It’s the season for pushing your limits in the Black Canyon. It’s a lesser known National Park that offers over 140 challenging climbs on the vertical walls above the Gunnison River. While mid-summer tends to be too hot to climb there, the fall offers a more pleasant climbing atmosphere. You sweat anyway climbing these routes (out of effort and adrenaline); no need to add scorching heat to the mix! Michael Hale joined us for a couple days of climbing, starting with a ‘warm-up’ trip up Guide’s Ridge:

Then after a day of rest (rafting in Western Colorado!), Michael met Jayson again, this time in Crawford for a trip to the Black Canyon. One of the most challenging places on the Western Slope to climb, the Black Canyon can really push your limits as a climber. While not a place to explore on your own without a heavy background in climbing, with a trained guide you can explore this amazing venue from a vantage that not many people have experienced.

This past weekend brothers Tom & Casey Kaptur once again joined Crested Butte Mountain Guides for a guided trip to the Sangre De Cristo Mountains for climbs of the difficult Crestone Peaks. The Kaptur’s have been regular guests of ours on their quest to complete all of the Colorado Fourteeners.

This year’s trip into the Crestones had a somewhat auspicious start, with a low level storm with lots of moisture blanketing the range on our approach day, so we opted for the dry comforts of town in the small ranching village of Westcliffe, CO, instead of camping and starting our trip off in the midst of a storm.

A  2am start from town had us bouncing up the 4wd South Colony Lakes Rd in the dark and leaving from the upper trailhead at 4am for an attempt at the Crestones Traverse. We were able to make good time under clear but windy conditions and reached 12,900′ Broken Hand Pass at sunrise, where we enjoyed a beautiful ridge walk above the clouds below and under the early morning sun.

 Once in the East Couloir on the Needle we roped up and made a climb straight up the gully to it’s terminus on the ridge, enjoying mostly 3rd and 4th class Crestone conglomerate knob climbing to the summit ridge, where a short scramble along the exposed ridge took us to an early morning 8:30 am summit.

Rapidly building clouds, deceasing visiblity, and high winds made the call for us that conditions for the traverse to CrestonePeak were not optimal so we opted to descend from the Needle with one difficult and successful summit under our belts and return to South Colony Lakes where we could set up camp and attempt Crestone Peak the following day.

 Once down at South Colony Lakes the weather seemed to be breaking, so Tom opted to try and tack on a climb of Humboldt Peak (14,064′) via it’s easy 2nd class route by himself, while Casey rested and secured a good campsite amongst the approaching weekend crowd, and I ran down to the truck at the trailhead to get our remaining overnight gear. As luck would have it, the weather took and incredible turn for the worst, and a half-hour after our sunny blue skies an incredibly fast moving storm was overhead and in no time was pelting sideways rain and hail while I hurried back with tents, and Tom was forced to retreat from 13,000′ on Humboldt.

 The rest of the afternoon was spent in our repective tents, soaked from being caught out there but warm, and waiting for that typical Colorado evening clearing so we could dry ourselves and gear off before tomorrow’s pre-dawn freezing cold start for Crestone Peak. We barely eeked out 45 min of evening sun, before shadow and night hit, and went to bed damp but motivated for the next day.

 Day 3 had us up early before the sun again, and walking out of camp at the lakes by 4am to be ahead of the weekendcrowd on popular Crestone Peak. The morning dawned clear and cold, and we made good time up over Broken Hand Pass again, anddown around to Cottonwood Lake and the base of Crestone Peak’s Southerly Red CouloirRoute. At the 12,600′ mark where we entered the gully proper, Casey had opted to turn around and save Crestone Peak for another day feeling sluggish andtired from the length and difficulty of the previous day’s climb.

 So as Casey chose to turn back, Tom & I opted to continue our climb, and headed into the clouds and frigid October like temperatures, making our way up the long 3rd and 4th class gully. We reached the summit by 8:15 am we were greeted with a surreal mix of clouds, sunshine, and lots of winds, with an incredible view above the clouds to the east of the range, and clear blue skies to the west. We snapped some photos ate some food and were headed back down quickly….a good decision since we passed 28 people still on the way up!

