Cirque Mountain (13,692) by Brian Schultz Tuesday August 29, 2023

Roundtrip mileage: 5.20 miles
Elevation gain: 2,600'
Start to finish: 7 hours 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

When Tim and I summited Cirque 16 years ago, I was relieved that Mike Garratt's guide book said the western summit was the higher one because the route over to the eastern summit looked mighty sketchy at the time. Now LiDAR has indicated the eastern summit to be higher and we decided to give it a go after reading a trip report by Kirk Mallory rating the climb as class 2+. Tim didn't care as much about claiming the eastern summit as me but was curious to see if the eastern summit was indeed higher with the surveyor hand level he'd be bringing with.

The drive yesterday from Gunnison to Ouray went quicker than expected because U.S. 50 road construction has the potential for long delays. And of all the times I've driven through Ouray this would be the first time staying in town overnight.

The terrific weather forecast didn't require a super early start so we had time to eat breakfast at the hotel this morning. We drove the Camp Bird road (photo 1, photo 2) up to Yankee Boy Basin, parked at the parking lot by the restrooms, and began at 7:40 AM. Clear, sunny sunny skies offered terrific views of Stony Mountain as we walked up the road to about 12,150'. We departed the road and kept to the grassy areas of the slopes until scree had to be reckoned with. Our ascent to the saddle was steady but we sure could tell how our ages 16 years later have changed our pace and stamina.

We took a twenty minute break at the saddle at 9:50. From there the ridge (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) to the summit seemed harder than 16 years ago but we persevered and topped out on the west summit (photo 1, photo 2) an hour later at 11:10. After a fifteen minute break we headed over to the notch with some trepidation. I took the lead and was relieved to see that crossing the notch was going to be much easier than expected.

It took us 25 minutes to go from west to east and we were pleased when we topped out at 11:50. Mike Garratt placed a register recently and wrote a few comments about LiDAR in it.

Tim brought out his surveyor hand level and estimated the eastern summit to be about two feet higher than the west summit. Lidar says the east summit is six feet higher. Perhaps the elevation will change again with the next measuring system, which could take place years from now. And tectonic plate movements could push the western summit up higher again. There's simply no guarantee that peak elevations will stay the same over anyone's lifetime.

After a break we returned to the west summit and once we reached the saddle below it, we took a direct route further down into the basin. This was steep, but gentle in the grassy areas, and lots of flowers were still holding color. After crossing a stream, we aimed for the road and arrived at Tim's truck at 2:50.