LITTLE BEAR PEAK 8/8/90
LITTLE BEAR PEAK 14,037'
Mountain........Little Bear Peak
Elevation.........14,037
Rank...............44th
Range..............Sangre de Cristo
Trail length......6 miles (from where I parked)
Elevation gain..6,200'
Difficulty..........*****
Comments........Desert, mosquitoes, free-climb gully
TRIP REPORT
8/8/90
After climbing Lindsey I took a day off to give my poor feet a break. I drove around Alamosa, stocked up on provisions, wrote postcards, and organized for an assault on Little Bear, Blanca, and Ellingwood Peaks.
I got up the next morning at 4:15 and drove to the desert trailhead (at about 7,800') by 5:15 - I knew my car didn't stand a chance on the Como Lake road. I was right - there was a Dodge truck hung up and rusting on one pile of rocks, and a Jeep wasting away on another. I hiked up to the lake (11,800') and had my tent set up by 9:30. There were some guys from Taos camped at the lake who said Blanca was easy but they were scared to try Little Bear. Uh oh.
There were a lot of mosquitoes at my campsite about 100' above the lake but my 20-year old Cutter bug repellent and equally dated nylon tent were still effective at keeping them away. It was reasonably early, I still had a little strength left, and Little Bear's summit was only one mile and 2,300 vertical feet away, so I started up. I took the valley trail a short ways up from my camp, then turned right and ascended a gully (very steep and direct, and a bit loose) to Little Bear's west ridge. Then I followed the ridge - started on top, then traversed to the right across steep slopes to the base of a gully at 13,400' that leads pretty directly to the summit.
Here I encountered the most difficult section of climbing that I have found on a fourteener. Getting into the gully required a few false starts and the exposure is interesting. Once in the gully I 4-pointed up through icy water running down over the slabs. The first two hundred feet required hands & arms the entire way; the last 400' was just a little less steep and I rushed to get to the summit. As on Lindsey I could not find the register, and I had left my pack & camera at the base of the gully to make the climbing easier, so I left a (biodegradable) business card with a note under a rock. Then I spidered down most of the waterslide (clumsily, face outward) back to the exit, where I had considerable trouble with the last little drop down to my pack. Another guy had just arrived here to solo to the top - I pointed up and wished him luck, made sure he got into the gully OK, then headed back to camp.
After collapsing in the tent for a bit, I cooked a delicious dinner of couscous flavored with beef bouillon and mosquito carcasses. While I was eating, the other guy passed through and said he had made it but did not particularly ever want to climb Little Bear again. I shared some of my dinner and then he headed back down to his camp at the lake.
I sacked in early in preparation for Blanca & Ellingwood the following morning.
Mountain........Little Bear Peak
Elevation.........14,037
Rank...............44th
Range..............Sangre de Cristo
Trail length......6 miles (from where I parked)
Elevation gain..6,200'
Difficulty..........*****
Comments........Desert, mosquitoes, free-climb gully
TRIP REPORT
8/8/90
After climbing Lindsey I took a day off to give my poor feet a break. I drove around Alamosa, stocked up on provisions, wrote postcards, and organized for an assault on Little Bear, Blanca, and Ellingwood Peaks.
I got up the next morning at 4:15 and drove to the desert trailhead (at about 7,800') by 5:15 - I knew my car didn't stand a chance on the Como Lake road. I was right - there was a Dodge truck hung up and rusting on one pile of rocks, and a Jeep wasting away on another. I hiked up to the lake (11,800') and had my tent set up by 9:30. There were some guys from Taos camped at the lake who said Blanca was easy but they were scared to try Little Bear. Uh oh.
There were a lot of mosquitoes at my campsite about 100' above the lake but my 20-year old Cutter bug repellent and equally dated nylon tent were still effective at keeping them away. It was reasonably early, I still had a little strength left, and Little Bear's summit was only one mile and 2,300 vertical feet away, so I started up. I took the valley trail a short ways up from my camp, then turned right and ascended a gully (very steep and direct, and a bit loose) to Little Bear's west ridge. Then I followed the ridge - started on top, then traversed to the right across steep slopes to the base of a gully at 13,400' that leads pretty directly to the summit.
Here I encountered the most difficult section of climbing that I have found on a fourteener. Getting into the gully required a few false starts and the exposure is interesting. Once in the gully I 4-pointed up through icy water running down over the slabs. The first two hundred feet required hands & arms the entire way; the last 400' was just a little less steep and I rushed to get to the summit. As on Lindsey I could not find the register, and I had left my pack & camera at the base of the gully to make the climbing easier, so I left a (biodegradable) business card with a note under a rock. Then I spidered down most of the waterslide (clumsily, face outward) back to the exit, where I had considerable trouble with the last little drop down to my pack. Another guy had just arrived here to solo to the top - I pointed up and wished him luck, made sure he got into the gully OK, then headed back to camp.
After collapsing in the tent for a bit, I cooked a delicious dinner of couscous flavored with beef bouillon and mosquito carcasses. While I was eating, the other guy passed through and said he had made it but did not particularly ever want to climb Little Bear again. I shared some of my dinner and then he headed back down to his camp at the lake.
I sacked in early in preparation for Blanca & Ellingwood the following morning.
posted by JansStores at 6:23 AM
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