1/24/04 – Argentine Peak, Mount Edwards & Mount Wilcox – East Ridge, Southeast Ridge, West Ridge

11.9 miles, 4960'


John Kirk, Kurt Traskos, Erin, and I got together to continue our successful run of summits in what has been a spectacular January. This time we decided on a traverse of three Front Range peaks: Argentine Peak, Mount Edwards, and Mount Wilcox. John was a sport for joining us because he had already climbed Edwards in 2002 and had been considering Mount Hope instead. Kurt drove us up a snow-packed Guanella Pass road, and we parked a little past the Guanella Pass Campground at the turnoff for Silver Dollar Lake. We got ready, slapped on our snowshoes, and started hiking at 7:30.

I had been feeling horrible all morning, presumably from the carnitas burrito I had eaten at Chipotle for lunch on Friday, so I was doing some serious lagging while John and Kurt blazed up the road. You reach the summer trailhead after around a half-mile, even though the sign at the turnoff would have you believe it's a mile. We hiked up that trail a while, skipped what was probably the correct trail, and ended up at a highpoint on a minor ridge, with an overlook of Naylor Lake. After moving down talus, loose dirt, and snow, we reached the trees on the north-facing slopes above the lake. Entering the trees, we began postholing immediately, so we dropped to the lake's level to avoid the additional exhaustion. The lake was, of course, frozen over, but the ice reached up a few yards beyond the banks, so, snowshoe crampons abetting us, we hiked on the ice and up an ice flow of the creek that feeds the lake. We uesd the frozen creek bed for a while to avoid the willows, but we hit weak spots in the snow and ice soon after, so we abandoned these plans for a willow-whack to higher, dryer ground on Mount Wilcox's south slopes.

We removed our snowshoes and hiked up a shallow draw that leads to a summer tarn southeast of Argentine Peak. Once near the westernmost of two saddles between Argentine and Wilcox, we made for the ridge and ascended until we reached a snow slope under Argentine's south ridge. We had been eyeing some lovely cornices on this ridge, so we stayed further south to ensure that one of these cornices wouldn't prove to be a barrier to our ascent. This ended up being unnecessary, but with more snow, I'm sure this would have been the wisest choice. We hiked up wind-sculpted snow to our first summit of the day. The skies were mostly sunny with little wind – another glorious day. Our views reached in all directions. We could see the Maroon Bells and Capitol Peak in the Elks far to the west, which were quite impressive when viewed through binoculars. The lineup of the Tenmile/Mosquito Range is classic as always when seen from this area of the Front Range, and we could see across South Park all the way to the Crestones. We snacked on our food, but we didn't stay long. Even though we had spent four hours ascending Argentine, we had most of our day ahead of us, including what would be four long hours on the Continental Divide.

Mount Edwards looked tantalizingly close, even though we knew a full two miles of ridge-walking separated us from its summit. John was hesitant to join us for the hike over to Edwards, but Kurt was convincing, especially with his suggestion to to expedite our traverse by leaving our packs and snowshoes on Argentine's summit. We brought some essentials along with us – water, food, and some extra clothing – and we began the hike. The primary obstacle between Argentine and Edwards is a series of discouraging, intervening bumps on the ridge. Chief among these is a 13,449' subsummit of Argentine with an 80' drop between it and its parent. We thought we could skirt it on its west side, but doing so was more effort than it was worth, involving some class 2+ scrambling. We ended up needing to summit this subpeak anyway before climbing back down. We continued to the low point between Argentine and Edwards and then gently up to Argentine Pass.

