UN 13020 & Pico Aislado (13,611) by Brian Schultz Tuesday July 15, 2008
Garratt & Martin recommend doing this peak as a backpack from Music Pass but if a route can be done in a day's time, we're likely to try it even if it means getting up in the middle of the night. Our preferred approach to dayhike Pico would've been from the Cottonwood Creek trailhead but access issues on private property had us looking for an alternative. Tim spent time studying the maps and suggested we could still approach Cottonwood Creek from South Colony Lakes, a roundabout way of getting there but definitely doable. Climbing Pico by this route would entail 6,500 feet of elevation gain but avoid the additional elevation gain, extra weight to carry, and multi days needed on a backpack. I'm all for expediency so after our climb yesterday we headed to Westcliffe for dinner and from there to the infamous South Colony Lakes road.
We knew that the South Colony Lakes road had recently been improved and could really tell the difference. It was dramatic. The road to the first stream crossing was smooth and even the difficult rock sections past the stream crossing were much easier to drive; only the upper end of the road remained rough. But sometime in the near future the Forest Service intends to close the road at the first stream crossing, once a parking area is developed, and 4x4 access to South Colony Lakes as previously known will no longer be.
We carcamped in Tim's truck at the end of the road. It was a short night of sleep as we were up at 2:30 AM and on the trail by headlamp at 3:00. Lots of snow remained on the trail past the gate as well as on the slopes below Broken Hand Pass. We were glad to have our ice axes with- they were needed on the steep ascent to the Pass. We took a short break at 5:20 atop the pass before descending to Cottonwood Lake and all was going well until we began our descent on the Cottonwood Lake trail below the lake. The trail closely follows a creek draining the lake but it faded often and didn't match up well with either our topo map or my GPS map. We found ourselves following cairns back and forth on both sides of the ever raging creek until we finally cliffed out above Cottonwood Creek. The cairns were more a hindrance than help. Had we known the trail was more consistent on the right side, as we found out on the return, we would've stayed on that side all the way down.
Lots of energy was spent bushwhacking around the cliffs but we finally got down to the junction of both creeks and started up the south (right) side of Cottonwood Creek. We followed a faint trail along the creek for a while, then began a bushwhack to a small lake at 11,800', stopping for a break at 8:00 on the slopes above the lake. We were five hours into the climb at this point but had no worries about the weather, it was near perfect. The route to the 12,860' saddle on the ridge was on steep unpleasant talus. Finding rock that didn't shift was tenuous at best but we reached the saddle at 9:05 and continued a short distance to the ranked thirteener, UN 13020, arriving at 9:20 and stopping for another short break. The connecting ridge to Pico Aislado from UN 13020 is impressive.
The descent to the Pico saddle took only took 15 minutes but it took a full hour to climb, including photo stops, from there up to Pico's summit. We triumphantly claimed the summit at 10:45, grateful for the fine weather but mindful that our day was only half over. It was nice to see the Crestones from this perspective and relax for nearly thirty minutes without having to hurry.
We departed at 11:15, made it back to UN 13020 in little over an hour, and stopped near the small lake at 11,800' at 2:00 for an extended break. Tim had brought his water filter with and we put it to use, a rarity for me to run out of water on a dayhike but this climb was really putting me through the paces. I was parched. At the junction of the creeks we discovered the better trail leading up to Cottonwood Lake on the west (left) side of the creek, followed it to an older trail (class 3 in some areas) that stayed high above the cliffs in the drainage until it faded out, and then contoured with minimal difficulty to reach Cottonwood Lake at 4:20. Thirty minutes later we reached Broken Hand Pass, and the day that wouldn't end finally did when we got back to the truck at 7:03. It started raining just as we opened the truck doors.
This route isn't difficult from a technical standpoint but the fatigue factor can't be overlooked with all the ups and downs and total elevation gain. Having good weather is a must with the need to return over Broken Hand Pass but faster/stronger climbers should be able to do this route in reasonable time, even from the new trailhead when it's established. We're glad the weather allowed us to take lots of breaks and spread the day out but it's also the longest day we've ever spent on a dayhike from start to finish.
Trailhead to Pico Asilado- 7 hours 45 minutes
Pico Asilado to trailhead- 7 hours 48 minutes
Start to finish- 16 hours 3 minutes