"Medano Peak" (13,153) & Mt Herard (13,340) by Brian Schultz Monday August 24, 2015

Roundtrip mileage: 12 miles from Medano Pass

Elevation gain: 4,800'+

Start to finish: 9 hours 35 minutes

The road to Medano Pass from the east is very good until just before the pass, where a difficult 4x4 section convinced me to park and start from there. I began at 6:45 AM and reached the pass in less than five minutes and continued down the road to the trailhead (~9,600' elevation). This added about two extra miles roundtrip to the day's mileage. There are some nice campsites along the short spur road to the Medano Lake trailhead with bear-proof boxes provided to store food. Signs state that bears could be in the area and you can be cited if they get into your food supply. I didn't see a similar warning sign at my campsite on the east side of Medano Pass.

I began from the Medano Lake trailhead at 7:15 AM on an excellent trail that goes all the way to Medano Lake. The trail runs close to Medano Creek and I took a moderate pace to the lake, reaching it at 9:10 and taking a 15 minute break before starting up to the saddle. I thought the trail ended at the lake and I began hiking up the slopes, not realizing that the trail actually continued off to my right. I intersected it higher up and followed it up a handy grassy ramp leading to the left. Once in the basin above, I did the same thing others have done. Instead of heading to the saddle, I angled to the right and slogged up the steep grassy slopes of Medano.

This worked out well and when I reached the ridge, I turned left and shortly arrived on the summit at 11:00. The weather was holding nicely and I stayed on top (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) for twenty minutes, unaware until much later that Medano marked my 250th Colorado (ranked) thirteener climbed. I departed at 11:20 and made it down to the Medano/Herard saddle (12,500' elev.) in 15 minutes.

There is a trail to Herard on talus and grass that leads to a notch at the top of the ridge. There's a bit of exposure at the notch and the trail continues to the top of the expansive summit, where I arrived at 12:35. During my 20 minute break I contemplated continuing over to UN 12925 but eventually lost interest. At 12:55 I descended back to the Medano/Herard saddle (photo 1, photo 2) and reached Medano Lake at 1:55. I later passed by a solo hiker going up to the lake, the only person I saw on the trail all day, and arrived at the trailhead at 3:45.

I still had to walk out to the road and up to the pass, and over the other side. This took another half hour and I reached my truck at 4:20.

-Back-