Little Bear Peak

I was looking for a climb the first weekend in August, but every mountain range in Colorado had a forecast of 80% chance of rain in the morning and 100% chance of thunder-showers in the afternoon. So I took an extra week to rest up and worked on planning the next climb. I was conversing with several different people for a couple routes, but nothing firmed up, so thought I might try Capitol Peak.

Unfortunately another climber disappeared on Capitol that weekend, and his body wasn't found until Wednesday. The recovery team was then severely injured trying to access him, so I decided to postpone trying my attempt until after the recovery.

Instead I decided to head up to Lake Como and try Little Bear Peak again. I had been studying an alternate route that avoided the hourglass and thought I would take my time and see if I could find it. I drove down to the Lake Como road, and this time was able to drive a bit further, making it to 8,800', but still not as far as I hoped to go. But I did save 3/4 of a mile of rocky desert hiking. This time it "only" took 3.75 hours to climb the 4.5 miles and 3,000' up to the lake. There was no more snow, but it was also obvious there had been flooding recently, with evidence that waters had been 3-4 feet above normal flow.

I started my climb shortly after 5:00 am, and by dawn I was at the base of the gully. There were another couple of climbers starting up as well. Turns out one of them was friends with the author of the alternate route I was hoping to climb. That first half mile to the top of the gully climbed 800' and took an hour. The next half mile only gained 300 feet as it followed just below the ridge but still took me an hour as there was no defined trail and the cairns were not always visible. At one point I tried to build up a small cairn I finally found, only to have the whole thing collapse on my leg. About half way along the traverse I was able to take a good look at the alternate route, and observed that while parts looked promising, other parts looked to be along exposed ridges with no margin for error. I didn't like that. So much for the alternate route. I decided that I would continue to the hourglass and see what it was like.

I reached the base of the hourglass after the couple in front of me had already exited above. I proceeded to start climbing, finding it technical and challenging, but it did not feel all that dangerous. As I was nearing the top another pair of climbers started coming up behind me, so I was extra careful to not dislodge any rocks. They caught up as I was trying to figure out how to get over a small cliff face, and together we navigated the upper section to the summit.

The smoke from the wildfires in California obscured the distant views, but it was still impressive to be a little less than a mile from my campsite and almost half a mile higher. I also got a much better view of the ridgeline over to Blanca Peak that Greg had suggested traversing 33 years ago. My 'nope' back then was just as strong today. It's amazing to me how so many climbers list the Little Bear - Blanca traverse as one of their favorite routes. It's not on my list at all. Not even under consideration. Just "Nope!"

On our descent we surprisingly found a trail on the extreme west side of the upper section that made getting back to the hourglass both easier and safer, as we were less likely to knock rocks down into the hourglass. When we reached the rope that had been left behind by previous climbers, it appeared to be well anchored, and the frayed and damaged sections had been knotted over to remove the weakness. The pair in front of me seemed to be down-climbing using the rope, but I just put a hand on it for extra balance and walked down the hourglass like a staircase. The rope ended just above the crux (hardest section) due to all the knots shortening the overall length. This was the narrowest section, exasperated by water running down the rock as well. I took advantage of my height and stretched out to put one foot on each side and sidestepped (pun intended) the issue.

From the base of the hourglass it was just a long (since when did one mile become long?) hike back to my campsite. While all the other campers packed up and left, I shared my dinner with the mosquitos and my observations of the climb with the new group that was planning to climb tomorrow. I also requested they keep an eye out for my raincoat. Somehow it fell out of my daypack somewhere along the traverse between the gully and the hourglass. I don't think I'll ever see it again — it's only the same size and color as all the rocks along the trail.

In the morning I packed up and headed back down to the trailhead. I tried to be gentle, but was unsuccessful in keeping from bruising my toe on the long descent. So once again I am dealing with a black toenail.

Pictures

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