Sangre de Cristo Range Fastpack

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Sangre de Cristo Range Fastpack

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Ellingwood, Blanca, and Little Bear from the north

Ellingwood Point's North Ridge

Looking back from California Peak as day turns into night

Mount Lindsey. Photography is nothing but the craft of capturing light - and I guess being in the right place at the right time. The light in the Sangres is absolutely otherworldly to start. Compounded with capturing it after a hail storm, in the evening, as a full moon rises, between 13,500'-14,000' on a ridge practically no one else finds themselves on (because, why?) and sometimes magic is what's really captured. Sunlight glaring down on a ridgeline - a place that has no reprieve from its intense radiation, is not always the most pleasant place to be for days on end, and I'm still reeling from the effects of heat exhaustion/dehydration for my efforts. But for a handful of minutes, that sunlight transports you to somewhere else, far away. And then, that passes.

Looking south over the mighty massif of Sisnaajiní - one of the sacred peaks of the Navajo Nation. Associated with the dawn light, of positive thoughts, a starting point - a new beginning. A view from my second morning on the route towards Mosca Pass.

Bivy on Crestone Needle! This was a special thing to do, but also had its purpose: I wanted to be as close as I could to Crestone Peak, as the ascent and descent involved steep snow climbing, and I needed the snow to be as set as possible. Not the greatest opportunities to sleep on the traverse itself- and doing part of the traverse in the dark seemed... iffy, so the summit of the Needle it was! System included a ground cloth made from a two person @adventuremedicalkits SOL emergency blanket, an @ultimatedirectionusa FK Bivy, a @sierradesigns Cloud 35 sleeping bag, a @thermarest Xtherm pad cut down to ~4', and a @seatosummitgear 15D tarp I set up low to burrow underneath. Best sleep of the trip (no mosquitoes!). Having to do the Needle's headwall downclimb first thing in the morning before coffee was a big ask, though: time to wake up, Ranger! One of those nights and mornings I'll never forget: climbed the Needle at night without a headlamp, then watched the full moon rise as I made my bivy. In the morning, everything around me was drenched in an alpine glow. The traverse went well, and thankfully I brought my @camp_usa Corsa axe to help negotiate the lingering steep snowfields (no crampons, though). Out the other side via the loose NW Couloir and onto Bear's Playground, to collect water, and collect myself.

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve

Hard to believe, but I hiked over three days before seeing anyone on my #sangrestraverse trip. Finally on Marble Mountain, I passed a group of kids coming down. They made comment on my relatively fast speed UP. I was feeling the onset of an asthma attack and was just holding it together, but tried to make a joke about just wanting to get in a peak before it got too late or something similarly cheesey. An asthma attack is a particularly inconvenient thing to have to deal with at 12,000'+ for *days* on end, but managing all those little parts of your organism:

The Sangres Traverse becomes difficult and complicated in a few places, no more so then when entering into the realm of the Crestones (Needle, and Peak). The ridgeline going north after Marble Mountain becomes serious, with little reprieve - but the views down to South Colony Lakes are some of the best. Milwaukee Peak joins the subsidiary ridgeline that rockets down to the Sand Dunes and features fun scrambling. The extended knife edge to Broken Hand Peak has to be experienced to be believed: both sides of the ridge fall down many hundreds of feet away, leaving you in an incredible position with no bailoff point. Broken Hand Peak is a routefinding puzzle from the south, but once figured out, gives you access to the Needle and the Peak. I decided to bivy on top of the 14,203' Needle overnight, before traversing over to the Peak the next morning. Hard set snow on both sides made it tough work to both ascend and descend. The ridgeline between Obstruction Peak and Mount Adam's features little beta for its 3 highpoints, but I bagged them all - quite spicey. Adam's gives way to Fluted Peak - the last bit of serious scrambling, and the ridgeline tames down, again. Still, it's halfway to the end of the ridge itself.

Rio Alto Peak, looking south on the ridge

Currently feeling the effects of putting one's body and mind in a state of extreme and sustained stress - aka The Adventure Hangover. I need to get work done, as well as all those boring everyday tasks, but my head feels 45 pounds too heavy, and I can't hold a thought for more than a few moments, leaving me in a state of mild confusion. My half hour naps actually stretch to cover the entire afternoon. When I come around, I'll start to write my narrative, as well as supporting docs. Here: summit of Methodist Mountain, outside of Salida on day #7. The last high point of the trip. Not much of a, well: high point of the trip, really. Reality rarely follows the classic literary narrative structure. After this last highpoint, it was a 10 mile walk down to town on a dusty road, sun blazing, no food, no water. No one to meet me.

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