Mt. Yale Trip Report
Trail: East Ridge 2, Class 2, 10.8 miles, 4900 ft elevation gain
HIKING IS HUNGRY WORK :)
Jen and I set out of the house at about 3:30 in the morning on Sunday, October 12th, 2003. Normally we like to head out for Saturday hikes but we had decided to go to a party at one of my fellow classmates house Friday evening. We had been hoping for some snow on the mountains so we could snowshoe up one but there was none to be found so we picked a long Sawatch mountain to day hike instead.
In any event we jumped in the car and headed down to Buena Vista, Colorado where the trailhead was located. We ended up waiting until about 7:00 for sunrise as it was hunting season and we decided against wandering around in the dark. The road leading up to the trailhead was relatively easy and gave our little Ford Escort no real problems.
Mt. Yale is pretty much a typical Sawatch 14er. It has no great deal of real climbing but is one heck of a long and steep climb. We hiked through the woods until coming upon the severed spinal column of what looked to be a Mule Deer.
It was interesting to see as it probably indicates that there are Mountain Lions about. We headed from the bones to a little lake where we took a rest around 8:00 in the morning.
From here the trail switch-backed up the mountain until we arrived above tree line for our long ascent to the peak. Here is Jen coming up a steep talus field.
The climb was definitely long and had numerous places where we thought we had summated only to be rewarded with a lot more climbing.
The whole way up we were buffeted by winds strong enough to push us back and some times almost knock us over, it was definitely an interesting experience. Fortunately the views were always spectacular.
We finally summated around 12:30 or so and had a little rest.
The view up top was great and according to Roach you can see thirty other 14er's but the wind kept us from looking around to long.
The climb down was mostly uneventful and straightforward and we made it back to the car in under 3 hours, not bad considering how steep this mountain was.
As usual I stopped to snap a picture of a stream nearby.
Back in the car I snapped a picture of some mule deer running by as well as the road we took to get to the trail.
All in all it was a fun trip. These mountains really tax your legs but are well worth the experience.