Mount Evans 9-30-2011

Mileage – 4.25 miles

Elevation Gain – 2000 ft

Difficulty – Class 2

Leave Summit Lake – 6:45am

Summit of Evans – 9:00am

15 minutes on summit

Back at Summit Lake – 10:00am

After a quick drive up to Summit Lake last week with Aimee (to look at the changing aspens, if you can believe that I did that) I knew I had to get back up there and summit that big old mountain. I had not been up to the Mount Evans area since I was a kid and I forgot what it even looked like.  Oh, what a great hike it would be if they did not put that damn road there. Nevertheless, the road is there and there is nothing I can do about it. Therefore, I might as well use said road to obtain a pre-work summit.

I arrived at Summit Lake in the pre-dawn hour. Just look at all of those lazy people sleeping down in Denver.

 

The hike entailed a loop starting at Summit Lake, up the west ridge to Mount Spaulding, up to Mount Evans, and down the northeast face to return to Summit Lake. The hike up to Mount Spaulding was the same as the first hour of every 14er hike. It was hard, uphill, and made me want to turn around.

After summiting Spaulding, I descended the Spaulding/Evans saddle. Here I got some good shots of the east ridge of Bierstadt and the sawtooth.

I scrambled up the ridge (leaving the standard route behind) most of the way to Evans. I may or may not have summited West Evans also but I will have to check my map. The summit of Evans was windy. It was pretty cool having the summit of a 14er all to myself, especially since there is a road to the top.

There were mountain goats patrolling the summit parking lot on my down and the northeast face was a short and sweet descent.

 Looking back on the summit.

 

Overall, it was a great hike. The only missing factor was (of course) Maggie Mae. The rangers up there frown on dogs of leash and Maggie frowns on hiking with leashes so she had to sit this one out.

If the weather holds, I may be able to finish off the Front Range, mosquito range, and ten-mile range 14ers by the end of the year.

Hell, even if the weather does not hold it might happen.