Mt Evans
The data
No, I just did not climb the 30′ from the parking lot to the top. I started at Summit Lake (where the road was open to) very early this am and ascended up a large couloir on the east/north east? face. I used my crampons and ice axe to front point up this moderate section. I really wanted to try a steeper couloir but the overhanging melting cornice on the top gave me 2nd thoughts. Tom, my rec.backcountry bud had climbed this on Saturday and he gave me the idea of the circle route from Evans to Spaulding.
After I topped out and located the summit Geological survey marker I realized I had the mountain all to myself. For Mt Evans, that probably sees hundreds of daily visitors driving their cars up, I thought it was nice to be alone. I then scrambled along the ridge to Mt Spaulding, checked out glissade possibilities, but again the cornices that were melting and cracking gave me no comfort. I headed down the east ridge to complete the circuit of Summit Lake, arriving back to the car in less than 3 hours. Being my 6th 14er I enjoyed doing this one solo just as Tom had done it on Saturday.
The snow was frozen on the surface early and was starting to soften up by the timer I got off it at 10:00am. The snow pack is really starting to melt rapidly with this warm weather, and now the mountains are “striped” rather than completely snow covered and snowshoes are not needed for many of the approaches. I was able to see most of the “willows” were uncovered near the base of Mt Bierstadt. Happy climbing!