MOUNT YALE 8/2/83

MOUNT YALE 14,196'

Mountain........Mount Yale
Elevation.........14,196
Rank...............21st
Range..............Sawatch
Trail length......3 miles
Elevation gain..4,400'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........Trail? What trail?


TRIP REPORT

8/2/83

Mt. Yale Day was the day Richard & I began a breakfast tradition of stale doughnuts complemented by coffee mixed with hot chocolate in our motel room.


After breakfast we drove to the assumed trailhead at Denny Creek (we should have been at Denny Gulch). From the trailhead it appeared to be a straight, steep shot directly at the summit. So we took off up an indistinct path that ran alongside the creek for about a half mile, then disappeared. Not wanting to retrace our steps and start over, we scrambled up a lot of loose mud and rock to the right of the stream. After a few hundred feet of hanging on to tree roots and other, more delicate things, we arrived atop the ridge above the stream. Here we found the real trail, which proved to be as straight and steep as expected.

We worked our way up through the thinning trees to beautiful alpine meadows filled with columbine and yellow flowers. On the ridge approaching the summit, the trail disappeared and we made our way up steep slopes with more flowers to well above 13,000'.

Eventually we reached the summit cone, and scrambled up through large boulders until we reached the top. The 'traditional' daily storm was approaching, so we decided not to have lunch at the top, but headed back down to the meadows where we ate in a light drizzle and listened to the thunder echoing off the surrounding peaks.