 Arriving back in camp by 1pm, to find Casey in good spirits and the weather completely stabilized and clear, Tom opted to once again try for the easy and thus far elusive Humboldt peak, so off he went again, this time I went with him as guardian against the weather (yeah right) and for moral support and company. By 3:30 pm we had reached the summit of Humboldt under clear skies, and racked up almost 6200′ of vertical !!!  A slow descent on tired legs and achy knees brought us back to camp and on to Casey waiting on us at the trailhead with the last of a few swigs of Crown Royal in honor of our big days and success on the Crestone Peaks.

Congrats again boys, looking forward to the next adventure.

—Your Guide, Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)

 Almost 5 years ago to the day I had spine surgery following a long and nagging back injury that resulted in my collapsing and falling down from losing much muscle coordination in my right leg. The doctors at the Denver Spine Center removed pieces of 2 severely herniated discs in my low back, routed out the nerve holes to make room for the inflammed and swollen nerves to breathe, and clipped off some pieces of the bone on my spine to allow for them to get to the offending discs.

 For the next 7 months I was regulated to basically walking only….on flat ground….while I healed. Not easy mentally or emotionally for some one used to running around in the mountains for work and play. After seeing 4 surgeons along this road, I was told post-op that my ‘mountain career’ and essentially guiding should be reconsidered and that it was unlikely I would be able to climb or run around in the mountains at a continued high level after my recovery. I was also told, that the 5-year mark post surgery was a very good indicator of how the remainder of my life would go with the repair and healing of my back.

So…..Sunday morning, on a big mission I’d been dreaming about for a long time, I decided to attempt a mega Colorado 14er link-up and prove to myself and my docs that I indeed have kept up my ‘mountain guiding’ career and am not hampered in the least by this injury or recovery anymore. So at 3:30 am on Sunday I left the Maroon Bells parking lot to attempt to climb both South & North Maroon Peaks (14,156′ & 14,014′  respectfully) via their technical connecting ridge and then continue onto Pyramid Peak (14,018′) for a 9,000′+ vertical day and countless rugged mountain miles and technical scrambling on these notoriously loose and challenging Elk 14ers.

 With the ‘Bell Chord Couloir’ still full of snow I set off to climb this steep but direct line that intersects the ridge between the two ‘Bells” as the quickest and easiest way to access both summits and do their traverse. I hit the rock fall prone ‘Bell Chord’ at dawn’s first light and was able to make good time up it in great snow climbing conditions, and after a quick 4th class scramble, was on the summit of South Maroon Peak (14,156′) at 7 am…

 A brief time for a drink and some summit photos and I was off, back to the notch at the top of the ‘Bell Chord” to grab my ice axe and crampons and along the decieving and exposed 1/2 mile traverse to North Maroon Peak (14,014′), where I arrived 45 min later, fresh and feeling good, but under early threatening skies.

After a quick stop on the summit of North Maroon and some more summit photos, I pounded some ShotBloks and Red Bull and prepared for the big and steep 4,000′+ descent down to the valley floor and the base of Pyramid trail, where I had stashed some more food, water, Red Bull, running shoes, and some shorts for a fast and light mission on Pyramid that I was hoping would allow me to have the stamina to pull off the 14er trifecta.

 6 hours after starting from the trailhead, and already having both Maroon Bells under my belt, I started up the grueling and direct Pyramid Peak trail, while clouds continued to darken and build just across the valley earlier then normal. At this point, I was running on arenalin on the possibility of pulling this off….as well as an iPod full of punk rock music in my ears and Red Bull in my veins…

 I continued to move quickly and felt good until I hit the mellow snowfields in the amphitheatre below the North Face of Pyramid Peak. Here I began to bonk hard in the heat of the day and my pace started to slow drastically. The loose and frustrating climb up the loose scree and dirt of “The Filter” that leads to the 13,100′ saddle on Pyramid’s Northeast Rideg Route, was hard…as it felt like it took all my energy not to vomit on the spot from all the exertion.

