Date: May 28, 2005
Elevation: 13,739' and 13,572'
Rank: 128th and 209th
Route: South Ridge, Grade I, Class 2, 4.0 miles, 2210ft vert.
Ptarmigan Pk GPS: N 39° 9.000' W 106° 10.458'
Weston Pk GPS: N 39° 8.143' W 106° 9.818'
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Esser, Jennifer Rickard
Ptarmigan Pk and Weston Pk Trip Report:
Pre-climb: This climb is different than most others because usually I plan everything last minute, but with this one I had been gleaning information for two weeks from other climbers and hikers on different forums as to where the snow was and wasn't. Memorial Day weekend comes but once a year, and due to the recent heat, rivers were gushing from melting snow and so that meant that hikes with serious river crossings were out of the question. The heat was also causing avalanches, so climbs through avalanche prone areas were out of the question. However, Memorial Day was supposed to be cold and snowy up in the high-country so that meant we had to do something quick, camping was out of the question and Saturday morning would be our only window of opportunity. Okay, so it's not 100% different, I did do some last minute adjustments. I admit that I didn't have the exact route planned until about 9pm on Friday night, but thanks to Sean Cunniff's excellent report of his Horseshoe climb from Weston Pass, I was able to pin down what we would do the following day and we were able to have a fun, safe and exciting first climb of the season.
Climb: The drive to Weston Pass was fairly uneventful. Jennifer, Colleen and I drove to Silverthorn late Friday night in an attempt to avoid traffic. Our thinking was to leave after the crowds that left Friday evening after work and before the droves of people who head to the mountains for Memorial Day Saturday morning. We stayed in a Days Inn and got some sleep, woke up at 5:30am, got a "free" breakfast and drove to Fairplay. Weston Pass itself was free of snow until just before the summit where we noticed a patch of snow and a set of tracks right through them. As we pulled into the trailhead we noticed one vehicle and one climber 500' above us up the steep beginning of the trail.
We quickly got dressed underneath the gorgeous blue sky of Colorado, and at 8am, we started our hike up the steep "trail", following the mystery hiker. Now when I say steep, it's 1,440ft vertical in 0.7 miles. That's a little over 21 degrees of a slope. Again, try setting a treadmill at a gym to that. When I say "trail", I mean the only discernable jeep tracks of a trail lasted about 400 feet and then we were left guessing where to go from there.
We knew we had to go up, and occasionally got glimpses of the hiker above us switchbacking up the hill. After nearly having a heart attack from the abruptness of how soon this climb gets serious, we reached the ridge at around 13,300ft. To my right along the ridge I noticed Point 13,380 with a piece of wood sticking out of a cairn, and then noticed Weston Peak a little further in the distance. I looked to my left and noticed Point 13,525 with impressive cliffs and directly in front of me was a large dropoff with a quickly warming up cornice that recently had avalanche activity. I beat Colleen and Jennifer to the ridge by about 5 minutes and when they arrived we sat down in the warm sun and had a snack of beef jerky and Cliff Bars.
After a 15 minute break we starting hiking over Point 13,525 and to Ptarmigan Pk. This is a very enjoyable ridge completely free of snow. As we were arriving at Ptarmigan we noticed the hiker that was above us, was now coming down off the summit and so we stopped to ask him if he made it all the way to Horseshoe Mtn. He said that he had the legs to do it, but just didn't feel like it today. He said he got the route information off of 14erworld and so I asked him his name. He replied, "Tim" and I said, "Tim Flannery?" I think that startled him a little that I knew his last name even though we had never met before, he asked my name and when I told him, he asked which one was my wife and told us how he visited our website when we were training for a marathon. What a small world. I had wondered how another hiker would know about this gem of a hike and it turned out to be none other than another 14erworld member.
Soon we parted ways after talking about 14ers...rumor also has it he likes chess as well...*smile*...Colleen, Jennifer and I stood atop Ptarmigan Pk after about 2.5 hours of hiking. We were less than 300' below 14,000 feet, but it was just as much fun as any 14er hike and we avoided the crowds and we had a successful day. Tim and Sean were the only ones to make it to the top of Ptarmigan this year besides us. We stayed on the summit for about 15 minutes then left for Weston Peak. At this point the clouds started to turn dark and we could see it snowing in the distance. The wind had increased noticeably, so I kicked it into high gear as we were on a ridge and didn't want to get caught in any bad weather.
Colleen and Jennifer stopped at Point 13,380 and told me that their feet hurt and that I could climb the 300 feet or so up Weston by myself. By this point the clouds had really moved in and the wind had picked up dramatically. It practically carried me up this peak! Upon arriving at the summit, I noticed Sean was the last one to make it and I was the second person this year to summit. Not many people go for this one I guess, even though it's an easy tag.
As I descended Weston Pk, the wind was now coming directly in my face and my hands were getting quite cold without gloves. Then some snow started to fall on us and I knew Colleen and Jennifer waiting at Point 13,380 had to be cold. I hurried down Weston Pk and soon met up with them, had a Snickers bar and then we bolted down the steep "trail" and back to our car. The descent wasn't very fun as it was super steep, it reminded me of the Soutwest Slopes of Massive. As we got close to my Blazer though, I noticed the snow was hitting these high powered power lines near the trailhead and causing them to crackle. Talk about scary! I ran as quickly as I could after a day of hiking to my car and waiting for Jennifer and Colleen to arrive. Last thing I would need is one of those things to release a "ZAP!" towards my trekking poles.
Soon we were all in the car and headed to Breckenridge for a quick bite to eat at Extreme Pizza and the traffic-less drive home on Saturday afternoon. What a great way to start the season!
Pictures: (Click on picture for caption)
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Traverse |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 3 h |
2.5 h |
15 min |
1.75 h |
5 min |
1.25 h |
3.25 h |
5.75 h |
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
