Stanley Mountain

I know it’s been a while, but life has been busy, and in an attempt to make a comeback to the mountains Cole and I recently climbed Stanley Mountain from Berthoud Pass (BP). This was a fairly simple class 2 ridge hike where the only difficulties came from the frigid weather. I recommend this as an all-season hike, as we did this in mid-December the use of traction devices was unnecessary, so plan those weather windows correctly.

The trailhead used was BP. This is a pass along the Continental Divide (CD) that is extensively used for backcountry activities. There is a warming building with restroom facilities. I have used this TH in the past for climbs of CO Mines Peak, as well as Mount Flora. From Denver it takes a little under an hour to reach the TH. Cole and I met at the Wooly Mammoth Commuter Lot which is near the intersection of I-70 and C-470. From there we took I-70 west towards Empire. Take exit 232 onto HWY 40, this road will take you directly to Berthoud Pass where there is a large parking area. From the parking lot on top of the pass you will have to cross the highway to the west where the TH starts for this climb.

The forecast was quite frigid, which is to be expected for this time of year being on top of the Continental Divide. A high of 12° with winds 15-20mph and gusts of 25mph which equated to wind chill of -10° above 12,000ft. With proper layering this isn’t a big issue. We left the car about 7am where I had two bottom layers and three upper layers. I run a bit cold so I even double layered my socks, the layering worked well as I got a little chilled from time to time when it was windy, but overall stayed warm and comfortable considering the conditions.

Though I have never done this climb in the summer time, I believe there is a full trail that leads up to the CD from BP as part of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). The west side of the highway where we were headed is heavily used for backcountry skiers, snowboarders and snowshoers so there was a good path in place already. The snow was solid and we didn’t need to put on snowshoes or microspikes.

There are a series of points that you will pass on the way up. The first was point 11,963. There is some sort of radio tower and possibly some leftover poles from the old ski lift that used to come up this mountain. Once you are to this point the ridge levels out a bit and you will be able to see switchbacks making their way up to the 12,391 point. We decided it would be more efficient to go directly up rather than attempt to stay on the drifted switchbacks. This worked well, although it did get this old boys heart rate going pretty quickly. Once on point 12,391 the majority of the elevation gain was complete. We were now high on the CD and we could tell immediately from the gusty winds. There were three small high points along the ridge heading southwest with Stanley being the last of the group at 12,521ft high.

We could see the ridge was pretty wind swept so there would be no use for snowshoes. We ditched the shoes near a large cairn, since there was no point of taking the extra weight. The CDT was visible here and there and we followed it for the most part, but we figured why not hit all the high points along the way as well, so we veered off trail a few times to meander up these humps. A simple ridge hike will take you to Stanley’s summit where there was a small wind block constructed out of nearby rock. We wanted to take a break out of the wind, but the rock shelter needed some help. We quickly dug out snow, and added a few layers of rock to try and make a comfortable shelter on the summit. We hung out on the summit for about half hour drinking warm tea and cold beers. The views as always were spectacular, and it was just nice to get back out into the mountains.

This was a “yo-yo” route, so we took roughly the same track on the decent as we did on the ascent. We avoided the high points heading down, making good time as we let gravity do a lot of the work. We started to see quite a few skiers heading up and even got to watch a few guys ski down one of the chutes from to CD ridgeline. As usual the further we descended the temps rose, so eventually I was able to ditch a top layer. Overall the layering for the day worked very well, where my toes didn’t even get too cold for once. The car-to-car time was 5 hours, which I was pretty happy with for our first outing in pretty much forever. This was a good entry back into the mountains and I look forward to my next tramp with Cole in the backcountry.

I should note that on the ascent my phone froze and shut down due to the chilly winds, so my GPS track didn’t complete. The statistics below are approximations where I think its safe to say this was around 7 miles round trip with roughly 1,300ft in elevation gained. Cole’s phone didn’t shut down so he became the photographer for this trip.

Date: December 18, 2017

TH Elevation: 11,325 feet

Stanley Mountain Summit: 12,521 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1,300 feet

Class: 2

Distance: 7 miles

Climbing Partner: Cole