Uncompahgre Peak Winter Conditions

[Zoriloco]

Hello everyone, I recently signed up and decided to share a trip report from my last hike up a 14ers this past November 2010. Hope you enjoy it.

I had been wanting for the last couple of months to be able to move up into more technical winter climbs but hadnt had the chance to meet someone that would take me under his wing and provide guidance. About a month ago someone offered to set up a winter camping trip with a summit attempt up Uncompahgre Peak. As soon as the offer was made i jumped at it.
The idea was to hike in 4 miles in to the Nellie Creek TH on Saturday, set up camp for the night and give the summit a go on Sunday.
During the last couple of weeks my team (Jason & Leslie) met up to plan the trip out. We discussed who wold bring what ( tent, jet boil stove, fuel, meals, etc)
We all met up at Castle Rock Saturday at 1am and headed out on a 6hr drive towards Gunnison, CO. We arrived at the TH at 8am.
After gearing up, having some breakfast & a quick prayer we all set out. A total of 12 climbers, that afternoon another 6 would join us, from which only 11 reached the summit.


The hike into camp wasnt to bad. We started around 9am and arrived at 2pm (we were all carrying 45lb packs)

Little breaks in the snow like this one would be supplying the water for us to boil and drink for the weekend.

Our tent was a 4 season 3 peeps Moutain Hardware. Once we added to that a Cero degree bag and a down jacket we were nice and toasty all nigth.




Sunday Dec 12th
Alarm goes off at 5am. I was so nice and warm i had no desire to get up and start up and get some water boiling for the oatmeal I had broght for breakfast. Lucky enough Leslie was all for cooking so I got to stay in my sleeping bag for another 5min
I know it doesnt look like much but hot tea and oatmeal felt soooooo good.


Leslie (This girl can walk, she use to be a triathlon athlete and can just keep on going for ever)

By 6am everyone was geared up and ready to head out towards the summit. It was still dark and with a tempeture of about 10 degrees I left my down jacket on.

Jason getting his snowshoe's on

By 7am the rest of the crew had caught up with us. Our trip included some very accomplished climbers. Including guys that have climbed all 14ers in CO (58 peaks) all 13ers (Over 650 peaks) and many international expeditions. Needless to say I felt very safe with the guides.




Weather was moving in and the the peak was only visiable to us once during the whole trip and it was for only a few seconds


Some of the views during the hike




Just below the summit before the final strech there was a Gully we needed to climb. This has been the closest I have ever felt to being a Mountaineer. It was a class3 climbs where the rocks were covered in Snow and Ice. We had 30MPH winds with 50MPH wind gusts.
It was so cold I had a layer of ice all ove my jacket, gloves, pants and goggles. It really was an amazing climb.
Some pics of the gully (unfortunately you can really tell but behind us is a 1500 drop). In this pictuer you can see the tip of my boot and microspikes, while im standing looking down and taking the picture.




After that nice little scramble we were a quick walk of 300 feet from the summit and of course I had to bust out the flag <runaround>







Cooper, this little dog was amazing!

We arrived at the summit at 11:30am and were back to our campsite by 1:30pm. After a quick lunch and packing up we were back at the car by 4:30pm and back in Denver by midnight.
I can really say this was one of the climbs I have most enjoyed.[/quote]

[denaliguide]

that looked like fun. except for the alpine start.

[Sombeech]

Excellent!

[ibenick]

looks pretty gnarly up there.

[accadacca]

Killer report man. That dog is Hard Core!