PICO ASILADO
(13,611')July 15, 2008
By Tim Briese
13 1/2 miles, 6500' elevation gain, 16 hours roundtrip time
Pico Asilado is a beautiful and remote peak in the heart of the Sangre de Cristos. It is a difficult peak to reach, too, which gave it a sort of mystical aura as I pondered the best way it might be climbed. Most people choose to backpack in to climb it, but of course Brian and I have always preferred dayhike climbs over backpacks if they are at all possible for us, even when it means a marathon outing of epic proportions. A dayhike from the west up the Cottonwood Creek drainage seemed to be the best option until the trailhead was closed because of private property issues. Approaching from the east over Music Pass and going over Milwaukee Peak is a way Pico is often climbed, but that almost certainly requires a backpack. This route over Milwaukee and up Pico=s east ridge is troubling because of its difficulty, too. Even Garratt and Martin in their guidebook recommend not returning that way but retreating down Pico=s easier west ridge on an extremely long route. In the end I proposed a route to Brian that involved going over Broken Hand Pass from South Colony Lakes and he eagerly agreed to give it a try.
We four-wheeled up the South Colony Lakes road in my truck to the upper parking area at the end of the road the evening before the climb. We were astonished at the improvement the forest service had made on this nightmarish road since we had last been on it! We cruised smoothly up to the first stream crossing where the forest service plans to close the road in late 2009. The final two miles beyond that were still rough but vastly improved compared to the road=s former vehicle-busting days.
We slept in the back of my truck and rose at 2:30 a.m. to get ready for the hike. We took off up the trail at 3:00 with our headlamps. It was a surprise to find massive banks of snow lying across the trail just past the metal gate at the end of the parking area. The snow remained from avalanches that had thundered down from the heights above during the previous unusually snowy winter. I had never seen snowbanks in this area before on my many hikes up this trail over the years and I wondered how much more snow we might have to deal with today, even though it was the middle of July! We hiked crisply up the trail to the lower lake and found the turnoff for the Crestone Needle trail that we followed up toward Broken Hand Pass. High up on this trail we encountered lengthy slopes of frozen snow which required the use of our ice axes. We reached the pass at 5:15, just as dawn was breaking in the eastern sky. As I looked around at the beauty of the surrounding landscape in the enchanting early twilight, I thought about what a remarkable place this was to be at this pristine hour of the day. Once again, mountain climbing had taken me to an incredible meeting of place and time that I otherwise never would have experienced.
After a short break atop the 12,900 foot pass we headed down the nice trail on the other side and descended 600 feet to Cottonwood Lake. While descending from the pass I studied the 12,800 foot pass a third of a mile to the south between Broken Hand Peak and Pt. 13,270, wondering if going over it might offer a simpler and more direct route to Pico. In retrospect I believe that it might well have, but at the time we didn=t know how difficult the terrain might be on the other side. We hiked around the north end of Cottonwood Lake and proceeded down the drainage below, along a tributary of Cottonwood Creek that descends a thousand feet in 0.8 miles to the main creek. We hoped this portion of the route would be fast and easy but it was far from it! A sketchy trail was helpful in some places, but we bushwhacked much of the way down through a maze of cliffs, slabby rock faces, and bushes, eventually pushing our way down to Cottonwood Creek. We arrived there at 7 a.m, somewhat later than I expected. From a clearing in the trees we glimpsed Pico Asilado for the first time. It seemed a long way away. I was a little discouraged that it had taken so long to get here, for we wanted to get on Pico=s long and time-consuming west ridge as early as possible before weather issues arose. Trip reports had warned about making sure that several hours of good weather were available before tackling this committing ridge. Success now seemed uncertain.
From 11,300 feet elevation beside Cottonwood Creek we headed east up the drainage. I expected easier progress now, for our maps showed a defined trail up this drainage but all we found was a faint path that weaved timidly up through the dense vegetation. After half a mile we turned to the right and bushwhacked steeply up a side drainage to the vicinity of a lake at 11,800 feet. We turned to the southeast and climbed steep grass to the base of a rough talus slope. We slowly forged our way up 700 feet on loose talus to a 12,850 foot saddle on the ridge above, where we arrived at 9:05. Finally we were on Pico=s long west ridge, high above the Cottonwood Creek drainage. We followed the ridge east a quarter of a mile to the summit of Pt. 13,020, where we were treated to an impressive view of Pico, now just less than a mile away. Fortunately the weather seemed to be remaining stable.
We descended 400 feet to the saddle between Pt. 13,020 and Pico and continued advancing toward our goal on pleasant grassy footing. We entered a broad gully on the peak=s west face at 13,100 feet and climbed 400 feet on surprisingly easy grass and talus to a ridge a short distance southwest of the summit. From there we climbed along the right side of the ridge on modest Class 2+ or Class 3 terrain to the top, where we arrived at 10:45.
What a thrill it was to claim this elusive mountaineering prize! It was hard to believe we were there, and also hard to believe that it had taken nearly eight hours to get there! The views were spectacular all around, especially of the Crestones off to the northwest. Milwaukee Peak was a half mile away to the northeast, and Humboldt Peak lay due north beyond the South Colony drainage where we had started several hours before. The GPS showed that the trailhead was only 1.6 linear miles away, which belied the long, circuitous route we had followed to get here!
We had a long haul ahead of us to get back, including 2000 feet of elevation gain, so we left after 25 minutes to begin our descent. We scooted back down the west gully to the saddle and tackled the 400 foot grind back up to Pt. 13,020, which seemed particularly tough after such a long, grueling morning. We reached the top of the talus slope and left the ridge at 12:50, three hours and 45 minutes after we had first arrived on the ridge. It was a good thing we had marvelous weather today for we were exposed on that ridge for a long time. We managed to find a more difficult way to go back down the loose talus slope and finally arrived back in the drainage by the lake, where we took a nice break and filtered some water.
We thrashed our way back down to Cottonwood Creek and followed the sketchy path down the drainage. When we turned to the right and began climbing up the side drainage toward Cottonwood Lake we found a rough, cairned trail that we followed high up on the left side of the drainage, several hundred feet above the creek. This Class 2+ route was not without its difficulties but generally seemed better than dealing with all the obstacles down lower. The trail eventually faded out but we continued on an ascending traverse all the way up around to Cottonwood Lake, where we arrived at 4:20.
The 600 foot climb back up to Broken Hand Pass was most unwelcome at this stage of the day but I was pleased that it only took just over 30 minutes. At this point some clouds dropped the day=s first sprinkles from the sky. I had been concerned about having to go back over this high pass in a late day thunderstorm but fortunately this was not a problem today. We crawled back down through the rocks below the pass and once again used our axes going down the steep snow. We finally tramped back to the truck at 7 p.m., 16 hours after we had left it. This was the longest amount of time we had ever spent on a dayhike and it felt like it! Although this route to Pico Asilado was not technically difficult, the climb was one of the tougher ones I can remember because of the grueling combination of elevation gain, distance, talus climbing, and bushwhacking.
We drove back down the road and arrived in Westcliffe for a late dinner at dusk. We had pulled off a dayhike of Pico Asilado, but I was too tired to appreciate it until the next day!
