{"id":5882,"date":"2013-08-22T09:40:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2013-08-24T21:33:41","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T03:33:41","slug":"collecting-the-baldys-in-the-west-elks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/collecting-the-baldys-in-the-west-elks\/","title":{"rendered":"Collecting the Baldy&#8217;s in the West Elks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people hate it when you call Maroon Peak <em>South<\/em> Maroon Peak.  Sure, people are just trying to differentiate it from neighboring North Maroon, but technically there is no South Maroon.  A friend of mine seems to be on a campaign to drop the &#8216;s from Doctor&#8217;s Park- and technically he may be right, it should just be Doctor Park.  Me?  I don&#8217;t like the phrase &#8220;West Elks&#8221; being bandied about as if Crested Butte is somehow in them, or even near them in some ways.  Next time you&#8217;re driving towards Gunnison on Highway 50, look at those mountains above Gunnison- those are the West Elks, and they&#8217;re quite apart from everything else- hence getting their own recognition as a separate range.  They&#8217;re different geologically, too, more akin to areas of the San Juans than the familiar laccoliths near Crested Butte.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=215297716422379617326.0004e4bd2f61bd66e158f&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=38.670296,-107.191911&amp;spn=0.061322,0.014311&amp;t=m&amp;output=embed\"><\/iframe><br \/><small>View <a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=215297716422379617326.0004e4bd2f61bd66e158f&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=38.670296,-107.191911&amp;spn=0.061322,0.014311&amp;t=m&amp;source=embed\" style=\"color:#0000FF;text-align:left\">GPS device<\/a> in a larger map<\/small><\/p>\n<p>But enough of that.  I don&#8217;t spend much time in the West Elks, and I&#8217;ve always wanted to do the high ridge hike encompassing the Baldy&#8217;s (South, 2 different Middles, and North), as well as West Elk Peak from Rainbow Lake.  So that&#8217;s where Brittany and I headed last weekend.  The road up to Rainbow Lake is easy, and it&#8217;s a very different area, with big dry valleys separating mesa-like formations.  We followed trail until it was time to get on the climber&#8217;s trail up the South Ridge of South Baldy.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/1980.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/3198.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/1985.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/3203.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more Read more--><br \/>\nWe reached the top pretty quickly, and from there the route was laid out in front of us.  Having never seen the West Side of the West Elks, I can say they look rugged and fun to ski, but not exactly easy to get into during the winter.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/1995.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/1999.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mount Guero:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/1989.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the saddle between South and Middle Baldy:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2005.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nearing the summit of Middle Baldy.  As you can see, the ridge is very gentle.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2012.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The valleys were absolutely gigantic (and well-known for harboring large herds of Elk)<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/3249.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We couldn&#8217;t help but think about skiing walking above these hoodoos and the steep terrain below:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2021.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From North Baldy, we had a great view of the SW face of West Elk Peak:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/3251.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And an even better view of the Castles above <a href=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/more-snowless-exploration-mill-castle-to-storm-pass\/\">Storm Pass<\/a>, with the bells and Pyramid behind.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2033.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We were hoping to go all the way to West Elk Peak, but the gathering storm clouds on this high route demanded a degree of caution, so we turned around.  Next time.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2046.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The flowers are still doing well in some places:<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/baldys-west-elk\/2052.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, there you have it- one of our view journeys into the West Elks.  It&#8217;s a beautiful area, well worth exploring.  And unlike some other Wilderness areas, this one actually feels remote, since it lacks &#8220;star attraction&#8221; like the Maroon Bells, for instance.<br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.avantlink.com\/link.php?ml=28937&amp;p=23393&amp;pw=29053\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some people hate it when you call Maroon Peak South Maroon Peak. Sure, people are just trying to differentiate it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,31,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crested-butte","category-hiking","category-random-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5899,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/5899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}