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| Hagar Mountain |
A few weeks have passed since this climb took place. Kristi
and I were expecting our daughter to arrive on November 20th, so in
my mind I had time to get out for a short climb that was local to the Denver
area. As it turned out a day after this climb (November 13th),
Kristi and I were at the hospital with a baby on the way, so I was cutting it a
lot closer that I thought. Since then life has changed in many ways and time
has become hard to manage. I did not want to forget about the details of this
trip, so I thought it was important to get this TR out before too much more
time has passed.
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| Morning Light on Snictau |
Cole and I decided on Hagar Mountain, this is close to the
Denver area and we would be in cell service for the majority of the route; these
were requirements due to the due date of the baby. We met at Cole’s place
around 6am and were up to the TH by 7am. This route heads up Dry Gulch near
Loveland Ski Area. To get to the TH take exit 216 off of I70. Coming from the
east, take the exit and take the immediate hairpin turn onto a dirt road access
road that heads to the east along the freeway. Follow this road till reaching
the gate, maybe about a mile down the road. Park here and this is considered
the TH for this route up Hagar. We were the first car to arrive and were off on
the trail by around 7am with a hint of darkness. We both had headlamps, but
only used them for maybe 15 minutes.
The first part of this route follows a dirt access road, after
about a mile the road turns into a trail. I have attached my GPX track that may
be useful with finding the route. As you make your way the trail will start to
fade, at around the 11,000ft contour, take one of the may trails heading up the
steep south face of the draw making your way above the trees. Gain about 600ft
vertical and then you will be above tree line and can start a traverse to the
base of the mountain. This traverse can go pretty quickly, if you are following
my GPX track stick to the lower track, you will make much better time. The
upper track we used for our ascent and scrambled around on some rocks, but we
had to lose and regain some considerable elevation in the process.
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| Hagar's Summit |
The traverse will bring you south around a rib that heads up
towards the Citadel, there is draw that holds a body of water around the
12,200ft mark, from here the traverse will end and the climb up the gulley will
commence. We chose a line that made its way to the middle point of the
mountain, it is easy to make out from the near the 12,000ft contour. Some of
the rock was loose and sandy like kitty litter, making our way a bit to the West
we could stay on more firm ground and made good time on the ascent. The route
is steep and gets rockier the further up you get. Just above the 13,000ft contour
we came onto the ridge via a small saddle between a couple mounds of rock
defining the summit block. The USGS map shows the summit block being to the
west of the saddle we ascended, but the block to the east was much higher.
From the saddle to the summit is mostly class 3 climbing.
The exposure wasn’t bad and the foot and hand holds were plentiful. This
scramble isn’t long and takes only 5-10 minutes to complete. It was a fun
ending to the ascent. The wind was howling on the summit so we took just a few
minutes before making our way back down to the saddle to have lunch.
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| Me and Cole at the Saddle |
Today we were lucky and got a clear blue sky day with comfortable
temps. I knew this would be my last climb for quite a while with a baby due in
another week, and it turns out that it is Cole’s birthday on Sunday….so it’s a good
thing we brought two summit beers to take it all in. We took a long hour break taking
in the view and shooting the shit while we drank our beers. It was a good time,
and possibly one of the best mornings in the mountains this year.
It was time for us to get on our way, so we started making
our way back to the TH. We made good time getting back to the car and didn’t
see anyone till we were almost back to the TH. That is always a good sign that
you chose the correct mountain in Colorado. Happy climbing everyone!
Date: November
12, 2016
TH
Elevation: 10,585 feet
Hagar
Mountain Summit: 13,220 feet
Total
Elevation Gain: 2,772 feet
Class: 3
Distance:
7.0 miles
Moving Time:
4hr 0min
Stopped
Time: 2hr 20min
Climbing
Partner: Cole
