I climbed this route in October, 2000 with a coating of fresh snow on the north side of the ridge. I've been wanting to try the route again under better conditions and with more experience, and see if my impression of the route changed much. As I recall, the routefinding was difficult and exposure was high, with some climbing required over steep and loose scree gullies.

Driving over Hoosier Pass, I could see fresh snow from Friday's storm on peaks over 13,000'. So much for better weather conditions... As usual, I would attempt the climb and turn back if the conditions were too dangerous in the difficult section above 14,000'.

I parked at the Blue Lakes dam and started hiking at 06:40. I was concerned about the fresh snow high up on the ridge, but I figured it wouldn't be much worse than the first time I had climbed the ridge. The weather looked clear and the wind wasn't bad at all. I hoped the sun would melt some of the new snow by the time I reached the 3rd class section.

The hanging valley below the Fletcher-Quandary saddle was scenic, with many small tarns and pools of water, numerous wildflowers, and a waterfall cascading down one of the headwalls. In about an hour I reached the saddle and started up the ridge.

Foto ©2004 by John C. Maki

The trail initially bypasses some towers on the south side, then a strong trail works up the ridge on the north side. The 3rd class difficulties are not encountered until 14,000', and they cannot be seen from the ridge below. As I climbed higher the views improved, and I cringed at the thought of traversing the ridge between Atlantic Peak and Fletcher Mountain.

Foto ©2004 by John C. Maki

At 08:55 I reached the point on the trail where I could see the jagged towers of the upper ridge. I donned my helmet and carefully navigated up the ridge, which was still covered with 1/2" of new snow. The clouds were building but nothing looked bad to the northwest, the direction from which the wind was blowing. I was hoping to stick more to the ridge crest and avoid the nasty gullies this time, but the first couple of towers are easily passed to the south and to the north. At that point I gained the ridge and continued on the climb.

The ridge reminded me of Kelso Ridge on Torreys Peak, with solid, sharp-angled granite and the white quartzite found on the Kelso knife-edge. The climbing was class 3 and I easily climbed up and down the towers. I reached a point where I could see the summit and the throng of climbers and I thought I was past the difficulties. Man, this was much easier than I remembered...

Foto ©2004 by John C. Maki

Wrong. The worst was still ahead. I topped out on the ridge after negotiating a wide break between towers, and I could see more toothy towers ahead. I could see where I had contoured around below the ridge on the north side in 2000, and wound up in the steep gullies. I thought I'd try to stick the ridge instead. I had to make a steep downclimb at the east end of one tower, to a tiny saddle with exposure on both sides below. I checked out 3 different paths before deciding on the best way, and even this required a dicey step over and around a loose-looking set of blocks to reach solid ledges leading to the saddle.

From the saddle, it appeared that all I had to do was regain the ridge once more and I would be home free. The travelled path seemed to follow the gullies on the north, so to avoid that I searched for a direct route up to the ridge. I found a series of steps that climbed up to a chimney, and it looked like it would go. Everything was snow-covered and I had to brush snow off hand and foot holds, and kick my boots into the rock to shake the snow off my boot soles. Below to the north was a narrow, steep gully filled with snow-covered scree. I made it to the chimney, stemmed across and pushed upward to the crux: a chockstone about 1-1/2' across blocked further progress up the chimney.

My boots were slick from the snow, and the footholds below the chockstone were not so great. I found a solid hold for my left hand, pushed down on the chockstone until I was satisfied that it wasn't going anywhere, then did a jump-turn-sit on the chockstone while maintaining my left handhold. I couldn't step directly on the chockstone because it was covered in snow and I was concerned about my boot slipping off, and I also didn't have a good hold for my right hand. The sitting maneuver worked great and soon I sat on the ridge, all the difficulties behind me. I took a picture looking back down the chimney - from this perspective it's a little hard to make out the chimney and chockstone, but you can get an idea of the sketchy nature of the crux and the exposure. The valley floor visible in the top of the picture is about 1500' down.

Foto ©2004 by John C. Maki

Whew - that got my adrenaline going! Reflecting on this route, just like I said in 2000 I would not want to climb it again under these conditions. This is not a route to take lightly - as Gerry Roach says, treat this ridge with respect. I believe that the route can be kept to class 3 with some judicious routefinding, which may involve some descents into the gullies, but under these conditions I felt it was better to try to keep to the ridge crest. The rock on the crest was often dry and solid, though the climbing was definitely class 4 in several areas.

I reached the summit at 09:40, knocking 45 minutes off the time from my 2000 climb. As expected, the summit was loaded with hikers who came up the standard east ridge route. I overheard discussions about climbing Lincoln, Democrat and Bross all in one day, and heard someone say that Mt Princeton was really hard. Still, it was nice to relax on the summit in the nice weather, and I stayed 30 minutes before heading down the east ridge. In 2000 I descended Cristo Couloir directly to the Blue Lakes dam, but this time I wanted to see the changes on the east trail, since I hadn't been there since 1997.

The new trail segments were nicely done, though the scars from the old trail will likely remain for a long time. I arrived at the trailhead at 11:35, then started the 2.2 mile slog up the road to the dam where my Jeep was parked. Of course, the road wasn't much fun but I reached the Jeep at 12:30. Next time I climb the West Ridge I'll descend Cristo Couloir and save myself 4.5 miles. Burro Days was in full swing in Fairplay, but I made a beeline for home, stopping only for some Hog Heaven BBQ and some beer.