April 29th, 2000 - From Dry Gulch
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Finally, we went to
Hagar Mountain on a nice day. We'd been planning on climbing Hagar for a long time,
but at least three other times, we had decided not to go the day before because of bad
weather forecasts. The weekend before this one, we tried to climb the peak late in
the day (starting around noon) but had to turn around because of clouds, snow, and
thunder. Well, after three weekends of bad weather, we finally got our chance at
Hagar. Kirk and Jim were going as well so we decided to all go together. We
met at the 4th and Union Park-n-Ride at 6am and were hiking by 7:15 am. We started at the very end of the Dry Gulch Frontage Road which was closed basically at the left turn leading to Loveland Pass. The closure added an additional .75 miles each way to the trip. Fortunately, it was over fairly level ground although it was admittedly a pain on the way out! |
| We were able to follow
snowmobile tracks pretty much the entire way up the mountain. After the gulch
started to head westwards (above photo), the other guys all put on their snowshoes.
I decided to keep mine off and didn't end up using them until the hike out. We
hiked nearly to the very end of the gulch then turned north and headed straight for the
saddle to the immediate left of Hagar. From there we would climb the ridge over the
false summit and on to the true summit. The snow was in perfect condition and the climb up to the saddle was perfect. The slope was probably about 35 to 40 degrees and we just kicked nice steps into the snow and zipped right up. At the saddle, I decided to drop my pack and didn't carry anything to the summit. There was no wind on the saddle so I didn't expect any on the summit. I was also not quite in my usual condition so I was working a bit harder than the other guys who kept their packs. Without my pack, I was able to climb very fast. I basically followed in Ken's footsteps all the way up the ridge, about 40 degrees. It didn't take long to get up to the false summit. |
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From the false summit,
we had a great view of the true summit (above). It looked really fun and we were
really excited about trying it. Ken and I went first so Kirk and Jim could take
pictures of us climbing. You can see us about midway up the ridge in the above
picture. The snow was a bit steeper here. One section was probably about 55
degrees but it was short and the snow was so perfect that there was nothing to it.
Ken and I flew up the summit and celebrated. Then Kirk and Jim started and we took
pictures of them.
The weather was perfect this day. The summit was warm and there was no wind at all. So we spent nearly an hour scampering from place to place along the ridge posing for pictures (left). The north side of the mountain is even steeper than the south side. In fact, it's about a 500 foot sheer drop to start with. |
| We had the best glissade
of all time on the way down. I think I got going faster than ever on the glissade
down from the ridge to the saddle. Ken and I raced down the rest of the way.
He started off faster than me but got out of control and flipped. If the race was
about speed, then he won. Kirk got going pretty fast too and ended up wiping
out. The hike out was uneventful except that I had a pretty powerful altitude headache caused by, I assume, not being out in the mountains for so long. This was the first mountain that I'd climbed since Citlaltépetl and it was a great way to start the climbing season. Ken ranked it as his current number one climb in Colorado. As I write this I'm totally excited about our upcoming climb of Castle Peak in the Elks! (April 2001): After the summer of 2000 was over, Hagar mountain sort of faded into the background as we took one amazing trip after the other. Click here for the best trips. |
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