Humboldt Peak 3/13/10

Another great winter ascent in the Sangres

These photos are from a winter ascent of Humboldt Peak. Deep snow on the 120 Rd (South Colony Lakes) prevented us from getting past the intersection 1/4 mile below the lower 2WD trailhead. From there we hiked along a consolidated snowshoe/sled track to the Rainbow Trail, where we began breaking our own trail. We trenched Rainbow Trail to 9840' where we turned abruptly to gain the southernmost extension of Humboldt's east ridge. We took turns laying a trench in the difficult snow to treeline on the lower east ridge. Here we felt the force of the wind, which did not relent until we had returned to treeline. We climbed along the south rim of the bowl to gain the east ridge proper. A short hike along the exposed catwalk and a quick scramble put us on the summit with spectacular views of surrounding peaks. Round trip time was about 11 hours moving, 13:10 car-to-car.

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