CIRQUE MOUNTAIN
(13,686')August 24, 2007
By Tim Briese
Brian and I left Ridgway about 7 a.m. and drove up to Yankee Boy Basin west of Ouray. A few sprinkles were falling from the sky but the forecast promised clearing weather shortly. This was to be a Arest@ day after the grueling climbs we had done the two previous days. Our plan was to climb Potosi Peak this morning, but after we four-wheeled up to the base of the peak and gazed high above at the steep, loose slopes that awaited us, I wasn=t sure if I had the physical and mental energy left to do it today, at least with any measure of enjoyment. I casually suggested that perhaps we climb something easier, like nearby Cirque Mountain, and Brian readily agreed.
After studying our topo maps we four-wheeled up the road a short distance further and parked at about 11,350 feet, at a point where further progress was too difficult for my truck. At 8:10 we embarked on foot up the road. Shortly we came to a drainage that came down from a saddle west of Cirque, and pondered bushwhacking up the drainage, but elected to follow the road up higher instead. There were a few other climbers on the road who were on their way to Mt. Sneffels, and we chatted with a pleasant young couple from Iowa for a little bit while we walked along. At about 12,100 feet we left the road and headed across the tundra to the north, contouring around the west side of the drainage we had seen from below. At first it looked like we would have to give up a fair bit of elevation gain but it turned out that we lost almost none. We headed up the drainage toward the saddle on Cirque=s west ridge. We managed to stay on grass all the way up to about 12,700 feet, then finished the climb to the 13,000 foot saddle on easy talus and scree. At the saddle I walked over to inspect a large outcropping of shimmering white rock that we had spotted from far below, and was rewarded here with a nice view of the pointed summit of Sneffels to the west.
From the saddle we followed a climber=s trail up the ridge to the east. We contoured around the north side of a point and were greeted with our first good view of Cirque. We eyed a cliff band as we approached on the trail but found the difficulty of climbing up through it no greater than Class 2+. The trail then took us up across a scree slope and wound deftly through rocks guarding the top of the summit ridge. We stepped on top about 11 a.m. The summit of Cirque is a wonderfully scenic vantage point offering fine views of the other spectacular peaks surrounding Yankee Boy Basin. To the southeast were Teakettle and Potosi, and to the south Emma and Gilpin. To the west was Mt. Sneffels, monarch of the northwestern San Juans, its pointed summit towering nearly 500 feet higher than Cirque. I thought that our lower vantage point probably offered better views than that from Sneffels, because nearby peaks could be seen in fine relief against the sky above the horizon, rather than being lost in the background when viewed from the loftier summit.
The summit of Cirque was located near the west end of the summit ridge, and there was a point of nearly equal height a short distance away to the east. The western point we were on was reportedly the higher of the two. In confirmation of this, I noted that the eastern summit appeared to be about even with the distant horizon, whereas it should have appeared higher due to the curvature of the earth if it matched or exceeded the elevation of the western point. We were glad to be sitting on the true summit because the other point looked a bit challenging to get to.
We lounged on the summit for about 45 minutes enjoying this beautiful and peaceful place. The summit register indicated that about two dozen other climbers had preceded us here this year. Eventually we took our leave and quickly scooted back down the ridge to the saddle. We slid on scree for a good distance down into the upper end of the drainage, then elected to bushwhack down the lush drainage all the way back to the road, which was quite a bit of fun.
We returned to the truck a few minutes past one and drove back down the road to Ridgway. We hiked about four and a half miles and climbed 2400 feet of elevation gain on this pleasant five hour outing.
