CULEBRA PEAK
(14,047 ft.)RED MOUNTAIN
(13,908 ft.)August 22, 2003
By Tim Briese
Culebra Peak, the only Colorado 14er that lies entirely on private land, was virtually shut off to climbers in the summer of 1999 when the ranch on which it sits changed hands. I was fortunate enough to climb Culebra just before that happened. The Colorado Mountain Club subsequently managed to negotiate permission for limited annual climbs, and fills the precious available slots by lottery. An announcement came forth in the spring of 2003 that the CMC lottery climb for this year would include nearby Red Mountain, affording the first legal opportunity to climb this elusive Centennial 13er in several years. Brian suggested to me that we enter the lottery and try to take advantage of this rare opportunity, and I thought this was a great idea, for we would never be able complete the Centennials without Red. The odds seemed long, though, for Red was available on only one of the three days that Culebra climbs were offered, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to be selected!
The night before the climb I drove to Ft. Garland to meet Brian. He had flown in from Minneapolis to Denver that morning, and made efficient use of his time by climbing Dyer Peak on his way down to meet me.
We rose early the next morning and headed to San Luis to meet the rest of our climbing party at the local Catholic Church at 4:30. We weren’t quite sure where the church was, but its location became quite apparent when we saw, Peter, a climber from Norway, dressed in climbing gear and standing in the middle of the highway in front of the church. We found the rest of our 23-member party in the church parking lot nearby. Jenny Nebgen, a 20-something from the Denver area who had volunteered to lead the group, proceeded to take roll. We waited a few minutes for two no-shows, then began a caravan toward the ranch in the early morning darkness. A few miles out of San Luis the caravan lurched to a halt. We had taken a wrong turn, and the leader was lost! We backtracked a short distance, went a couple more miles, and stopped again. This was quite frustrating but we eventually made it to the ranch gate.
The ranch manager, Ed Sanchez, was originally scheduled to meet us at the ranch gate at 6 a.m., but by special arrangement agreed to do so at 5 because of the extra length of time needed to climb Red. He was late, however, and didn’t get there till 5:20. He promptly unlocked the metal gate when he arrived and everyone drove in and parked by the ranch buildings.
I had never hiked with such a large group before, and was frankly a little uneasy about it. It turned out to be quite an elite group, because lottery regulations stipulated that everyone was required to have climbed all or nearly all of Colorado’s 14ers. I was somewhat surprised by the wide age range of the group. There were several young climbers in their 20’s and 30’s, and a half dozen or more who were in their 50’s and 60’s. Two climbers had been to Mt. Everest, and many others had experience on other significant peaks outside of Colorado. There were four doctors in the group, an investment planner, a design engineer, a teacher, and a contract biologist who worked with endangered species. Most lived along the Front Range of Colorado, while three or four were from out of state, including Peter, the Norwegian. They were a very fit and athletic group, too, as I soon found out on the trail.
After a brief greeting from the friendly ranch manager, and a few words from our leader and co-leaders, we struck off up the trail in the twilight a few minutes before 6. The group immediately took a wrong turn at a fork in the old road we were hiking on, in spite of Ed’s warning not to do so. He quickly caught up with us in his truck and set us straight, but it cost us an extra half mile and twenty minutes of precious time! I couldn’t believe the comedy of errors that we began the day with. The sun hadn’t even risen yet, and two embarrassing fiascos had already beset the group leadership!
We briskly hiked up a straight and steep old road through forests of aspen and pine that carried us up into the heart of the ranch. The group quickly became widely strung out over a half mile or so but overall maintained quite a brisk pace. Brian and I hiked together and chatted with others as we went along. John, from Ft. Collins, told me about his job designing digital cameras and told me that he and his wife sought Culebra today for their final 14er. Chance, from Colorado Springs, told us about his climbs of Mt. Rainier and his upcoming expedition to Aconcagua.
The sky was mostly clear, but there were a few clouds that already displayed some convective characteristics, an ominous sign so early in the morning. I wished that we had started on this long climb an hour or two earlier.
At 8:15 we reached the end of the old road, after covering four and a half miles from the ranch buildings, and stopped for our first significant break. It was our only break taken with the whole group all day. One of the co-leaders apparently managed to get the front-runners to stop here and wait for everyone else. Jenny, our leader, brought up the rear and staggered up last to join the rest of us. She was struggling with medication from a dental procedure, and it turned out that she was the only one unable to reach either one of the summits today. Friendly conversation ensued while the group rested. Kay, a friendly schoolteacher from Colorado Springs, told us about Shasta and other climbs she had done, and related how her non-climbing husband was proud of her accomplishments.
