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Date: March 30, 2003
Elevation: 14,197'
Rank: 20th
Route: East Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 13.0 miles, 5300ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 44.966' W 106° 14.516'
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Rickard
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Mt. Princeton Trip Report:
Pre-climb: Colleen said that she wanted to try a 14er with me sometime, and we were excited to go out and try one. With all the snow the Blizzard of 2003 dropped on us, the chances of summitting has significantly decreased, however, we still wanted to go out and at least have some fun since it had been planned for some time now.
Climb: Any trip with me, in Colleen's words is "an adventure", because at least one crazy thing happens during the trip. This time, we didn't even have to get to the trailhead before the fun began.
When we came over the pass on 285 and first got a glimpse of Mt. Princeton, Co's breath was literally taken away. I heard her gasp as she saw it. The sheer size and rise from the plains is, well...breathtaking. Not 5 minutes after we got our first sight of the mountain, I got pulled over by Colorado State Patrol for following too closely to the vehicle in front of me. What kind of an offense is this? I had plenty of time to stop if the guy in front of me slammed on his brakes, but oh well. Time to greet Mr. Highway Patrolman.
The officer asked what we were up to, and I truthfully, but sarcastically told him that we were going to go climb, "That thing", as I pointed at Mt. Princeton. He looked up at the mountain and tipped his hat and looked back down at me and asked me if I had ever done anything like that before. I told him I did. The next question he asked was if we planned on doing the trip in snowshoes, and I told him that we weren't because we didn't have any. As he stood there looking at me, he then mumbled something about how I only had a half-second reaction time from the car that he admitted, "Was going quite slow.", but that I should have had more like 4 seconds reaction time. I handed him my license and registration and he went back to his patrol car. Colleen and I took this opportunity to get some good pics of the mountain. Upon his prompt return, he again asked if we had experience climbing mountains. I told him I did, and his reply was, "But in winter?" Shaking my head, he handed me back all my stuff, and told me that he was just giving me a warning and then he goes, "Here's our business card (Colorado Highway State Patrol), if you get into trouble, call us." I told him ok, and he went back to his patrol car. I had to laugh because here he was, probably just so shocked that we were going to go climb a mountain and he's thinking he's going to have to rescue us from up there, that me following too close to a Geo Tracker from Florida seemed insignificant.
Upon reaching the Mt. Princeton trailhead, we assessed the road and it looked like it could be driven, so I took it. It's definitely a 4x4 one lane road with a nice dropoff very tight in to the mountain. To make matters worse, with all the snow lately, the road was seriously muddy, so if I were to park my car on this road, at some parts it could probably just slide off down the side of Mt. Princeton. As we continued to climb higher, the road went from mud/snow slush mix to ice. My Blazer was squirrely and I was having second thoughts about why I thought it would be a good idea to drive up this road. However, we were committed. There was no place to turn around. Right about then I passed some hikers and once I got off the road ever so slightly I got stuck. Frantically I got out to put the chains on my front tires, but then I realized I was still in sandals! Snow was getting everywhere, and I was slipping and sliding all over the place. The hikers helped push my car out and I took off again. About two minutes later, we were presented with another problem. A car that was trying to descend as we were trying to ascend. Luckily there was the first turnoff not 5 minutes above where we were at. The car coming down backed up to this spot and let me poke through. However, as he left, I gladly parked at the first opportunity that I could as the road was super slippery. For those of you that know this road, I parked at the turnoff for the Colorado Trail, still a good couple miles short of the radio towers.
Colleen and I got out, and we were excited to finally be hiking. All the weeks of anticipating had finally arrived and we were enjoying it. Soon after hiking I was fortunate at my decision to stop driving as the road continually got worse. Eventually the tracks of vehicles stopped and Cobes and I were presented with a new situation. Un-tracked snow.
We pushed through the snow and the first five minutes were kinda fun, but then we realized how much work post-holing through snow was. I was breaking trail and I could only go about 100ft before needing another break. Colleen was a trooper following right behind me in my steps like a pro. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountains and we knew we had to hump it up to camp before it got too dark. However, the weight of our packs and the deep, fresh snow were dictating how fast we would accomplish that. Eventually, we spotted the radio towers. Finally, we were getting close!
