Mt. Evans - 14,264 ft

Date: 5-30-06

Riders: George Barnes & Nate Stutzke

Route:  North Face Couloir via Summit Lake

RT distance:  2.0 miles

RT time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Elevation gain:  1,420 feet

Coordinates of summit:  39° 35.32'N, 105° 38.60'W

USGS Quadrangles:  Mount Evans
 

Trip Report:

Route (in orange/red)

4:00AM starts are always rough, but this one was worth the trouble.  As Nate and I passed Echo Lake it was apparent that Mt. Evans had seen some new snow the night before, and we wondered what our route would be like.  After slipping and sliding up the iced over road in my Focus, we arrived at Summit Lake at 6:30AM and quickly laced up our mountaineering boots and gaiters. Visibility towards the summit was limited due to some low clouds, but did make for some neat sunrise shots on the way up.
 

We couldn't see much of north face couloirs, but I'd been in the area the two previous days, so I had a pretty good idea of our destination. We'd occasionally get a break in the clouds and confirm my route finding.

By 7:00 we were on the apron of the couloirs and stopped to attach crampons and retrieve our ice axes. The lower snowfield was pretty mellow, and we angled towards the leftmost couloir, as I had anticipated this being the steepest and most direct.  We ended up traversing a little two far left and found ourselves looking up a steep couloir blocked by a large chockstone.  Once we saw this impasse we knew our desired couloir was the next one over, and worked our way back on route.
 

The couloir turned out to be everything I hoped it could be - steep, sustained, and fairly direct.  I'd guess parts were over 50 degrees, but judging slope angles has never been my claim to fame.  We both brought an ice tool in addition to our mountaineering ice axes, but never took it off our packs.

An hour after we started up the snow we stopped on the summit ridge to remove our crampons.  We could now see that the low clouds and wind had left the rocks plastered in rime ice.

On the summit we saw a lot of nothing, but did get the occasional break in the clouds for stunning views to the north and east.  Longs Peak, 46 miles away, was visible above a sea of white clouds.  We could also look down on our route, directly above the summit boulders.  After we had our fill of wind and whiteouts we followed the northeast face route down to our car at Summit Lake.