 At the saddle, I took my longest break of the day…pausing to drink some more water and try and get down some real food….a turkey and cheese bagel. At this point the clouds seemed to be confining their convective build-up to localized area and were producing more wind and virga then any real threats, so I went on for the last 1,000′ to Pyramid’s summit.

 30 min later, and 8:45 after starting out, I was on my third 14er summit of the day, and was blessed with also having this summit all to myself as well, except for one lone mountain goat. Here I had 20 min to reflect on the 9,000′ of vertical I had travelled, that I still felt fairly good, and how far I had come in these past 5 years of my life. The mountain goat, however, was obviously much less impressed….as I’m sure that would be a normal routine day for them.

I was able to descend the upper technical part of Pyramid fueled by excitement and enthusiasm….but by far the hardest part of the day was the long, steep, and painful pounding back down the trail from teh ampithetare to the Maroon Lake trail and the 2 mile rocky walk back to the parking lot. This was one of the the most challenging mental activities I’ve endured in a long time….as the last hour, with almost everything done and gone behind me, it took everything I had to not just curl up in a ball and ’sleep it off’ on the side of the trail for a few days. 11 hours and 20 min later I was back in the parking lot, pounding Gatorade, and soaking my tired and sore feet in the ice cold river after a solid day of 9,032′ of vertical…

I realize my endeavor was nothing more then an entirely selfish and incredibly personal goal and achievement….made ultimately clear to me by the humbling and un-enthused mountain goat on the summit of Pyramid Peak….but I hope it has helped settled some important internal battles and questions in my own mind and body, and hopefully will maybe inspire someone else out there that has been given a less then promising outlook form the medical community to take some of their healing into their own hands and achive a goal….and hopefully one more meaningful and important then just climbing some mountains in Colorado really fast.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (CBMG Owner / Guide)

This past week, Randy Brooks and I headed down to the Crestone Needle in the Sangre De Cristo Range for 2-days of alpine mountaineering and a climb of one of Colorado’s most famous 14′ers.

Randy, hailing from San Angelo Texas, is well on his way to finishing his 14′er quest, as this was peak number 48 for him, and as some icing on the cake we spent his 45th birthday below the Needle’s imposing Northeast face camped at beautiful South Colony Lakes.

This was my first climb with Randy, and late spring snowstorms had combined to make the standard Southwest Face Route on the Crestone Needle a mixed alpine climbing bag of solid 3rd & 4th class rock, with snow and ice climbing skills necessary.

After a long and slow, but comfortable drive up the South Colony Road in Randy’s beautiful Land Rover we had a mellow hike to camp at South Colony Lakes where we spent the afternoon resting, acclimatizing, and preparing for the next day’s pre-dawn start.

Day 2 found us up and out of camp by 5 am, and dawned clear and sunny on us as we approached the initial difficulties of getting up to Broken HandPass under a beautiful sunrise. The rest of the climb of the Needle’s SW Face Route went smoothly with mixed sections of snow, ice , and rock, as I chose to do the more preferrable and direct but slightly harder line up the ‘east couloir’ all the way to the summit ridge and then a short exposed ridge walk section over to the summit. While this route is slightly harder (4th class) it is more aesthetic, quicker, and arguably safer.

A brief stint on the summit by 9am, had us turning around and descending under increasingly cloudier skies, and we made it safely back to camp by 12:30 after a fairly smooth and uneventful, but enjoyable and successful climb.

In camp we were greeted with a herd of local big horn sheep with babies in tow, where we hung out and took pictures before heading on out of the mountains and back to our respective homes.

Randy, thanks for a great day, and for sharing your 45th birthday with me. I hope your climbs of Mount Wilson & El Diente went as smoothly as ours did. Looking forward to climbing with you again.

—Jayson Simons-Jones (Your Guide)