Jeepers Creepers

View from the summit of Little Bear. On the right is Blanca and the left is Ellingwood. We traversed all the ridges connecting the peaks and the shadow delineated ridge descending left from Ellingwood.

Three day weekends are great! This time all the roomies plus a random guy, that I think Josh works with, headed down to the Sangre de Cristo range for some backpacking and peak bagging. The backpacking was less than spectacular. The valley we hiked into was beautiful, but we hiked in along "the toughest 4WD road in Colorado." The jeepers really weren't very annoying, but their presence definitely detracted from the wilderness feel of the place. The road/trail into the valley was heinous to hike because of all the boulders strewn about and I kept finding myself thinking, "I can't believe that people drive up this." Not the greatest hiking thought. We did get free cookies though.


Ridge leading up to Blanca.

Climbing on Saturday made the weekend. Josh and I headed out early to climb three fourteeners in a day. A nice class IV route lead to the top of Little Bear. Then we followed a mile long knife edge ridge to the top of Blanca, where we met Ashley and Ryan (the random guy). Ryan joined us for Ellingwood and the descent down the equally precipitous SW ridge back to camp. Meanwhile Mel had a nice ride with some friendly jeepers and hung out with her dog. Back at camp we enjoyed the numerous bottles of wine and beers we had slogged up to camp.


Little Bear Peak with Crater Lake in the foreground.