T 0 (13,735) by Brian Schultz Saturday August 25, 2007
The route we used, via the Blue Lakes trail, isn't detailed in Garratt & Martin's book so we relied on several trip reports for information, in particular Kathee Thomure's report on climber.org. Her short report provided useful info and gave the impression this route would be a great way to climb the peak. After completing the climb, we have to agree it's the way to go. Directions to the East Dallas Creek Trailhead and a map of the trail are in Gerry Roach's fourteener book for Mt Sneffels, but his map only shows the trail to Blue Lakes. From there, topo map, compass, and GPS are advised.
We began at 5:20 AM by headlamp on the excellent Blue Lakes trail and hiked an hour and thirty minutes in the dark to reach the lake. At the camp sites before the lake we saw a fellow standing and shivering by his tent, and said hello, but continued on without inquiring if he was climbing or just camping. After a twenty minute breakfast break at the lake we started a steep bushwhack up through the trees on the south (left) side of the drainage. Tim did an excellent job of routefinding through the trees and I set a waypoint on the GPS when we cleared timberline. From there it was much easier going on grass while keeping a bearing to Point 13410.
Around 12700 feet we cut up left to get into the basin, encroached upon some ptarmigans along the way, and were greeted in the open basin by terrific views of Dallas Peak and T 0. The undulating terrain of the basin slowed us down a bit as we headed straight to the scree slopes below T 0. At the bottom of the slopes we stopped for a break under totally clear and sunny skies, and at 9:15 began the steep grind up the slopes. We kept to the rocks on the right side of the scree but it still took a half hour to reach the 13460 foot saddle above.
The footing was loose on the steep ridge and we encountered a couple class 3 moves along the way to a false summit, but the difficulty eased from there and we arrived on top at 10:00. The views to Dallas Peak, Mt Sneffels, the Wilsons, and the Telluride ski area entertained us for nearly an hour while we relaxed under ideal weather conditions. I recognized a number of names in the summit register and we wondered how many of T 0's climbers used Garratt & Martin's route from Mill Creek road. The scree slopes on T 0 from that side looked absolutely horrible.
We departed (photo 1, photo 2) at 10:55, reached the saddle at 11:12, and boot-skied down the scree slope in only six minutes. Great fun! The journey back to timberline went quickly and we stopped in a clearing for a break to admire the interesting view of Blue Lake below. The southwest ridge of Mt Sneffels provided a scenic backdrop as we descended to the lake and our hike back to the trailhead went without incident. We arrived at the truck at 2:15.
Elevation gain on the climb was 4,400 feet and roundtrip mileage was 11 miles. I heartily recommend this route on T 0.
Trailhead to summit- 4 hours 40 minutes
Summit to trailhead- 3 hours 20 minutes
Start to finish- 8 hours 55 minutes