Pikes Pk – Northwest Slopes – Winter Ascent

Date: March 8, 2003
Elevation: 14,110′
Rank: 31st
Route: Northwest Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 14.0 miles, 4110ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 50.433′ W 105° 2.633′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid)

Pre-climb: On Friday night, I went climbing at “The Spot” with my roommates and had a great time trying the new bouldering problems they had put up. Then I had to go into work and work the night shift. After work was over, I was still somehow awake after climbing and work, and I didn’t know what to do. Not much is open that early on a Saturday morning. I checked weather.com and sure enough…it was going to be a warm sunny day. Nothing more needed to be said. Today I was going to go climbing on a fourteener.

Climb: Being from Oklahoma, Pikes Peak carries the honor of being the first peak you see as you travel west into Colorado. Everytime I visted Colorado during highschool, whether it be to ski/snowboard, hike, or visit a dude ranch, I always wondered what it would be like to be on top of it. I had heard there was a road up to the top of it, and I think somebody once told me that it’s been climbed on foot before. (Little did I know, they have a whole marathon race up to the top, let alone climbers! ‘Twas but a folk tale to somebody from the prairie!)

I first attempted Pikes exactly two months ago with somebody that I had met off of 14erworld, and unfortunately we didn’t summit, however, we did have a lot of fun playing around in all the snow! To read about that trip, or see pictures of the insane amount of snow, please click on my January attempt.

So, I arrived at Craig’s Campground at 5:30am, and was climbing by ‘six. I want to point out that they do charge a day use fee to park at Craig’s Trailhead. Currently as of writing this it’s $4 for one day use. I don’t know what they do if you don’t pay it. However, last time when Andrew and I went to climb this peak in January, it was snowing so much that we didn’t even SEE the fee station. Then as we were driving away, and the snow was slowly melting off my Blazer, I noticed a ticket on my car. I pulled over, and had a look at it. Everything was filled out for me, concerning my vehicle information and date/time, etc, all I had to do was put money into it and put it into the trailhead bank. Oops, I was already all the way back out on the highway. I don’t think they would tow somebody if you failed to pay the fee as they obviously didn’t tow my car, however, since they did have the road fairly snowplowed and maintained, along with a bathroom, I gladly contributed my $4 this time.

One thing to remember when climbing Pikes from this trailhead is that a lot of snowshoers like to romp around in the snow in all sorts of crazy directions to see how well their snowshoes float. Be wary of following tracks that don’t show signs of multiple people using them or that head completely opposite of what you read in Roach’s guidebook. Thankfully, I read up on the details of the climb just before I left, and also could rule out certain tracks by use of a compass. I guess someday I’ll get a GPS unit, and guidebooks will be written with waypoints, but until then, I will rely on “primative” methods.

There were decent tracks for about 30 minutes, then as I got to the huge rock that Roach talks about, the tracks ended. I looked up, and could make out the saddle that Andrew and I climbed two months previous and headed for it. It was hard work as I was postholing, and I didn’t bring my snowshoes! After a couple hours I made it to the saddle, and all was good as I could now see the summit. How comforting this was for me! However, while climbing up the saddle, I realized I hadn’t slept in a while, and climbing Pikes Pk was probably not the smartest thing in the world to do, but it would be fun! Soberly I recognized that I failed to pack sufficient food. My supply of food for the ENTIRE climb consisted of seven Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.

The solitary aspect of climbing a mountain by yourself is both the highlight and lowpoint of a trip. There’s a sense of self-reliance along with ample time to soul search. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of time to hallucinate and begin to think your in Jamaica and see your friends there talking to you wondering why you don’t have a margarita in your hand! This is the lack of adequate sleep and food did for me. But once I saw the Summit House on Pikes, I knew everything was ok again and snapped out of it.

I crossed over to the road near Devil’s Campground and took time to read the sign about lightning and the sign that told my elevation of 13,000ft and drank some water. I hiked up the road and didn’t see anybody. ANYBODY. I kept looking back to see if there was one other person to attempt to summit Pikes and never saw anybody following me. This was extremely strange I thought for a nice, sunny Saturday. I also want to say, anybody who doesn’t fudge a little bit and follow the road for longer than they are supposed to has stronger will-power than I do. I think if somebody had driven by or a ranger saw me, I would have gotten on the side trail. However, since the road was closed for winter, and the rangers must have been slacking off this Saturday, nobody drove by. But I definitely think your mileage may vary as every trip report talks about rangers patrolling this road!

Finally, after about 5 hours I reached the summit! What a view! I think the view I liked the most was overlooking east out onto the plains back towards Oklahoma, and then doing a 180, and looking west and seeing the beautiful snow-capped peaks of Colorado. The wind was blowing tremendously hard at this point. Along the final bit to the summit it was pushing me sideways as I climbed. For some strange reason, I half-expected one of the buildings to be open as sort of a shelter from the elements. However, this was not the case for me, but if you climb in summer when everything is open, I’m suspecting you can go inside and act curious about buying a ticket or something for the cog, warm up, and then jet back down the trail to Craig’s! Enough for devious plans, it was time for me to eat my nourishing meal of seven cold, brittle Girl Scout cookies. MMM…(not)

Eventually, as I started walking down the road this time, the cookies must have thawed and I began to reap the benefits of the taste-less sugar I just consumed. You see, I have been training to run a marathon in Steamboat Springs on June 1st and have been running 4 days a week, and because of that my cardio has increased exponentially. I naturally broke out into a gait, that somewhat resembled a man running downhill with an ice axe and backpack. Hehe.

However, that officially ended as soon as I hit the warm afternoon snow. Post-hole city! I followed my tracks making sure to step exactly where I had walked coming up, and I was still sinking further into the snow. My main concern, at this point, was not to set off an avalance or something! The snow was really unstable as I slowly headed back down into the trees.

Upon reaching the basin, I saw the first sign of other human life the entire trip, and who where they? Snowshoers! I said my hello’s and told them about my day, and continued on to my vehicle. I was ready to put on my sandals! The bottom of the basin was 45 degrees and it was so warm that the road to the trailhead was WORSE leaving then it was coming. The sludge (melting ice, snow, mixed in with soggy mud) was really slick, but luckily I had four wheel drive and made it out of there.

Overall I think Pikes is a beautiful mountain and the views are tremendous. Try and follow the main drag at the bottom if you’re leaving from Craig’s. Hopefully you brought your snowshoes, especially after a week of fresh snow has fallen and remember $4 to pay the fee. It took me longer than most people to climb because well, as much as I like the summit, I also like finding a nice shady tree in the snow and sitting back and admiring how amazing it truly is to be halfway up a mountain with nothing better to do.

Drive: 2.5h
Ascent: 5.25h
Summit: 30 min
Descent: 3.75h
Drive: 3.5h
Total: 9.5h