Storm Peak 13326' 6/3/12
Determined not to screw up a low snow year, I did something I conveniently put off all of last year; get into shape. I don't have a planned peak list, and I don't really train for anything. I get into shape by going all in on one mountain that's way out of my (seasonal endurance) league to work out all the laziness in my legs. That way, I don't have to go through months of torture working out. Just one full day of hell to kick it into gear.
So I threw out my modest thought of climbing wussy Mount Tileston for something more ridiculous, a thirteener in the first week of June. I'd done it before on Mummy Mountain, but back then I was training for backpacking trips and it wasn't a huge deal. Last week I was winded by snowshoeing a one mile long route up miniscule Shipler Mountain. So this week I chose Storm Mountain, a 4000' Ev gain across 6 miles, the toughest thing I'd attempted since last August when I somehow stumbled up Mount Massive before getting dehydrated and half dying on the return to the trailhead. I'd watched the snowfields on Storm recede over the last few months and decided to give it a shot despite being way over my head.
We hit the trail at 6:45 from the Longs Peak trailhead and made good time through the first 2.5 miles to the Battle Mountain group site, but the next section to Chasm Junction and Granite Pass slowed us down considerably. I'm not sure why, but this always happens. When the thrill of breaking above treeline wears off at the Battle Mtn site, I'm always left with a monotonous and featureless couple of miles to the pass. It wasn't all bad though, there were lots of tame marmots to stalk and photograph. I like marmots.
After a long break at the pass, I was feeling pretty tired as we traversed the six switchbacks leading to the Boulderfield. Our first full view of Storm came at that point, and though the snow was patchier on the north slopes we decided our route to be the standard approach where we'd pick our way through larger snowfields. Walking to the Boulderfield site and heading up the lower slopes was easy, the rest was not. The snowfields look a lot smaller from afar, but when you're right up next to them they become an obvious obstacle and time waster. Digging in perpendicular to the slope got us part of the way, but when the pitch of the slope increased our original route became a hopeless postholing mess. So we skirted farther north where our only choice was to climb the biggest of the snowfields on the whole damn mountain. I'm comfortable on snow, but my father is not. And to make matters worse, a big grey cloud appeared from behind Storm and scattered the crowd of people watching the two idiots climb up a little glacier.
At this point snow started falling to confirm my nagging suspicion that we were too slow and sucky to be attempting this peak. Without knowing what the clouds blocked by Storm looked like, we agreed the only thing we could do was summit the mountain and look for a better way down on the north slope. Eventually the snow gave way to rock, and we jaunted up the final stretch to the summit, where we were greeted by phenomenal views into Glacier Gorge and the peaks along the Continental divide. The snow had lessened up a bit while we found the register(the true summit is the northernmost point) and signed in. Only a few people had been up there since 2011, but the last entry was just a day before us.
Concluding the weather was a concern but not an immediate one, we had our lunches while I took pictures. We found a much better descent to be along the ridge crest, which we followed for a few hundred feet before breaking off to get back to the switchbacks above Granite Pass. As usual, we cut off the monotony of the standard trail by hooking up to the unmarked Jim's Grove trail where it would spit us back out at the group site. If you can find it, the trail saves its fair share of distance, but not necessarily time. But since I love shortcuts, we took it regardless. At the terminus, I met a man who'd run out of water and shared some with hm. 3 little half liter Sigg bottles aren't enough, bring a water filter. This isn't an uncommon experience on Longs Peak. As the final stretch back to the car wore on, the skies darkened and thunder echoed through Tahosa valley reminding everyone that afternoon thunderstorms are making their way back into the mountains for the summer.
One long, strenuous day can mean a lot farther down the road.
So I threw out my modest thought of climbing wussy Mount Tileston for something more ridiculous, a thirteener in the first week of June. I'd done it before on Mummy Mountain, but back then I was training for backpacking trips and it wasn't a huge deal. Last week I was winded by snowshoeing a one mile long route up miniscule Shipler Mountain. So this week I chose Storm Mountain, a 4000' Ev gain across 6 miles, the toughest thing I'd attempted since last August when I somehow stumbled up Mount Massive before getting dehydrated and half dying on the return to the trailhead. I'd watched the snowfields on Storm recede over the last few months and decided to give it a shot despite being way over my head.
We hit the trail at 6:45 from the Longs Peak trailhead and made good time through the first 2.5 miles to the Battle Mountain group site, but the next section to Chasm Junction and Granite Pass slowed us down considerably. I'm not sure why, but this always happens. When the thrill of breaking above treeline wears off at the Battle Mtn site, I'm always left with a monotonous and featureless couple of miles to the pass. It wasn't all bad though, there were lots of tame marmots to stalk and photograph. I like marmots.
After a long break at the pass, I was feeling pretty tired as we traversed the six switchbacks leading to the Boulderfield. Our first full view of Storm came at that point, and though the snow was patchier on the north slopes we decided our route to be the standard approach where we'd pick our way through larger snowfields. Walking to the Boulderfield site and heading up the lower slopes was easy, the rest was not. The snowfields look a lot smaller from afar, but when you're right up next to them they become an obvious obstacle and time waster. Digging in perpendicular to the slope got us part of the way, but when the pitch of the slope increased our original route became a hopeless postholing mess. So we skirted farther north where our only choice was to climb the biggest of the snowfields on the whole damn mountain. I'm comfortable on snow, but my father is not. And to make matters worse, a big grey cloud appeared from behind Storm and scattered the crowd of people watching the two idiots climb up a little glacier.
At this point snow started falling to confirm my nagging suspicion that we were too slow and sucky to be attempting this peak. Without knowing what the clouds blocked by Storm looked like, we agreed the only thing we could do was summit the mountain and look for a better way down on the north slope. Eventually the snow gave way to rock, and we jaunted up the final stretch to the summit, where we were greeted by phenomenal views into Glacier Gorge and the peaks along the Continental divide. The snow had lessened up a bit while we found the register(the true summit is the northernmost point) and signed in. Only a few people had been up there since 2011, but the last entry was just a day before us.
Concluding the weather was a concern but not an immediate one, we had our lunches while I took pictures. We found a much better descent to be along the ridge crest, which we followed for a few hundred feet before breaking off to get back to the switchbacks above Granite Pass. As usual, we cut off the monotony of the standard trail by hooking up to the unmarked Jim's Grove trail where it would spit us back out at the group site. If you can find it, the trail saves its fair share of distance, but not necessarily time. But since I love shortcuts, we took it regardless. At the terminus, I met a man who'd run out of water and shared some with hm. 3 little half liter Sigg bottles aren't enough, bring a water filter. This isn't an uncommon experience on Longs Peak. As the final stretch back to the car wore on, the skies darkened and thunder echoed through Tahosa valley reminding everyone that afternoon thunderstorms are making their way back into the mountains for the summer.
One long, strenuous day can mean a lot farther down the road.
