Hanging Lake

If you’re in the Vail area, you absolutely *have* to hike up to Hanging Lake. It is a relatively easy hike (about 1,000ft vertical gain, 1.2 miles each way) with very rewarding views! Not to mention, when the trail starts getting steep they have put in guard rails to protect anybody from seriously falling. If you want to avoid the crowds go in fall or winter when there will be less tourists visiting.

Colleen and I had just hiked Castle Peak (14,265ft) earlier in the week and so we were tired, but wanted an easy but rewarding hike to finish off the week. Hanging Lake was an obvious choice being 10 miles east of Gleenwood Springs along I-70. You can’t miss it, there are signs everywhere directing you where to go.

Just as we started out of the parking lot along the concrete trail, Colleen took a moment to point out that this is a very dangerous hike (haha).

Truth is, if you take a nalgene of water for every person, you’ll be ok. If you want to get really romantic, you could plan ahead and pack a picnic lunch to eat up at Spouting Rock which is just a few hundred yards higher than Hanging Lake.

The trail itself reminds me a lot of a hike in the Flatirons near Boulder. It’s pretty steep, but very easy to follow and not get lost. It’s wide enough to accomodate the hordes of people hiking up it during the summer. As far as hard parts, there are none. The only relatively hard section is at the very, very end where somebody has put in guardrails to help you hike. Check out this picture.

Once you get to Hanging Lake, you’ll immediately notice how clean the water is. Notice the school of fish underwater in this picture.

And here is the happy honeymoon couple.

Finally, here is a couple pictures of Hanging Lake itself.

We didn’t get any pictures of Spouting Rock because it started to rain, and we were in a hurry to get down, but here is a view showing Gleenwood Canyon.

Furthermore, if you get tired, there are plenty of places to take a break, like this shelter, where Colleen is posing.

This hike can quickly be done on any day of the year where it’s not raining or snowing and takes very little planning. It’s a good hike for out-of-stater’s to do.

Drive: 3h
Ascent: 1h
On Summit: 30min
Descent: 45min
Drive: 3.25h
Total: 2.25h

Castle Pk – Northeast Ridge

Date: August 23, 2004
Elevation: 14,265′
Rank: 12th
Route: Northeast Ridge, Grade II, Class 2+, 4.5 miles, 2700ft vert.
GPS: N 39° 00.583′ W 106° 51.683′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Esser

Pre-climb: So, imagine with me if you will….you find the girl of your dreams and you get married and pack your bags to run off on your honeymoon which is in a lodge nestled in the mountains near Vail, CO, it has a wood-burning fireplace and champagne, strawberries and hot chocolate in the fridge, what do you do? That’s right! Wake up at 3am and start driving towards the Elk Mountains! (ummm, or something like that!)

Climb: We left Vail heading west towards Glenwood Springs, then headed East on Highway 82 towards Aspen. It took us just under 2 hours to get from our lodge to where we decided to park on the 4wd road up Castle Creek. The road goes up to 12,800ft, and my Blazer could have easily made it the whole way, but we wanted to actually do some climbing instead of driving to the top!

Due to being on our honeymoon, we were not correctly prepared for the colder weather that we encountered on the trip. As soon as we got out of the car, I wished I had a warmer jacket and some pants, along with gloves and stocking cap. Neither Colleen or I had any of those. Nevertheless, we got out and started hiking because hopefully it would get warmer as the sun came out and warmed up things.

Hiking the road up to 12,800 was pretty easy. It’s like walking on a paved sidewalk up and over a hill in town. However, as soon as we got into Montezuma Basin, navigating the rocks became our primary activity. It was fun at first, but quickly grew old. I don’t believe either of us enjoyed the old, rotten Elk Range rock that crumbles when you walk on it.

Eventually we made it up to the basin proper and decided to change routes at that point. The snow climb looked ridiculously steep, and so we opted for the harder (but snow-free) ridge. This turned out to be an excellent decision as the one person we saw attempting the normal route later in the day had to turn around because it was too steep.

Clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and we got colder. However, after a while, my legs were so cold that they no longer felt cold, and I know that’s not a good thing, but at least I could hike without having to think about how miserable I felt. About halfway up the ridge, (which wasn’t that bad at all), the sun came out for 10 minutes and that really warmed things up, but then it immediately went back into hiding behind the clouds for the remainder of the day.

The second mistake we made was not gain the ridge proper sooner. We tried to hike across the ridge not on top of the ridge, but a little below it, and it was MUCH harder. On the descent we stayed on the absolute top of the ridge and enjoyed ourselves hiking down.

Just after 3 hours us honeymooners made the summit! It’s a shame we couldn’t see more because the views of the Elk’s would have been gorgeous, but nevertheless we had fun signing the summit register as Esser’s for the first time.

On the way down we saw everybody wearing a lot more winter clothing and here we were in our shorts, and on our honeymoon. People thought we were pretty hardcore…oh, how little they knew….*smile*

All in all, it was a fun trip. If you do drive to the top of the 4wd road, then you just drove for probably 10 hours round-trip from Denver and climbed for 4. However, if you’re looking to stand on top of an Elk fourteener, then this is the one to do. It’s a good warm-up for the harder ones to come.

After arriving back to the Blazer, Colleen and I drove back to the lodge and sat in the hot tub for a couple hours and drank wine to help take the edge off and enjoy the rest of our honeymoon together.

