Larimer County Highpoint Trip Report
Hagues Peak (13,560 ft)
Date: June 18, 2005
Author: Kevin Baker
Rocky Mountain National Park - Mummy Range
Also included: Mount Chapin (12,454 ft), Mount Chiquita (13,069 ft), Ypsilon Mountain (13,514 ft)
Fairchild Mountain (13,502 ft), and Mummy Mountain (13,425 ft)
Layne Bracy contacted me a couple weeks ago to see if I would be interested in
Mummy Mania, a brutal yet prolific death march traverse that, if you survive,
you pick up the Larimer county highpoint (#1 goal), 4 ranked 13'ers, 1 unranked
13'er, and 1 ranked 12'er. The Rowe peaks are extra credit but we weren't
really interested in those. Since I was already planning on doing a county
highpoint this weekend, I was game for the punishment.
An insanely early start is key for this traverse, which was compounded by the
fact that the Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park was closed.
I left Colorado Springs at 2 am and met Layne at the Lawn Lake trailhead at 4:30.
The plan was to do a car shuttle, leaving my car there while we drove Layne's
car to the terminus of the Fall River Road at the Alpine Visitor Center on Trail
Ridge Road. As we climbed, we were impressed by the huge drifts over 10 feet
high along the road. I was beginning to wonder if I should have brought the snowshoes.
After some confusion of finding where the one way Fall River Road
intersected Trail Ridge, Layne parked his car at the empty visitor center
parking lot and we headed out at 5:15am. With a forecast of stellar weather
throughout the day, we felt we had plenty of time to complete the traverse
despite the added 2 miles on the road to Chapin Pass.
We needed all the time we could get.
After about 40 minutes of hiking, we came to the official start of this blitz at
Chapin Pass. Here we were quickly greeted with deep drifts so following the
trail was difficult. We picked the most efficient line through the woods,
avoiding the drifts as much as possible. The post-holing was annoying but not
sustained. Further up we found the trail and followed it briefly, then we
traversed gentle, grassy slopes, skirting the false summit and arriving on 12'er
Chapin's summit at 7:22. From here we were greeted with impressive views of
Chiquita's cliffs, our 2nd peak of the day. Spectacular Longs Peak and her
neighbors were impressive in the early morning light.
After a short, 15-minute break, we headed for unranked Chiquita.
The mental challenges of this climb were difficult. On this hike, 3 saddles
require 1000 feet of elevation gain, so all of your work goes down the drain!
The first saddle between Chapin and Chiquita descends to 12,020 feet so it is
1000 feet up to Chiquita. I found a trail descending Chapin, so we followed it
until it headed down to the valley. The climb of Chiquita was not bad since we
were both at full strength early in the day. We made quick work of it and
summitted at 8:30. From here, the terrain would have its way with us,
tormenting us with soft snow and boulders galore.
After a 20 minute break of Chiquita, we were off for Ypsilon. Ypsilon was
probably the easiest climb of the day, as it requires only 800 feet of gain from
the saddle. It was now getting quite warm, so we hiked much of the day with
just a base layer. The west wind was a little brisk in the morning but it let
up later in the day making for perfect weather conditions.
The slopes to this point were very gentle, so we continued to make reasonably
good progress, summitting Ypsilon at 9:40. Recent slide activity was evident on
Ypsilon's cliffy northeast face. We left Ypsilon at 10am and this is where the
terrain became unforgiving. Since there was quite a bit of soft snow below the
ridge, we started out staying on the spine of the ridge. We quickly found out
that the ridge was too time consuming, so we ended up skirting below it,
crossing snowfields along the way. The grunt up to Fairchild was probably the
worst of the day, as the snow dictated the route to take. The unrelenting
boulder hopping was starting to take its toll on me, as Layne was having to wait
on me more. It took us nearly 2.5 hrs from Ypsilon to Fairchild, our longest
segment of the day. On the summit of Fairchild, we took a lunch break and
contemplated what route we would take on Hagues. The steep snowfields left few
route options on its southwest ridge, so we were worried how dicey the class 3
section would be.
After some lunch, we set out for Hagues at 12:45 with renewed strength. As we
approached The Saddle, the ridge on Hagues looked doable. The 1,100-foot grunt
was tiring but the route-finding was fun and the rock was solid. We were able
to stay off the snow for the most part and the class 3 section was fun.
We topped out just 100 feet or so west of the highpoint, reaching the top at 2:40.
We were the first group to sign the register this year. Only one group had
signed the register since the Ryan Schilling/John Kirk group in September.
I would think that attempting Hagues in winter would be an epic slog. The class 3
ridge route would be dicey and the standard route traverses avalanche terrain.
We were finally relieved to have gotten past the worst part of the day but the
traverse to our 6th and final peak of the day, Mummy Mountain, had it in for us.
This traverse looks like a cakewalk on the map as the gain to Mummy is only 400
feet but the traverse is littered with boulder hopping. By this time, we were
tired of the balancing act, so things really slowed down. Mummy was mostly
snow-free but it was steep enough to hurt. At 4:37pm, I staggered onto the
summit of Mummy while Layne was resting. We were guessing a 12-hour day tops,
so we were obviously later than expected!
The descent to the Lawn Lake trail took its toll on me, as my knees were
now taking a beating even with trekking poles. We stayed above the cliffs of
Mummy, descending into the woods until we found the Black Canyon trail which led
us back to the Lawn Lake trail. The final 5.7 miles down this trail were nice
and gentle, as we completed this final stretch in 2 hours despite our exhaustion.
About 1 mile from the bottom, I remembered that I left my keys in Layne's car.
A long day was now extended by my stupidity. We now needed to find somebody to
take us back up Trail Ridge Road to Layne's car. We made it down to the
trailhead at 8:37, looking for potential candidates. A mini-van pulled up and
offered to take us down to the park entrance. We obliged their kindness as they
also gave us some Pringles and chips. The young ranger initially was not
willing to drive us up but as they closed shop he offered us a ride.
All in all, it was a brutal day in the mountains but you can't complain with the fair
weather and the opportunity to complete this memorable traverse.
Climb statistics: 17 miles with 5,815 feet of elevation gain.
photos