7/31/04 – South Arapaho Peak, North Arapaho Peak & "Old Baldy" – Arapaho Peaks Traverse, West Slopes

10.0 miles, 3900'


Erin and I took part in an excellent FourteenerWorld outing to the Arapaho Peaks on Saturday. Steve Hoffmeyer and Terri Horvath led the way to the high point of the Indian Peaks, North Arapaho Peak, which isn't even ten miles away from Nederland where they live. Dwight Sunwall, John Kirk, and Kurt Traskos met at our place that morning, and Kurt drove us to the Fourth of July Trailhead. We arrived a little early, so Kurt "entertained" us with rap songs of varying tolerability. Mark Fisher and Steve and Terri all arrived on time, and we started hiking at 6:15.

This ended up being a very social climb. It was fun talking to everyone: learning about wildflowers, talking about photography, geeking about mountains. We all had a great time, as evidenced by how long our breaks were! In what felt like no time at all (we had actually spent about two hours), we reached Arapaho Saddle and our first view of the Arapaho Peaks, South and North. After another twenty minutes or so, we were on the summit of South Arapaho taking advantage of the enormous summit shelter, eating, and donning our helmets. Here's a view of Mount Neva from the summit, which Terri said is a great climb by its north ridge. Now for the highlight of this climb: the traverse to North Arapaho.

Steve and Terri have both climbed the Arapahos a number of times, and they led the way. We hiked the ridge crest for a while before dropping to the left and then climbing a third-class gully back to the crest. From there, we had a lot of scrambling before reaching the crux of the day, a sweet little section of climbing with some exposure to the east. I can't believe I didn't snap a shot here in either direction, so I'll link to a picture on SummitPost. Looking down into the forbidden Boulder Watershed to the east was exciting, and the bright blue of the lake at the base of Arapaho Glacier demanded a picture. After some more ridge hiking and scrambling, we reached a barrier notch in the ridge. Of course, Kurt just jumped down the notch while the rest of us downclimbed a small face to avoid it. As we climbed closer to North Arapaho's summit, we could inspect the final portion of the climb to the summit plateau. There were countless variations here, and we all seemed to take different routes, what a blast!

At the summit, Steve and Terri remarked on our great weather. They said that when they reach North Arapaho, they're usually concerned enough to start heading back immediately. Instead, we spent a leisurely hour on the summit under bright blue skies, soaking up amazing views all around. The highlight was certainly the spire-riddled southwest face of Navajo and Arikaree Peaks. Here are a few more shots from the summit: "Iroquois", South Arapaho, and me standing on a cool spot that Terri pointed out.

During the return, a few of us went out of our way to find extra scrambling possibilities. I liked this shot of Dwight because it shows the overhanging nature of much of North Arapaho, and here's one of Erin along the way. At the notch that Kurt jumped, I watched as he tried to climb back up. After he made a few attempts, I knew that even if Kurt made the move, I certainly could not, but I found a spot directly adjacent to the notch that afforded around 15' of fun fourth-class climbing. This prominent spire encountered during the traverse makes for a fun detour. Kurt led Dwight and I up a cool fourth-class climb to its top before we rushed to catch up with the group.

Once we made it back to South Arapaho, we saw that it had become a zoo. People were everywhere! Steve said that this was typical of South Arapaho on a summer weekend. We bypassed the crowded summit, and after another social break, we started making our way back to Arapaho Saddle. I suggested we make the 330' tundra hike to the summit of neighboring 13er "Old Baldy," and everyone was up for the extra credit. John, who was ahead of the group most of the day, really turned on the jets here. I think he had summitted "Old Baldy" by the time the rest of us made it to the saddle. After making the easy hike to this humble summit, we were rewarded with an outstanding view of the Arapahos. We descended grassy slopes back to the main trail, but we kept on moving quickly for John, who was trying to get back to civilization to contact his wife. They're expecting their first child in a week or two, so John didn't want to be out of touch for too long. We made it back to the busy trailhead, and our round trip time was still just under a respectable eight hours. Then we headed out to Kathmandu for good food and more socializing. Another great day in the Indian Peaks!