Loveland Mountain - 13,692 ft

Date: 2-5-05

Climbers: George Barnes and Doug Shaw

Route:  East Slopes, Class 2

RT distance:  5.0 miles (??)

RT time: err... headlamps were required to find the car

Elevation gain:  2,700 feet

Coordinates of TH:  39.29449978,-106.10558563

Coordinates of summit:  39.30859999,-106.13989997

Topo map:  Click HERE

Trip Report:

    The Kite Lake road is plowed to just below Paris Mill at 11,000 feet.  We parked here and donned skis/snow shoes for the trek up the road to the Sweet Home mine site.  The road has been packed by snowmobiles and snowshoes, so we made good time to the mine.  At this point we cached my skis and headed for the ridge that we hoped to follow up Loveland.

    The snow quickly became deep and fairly unconsolidated.  Doug broke trail with his snowshoes, but I still got to wade through waist deep snow.  For a while I was wishing for my skis, but things got steep soon thereafter.  Our intended line became questionable pretty quickly as we made our way over higher class rock to avoid avy danger.

    Once over the steep sections we gained the somewhat windswept ridge and made better time.  At around 13,000 feet things level out for a spell and I stop for a freeze dried ice cream sandwich.  The irony of eating ice cream on a 13er in the middle of winter isn't lost on Doug!

    The summit is a short jaunt from here over more windswept scree.  Due to our late hour we discard plans to run over to Buckskin and make our way down.

    We find a lower-angle ridge to get down.  The alpenglow on Mt. Democrat and Pikes Peak is spectacular so I pause to capture it (with mediocre success).  It's fairly calm, and more than once we hear coyotes howl in the Kite Lake basin.

    Headlamps go on before we get back down to treeline and we do our best to avoid questionable snow slopes in the dark.  We're soon back in knee-waist deep snow, but make slightly better time due to the downhill.  Once we cross the partially frozen creek we soon reach the road just above Sweet Home mine.  After retrieving my skis we head for the car and pizza at Patti's in Fairplay.