Humboldt Pk – Attempt

Date: May 25, 2007
Elevation: 14,064′
Rank: 37th
Route: West Ridge, Grade II, Class 2, 7.6 miles, 4000ft vert.
GPS: N 37° 58.583′ W 105° 33.35′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Jason Staudinger

Pre-climb: Jason had the entire week preceding Memorial Day off from work and wanted to go hiking, so we planned big. Maybe too big. As it turned out we were the first people to attempt Humboldt Pk from the standard route in quite a while as we would break trail the entire way to the lake.

Climb: The drive to the Sangre de Cristo’s is beautiful. We wanted to avoid Memorial Day Weekend traffic so we went south on I-25, leaving in the afternoon from Denver. We encountered minimal traffic until we got to the random sobriety checkpoint just outside of Pueblo. After a quick talk with an officer we were on our way.

Once you reach the 4×4 part of South Colony Rd you realize the advantage of having a 4×4. It definitely gets you closer to the trailhead, but on this road, one still might be faster hiking. At a couple points we had to get out and size up the best way to navigate the rocks as I didn’t want to break an axle. We made it about 1.5 miles from the top before the snow got too deep for us to go any further. We pulled over and started packing for a night hike in. It was around 8:15pm.

It was during the hike in that we realized nobody had broke trail up the road yet this season. We had a few spots where we couldn’t tell what was the road and what was a river due to the limited light provided by our headlamps, but somehow we navigated our way up to the original trailhead by 10:30pm. Even though we fell through the snow at a couple points, we had a lot of fun hiking in the dark.

After setting up camp we went to bed and enjoyed the warmer temperatures of the evening. It was around 35F, which was just fine for the mummy bags and tent that we brought. During the night some pesky marmots liked the salt from my trekking poles and shredded the loop that goes around the wrist. Oh well, that’s what I get for leaving my trekking poles out overnight.

The next morning we set out to climb Humboldt. Well, without a trail to follow and with the hordes of snow that was in the Sangres, and even though I’d already hiked Crestone Needle before, we had trouble finding a way up to the lakes. We ended up cutting through the trees too early causing us to do massive amounts of postholeing through the snow and burning all our energy. I cannot understand the amount of time/energy it takes to travel a mile when you’re breaking trail up to your groin in snow. Snowshoes would have helped, but we didn’t have them.

By the time we approached the lakes we saw a sign that indicated we were on the right track. It was getting late in the day and we didn’t want to push it. Jason’s new knee was holding up great but his other one was starting to act up so we made the smart decision to turn around.

On the way down we ran into a couple of groups coming up and informed them of conditions. They all mentioned they hadn’t seen this much snow in the Sangres at this time of year EVER. As Jason and I arrived back at the tent we noticed a group coming down off the mountain. Due to us breaking trail, another group was able to use our tracks, save energy, and make the summit of Humboldt. That’s awesome. I’m glad I could give back to the climbing community as I know I’ve used trails broken by somebody else before to achieve my goals.

We were back at the car by 1:30pm and ready for a nice, big burger. However, coming down the road isn’t the quickest process in the world but eventually we made it. Carl’s Jr near Canyon City never tasted so good.

In the end I will return to do Humboldt, but it was a good early season test to get acclimated for later summer endeavors. Jason did awesome for his first “real” hiking trip in Colorado.

Drive: 4.5h
Ascent: 6h 30min
Summit: –
Descent: 2h 30min
Drive: 4h