About 10 minutes of breaking trail, we came upon the 11,000ft spot where we *think* there is camping, but with all the snow, there's no telling. When all the snow melts we will someday find out what we were sleeping on. However, for now, we were going to pitch our tent at 11,000ft in the waning sun, and the ever-present gusts of wind. In fact, the wind was so bad, we had trouble holding anything down. The tent and the fly and all the stuff sacks were blowing away, and when I tried using the snow stakes to stake down my tent, the stakes bent!! Yikes. So, quickly thinking of what to do, I improved and tied my tent to a tree. Yes, that's right, we were at 11,000ft, camping on about 4 feet of snow, in the wind, in the dark, without any stakes in the ground. Oh what a night this was beginning to turn out to be.
The plan was to cook dinner, however, neither of us wanted to even move, and we were having trouble even warming up. Colleen's toes were hard and it hurt for her to try to move them, and my fingers were cold from anchoring the tent to a tree with nylon cord. It was hard to distinguish which was complaining more: our stomachs, or our extremities. Needless to say, we didn't get out to cook that night.
As the temperature dropped, frost from the humidity of our breath was lining the inside of the tent. Our sleeping bags were rated 15-20 degrees, but the night had to of gotten down to 0-5 degrees. Not a good thing. We prayed to God to make it warmer and for the winds to stop, and somehow Co fell asleep, but I couldn't. I didn't want to catch hypothermia or carbon dioxide asphyxiation or HACE (high-altitude cerebral edima) or even frosbite. If I were awake, I could make sure that Colleen was still breathing and that she was doing ok, and plus I could make sure I was doing ok. Eventually, we became warmer, and the winds ceased and at about 4am, I could finally start dozing off.
We woke up to the dripping of the frost on the inside of our tent, and crawled outside to go to the bathroom. Shortly after, we decided to cook the jumbalya that I was going to make for dinner last night, for breakfast. It was so tasty. So good in fact, that all the birds were swooping down to get some of the rice. No mountain lions or bears this trip, the only animal we had to fend off was a harmless bird or two. Although once it tried landing in the nest otherwise known as my hair. Granted, there was snow and mud in it, but it's not a landing strip for birds.
Finally, at around 10am we set off for the summit of Mt. Princeton. However, the snow was relentless and trail breaking was tiresome and eventually I was walking up to my groin in snow. I told Colleen that I think we should turn back. She agreed. We both thought that we could have made the summit, which was a mere 2.5 miles from where we stood, however, we wouldn't have much gas left once we got back to camp. Also, we would be dealing with afternoon snow instead of morning snow, which is more prone to avalanches. Just in case you need clarification, that's not a good thing.
We returned to camp and then we decided to enjoy the warm sunshine of the day and laid out our thermarests to lay on, just as one would lay out a beach towel in summer on the beach. However, this was our beach. Nobody was on this mountain except us. We were the only tracks up here. We basked in the sun for a good 30 minutes before we finally decided to pack up the tent and start heading back to the car.
The hike down was so much easier as we could use our footsteps we created on the way up to walk down in. We were down to where we started the whole weekend in a flash. But there remained one last obstacle. Getting my vehicle off the mountain by means of a really, really slick road.
It's times like this that I wish I were Catholic and could cross myself, but instead I broke out into prayer the entire way down. I won't go into details here, but just know it was a harrowing descent. After reaching the bottom, we gladly took off the snow chains, rolled down our windows, turned on the air condition, and headed towards Leadville, where we could eat and also see a close college swim team partner and friend of Colleen's. After visiting with her for over an hour we went out to eat at Tennessee Pass and it was good food. Much better than the Golden Burro.
The drive home was uneventful, but sometimes you just have to appreciate it for that very reason. We reflected back on the best and worst parts of the trip and decided to try the mountain again. But only next time, it will be in summer.
Pictures: (Click on picture for caption)
Profile:
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 4 h |
3.5 h |
-- |
1.5 h |
3.5 h |
5 h |
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