6/12/04 – UN 13,577, UN 13,660 A, California Peak & UN 12,180 B – South Slopes, East Ridge, South Ridge, South Slopes

11.9 miles, 5325'


For some odd reason, Erin and I had a strong desire to head back to the Sangres after Little Bear the week before. We were thinking about climbing either Mount Adams or California Peak, when Ken Nolan emailed. He needed a "babysitter" for the weekend because he's still recovering from his rotator cuff surgery, so when I extended the offer to take him down to the Sangres, he was very pleased. Mount Adams was out of his league for the time being, so we decided on California. I expressed to him our desire to bag the two unnamed 13ers to California's south: UN 13,577 and UN 13,660. Ken still didn't feel too comfortable climbing class 2 terrain, but he agreed to try to ascend UN 13,577's south slopes from Lily Lake. Erin and I hadn't yet visited Lily Lake, and interestingly enough, neither had Ken! Very cool to help Ken get to a place in Colorado where he had never been.

After picking up Ken in Boulder, Erin drove us south on I-25. When you haven't been to the Huerfano River area in a while, it's easy to forget that you're not especially close to the trailhead once you make it to Walsenburg. We finally got started at around 6:30 from what Roach terms as the Lower Huerfano Trailhead. Almost immediately, we hear a call from behind: "Are you Erin and Ryan?" It was Ryan Kowalski of FourteenerWorld, who had recognized us from our photos online. What a fun way to meet someone! It was entertaining to watch the surprise flash over Ryan's face when Ken Nolan introduced himself. Ryan had combined the Iron Nipple, "Huerfano Peak", and the soft-ranked UN 13,555 on Friday, and was getting ready for a climb of California as well. He wasn't sure he'd have the energy for the bonus 13ers. Since California was his priority, he stayed with his original plan to ascend that peak's north ridge, and we parted ways.

The hike from the Lower to the Upper trailhead went far more quickly than I had imagined, and our views to the spectacular Blanca-Ellingwood north face opened up from a nice overlook, very near to where we parked with our friend Traber two years ago to climb Mount Lindsey. Now on the trail instead of the road, Ken expressed some worry about crossing the Huerfano River. Fortunately, we only had to cross a few fingers of the river, but not the main channel itself before we turned right onto the Lily Lake Trail. Now we'd seen a lot of folks in this area the last time we came. Consequently, I believed the Lily Lake Trail would be a wide, well-beaten track, since the lake seemed such an obvious day-hike destination. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Lily Lake Trail doesn't appear to be frequently used, but it's in great shape courtesy of work done by the Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado back in 1998.

The trail takes a long jog toward Ellingwood Point at an easy grade before beginning some switchbacks to ascend to the lake. Ken was his typical informative self, giving us lots of information about lichens and the wildflowers. It's always fascinating. He also brought up an unnamed 12er north of California that piqued Erin's and my interst – we hadn't considered a quadruple summit day! Our surroundings became increasingly scenic, especially as we reached treeline. Here's a picture of some gentle falls a little bit short of the lake. At the lake, we took a break to recharge and to study our view of UN 13,577. Unfortunately for Ken, this peak didn't appear to have the kindest slopes, a fact which would soon bear itself out. One of my favorite things about being at Lily Lake is the slanted, dramatic view of Blanca and Ellingwood. UR 13,618 is gorgeous and looks like a peak from the lake, but it is very much an unranked summit. While we snacked, a group of bighorns showed up. I don't think they expected to see anyone at their watering hole, and they soon turned back.

We had studied 577's slopes for a while now, and we decided that the best line appeared to be the slopes between upper and main Lily Lakes. Ken left while Erin and I finished eating, but he had to take a more circuitous route to reach this area, so he ended up behind us. While the initial climb was good, the slopes quickly changed over to some loose junk. I was just fine with it, but Ken was not loving it. He'd later describe it as a "thrilling ascent of a steep grunge slope" or to Ryan K. later that day as "one of the stupidest things he's done lately." We seem to have a tendency to bring Ken on climbs that aren't good for him in his injured state. Back in April, Peak 10 was an "interesting" descent for Ken on equally loose junk. But we were on it now, and for Ken, turning back and making a descent would have been worse than continuing the climb. Upward we went. I stayed far above Ken and Erin. With all the loose rock, I was concerned about hurting someone, and none of us had brought helmets for this climb, which we only knew to be Class 2. Since I was in a holding pattern several times, I had the opportunity for some pictures! I tried my panorama feature for the first time, but I wasn't able to stitch my photos together properly. I still took some nice ones of UN 13,660, upper Lily Lake, and the ever-present Blancas.

