by RyanSchilling » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:27 am
Layne, I think you can look at it two ways.
(1) These four are among just a handful of potentially "cheap" 13ers. The others I can think of are all accessed from pass roads, the easiest being those immediately adjacent to Cinnamon and Engineer Passes. Take advantage of the situation when you can!
(2) Since you do so much hard work to get the other 13ers, why denigrate that accomplishment by succombing to the temptation presented by the Mount Evans Road or the peaks near passes.
Obviously I've been subscribing to viewpoint 1! :) But I see the value in the other. For example, I loved the hike Erin and I took with John up Rosalie last year. Had I just traversed from Epaulet, I wouldn't have experienced Tanglewood Creek, 'arctic tundra' and the accompanying moisture and small pools, the Pegmatite Points, and a really nice snowshoe. What, then, am I missing by not hiking up Chicago Creek to bag Warren and Rogers? Of course, in selecting *any* route on any mountain you can wonder what you missed on the other side, so I can't take that particular argument too far.