Paiute Peak, Mount Audubon - 1987 Trip Report
By Alan Silverstein
Sunday, August 2 -- Paiute Peak, 13088', and Mount Audubon,
13223', in the Indian Peaks Wilderness NW of Boulder.
I went out alone for exercise and peak bagging, and succeeded.
But thanks to iffy weather, it wasn't a very relaxing day.
(Such is the risk of peak bagging instead of trail wandering.)
Having climbed Audubon three times before the normal way, at
least going up, I wanted to do something a little different.
I left Fort Collins at 0530 to find a front-and-center parking
spot at the Mitchell Lake trailhead at Brainard Lake, 10400', at
0701. I was amazed at how fast I got there via Lyons, early in
the morning, and how empty the parking lot was. Just before I
headed up the trail at 0717, the trailhead hosts arrived. They
said 260 vehicles had tried to park in the (small) lot the day
before.
The trail to Mitchell and Blue Lakes is quite wide, pleasant,
and well-worn. It goes up and down just a little; a wonderful
family trail (if you can find a place to park). I cruised up to
the east end of Blue Lake, well above timberline, in just an
hour, gaining 1000' over about two miles. Didn't see anyone
along the way, just lots of wildlife, even some deer. The cool
morning, gentle breezes, and crisp blue sky were very enjoyable.
Mount Toll and Paiute Peak tower to the west over Blue Lake,
above a narrow waterfall. Mount Audubon rises broadly to the
north. The trail meanders around the marshy north side of the
lake and peters out.
I started scrambling on solid granite boulders and outcroppings
above the lake, a fun and easy challenge. In a while I reached
an upper bowl, still snowfilled. Even at 0900 it was already
soft enough that I didn't need the ice axe I carried for no
reason as it turned out (except exercise I guess). Edging up
the snow brought me to a steep rock wall with lots of dihedral
cuts. Good scrambling. I stayed left to reach the Toll-Paiute
ridge, on the Continental Divide at 12400', just below the
awesome, rounded, pinnacled north face of Toll.
From here I traversed up and down below the ridge on the east
side to the low point, then up the relatively gentle remainder
of the way to Paiute at 1035. Almost no hands required, though
it's steep and complex. The summit is fairly large and flat,
with three high points. Two of them are a hundred feet apart,
and it's hard to say which is higher. It took me 3:18 to climb
only 2800' or so, largely because of the gentle approach to Blue
Lake I guess.
At this point I still had the mountain to myself, though I could
make out some people on Audubon, almost a mile east. Paiute has
quite a panorama -- Longs Peak 11 miles north with all its
surrounding peaks, Audubon east across a long, rounded ridge,
Blue and the other lakes to the SE, all the Indian Peaks to the
south, and Lake Granby shimmering out in the west. Most
surprising, the summit of Paiute is absolutely virgin -- not a
survey marker, not a register, not a cairn to be seen.
Unfortunately a thick but localized line of cumulus formed a
couple miles to the east. I was a bit concerned about
thunderstorms coming up early in the afternoon. So I only
stayed a half hour before dropping east down the easy, solid
ridge towards Audubon. Here I met about four other parties
coming the other way. Either direction, adding the other peak
is much extra work!
I crossed from 1105 to 1211, gaining about 625' over what I'd
already ascended. The ridge is lots of fun, very wide and
solid. I moved pretty fast because I could see cumulus clouds
beyond the summit. Once on Audubon, with a number of others
around, I decided to kick back and take time. You can get off
the mountain quickly if bad weather arises, but it never did.
One of the summitfolk had bicycled from Rhode Island over the
last 18 days, and had been in Colorado only three days. It was
his first climb in the state. He had a little headache despite
his good condition. Still, he looked thoughtfully at Longs
Peak...
At 1322 I started down the bouldery SE slope. Before long I
found the first cut into a huge bowl on the south side of the
mountain, where I had descended before. Last time, though,
there was a lot of glissade snow in the bowl! Not in August.
It was a mixture of big loose rocks, some firm dirt and scree,
and occasional, enjoyable loose gravel.
After a tiring slog-and-drop down and out, I made the north side
of the little lake east of Mitchell, and encountered people
fishing. Circled the lake to discover I had a long walk the
other way, or a short, delicious barefoot fording of the creek.
Ah... Boots back on, I reached the trailhead at 1534, only 2:12
from the top of Audubon.
Used here with permission of the author.
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