McCURDY MOUNTAIN
(12,168 ft.)April 22, 2006
By Tim Briese
I looked forward to getting away on a mountain climb today, because it had been several months since I had been on a high summit. McCurdy is located in the Lost Creek Wilderness north of Lake George, a great destination for early and late season climbing because of the minimal snow this area receives. I had climbed McCurdy a few years before via the Twin Eagles Trailhead from the south, and this time would attempt it from the north from the Ute Creek Trailhead.
I drove to the trailhead and headed up the Ute Creek Trail at 8:45 with my lab Allie. The morning was chilly and rather cloudy, a typical day for late April. The sky presently cleared off, though, in much the same way that my mind, which was overloaded with thoughts about work and home, cleared out as well, as I felt the rejuvenating tonic of the wilderness. I had been up this initial section of the trail several times before and was quite familiar with it. I rapidly cruised four miles up to Bison Pass in about two hours, gaining 2600 feet of elevation in the process.
At this point I took the Brookside-McCurdy Trail to the right and climbed 500 feet up to a plateau at 11,900 feet. Bison Peak lay off to the northeast, about a mile away. I considered climbing it also today, but I had done it twice before, and decided to remain focused on my goal of McCurdy. I continued on the Brookside-McCurdy Trail in a generally southeastward direction toward McCurdy, which lay out of sight behind a ridge about two miles away. The trail followed a beautiful route that wound around scenic rock outcroppings, past fantastic stands of gnarled and twisted dead trees and logs, with commanding views of snow-capped ranges far off to the west. The trail gradually lost about 500 feet of elevation, descending to a low point of around 11,400 feet, then began climbing slightly again.
I rounded a bend in the trail and left it to head uphill to the left toward McCurdy, at about the same point I had done so on my previous climb when I approached on this trail from the south. I began to bushwhack upward to the east on an easy tundra slope around rocks and numerous twisted logs that were bleached white by long exposure to the elements.
I thought I remembered well the route I had taken before, but I veered to the right a little too far this time and became confused by numerous rocky outcroppings of similar height and appearance. McCurdy is the highpoint on a plateau about a mile and a half long, but other points on the plateau are almost equal in height. I hiked over to Point 12,157, thinking it was McCurdy, and attempted to climb it. It looked quite similar, but yet unfamiliar. I scrambled up on boulders to within 20 feet of the summit, but found my progress stymied by steep rock faces, requiring a near-technical climb. At this point I began to suspect that I was not on McCurdy after all, because I knew it was not this difficult. I pulled out my GPS and map, and after checking my coordinates looked around and spotted McCurdy about three-fourths of a mile away to the north!
Upon realizing my mistake I quickly dropped down a couple of hundred feet and hiked across the plateau to McCurdy. Thank goodness for GPS units! I climbed atop the rocky summit at 1:30 and sat down to soak in the surrounding views. I looked back to the south at Point 12,157 and then turned to the north to gaze at Bison Peak. It felt great to be on a high summit once again!
McCurdy is an wonderful peak to visit, a rocky island surrounded by a tundra plateau dotted with other rocky islands, a unique landscape quite unlike anything else I have seen in Colorado. The granite rock formations are an orange-brown color, which adds a colorful touch to the landscape.
The last climber listed in the summit register was none other than Jennifer Roach, who summited on December 19, 2005, and she wrote that this was about her tenth visit to the peak. Prior to her, the last previous climber was Kane Englebert, who was here in November. I had crossed paths with him on Thunder Pyramid in July.
After lounging in a pleasant breeze on the summit for a little while I left at 1:45 and began my descent. I scooted rapidly down across the tundra to regain the trail, and followed it back northward, and upward, to the highpoint of the trail on the plateau, then descended five miles back down to the trailhead. I met a few casual hikers on the lower part of the trail but otherwise saw no one else today. At 4:45 I returned to my truck. I covered about sixteen and a half miles and climbed 4700 feet of elevation today, just a bit more than is actually necessary to climb McCurdy from this trailhead, due to my confusion near the summit. I had no regrets at all about getting off-route, but rather considered it an interesting addition to the adventure.
