We Do Stuff: July 2022

French, Frasco, Casco

July 17, 2022

French Mountain 13,940'

Frasco Benchmark 13,876'

Casco Peak 13,908'

We're back on the Colorado centennial peaks list and have been working our way to the end. Laura and I have, for the most part, gone where weather looked dry since we've returned from Denali and today that meant Leadville area again.

Justin crossing the logs at the second creek crossing of the day

We're down to our last 10 peaks to have climbed all of Colorado's highest 100. French, Frasco, Casco is a nice loop hike with a ridge traverse connecting the three peaks. We parked at roughly 10,000' on halfmoon road, just before crossing halfmoon creek. Starting at 7:30 am, we put on sunscreen and before putting on shoes, we crossed the creek. The water was cold but only calf height. The next 4 miles is an easy hike up a 4 wheel drive road to over 11,500'.

Hiking up the grassy sloped on the south side of French Mountain

We'd reached the Iron Mike Mine by 9 am and cut directly toward French Mountain from there. I followed a rocky drainage straight up while Laura chose to stay on the grassy areas a short distance away from me.

Summit of French Mountain

As we reached the saddle, we passed two hikers who would turn out to be the only others we would see today. 2:15 to the top of French and we were off to Frasco, reaching it within 30 minutes.

Justin and me on the summit of Frasco

Geological survey marker on Frasco Benchmark

Justin adding our names to the summit register on Frasco

We took a short break and then continued onto Casco, reaching the summit at 11:30 am. The scrambling along the ridge was fun and rock was mostly solid. We had clear views of the surrounding mountains and really enjoyed these mountains.

Somewhere along the ridge between Frasco and Casco

On the ridge between French and Frasco

From the summit of Casco, we descended a short distance along the south ridge then cut straight down the grassy slopes, directly back to the mine and the 4wd road. For the first time since the broken ankle, Laura was able to jog some on the way out. This was a big victory and it really helped speed our descent. We again took off our shoes and crossed the creek, getting back to the car at 2:15 pm.

Justin checking out the views along the ridge between Frasco and Casco

Justin with beautiful wildflowers along the route

Justin on the summit of Casco with Mount Elbert in the background

Crossing the final stream back to our vehicle

Mt of the Holy Cross - Cross Couloir

July 9, 2022

Mt of the Holy Cross 14,007 ft.
Cross Couloir

Laura and I have wanted to climb the namesake feature of Mt. of the Holy Cross for a quite a long time. It's a steep, 45 degree snow climb that is deeply inset in the mountain and holds snow well into July most years. It’s a lengthy drive over to Halfmoon trailhead from home and the many miles of road to the trailhead is only plowed after June 21st each year making access and timing along with getting decent snow conditions difficult.

First views of Mt of the Holy Cross

Every time I come to the Holy Cross Wilderness I remember why it’s one of my favorite areas in Colorado. It’s big, beautiful, green and amazing. Not only for climbing; it’s a backpacking paradise if you can handle the mosquitos.

Looking back at the sunrise

For this trip Laura and I left Friday night and made the drive up to the trailhead, leaving Hazel with grandma for the night. When we arrived around 8 pm the lot was packed and there were quite a few people who were doing the same thing as us, planning on sleeping in their car. We tried to get some rest but I only got about an hour before our 2 AM alarm went off. By 2:15 we are walking up to the sign at the beginning of the trailhead and steadily making our way up Halfmoon Pass. It’s about 1,000 feet up the pass that you have to then drop down before re-ascending the elevation you just gained and lost. At the bottom of half moon pass there’s a small cut off that is not easy to find. It takes you away from the standard trail and aims for the couloir.

Interesting rock patterns as we scrambled to the base of the couloir

We eventually found where we thought we needed to go but ended up wandering around for 30 minutes before finding what we knew was the proper trail. A GPX track was definitely helpful here. After crossing the stream for a second time, we traversed along the steep hillside and talus fields. We finally felt that we were on the right track and eventually saw Mt of the Holy Cross come interview. A couple more hours of hiking up the steep hillside and we were finally at our objective the cross couloir.

