Grizzly Peak A and Garfield Peak

September 12, 2020
Grizzly Peak A 13,988'
Garfield Peak 13,780'

It's September and snow has officially hit Colorado; although it won't stick around long with temps in the 70's. Laura and I are decided that with the snow that had fallen this week, we better get to the mountains for a climb! We chose to attempt Colorado's highest 13er, Grizzly Peak A and would connect it with Garfield Peak that sits along the ridgeline within the same cirque. Leaving home at 7:00 am and dropping Hazel off in Woodland Park, we headed west toward Twin Lakes. By 9:30 am am we had reached the upper trailhead. It was a muddy drive in but we were here and ready for a beautiful day in the mountains. We set off up the road and quickly got grand views of the cirque and our objectives for the day. 

We hiked up toward the bands of rock on the snow covered trail, quickly coming upon some old mining equipment and an abandoned mine shaft. We passed by and walked to where the terrain steepened and the snow got deeper. I took the lead and broke trail while Laura and I worked our way up a 1,000' talus slope that leads to the ridgeline. We were having a great time, but moving slower than normal must have made us bored. We decided to build a snowman on the ridge in hopes to make the party of three we had passed a while back get a laugh. Continuing on, we quickly made the summit at 12:45 pm. The views surrounding us were spectacular as they always are with fresh now on all the high peaks. We stopped for a short break and looked at our descent options toward Garfield as well as off of Garfield after we would make it there. 

The traverse went quickly as the snow covered slopes were easy and fast to descend. As we started around a point on the ridge, we found ourselves following a mountain goat track all the way to the summit of Garfield. It was nice to have a guide who obviously knew the best way since he lived there! Leaving our goat guide as we descended off of Garfield, we chose some steep snow slopes and quickly were back in the basin. The snow helped the descent go quickly and with a just little sliding, we were on flat ground once again. We made the hike out through some willow trees and back to the road which was now muddy from the melting snow. We got back to the Jeep at 3:15 pm happy to have gone for the mountain this day rather than wonder how much snow there was and if we would even make it to the trailhead.

7.25 miles

3,110' elevation gain

5 hours 15 minutes

California Peak

 

September 9, 2020

California Peak 
13,855'

  

While continuing on our centennial quest here in Colorado, and me attempting to keep my acclimatization up for a big day coming up with my friend Isaac, Laura and I decided that a quick trip to the Sangre de Christo's was in order this weekend. We settled on California Peak. I have no idea where it got its name - it is nothing like anything we have ever climbed in CA, but then again, the Sierra are a very different world than Colorado.This California Peak was just a simple walk up. We set off planning to park at the lower huerfano trailhead but using the 13ers guidebook for the second weekend in a row, we quickly learned that the information is not real accurate and should not be trusted. We parked about a half mile lower than we should have and set off on a path toward what we thought was the correct path. We quickly learned that we had not driven up the access road far enough, so we followed a drainage ditch for a while and then cut straight up the hillside. We were able to connect into a trail that lead up to a saddle on the mountain and then we followed easy tundra and talus fields to the summit. The hike was uneventful and the skies we blue. We decided that we'd like to make the day more interesting so we descended the north ridge and added on another 13er to our day. Pt. 13,577' is just a bump on the ridge on the way toward Lilly Lake from California Peak. Laura and I passed over, checked out the summit register and then descended the ridge for a few hundred yards before descending very loose and rock filled cliff bands leading to Lily Lake. I jumped in for a quick swim in the alpine lake and the cold took my breath away. Knowing we had a long way to go back to the car, we quickly set off and began jogging back toward the Jeep. 

Stats:

11.5 miles

4,127' of elevation gain

6 hours car to car