BLANCA PEAK
(14,345 ft.)ELLINGWOOD POINT
(14,042 ft.)August 24, 1998
By Tim Briese
I studied the route data for Blanca and Ellingwood in my guidebooks many times, and I always arrived at the same conclusion. It was going to take a long, grueling hike to climb these peaks on a dayhike, which I preferred instead of a backpack. The hike requires some 13 miles and over 6000 feet of elevation gain. I had never climbed that much gain in a day before, and I wasn’t sure if I could. Furthermore, I wanted to do the climb on a day outing from home, and the trailhead was three and a half hours away. It promised to be a formidable undertaking, but I was ready to give it a try.
I left home in the dark with my lab Allie at 4:15 a.m. The sky was mostly clear, but as I pulled out of my driveway I noticed some lightning flashing far off to the northwest toward Mt. Evans and beyond. I was a little concerned about a forecast of moisture moving into the state from the south later in the day, which might cause some stormy weather later on. The orange light of dawn was just appearing on the eastern horizon when I stopped for coffee in Walsenburg at 6 a.m. By 7:00 I was turning off the paved road to the Sand Dunes onto the Como Lake road. The first few miles of this road across the valley floor were smooth and easy but the road rapidly became extremely rough as it began to climb up into the trees at the base of the mountains. I fourwheeled up the rough old road as far as I could, but less far than I had hoped, before I pulled off and parked. I was still down in the lower juniper forest at about 8800 feet elevation, more than four tough miles from Como Lake. At about 7:45 I began hiking up the road at a brisk pace, admiring views into the valley below.
This old road, if one generously calls it that, became incredibly rough as I went higher, with huge rock steps, steep slopes, and big boulders to challenge four wheel drive enthusiasts. It has a national reputation as being the hardest four wheel drive route in Colorado, and numerous oil drips and leaks attest to the number of vehicles it has chewed up. The road was harder to hike on than many trails are. I wouldn’t touch the roughest sections with any vehicle.
After two vigorous hours I reached beautiful Como Lake at 11,700 feet, with majestic Little Bear Peak towering above its east end. I threw sticks in the water for Allie to retrieve as I sat down and relaxed for a few minutes in this enchanting place. Then I pushed on up the trail toward timberline, and observed the lower portion of the route up Little Bear as I hiked past, for future reference. There were more beautiful lakes in the valley above timberline, first the Blue Lakes, and then Crater Lake at 12,700 feet in the basin just below Blanca. The sharp point of Ellingwood’s summit pierced the sky to the left, while mighty Blanca was largely hidden behind a ridge to the right. The sky had been mostly fair up to this point, but some big white convection clouds were rapidly beginning to build above the peaks. I worked my way up through some minor cliff bands at about 13,000 feet, and then began to scramble up the rocks directly toward the ridge above, taking aim at a point just to the left of Blanca’s summit. It was steep terrain but the large rocks on this slope were stable and quite easy to climb up. The adrenalin was pumping as I climbed right up this steep slope with only a few short breaks. I overtook a couple from Texas who were coming up the crest of the ridge from the left. After a surprisingly airy scramble near the top, I reached the summit at noon.
It was calm with a pleasant 58 degrees on top, and magnificent views lay in all directions. Little Bear, Ellingwood, the Crestones, Mt. Lindsey, and the Spanish Peaks encircled the horizon in a magnificent array. I noted the steep slopes that dropped sharply away on several sides from the summit, particularly the nearly vertical 2000 foot drop into the Huerfano River Valley to the northeast. I had a nice chat with the friendly Texans who arrived on the summit a few minutes after I did.
The steep slope of Ellingwood looked quite intimidating across to the north as I began the descent from Blanca. From this vantage point the ascent of Ellingwood looked nearly straight up. I descended along the ridge toward the saddle between Blanca and Ellingwood, and dropped below some cliffs near the saddle before beginning to ascend the slopes toward Ellingwood. This ascent, although quite steep, proved to be much easier than it had looked, and I scrambled atop Ellingwood’s summit a few minutes after 1 p.m. Although the sky was now cloudy, the weather was holding up quite well as I sat on the summit for a while and enjoyed the views as I had done on Blanca. Looking back over at Blanca, its steep slopes now looked as intimidating as Ellingwood’s had a short time earlier. The pointed summit of Ellingwood felt like a rather airy perch, with steep slopes dropping away on every side. You knew you were on a mountain while sitting on this one. I spoke briefly with a nice older gentleman from Utah, who was enjoying lunch atop his 51st 14er.
About 1:30 I began the descent down Ellingwood’s steep, rocky slopes toward the lakes below. I noticed that this steep terrain bothered Allie somewhat, as she carefully chose her route down through the treacherous footing on this steep slope, and stayed behind me in many places. She was only ten months old, and this was her first adventure on such loose footing.
The Texans had chosen to forgo Ellingwood, and I overtook them on the descent near Crater Lake. They had been watching my progress on Ellingwood, and the man commented that I had made it look easy, which was a compliment I appreciated. The woman was suffering from an altitude headache, and I gave her some Rolaids and encouraged her to drink a lot of water, as I showed them the operation of my water filter while I refilled my water bottles at one of the lakes. They had backpacked up to Como Lake and were camped nearby, and they could hardly believe that I had driven in from Colorado Springs that morning and was returning home that evening. After I left them I hiked rapidly on down the trail to Como Lake. There were other parties setting up camps in the vicinity of the lake. Everyone else I met that day apparently backpacked in to climb these summits. No one else was crazy enough to do the climbs on a dayhike as I had done.
After a short break at the lake I pushed on down the rugged four wheel drive road. I met another backpacker from San Antonio going up, who told me he was going to attempt Little Bear the next day. I found it somewhat easier to hike down the road than it had been coming up, but it was still rough going. I was very tired and my toes were now hurting. The weather had become much cloudier and hazier, and I could see a rain shower approaching from the south. I staggered back to my truck at about 5 p.m., fed my exhausted dog, and left just as it started to rain. I arrived home about 9 p.m., culminating a long day that included a nine and a half hour hike and seven hours of driving. It had been quite an adventure, and it felt good to accomplish a feat that I wasn’t sure I could do. It is good to push our personal limits now and then.
