Little Bear Peak 14,037'

I think my hubby said that Little Bear Peak is the second toughest 14er there is. And we did it!! It's actually a very dangerous hike if you do it in the summer, so Shawn said it would be safer to do in the "winter." So, with crampons, ice axe, helemt, and snow shoes, we set out. Here is a pic from the road of the all the mountains in the area. I'm not actually sure which is Little Bear, but there is also Blanca Peak, Ellingwood Point (we'll do those later this year), and Lindsey Peak which we did last year.
This is the start of Lake Como road that takes us to Lake Como and where the fun hiking begins. Straight in front of us is Blanca Peak. Blanca Peak is the tallest and all the mountain ridges connect to Blanca.

This is from the Lake Como Road looking back to the city of Alamosa, CO. You can only drive so far in and then you must get on foot. The road is known as Colorado's toughest road. We started hiking at about 8,800' feet. We still have a long way to go!

Finally, we have our next big task in our sights. See the notch in this mountain filled with snow... aka snow gully in the center of this pic. We have to go straight up that which is why we need crampons! Then, we climb the ridge to the left.

Another pic with the notch a little to the right of center with frozen Lake Como below it.

This pic is looking the other direction directly opposite from the notch. Little waterfalls are streaming down the side of this rock.

Here is Little Bear Peak. The notch is on the right (not in this picture), and the waterfalls on the left that I just mentioned.

Little Bear zoomed in.

Another good picture of the notch. I still can't believe we have to go up this thing! Then, we follow the ridge to the left, to only come to another snow gully called the "hourglass" to get to the top.

This is looking down that first snow gully down at Lake Como and the valley. Lake Como is in the center and still semi-frozen.
Another picture of Little Bear on the left and the notch on the right.

This picture is looking back across the ridge we just traversed (on the right). It actually wasn't that difficult. That was the easiest part all day!

And here we are at the start of the hourglass. This is the section that is dangerous in the summer because loose rock can fall and hit you. Looking down the hourglass from above.This is probably half-way up the hour glass. The peak is just over the snow ridge just left of center.

This picture is out of order. Sorry! But anyway, this is a picture after we finished the ridge getting ready to traverse across the snow to get to the hourglass that I showed in the previous pics. The hourglass starts just NW of center in this pic.

Alas, we made it to the top of Little Bear! Isn't this a great picture?! Blanca Peak is on the right, and Ellingwood Point on the left. So pretty!

This pic just has Blanca Peak behind us. Lindsey Peak is peaking out slightly in the distance on the right.

Here I am with Blanca Peak behind me. I love Blanca Peak. It reminds me of my Grandma Blanca who I dedicate this hike too - even though we haven't climbed it yet. Soon Grandma Blanca!!

More pics from the top!

Blanca Peak (on the right) and Ellingwood Point (on the left). Isn't that ridge to Blanca beautiful?!

Back to our campsite and getting ready to leave. Another great hike!!

Pikes Peak 14,110'

What a beautiful hike! I have actually been to Pikes Peak twice before via the Cog Train back in the 1990's. This time I got to really experience it's beauty by foot. Shawn did a great trip report with pictures. It is posted here. http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=7958

Mount Cameron 14,238', Mount Lincoln 14,286', Mount Bross 14,172'

We finished!! All the 14ers in the Mosquito Range are complete! Shawn was actually already done with these, but I had to catch up. This was a workout!!! Lots of snow since just last weekend, and it was windy on the north ridge. Here is a pic from the same spot we took last week. You can definitely tell there was more snow. We wore our snow shoes from this point on until we got to the ridge.

It was nicer weather than last weekend from the standpoint of sunshine! I was loving the sun to help keep me warm!!

This is taken from the top of Mount Cameron. We are looking at Mount Bross which is our last stop.

This is Mount Lincoln from Mount Cameron. It's the furthest one where you can see the rocky top intermingled with snow. We do this one next. It's only 0.5 miles away. It took us 30 minutes.

Here we are at Mount Cameron before we left for Mount Lincoln.

Here we are at Mount Lincoln!

We were happy to get this one knocked out so quickly, we took another pic looking the other direction.

Now, we are headed for Mount Bross, but first let's take a picture of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs! It's in the center way in the distance, and Silverheels (did last year) is the snowy peak on the left.

As Shawn said, we are playing connect the ridges to get from Mountain to Mountain!!

Here's a pic of Quandary. We did this one last year.

One more view of Silverheels. That was our first climb last year, and it was snowy too!

We made it! Here we are the top of Mount Bross. Whew!! Let's go home! Thank God for blessing us to get through this 6.5 hour day with great weather!!!

More views from Mount Bross. This mountain gets a little more sunshine, so not as much snow at the top!

As we took our last break on the way down, I just had to get a picture. This was such a gorgeous view. I could sit here and stare at this forever!

Until next week!

Mount Democrat 14,148'

We climbed our first 14er of the season!! Shawn called me at work the day before and said conditions would be good, some other folks have already climbed them, let's go. So, we finished work, packed up, drove to the trailhead, spent the night, and were at the top within 24 hours! This picture was taken 2 miles in at "Kite Lake", but the lake is obviously iced up and covered in snow! As you can see, it's a little cold. This is me, in case you can't recognize me :)!

We have to climb up to the top of this ridge and then, follow it up all the way to the left in this picture. This isn't the peak. Once you get to the top of this, there is a flat part, and then, ~200 more feet to go.

Here we are at the top! We made it!!

This is taken at the top. See the closest peak at the top on the far right. Just to the left of that in the distance is Mount Lincoln. We will try to catch that one next weekend!

More views from the top.

There is a 13er here somewhere in the distance that we will also climb sometime in the future.