14er Report #4: Mt. Sherman (Early Summer, from Fourmile Creek)

The view northeast, Mt Sherman Summit. Colorado, 2014

The view northeast, Mt. Sherman summit just after sunrise. Colorado, 2014

This one has the reputation of being one of the quickest and easiest of Colorado’s 14ers. They say a Cessna 310 crash-landed on the long, ridge-like top in January of 1967 and all survived–sounds pretty scary to me (see THIS LINK and scroll down to page 3).

For us unwinged humans, the climb is about 2000-feet vertical and a round trip of under five miles (all assuming you can park at the gate just below the mine ruins). As a sightseeing bonus, you have the aforementioned old mine structures along your route–Dauntless, Last Chance, and Hilltop Mines. (Don’t go inside of what remains of these sites–you’ll fall down a hidden shaft never to be heard from by your mother ever, ever, ever again!)

With no Moon scheduled by the Universe, my plan was to leave early enough to allow time for some Milky Way shots, possibly “light painting” one of the mine ruins in the foreground. I was especially focused (sic) on the tall building at the Hilltop Mine–the Milky Way should be right above it if I were to get there early enough. I had even memorized exactly where to put my lens to get exact infinity focus…

Ah, the best hatched plans.

It was a dark night. Not stormy, but really dark. My entire world was the 50-foot radius of my headlamp. I had anticipated this a bit and had studied the route several times on 14ers.com–had it memorized, basically. But…I didn’t anticipate all the other, distracting, criss-crossing roads and trails in the main mine area. Even with the light out and eyes adjusted to low light, the mountain ahead was just a dark, shapeless mass…so my aiming reference was not very exact and based mainly on manly intuition (and we know how that works).

So, I climbed up what seemed like a good trail, thinking I was headed for the saddle between Mt. Sheridan ( a 13er to the southwest) and Mt. Sherman itself. Up…up…up…and instead of a saddle, I popped up onto a smallish, rounded summit with an immediate view of the lights of Leadville way below. Apparently, I had veered a bit too far to the left on the way up and I had managed to climb, unintentionally, 13,748-foot Mt. Sheridan. Hmmm…

In the dark (even the starlight was blocked by some cloudiness), I could see a shadow of what was probably Mt. Sherman to the north, but I couldn’t see for sure the best route down the Mt. Sheridan scree to the main saddle. So, I settled down in the Sheridan summit wind shelter for 40 minutes until the approaching dawn illuminated the options sufficiently.

It’s amazing how a little daylight can clear things up. Once again, that famous quote by either Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett (or was it CCCarl?) comes to mind: “I ain’t never been lost, but I was bewildered for three days once…”

The lesson here is that even the easiest 14er can cause you problems. Imagine, instead of darkness, a whiteout, heavy rain, or fog. It would be quite easy to climb or descend into the incorrect drainage and find yourself cliffed out, cold, hungry and lost. Bad weather and an easy mistake could turn your little high altitude romp into an epic. (Hmmm…maybe a little hand-held GPS wouldn’t be a bad idea…)

Luckily, this particular day ended just as fine as a frog’s hair. (Which is pretty fine, actually.) So, on to the trip report and a few images.

Mt. Sherman (14,036′) Trip Report

Route:

The standard tourist route from the Fourmile Creek Trailhead. I parked right at the gate (which was open, but private property beyond).

In daylight, the trail is reasonably obvious. At night, not so. I climbed Mt. Sheridan first (by mistake), then dropped down and across the Sheridan-Sherman saddle, and up Sherman. I came back down to the trailhead on the main route I had missed in the dark.

There was one big patch of snow just below the saddle. No traction devices were needed as good footsteps were already punched into the surface. It could give you a little pause if you aren’t accustomed to snow, though. For the descent, someone had channeled a deep, curvy, glissade slot in this same snowbank–the top part looked almost like a luge run. Fun, perhaps, but my hands were full with tripod and camera…and, more to the point, I’m getting old and prefer to avoid broken bones…

Timeline:

A 12:00a.m. departure from Boulder.

Parked and on the trail by 2:45a.m.

Surprised to suddenly and unexpectedly arrive at the summit of Mt. Sheridan at 4:05a.m. Spent another 40 minutes on top waiting for sufficient light to see the descent to the Sheridan-Sherman saddle.

Down to the saddle and across to the base of Sherman by 5:05a.m. (quick scree descent!).

On the Mt. Sherman summit ridge at 5:45a.m., about five minutes after official sunrise, which was delayed by some clouds on the horizon anyway.

Started down from the summit at 6:40a.m. and was at the truck by 8:45a.m., which includes a number of photo stops along the way.

Weather Conditions:

Good. Some clouds hid the stars initially, then both stars and clouds went away about dawn. A lightning storm way off on the northern horizon reminded me that these are not just afternoon threats. Temps in the low 30s and winds from zero to 20 or so (worst on the west side of the main ridge, up high). No Moon…dark, dark, dark!

By the time I was back down to the truck, cumulus puffies were starting to form throughout the area. Some of the folks who were just starting up as I finished my hike surely were casting a worried eye at the increasingly dark and building cumulus later on in the day. The moral o’ the story: Get your arse outa bed early and get off the mountain early. Then, take a nap.

Trail Conditions:

Good. No issues–with the advent of daylight, that is. Except for the one big snow field below the saddle, most other snow patches could be avoided.

Unusual Events/Comments:

At least 12-20 folks on the trail going up as I came down. Three 4WD vehicles at the lower mine and at least a dozen vehicles of all kinds parked by the gate when I got back with even more people preparing to start the climb. (I was totally alone when I parked there at 2:30a.m.) It’s nice to go early–you beat the storms and the crowds.

If hiking by night, go with at least a half Moon or more. This will greatly improve your situational awareness. (Or, first check out the area by day. Sure, why not?)

The wildflowers are definitely peaking–many varieties and they are gorgeous. I even saw a few on the still-snowy summit ridge at 14,000′!

Cool mine ruins–those guys were pretty determined. You’ll see an old, made-in-Denver, cast iron smelter at the Hilltop Mine near 13,000′!

Nice views of Leadville and the Sawatch Range from the summit. Great views all other directions, too!

Colorado 14er Senior Challenge summit count: 8 of the basic list of 58 (p. xxiii in Gerry Roach’s 14er “Bible”, Colorado Fourteeners, 3rd Ed.); 8 of the long list of 73 (pp. 347-348, with South Wilson added, also in Roach’s “Bible”.

Select Images:

Pre-dawn on the wrong summit. A view across to Sherman from Sheridan with the glow from Denver on the horizon, and Venus and the Pleiades in the morning sky. The red foreground is from my headlamp with red selected…