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| Mount Guyot |
My winter break from school has begun, so that means I have
about a month to climb and ski before I’m back at the grind with spring term. I have three days off in a row from work this
week so what better than plan a few climbs.
Mount Guyot has been a mountain that I have wanted to climb
for well over a year now, so I thought with the low snow levels this would be a
good option. I couldn’t convince anyone
to head out with me, which is to be expected for a Tuesday climb. After getting off work at 10:30pm on Monday I
snuck in a few hours of sleep and was up at 5am for the drive to Breckenridge.
The TH I used for this hike was French Gulch. From Main Street in Breckenridge turn east
onto Wellington. Follow this road
through quite a bit of residential area till it turns into French Gulch
Road. From French Gulch Road just follow
the road till it ends with a massive TH sign; there will be a sign there saying
to drive no further. The lot is fairly
large, but I assume it is full on the weekends.
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| Bald Mountain |
I arrived a little before 8am and it was frigid, my truck
thermometer was reading 7°. The road was
snow packed and looked like it got a lot of use, so I was deciding whether or
not to put on my snowshoes. Instead of
strapping them to my pack I just put them on at the TH. The first 1.25miles is packed well enough not
to use them for those heading out soon.
The first 1.25 miles is along a road and gets a lot of ski
traffic. I noticed a few boot prints and
no snowshoe prints, so I’m assuming this is cross country skiing paradise. Not far from the TH the first view of Guyot
came into view. It is a very impressive
looking mountain. I imagine this is a relatively
easy climb in the summer months, but today I knew I would be battling the snow.
I was moving fairly well along the road, stopping here and
there to take pictures of Guyot as I made my way. After a while I walked right by a newer barn
type structure and there was a beautiful home across the road. Once passed this property there is a trail
that splits off to the left. There is no
real sign but it is roughly 1.25miles from the parking lot.
Once on the trail I would say snowshoes were mandatory. This trail leads into Little French Gulch
which is the preferred way of climbing Guyot in the winter and shoulder
seasons. This trail was very nice, gaining elevation but very gradually. I followed the trail past the last remaining
cabins where I was shocked to see a “Beware of Dog” sign. From this point there was a trail that
started heading up towards the northwest ridge or you could stay in the basin
and make your way up the never ending gully to the summit ridge. I had no desire to get suck in the deep snow
at the base of the gully so I took the trail leading up towards the ridge.
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| Cabin Remains |
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| Parting Shot of Me and Guyot |
Getting back down through the deep snow was no fun either,
but once down on the hard pack I knew it would be a simple walk out. The sun was just starting to make its way
over the mountain, so finally I was starting to warm up. I had a nice snowshoe out to the main road
that seemed to go by fairly quickly. The
views of Bald Mountain were unreal, the entire climbing route was visible and
the snow helped to define the steep shoots on the north face.
I got about a thousand foot in gain today even though it didn’t
feel like it. Hopefully next time I
bring some of my climbing buddies to help me break a trench if the snow is too
deep again. With any luck someone else
will do the trenching and we will reap the rewards. This was a fairly short trip, so I’m planning
to get out on something tomorrow and I have no idea what it’s going to be.
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| GPS Track |
Date: 12/17/2013
Starting Elevation: 10,289ft
High Point: 11,344ft
Total Gained Elevation: 1,055ft
Class: 1
Distance: 4.86 miles
Time: 2:20 moving, 30 stopped.
Climbing Partner: Solo
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