I have summited Squaretop at least three times (once
solo, once with Mike, once with John and Sally) and taken
others up to piddle around on its lower slopes a few more
times. Quite conveniently located by Guanella Pass, it
can easily be reached from Denver in an hour or so. The
following is extracted from the trip report I wrote after
summiting with Mike on June 25, 2000. Photos follow.
We left the house this morning at 6:00AM, and
arrived at the trailhead at the summit of Guanella
Pass (11,669') at approximately 7:35AM. The
parking lot was already crowded with people heading E
from the pass to climb Mt.
Bierstadt. The sky was originally overcast, but
the clouds did not look threatening, and halfway
through the trip they cleared off (although some rain
just missed us, falling to the E of us), and we
returned before the afternoon thunderstorm clouds
were very dense.
Mike and I went W from the pass, with our goal
being Squaretop Mountain (13,794'). First, we
reached the ridge running roughly W towards Pt.
12,739, and reached that with no difficulty. We then
walked down and across a small saddle connecting that
point with the NE ridge of Squaretop Mountain. This
was certainly less hard than the scree slope on Mt.
Sherman yesterday. The average slope angle was 40
degrees. We climbed approximately 400' of the
600' NE ridge following the ridge line, until
reaching a slightly steeper section, then traversed
to the S across a gap in the snow field that
paralleled the ridge its entire length. From there,
it was a fairly simple climb to the summit ridge,
which is long and moderately flat, gently rising to
the real summit about half a mile from the ridge, and
then gently descending another quarter mile or so. We
reached the summit at a little before 9:30AM, having
gained 2,000' vertical feet in three miles. This
long flat summit ridge gives the mountain its name,
because when viewed from South Park, it looks square
on top. From the pass, it looks like a pointed peak,
but in reality, the summit ridge runs for a good 3/4
of a mile before dropping off rather steeply on the W
side. We then returned the same route, reaching the
car shortly before 11:00AM.
There was little talus or scree on the slopes,
so this was rather an easy climb. It was worth it,
however, because the views from the top were
spectacular, with us benefiting from a break in the
cloud cover right as we were reaching the summit
ridge. We could see the Mosquito/Ten Mile Range to
the W (which is where we were yesterday on Mt.
Sherman and Mt. Sheridan), the Gore
Range to the NW, Grays and Torreys fairly close at hand
(four miles) to our NW, the Front Range and Mt.
Bierstadt to our E, Pikes Peak to the SE, and South
Park directly S of us. We also found a new place to
camp in the valley directly to the W of Squaretop, at
Shelf Lake, a small lake at 12,000' completely
ringed by mountains, with the drainage accessible
from a rather dramatic gap in the rocks to the S via
Geneva Creek Rd. Additionally, while neither of us
felt quite so spry as yesterday's attack, we both
felt good (no soreness or stiffness), and were quite
happy with the overall trek.
We only met two other people, and that was
below Pt. 12,739 on our return. It is amazing - there
must have been well over 100 people attempting Mt.
Bierstadt directly to the E because it is a 14er,
while we had a perfectly beautiful (and more
difficult) high 13er to ourselves. Mike and I are
convinced the high 13ers are where to concentrate our
energies, because they are often more difficult, and
always much less crowded than the 14ers.
So, all in all, another good day, and with two
high 13ers and a 14er under our belt, an excellent
weekend.
Panorama from the summit. If you scroll from left to
right, you will see in order:
