West Spanish Peak 13,631'
East Spanish Peak 12,688'
I was hoping to ski this weekend but when a special avalanche advisory was issued for wet slides due to extremely warm conditions, my attention turned to something dry. Wyatt suggested the Spanish Peaks and without hesitation, I was in. I have never climbed the peaks and have wanted to for quite a while. They are visible from my home on a clear day and I have viewed them for years. While most hikers climb them separately, we wanted to get both summits in a single day.
We left Colorado Springs at 3 am and arrived in La Veta in just 2 hours. While driving along road 360, if you're not watching very closely, you'll miss the turnoff to the 4wd Wahatoya Trailhead - we did. Driving to a dead end, we turned back and quickly found the correct turn that is marked by an impossible to see in the dark sign on the right side of the road. We arrived at the trailhead just before 6 am and were hiking by 6:10.
 |
| Impossible to see this in the dark! |
 |
| Trailhead sign at the 4wd parking |
It's an easy 2 miles to the saddle that splits the west and east peaks. We would turn right and head up the northeast facing ridges leading to the summit of West Spanish Peak.
 |
| Sign at the saddle |
 |
| Wyatt with East Spanish Peak in the background |
 |
 |
 |
| Trail starting up East |
After a short break, we made our way back to the saddle, hoping to recover while descending and be fresh for East Spanish Peak. We stopped to view the bristlecone pines and to pick up some trash along the way and returned to the saddle at 11:40.
Taking only 10 minutes to eat and drink, we started up East Spanish Peak at 11:50 am, making our way through the trees while following a sometimes faint trail, well marked by cairns. The trail steepens after a mile and is relentlessly steep, but far easier hiking than the talus we'd experienced earlier in the day. Exiting treeline, we had more talus to contend with, although these rocks were bigger and more stable than those on the west peak. It was easy hiking to the the summit as we arrived just before 1:30 pm.
We only spent a few minutes on the summit as there were exactly 1,658,545,698 gnats swarming. Descending to treeline and back out to the saddle took us another 90 minutes. We hiked casually back to the trailhead and our car, finishing our day at 3:30 pm.
16 miles, 6,600' of elevation gain, 9h 22m
 |
| Looking back on where we came from - West Spanish Peak |
 |
| East summit with West in the background |
No comments:
Post a Comment