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Page Type:
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Trip Report |
|---|---|
Lat/Lon:
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40.09890°N / 105.64640°E |
Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Dec 31, 1969 |
Activities:
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Hiking |
Season:
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Summer |
Getting There
We headed up the Coney Flats jeep trail on the Northeast side of Indian Peaks on Friday night. We got a pretty late start, so we didn't get to the trailhead until dark. We hiked in about 1/2 mile and camped just a bit off the trail.FYI, you need a pretty capable vehicle to get up certain parts of this trail. It is not a stock SUV type trail. :-)
Ascent
On Saturday morning, we woke up at 8am or so and got moving. We decided to pack everything up and go a bit farther in, hoping to find spot to stash the gear and ultimately camp that night.The trail up was pretty straightforward. We definitely saw the signs of the early season, with lots of snow, moisture, and fresh growth in the forest.
We found a good area to stash our gear around 10,500'. We loaded a small daypack with jackets, snacks, and water, and pressed on.
It started to cloud up a bit as we approached treeline. However, the clouds were very widely dispersed and light in color, unlike the typical Colorado clouds that bring afternoon showers. It looked pretty tame, so we pressed onwards.
The final bid to the summit is very rocky, with everything from small scree to huge boulders that must be navigated while trying to remain on trail. There are several large cairns to assist, but even with those we got slightly off track a few times. Pay attention and don't get in a hurry.
After about 5 hours of hiking, we finally reached the summit. Clouds were everywhere, but again, these were light and dispersed gassy clouds - not thunderstorm bearing.
Descent
We hung out for a few minutes on the summit and had a snack... Then we headed back down pretty quickly in case the clouds decided to bring weather.
There was a massive field of snow at about 11,000' that we had to navigate on the way up and down. On the way up, we decided to skirt around the south side of it, which turned out to be easier. On the way down, we tried to forge straight through where we thought the trail would be, but ended up getting a bit off track.
We finally reached our stash of gear and set up a nice campsite near treeline with a great view!
