Ervin Peak (13,531) by Brian Schultz Thursday August 1, 2013
Roundtrip mileage: 4.7 miles from North Fork Clear Creek Road
Elevation gain: 2,980'
Start to finish: 5 hours 45 minutes
I drove to Winfield last night and camped at a great campsite along the North Fork Clear Creek road. I started out at 6:45 AM and walked less than a half mile to the field between Grey Copper Creek and Black Bear Creek, the same approach I used when I climbed Mt Blaurock three years ago. It's a steep bushwhack up to timberline but very straightforward. At 8:00 I cleared the trees and continued up to the Blaurock/Ervin ridge.
The ridge to Ervin was fun climbing until a wall stopped me cold. I dropped down to the left side of the ridge in a very steep gully, found a cross-over point, and then climbed back up another steep gully. Both gullies were full of loose scree and scary. I wasn't the only one who tried this as there were other footprints but I'm sure this was the wrong side of the ridge to get around the wall. I was relieved to get back on the ridge and the remaining distance to the summit was easy. I arrived on top at 10:15.
The views were nice and I enjoyed looking at all the peaks I've climbed in the area but the weather was definitely back on storm track after a reprieve yesterday. Fifteen minutes later I departed but not the way I came up. I descended Ervin's slopes and bushwhacked to the Hope trail. This was a tedious endeavor but much more appealing than returning on the ridge. It began raining, which made it slippery lower down, and grabbing tree branches reminded me of Minnesota bushwhacking, but it all worked out and I followed the Hope trail back to its intersection with the North Fork Clear Creek road. I walked up the road a fifth of a mile to my campsite and pulled in at 12:30.
