Sugarloaf Peak (12,513) & Little Sugarloaf Peak (11,340) by Brian Schultz Tuesday September 1, 2020

Roundtrip mileage: 8.25 miles
Elevation gain: ~2,950'
Start to finish: 5 hours 40 minutes

These weren't the peaks I originally chose to climb today. I'd driven up to Winter Park earlier in the morning hoping to climb a couple peaks in the area but a road crew was working on the approach road and had it completely shut down. I settled on Plan B and drove back to Idaho Springs, having wasted two hours but heartened that the weather was beautiful and a late start wouldn't matter.

Early season snow had fallen overnight and made for pretty viewing of the high peaks from US 40 before getting back to Idaho Springs. I drove up the Mt Evans highway (Hwy 103) and turned onto West Chicago Creek road. This road ends at the the Hells Hole trailhead and I started from the spacious parking lot at 10:40 AM.

I crossed over the creek initially but realized quickly I was on the wrong trail and got back on the main trail. It's an easy hike on an excellent trail and when I reached 11,100', I departed the trail and began a bushwhack toward Sugarloaf's summit. My bearing was for the saddle south of the summit and it was easy to get there over gentle terrain.

The summit was a short jaunt from the saddle and I topped out (photo 1, photo 2) at 1:20. The weather couldn't have been better and I stayed on top until 1:55. I thought about retracing my ascent route but decided to drop down toward Little Sugarloaf and do a loop route back to the trailhead.

The pine trees were dense on Sugarloaf's lower ridge but I found a route through them and reached Little Sugarloaf (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) at 2:45. I didn't stay long on the unranked summit because I knew it would be a challenge getting back to the trailhead from there.

The old road below the summit was hit and miss and very overgrown but I managed to stay on it until getting close to Edith Lake. The land around the lake is on private property, including the old road, and I had to check my bearing constantly to make sure I didn't cross onto the private property.

The side-hilling was difficult over lots of deadfall but I finally got past the posted private property and reached the public part of the road. I walked it back to the trailhead and arrived at 4:20 PM.