Purgatoire Peak (13,676), "Alamosito" (13,466), Vermejo Peak (13,723) by Brian Schultz Saturday July 12, 2008
Participants: Ryan Kowalski, Pete Krzanowsky, Sarah Thompson, Dominic Meiser, Mike Rodenak, Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Elevation gain: 3700'
Mileage: ~ 8 miles
The Cielo Vista Ranch had a set date for a weekend in July to climb these peaks but that date didn't work for Tim and me. Tim called the ranch asking for permission to climb a different weekend and the response was that we could as long as we had a minimum of five climbers. I began asking a number of Fourteenerworld members if they were interested and immediately got an affirmative from Ryan Kowalski, who in turn invited Pete Krzanowsky. I quickly received an email from Pete confirming he was in. Sarah Thompson was semi interested but skeptical about the long route over Culebra and Red Mountain and the potential for bad weather, but committed when I said we had a much shorter route to climb these peaks. We'd be using Duane Nelson's approach to avoid Culebra and Red. She in turn asked if Dominic Meiser and Mike Rodenak could come, and just like that we had our minimum and then some. Jim Mallory would also be joining if he could get out of work in time.
Tim and I met everyone at the ranch gate at 6:00 AM. There were others waiting as well to climb Culebra and it took a long time to process everyone's waivers and take payment at the office. The cost was $150.00/person for the non-Culebra peaks. While waiting in line we found out that two other climbers would also be climbing Purgatoire and Vermejo, having signed up initially for the ranch's original date but agreeing to switch to ours. One of the climbers looked very familiar and I quickly recognized him as Jim Patrick, whom Tim and I met on Baldy Alto last year. The other fellow seemed vaguely familiar and when he introduced himself as Mike Bromberg, I realized I'd met him too, way back in 1996 on Mt Antero. Jim is from Colorado, Mike is from New Hampshire.
Paperwork settled, Carlos the ranch foreman led our caravan of vehicles back out to the gate and through the small town of San Francisco to another locked gate on the ranch. He gave us general directions to get to Alamosito Creek but I think just about everybody in our group had a copy of Duane Nelson's trip report and his detailed description to get to the creek. Still, some of us overshot the sharp right turn above the valley floor and had to turn around. After lifting a fallen tree blocking the final stretch of the road, we parked at 11,600' along the creek and started up at 7:50.
It didn't take long before the group separated in the meadow. Tim and I were no match for the younger, faster climbers although we did catch up to them at the saddle below Purgatoire at 8:40 as they changed layers. Jim Patrick kept up with us but Mike Bromberg was way behind. While we took a quick water break, Ryan, Pete, Sarah, Dominic, and Mike scampered up Purgatoire.
When we arrived at 9:25 on the summit, they were graciously waiting for us but itching to get going again. They were concerned with the overcast sky and badly wanted to climb an additional peak, a ranked twelver near these peaks, so after a group photo we told them to go ahead and not worry about us. We watched them fly down the peak while we took a short break on Purgatoire's roomy summit.
The descent back to the saddle went quickly. As we started up Alamosito, I was breathing harder, not yet acclimatized on my third day in Colorado, but pushed on and made the summit at 10:30. One more to go. Vermejo was considerably further from Alamosito so we left quickly under darkening skies, but did stop for a photo when Tim spotted some bighorn sheep behind us.
We could see Ryan and the others making great time and crossed paths with them again on their descent of Vermejo. They were indeed going for the twelver as Tim and I headed up Vermejo. Jim Patrick had gone ahead of us and we saw him later as he was descending the long plateau between the top of the ridge and the summit at the northeast end. That was the last we saw of him.
At 11:55 Tim and I arrived on Vermejo's summit and signed the register. Ten minutes later we departed under a light rain shower, which lasted only a minute, and upon reaching the 12,900' mark of the Vermejo-Alamosito saddle, we began a descending contour around Alamosito. Unlike Duane Nelson's group, Tim and I avoided the nasty scree and kept to the contour on remnants of an old trail that led to the 12,300 saddle between Alamosito and Pt 12,754. We did this without having to drop into the marshy basin below and it worked out quite well. We reached the saddle at 1:15 and glanced up the ridge to Pt 12,754, knowing the rest of our group was up there somewhere.
Tim and I reached the trucks at 2:05 and before long our fleet footed friends showed up, informing us that climbing the twelver was much more fun than the bicentennials. We sat and talked a while before all of us headed to San Luis for a late lunch. Sadly, I received an email from Jim Mallory two days later saying he drove to the ranch and reckoned he missed us by mere minutes. He was hoping a ranch hand would come out and check for late arrivals and waited a half hour but nobody came. Jim's a runner and would've loved the fast pace of our younger climbers.
Many thanks to Duane Nelson for identifying this route and to the Fourteenerworld members who signed on to make it happen. They were a great group and this was a fun day climbing the easy peaks.
Trailhead to Purgatoire- 1 hour 35 minutes
Purgatoire to Alamosito- 55 minutes
Alamosito to Vermejo- 1 hour 25 minutes
Vermejo to trailhead- 2 hours
Start to finish- 6 hours 15 minutes