantastic waterfalls
that we could watch for as long as we could stand it. Near the lake shore was
a large boulder that we climbed on and took in the
majesty of the mountain ampitheater.
There were two women camped nearby that were climbing Sneffels the next day
and we chatted about routes and start times. They ended up heading out about
an hour before us and we didn't see them until much later that day. We got
out of camp around 7:00 as the sun was just hitting the
ridge above us. As we passed the second lake a marmot
poked up out of his hole and whistled to us as we passed. Later on we could
look down on the the upper two lakes as we passed by
some columbine, the Colorado state flower. We climbed
a huge slope up to Blue Lakes Pass (13,000') with 16 (I counted) switchbacks
until the pass was in sight. Here was our first big
accomplishment of the day, we had climbed 2,000' in about 2 hours and were
sitting on a high pass between
Blue Lakes and
Yankee Boy Basin. The spectacular
scenery was hard to ignore while we
ate our Powerbars and drank water.
The pass is the border of the Mount Sneffels Wilderness Area, the peak of Mt
Sneffels is actually outside. The usual route for hikers is to come drive up
the 4-wheel drive road to Yankee Boy Basin at 12,500'. There were several
vehicles that we could see from the pass discharging paying passangers and either
parking or heading back down. The true route dropped down from the pass until
it hit the main route, then headed back up the scree slope to Lavendar Col.
Instead, we headed across the jumble of rocks we could
see how much elevation we'd dropped from Blue Lakes Pass.
Soon we were joined by a large group, guided by a nearby
ranch. The scamble up the loose scree was worth it as we crested the pass and
were rewarded with more hero shots.
But the most challanging part was yet to come, a 500' climb up a
rocky couloir. We took it very slowly, because the rocks
would shift under us, threatening to twist or break an ankle. But we kept
climbing higher until we reached the
top of the chute. The guided group took a slightly
different route, going to the left of the couloir and
out of our site. On the way up we ran into the two women who left before us
from Blue Lakes. They were the first ones to Blue Lakes Pass and with no
one else around to follow they missed the correct route up to Lavendar Col,
but eventually found their way and were now headed down. About 20 feet below
the top of the couloir there was a notch on the left. The top ended with a
beautiful view down a huge cliff face. Once through the notch there were a few
minuts of scrambling on some pretty exposed ledges, then the top.
We'd made it!
One of the most amazing parts about being up there was that we could see exactly
where we'd started that morning. With binoculars we could
see our tent. We summited around 11:30, about 4 1/2 hours travel time for the
ascent and we felt pretty good about that. Neither of us had headaches and we
were tired but elated. We ate a good sized lunch and drank lots of water, but
it was hard to pull our eyes away from the views in all directions. There were
lots of other people up top, but everyone was in a good
mood and friendly. We swapped stories with people and took photos for other
hikers and had ours taken. But we wanted to be off the
summit by noon, so we packed up and headed back down. Climbing back through
the notch was the only nervous section for me. The trip down the rocky couloir
was a bit difficult and tough on the ankles and nerves. But from Lavendar Col
down into Yankee Boy was one huge scree ski. There were lots of folks still
headed up but fortunately for them the weather held that day. We did the off
trail traverse to the Blue Lakes Pass trail and paused before our last climb
of the day, back up to the pass.
The big descent from the pass to the
higher was very hard on us. We'd been hiking for
seven hours and the constant downhill was getting to our knees. Our water was
pretty much out and we were going to pump more once we got the
lakeshore. There we made a decision to hike out that
afternoon. Since Brenda was trying to go easy on her knee, I was going to go
on ahead and break down the camp so we could pack up and head back down. The
last part of the day felt so different than the first. I was exhausted, but
knew there was more hiking ahead. The
alpine lakes looked very different in the
bright afternoon light versus the morning shadow. I wished I could just shower
in the waterfalls but we both wanted to get out that day.
I started packing up camp and Brenda arrived just about 15 minutes later. We
were packed up and on the trail in another 30 minutes, neither of us wanted to
stop for anything. We hit the trailhead with great relief around 5:00 and in
another hour we were checking into a motel in Montrose.
Sneffels was a wonderful first 14'er. We could have spent another night at Blue
Lakes but the shower and fine Italian dinner were calling our names. The Blue
Lakes Pass route was much quieter and scenic than hiking up the Yankee Boy Basin
road and we were glad we did it, even though it's longer.
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