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Mt. Princeton from the scenic
overlook on Highway 24.
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Elevation: - 14,197';
approximately 13,000' maximum elevation
Location - West of Buena Vista in
Colorado.
When one begins the descent into the Arkansas River valley on Highway 24, you are greeted by a view that has been one of my favorites since childhood. There is a scenic overlook worth parking at, so that you can look at the valley before you, with the massive Collegiate Peaks rising quickly from the valley floor at 8,000' to over 14,000'. Mt. Harvard (14,420'), Mt. Columbia (14,073'), Mt. Princeton (14,197'), Mt. Antero (14,269') and Mt. Shavano (14,229') are all visible from here. The Collegiate Peaks all share a distinctive "tri-peaked" shape, and are quite beautiful. But from the overlook, Mt. Princeton is straight ahead of you, and really dominates the skyline. I have spent long periods of time just watching the cloud shadows chasing across it.
On July 18, 1998, Mike and I made an attempt on Mt. Princeton. Just three days earlier on my birthday we had pounded out a hard trail up Mt. Elbert (14,433') in record time, so we were feeling pretty confident, since we were going to take the "pedestrian" route up Mt. Princeton. And boy, pedestrian described the following epic. Our first mistake was believing the guide book and parking the Colt well down the road from where we should have. There is an old mining road that goes up the east face of the mountain to 12,000'. Beyond a certain point it is for four-wheel drive vehicles only, and the guide book had us convinced that we should park near the base of the mountain at 9,000'. Neither of us were too hip about doing 5,000' of elevation gain and 13 miles in a day, but we also weren't too thrilled at the prospect of getting the Colt stuck. The lesson we learned was to drive the damned car until you almost do get stuck, then park. The Colt has been up some pretty heinous roads and lived, and we could have at least made the radio towers at 10,820' and saved six miles of distance. Oh, well
We then trudged along the road, and boy, was it drudgery! We walked along with little shade on the south-exposed road for over five miles. As the day went on, it got quite hot, even at the elevation we were at. We each had brought our typical two liters of water, and both of us had begun rationing it because we could see that we were going to be going for many more hours.
Finally breaking away from the road and timberline at 11,800', we took the trail that follows just below the ridge of the southern sub-peak. Mike was going slowly, but that can be typical due to his bad knees, so I was quite a ways ahead, and had just reached the saddle between the south peak and the main summit at around 13,000 when I noticed Mike was a long way back, just sitting. I wrestled with the idea of dashing to the top and then returning, but the thought he might have really injured himself made me decide to descend (especially since there is no such thing as a "dash" of over 1,000' of elevation gain at that altitude!). He had indeed injured himself, severely pulling a hamstring (probably due to dehydration as much as anything).
We then had the fun prospect of walking six miles back to the car in the heat, with Mike limping all the way. It was now even slower going than in the morning, even hotter, and we had even less water. At one point a passing car on the way down gave us a ride, but they were only going back to the radio towers, and we ended up having to walk about three more miles down from there. By the bottom, we were both out of water, and Mike's leg was killing him. We drove into Buena Vista and over Mexican food came to the conclusion our vacation was over a day early. With Hope Pass, Mt. Elbert and Gladstone Ridge on the same sojourn it had been a good trip, and it was a shame it had to end on such a down note. The good news is Mike healed up OK and ended up doing Mt. Princeton a year later (parking at the radio towers! :-). I have still not been back to try it again. When I go, I may want to try an attempt from the western side, perhaps doing a long traverse over from Gladstone Ridge. Photos follow.
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Mt. Princeton from the scenic
overlook on Highway 24.
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Copyright © 2003 - James Lehmer - All Rights Reserved.
