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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: January 18,
2004
- Miles Hiked: 11.4
- Elevation Gain: 4,370'
- Hiking Partner(s): None
- Description:
- After reviewing accessibility, rating difficulty, watching the
weather, and gathering some information on local forums, I decided to
attempt Pikes Peak via the Crags Campground Trailhead. (I would
like to thank anyone who provided me with beta.) Other than a hot
cup of coffee at the summit house (it was closed), I don't think there
is more a person could ask for when it comes to a January day in the
mountains. The weather was clear, the trail was empty, and the
summit was successfully attained.
- I was up and 5:00 am and left Highlands Ranch at 5:30 am. After
going through Colorado Springs and Woodland Park, I was at the trailhead
by 7:15 am. The road was plowed all the way through Crags
Campground to the actual trailhead. In reading Roach's book and
reading trip reports, I was a bit concerned about route finding as
hikers seemed to indicate that it was somewhat difficult. To
mitigate any problems, I loaded up my brand spankin' new GPS with
waypoints and photo copied descriptions to assist with this.
- The trail was well packed and snowshoes were not required. I
hiked a short way up the trail and off to my left were the three pipes
described in several trip reports. Only a few hundred feet later
was the creek crossing off to the right. From here, the trail
continued to appear heavily used as I made my way up the southern
drainage. As stated in "Colorado's Fourteeners", the
trail crossed to the north side of the creek at 10,900' below a towering
block of rock to the north. I continued east and upon my return,
learned that I left the trail to the right earlier than I would have
needed to. Instead of switch backing up and staying on the north
side of the basin, I simply followed the bottom of the drainage all the
way to the timberline at 11,800'.
- From timberline to the saddle at 12,730' is where I ran into my first
of two difficult sections of the day. Not only is the distance
from the top of the trees to the saddle deceiving and much longer than
it initially appears, a light dusting of snow filled the rocks which
made progress slow. I began to post hole a lot and had to work
much harder with limited success. Coupled with this was the fact
that my feet were getting extremely cold as I post holed. The sun
had still not risen over the horizon.
- At this point, I stopped for some water and a snack, loosened the
laces on my boots to increase circulation, and then finally reached the
12,730' saddle shortly after seeing the sun for the first time of the
day. I got my first glimpse of Pikes Peak and felt rejuvenated.
I jumped on the abandoned spur road and was at the Devil's Playground in
short order. From the 12,730' saddle to the 12,930' saddle to the
base of Pikes Peak was easy going as I followed the route description to
the right (west) of Points 13190 and 13250 and to the left (east) of
Point 13363.
- At 13,400', the summit was only a half a mile and approximately 700'
away. The dusting of snow discussed earlier would return to haunt
me as this section of the trip proved to be the second crux of my
hike. With snow filling the talus, climbing Pikes' final northwest
slope proved to be extremely difficult as I post holed some more and had
troubles maintaining my footing. Not to mention that I was
fatigued and running out of gas. Trying to rock hop on the exposed
talus, I struggled to the top after wiping out a couple of times and
slipping on the rocks. This was a perfect example of how the
difficulty of a route increases as conditions change.
- The summit was like a ghost town with not a soul in sight. The
summit house was locked and the peak had a surreal feeling. I ate
and hydrated while taking photos of the surrounding mountains. The
Bottomless Pit, Railroad Couloir, and Y Couloir looked
intimidating. Because of the difficulty I had on the northwest
slopes coming up, I opted to hike the road back down although this is
illegal. Because of my physical condition and usual recklessness
on descents, the snow filled rocks would be dangerous and a disaster
waiting to happen. Besides, I hadn't seen a car all day and I am
assuming this rule is for the safety of hikers and not a result of the
damage they cause to the road.
- Since Point 13363 is the highest assessable point (next to Pikes Peak)
on this route, I decided to tag the top and go over it on the way back
down. I also read about Point 13070 being the county highpoint for
Teller, so I scurried to the top of it too when I got back to the
Devil's Playground. On the way back out, I picked up a snowshoe
trail that led me to the north side of the basin to the switchbacks
referred to in Roach's route description. I think the two
different routes I took in and out were six of one and a half dozen of
the other. Not much difference between the two. On the way
out, I only saw a few other people who were within a mile of the
trailhead on family outings, other than this, I had the mountain to
myself all day.
- I'll have to admit that I am not really proud of my time statistics
and the ascent took much longer than I anticipated. Despite this,
I am pleased that I accomplished it in January. It took me 5:25 to
reach the summit, I spent :40 on the summit, and it took me 2:45 to get
back down. I may have done slightly better on the way up, but I
had a couple of episodes of low blood sugar levels (I'm diabetic.) that
slowed my progress some. In addition, I should note that my
statistics do not reconcile to Roach's due to giving myself an
additional 200' for Point 13363 and 70' for the Teller County Highpoint
at 13,070'. Any mileage changes are nominal so I didn't adjust the
distance.
- Maps:
- Click here to view a 2D map of
the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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