Snowmass Mountain 14,092'

Well, it has been a few weeks since our last hike. We had some rainy weather, and that means no hiking... No worries, we had a great 3 day excursion and were able to get 2 more peaks. The first Snowmass! Here it is in the distance.This is about 4 miles in. Total trip is about 16-20 miles.

Another angle with the trail on the left.

A porcupine!! How cool! I have never seen one before. He seemed to be pacing and wondering how he got there. He was on a log in the middle of this creek just going back and forth.

This is the infamous log jam that you have to cross to stay on the trail. I did it in 5 minutes! I was very happy about that because I heard it took some folks 20 minutes. I thought it was fun!

Here I am on the other side waiting for Shawn and our friend Kim.

You can't read this sign very well from the picture. There is a junction here. We are heading towards Snowmass lake.

A pretty waterfall just before we get to Snowmass lake.

There is snowmass lake just ahead after 8 miles in. We are at 11,000 feet. We started at ~8,000 feet.

Gorgeous!!

Another view. We have to go around this lake on the left, and head straight up those rocks (center of pic) and into the snow field. Snowmass mountain is actually the middle peak of the 3 peaks on the right They don't look as high as the one on the left, but that's just because it is farther away. We still have like 8 miles to go.

Here we are at the lake!

And another one.

Here is a pic of Hagerman peak. The one in the other pictures too. Anyway, here we are as we start our hike around the lake. It was not fun. Lots of willows in the way. See the willows they look like dead branches.

This is right after the boulder field. It was a little muddy here before we got to the snow field.

Here I am at the top before the snow field. You can see Snowmass Lake below us. It is so pretty. Lots of people actually ride horses to the lake.

A view of the snow that we are hiking up. We used our ice axes and crampons. This is a permanent snow field.

Here is a picture of the famous Maroon Bells near Aspen. We have to climb these too eventually.

Snowmass mountain just right of center.

Looking around while hiking.

Another view of snowmass lake from higher up, and Kim making her way.

Almost there. We are going up the snow on the left. Then, we'll have to climb the rest of the way on the ridge.

Views from the top!! Snowmass lake again.

Here we are at the top! You can see it's kind of rocky. I think that rock at top is cool!

Here is a picture of Capitol Peak. We were going to try and do this one too on this trip, but the snow conditions were not what we needed in order to go over the pass.

Now, we get to make some time and slide down!!! Woo hoo!!!

See the person sliding down... I think this is me.

We couldn't slide entirely down, but I'll take what I can get!

The End! Snowmass Mountain complete. Kim did a trip report if you want to check out.

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=8234&cpgm=tripmain&ski=Include

We did stay the night at Snowmass lake, slept in, and hiked back out the next day. Since we couldn't do Capitol, we plan to do Conundrum the following day. Be sure to check out those pics too!