Garfield to “Booby Prize” Loop

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Wednesday, late-July. I wanted to take advantage of a perfect weather forecast and try for a big loop I had envisioned in the western-Sawatch. The loop, while eccentric, allowed me to nab a group of peaks that I had been eyeing for awhile but was reluctant to pull the trigger on because of access concerns. Most of the group (namely Middle Mountain, “Booby Prize”, and Prize Benchmark) are almost always accessed via McNasser Gulch, or at least I’ve never seen a report to the contrary. Keep reading…

Winter’s End – Part 2, Cirque and Gilpin

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After driving in from Denver and climbing Mt Emma the prior day, I awoke just before 4 and headed up the shelf road to Yankee Boy Basin at 4:15. Right after making the turn onto the YBB road, I passed two hikers who told me they had turned their Toyota Tundra around about a half mile beyond, at a point where running water had rutted out the road and made it more a stream than a road. Keep reading…

Winter’s End – Part 1, Mt Emma

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I lucked out and the weather held so that I could climb Emma on the afternoon of my arrival. Some cloud cover, but no thunderheads. After securing my campsite at Thistledown, I revved up the shelf road and past the turn for Yankee Boy. I didn’t get much farther, though. At a point where a private road heads straight into the lower basin, the road makes a wide switchback south and then east. Keep reading…

Sleeping Sexton and its Northern Neighbors

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On Sunday Steve and I tied together a nice run of peaks starting with the Sleeping Sexton north of the Bells and ending with the unnamed duo northwest of Willow Lake. True to form, it was a long and somewhat tedious linkup, but a nice way to take advantage of a picture perfect weather day in the Elks. This area of the range offers up several long ridge runs, including the Bells traverse and Len Shoemaker to Pyramid. While not nearly as cool or grand as its big brothers, this Sexton linkup was a nice way of combining some lesser-climbed Elk 13ers from Maroon Lake. Keep reading…