Crystal Peak A

Crystal Peak 13,852'

From Aqueduct road (sort-of)

10 miles RT, 3200' of elevation gain

7/25/2015

Cameras used: Nikon D5100 and iPhone 6

I was looking for a hike to do with my friends who recently moved to Washington. They live just above sea level and were wary of their conditioning.

When we arrived in Breck it was 48 degrees and raining. Not typical July weather.

We were planning on Quandary but a combination of a probable late start on a Saturday and parking issues made me think something different would be better.  The plan was to start at the Aqueduct road and hook up with the 4x4 road in Crystal basin. However, due to my lack of knowledge of the area, and a rougher road than anticipated, lead us to stop short and hike a chunk of the road. Fortunately hiking the road goes pretty fast, almost as fast as driving it in a 2WD rental Rav 4.

We parked at the creek crossing. Little did I know we were far from the aqueduct road

Some nice trail on the Wheeler Trail shortcut/bypass

The wheeler trail has a challenging creek crossing before joining the Crystal Creek 4x4 road. We eventually made it but someone got a foot in the river.

Stream crossing on Wheeler trail

Wildflowers were abundant

The meadows and dwindling forest were superb, the wildflowers were in full force. This early in the morning, there was no one to be seen.

Some Columbines in the wild

Crossing the creek just below the lake was quite challenging, the road/trail brings you up to a portion where the outlet is almost 80' wide. I managed to rock-hop my way across.

Father Dyer on the right

2-shot panorama. Crystal is distant left-center (with snow on it)

On the other side of the creek, the trail very gradually makes it's way up the side of Peak 10.

5-shot panorama of the lower basin

We had to cross a snowfield about 50' long in late July

Looking down on the lower Crystal Lake

It's hard to believe this used to be a jeep road.

Upper Crystal Lake, about 12,800'

Hiking up tundra to the saddle at 13,200'

Almost to the saddle...

The saddle had wonderful views

Looking up the ridge, about 650' from the summit.

2/3 of the way up the ridge- this was nice solid class 2 hiking

On the summit with Avery and Anastasiya.

Just for fun :)

It was Avery's B-day and his girls sang him "Happy Birthday" on FaceTime from the summit!

Pacific Peak dominates

Looking down at the mayflower gulch, Quandary standing guard in the distance

Super Summit Panorama- Gore range left, Peak 10 right

Peak 8, Peak 9 (notice the lift on peak 8)

A nice and easy trail at this point

Looking East

After the hike we were able to enjoy the mild day by soaking in a salt water hot tub at 10,000', drinking some wine, and relaxing in the afternoon sun. But then it was time for dinner, so we headed to downtown Breckenridge to go to Relish. It's a nice place, I recommend it.

Looking happy after a long hike!

Japanese Lantern Scallops at Relish

Bonus pic from Sapphire Point

 The weather was fantastic, the scenery was gorgeous, and it was fun to hang out with my good friends whom we had missed since they moved. This was a nice route that didn't offer much of a challenge, but had nice views all around. Those seeking solitude should probably look elsewhere, as we saw quite a few people once we reached the summit.

Humboldt Peak Redux

Humboldt Peak via West Ridge (standard route)

Date: 6/21/2015

~12 miles RT, 4,200' of elevation gain

Humboldt Peak is one of my favorite "easy" 14er hikes, but it isn't that easy. You have to hike over 4 miles to reach the steep section that starts heading up to the summit. Having done this one before, I knew exactly how long it took me last time, and I hoped to beat that time by a couple minutes.

I did make a mistake this time. I didn't quite adapt my load to conditions. I had originally thought that it was going to be cold, so I had 2 jackets, gloves, hat, and pants in my backpack. I had packed 2.5 liters of water. It turns out that I didn't use any jackets or pants at all.

Anyway. It was HOT- one of the hottest 14ers I have done ever. I brought 2.5 liters and it simply was not enough. I ran out of water on the way down with about 3 miles to go.  Lesson learned? I wasn't paying full attention to the conditions and predicted weather, and the unusually hot weather really "bit" me.  Luckily Chris is a stud and he bailed me out with about 10 oz of water, which was plenty enough to keep me going. Anyways, pics...

Looking ahead up the trail.

Looking back down the 4x4 road

About 2 miles up the road you come to the start of the "trail" where it leaves the old 4x4 road.

Looking NW, that is broken hand pass in the middle, Crestone Needle to the right

This is the west face of Humboldt Peak

Snow is melting rapidly

Finally up to South Colony Lakes, here is a nice place to relax- for a couple seconds anyway.

And here we are at the upper lake, with Crestone Peak starting to show (R)

Getting higher up to the saddle, we have an excellent view of Crestone Peak on the R, Needle on the L.

From the saddle, we see Colony Baldy Peak

This ridge goes up 1,200' to the summit of Humboldt Peak

Getting higher up...

Chris is high up on the ridge above 14,000'

Right before Chris hits the summit

Summit!

Kit Carson and Challenger Point center left, Mt. Adams right.

Summit Pano with the Blanca group in the distance

Distant Right is the Blanca Group, distant left is the Spanish Peaks

Kit Carson Peak is to the left, Colony Baldy on the right.

A beautiful day in Colorado

This is a 4-shot pano I had to do extensive Photoshop on.. it was worth it.

Just another beautiful, HOT day in the mountains. It was one of the hottest 14ers I've ever done. Thanks to my hiking partner Chris Sumey for putting up with my rambling and bailing me out with water. It was a great day in the mountains.