Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mt. Evans (West Face), 14,264 Ft. - Nov. 1, 2008

Now that the weather has begun to head towards the winter side Ron has lost the desire to go stomping up the mountains in knee deep snow and 20 degree temperatures. I've yet to be discouraged so this weekend which happened to be an extended one for me due to a much needed vacation, I decided to head up and make an attempt on Mt. Evans via its
west face.


Mt. Evans like Pikes Peak is one of the two Colorado 14er's that you can drive to or nearly to the summit. It must be frustrating and glorifying at the same time to to spend all day grinding up a mountain to finally reach the summit and find minivans full of families taking pictures and tossing rock down into the pit you just climbed out of. But alas this time of year at least in the case of Mt. Evans, the road up to the summit is closed, which leaves you with a few winter/fall options. The standard ascent of Evens starts from Summit Lake and can be considered a low challenge day hike. With the closure of the road leading up to summit lake this adds an additional 14 miles to the overall climb. With that in mind I decided that an ascent via the West face, the gully between Mt. Spalding and the Sawtooth was in order. Seen below on the far left of the picture.




When I arrived at the trail head, as with the day I ascended Bierstadt I found many more people than expected. I loaded up my pack, the first hike in my new Marmot pack that I purchased just for the added room for winter layering and carrying of winter tools. For a short while I followed the standard trail up towards Bierstadt, passing over the multiple bridges that span the trip through the willows. A short distance past a large rock on the left of the trail I chose a spot to make a break and headed off towards the base of the gully separating the Sawtooth and Mt. Spalding. For the entire hike up to the gully I was bushwacking through thick willows, around the base of the north face of Bierstadt, coming to a small beaver pond which gave me a full view of the gully that I was about to climb.




Shortly after crossing a beaver dam I had full view of the true height of the gully and began my ascent. I attempted to skirt to the left of the gully climbing the adjacent side of Mt. Spalding for as much of the ascent as possible, this maybe in vain but seemed logical to me that the higher I could get on the side of Spalding the shorter distance I would have to scramble up the talus in the center of the gully. Not entirely sure if this helped or hindered the approach significantly but after about two thirds of the ascent the grade grew enough that I had no choice but to drop into and begin ascending the gully directly.


The remaining portion of climbing the gully could be described as vigorous and after a short time I eventually reached the top to be greeted by a large snow filled cirque with the summit of Spalding to the left the top ridge of the Sawtooth to the left and a false summit of Evans straight ahead. At this point the weaker voice in my head was telling me that this might be a good place to turn around, knowing that more than a mile of climbing was still ahead and climbing the gully was much more difficult than expected. The other voice, the one that puts me into these places and feeds the soul was compelling me to push on. After coming so far I felt that it would be a shame to turn back so I marched on, up towards the top of the classic snow route overlooking Summit Lake. With the road to Summit Lake closed this late in the year and unplowed the view of the lake was quite a spectacle.


From here I followed a cairned route just below the south face of the ridge, pausing frequently to take pictures of Bierstadt and the Sawtooth.


After around another hour I approached the summit and the upper parking lot which during the warmer seasons boast many day tourist who drive to near the summit then make the final 50 Ft. walk to the summit to take in the grand views of Summit Lake, Bierstadt and the Sawtooth. Quite exhausted and hungry I stopped for lunch and an obligatory summit photo, Bierstadt in the background.


Just past four hours after my start I headed back for the long descent back to the parking lot, again stopping frequently to snap photos of the journey. At the top of the gully I took the opportunity to document the distance that I had traveled from the parking lot and during that time saw the first glimpse of other hikers since breaking from the Bierstadt trail. A man a woman on just reaching the top of the gully, obviously exhausted from the ascent. We briefly stopped to swap stories of the climb, these two also exclaiming their inner voice questioning whether to continue on just as I had. Given the time of the day, now somewhere around 2 - 2:30, I questioned to myself their ability to reach the summit and make the return trip to the parking lot within the remaining hours of light.


Downhill travel is both a blessing and a curse, in exchange for the lung burning stairmaster routine you get knee grinding, ankle crunching impact. On this descent I learned two lessons about the type and quality of hiking shoes. My shoes, which are quality shoes and have served me well, taught me the value of ankle support and weather proofing. My shoes low on the ankles don't provide much for support as they don't immobilize lateral movement and as I came to find when I worked my back the willows over the now melted boggy areas, the shoes aren't as water resistant as I would like and by the time I reached the parking lot my shoes were soaked and feet were cold. Fortunately I had a spare pair of socks. Overall the climb was great, I could check another 14er off the list and had decided that winter boots were much higher on the priority list.

Additional Photos

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