Another weekend, another 13er...Engelmann Peak this time - I *thought* that this one would be a shorter, somewhat easier hike. Well, I've underestimated things before. ;)
We met up with our friends (the only ones crazy enough to do this kind of sh*t with us) and headed up towards Berthoud Pass, turning onto the Henderson Mine road and eventually pulling off next to a gate with Extreme Avalanche Warnings posted on it. We then headed up into the forest via a Jeep road. After spending a half hour searching for one of the dogs that decided to do her own off-trailing, we proceeded up the road a bit further and then began our own off-trailing, as there is no trail up the rarely traveled Engelmann.
Along the way, we found this very peaceful meadow. We stopped for a few pictures, contemplated frolicking through it...then moved on, wholly unfrolicked.
Knowing we needed to pick our line up Engelmann, we chose a gully and decided to see how the terrain went for ascending the peak. The boys scouted ahead, decreed it was doable and we started up.
The terrain we would cover heading up the gully.
Where we came from...still shrouded in morning shadows.
Tons of talus, then steep grass/loose dirt, until we finally gained the ridge and followed it up to the top of Engelmann. Below, Tom is on the ridge after doing some scrambling. It was steep going...this picture, of course, does not do it justice.
We had fantastic views from the summit, all the way to Long's Peak in RMNP. And like most 13ers, we had the summit to ourselves, simply awesome.
And after we did some dog-sitting (literally) on top...
...we decided the way we came up would be a b*tch going down, so we headed down the east ridge of Engelmann and after crossing a large talus field, we ended up...well, on more steep terrain (our view coming down):
The dogs feet were cut and bleeding from the talus and poor Bella (the one who took the run earlier in the hike), was hurting pretty badly. But we all made it down in time for ice cream at Lewis' in Empire. Ice cream makes everything better, but you already knew that (so did Ezra and Bella).
We met up with our friends (the only ones crazy enough to do this kind of sh*t with us) and headed up towards Berthoud Pass, turning onto the Henderson Mine road and eventually pulling off next to a gate with Extreme Avalanche Warnings posted on it. We then headed up into the forest via a Jeep road. After spending a half hour searching for one of the dogs that decided to do her own off-trailing, we proceeded up the road a bit further and then began our own off-trailing, as there is no trail up the rarely traveled Engelmann.
Along the way, we found this very peaceful meadow. We stopped for a few pictures, contemplated frolicking through it...then moved on, wholly unfrolicked.
Knowing we needed to pick our line up Engelmann, we chose a gully and decided to see how the terrain went for ascending the peak. The boys scouted ahead, decreed it was doable and we started up.
The terrain we would cover heading up the gully.
Where we came from...still shrouded in morning shadows.
Tons of talus, then steep grass/loose dirt, until we finally gained the ridge and followed it up to the top of Engelmann. Below, Tom is on the ridge after doing some scrambling. It was steep going...this picture, of course, does not do it justice.
We had fantastic views from the summit, all the way to Long's Peak in RMNP. And like most 13ers, we had the summit to ourselves, simply awesome.
And after we did some dog-sitting (literally) on top...
...we decided the way we came up would be a b*tch going down, so we headed down the east ridge of Engelmann and after crossing a large talus field, we ended up...well, on more steep terrain (our view coming down):
The dogs feet were cut and bleeding from the talus and poor Bella (the one who took the run earlier in the hike), was hurting pretty badly. But we all made it down in time for ice cream at Lewis' in Empire. Ice cream makes everything better, but you already knew that (so did Ezra and Bella).
