Humboldt Pk – West Ridge

Date: July 20, 2007
Elevation: 14,064′
Rank: 37th
Route: West Ridge, Grade II, Class 2, 5.8 miles, 3100ft vert.
GPS: N 37° 58.583′ W 105° 33.35′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Jason Staudinger, Fred Good

Pre-climb: This would be Fred’s first 14er and for Jason this would be his second attempt. (Although Jason’s first attempt without massive amounts of snow on the ground!) We pulled together the logistics and were able to adhere to our 3am departure time from Denver. The only problem was our stop at McDonalds in Colorado Springs where the computers were down and they had to manually add up our order. Pretty funny, but it took over 45 minutes to get our food and get out of there!

Climb: We started up the 4×4 South Colony Rd at 7:30am in Fred’s beast of a Jeep. It was definitely a smoother ride than my Blazer and he didn’t have to get out to check the best lines during the harder sections. I need to team up with Fred more often! Before we knew it we were up at the top of the road by 8:30am.

After quick assembling of gear the plan of attack was to hike in with our packs, drop our gear for camp, setup a tent, summit Humboldt, then descend back to our tents and stay the night. The following morning we would hike out. That was the plan anyway.

By 8:45am we were hiking, which was a great starting time. The clouds had been hanging low all day on the drive in, but they hadn’t caused me to worry any because they weren’t building vertically, just spreading out across the sky horizontally. We made great time hiking the 1.5 miles into the lake and we had dropped off our gear and setup our tents within an hour of starting. We continued on the trail as it crossed the stream and made it’s way to the north side of the lake.

As Jason and I thought back to our last hike, we stood in amazement as to how close we were to the real trail. Last time when we were here there was just too much snow to really tell where anything was. It was great to see what we actually did accomplish given our conditions on the previous trip.

The switchbacks up to the saddle of Humboldt were steeper than expected but compared to other steep ascents on different 14ers not that bad. After taking a break for food and sunscreen we marched on to the saddle behind the fast pace set by Jason. After reaching the saddle at around 11:30am we could see the false summit of Humboldt and thought we were close.

The clouds continue to build in closer and darker and the trail that I thought would be more grassy turned out to actually be more rocky. The trekking poles started to get in the way as we were stepping from rock to rock as we now more slowly made our way up Humboldt. Fred took the lead and did a great job finding the path of least resistance.

Just below the false summit where the trail is the steepest and the crux of the route is, Jason called it quits. I didn’t argue with him. It was his decision to make. He just had knee surgery and he did an amazing job getting as far as he did. Knowing that he had to go down and with the weather quickly deteriorating, he didn’t want to pull his body up and over rock ledges and if it started raining forget about it. It wouldn’t be a good scenario. Fred and I continued on.

After reaching the false summit, the true summit wasn’t as far off as I thought it might be. Plus it helps that the angle of the ascent greatly flattens out. A quick scramble up the final summit and Fred had reached his first 14er! Congratulations Fred!

The time was 12:30p and we knew the clouds wouldn’t hold out much longer, so we very quickly signed the summit register, grabbed a bite to eat and hurried back down. After cresting the false summit we could see Jason on the saddle doing battle with a pack of 5 marmots. He claims they were ganging up on him, and we have no doubt they were, but it just looks funny from above.

On the descent the sun broke out through the clouds and I started to overheat. I ran out of water on the switchbacks back down to the lake and broke out in heat hives. I only started getting these after Jason and I’s last hike on Humboldt. Whenever I get my hives I get really cold and really tired. After a quick stop at a stream to soak our feet in the frigid water, we were back at the tent by 3:00p.

I was looking forward to a fun evening where we hung out at camp, ate dinner, told stories, but my hives would say differently. They started to get worse and even after crawling into my sleeping bag I could not get warm. The decision was made to break camp and get me back down to the 2wd trailhead where I had the rest of my medication. Why I didn’t bring it with me I don’t know.

Super Fred ran ahead of Jason and I and pulled his Jeep a little closer up the road and then had the energy to run back up the trail to me to relieve me of my pack. I felt a little ashamed about my condition but realized it is what I would do if I were in Fred’s shoes and I should just let him take my pack instead of making things worse. The bumpy ride down almost made me lose my lunch but I managed to make it down thanks to Fred’s awesome driving.

We stopped in Westcliffe at the pizza joint to get a bite to eat and after eating their cheese bread and pizza I started to feel better. Not to mention my medication was starting to work.

The decision was made for us to drive all the way home that evening even though I originally had plans to meet my dad in Poncha Springs the following day. We pulled back into Denver late, at around 12:30a and it was nice to sleep in a comfy bed.

All in all, Humboldt surprised me in the deceiving distance of the hike from the saddle to the false summit but wasn’t too bad of a climb. It’s a shame that South Colony Rd will be closing at the end of the season because I have many fond memories of it and I hope it won’t cause more people to take chances on routes they aren’t familiar with.

Drive: 4.5h
Ascent: 3h 45min
Summit: 5 min
Descent: 2h 30min
Drive: 4h