Mt. Yale Hike (October 2010)

Mon November 29, 2010

I haven't posted any 14er hikes this year, so here's one. Three of us hiked up Mt. Yale, about 10 miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, in early-mid October. It is one of the collegiate peaks in the Sawatch Range. At 14,196 it is the 21st highest mountain in Colorado. Colorado did not get much rain this summer, but in October the skies started to open up. The mountains had a nice dusting of snow making for some nice views when we were there. We started at the Denny Creek Trailhead and went up the Southwest Slopes - the standard route. The trail roughly follows Denny Creek until the one turn we had to make. There the trail got a little bit steeper. The further in we went, the steeper the trail got. Near treeline we started going though the snow. It never got more than a few inches deep. A GPS track of the route helped out where we couldn't see were the trail went. There is a reroute on the trail starting just below tree line, but with the snow it was hard to follow and we ended up on the old trail on the way down. Once we crossed treeline we hiked up the ridge to the left of the peak. From there it turned was an easy rock scramble up to the peak. The hike was 9.5 miles/15.3 km and 8 hours round with a vertical climb of 4250 ft.

Mt. Yale

Late Bloomers

View While Climbing up to the Ridge

Blown Snow Along the top of the Ridge

View from the Top 1

View from the Top 2

For more info about hiking Mt. Yale go to 14ers.com.