Lone Eagle Peak - North Face

8/10-11/2013

Lone Eagle peak may be the most striking mountain in Colorado. Grace and I approached from Monarch Lake on Saturday, and the whole vale from trailhead to cirque is simply lovely.  Thousands of wild flowers and delicious ripe berries, waterfalls and still meadows around every corner. A short steep climb up to the final lake basin (8 miles in), and there it is: a perfect needle-sharp granite spire reflected in the still water of aptly-named Mirror Lake. Perfect solitude.

Lone Eagle Peak from Mirror Lake

On Sunday Grace and I climbed the north face route, which goes at 5.7 and, according to some descriptions, 11 pitches. In reality much of the climbing is on steep meadows with trees and the occasional rock step. Pleasant, easy alpine terrain.

Grace coming up the final real pitch.

The route begins at a short steep wall (5.6) where the sheer peak rises abruptly from the crest of a forested ridge. This is easily identified from a distance as where two large ramps sweep down from the left and right, meeting in a large treed ledge. We climbed one approach pitch at about 5.6, to the ledge, then simul-climbed up the obvious and easy leftward ramp with many trees, and the occasional low 5th rock step. The ramp peters out at the base of a huge gully system leading up and slightly right. Easy scrambling up the gully leads to the "5.4 chimney" of the standard route, which was flowing with water. Instead of groveling up this waterfall we opted for the huge corner to the right, which went at ~5.7 with excellent rock and gear. I belayed form a large tree on the next ledge. Another long simul pitch led to the top of the gully after one more interesting rock step. From here the difficulty increases. The gully terminates at a huge ledge system that wraps around the final sheer summit pyramid. We traversed southeast around the peak until I spotted the "twin cracks" that mark the crux pitch. Really, it's a system of flakes, and it's very obvious: the only weakness that looks easier than 5.10. What a pitch! Solid jams behind the flakes, good gear, and when the main system steepens improbably a system of rightward traversing ramps provides an escape. The pitch ends at another large ledge system just a few hundred feet below the summit. For the next pitch I traversed right along the ledge (south along the east face) for perhaps 50 feet before it petered out into a sea of flakes and small ramps. This turned out to be fun 5.7ish climbing along a constant rising traverse to the right. I ran out of rope about 30 feet below the summit ridge at a good belay ledge. From there we simuled over the summit and down the 4th class descent, Solo Flight, a popular route in itself.

On the descent we got hailed on a bit, and rained on a bit more, but there was no lightening until we were really back in the valley. We packed up, fully expecting to make the hike out in pounding thundershowers, but the clouds blew away and the sun shone all the way down to the horizon. We reached the trailhead just after sunset. Burgers were had at Maverick's Grille in Grandby, where they seated us despite the fact that we walked in with two minutes to go until closing. The waitress even brought us to-go cups for our coffee which fueled the drive home. Good food and friendly service after closing time: a highly recommended stop!

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