After a while, I made a push for the ridge crest where I held for a while to wait for Ken and for Erin, who continued to keep a watchful eye on our charge. I got some more pics from this vantage, including the Blancas yet again. Erin joined me, and she noticed a person, who had to be Ryan K., hiking near the saddle between 577 and California. Erin and I hung out on 577's summit, and Ken and Ryan arrived at almost the same time. We spent some time chatting before deciding what to do next. Ken knew he wouldn't make it over to UN 13,660, and he suggested we try to meet on California. We agreed, so Erin, Ryan, and I left for our bicentennial summit of the day. As Ryan pointed out in his trip report, this is a statistically unusual combination because it allows you to climb a centennial, a bicentennial, and a tricentennial summit in one day.

The descent off 577 is quick, but the climb up 660 is a little slower, due to some enjoyable light scrambling. It was fun talking about mountains with Ryan, who is just about to receive his masters in geology, and we three had a very compatible pace. 660 has a sweet summit with a unique position in the Sierra Blanca. I especially liked the views of Little Bear Peak and Twin Peaks. We enjoyed around 20 minutes on the summit before beginning the scramble back down. We parted ways with Ryan at the saddle between 577 and 660. Ryan needed to go over 577's summit so he could descend to Lily Lake, whereas Erin and I skirted 577 on its somewhat unstable northwest slopes to shortcut our way to California. We heard from Ryan later that he had had a miserable time descending to Lily Lake, but it would have been next to impossible to tell him how we ascended, and we had no idea if we had taken a good line.

We skirted Point 13,420 on its west side before beginning the climb up California in earnest. Here's a view of UN 13,660 from the saddle. I was getting kind of worn out by now, and the winds had picked up. I felt weird wearing my shell and using the hood in the summer time, but the weather wasn't very summer-like and I love how well that hood blocks the wind from my ears. Once atop California, we signed the register and took a quick break to eat a little more. This is a shot of Huerfano Peak and Lost Lake from below the summit. We kept our stay on the summit short, because Ken had obviously kept moving to stay warm. Even though California's north ridge is quite gentle, it still takes some time because it's 2.5 miles in length and features a series of false summits along the way. This picture looking south to California gives you something of an idea of the false summits. The broad ridge was very colorful with all the wildflowers on it. We couldn't wait to find Ken again, so he could tell us what we were looking at!

As we neared the saddle where the Huerfano Trail crosses over the range crest, we finally saw Ken, who was descending UN 12,180. I could also see some animals atop that lump's summit. We all arrived at the saddle simultaneously. Erin told Ken that we still wanted to go up the 12er, did he mind? Ken said, "Not only do I not mind, but I insist on guiding you up!" So we three hiked together, with Ken telling us all about the wildflowers speckling the tundra along the way. Atop the rounded summit, the bighorns were still at the summit, and it was a group of males, what a treat!

After returning to the saddle south of the 12er, we had to split up with Ken for what we thought would be but a moment. There was a remnant cornice that was forming a long, horizontal snowfield on the otherwise bare slope. Ken had to circle around it on the left, but Erin and I tried to go right over it. Unfortunately, the snow on the east edge dropped off about 10' straight down. So we moved to the right to negotiate the snowfield where the drop was less threatening. This maneuver put us right on the trail, so we started moving. We noticed that Ken hadn't regained the elevation to reach the trail and was circling around a patch of trees. No matter, we thought, our trail will be switching back any time now. But that switchback never came! We kept our eye on Ken and he appeared to be keeping up, but had no interest in making his way to the trail. A little later, we lost sight of him completely, and a first switchback still wouldn't come. Great, we had lost Ken Nolan, leaving a one-armed man to bushwhack his way to the trailhead alone. We weren't really worried about him – Ken had taken care of himself in far worse situations, to be sure – but if something had gone wrong, we certainly wouldn't have been very effective babysitters, now would we? Once we did finally switchback and begin heading back in Ken's direction, we tried calling for him a few times in vain. After waiting a few minutes in an open meadow, we started the final section of trail to get back to Erin's car. Sure enough, there was Ken waiting for us. He had bushwhacked until he picked up the trail in the meadow. We got our things ready, and Erin started the long drive home.

A fun trip with great company is always a good thing, and this was our first quadruple-summit day if you're counting ranked peaks only. As a side note, I bent my trekking pole by tripping over it during the hike out. I was pretty bummed about it, but when I called Leki to try to order a replacement pole segment, they told me that they would send out the part at no charge. I received it via UPS this week, very sweet!