Pikes Peak Portrait. From Garden of the Gods, Colorado, 2015
The summit of the Grand Peak [now Pikes Peak], which was entirely bare of vegetation, and covered with snow, now appeared at the distance of fifteen or sixteen miles from us, and as high again as that we had ascended; it would have taken a whole day’s march to have arrived at its base, when I believe no human being could have ascended to its summit. —Zebulon Pike, November of 1806
Second time was the charm. Yesterday’s weather was good (well…there was some wind). There was a near full Moon and no fog/low clouds. I could actually see to navigate at 3a.m.!
I have had Pikes Peak in mind for a winter, sunrise ascent for some time. The peak has a road and a cog railway to the top and is swarmed by a mass of gasping and wheezing humanity all summer long. The top is quite urbanized, with a multitude of bunker buildings, including a gift and coffee shop. There is even an auto road race up the mountain…and a big-heart-required running race, too.
So, a night, winter, ascent seemed to be the ticket to avoid all this folderol and make it feel like a sorta pseudo wilderness summit.
It went well (well…there was some wind) with the exception of the old “brick-in-the-backpack” trick I inadvertently played on myself. What is this, you may ask? I’ll tell you, even if you didn’t…
Years ago, we used to try to slip a brick into Gary Weesner’s massive backpack before our Grand Canyon trips. He was an ox and didn’t much worry about what the pack weighed so we figured he wouldn’t notice the brick. And sometimes, well, he didn’t…he…he…he…
Fast forward to yesterday. I couldn’t find my water bottles as I packed my pack, so I threw in a couple of different water containers and zipped things up. Imagine my consternation when, upon unpacking after the trip, I found my missing water bottles…at the bottom of my pack. So, I ended up hauling an extra 2-3 unnecessary pounds up and down Pikes. Add that to the two lenses I never used, and you have close to an extra seven pounds of weight I carried along just for the exercise. Dang.
I need to take a bit more time when I pack. At least I didn’t find a brick in there, too.
Trip Report: Pikes Peak (14,110′)
Route:
The Northwest Slopes Route from Crags Trailhead, about 14 miles and 4,300′ of altitude gain, all told.
Timeline:
I left Boulder at about 11:15 and was walking up the trail by 2:05a.m. By 5:15a.m. I hit the desolate (at that hour) Pikes Peak Road by the Devil’s Playground and was on the summit at 6:45a.m., about 17 minutes before sunrise.
I left behind the gale force winds on the flat, urban summit at around 8:15a.m. and took a break back down at the Devil’s Playground in the lee of a granite castle at 10:10a.m. By 12:35p.m., I was back at the trailhead.
So…4+40 up, 4+20 down, with 10 hours and 30 minutes total, including rests and contemplative photo stops (on the top, and especially on the way down).
Weather Conditions:
Wonderful! Excepting the wind.
At the start, I saw 28 degrees on the thermometer and it was 51 degrees–shorts weather–when I got back to the truck. Clear skies with just a few cirrus here and there. (It was 74 degrees in Denver as I drove through–what’s with that in February!?)
As to the winds, I checked the summit weather station once I got home and the high wind speed at the summit for the day was 60.1mph at 5:11a.m., about when I was crossing the road at Devil’s Playground. They also reported a gust (after “refreshed”, whatever that means) of 79mph. I knew the winds were pretty pissy, but not that bad. Maybe so, though…I was definitely being pushed around, sandblasted by spindrift, etc. Once on the summit and to hide from the hurricane, I found a nice little nook under the observation platform that was massaged by the rising sun and hidden from Grand Gale.
Trail Conditions:
Microspikes were the tool for the trailhead to treeline section, both up and down, as there was a good, packed trench the whole way. Above treeline, it was a toss up whether microspikes or just boots worked best across the tundra fields. Up there, one could generally find, bare grass, rock, or snow that was quite thin. Once past Devil’s Playground, the trail was dirt, rock, or hard packed snow with the occasional windblown drift.
On the way up, upon seeing first light to the east, I did “cheat” and walk the edge of the road to get to the top a bit faster. This is prohibited by local Forest Service rules, but I figured no one would be about that early in the morning.
With a 93% waning Moon, there was no need for a headlamp the entire way. The night was gorgeously illuminated…like the dreamland of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.
On the east side of Point 13,363′ there is a gully/slope that could potentially be an avalanche hazard if a storm were to drop enough snow and load it up. When I crossed it, the snow was fairly thin, wind-scoured, and well packed, but be aware of this possibility if doing a winter ascent. To avoid it, walking the road around the Point would be the best option.
