Date: March 20, 2004
Elevation: 14,196'
Rank: 21st
Route: Southwest Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 7.0 miles, 4300ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 50.616' W 106° 18.783'
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Rickard, Scott Upshur, Sarah Dennis
Mt. Yale Trip Report:
Pre-climb: Those of you that climb mountains here in Colorado can imagine the drool coming out of my mouth when I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be 65 degrees and sunny with light winds in Buena Vista on Saturday. Then it dawned on me that I haven't climbed a 14er since last August which (if you're counting) was over 7 months ago. Right then, my roommate Scott walked in and said that his girlfriend is in town and they want to do something in the mountains but don't want to go snowboarding because there isn't much snow. It then dawned on me how little snow we've gotten, and while that's not good snowboarding, it makes Spring climbing easier. In the end, Mt. Yale was chosen because of the good access and relatively safe climbing. Let the packing begin.
Climb: It was the first day of Spring and the four of us were out the door by 5:30am and officially on the road by 6am. The drive to Buena Vista was uneventful which is A Good Thing (tm). I've heard numerous stories about driving south on Highway 24 from Leadville early in the morning and getting pulled over because they were trying to get to the trailhead as quickly as possible.
At 8:45am we pulled into the Denny Creek trailhead parking lot (9,900ft) which is about 12 miles west of the stoplight in Buena Vista (and completely free of snow) and discovered that we were the only people there. I took a picture of this event because I'm sure it doesn't happen very often on Saturday's. By 9am we were signed in the register and noticed that there seemed to be a group of people that attempted Yale every couple days.
The trail up Denny Creek doesn't waste any time gaining elevation although it eventually flattens out as it follows the river. There were a few patches of snow, but they were no trouble for us without snowshoes. After about 30 minutes into the hike, we took a break at the sign for the turn-off for Mt. Yale and Delaney Creek (10,400ft) and that's when things got interesting.
Being one day after Winter officially ended, most of the footprints in the snow are "best guesses" as to where the actual trail is. It only became evident to us that we were off-route when we would come upon a dry patch and did not see anything that resembled a trail underneath it. However, we weren't about to make our own trail up Mt. Yale through the unpacked snow, so we just followed the footprints that were already there.
Ascending the steep slope up to the shoulder was grueling. At times we would posthole and hit our shins on the crust of the snow, while at other times we'd discover a rock hidden underneath where we fell through. Although for the most part the snow wasn't bad at all, and it was the dry areas that were the most dangerous. During one junction, Colleen tried to pass me and ended up loosing her footing and slipped. In an instant, reactively, I grabbed her flailing ski-pole and caught her from going farther down the slope. Bloodied and bruised, we continued on to the shoulder at 12,200ft. For the first time we could see Mt. Yale and regain confidence that we were headed the right direction.
We paused for a lunch break and noticed how perfect the weather was. The wind was hardly blowing, and the sky was cloudless. Scott was already hiking in shorts and so I changed into mine. It was getting late (noon), and as we would realize later, the final 2,000ft of elevation gain appeared a lot easier than it was. Our conversations grew short as we concentrated on breathing and just making it up to the base of the next slope.
When we arrived at the base of the slope that leads to the summit ridge we noticed the real trail about 50 ft away from us which we then gladly took up to the top of Yale's northwest ridge at 13,900ft. There were a few snow-patches and by this point I was sick of them. The afternoon sun had warmed them up so that they were not pleasant to walk through and our hiking shoes and socks were soaked. When we finally reached the ridge, the wind was dramatically stronger and forced us to stop and put on ALL of our clothing. It was so fierce that we were walking at an angle and my GPS and heart monitor ceased to work.
Minus the wind, the ridge wasn't too bad. There's some snow on it, but not enough to make us worried. We took our time and traversed over the false summit, then made the true summit of Mt. Yale at 4pm. Yes, that's not a typo, 4pm. I know it was extremely late to make a summit and I accept the blame for it, however the weather was still holding up.
The stay on the summit of Mt. Yale was probably the shortest of any 14er I've ever been on. Due to the wind we were there all of five minutes before we hustled back down the ridge. To save time we then glissaded down the entire slope back down to about 12,500ft. That's about 1,400ft of sliding on our butts and not having to walk! While you think this sounds like fun, it was actually so long of a slide that it began to hurt and we have bruises to show for it. Plus, Colleen's pants got ripped on some of the rocks that were hidden underneath the snow.
Scott and Sarah were so far ahead of us that they were out of shouting distance and took the wrong trail down. They followed the trail down Denny Gulch and encountered HUGE snowdrifts and river crossings and nearly set off an avalanche. Colleen and I went down the way we came up and that's when we ran into the first people besides ourselves that we saw all day.
There were about 12 people that followed our tracks up and were camping at about treeline. We asked them if they had seen Scott and Sarah, (which they hadn't) and they offered us some warm water that they were using for their dinner. The sun was setting so we then exchanged radio frequencies with them and continued down the trail. I had my GPS with me, so we could use that to verify where we came up. However, with 12 people following our tracks, the way back down was obvious...if you had a headlight...which Scott and Sarah didn't have.
The stars were absolutely gorgeous and it actually reminded me of hiking on Longs before the sun came up. Colleen sang songs to keep any predators away and I just kept hiking. I was now extremely tired and had a headache so bad that I wanted to throw-up. Due to the sun going down, our hiking speed dramatically decreased and we were now going pretty slow, but at least we were steady and safe, and the weather was warm.
Eventually we got to the register and signed us out, and radioed our friends up on the mountain that we were safe. As Colleen and I got to the car we found a note from a Sheriff in Salida that Scott and Sarah were cold and wet, and picked up by their department, and Search and Rescue would be out for us in the morning. I looked at my watch, and it said unforgivingly 9:30pm.
We were just taking off our boots when a Search and Rescue vehicle pulled up and asked if we were Matt and Colleen. We confirmed that we were and that there was no need for them to come out in the morning and look for us, and so we asked where Scott and Sarah were. They informed us that they had been taken to the Super 8 in Buena Vista and were all ok.
I was completely drained of energy. Twelve and a half hours of hiking through snow and I felt worse than I did after running the Steamboat Marathon. Colleen felt just about the same. We drove to the Super 8 and found Scott and Sarah eating pizza and swapped stories on what happened. They didn't have a light so they were in a hurry to get down and thought that the "trail" would lead them down to the car. I guess I should have told them to always come down the way you go up unless you have a map and are sure of what you are doing. In hindsight they followed the faded trail that leads down the now closed Denny Gulch.
Looking back on everything, there are many things to be learned from this trip. I guess in a way I should not only make sure that Colleen and I have the right gear and equipment (which we did), but that everybody else in our party does too, *before* we start hiking and get into a situation that requires it. The good news is that after the whole ordeal of hiking down in the dark, I feel a lot safer if by some accident it were to ever happen again.
Pictures: (Click on picture for caption)
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 2.75 h |
7 h |
5 min |
5.5 h |
2.75 h |
12.5 h |
