Red Peak (Summit County)

Conditions: July 15, 1995

This Club trip started from the Buffalo Mountain Trailhead above the Wildernest Condos in Silverthorne. This trail was used to get to the South Willow Creek trail. The South Willow Creek trail was followed to the Red Buffalo pass, from which the ridge was climbed to Red Peak (13,189'). In a normal year, the trails would be dry at this time with a few patches of snow on the side of Red Peak. The main attractions are the beautiful valley and the views of the Gore Range from the summit. (14 miles round trip and 3,350' elevation gain)

Snow was encountered at a surprisingly low altitude, but what was on top of it was the problem. The trail has always crossed avalanche paths. This year the avalanches ran bigger than in a very long time, sweeping trees up to two feet in diameter with them. A large number of these tress were deposited on the trail. The avalanche debris now looks like a mass of green pine needles. We quickly realized that there is a snow pack still under the debris, which will likely remain there all summer.

The first debris fields were encountered at about 10,200 feet. These obscured the trail making both route finding and travel difficult. By the time we cleared the last debris field, we were on the snow pack, at an altitude of about 11,000 feet. The snow was very deep here at treeline, unlike other places I've been recently. There was not much snow at treeline the week before on the approach to Mount Massive. Although the snow is deep, snowshoes were not needed, we only punched through in a few spots. Beware of the stream crossings.

Timberline below Red Buffalo Pass.

I would recommend that the casual hiker stay away from upper South Willow Creek until someone clears the debris from the trail. It does look like this has been started down low, but most of the snow pack should be gone by the time it's finished.

We were also wondering what other trails have been clobbered by the avalanches this year? Some other trails have had debris in years past, North Cottonwood to Harvard and the Cascade trail to Crater Lake in the Indian Peaks. If you know of other trails suffering from avalanche debris, let me know by email, kjensen@cmc.org.

Keith Jensen

Climbing to the pass.

Summit view looking SW toward upper Gore Creek.

Summit view of Willow Lakes, still looks like mid-June.

We were able to glissade from near the summit to timberline.

Taking a break next to the falls on the way out.

July 20, 1996

Red Peak (13,189')

On a repeat of last year's trip, much better conditions were encountered. This peak is in the southern part of the Gore Range and has a good view of most of Summit County. The trails were dry except for spots that I have never seen dry. No snow was encountered on the way up except the cornice at Red - Buffalo pass, which is typical. On the way down we had three good glissades even though the first two did not have any runout, the snow was soft enough for control. Most all of the avalanche debri from last year has been cleared from the trail with only a few logs to go over or under remaining.

Keith Jensen.