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August 26, 2013

Adventures in the Wilderness: Precarious Peak and Copper Lake Photo Gallery

These little pika are all over the place making their presence known.

A desire to do something new last weekend took me to the top of Precarious Peak in the Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness in the Elk Mountains.  It was impressive to say the least, so we’ll just start with that.  What will be much harder to describe (and definitely cliché-sounding) is the constant feeling of elation felt as I walked through scenes of green aspen groves, cold creek crossings, dark timber, and high rocky peaks where tufts of shed mountain goat hair clung to my hand hold above 13,000 feet.

The ridiculous-looking "Spider Face" off of White Rock.

The ridiculous-looking “Spider Face” off of White Rock.

On Saturday morning I left the Copper Creek TH at 8:30 AM with my friend Tom Runcie.  We had spoken about “getting on top of something high” while at work the previous week, I guess hanging out on ladders painting big houses can do that to a man.  We made the decision at the cars we would try to hike up Precarious Peak (13,380 ft), or really we just thought we’d go for a walk and see how far we’d go.  Either way, Tom had never climbed Precarious and I hadn’t even been to Copper Lake yet so we started with an open mind for the day just really hoping we didn’t get caught in any thunderstorms.

Some wildflowers hanging out in a precarious spot.

Some wildflowers hanging out in a precarious spot.

Maybe we were letting off steam after a week of work, or maybe just eager to see what was up that beautiful valley, but we made good time to Copper Lake.  The lake is flanked by Cassi Peak to the west, Precarious to the north-northwest, East Maroon Pass to the northeast, another basin that leads to Triangle Pass to the east, and the ridiculous-looking “Spider Face” face off a sub-peak of White Rock Mountain to the south.  As we sat down on a rocky prow covered in small pines that juts out into the lake, trout were feeding everywhere.  It’s a special spot where you almost felt bad for being there as you took in the beauty of the place.  We happened to run into our buddies and fellow freeskiers Brandon Clabaugh and Mick Osmundson who had camped at the lake the night before to get in on the fishing that morning.  As Brandon was explaining that the fish had been going off Mick pulled a cutthroat out right on cue, and there was much rejoicing.

Looking east towards Triangle Pass on the way up Precarious.

Looking east towards Triangle Pass on the way up Precarious.

We continued past the lake for a quick jaunt up to East Maroon Pass.  As we crested the top, it really felt as if we were on another world.  With the 14,000 foot peaks of the Maroon Bells, Pyramid, and Castle in sight, the high alpine scenery started to sink in and I was blown away by how big everything started to feel.  The view north down the East Maroon Creek Valley is flanked by Pyramid Peak overshadowing the west side of the valley and the smaller Hilliard, Keefe, and Hunter peaks to east with Castle Peak poking out behind them.  You can see all the way down to the foothills of the Roaring Fork Valley where there is a little placed called Aspen you might have heard of.

Maroon Bells!

Maroon Bells!

From our vantage point Precarious Peak rose to the west along a jagged ridge where the grass faded away and I really wished it was mid-winter and I had skis on my feet.  This was actually a really common thought that pervaded both Tom’s and my  mind constantly and dominated our conversation throughout the day. “If only we could snowmobile up here,” or “Man, we need another stable year like 2011,” and “Let’s get ready for winter camping” were repeated a handful of times as if we kept on forgetting that obviously those would all be freaking amazing things.

The north side of Cassi Peak.

The north side of Cassi Peak.

Our hike turned into a climb at that point and every step skyward led to more and more “Holy crap, look at that” and “Dude, that’s gnarly and I want to ski it!”  The mini climbing moves were comparable to the childhood habits shared by many outdoors people, probably developed when you discovered scaling over rocks was awesome.  I had a vague recollection of once seeing a photo from the top of Precarious and the people had climbing helmets on and I could understand why by that point, though.  Our ridge had ended into what seemed like a pretty vertical climb to the top.  We zig-zagged over scree fields and boulders using our hands more and more as we navigated to the southern end of the peak via .  Here we arrived at a false summit, followed by another false summit, and finally the peak. Never mind the near-vertical 50 foot down climbs in between them.  It was just after 1 PM as we signed the ledger at the top so that the world would know of our accomplishments, or at least the next people to make it up there would.

Looking east towards Castle Peak.

Looking east towards Castle Peak.

Looking back at the Ruby Range from Precarious.

Looking back at the Ruby Range from Precarious.

Words and photos don’t do the justice that sitting on top of Precarious Peak deserves, but I am glad you stuck with me while I tried.  After all, it’s not just the destination but the journey that encapsulated the purpose of our little day trip.  As I looked back at Crested Butte, which looked so small but still really bad-ass though the ridges along White Rock, I felt so lucky knowing that it was that small mountain and the town below it that had introduced me to everything I was then looking at.  It feels as if the summer is so rushed as people try to fit so much in to the short time that the mountains allow us.  Getting up to 13,380 feet in the wilderness is at least some sort of attempt to slow things down and allow you to put the summer in perspective, at least for me.  Is it winter yet?

Whetstone pretty much looks the same from all the way back there.

Whetstone pretty much looks the same from all the way back there.

 

A cool ridge off of White Rock we noticed as we hiked down.

A cool ridge off of White Rock we noticed as we hiked down.

These little pika are all over the place making their presence known.

These little pika are all over the place making their presence known.

Looking all the way south to the Castles through Gunsight pass on Mt. Emmons.

Looking all the way south to the Castles through Gunsight pass on Mt. Emmons.



About the Author

2. Will Dujardin
Will Dujardin is our content editor at West Elk Project. He competes in big mountain competitions and coaches the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team. Skiing is his life and he likes to mix it with other fun things like DH mountain biking and traveling.




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