After the break the group headed up the trail toward the ridge above. It was here that the athleticism of the group really became apparent! I thought my pace was fairly brisk, but I was near the back of the pack with Brian while some were far ahead, practically running up the slope to the ridge. When we reached the crest of the ridge we turned to the south and began to follow Culebra’s long curving ridge toward the still-distant summit. A big black cloud mushroomed into the sky just to the east and light rain could be seen falling out of it. I could see that the climb was beginning to turn into a race against the weather! Brian and I set a fast pace on the ridge, but there were others way ahead who were far faster.
When we neared Culebra’s summit we met John and his wife coming down as fast as they could. They warned us that they felt their hair standing on end while on top and were scurrying down to avoid the danger of lightning. It was too bad they couldn’t have enjoyed their final 14er a little longer, I thought! Other climbers had bypassed Culebra and were dashing on toward Red on a traversing route.
Brian and I reached Culebra’s summit at 10:45, and stayed only five minutes. In spite of the deteriorating weather we were determined to go on to Red. One of the co-leaders was on the summit with us, and I thought he might try to prevent us from continuing because of the threatening weather, but he didn’t. He suggested, however, that we drop our packs at the Culebra/Red saddle to make for a faster climb. We did not heed his advice, though, for I don’t like to leave my pack with its precious gear behind under any circumstances!
We flew down the slope to the saddle and began climbing up the slopes to Red. There were still four climbers coming behind us. A vicious black cloud lay just to the south beyond Red, and thunder was issuing forth from it. A couple of climbers coming down from Red warned us with alarm in their voices about the imminent storm, but I didn’t think it was a threat, for it appeared to me to be sliding off to the northeast. I was more concerned about other dark clouds rapidly building to the southwest.
Brian and I stepped on the summit of Red at 11:35. It was quite a thrill to reach this elusive prize! The black thunderstorm a few miles to the south was quite a scary sight, with sheets of rain and bolts of lightning dropping from its underside. Chance and another climber arrived right behind us, then two more.
After only five minutes we bolted off the summit and began our retreat. We had achieved our goal and the next order of business was to accomplish a safe descent. This is a bad route to be on in poor weather, because Culebra’s lengthy ridge keeps one above timberline for a long time. We made a rapid descent to the saddle and instead of re-climbing Culebra, traversed across its southwestern slopes in the direction of its west ridge. This route was fine for a while, on a slope covered with solid talus, but it became considerably steeper and rougher as we proceeded. We should have climbed a couple of hundred feet directly back up to the ridge at that point, but we stubbornly contoured all the way across the rough slope until we reached the crest of the ridge about a half mile west of Culebra’s summit.
The weather worsened rapidly, and rain began to fall and lightning strikes became closer. It was scary being on the exposed ridge as lightning cracked around us, and we hurried as fast as we could. We went up over a point then left the ridge and took a shortcut directly down a long tundra slope toward the valley below. Leaving the trail was probably against the rules but we elected to do so for our own safety. The other four climbers behind us, two of whom were older men in their 60’s, were nowhere in sight and I wondered how they were faring. Numerous lightning strikes shook my nerves as we hurried down the slope. None were extremely close but many were within a mile or two. It felt great to get back down to the relative safety of the trees in the valley. We considered waiting for the climbers behind us to make sure they were okay, but decided it wasn’t necessary when we recalled that one of them was a co-leader who was equipped with a radio.
We caught up with the biologist when we regained the trail, and had an interesting conversation with him for a while as we hiked along in the rain. He told us that he had climbed about 300 of Colorado’s 13ers and he had many interesting stories to tell. We soon met Ed coming up the road in his white Toyota pickup. Jenny and another co-leader were with him, and were coming up to check on the climbers who weren’t down yet. Everyone made it to Culebra who wanted to today, except Jenny, and almost the same was true of Red.
It seemed like a very long walk back down the road, but we finally arrived back at the ranch buildings at 3:25. Just as we got there Ed’s pickup came down the road behind us, with the last four climbers riding in the back. Everyone packed up their gear and some visited briefly, then Ed led the caravan back down the muddy and slippery dirt road to the ranch gate. Brian and I headed back to Ft. Garland to get his car we had left at the motel that morning. In the motel parking lot we met a couple from Texas, about 60 years old, who queried us about the climb, and talked excitedly about going on the next Culebra climb the following day, in an attempt to complete their final 14er. Afterward we drove up to Buena Vista to get ready for our climb of Ice Mountain the next day.
This climb was an unforgettable adventure with a great group of people. We hiked about 16 miles and climbed 5800 feet of elevation gain on this long outing. It was a hard push with few breaks all day. As it turned out, we barely made it to Red because of the weather. I’m certainly glad we were able to take advantage of this rare opportunity and accomplish the climb.
