6/30/07 – Grizzly Peak & Garfield Peak – West Slopes & North Ridge

4.3 miles, 3570'


Erin and I finally climbed the tallest 13er, Grizzly Peak, during the weekend before the Fourth of July. We met John Kirk at Grizzly Reservoir at 4:30 and then we drove to an old cabin along the Lincoln Creek road that provided enough space for both our vehicles. We ascended steep slopes up to the Grizzly/Garfield saddle while alpenglow illuminated the rugged peaks west of us. Just before the saddle, we parted ways with John with the intention of meeting on the summit of UN 13,463. John didn't need to visit Grizzly again while Erin and I knew we wouldn't have the energy for one of John's priorities, Middle Mountain. When Erin and I reached the summit, we met two nice guys from the Colorado Fourteener Initiative's Adopt-a-Peak program. They were stationed in Leadville for the summer. On weekdays they train new peak adopters, and on the weekends they climb 13ers. Their mountain legs and lungs are clearly in great shape because they sped over to Garfield with the speed of goats.

Erin and I reached Garfield's summit just as the CFI guys were leaving to climb "East Garfield," a rugged subpeak with 200' of prominence. When Erin and I completed a fifth-class downclimb of a tough feature on Garfield's southeast ridge, we thought we were through the worst of it. Only then did we see that the connecting ridge to Red Mountain (and subsequently to 13,463) was riddled with rotten towers. No matter, we thought, we'd just descend and traverse below them. As we got closer to the towers, however, we saw that the only way to do that was to descend suicidally steep and loose gullies. We realized John probably descended toward Henschell Lake and crossed Peekaboo Gulch to get to Middle Mountain. So much for meeting up with him! We turned tail and climbed back to Garfield's summit to begin our descent back to the car. Garfield's west shoulder looked inviting, so rather than traversing all the way back to the Grizzly/Garfield saddle, we descended down grass and scree until it ended. Then we were forced over into a loose gully, but happily, in the middle remained a tongue of snow, giving us a much more comfortable means to descend the remaining 2000' to the valley. With a short but sweet day behind us, we drove to Aspen for a meal and a shower before returning to Lincoln Creek to spend the night.

"Anderson Peak"
Truro Peak
Garfield Peak
couloir on Grizzly
"Anderson Peak"
"Petroleum Peak"
claw on Garfield
Grizzly Peak
Garfield's summit block
"East Garfield"
snow tongue on garfield
Lincoln Creek's Prizes
Truro Peaks
"Anderson Peak"
descent route off Garfield