Clark Peak (13,580') by Brian Schultz Thursday- Friday August 18- 19, 2011
Roundtrip mileage: 17.5 miles from Snowmass Creek trailhead
Elevation gain: 5,200'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Thursday August 18, 2011
Tim and I arranged to meet at at the Snowmass Creek trailhead around 1:30 pm. I'd be driving 450 miles from North Platte, Nebraska and Tim about 250 miles from Colorado Springs but we allowed plenty of time for traffic and our backpacks were already packed. There were minor traffic delays on I-70 but I still arrived a few minutes before 1:30 and Tim arrived a couple minutes later. The parking lot was crowded with vehicles.
I used this trailhead twelve years ago to climb fourteener Snowmass Mountain so it wasn't a surprise to see all the vehicles. The surprise would be seeing somebody else utilizing this trail for Clark Peak as we'd be doing. We began at 2:00 pm. under fair skies, quickly passed through a gate, and greeted a few returning backpackers before reaching a second gate. We left the trail very quickly after passing through the second gate where a defined trail leads down to Snowmass Creek. We ignored branches laying across it, signifying to stay on the main trail, and followed it first down to Snowmass Creek and then upstream to the obvious creek crossing. This was probably a minimal shortcut instead of continuing to the West Snowmass Creek junction (described by Gerry Roach as being 1.2 miles from the trailhead) but it worked fine. The grassy meadow on the other side of the creek holds the West Snowmass Creek trail, which we'd use to access the "Moon Lake" trail. The creek was deep enough to take off boots and socks before wading across.
Tim wanted to take a very slow pace as he's been dealing with some health issues and I didn't mind because the elevation gain would be hard on me anyway coming in from Minnesota. So we took a nice steady pace and continued along the very good West Snowmass Creek trail through woods and several meadows to a high meadow at 10,000' where Clark Peak can clearly be seen. At the top of this meadow one trail continues down into the meadow and another to the right. Either way works to get to a grassy hillside southwest of the meadow.
The trail to the right had an arrow made of stones in the dirt and we followed that trail just a short distance until it turned sharply to the right toward Haystack Mountain. We departed the trail at the turn and bushwhacked south (left) on a slight descent to the grassy hillside above the aforementioned meadow. If one were to instead take the trail down into the meadow, you'd need to head south toward the creek and when the trail fades, head west to the grassy hillside. The "Moon Lake" trail can be seen angling up the grass. Resist the temptation to follow the creek or be prepared for a bushwhack over lots of deadfall, as noted in Sarah T Meiser's trip report.
The trail to Moon Lake is a good one but it fades in areas. Cairns often mark the faded areas but the trail is easy to pick up again if lost. We stayed solely on the west side of the creek until emerging from the woods into a flat meadow. Hiking through the tall grass of the meadow brought us to the creek, where we crossed to the east side at ~10,400' and passed briefly through some willows. The trail continues on the east side of the creek and eventually crosses a talus field before dropping into a grassy wooded area at 11,250'. That's where we stopped and set up camp for the night at 7:20. I filtered water at the nearby stream while Tim set up the tent. Tim also got a great campfire going and we enjoyed its warmth until turning in.
Trailhead to camp- 5 hours 20 minutes
Friday August 19, 2011
I had a restless night of sleep, typical for me upon arrival in Colorado and backpacking to a high elevation, but I felt good when we departed at 6:30 AM. The excellent trail leads up to another wooded area that would've worked for camping also but we were both glad we stayed lower. We reached Moon Lake at 7:10 and took a twenty minute breakfast break before rounding the lake and continuing up into the basin. There isn't any suitable camping near the lake but there is a flat grassy area in the basin above the lake that would've been fine for camping and it had a water source. It offers no protection from the elements though.
Thanks to a great trip report by Kirk Mallory, we knew we could access the saddle to the west of Clark Peak without having to climb the difficult spur ridge described by Garratt & Martin. It's the reason we chose this route from Moon Lake instead of from Capitol Lake, and it's probably the best way to climb Clark from a safety standpoint.
Had we climbed Clark Peak last month as originally planned, we would've dealt with lots of snow up high. As it was, there were still many snow-covered areas on the loose talus between us and the Clark saddle. We were able to bypass all but one. When I reached for my ice axe at the short but unavoidable steep snowfield ahead, my axe wasn't there. It must've dropped off my pack but I never heard it clang on the rocks. We never found it on the return either and it's the second ice axe I've lost in the neighborhood, the last time was on Capitol Peak in 1998. I pulled out a thin non-climbing rope and tied it to Tim's axe. He went up and lowered the axe back to me and this easy solution worked on the return as well.
As we angled toward the saddle we decided to aim for Clark's ridge a bit east of the saddle. This worked well and we topped out on the Clark ridge at an elevation of 13,250' at 9:35. We stopped for a fuel break and to study the route. When we started up again at 10:00, we began what would be a one hour climb to the summit, staying below the ridge on the left (north) side, then on the top (photo 1, photo 2) with fun class 3 & 4 climbing (the hardest move was a downclimb at a gap), and then easier climbing on the right side to the summit. The bouldery ridge was solid but very slow and we stepped on top at 11:00. Gerry Roach's makeshift register showed only a few climbers signing in over the past year.
We kept our stay to 15 minutes as we wanted to pack out today but we really enjoyed the views of Capitol Peak, Moon Lake, Pierre Lakes, and the surrounding area. The descent took almost as much time as it took to ascend and we arrived back to our departure point on the ridge at 12:20. It was slow going as well to Moon Lake before the trail allowed faster progress. We arrived in camp at 2:35.
Camp to summit- 4 hours 30 minutes
Summit to camp- 3 hours 20 minutes
At 3:40 we were packed and on the trail. We took plenty of time getting back to the trailhead, including prodding some stubborn cows to move off the trail, and arrived at the parking lot at 7:45.
Camp to trailhead- 4 hours 5 minutes