Stardate 2016.699

Teakettle before it lost its spout (July 1993).



Tea Time
Once again I’ve a bit of summit fever today. I'm not sure why. The good weather riding and mountaineering season edges up the difficulty stick over the next several months. Often, as difficulty increases, so does the fun meter. Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Who knows! Nonetheless, while perusing old photos and trip reports, I started reminiscing about a favorite summit, an itty bitty summit that comfortably allows only two climbers. That alone warrants a cup of fine tea.

Teakettle Mountain sports an elevation of 13,819 feet, ranking 98th in elevation in Colorado. Peaks on the 100-highest list are known as Centennials. Teakettle holds the number two altitude slot in the Sneffels Range, an east/west sub-range of the northern San Juan Mountains. If you have traveled Colorado's Highway 62, Teakettle is one of the numerous points serrating the sky in the rugged row of summits shadowing the highway between Ridgway (no e in this Ridgway) and Dallas Divide.


Teakettle (left) and Potosi Peak (13,786 ft) touching the sky in June 1993.

The igneous rock in this region provides a glimpse into the Lower to Middle Tertiary Periods, dating 20 to 70 million years ago. The prehistoric volcanic activity was widespread and violent. From many vantage points, Teakettle is aptly named. However, during the 1998-1999 winter, the spout fell off. Teakettle is one of several Centennials that are technical by their easiest route.


Teakettle's airy summit; Potosi provides the backdrop.

Tidbit: The monarch of the area is 14,150-foot Mount Sneffels, probably my favorite 14er to climb, especially the deeply inset snake couloir poised on the north face. The name Sneffels originates from the Jules Verne classic Journey to the Center of the Earth. In 1874, while crossing Blue Lakes Basin, directly below Mount Sneffel’s southwest face, a member of the Hayden Survey compared the high basin with the hole in the earth in Verne’s classic. Dr. Frederick Endlich, a scientist with the survey, exclaimed, “There’s Snaefell,” in regards to the Icelandic mountain located in the vicinity of the hole (Bueler, 1986). Having spent numerous days in Blue Lakes Basin, I can vouch that not only is it a delightful hole, but arguably harbors one of the finest wildflower displays in the state. It’s a magical place to lie and watch peaks and clouds spar with each other.


Majestic Mount Sneffels (left) rises above Blue Lakes Basin in fall.

Teakettle was first climbed in 1929 by Rolfe and Alonzo Hartman. Yet, by the mid-1970s, Teakettle was one of the few peaks with only several pages of names in its summit register. In fact, its neighbor Dallas Peak (13,809 ft, rank 100), did not entertain a third ascent until 1976 (Bueler, 1986). I didn’t find the technical portion to be difficult; it’s a short one-pitch hop onto a tiny summit — a tiny 3- by 7-foot summit. The overall climb consumes time; the rotten volcanic rock covering very steep slopes can be tedious at best. Hence, a serious undertaking from a weather and potential rockfall standpoint; there are no easy bail points. We were blessed with a blue bird day.


Todd, my climbing cohort, gives some context to Teakettle's handle hole.


Until we meet again...

Adios

Literature Cited
Bueler, William M. 1986. Roof of the Rockies: A history of Colorado mountaineering.
Cordillera Press, Inc. 251 pp.

Stardate 2015.633

Yankee Boy Basin Part II

Welcome back. We're still on wildflower patrol high in the northern San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. We couldn't get enough of scenic Yankee Boy Basin. Colorado's state flower, the Blue Columbine, was prolific, as was the Larkspur.

Blue Columbine
Aquilegia caerulea
Hellebore family



Larkspur
Delphinium nelsonii
Crowfoot family



13,694-foot Gilpin Peak stands watch over upper Yankee Boy Basin.



The final 3/4 mile of 4x4-access to upper Yankee Boy Basin is not a difficult drive. However, it is slow, steep and narrow; it is very eroded and washed-out in places; it requires descent ground clearance in areas. Longer vehicles may drag their hitches while navigating water bars and stream crossings. Lastly, people tend to park their non-clearance vehicles in small passing pullouts (common sense no longer exists).





The jagged, crumbly Saint Sophia Ridge tickles the sky's belly. I've been told mountain gods reside here and the Jabberwock provides their protection.



Saint Sophia Ridge rises above Governor Basin, as seen from lower Yankee Boy Basin.



From lower Yankee Boy, see ya next time, Kismet (13,694 ft) and Cirque Mountain (13,686 ft). The rain started about 30 minutes later.



More mountains on the docket; they'll be up soon.

Adios

Stardate 2014.688

Snaefell

Mount Sneffels is my favorite 14,000 foot mountain – 14er if you will. It pierces the sky at 14,150 feet, calling home the northern edge of the sprawling San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. It is a monarch over a subgroup of the San Juan Mountains often referred to as the Sneffels Range. Except for the Needles – Grenadiers, a stone's throw to the south, the Sneffels Range has the largest concentration of high rugged peaks in the San Juan Mountains. Mount Sneffels is the 27th highest peak in Colorado.



