dhgold Completes Jefferson County

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dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Brian Kalet » Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:13 am

dhgold completed the 98 ranked peaks of Jefferson County on June 9th, 2012, making him the 7th to finish!
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Jeremy Hakes » Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:18 am

Congrats, Dave! You're more of a hardman than I am. :)
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Steve Knapp » Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:36 am

Nice work Dave! Good to see you finally finish this fine group of peaks. 7 people, wow. I remember when it seems like only Jeremy and Darrell cared about these peaks. Did you free solo Sheeprock or find a partner for it?
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby dhgold » Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:19 pm

Thanks guys. I finally got around to Sheeprock and finished the county in style with a a taint free ascent of SolArian (http://www.mountainproject.com/v/solarian/106194942). I can't say that I did every JC in perfect style since, to rebut Jeremy, after a formative negative experience peakbagging on private property in Larimer County which resulted in multiple court trips, I am no hardman when it comes to private property . Hence I treated a couple of JeffCo peaks as "sacred summits" (ala Kanchenjunga) where I counted getting reasonably close to the actual summit as a tick. In the spirit of full disclosure, my "ascent" of Bear Mountain was in particularly questionable style. (Since a lot of people have ticked this one, I wonder if there is some sane approach that doesn't involve climbing over an eight foot high gate with a "Beware of dog" sign while said dog, a vigorous looking German Shepard, eyes the climber from the front door step; if so, I might have to go back for the redpoint.)

Jeffco summary IMO:

Pros:
Quick day trip from Boulder/Denver
Several fun and even challenging technical summits (IMO, the highlights of the county)
Almost all summits easily accessible in winter.
Most peaks offer a lot of solitude for being so close to the big city.
Dog friendly. Not that he summitted any of the technical summits, but my guy went on every outing except for Sheeprock.

Cons:
Several problematic private property summits. Even with the sacred summit policy I frequently trespassed and ran by more than one kitchen window.

For what it's worth, I also recently completed all Clear Creek ranked summits. For anyone looking for a clean sweep of an entire county close to Denver, I recommend CC over JeffCo.

-Dave
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Brian Kalet » Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:41 pm

dhgold wrote:my "ascent" of Bear Mountain was in particularly questionable style. (Since a lot of people have ticked this one, I wonder if there is some sane approach that doesn't involve climbing over an eight foot high gate with a "Beware of dog" sign while said dog, a vigorous looking German Shepard, eyes the climber from the front door step; if so, I might have to go back for the redpoint.)


I drove up the road to the house near the top and was about to ask for permission, but after seeing the dog(s), decided to park at the intersection of Abbey and Stanley Park Roads and approach via the south slopes.
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby PaulStratmoen » Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:00 pm

dhgold wrote:In the spirit of full disclosure, my "ascent" of Bear Mountain was in particularly questionable style. (Since a lot of people have ticked this one, I wonder if there is some sane approach that doesn't involve climbing over an eight foot high gate with a "Beware of dog" sign while said dog, a vigorous looking German Shepard, eyes the climber from the front door step; if so, I might have to go back for the redpoint.)


When we did it (in March 2011), the house at the end of Mountain Moss Court was bank owned. We parked in front of the house, acted like we were interested in it, and then walked around behind it and on up to the summit. :wicked: That kept us well behind the house and fenced area that's near the summit. There was actually a faint path leading on up to the summit from the foreclosed house. It's probably been sold by now, though.

Congrats on completing Jefferson County! :rock:
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Jeremy Hakes » Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:32 am

Bear Mountain was under construction when we visited. I've talked to a few people who did it that got permission.

Yeah, a couple of those "summits" are pretty lame. House on the literal top, etc. Most of them are good, but a few suck outright. I wish the ones that are great had more clear ownership or were completely public (Doublehead, Riley, etc.)

I agree that the best ones are the tech ones. :)
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Steve Knapp » Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:48 am

Nice work getting Sheeprock on a 5.10+ route. You are probably the best technical climber of all who have finished the list. Bear Mountain, I had a close encounter with those dogs in 2009. Gate was open so I walked right in and knocked on the door. No answer so I continued on to the mighty summit. On my return the two dogs found me. Growling and very aggressive they came within feet of me. Somehow they decided not to attack and I made it out in one piece. Was never so glad to be done with a peak. I don't miss those peaks with houses, but it does require a certain methodology and a range of problem solving to figure out how to get each one done.
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby Jeremy Hakes » Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:52 am

dhgold wrote:Thanks guys. I finally got around to Sheeprock and finished the county in style with a a taint free ascent of SolArian (http://www.mountainproject.com/v/solarian/106194942). I can't say that I did every JC in perfect style since, to rebut Jeremy, after a formative negative experience peakbagging on private property in Larimer County which resulted in multiple court trips, I am no hardman when it comes to private property . Hence I treated a couple of JeffCo peaks as "sacred summits" (ala Kanchenjunga) where I counted getting reasonably close to the actual summit as a tick. In the spirit of full disclosure, my "ascent" of Bear Mountain was in particularly questionable style. (Since a lot of people have ticked this one, I wonder if there is some sane approach that doesn't involve climbing over an eight foot high gate with a "Beware of dog" sign while said dog, a vigorous looking German Shepard, eyes the climber from the front door step; if so, I might have to go back for the redpoint.)

Jeffco summary IMO:

Pros:
Quick day trip from Boulder/Denver
Several fun and even challenging technical summits (IMO, the highlights of the county)
Almost all summits easily accessible in winter.
Most peaks offer a lot of solitude for being so close to the big city.
Dog friendly. Not that he summitted any of the technical summits, but my guy went on every outing except for Sheeprock.

Cons:
Several problematic private property summits. Even with the sacred summit policy I frequently trespassed and ran by more than one kitchen window.

For what it's worth, I also recently completed all Clear Creek ranked summits. For anyone looking for a clean sweep of an entire county close to Denver, I recommend CC over JeffCo.

-Dave



What route did you do on Sheeprock, Dave?
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby lukePlumley » Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:31 pm

Congratulations on your Jeffco and CCC completions!
And sorry to hear about your Larimer County court troubles. I always wonder about such things...... :shock:

lp
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby dhgold » Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:52 am

Jeremy: I climbed Sheeprock via SolArian of which there is a route description on mountainproject.

Steve's note raises an interesting topic for discussion: the summit you were gladdest to be off of. Of the top of my head, El Diente as teenagers in 1978, where having come all the way from California and 50' below the summit on the ascent, our ice axes started sparking and our hair stood on end. We descended a bit, cowered for a while, dropped all our gear and dashed for the summit with the storm by no means having passed.
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby DavidDJohnson » Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:00 pm

Congratulations, that is quite a list. Way beyond my capabilities right now.
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Re: dhgold Completes Jefferson County

Postby TWorth » Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:38 pm

Only reason Ive been up Bear Mtn 5+ times is my uncle owns land which runs onto the ridge from the SE. Every visit to his house Id hike up there. The house at the top was only partially built then. Anyways, nice completion Dave.
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