Cirque Mountain (13,686) by Brian Schultz Friday August 24, 2007
Tim and I were all set to climb Potosi Peak but when we drove up the road into Yankee Boy Basin we changed our minds and decided to go for the easier Cirque Mountain. Even though it was raining while driving up into the basin, it wasn't the reason we changed peaks. The forecast called for clearing skies and the rain had already quit by the time we reached our parking spot. When it came right down to it, we simply weren't in the mood to tackle the steep slopes on Potosi after our long day on Pilot Knob and US Grant yesterday.
We read the short route description by Garratt & Martin before leaving the truck and began hiking the road at 8:10 AM. We weren't alone on the road as we caught up to two fellows and later a couple from Iowa, all intending to climb popular fourteener Mt Sneffels. Pleasantries were exchanged until we parted company and exited the road at 12,100 feet.
At first sight, it looked like we'd be dropping significantly into the grassy slopes but it turned out to be just a slight descent. We were able to stay on grass nearly the entire way up the steep slopes to the saddle at 13,060 feet, and took a break there at 9:55 under fast clearing skies.
Twenty minutes later we started up again, this time on a trail which contoured the left side of a subpeak before continuing on the ridge to Cirque's summit. The cliffy area on the ridge had a class 3 move and some exposure, but the route otherwise was no harder than 2+ and we arrived on the western summit at 10:57. We kept comfortably away from the exposed north side and relaxed for a long time enjoying the views of Teakettle and other San Juan peaks and wondering if the climbers we were seeing on the summit of Sneffels were the same ones we passed earlier on the road.
We recognized several names in the register from fourteenerworld.com and agreed with comments expressing relief that this summit was higher than Cirque's eastern one. It looked like a gnarly traverse over to the other one.
We left the summit at 11:45. After getting back to the saddle, we took a different route down, keeping to the grassy slopes and following the drainage all the way to the bottom instead of cutting over to the road. This was interesting and fun, had some great scree runs, and brought us nearly to where we parked on the road below. We arrived at the truck at 1:10, an easy day of 4.5 miles roundtrip distance and 2,400 feet elevation gain.
Parking area (11,300 feet) to summit- 2 hours 47 minutes
Summit to parking area- 1 hour 25 minutes
Start to finish- 5 hours