July 31, 2020
“The Citadel” 13,294’ to Pettingell 13,553’
9.5 miles
5.5 hours car to car from Herman Gulch Trailhead
Laura and I had planned to climb a centennial peak – one of
Colorado’s highest 100 mountains – but upon leaving our house in Colorado
Springs we learned that the highway was closed due to police
activity in the area. Headed west at 7 am we quickly reached the traffic
jam from the closed road. While we were waiting in line to turn around, we
spotted a bear on the roadside having a deer for breakfast. Humm, seems like
this is going to be an interesting day.
As we turned around and headed back
down the highway, we figured our best option would be to head north and find a
fun mountain to climb somewhere on the front range. We chose to go for The
Citadel to Pettingell Traverse having had it on our to do list for a while now.
The traverse does have a short 5.4 section that most people rappel but since we
were not planning to do a technical climb today we did not have a rope with
us. We agreed that we were both comfortable down climbing 5.4 terrain and upon
reaching the difficult section we would turn around if either of us felt
uncomfortable for any reason. We reached Herman Gulch trailhead just after 9 am
and were walking on the excellent trail toward Herman Lake at 9:30. The parking
lot was overflowing with cars and the trail was busy with day hikers. We made
good time on the approach to the lake, cutting off about ½ mile below the lake
in an area we determined would be easy to cross over to access the saddle
between Mount Bethel and The Citadel. Avoiding most of the willows and
eventually connecting into a nice trail, we reached the saddle quickly and
stopped for a short break.
We hiked up a faint path leading to the ledges and
gullies that we would then climb to the summit of The Citadel, Laura calling
out to me “don’t kick any rocks down on me”! I was extra careful as the gullies
were loose in some areas. We reached the summit at 12:15 pm, snapped a few
pictures, had a quick snack and took off across the traverse. Down climbing and
moving swiftly, we had reached the major difficulty within 15 minutes. Laura
found the rappel slings and assessed the terrain we would need to navigate
without a rope. She climbed down about 20’ to a ledge where there was a slight
overhang but stopped there. I came down to her and looked around for myself.
We
decided rather than down climbing where the rappel would drop you that we would
move over about 15’ and work our way down a separate gulley. I made the awkward
moves to get down the last 10’ and then guided Laura’s feet to good ledges as
she down climbed the same section. The major difficulties were now past, so we
picked up speed and scrambled our way to the summit of Pettingell by 1:30 pm.
Just over an hour on the traverse felt good and we were both having a great
time in the mountains! We chose to walk off the east ridge of Pettingell and
cut down a large scree gulley to get back to the lake. Before we started the
day, we wondered why nobody climbed Pettingell first and did the traverse in
the opposite direction, but now we knew. Nobody in their right mind would walk
up that scree gulley! Upon reaching the lake we once again met up with the day
hikers. We stopped for some wildflower photos and did our best to jog down the
good trail for the 3 miles back to the car. We finished at 3 pm and were very
pleased with how the day went. The skies were sunny all day and we thoroughly
enjoyed the interesting traverse.
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