From the Crag’s Trailhead parking lot, don’t take the trail behind the bathrooms (both in summer and winter). Instead, just hike up the road and through the campground where you can pick up the trail at the end of the campground. The trail behind the bathrooms seems to be twice the effort and distance to get you to the same place just up the valley.
In winter, those last couple of miles from the Mennonite Camp up to the Crags Trailhead are not necessarily plowed, but there are often vehicle tracks to follow. I highly recommend AWD or 4WD as this “slot car track” can be very slippery. If you slide out of the tracks, or if you decide to be nice and pull over to let someone by, you can easily get very, very stuck in the deep snow just off the road–as I left yesterday, I saw two vehicles (both 4×4 trucks) who were trapped this way. In summer, of course, it is an easy 2WD dirt road.
Photography Issues:
–I have noticed that the more difficult the hike, the less photography gets done. It’s as if you have a finite pot of calories devoted to the venture and if you use a lot of them up hiking a long distance or fighting difficult winds or weather, there are fewer calories left to make pictures. So it was on this journey. The wind was pretty fierce, so I never changed lenses from my 24-70, and I never stopped to make any photos on the way up even though the moonlit, spindrift-clouded landscape was just asking for it. Ah, regrets.
–Due to the above, I carried my 70-200 and 14-24 for essentially no reason. That is roughly four pounds of dead “exercise weight”. Gary’s ghost came back to leave a couple of bricks in my pack, I guess.
–Ideally, I like to do these hikes the day after a full Moon. That will give you a setting Moon just after sunrise, thus a more manageable dynamic range when including the lunar and terrestrial landscapes together. On this trip (three days after full), the Moon was still pretty high at sunrise and eventually became very washed out and uninteresting as it set.
Unusual Events/Comments:
–Carried too much weight–two extra lenses and extra water I didn’t know I had. Argh.
–Goggles and full face coverage were indispensable when the spindrift was sandblasting my face. Hiking poles were indispensable for balance in high winds.
–I was alone the entire time on the mountain. Minor exceptions: I did see the ranger drive the road near the summit between about 8:30a.m. and 9:00a.m. (the only vehicle I ever saw on the road), and I saw a XC skier in the forest within about a half mile of the trailhead. Can’t match that in the summer.
—Colorado 14er Senior Challenge summit count: 27 of the basic list of 58 (p. xxiii in Gerry Roach’s 14er “Bible”, Colorado Fourteeners, 3rd Ed.); 33 of the long list of 73 (pp. 347-348, with South Wilson added, also in Roach’s “Bible”.
Selected Images:
A 93% waning Moon and the shadow of Pikes Peak rises into the morning twilight…
Moon, Shadow, and Sunrise on Sawatch. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
First light on the ridge below. A curve of the Pikes Peak Road is visible to the left. In the distance, the Bierstadt-Evans area and even Longs Peak are visible…
First Light. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
A wider view off to the northwest…
View North. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
Example of the “urbanization” of the summit area. I found a nice shelter from the wind under the observation platform at the distant far left where the tracks disappear…
Cog Railway, View South. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
Meditating on the topic of “wind chill factor”…
Summit Sign. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
Conditions you might encounter on the upper part of the mountain in winter. Note the one slope that could hold avy danger after a big storm. Generally, though, the wind sweeps things pretty clean…
Trail Conditions. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
Uncivilization intrudes…
Pikes Road and Blowing Snow. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
A good place to shelter from the wind on the way up or down…
The Notch, Devil’s Playground. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
An example of snow on the trail. One could usually find either hard packed areas to walk on, or simply walk near the dirt/snow contact…
Lower Devil’s Playground Area. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
Those rocks up on the left is where I found myself last week during my first attempt. In the dark, with no moon and heavy clouds, I had no idea I was only a few hundred yards from the trail…
Tundra, Blowing Snow. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
A couple of sections of the trail through Devil’s Playground can be seen, then the Pikes Peak Road leading to the distant summit. This has to be a somewhat disheartening view on the way up–you are still a full three miles from the top at this point…
Devil’s Playground to Summit View. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
On the ridge just before dropping down into the valley, looking southwest toward the southern Sawatch and beyond…
On the Ridge. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
A picturesque treeline with the Sawatch Range in the background…
Treeline. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
This is why they call it the Crags Trail. Looks like some great rock climbing on solid granite. You can also see a section of the trail through the snow–nicely packed. In the distance, the Sawatch Range…
The Crag View. Pikes Peak, Colorado, 2015
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