Mount Lincoln

Description

Elevation: - 14,286'; approx. 13,400' maximum elevation reached
Location - Southwest of Breckenridge in Colorado.

Trip Report(s)

On January 6, 2001, Mike and I returned to Mt. Lincoln to attempt a winter ascent from the north side, starting at Montgomery Reservoir (10,950'). We car camped in my van overnight on the 5th (nice memory: awakening to a beautiful day and turning the van radio on to get the weather and hearing U2's "Beatiful Day" on the radio). We got an early start around 7:00AM on the morning of the 6th, hiking around the west end of the reservoir and then up the slope towards the ice falls (there is a popular ice climbing area on the north side of Mt. Lincoln). As we approached the ice falls Mike began having problems, mostly with the snow depth and steepness of the slope. I was doing OK because I'm taller and was able to thrash my way up, putting on crampons (which Mike didn't have) at the side of the falls. At that point Mike decided to descend, which was probably wise, since there was no good run-out point if he slipped and fell, and he was really in some waist deep snow, and even if he made it out of that, there was some ice to negotiate before we would break above it.

I then continued on, making it past the side of the ice falls (only had to be on the ice for a short bit, and the crampons worked great). Above the falls I then took off the crampons and continued up the Lincoln Ampitheatre, a former glacial basin rising west towards the summit. I finally made it out of the ampitheatre by climbing a talus slope at its end to the right, and then could see the summit quite clearly about 800' above me. The weather was perfect, and everything was poised for a summit attempt except my boots. I was wearing my plastic mountaineering boots, which aren't meant for a lot of hiking (more for vertical climbing) and they were killing me at this point, especially my shins, where it felt they were grinding the skin off.

So I decided to descend, but then made a stupid mistake. I didn't want to go back down the way I had come up, because I thought the severe angle would just kill my shins even more (and I wasn't too hip about downclimbing by the falls sans rope, crampons or no). So I walked along the ridge above the ampitheatre, aiming to descend into the trees east of the falls and end up by the dam on Montgomery Reservoir. What an epic! It was way longer going down this way, and once I was in the trees the north-exposed slopes were deep in powdery snow. Without snow shoes the post holing through the snow in my plastic boots was murderous. It just became hour after hour of walking in pain, plodding on, knowing I had to get down, and worrying about Mike worrying about me the later it got. My shins felt as if they were hamburger, and I was starting to get tapped from the effort (as always, I didn't take enough calories to eat, either).

I finally made it to the dam around 2:00PM, only to see a sign restricting access to it. I thought "whatever" and walked across it anyway - it would be worth a ticket to avoid another mile or more walk around the west end of the reservoir. As I came off the dam Mike was driving by in my van (he had been driving up and down the road trying to see if I had come out somewhere other than I went up, which obviously I had), so he picked me up and we drove back to Breckenridge for some food and to heal me legs. It had taken me only about two hours to reach my high point, and then five hours of painful drudgery to get down. What fun! Photos follow.

Photos

The following picture is enlarged to show my approximate route (expand your browser or scroll right to see it all). The ice falls are just below the snow bowl in the center of the picture. This was taken after the climb from Highway 9 on Hoosier Pass.

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Copyright © 2003 - James Lehmer - All Rights Reserved.