| Mount Adams via Horn Creek Trip Report |
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| Mount Adams via Horn Creek   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 38.00750°N / 105.6042°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Sep 3, 2007 Activities: Hiking, Scrambling Season: Summer | Page By: mtnhiker13 Created/Edited: Sep 6, 2007 / Sep 6, 2007 Object ID: 333873 Hits: 557 Loading... Page Score: 87.91% - 6 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
If you want to read part one of this report, "Sometimes the 3rd Time IS the Charm," go here.
We arrived in Westcliffe around noon and went to check out how far the Horn Creek trailhead was from town so we could find it in the dark. We were to meet SP member colonelpyat at 4 am at the trailhead to begin our ascent of Mt Adams. We wanted to make sure we knew where we were going. It was only about a 15 minute drive from town so we returned to check out restaurant selection for dinner. We wanted to make sure we didn’t end up eating a hockey puck for dinner again!
Aaron had wanted to climb Mt Adams from the east side for a number of years. We never had managed to get it scheduled without something else coming up or the weather interfering somehow.
Well this was the year we were going to make another attempt. Colonelpyat had wanted to climb the peak as well which was great.
We met colonelpyat bright and early (well ok it wasn’t too bright - actually it was very dark) at 4 am at the Horn Creek Trailhead. We donned our head lamps and left the parking lot at 4:01 am! It is a very nice trail to try and follow in the dark and we knew we had a good 2+ hours of hiking in the dark. The trail was a very gentle continuous uphill. This was good since our legs were still recovering from our one day climbing marathon on Kit Carson two days prior.
After about an hour or so, we came across the first stream crossing. It is sometimes difficult to find all of your options in the dark but we managed to find a good place to cross on some logs and no one got wet. On the other side of the stream, we momentarily lost the trail in the dark - one of the disadvantages to hiking in the dark. The other is stepping in mud and puddles that you don’t see in time. Somehow I managed to be in the lead and managed to step right into a fairly sizable mud hole. Anyway, we reached the lower part of the Horn Lake just as daylight was breaking. It was great to finally be able to see where we were going! And it was a beautiful basin to see. The morning light on the peaks was beautiful!
Alpenglow on the Sangre De Cristos |
We reached Horn Lake in about 3 hours and surveyed what lay before us. Another steep tundra slope! I estimated it to be about 1500 feet of climbing. At least this tundra was not trampled to death by the masses and there would be good footing. We started our ascent of the slope as the sun started to climb higher in the sky.
Mount Adams SE Slopes |
My legs were feeling the burn as we headed up the slope to the ridge. The ridge was looking like a lot of fun to climb so I was anxious to get there and start using my arms and give my legs some rest.
We reached the ridge in short order and started to make our way up it. It was easy class 2/3 climbing and with Larry Versaw’s route description it was very easy to find our way. The ridge was quite steep in places. We were following Larry’s route description, but we could have easily forged our own route. In this way, you can make the climb as easy or as challenging as you want. You can also limit the amount of exposure you subject yourself to.
At times we were on the ridge top and other times we were on the either the north or south side of the ridge. For the most part, the rock was very solid and a joy to climb on.
NE Ridge of Mount Adams |
As we got closer to the summit, we dropped off the ridge and climbed up the southeast face of the summit block. The mountain was unrelenting though and the closer we got to the summit, the steeper it got! Picture here 37 class 3 tundra If there is such a thing as a class 3 tundra climb, this was it.
Class 3 tundra and rock below the summit |
We reached the summit and found we had it to ourselves. We enjoyed the awesome views of Crestone Peak and Needle and of course Kit Carson and Challenger which we had summited 2 days prior.
I enjoyed lounging on the summit while colonelpyat took some pictures. We were later joined by a solo hiker who said he had come up from the South Crestone drainage. While watching him descend the mountain, we noticed a herd of 30-40 sheep on the lower slopes. Colonelpyat had a very large lens and was snapping pictures of them. We enjoyed watching them run across very steep terrain like it was flat as the solo hiker approached them.
SP member colonelpyat goes to work |
After enjoying a wonderful 1.5 hours on the summit, we descended back down the mountain. We left colonelpyat in the basin below Horn Lake as he was going to camp out and climb some additional mountains the following day. Aaron and I headed down the trail. It was like a whole new experience since we had hiked that portion of the trail in the dark. At least going down we could easily avoid the mucky parts of the trail.
Descending Mount Adams |
This concluded our climbing adventure in the Sangre de Cristos over Labor Day weekend 2007. While on the summit of Mt Adams, we saw several other peaks in the range that we would like to climb so I am sure we will have many return trips to the Sangres in the future. Images
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Sangre de Cristo Mountains