Drive: 4h
Ascent: 3.25h
Summit: 5 min
Descent: 1.5h
Drive: 2.75h
Total: 6h

Mt. Antero – West Slopes

Date: August 16, 2004
Elevation: 14,269′
Rank: 10th
Route: West Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 7.0 miles, 3400ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 40.433′ W 106° 14.766′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Mark Jaeger (Gugals)

Pre-climb: My friend Mark (Gugals) made his annual pilgrimage up to Colorado this year, although his main purpose for coming up wasn’t to climb 14er’s as in previous years. No…this year was different. This year, he made the trip because I had asked him to be the Best Man in my wedding! But seriously…wedding planning is stressful and what better way to relieve that stress than by heading out into the mountains and climbing something!?

Climb: A plan was incubated and then at 4am on Monday the 16th of August, a mere five days before my wedding it was hatched. Gugs and I awoke from our late-night Olympic watching slumber and realized we had our own gold medal to win, our own finish line to cross. Our Goal: Have as much fun on Mt. Antero as possible.

Making the summit somewhere in the process would be extra credit.

The fun begins when you reach the base of the 4wd road up Baldwin Gulch. There is a jeep road that goes all the way up to 13,700ft that miners and gem collectors take because Mt. Antero supposedly contains modest stones worth value. I shifted into 4wd-high on my Blazer and started up the steep, rough road. After about 15 seconds however, I soon realized how steep and how rough the road was…4wd-high wasn’t going to cut it. I dropped it down to 4wd-low, and crawled over what turned out to be the bumpiest section — the beginning mile.

After a mile and a half, we ran into a car that was confused. It was a Ford Explorer that was turned sideways in the road. As we pulled up to them, they flagged us down and told us that they were lost. (We really didn’t have much choice as they were blocking the narrow passage) I didn’t ask questions and asked if they simply followed the road that continued straight ahead. They mentioned that they had in fact gone another mile up the road, but it didn’t seem to be gaining elevation. I whipped out my map and GPS and pinpointed where we were at, and quickly realized why they made the error they did. They didn’t have a map, compass or GPS on them and didn’t know that there was a stretch in the road that went through a valley and didn’t gain much elevation! Truth be told, they were from my college town of Norman, OK as they noticed my OU sticker on my Blazer and so I told them to follow me up and I’d lead them to the 4wd parking. Boomer Sooner!

We arrived at the 4wd parking area after about 40 minutes and decided to cross the river at the 4wd parking so that we wouldn’t have to hike across the stream twice — once on the way up, and once on the way back to the car. Shortly after crossing I parked my Blazer and the guys from Norman parked their Explorer. We then parted ways as they were in a hurry to climb the mountain and Gugals and I were a little more laid back about just having fun on the endless switchbacks of Antero.

By 8:30a we were finally hiking up Mt. Antero. The steepest part seemed to be getting up to 12,500ft, and then after that the road really mellows out and it’s a relatively easy (and smooth) stroll to 13,300ft, before you begin the last push to 13,700ft which signifies the end of the jeep road. If you want to know how hard the road is, my Blazer could have easily made it up to 13,300ft, and being careful, all the way to the top of 13,700ft. There are probably four or five good parking spots from tree line to the top of the road. The difference is, after tree line, the road get’s considerable narrower, and there are no trees to catch your car if it were to tip over. Besides, why drive to the top when you can have fun hiking it!?

Two hours after we left my car, we were at the top of the jeep road and ready for the final push across the ridge and up the 400ft talus slope to the summit. The ridge was a cake walk as far as 14er’s go, and Gugals even approved of it saying that he felt safe on it. We scrambled up one little section, but it was all of eight feet high and then we were on our way to meeting the guys from Norman on the summit.

However, the two guys from Oklahoma decided to come down and we crossed paths with them on the talus slope on the summit shoulder of Mt. Antero. They were going to try the “shortcut” that is easily visible from the summit of Antero and we wished them well and said we were just going to take the road back to the car. With that, they were gone and I look down to see Gugals frolicking in the snow and chugging a Red Bull to help him “fly” up to the summit. I had to laugh because at 14,000ft I’m sure your heart is already pumping fast enough and could imagine how fast his heart had to be beating after drinking pure caffeine and sugar.

We reached the summit in about 2 hours 45 minutes and we then took a while to enjoy the ideal weather (and no wind!) at 14,269ft. Gugals then decides to inform me that he hasn’t had any water the entire way up! Good grief! He must be part camel because he didn’t get dehydrated at all, however I was already on my third nalgene. I ate a sandwich and everything else in my backpack and then took a quick nap. Forty-five minutes later we decided we had better start heading down, and just as we stepped off the summit we ran into this girl named Ana who is from Spain, but more importantly needed a ride back down to the start of the Baldwin Gulch Trailhead.

Gugals and I waited for her to summit and then we made our way down with her to my Blazer. We walked fairly quickly because of an approaching storm but it never really happened and we made it down to my car in two hours. Soon after we took Ana back to her car at the bottom and during the drive home reflected on how great it is to be in Colorado.

If you drive to the 4wd parking, I would say Mt. Antero is easier than Mt. Yale and Mt. Princeton primarily because there is a huge road to the top. However, it’s not the prettiest mountain…there are a lot of rocks. So take a lot of sunscreen.

Drive: 4h
Ascent: 2.75h
Summit: 45 min
Descent: 2h
Drive: 4.25h
Total: 5.5h