UN 13232 by Brian Schultz Monday July 24, 2017

Roundtrip mileage: 4.5 miles from North Fork Clear Creek trailhead (10,820')
Elevation gain: 2,490'
Start to finish: 5 hours 25 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We drove from Leadville to Winfield and continued on the North Fork Clear Creek road (CR 390 A) to the trailhead. This is the road (4x4) that splits to the right from the one that continues on toward fourteener Huron Peak. There is a surprisingly spacious parking area at the trailhead.

Our starting time was 8:00 AM, a late start considering the monsoon weather, but we'd shelved plans to climb West Apostle because of the poor weather forecast and knew this would be a short day on the peak. Shortly after heading out on the trail, we were a bit surprised to see a young woman hiking back toward the trailhead since there weren't any other vehicles parked. We said hello and continued on to our departure point from the trail which would take us to Alan Lake. It only took thirty minutes to reach it and at 9:50 we arrived at the lake.

Tim was feeling under the weather and suggested I go for the summit while he stayed at the lake (elevation 12,200'). I knew he'd be waiting at least two hours if not more but he was fine with it and at 10:00, I started up the steep grassy slopes to the summit ridge. This was a straightforward ascent and once I reached the ridge, I followed it to a false summit.

The ridge had lots of talus scrambling and shortly below the summit was a steep slabby wall that I crossed over at the base. This put me in a gully that led up to the summit and I arrived on top at 11:05. I only stayed 10 minutes and followed my ascent route back down and reached the lake again at 12:05. Tim was feeling somewhat better and at 12:25 we descended to the trail, where an easy stroll brought us back to the truck at 1:25.