In an effort to get back to over 14,000′ and test out our old Millet Everest boots again before we wear them for days on end in Antarctica, we took a jaunt up the fun 14er near Breckenridge, Quandary Peak (14,265′).

Kristine reaching 14,000′ on Quandary’s east ridge with Bald Mountain (13,684′) in the background

Now, we have all been up this peak so many times we have lost count, but its close, convenient, relatively short, great winter access, and gets us to altitude. Its a favorite for sure. It had been over three years since we had worn our Millet Everest boots and Quandary’s snow-packed trail up standard east ridge route was a good test for these boots once again. In just about 2.75 miles one-way to the summit, the trail climbs 3,400′ and is a nice workout. It was a gorgeous Colorado bluebird day and except for the summit ridge and summit, which the extreme west winds were just hammering, the winds were relatively marginal.

Looking southeast to Mt. Silverheels in the foreground and Pikes Peak in the far distance from Quandary’s summit ridge

A blustery & cold Quandary Peak summit (14,265′)

Looking north to Pacific Peak, Crystal Peak, and the Gore Range from Quandary’s summit

Rainier & I on Quandary’s summit

I think Rainier was actually cold on Quandary’s summit – could be a first

The boots did fairly well, though we couldn’t remember quite what socks and sock layers we had used three years ago on Everest. As a result, we could feel the hot spots on the final 1,000′ and unfortunately received a few minor blisters. However, now we remember what we did in terms of which socks and liners and we’ll try these boots out again before we leave.

Heading down for lunch with friends

It was a fun morning and only took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes roundtrip just in time to meet our good friends from Jackson Hole, Brett & Carrie Richer, for lunch at the Breckenridge Brewery.

Having always heard of this somewhat hidden 13er near Breckenridge called Mt. Guyot, I wanted to pay it a visit and thought it would make a fairly nice winter-ish climb. Guyot lies behind (to the east of) the larger and much more massive Bald Mountain (13,684′), which obscures Guyot from Breckenridge and the Tenmile Range peaks. Rainier & I had climbed Bald Mountain via its long north ridge with friends back in February of 2008.

A younger Rainier and a younger me on Bald Mountain’s summit (13,684′) with Mt. Guyot behind

Mike Santoro & Reid Jennings joined Rainier, Kona, & I this past weekend for an attempt on Guyot’s northwest ridge. On our ascent that day, we walked the French Creek Road for a mile and a half until we veered southeast into the Little French Creek drainage to make our way up to the northwest ridge. While Mike was still skinning up to the northwest ridge in the trees from the Little French Creek Drainage, Reid, the dogs, & I were at a small notch on the northwest ridge proper right at treeline when a crew of local skiers set off what turned out to be a sizable avalanche on the northeast facing slopes. We were on the ridge above the avalanche and Mike was a few hundred yards a way in the trees, so we were all safe. Fortunately, the avalanche did not occur directly below or at the skier’s location. Instead a crack propagated 20 yards to his right and the slab avalanche ensued and ran about 500′ down to the drainage. All of the skiers were ok and no one was caught in the avalanche. Reid, the dogs, & I continued up the northwest ridge for 20 minutes or so, but due to extremely low visibility (though the winds were very low and temperatures fairly warm) we turned around on the northwest ridge at about 12,200′.

Fast forward just two days and I find myself crashing Kristine and Lauren’s peak-bagging girl party. I even convinced them to head back to Guyot, which was very nice of them to do. The weather forecast looked much clearer though much colder and more windy (forecast called for 30+mph winds with a wind chill temp of around -8 degrees at 12,400′). We made our way to the French Creek Trailhead and started hiking down the road at about 9:15am. Guyot was in the clouds which was a little concerning and it was pretty darn cold out. However, the sun came out a bit and after we overshot the turn off into the Little French Creek drainage (my fault), we made our way up through the drainage and at the base of the avalanche slide path that occurred 2 days before.

Skier-triggered avalanche from 2 days before on the northeast facing slopes of Guyot’s northwest ridge

Its always good to check out these avalanche paths to gain some perspective on avalanches and how they are able to propagate so far even on 30 degree slopes. We then made our way up to the northwest ridge proper and to treeline where the wind picked up substantially.

Kristine at treeline on the northwest ridge with the Tenmile Range behind in the distance

Rainie on the northwest ridge

Kristine & Lauren on the lower portion of Guyot’s northwest ridge

We made it up to the small cairn where Reid, the dogs, and I had turned around 2 days prior and then climbed the steepening ridge up to a large plateau at 12,400′. The wind was really kicking on this plateau.