The Bowl of Tears at the base of the Cross Couloir

Justin in the Cross Couloir

We had 1,200 feet of 45° snow to reach the summit. We figured it would take us less than an hour to climb the 1,200 feet; however, once we got into the couloir it was terrible snow conditions. We had chosen only to bring hiking crampons and climb in tennis shoes, having climbed terrain similar to today with the same set up and being comfortable. Today would be a different story. There were many times we would step and find our feet sliding backward underneath us. The climb was very difficult and even sometimes a bit scary with just the hiking crampons. Next time I’ll be sure to bring boots even though it means carrying them for the extra miles. It took us almost 3 hours to reach the summit from where we entered cross couloir. About 3 times as long as we would normally take to climb a route like this.

Laura in the runnel in the Cross Couloir

We hung out on the 14,007 foot summit for 15 minutes and then started our descent down Halo Ridge. As we descended, we included the centennial summit of Holy Cross Ridge, getting me one peak closer to completing the highest 100 in Colorado. Laura had climbed this peak in the past so no new checkmarks for her today!

Looking back at Mt of the Holy Cross from Holy Cross Ridge

Halo Ridge is a long talus hop and scramble down. It goes up and over several summits and eventually leads to the Notch Mountain Shelter. It’s a beautiful building built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corp for Pilgrims coming to see Mt. of the Holy Cross. It is very well preserved and offers excellent views of the cross on the mountain that we had just climbed. We stopped for a few minutes and took pictures and then started down the many switchbacks that lead to the good trail out to the trailhead. It took us just about 11 hours round-trip before reaching the trailhead and soaking our feet in the river and heading to the car and finishing up our day. 15 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation gain were our total.

View of the Cross Couloir from inside the shelter on Notch Mountain

Justin taking a break at the cross portion of the couloir. It's really the only spot you can take a break during the climb.

Looking across the cirque at Notch Mountain with the shelter just right of the sun line

Laura in the Cross Couloir

Justin testing the runnel to see if the snow is better.

Justin climbing the deep runnel high in the Cross Couloir

Justin trying to escape the poor snow conditions by climbing the rock instead.

Justin found out the rock climbing was harder than the snow climbing.

Summit of Mt of the Holy Cross

Looking across the cirque at the Cross Couloir that we climbed

Justin approaching the shelter on Notch mountain

Columbines among other wildflowers

Pretty wildflowers were everywhere.

More wildflowers

North Star Peak to Wheeler Mountain

July 3, 2022
North Star Peak 13,614' to Wheeler Mountain 13,690'

It's been three weeks since we have been on a mountain and both Laura and I were hoping to get out again now that we're back in Colorado after a successful trip to Alaska. While rain altered our plans to climb near Vail, we still chose to try something closer to the cabin where we were spending the weekend. Laura suggested North Star and I agreed but also added the idea that if weather looked okay, we should traverse over to Wheeler as well.

Looking at Northstar from near the start of the hike. Summit at the far end of the long ridge.

We set off from the cabin at 6:30 am and were parked at the Hoosier Pass trailhead within just a few minutes. The skies looked blue for now. We hiked up the familiar road that we would normally ski and up to the long ridge that connects lower peaks with North Star. Traversing along the Continental Divide, there is no trail. It is mostly easy rock hopping until you reach the summit of North Star. It took us just 2 hours to get to our first summit of the day and both Laura and I felt great.

Summit of Northstar

We agreed that we would start across toward Wheeler as we looked ahead and saw clear bail options if we needed them. We also noticed that the route would be far more challenging than what we had done so far.

Working across the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler (Wheeler Peak in the back)

Across the saddle we climbed up and over a few towers or rocks as the route steepened. With careful route finding, we were able to keep the traverse to class 4 with a few short low class 5 sections.

One of the more technical sections on the ridge

Continuing across the ridge

The rock was loose in areas as we cautiously approached the south ridge of Wheeler Mountain. Ascending to the summit, it was just before 11 am. The traverse had taken us 2.5 hours.

Justin near the summit of Wheeler Peak

On the summit of Wheeler Peak

By this point in the day the clouds had begun to build. We looked down toward Wheeler Lake and noticed a group of 4-wheel drive trucks that were hanging out there. We figured we would descend to the lake and try to catch a ride rather than hiking several miles down the muddy and rocky road.

Crowd of 4-wheelers at Wheeler Lake

The group was still at the lake as we passed by and started down the road but shortly into our hike out a single vehicle stopped and asked if we would like a ride out. We accepted and enjoyed the relaxing ride back to the trailhead. It's fun to look up from the cabin and see the ridgelines and be able to say you've traversed almost all of them. Today was a fun adventure and we were happy to be out in the mountains together again.