February 20th, 1999 - From Mayflower Gulch
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This winter trip was with the Colorado Mountain Club. Originally,
the trip was to include Crystal Peak as well but that would have certainly been a stretch
to complete. The weather for this trip was quite different from one week ago when I
climbed Jacque Peak with the CMC. That week was sunny and warm all day and not much
snow had fallen. This morning, however, was very cold and overcast. Plenty of
snow had fallen as well. The trip began from the Mayflower Gulch trailhead which is
practically across the street from the trailhead for Jacque Peak. Mayflower Gulch is
a very pretty area with a alpine backdrop of the serrated ridge between Atlantic and
Fletcher mountains. We began hiking around 7:45 am and made our way among the tall evergreen trees that were covered in snow. After a few minutes, we turned due north and crossed Mayflower Gulch to the Pacific Creek drainage where we would start the climb of the long ridge to Atlantic Peak. |
| After calling back a group of lemmings who started hiking in the wrong direction, we turned eastward and began climbing the ridge. (above) Here's a picture of one of the lower sections of the ridge. The mound in the background is one fo the many false summits on this ridge. At this point, the sun shone through from time to time to warm us up but that never lasted for more than a minute. The weather improved as the day progressed but it was still cold and overcast. (right) Here's a picture of the upper ridge. You can see the shadows being cast by the bright sun illuminating the clouds to the right. |
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Finally, we arrived at the top of Atlantic Peak. Most of the group didn't stop at all, but four of us hiked through the deep snow to the other end of the large summit where the cairn was. Was this the true summit? I don't know. It seemed like the snow had evened out any of the bumps that defined the true summit. The top of Atlantic was very cold and windy. I paused only for a brief moment for this picture (left) with the ridge to Fletcher Mountain in the background. Quandry Peak is out of view to the left in this picture. After taking this picture, we bounded down the deep snow to the saddle between Pacific and Atlantic Peaks. We took a brief rest period here then began another march to the top of our second peak. |
| (Right) Here's a shot of Pacific Peak from the ridge of Atlantic Peak. The hike to Pacific wasn't too bad. The saddle was only about 500 feet below the summit. The summit of Pacific was much smaller than Atlantic's. The northside is essentially a sheer cliff. There's a thin ridge leading down to Crystal Peak. Eventually, this ridge widens out quite a bit. The weather was much nicer on top of Pacific Peak. All of the clouds had cleared and we basked in the sunshine for a moment as we pondered our next move. I abstained from the vote but the consensus was to turn around now instead of attempting Crystal Peak. This was probably the right decision. Many people were tired already. I know that I would have been totally fatigued if we had continued on to Crystal Peak. So, we dropped back down to the saddle then hiked steeply down the talus field into the large cirque beneath the two peaks. This was the worst part of the trip. At one point the snow turned from soft to hard in a single footstep and my feet slipped out from under me. I picked up speed really fast. Fortunately, I had my ice axe with me and was successfully able to self-arrest my fall. There was no life endangerment here, but I would have ended up sliding into some rocks and would have been bruised up at best. After arriving at the base of the peaks, we put our snowshoes back on and hiked back to the Pacific Creek drainage. |
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The sun was out in full force now and we all warmed back up quickly. I stripped back down to my fleece. Mayflower Gulch is really pretty in the bright sun. I took this picture (left) of Fletcher Mountain as we left the Pacific Creek drainage and arrived back in the Gulch. From here, it was only a 15 or 20 minute hike back to the cars at the trailhead. I was very pleased to get these two centential peaks under my belt. |