From the pass, Edwards now looked further away than it did from the summit of Argentine, and we had no less than four more bumps to go over before making the final summit push. Fortunately, these bumps do break up the elevation gain significantly, making for a gentle ascent. John mentioned that we should make the trek over to unranked McClellan Mountain's summit, saying that it would give him some extra motivation to complete the hike to Edwards. I agreed, and it did look like this would be a small jaunt from our perspective. Thankfully, reality set in once we summitted Edwards, and we all agreed that this would be a significant addition to our already long day. Kurt and Erin made Edwards' summit first, even racing each other for the last hundred feet. Meanwhile, John was starting to get a massive headache. Slow to reach the top, he was beginning to regret coming over to Edwards. The view of Torreys' Kelso Ridge was exceptional, and we all gawked at McClellan's very rugged west-facing slopes, which were lit perfectly. Edwards' north face somewhat mirrors this ruggedness, and there's a nasty gash of a couloir to peer down from the summit. We had fun identifying some of the nearby peaks like Hagar Mountain, The Citadel, and Pettingell Peak, and I enjoyed looking down into Horseshoe Basin, the site of my first fourteener hike up Grays and Torreys. Mount Wilcox has a gorgeous west face, but our final goal for the day looked ridiculously far away from Edwards.

It was tough to leave Edwards' summit, but we started moving again after a fifteen minute stay. Once again, the lumps along the ridge were fatiguing, but we made good progress down to Argentine Pass, taking in a few weak but worthy glissades. We were surprised to see a couple of guys coming our way, and our paths met after a few minutes. Chris, Don, and their dogs had climbed Square Top Mountain and Argentine Peak, but in the waning afternoon hours, they decided not to climb Edwards and to hike only a while further in its direction before turning back. We were now facing the challenge of reclimbing Argentine. I was feeling pretty good at this point and made a non-stop assault on UR 13,449, before breaking to wait for the rest of my party. At 3:30 and after another grueling 400', we were back at Argentine's summit. With his throbbing headache, this was enough of a day for John, and we worked out a plan to meet him on the east ridge of Mount Wilcox while the rest of us made for a third summit bid.

We three bypassed the minor bump between Argentine and Wilcox, and then started our ascent. Erin led the charge on Mount Wilcox, while Kurt and I followed. It was weird; perhaps it's a function of the freezing, thawing, and refreezing of our leather boots, but all three of us had to stop, albeit at different times, to tighten the laces of our now loosely fitting boots while on Wilcox. Erin climbed non-stop, while I worked hard to keep her pace. Kurt was trailing after stopping to retie his boots, but he was only about five minutes behind us. We stayed just under Wilcox's West Ridge to avoid some minor wind and hiked up talus to the summit. We really liked Wilcox's summit, and we marvelled at the distance we had traveled from Edwards. We signed the register and started our descent of Wilcox's east ridge.

We tried to stay ahead of the advancing shadow on the massively broad ridge, but it was too quick for us. Fortunately, we still had light below us, helping us find John amidst the yellow grasses. As a grace note to our day, we got to watch the sun cast yellows, then oranges, and finally reds on Mounts Evans and Bierstadt and the Sawtooth Ridge. As we neared the forest on Wilcox's ridge, we probably went too far to the east, making for some later intrigue. But we were none the wiser at the time and were just trying to get down. We made a couple of glissades, including a fun one that banked us into a curve in the slope, before reaching willows.

I led down a boisterous slope, bounding through the powder and through the willows, before bogging down in the more level terrain below. Our light was fading by the minute, but we still held hopes that we'd reach the road before we'd have to switch to headlamps. Kurt took the lead and postholed the way through trees and significant downfall. John used his GPS to reckon that we had an exhausting half-mile before we would reach the road. With the ambient light now failing us, Kurt and John turned on their headlamps, and we aimed due south for the dimly lit east ridge of Square Top Mountain. Crossing a creekbed and up and over a small but tiresome ridge we plodded our way. Kurt finally ran out of gas, and I took over the lead for the remainder. After a brief bout of postholing, I got lucky and stumbled onto some snowshoe tracks. Since they were headed our way, we followed and soon came upon the road. After another 3/4-mile or so on the snowmobile-packed road, we reached the car at 6:20, nearly an 11-hour day. Kurt drove us down to Idaho Springs for well-deserved food and drink at a crowded Tommyknockers. And we avoided ski traffic both ways, woohoo!

This was a great way – and a great day – to experience some of the key thirteeners between Grays and Evans. The hike was challenging, the views were exquisite, and the weather couldn't have been better. If storms in the coming week lock of out of the mountains next weekend, we've already capped a great month in fine style.