Lauren coming up to the 12,400′ plateau on Guyot’s northwest ridge

We left our snowshoes here anchored down by rocks and made our way to the  upper northwest ridge for the final 1,000′ climb to the summit ridge.

The remaining 1,000′ up Guyot’s northwest ridge

It was pretty tough going with the wind and cold on tough terrain (loose slabby rocks covered by about a foot of powder snow in most places). Rainier is such a trooper especially for being almost 11 years old. She is a determined lady and just keeps plugging away right behind me the entire way.

Kristine on the upper northwest ridge

Once we hit the summit ridge itself, the wind and cold were really intense. Much more intense than anything I remember as of recent. Nevertheless, we trenched away on the summit ridge and made the summit. It was extremely cold and windy on the summit and we took a few pics and only stayed for 10 minutes or so.

Breckenridge & the Tenmile Range from Guyot’s summit

Rainie & I on Mt. Guyot’s summit (13,370′). It was extremely cold and windy on the summit ridge – well below zero with wind chill

Mt. Guyot USGS summit marker

Kristine & Kona on Guyot’s summit

Kristine & I on Guyot’s summit – good Antarctica training

Lauren had turned around at about 12,800′ and made a good decision. She just wasn’t feeling it especially on the terrain and in such brutal wind and cold. Kristine, the dogs, and I quickly descended back to the 12,400′ plateau.

Looking back down Guyot’s northwest ridge and French Gulch from where we came

Kristine and the dogs descending the summit ridge with the wind ripping the snowy ridge to the south (left in picture)

I usually like looking at snowy plumes as a result of strong winds from a distance, but being in the middle of them is a different story

We soon enough met up with Lauren at the plateau and had a snack in the relative warmth of the lower altitude.

Kristine & Kona back in the warmth of the 12,400′ plateau with Bald Mountain behind (13,684′)

Kristine & Lauren

We then all made our way back down our ascent route and reached my truck at around 2:45pm for a 7.5 mile roundtrip day in about 5 1/2 hours with 3,100′ of elevation gain. It was a very fun outing and we all enjoyed being out in the elements. Kona may beg to differ there 🙂

Mt. Guyot from the north on the French Creek Road during our hike out with the northwest ridge in profile. The plumes of snow can be seen on the summit ridge as a result of the strong winds

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous late fall weather and so Kristine, Kona, & I joined up with a great crew of familiar and new faces from 14ers.com, aka my version of “facebook”, for a fun day up above Deluge Lake on 13ers Palomino Point & Mt. Valhalla in my favorite range in Colorado, the Gore Range. We had to leave Rainier with our friends Sarah & Keith in Edwards due to her having a pretty big operation last Wednesday to remove a soft cell sarcoma lump on her back that could potentially be dangerous. She is totally fine now and is the toughest cookie I know albeit a nice 8″ long stapled incision on her back. I doubt she even knows its there with all her energy to play tennis ball. I just received notice today from our great vet that the sarcoma is only a Grade 1 sarcoma, the lowest grade there is in terms of cancer’s ability to spread, and that the tumor was completely excised. About as good of news as we could expect. Its definitely a relief that’s it not any worse. She’ll be back with us in the mountains in no time.

Palomino Point (13,060′) at left & Mt. Valhalla (13,180′) at right on the approach

Anyway, we met the crew around 7:30am on Sunday morning at the Deluge Lake trailhead for the long and steep 4.5 mile with 3,000′ of vertical gain approach up to Deluge Lake. We had been up into the Deluge Lake Basin a few times to climb the famous Gore scrambling traverse called The Grand Traverse as well as to climb Snow Peak, but the peak we had left surrounding this basin was the mighty Mt. Valhalla. It was a great crew – many I knew and hadn’t seen in awhile, including Ryan Marsters & Jason Blyth, and some I hadn’t met yet and so enjoyed getting to know, including Dillon Sarnelli. Good friend Mike Santoro decided to drive the half mile from his East Vail home to join us for the day. Recently acquired Vail local Matt Grabina organized the crew and let the Chalks know about the hike and it was good to get out again with Matt. It was awesome for Kristine & myself to meet Jason’s wife, Becky, as well. After a few hours of mostly dry trail hiking in our trail runners and gaiters we all arrived at the frozen Deluge Lake (11,700′) and the trail breaking in snow ensued up to the steeper and drier southern slopes of the Palomino Point – Mt. Valhalla ridge.

