3/20/04 – Rosalie Peak & Pegmatite Points – East Ridge

10.3 miles, 4515'


John Kirk, Erin, and I once again found ourselves at the Deer Creek Trailhead this remarkably warm Saturday morning. Three weeks ago, we three had a tough time trying to bushwhack up Bandit Peak's southeast ridge, which we planned to use to summit Rosalie Peak. After an encouraging start on well-packed trails and a quick ascent on mostly dry slopes to the ridge crest, we got bogged down in miserable snow and gnarled, abundant deadfall on the ridge. With a snowstorm already upon us and the prospect of many hours of bushwhacking ahead of us, we turned tail.

This time would be different. For starters, the road had cleared considerably. Some ice on the rutted road that Erin's 4Runner straddled easily could be a problem for cars with low clearance, but otherwise, this trailhead is quite accessible right now. We readied our gear and started hiking on the trail at 9:00. The trail immediately splits, the left for Deer Creek, I think. This curious junction is signed, but it only tells you what the right fork, the Tanglewood Trail, is. It had been folly for us to try to bushwhack through rotten snow three weeks ago when we had a perfectly good trail to use, so this time we were attempting a different route using the Tanglewood Trail, which seems to be the standard for Rosalie if you don't want to hike it from high on the Mount Evans Road. After a mile, we passed the junction with the Rosalie Trail, which is where we turned last time.

The trail, which was now snowpacked, crosses gurgling Tanglewood Creek a few times over log bridges as it climbs a leisurely 1000' over two miles. The snow to either side was rotten, but the trail itself was well-groomed by foot traffic. The trail got steeper, and we climbed a few hundred feet quickly. The Tanglewood Trail was rerouted recently, so I think we headed straight up the old trail, passing numerous switchbacks during this steep section. We climbed into a willow-choked meadow, which the trail bypassed on the left, and then we resumed our ascent, again bypassing switchbacks on packed snow. The forest thinned as we approached treeline, and soon we were amidst a gorgeous bristlecone forest. We took a break, and I finally added a layer of light capilene to the t-shirt that had kept me warm enough until then on this balmy first day of spring. We caught our bearings – we had been led further west than the trail on our map – and hiked toward a rock outcrop. Atop this outcrop, we saw we had an easy path up slopes to gain Rosalie's east ridge. It felt great to be hiking on dry ground and to be above timberline for the first time in weeks.

Atop the ridge, we could now see Longs Peak and peer into Rosalie's beautiful but modest cirque, which holds the Roosevelt Lakes. Back to the south, we looked over the Deckers area crags – most impressive were the Cathedral Spires and Long Scraggy Peak – and the three ranges of the Lost Creek Wilderness. We stashed our snowshoes and began the final 1100' assault on Rosalie. We passed by loads of the dark grey granite with pink feldspar veins that distinguishes the Evans group. With the winds growing stronger as we ranged higher, we came upon intermittent snowfields of a delightful texture that contrasted starkly with the rotten sugar in the forest. The hiking grows less and less steep as you near the summit, furthering the impression that you're hiking up a giant globe.

At 1:00, we were on the top, cautiously placing our rears on the pointy summit boulder while the winds whipped around us. Erin and I were surprised when John informed us that this was our first successful alpine summit as a trio. Failures on Sunshine, Pettingell, and Rosalie Peaks marred our history together, despite a number of successful climbs – the Maroon Bells traverse and a day-hike of Blanca and Ellingwood, to name a couple – when others had been along with us. The summit boulder offered great shelter from the wind, and we relaxed, soaking up the views. Rosalie has a unique perspective on Mount Evans, and we could see the sharp lines of the switchbacking road to its summit. The perspective on Mount Bierstadt is more impressive as you stare directly into the cirque that holds Frozen Lake and at its rugged southeast ridge. Views to the south and west drew our eye most, however. John spotted Holy Cross, and we took some time identifying the Pacific group of the Tenmile Range. I didn't expect to see the southern Sawatch – Antora Peak through Mount Princeton – lined up perfectly for our enjoyment. Our view into Lost Creek had improved dramatically. I was checking out Bison Peak and McCurdy Mountain, and a large spire caught my eye to the south of Bison's summit. Binoculars revealed the immistakable form of the Bison Peak Monolith, which Dan Mottinger and John Prater climbed the week before in a possible first ascent. Most marvelous of all, however, is that from our perch just 35 miles away from Denver, we could see all the way to the Crestones – a full 110 miles away! With binoculars, we could see the profiles of all the 14ers in that group. To the northeast, we could see smoke filling the Bear Creek valley from the controlled burn that John Maki had alerted us to.

"Epaulie," Rosalie's neighboring 13er beckoned, but we were satisfied with our day already. Not wishing to return in the dark, we began our descent. We agreed to add the highpoint of a feature called Pegmatite Points to our agenda before we continued to the trailhead. We ditched our packs at the saddle, which the Tanglewood Trail crosses before descending to Roosevelt Lakes, and began our small detour. The Pegmatite Points are a granite-studded extension of Rosalie's east ridge and includes the summit of Rosedale Peak. Evans granite is often crosscut by veins of pegmatite, a coarse-grained granitic rock with large feldspar crystals. The Pegmatite Points, not too surprisingly, are composed of much of this rock, while the slopes were littered with quartz. The pinker quality of the jumbles of granite forming each point reminded me somewhat of Lost Creek. I was excited for the chance to practice some scrambling, and I chose a fun line up a 30' wall and then a second, easier scramble up to this particular point's summit. I then rejoined Erin and John for the stroll to the Pegmatites' unranked highpoint. Rosalie's appearance could be at its most dramatic from here, with a fine view of the Rosalie's mass and the cliffs of its cirque.

The Pegmatite Points cost us an hour, but we had plenty of daylight to work with. The descent went well. The warm afternoon had softened the already wet snow in the forest, so we had to put on our snowshoes for the first time that day. We arrived at the trailhead just after 5:00. The drive to and from this trailhead is so short it feels like cheating, and we were back to John's house within the hour. We waited for John's wife, Leah, to return home from work, and she joined us for dinner at Old Chicago.

Today felt really special. Maybe it's that we hadn't climbed a 13er in two months. Maybe it was basking in the spring weather. Probably a combination of those and other things. Regardless, it felt great to get out again and enjoy another beautiful day in Colorado's mountains.