As best as we can tell, Sleeping Bro had gotten separated on the trail from his party on the evening walk in. Josh relayed the clearer version of the events to me in the morning. Pack up your shit and let’s go to camp.”ġ0-15 minutes of disheveled stuffing of a backpackĬommotion ceases as the whole crew walks off into the nightĪll of this happened while I was in a sleepy haze. More dejected mumbling rapidly approaching female whining noisesĪngry Bro: “It’s 10:00. Muffled, indescribable words from a Sleeping Bro in the truck.Īngry Bro: “We’ve been looking for HOURS!!!”Īngry Bro: “Because you never leave your hiking partner on the trail….
Indiscriminate female screaming from the other side of the parking lotĪngry Bro: “HE’S HEEEERE!! HE’S SLEEPING!!!”Ĭar door opens. Multiple people walk directly past Josh’s tent, apparently thinking this was THE best place to walk through in the acre+ sized parking lotĪngry Bro’s Voice (from a few cars away): “GUYS HE’S HERE!!!” Shuffling feet and distant noises of hikers arriving at the trailhead From my vantage point inside of my car, it went a little something like this: We got to bed early enough (~8:00 PM for a scheduled 2:00 AM wake up), but our beauty sleep was interrupted around 10:00 to the sounds of gapers screaming in the wilderness. We arrived at the Monarch Lake Trailhead at dusk, with just enough time to set up our sleeping gear and marvel at the number of cars parked at the trailhead. As Josh and I drove the long stretch of shoreline along Lake Granby the night before, I was silently complaining to myself the whole way, thinking about this upcoming hoof. In this case, it was a solid ~7-8 miles to the lake and then another 1/2 to even get to the base of the first pitch. Lone Eagle is reserved for those willing to walk. ApproachĪnyway, as great as the history of the mountain is, the downside of today is the approach. I never knew he made it to Colorado until researching this climb. Board on geographic names nixed that idea – not allowing a mountain to be named after a living person – “Lone Eagle Peak” (one of Charles’s nicknames) was selected as nice consolation prize. This was a fact not lost on the old prize sponsors, who decided to name an unnamed spire in the IPW “Lindbergh Peak” in his honor. Leaving Colorado empty handed, Lindbergh’s adventurous spirit would obviously serve him well a few short years later when he became one of the most famous people of the 20th century. He also rightly suspected that Lindbergh had no plans to actually take off again once he landed. After the main benefactor of the prize inspected his “suicide crate,” he promptly turned Lindbergh down. I know I can do it, and I certainly could use that $1,000.” After several other pilots backed out of the attempt, Lindbergh came to town, took one look and remarked, “Sure, I’ll land on the glacier.
The Denver & Interurban Railroad was offering a $1,000 prize to any pilot who could land a plan on St. Apparently he visited Boulder four years before the transatlantic flight that made him famous. Lone Eagle Peak is named after the Lone Eagle himself, Charles Lindbergh. Interesting Side Note – How this one got it’s name Our plan was to descend the Class 4 Solo Flight Route (<- to me, one of the coolest names for a route in the state), which would make for a nice cirque of the peak. This 5.7 climb promised a pretty healthy mix of all the best Colorado Mountaineering has to offer: long scrambling, alpine climbing pitches on excellent rock, out of this world exposure, and one of the coolest summits around. Predictably, what Josh had in mind was one of the sweetest / hardest / longest ways up the mountain – the North Face Route. This has to be a top 10 Colorado view, no contest. This view from the aptly named Mirror Lake is included in just about every mention of this area, which I found out as I started my research.
Lone peak hot shots full#
As it turns out, I wasn’t exactly wrong about any of those things, I just didn’t have the full appreciation of how great this mountain really is.Īnd so, I agreed to another summer epic, with essentially zero knowledge of what I was getting into. I knew it was a cool looking mountain deep in the heart of the Indian Peaks Wilderness. But when he suggested Lone Eagle Peak for the 2019 version, I didn’t really know much about it. Josh and I always seem to whip up at least one huge outing every summer season. Approach: Via Monarch Lake Trailhead (8,345 feet).
0 kommentar(er)