Kona & I breaking some trail around Deluge Lake. Photo courtesy of Dillon

Trail breaking above Deluge Lake

Kristine & Kona on a beauty of a day

Deluge Lake basin

It was a quick and mostly dry climb up to the ridge on steep, grassy slopes and we all then veered east towards the unranked Palomino Point for a fun class 3/4 scramble up to its summit.

Kona & I on the steep, grassy slopes. Photo courtesy of Jason

Palomino Point (left) and Mt. Valhalla (right)

Kristine traversing the ridge to Palomino Point with Grand Traverse Peak behind

Traversing snow slopes over to Palomino Point. Photo courtesy of Jason

Scrambling up to Palomino Point

Kona & I on the summit of Palomino Point with Mt. Valhalla behind. Photo courtesy of Jason

One of the reasons I really wanted to get up on Palomino Point & Mt. Valhalla was to scope out and take pictures of the two awesome looking yet rarely known east ridges of these peaks. The very lengthy east ridge of Palomino Point is known as “Asgard Ridge” with the first major tower called “Point Odin”. Its a pretty serious-looking ridge that would likely entail some roped pitches and rappels. Now, if you like Norse mythology as I do, you’ll love all of these names. The shorter, more southern east ridge of Mt. Valhalla is not as gnarly looking but has a few mid-5th class towers with the names “Loki”, “Thor”, & “Freya”. I just love ridges like these with not much information on them at all, though I know they have been climbed. I think such ridges are about as close to true adventure as we can get in our neck of the woods, especially on ridge runs. The ridge and tower names make it extra-intriguing. I really look forward to hopefully putting these ridges and towers on my radar in the future.

Asgard Ridge down to the east from Palomino Point’s summit

The east ridge of Mt. Valhalla (Thor Tower & Freya on the lower left portion of the ridge) and mighty Rain Peak behind

Palomino’s summit can only accommodate a few folks, so Kristine, Kona, Mike, myself, and the Blythes returned back down to the saddle with Mt. Valhalla. The ridge up to Valhalla looked a bit intimidating for Kona, so Kristine decided to go down with her. Mike decided to descend as well since he wasn’t feeling all that great and his feet were soaked.

The crew spread out on Palomino Point…Dillon is on the summit

The crew then descended down to the saddle and Jason & Becky led the way up Valhalla’s fun class 3 northwest ridge.

Jason, Becky, & Sam heading up Valhalla’s northwest ridge

The climb up to Valhalla was lots of fun with some snowy scrambling yet none of us broke out the axes as there was enough rock exposed for some good holds. I believe we all summited Valhalla around 12:30pm to some wonderful blue skies and sunshine though a bit of a stiff wind.

Gore enthusiast Ryan on the summit of Mt. Valhalla (13,180′), his 200th Colorado 13er

The views were amazing, as is typical for the Gores, and this was many folks’ first Gore peak, which made this outing extra special. I think some of the climbers may have gotten hooked to the Gores.

From the summit of Mt. Valhalla looking southeast

Looking down into Valhalla’s east basin with Asgard Ridge on the left and Valhalla’s east ridge on the right

Snow Peak (13,024′) to the south from the Mt. Valhalla summit

Left to right: Becky, Jason, me, Ryan, Sam on the summit of Mt. Valhalla (13,180′)

Left to right: Dillon, Becky, & Jason on the summit of Mt. Valhalla (13,180′). Photo courtesy of Dillon

Group summit shot on Mt. Valhalla (13,180′). Photo courtesy of Dillon

After many pics, a bite to eat, and talk of many future Gore adventures we all descended back to the saddle and then made a diagonal traverse across several snowfields to the lower grass slopes.

The Grand Traverse as seen from the east on the slopes of Mt. Valhalla

The crew heading down Mt. Valhalla’s northwest ridge

Sorry, more pics of Asgard Ridge 🙂

Point Odin on Asgard Ridge

Becky and crew heading down the snowfields below Palomino Point. Photo courtesy of Jason

We met up with Kristine & Kona back in the basin above Deluge Lake and then all descended back to the trailhead by 4:15pm for about an 8.5 hour day.

Sam & Matt in the Deluge Lake basin below Palomino Point & Mt. Valhalla on the way out

The long way home – Kristine & Kona heading down from Deluge Lake in the afternoon sun

Lastly, we picked up Rainier and headed home just in time to catch the 4th quarter of the Broncos beating up the Redskins. Good stuff. Another great day out in the Gores with great folks. There really is no other place I’d rather be.