Savage Peak

The 2nd highest peak in the world is K2 in the Karakorum Range of Pakistan and is otherwise known as the “Mountaineer’s Mountain” or the “Savage Mountain”. Well, we have our own “Savage Mountain” here in Colorado called Savage Peak and it lies in the Holy Cross Wilderness about a 45 minute drive from our house. While not 28,000′ and not having a summit fatality rate of 25%, i.e. one in four climbers who successfully summit die on the mountain, our little local Savage Peak is a beautiful 13er in a terrific setting and has a much much higher summit fatality rate – maybe closer to 100% 🙂 Savage Peak has a very aesthetic route on its north face called the “Savage Couloir”. I was wanting to scope this couloir out and maybe climb it in order to get some good recon for a spring climb/ski. J & Mike joined Kristine & myself for the adventure this past Saturday. The mountains had just received a good fresh coat of white about 24 hours earlier and we knew there would be snow, but boy did we underestimate just how much, especially since the slopes we would be climbing are north-facing. Not making the smart decision, we decided to leave the snowshoes in my truck. That turned out to be a mistake, but cest la vie, it yielded just a better workout for the day. It was a frigid 10 degrees at the Missouri Lakes trailhead even though it was 9am and we set off breaking trail in anywhere between 6-12″ of snow on the Missouri Lakes trail around 9:30am. The skies were brilliant blue and the day promised to be sunny and dry. After 2.5 miles or so we left the semi-comfort of the Missouri Lakes trail and veered southwest across the basin and broke trail through some waist deep snow through the trees to treeline below Savage’s east ridge. It was some tough trail breaking and we couldn’t believe how much snow there was. We still had a ways to even get to the base of the Savage Couloir, but considering the north-facing slopes we had just broken trail through, we knew the snow was going to be deep in the deeply inset couloir. Because of the deeply loaded snow within the couloir, my concern for potential avalanches in the couloir heightened considerably. I honestly was not expecting so much snow. I had climbed couloirs in fall before before the snow got to be too much a of a danger, but this October has seen a lot of snow – more than I remember in recent years. I voiced my concern for avalanche potential and we then decided to take the east ridge and save the couloir for spring. It was still a grueling trail break up to the east ridge proper, but no doubt very fun all the same.

We still saw deep post-holing until we got on the east ridge proper and were able to stay on some rocks as well and only break trail through a few inches of fresh snow.

The ridge was spectacular and made for some great views of the Holy Cross Wilderness and the awesome Savage Couloir.

As we got higher on the ridge, the wind increased and made for some chilly climbing. We all topped out on Savage Peak’s summit around 2pm and were greeted with a very stiff and cold west wind. We took a few pics and did not stay very long – my fingers about froze trying to handle the camera. All in the name of good training for Antarctica, I guess.

As soon as we were a few hundred feet down the east ridge, the wind subsided and it turned out to be a great afternoon to be up high on a mountain.

Another hour of retracing our post-hole steps brought us back down to the Missouri Lakes trail and another hour brought us back to my truck shortly before 4:30pm. While its no K2, Savage was a really fun winter-like climb in the heart of the Northern Sawatch literally only 15 miles southeast of our house as the crow flies. I think we all look forward to going back in May to climb/ski the awesome Savage Couloir.