If you've ever traveled in the vicinity of Montrose, Ridgway (no e in Ridgway), Ouray or Telluride, you've most likely seen it. If you've travelled State Route 62 over Dallas Divide, it towered over you a good portion of the route.



The first recorded ascent of Sneffels was September 10, 1874, by members of the Hayden Survey. Frederick Chapin, author of "Mountaineering in Colorado," wrote the following in "Appalachia," December 1890. It is an account from Franklin Rhoda of the Hayden Survey of 1874.



"Dr. Endlich was standing in the abyss (to the north of Sneffels) with one companion, who compared it to the great hole described by Jules Verne in 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth.' Endlich agreed with him, and pointing to the great peak above, exclaimed, 'There's Snaefell!' Thus the peak got its name, though it is pronounced by the people as Sneffels and is so written on the maps, and in the tables of the Coast Survey. So it will be the effort of this paper to put on record the true designation, named after the Icelandic mountain, 'Snaefell,' lest erelong the grand summit be called Sniffles."



Climbing literature is about gaining the summit and what it took to get there – the-me-myself-and-I conquering mentality. Yes, I'm guilty of this. On the other hand, I like to visualize what writers saw while on their climb. What did the landscape look like? Did they encounter any critters? Some writers are good about this and some are not. It appears Franklin Rhoda had a thing for grizzly bears. Since grizzlies no longer exist in Colorado, it's fun to read about when they did.



John L. Jerome Hart's "Fourteen Thousand Feet," 1931, quotes Franklin Rhoda after Rhoda's ascent of Mount Sneffels. "The claw marks on the rocks on either side of the summit, showed that the grizzly had been before us. We gave up all hope of ever beating the bear climbing mountains. Several time before, when, after terribly difficult and dangerous climbs, we had secretly chuckled over our having outwitted Bruin at last, some of the tribe had suddenly jumped up not far from us and taken to their heels over the loosed rocks. Mountain sheep we had beaten in fair competition, but the bear was 'one too many for us.'" Rhoda also mentions stumbling upon grizzly bears well above treeline on Uncompahgre Peak, Mount Oso (Spanish for bear) and Trinchera Peak.



I just got back from Yellowstone, so I guess I have bear on the brain too.

The above shot is from Lavender Col along Sneffels' southeast couloir. Dallas Peak (13,809 ft, rank 100) is to the right, the Wilson Group rises in the background and Lizard Head (13,113 ft, rank 556) can be seen in the extreme left far background. Lizard Head is more of a rotting tower and is considered by many the hardest high peak in the state to climb. The lower pic is from the summit of Sneffels looking south/southeast, across a portion of the San Juan Range.



The first recorded ascent of a peak in the Sneffels Range other than Sneffels was in August 1929 when Charles Rolfe and Alonzo Hartman climbed Teakettle. Yes, Teakettle looked like a teakettle, until the winter of 1998-'99 when the spout succumbed to gravity and possibly snow. I've summited Teakettle and have pictures prior the peak losing its spout. Sounds like a future blog post to me.



Climbing routes can be found on the southeast couloir (standard route), the southwest ridge, the north face (several technical rock, snow and mixed routes) and northwest ridge (technical). So far, I've summited Sneffels via the southeast couloir and the deeply inset snake couloir of the north face. The above pic of Sneffel's southerly face is from Cirque Mountain (13,686 ft, rank 155). If you follow the top of the Col to the right, continuing up the snow, you will enter the southeast couloir, which can't be discerned from this pic very well.



Somewhat isolated and only visited after a stiff hike, usually with climbing gear, Blaine Basin is the staging area for many of the routes on the north face. A short description of the snake couloir follows.



The snake couloir can be a classic day on spring snow. My climbing partner Todd and I had almost perfect conditions.



The catch is you need to summit early because the snow on the upper end of the couloir starts getting soft with first light, rendering crampons worthless. The above photo shows the upper portion of the snake couloir beginning to pick up sun. The summit block is already getting sun hit. Can you spot two climbers just below the summit block? They're right on the sun/shade line.



We began at roughly 3:30 a.m., climbing easy snow under spectacular star light, entering the lower portion of the couloir just prior to the sky lightening. It gets steep from here on. About half-way up, the snake couloir makes a sharp left turn. The above pic is looking down at the turn in the couloir right after turning and heading up the upper portion. Once at the top of the couloir, it's a short climb up loose rock and boulder to the small summit. We descended the southeast couloir route to Lavender Col. From the Col, we dropped north down snow and easy to navigate scree fields to Blaine Basin.



The lower segment of the Snake Couloir as seen from Blain Basin. The couloir makes a sharp left about half-way up.



Our Tour de Snaefell.

Adios