Forum of Lists

Congratulations Steve! That is one big list, bet it feels great to be the first to complete it. Brian was right on your heels, a little more snow on Trail Ridge might have foiled your plans!

AND Summit county! It was great to get out with Steve and co-complete Summit on 12358 and finish Grand on Ute Peak. This should be a first for completing two separate counties on the same hike (at least with over 100 peaks in each county).

I didn't know that, I updated the title (I knew I should have let Luke make this post!).

How much snow was on the traverse? Our footprints from the previous weekend were probably long gone.

Congrats on both Summit and Grand Counties, Steve! That is huge!

John, congrats on Summit County! That is definitely on my "someday" list, depending on how the Gores go.

mikeofferman wrote:How much snow was on the traverse? Our footprints from the previous weekend were probably long gone.

It averaged about a foot deep, with no benefit yet from wind scour. Lots of snow from Friday's storm, but there was visible melting over the course of the day. Some drift areas were over 3ft deep and one section required ascending on all fours. Not summer anymore on this ridge.

Congrats Steve! I am glad we got to get the Ida-Julian loop in before the gvt shutdown or it might have been a while for you to finish!

Two counties in one day, and being the first to finish Grand, all I can say is you rock! Have fun in the land of the mouse with the family, you earned some time off from the lists

Thanks everyone! I very much enjoyed climbing all the peaks on these lists and it was a great day to finish both. John, I’m glad we were able to plan the finisher day well in advance and have it work out so well. Even with all the new snow, it was a great day out in the hills which allowed us to see most of both counties from above. As I usually like to do, here are some comments on the peaks. If anyone needs beta on anything , let me know and I’d love to help you out.

It took some tough work to finish both lists this year, but I love challenges. In late summer I decided to make a push and see if I could finish Grand and Summit before a mid-Oct vacation and the winter snows. It was fun to sort through the various timing and weather issues, with a persistent monsoon and early snows. There were tough days, which are now great memories. Eagles Nest, the Corner peaks and Meridian I had thunder snow at 12,800 descending the ridge from Eagles Nest and thereafter snowy and icy rock with little visibility on the Corners traverse followed by an after-dark finish. Last Saturday I had morning volleyball for my daughter and did not arrive on Cameron pass until 3pm. Got those five 12ers (Electrode, Thunder, Lulu, Iron, Table Iron) with the last peak and descent completely in the dark. With four hours rest I was up early the next morning heading to RMNP with Mike. Trail Ridge was closed so we used the Timber Lake TH. Howling, cold 50mph winds on Ida/Julian/12820. We barely missed the government shutdown that has now closed the Park. The week before I had to do a 32 mile day hike to get the six 10ers and 9ers in the Troublesome area NE of Kremmling. Not sure if I picked the most efficient route, but this area is one of the hardest to access in Grand county. Labor Day weekend was fun. 12763 to Bills Peak on Saturday, a fine tour around the St. Louis Creek drainage. But it rained all afternoon with ankle deep water through most of the descent of the Iron Creek drainage. The next day was five Never Summer 12ers: Parika, Paprika, Bowen, Ruby, Cascade. That was an awesome hike. Also memorable was climbing Nakai, Sprague, Stones, Snowdrift, Patterson, and Green in a day on the west side of the Park.

Overall, I loved exploring the diverse terrain of Grand county. I think my first peak was Byers around 1997, can’t even remember the exact date. So 16 years to finish. It was quite a project, and had to be done mostly in summer/fall due to heavy winter snows (even on lower peaks) which diverted time from 13ers elsewhere. There are the gems of RMNP, the continental divide, the rugged crags of the Indian peaks, rolling 12ers everywhere, tough bushwhacking through beetle killed forests, and quite a few property challenges on lower ranchland peaks. Thank you to all the partners I had for these, especially Brian who joined me for many and I suspect will soon complete the list as well.

Congratulations, Steve.

32 miles for the Troublesome group; that creek is aptly named!

Steve,

Way to get creative and knock out 2 counties at once! And the first person to finish Grand County is pretty special.
Can you do this again? You could finish Jackson and Routt in a year or two on the summit of "Goosenest"!

Congratulations!

lp

Great job Steve! John should post the picture I took of you two on Ute. Very funny!
I'm a little disapointed you did not try to 'jack straw' us after the hike! Looking forward to many more fun outings!

Aly

Finishing two counties at once is very styly. Well done!

What future generation of peak bagger will be the first two finish three counties at once? Finishing Clear Creek, Gilpin and Grand on James Peak would be a notable feat; finishing Grand, Jackson and Larimer on Thunder Peak even more so, but likely the greatest such Colorado coup de theatre would be completing Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel on Trico Peak particularly because it would take a good deal of fore knowledge and discipline to resist picking the low hanging fruit of that candidate for "easiest 13er".

dhgold wrote:Finishing Grand, Jackson and Larimer on Thunder Peak even more so

Don't give me ideas like this

Don't give me ideas like this

You can do it. In fact, you should.

John,

I'm thinking it might be neat to have a list of all peaks in 3 or more counties.

Al

Wow, good work, Steve! Congrats!