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After Crested Butte we drove on to Durango, where Fran and Alex spent a couple of days at a nearby B&B while Rick and I took the steam train to go scrambling in the San Juan mountains. Here’s where the train dropped us off – it isn’t strictly necessary to take the train to get here, but it saves a day of hiking and it’s more interesting than driving.
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Arrow Peak (13,803’) (in the centre) and Vestal Peak (13,664’) (just peeking out to the left of Arrow). Our goal was the “Wham” Ridge on Vestal Peak.
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Rick crossing Elk Creek on the way to Vestal Basin.
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Rick approaching Vestal Basin, with Arrow Peak in the background.
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Rick on the “Wham” Ridge on Vestal Peak. This is a great climb on excellent quartzite. It’s mostly a 4th-class scramble with a few 5th-class moves.
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Rick higher up on the “Wham” Ridge on Vestal Peak.
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Rick and Martin on the summit of Vestal Peak. In the background is Mt. Eoulus and Pigeon Peak. We had amazing weather throughout this trip – none of the summertime afternoon thunderstorms that one usually gets in the Colorado mountains.
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The Trinities (left) and Vestal Peak (right) from Vestal Basin. The “Wham” Ridge is the dividing line between light and shade on Vestal.
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Back at the train stop at Elk Park.
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Fran at Willowtail Springs
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Crestone Needle (14,197’) in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Kurt Mensch and I climbed the Ellingwood Ledges, which is the right skyline. This was our third attempt on this route. The climbing isn’t very difficult (mostly 3rd and 4th class, with a couple of mid 5th-class pitches) but every time I’ve been in this area the weather’s been uncooperative.
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Kurt on the first pitch of the Ellingwood Ledges.
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Kurt near the summit of Crestone Needle, with the mist starting to swirl around us.
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Descending from the Crestone Needle. Fortunately it didn’t rain. On a previous trip I’d climbed up the descent route when it was wet, which made for lots of scary, slippery scrambling.
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Rick on the way to climb The Matron, one of the Flatirons near Boulder.
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Rick on the first pitch of The Matron’s north face (5.6)
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Rick near the summit of The Matron.
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Rick rappelling from The Matron
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Gordon Laurens next to Chasm Lake (Longs Peak), on our way to climb the Red Wall.
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Looking back at Chasm Lake.
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Gordon at the top of the Red Wall.
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Longs Peak again, this time with Rick. We had a pleasant scramble up The Loft and Clark’s Arrow.
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Rick descending the Keyhole Route on Longs Peak.
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Another view of Rick descending the Keyhole Route on Longs Peak.
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An unnamed peak near Little Gem Lake on the approach to Snowmass Mountain.
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Kurt Mensch on the southwest (“S”) ridge of Snowmass Mountain.
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Kurt at the summit of Snowmass Mountain (14,092’)
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Kurt on the knife-edge traverse between Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak. For the most part this is straightforward scrambling, but there’s one very exposed section of low 5th-class climbing where we’d have been very happy to have brought a rope.
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Kurt on the knife-edge traverse between Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak.
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Kurt at the summit of Hagerman Peak (13,841’)
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The “Crystal Mill”, a much-photographed spot on the Crystal River that Kurt and I passed on the way back from climbing Snowmass Mountain. The building actually housed an air compressor, not a mill, but I guess there wouldn’t be as many tourists if they called it the “Crystal Compressor Station”.
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Rick and Alex at the condo we rented in Crested Butte.
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These next few photos are from a day hike to Green Lake, near Crested Butte.
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If you look very carefully you can see Martin and Alex as well as Rick.
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Rick and Alex next to a partly-frozen Green Lake (this was on July 14).
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Alex at Willowtail Springs, the B&B near Durango
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Back in Durango, where Rick and I met up with Fran and Alex.
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Sunrise over the pond at Willowtail Springs
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Martin following the Red Wall. Maybe we were out of shape, but it felt a lot harder than its grade (supposedly 5.10a). On the last two pitches I was reduced to shamelessly pulling up on gear at all the crux moves.
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Martin leading the “easy” first pitch of the Red Wall.
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While Fran, Rick and Alex were relaxing next to Green Lake I scrambled up nearby Mt. Owen (13,058’). This is a panoramic view from the top.
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Panoramic view of the San Juan mountains looking east and south from the summit of Vestal Peak. Some of the peaks in this photo are the Trinities, Storm King, Mt. Silex, Jagged Mountain, Windom Peak, Sunlight Peak, Mt. Eolus, the Turret Needles, and Pigeon Peak.